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Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeem'ed with corruptible things, as filver and gold, * from your vain conversation received by tradi' tion from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot.' And the Parts of his prieftly Of fice are two; namely, his Oblation, and his Interceffion. Accordingly, he executes his prieftly Office, in his offering a Sacrifice for us, and making Interceffion for us.

The first Part of Christ's priestly Office is his Oblation. His Oblation is his once offering up of himself a Sacrifice to fatisfy divine Justice, and reconcile us to God. The Sacrifice he offered to God was himself: Heb. ix. 14. 'Christ, through ' the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to

God.' And he himself was the Sacrifice, not in his divine Nature, but in his human Nature: For the divine Nature was not capable of Sufferings pro perly so called: Mal. iii. 6. I am the Lord, I

change not.' But his whole human Nature, Soul and Body, was the Sacrifice: Heb. x. 10. 'By ' the which will we are sanctified, through the ' offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.' If. liii. 10. When thou shalt make his foul an

offering for fin,' &c. His divine Nature was, in that Cafe, the Altar that sanctified the Gift, to its necessary Value and defsigned Effect: Heb. ix. 14. How much more shall the blood of Chrift, • who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself ' without fpot to God, purge your confcience

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from dead works to serve the living God?" Com pared with Matth. xxiii. 19. Ye fools, and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar John xvii. 19.

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for their fakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be fanctified through the truth. He of fered up himself to God a real Sacrifice in his human Nature, willingly yielding himself without any Spot of Sin, natural or accidental, to suffer for Sin to the utmost: Heb. ix. 14. forecited. He was without any natural Spot of Sin, in that he was born perfectly holy: He was without any accidental Spot of Sin, in that he lived perfectly holy: And he fuffered for Sin to the utmost, Rom. vii. 32. 'He spared not his own Son, but deli 'vered him up for us all, and that both in Soul and Body, Matth. xxvi. 38. Then faith he unto them, My foul is exceeding forrowful, even unto death. Chap. xxvii. 46. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My 'God, my God, why haft thou forsaken me?" verf. 50. Jesus, when he had cried again with a 'loud voice, yielded up the ghoft. He did fo offer himself Chrift was once offered to bear the fins of many? a Sacrifice only once: Heb. ix. 28. And that once begun from his Incarnation in the Womb, continuoffering of himself a Sacrifice, was ed through his whole Life, and completed on the Cross, and in the Grave: Heb. x. 5. Wherefore when he cometh Into the world, he faith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but a body haft thou prepared me. verf. 7. Then faid I come (in the volume of the book it written of me) to do thy will, O God. I. lik 'For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he no form nor comeliness: and when we thall him, there is no beauty that we should de

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fire him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of forrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was ' despised, and we esteemed him not.' 2 Cor. v. 21. He hath made him to be fin for us, who

knew no fin." The holiness then of his Nature, and the Righteousness of his Life, were Parts of the Price of our Redemption, as well as his Sufferings: Gal. iv. 4. 5. God fent forth his Son ' made of a woman, made under the law, to re

deem them that were under the law. And his Sufferings through his whole Life, lesser and greater, were Parts of the Price, as well as his Sufferings on the Cross, and his lying in the Grave:

Pet. ii. 21. Christ suffered for us, leaving us ⚫ an example, that ye should follow his steps.' Chrift offered himself a Sacrifice but once, because, by that once Offering, the Price of our Redemption was fully paid out: Heb. x. 14. By one of. fering he hath perfected for ever them that are fanctified.' And thereby he redeemed or ranfomed us from Guilt, and all Evils following it: Heb. ix: 14. How much more shall the blood of • Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your confcience from dead works to serve the living God?" The End wherefore Christ offered up himself a Sacrifice, was, to fatisfy divine Justice, and reconcile us to God: Heb. ix. 28. Christ was once offered to bear the fins of many. Chap. ii. 17. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren; that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest, in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the fins of the people.' There was Need of re

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conciling

conciling us to God, because by Sin we were fet at Enmity with God: If. lix. 2. ' Your iniquities have feparated between you and your God, and your fins have hid his face from you, that he 'will not hear. God had a legal Enmity against us, fuch as a just Judge hath against a Malefactor, whofe Person he may love notwithstanding: Matth. R. 25. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him: left at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be caft ' into prifon. We have naturally a real Enmity against God, inconfiftent with Love to him: Col. i. 21. 'You were fometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works.' And there could be no Reconciliation between God and us, without a Satisfaction to divine Justice for our Sin: Heb. ix. 22. 23. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remiffion. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better facrifices 'than these. We ourselves could in no wife make that Satisfaction: Rom. v. 6. We were without ftrength. For we could neither make ourselves holy, nor bear the infinite Punishment due to our Sin. But Jesus Chrift did, by offering up himself a Sacrifice, make that Satisfaction truly and really, Matth. xx. 28. The Son of man came to give his life a ransom for many. Heb. ix. 14. ، How much more shall the blood of Chrift, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your confcience from dead works to ferve the living God?" and that fully and

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compleatly: Heb. ix. 14. forecited. For though Christ's Sufferings were not infinite in Continuance, yet they were infinite in Value. What made them fo, was the infinite Dignity of his Person, he being God, the Most High: Acts xx. 28. Feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. Phil. ii. 6. 7. 8. Christ Jesus being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a • servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the crofs.' The Sufferings then of Believers in Christ, are not laid on them, to fatisfy God's Justice for their Sins in whole or in part: Pfal, ii, ult. Kiss the Son left he be angry, and

ye perish from the way, when his wrath is • kindled but a little: Bleffed are all they that put • their trust in him. But they are laid on them for their Trial and Correction: 1 Pet. i. 6. 7. • Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a

season (if need be) ye are in heaviness through • manifold temptations. That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be trie tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Chrift.' Heb. xii. 5. My fon, despise not thou the chaftening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. Now, the State of the Business of our Reconciliation with God, as foon as Chrift's offering up himself was over, was, that then it was purchased, the Price of it fully paid: John xix. 30. "When Jefus therefore had received the vinegar, he faid,

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