by the fire of his wrath, who should not be intei-ested in this atonement. But the words before us reflect a hght on this ordinance, whicli it is of great importance to observe. The burning of the lohole of these sacrifices shewed that no legal services whatever could entitle a person to partake of them : not even the high-priest himself, who carried their blood within the vail, had any privilege be^'ond the poorest and meanest of the people. They could obtain an interest in them only by faith ; nor could he taste of them in any other way : though his services were the most sacred, and his access to God far more intimate than any other person, or even he himself at any other period, could enjoy, yet had he no more part in this atonement than every other person might have by the exercise of faith : and consequently they, who, under the Christian dispensation, should trust in the sacrifice of Christ, would participate the benefits, from which the high-priest himself should be excluded, if he rested in the outward services without looking through them to the great, the true atonement.]
Agreeably to this typical ordinance, our Lord suf- fered without the gate of Jerusalem —
[The death of Christ was that which the annual sacrifices typically represented. He died for sin, and, after he had offered himself upon the cross, entered into heaven itself with his own blood, there to present it before the Father on our behalf: and it was by this means that he " sanctified," or con- secrated to himself, a peculiar people, who should for ever
enjoy the virtue of his atonement But, in order that
his death might produce the full effect, it was necessary that it should be conformed in every respect to the ordinances whereby it had been prefigured : hence it was accomplished ^'without the gate" of Jerusalem ; so strictly did it accord with the most minute particulars that had been before determined in the Divine counsels.
Whether there was any mystery couched under this event, we cannot absolutely determine. We should not indeed have discerned perhaps any thing particular in it, if light had not been thrown upon it by an inspired writer. But, as we are certain that this event was a completion of the pre-existing ordinance, it is not improbable that it might have some further signification. While it shews us to what a degree " Christ became a curse for us," it may also intimate, that the virtue of his sacrifice was not to be confined to those who were within the pale of the Jewish Church, but rather to extend to those who were without it, even to the whole Gentile world.]
The exhortation, which the Apostle grounds upon these circumstances, leads us to point out,