2. What encouragement have all to embrace and to hold fast this Gospel !
[Were any thing wanting to complete the work of sal- vation for us, we might well hesitate, before we embraced the overtures of the Gospel. But a view of Christ as our High- priest dissipates our fears, and encourages both the weakest and the vilest to come to God through him. " If any man sin," says the Apostle, " we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is also the propitiation for our sins^" Again it is said, " Seeing we have a great High- priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession^:" and again, " Having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, and having an
o Eph, ii. 6. P Col. iii. 3, 4. 'i Heb. vii. 25.
r 1 John ii. 2. ^ Heb. iv. 14.
2306.1 Christ's APPEARANCE TO TAKE AWAY SIN. 311
High-f)riest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith*." Let us then make this im- provement of the subject ; so shall we, each in his appointed order, appear before God for ourselves, and dwell in his imme- diate presence for ever and ever,]
t Heb. ix. 19, 21, 22.
Christ's appearance to take away sin.
Heb. ix. 26. Now once, in the end of the world, hath he appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
TO obtain a just knowledge of the Gospel^ we should view it in its connexion with the law ; partly, in a way of comparison ; and partly, in a way of con- trast. From the comparison, we shall ascertain its nature : from the contrast, we shall learn its excel- lency. Compare it with the law ; and you will find that it agrees with the law, as the seal with the im- pression on the wax : there is not the smallest fea- ture in the law, to which there will not be found a corresponding lineament in the Gospel. But there are in the Gospel points which the law could by no means exhibit. Its priests were 7nen, who needed first to offer for themselves. They officiated in an earthly tabernacle ; and presented o?ily beasts, for offerings ; and presented them often, on account of their inefficacy to expiate the sins of men. But the High-priest under the Gospel is no other than God himself ; who, having assumed our nature, offered his oxon body, once for all ; and is entered into heaven itself, there to carry on and perfect .his work for all who come to God through him. It is in this view that the Lord Jesus Christ is spoken of in the passage before us. He is contrasted with the priests under the law, as " not having entered, like them, into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true ; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us :" and as " not offering himself often, as the high-priest entered into the holy place every year, with blood of others ; for then