2. What encouragement have all to devote them- selves to God through Christ !
[We have the united testimony of Prophets and Apostles that God willeth the salvation of men through the sacrifice of his own Son, and that Christ as willingly offered himself a sacrifice in order to effect their salvation. What more can be wanted but that we go to God in that new and living way, which is so clearly pointed out to us? We can have no doubt of God's willingness to save, or of the sufficiency of that salvation which he has provided for us. Let nothing then keep us back from God : but let us look to Christ as the pro- pitiation for our sins^, and plead the merit of his all-atoning blood. Thus, sanctifying ourselves in his name, we shall be
^ Ou/c fu^oitijffac, ver. 8. with kv w evcoKqaa. Matt. iii. 17. y Gal. vi. 14, 2 1 John ii. 2.
perfected before God^; being sanctified also by the Holy Ghost, we shall be acceptable in the sight of God and our Father for ever and ever''.]
a ver. 14. with Heb. ix. 12. ^ Rom. xv. 16.
THE PERFECTION OF CHRIST's SACRIFICE.
Heb. X. 14 — 17. By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord^, I tvill put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds tvill I write them ; and their sins and iniquities will T remember no more,
IT is a favourite sentiment with some, that we need not study any thing but the four Gospels, in order to attain a complete view of our holy religion. But whilst I acknowledge, that a person who studies the four Gospels may certainly learn the way of sal- vation from them, I must add, that his views of Christianity will of necessity be very imperfect, if he do not avail himself of the further light which is afforded him in the epistles. To what purpose has the Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Romans, writ- ten so argumentatively on the subject of justification by faith alone, if we do not derive from his state- ment a fuller knowledge of that fundamental doc- trine, than we could have acquired without it ? And who will say that he could have attained from the Gospels, or even from the Mosaic law itself, such clear views of the priestly office of Christ as are set before us in the Epistle to the Hebrews ? There the parallel between his and the Aaronic priesthood is drawn to our hands, and the superiority of his is pointed out with a fulness and precision which no uninspired man could ever have attained. The taber- nacle in which the Levitical priests ministered was glorious ; but Christ's was more glorious, being not made with hands, even his own sacred body. Theij
a If Xiyei Kvpioc be translated, The Lord saith, the connexion with what follows will make the passage incomparably more clear.
2310.1 PERFECTION OF CHRIST's SACRIFICE. 329
were appointed to their office by a command ; he, with an oath ; theij entered into a holy place on earth ; he, into heaven itself ; they, with the blood of beasts ; he, with his own blood. Their sacrifices puri- fied the patterns of heavenly things ; his, the heavenly things themselves: theirs, legally, the flesh; his, really, the conscience. Their priests were only priests ; he, a Priest to God, and a Testator to us. They offered often ; he, only once : they stood ; he sits : they offered for themselves first ; he, for us only : they entered the vail to come forth again ; he, never to come forth till he shall come to judge the world : they obtained a temporary remission of some sins ; he, an everlasting remission of all sin.