would not have been capable of fulfilling that high office : but, possessing all these requisites, he is accepted of the Father, and is " able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God by him*."] Improvement" —
Learn, then, from hence,
1. What is the only means of acceptance with our God —
[Is there " a great High-priest over the house of God^?" We must go to God through him. We must not attempt to approach God, except through this appointed Mediator. To think of looking for acceptance through any works of our own, or of uniting any works of ours with his meritorious sacrifice, would be folly in the extreme. Even when the blood of beasts only was presented in sacrifice, the offerer did not unite with it any thing of his own : how much less, then, can we add any thing to the sacrifice which our High-priest has offered! Let not the thought enter into your heart ; or, if it enter, let it be discarded with abhorrence : for there is no High-priest, but he ; no sacrifice, but his ; no other name given under heaven, whereby any man can be saved, but the beloved, the honoured, the adored name of Jesus. " Look to him, and you shall be saved >": look any where else, and you perish beyond a doubt.]
2. How blessed a thing it is to live under the Christian dispensation —
[Supposing a Jew were at this moment living at Jerusa- lem ; and the temple were now standing, as richly furnished in every respect as in the days of Solomon. Suppose, too, that he had the cattle upon a thousand hills at his disposal ; he could not offer unto God one acceptable sacrifice ; because he could not find, upon the face of the whole earth, a Jew who could infallibly trace his pedigree to Aaron. If any other person should presume to officiate for him, in the place of the high-priest, he must instantly be put to death ^. Unhappy people ! the only people upon the face of the whole earth, who are incapable of approaching God, in the way which they themselves think and believe to be right ! But, Christians, blessed are ye ; for you have an High-priest ; and one, too,
t ver. 25.
u If this were the subject of an Ordination or Visitation Sermon, here would be an excellent opportunity for shewing what should be the character of the Christian Priesthood ; and how holy, how sepa- rate from the ungodly, and how superior to the things of time and sense, every Christian Minister should be.
^ Heb. iii. 1. y Isai. xlv. 22. ^ Ezra ii. 62.