to us.

The last was accomplished by him, when entering heaven, typified by the holy of holies, in the character of our high priest, as well as of the victim slain for our sins, he appeared in the presence of God, and that with such a disposition of mind toward us, as to desire that God would be most propitious For as the high priest of the Jews carried the blood (the vehicle of the life or sensitive soul) of the victims into the innermost sanctuary of the temple, as a sign of the previous immolation of them, and sprinkled it towards the mercy-seat: so our high priest, in heaven itself which that sanctuary prefigured, presents before God, not only the soul, but also the body, of the victim that was slain for our sins. If any one chooses to call this entrance of Christ into the heavenly sanctuary, his oblation of himself, I shall be far from opposing it. Indeed I consider it in this light myself; yet at the same time I maintain that Christ also offered himself as an expiatory victim, when he gave himself up to die. before stated, there was a twofold oblation of sacrifices; one, of the victim while yet alive; which in the sacrifices of individuals was performed by the offerers themselves, and in the sacrifices of the whole congregation, either by elders, or by the high priest on behalf of the congregation: the other, of the blood and entrails after the victim had been slain; which was performed by the priest. In the sacrifice of Christ, his voluntary oblation of himself to death corresponds to the former; his presentation of himself before God in heaven, as a victim that had been slain, resembles the latter; for the blood of those victims which were the principal types of Christ, was carried into the holy of holies which typified heaven itself.

For, as we have

IV. In these things, in which the sacrifice of Christ consisted, he sustained the threefold character, of offerer, victim, and high priest. Of offerer on our behalf, and likewise of victim about to be slain, in his oblation of himself to death; of victim also in death itself: lastly of high priest, and of a victim already slain for our sins, on his entrance into the heavenly sanctuary. For there he now appears in the presence of God in both characters, and by the efficacy of his sacrifice, as our high priest, he commends us and our services to God. And as the high priest of the Jews, when offering before the altar the victims for the whole congregation previously to their being slain, acted not so much in his pontifical character, as in that of representative of the congregation: so I consider Christ, in his oblation of himself to death, to have acted not so much in the capacity of high priest, as in that of our representative. For in the sacrifices of individuals, as we have more than once already observed, it was the business of the offerers themselves to bring their victims to the altar, and then to offer or consecrate them to God. It is evident, therefore, that those who performed these offices in the sacrifices of the whole congregation, while performing them, represented the whole congregation. Hence it follows, that our Lord also, in his oblation of himself to death, acted not in the character of high priest, but as our representative; just as the Jewish high priest, in offering before the altar the victims about to be slain on behalf of the whole congregation, acted not in his peculiar character of high priest, but as the representative of that congregation.

319

CHAPTER IV.

The Efficacy of that Obedience which Christ rendered to God in offering himself to die.

HAVING ascertained these things in which we conclude the sacrifice of our Lord to consist; we proceed to shew in what respects each of them contributes to our eternal salvation. To do this in the order which has just been proposed, we have to consider,-First, the obedience which Christ rendered to God in voluntarily offering himself to a bloody death :-Secondly, his death itself:-and Lastly, his entrance into heaven with a mind so disposed towards men as to commend them to God by the efficacy of his sacrifice, and to do for them every thing becoming the best of all advocates.

By voluntarily offering himself to die, Christ performed many things conducing to our salvation, which he never could have accomplished by his death, if that death had not been voluntary. It would not have been possible for him by an involuntary death, either to confirm the truth of his gospel, or to give his disciples an example of obedience to God and love to men, or to obtain from God universal and sovereign power, and supreme favour with him; in the former of which consists the strength of his kingdom, and in the latter the efficacy of his priesthood. But by his voluntary death all these things have been fully accomplished.

II. By freely offering himself to a painful death, Christ confirmed his gospel, as a martyr or solemn witness. Hence his "blood" is said to "bear witness"*

'I John v. 8.

concerning the truth of the gospel. This effect of the death of Christ is intended by St. Paul, when he states that he "witnessed a good confession before "Pontius Pilate."* When the same apostle, speaking of the many sufferings, which he had himself endured and was yet to undergo for the confirmation of the gospel, says, "I fill up in my flesh that which is "behind of the afflictions of Christ:" he refers, not to the piacular character of Christ's death, but to that effect which it had in common with the death of any martyr.

To have a correct idea of the confirmation given to the gospel by Christ's voluntary oblation of himself to the most cruel of deaths, it is necessary to consider that he asserted many things respecting himself, which, if they had been false, he must have known to be false, and to have been fictions of his own. He declared that he was "the Christ," "the "light of the world," the prophet of whom "the scriptures" had "testified," of whom "Moses "wrote;" that " power was given to him over all "flesh," and "all judgment committed to him;" that he would "raise up" all his people "at the last "day." All these things, not to mention others, were such as, if they had not been true, it would have been impossible for him to believe to be true, unless he had been insane. But Christ was always in a state of perfect sanity, and was satisfied of the truth of these declarations, as well as of every thing else that he uttered. This is proved, in the first place, by the consummate wisdom of his declarations and his undeviating constancy through his whole life; and in the

Mark xiv. 61, 62. John viii. 12. v. 39. 46. xvii. 2. v. 22. vi. 40.

next place, by his patient submission to a most cruel death with the greatest firmness and equanimity. Christ went to his death, and endured its agonies, in a manner that exhibited no appearance of inconstancy or levity, no indication of fraud or cunning; but, as will soon be evinced, furnished many striking evidences, both of obedience to God, and of love to man. Unless Christ had been conscious of his integrity, he would have had no motive to hazard his safety by teaching a new religion, equally disliked and hated by Jews and Gentiles. He could not be excited to this by any hope of pleasures, honours, or riches : no such hope was entertained by him, who before his death clearly foresaw and foretold, that on this very account he should be deprived of all the accommodations of this life and even of life itself. Nor could he have been influenced by the hope of a new sect to be established after his death, and of glory to arise from it to his name, if he had been conscious to himself of any fraud. He had declared that he was to be raised from the dead on the third day. If he had been conscious of falsehood, he must have known that this would not come to pass: for what deceiver can expect to work miracles in confirmation of a falsehood? and he must also have known, that, if it did not come to pass, his fraud would then be evident to all, and no person would be so weak as to choose for the guide of his life, a man convicted of manifest fraud; especially when exile, ignominy, and death in various forms presented themselves to his followers, and menaced them on every side.

The sum of what we have said is this. Christ uttered many declarations concerning himself, which, if they had not been altogether true, he must have

Y