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SER M. Lord in the Tabernacle of the Congregation, before the Vail of the Sanctuary, but he was to pass with it, through the Vail into the very Sanctuary itself, and there to fprinkle it before the Mercy-Seat or Propitiatory. This entering into the holiest Place of all with the Blood of the Sacrifice, was the main, and indeed the only End of the Sacrifice. The Sacrifice was flain in the outward Court, that the Blood of it might be presented within the Sanctuary.

Correfpondently to this, whilft Chrift was difpofing himself for thofe Sufferings which he was to undergo for the Expiation of our Sins ; it was neceffary his Miniftry fhould be performed upon Earth, the Place of Mortality, of Sufferings and Death, of which the outward Court in the Tabernacle was a Type. But after he had offered himself to die for the Sins of all Mankind, and in Confequence of that Oblation had his Blood poured forth upon the Altar of the Cross ; it was no less neceffary for him, as our true High Priest, to enter into the true Sanctuary, into Heaven itself, (which the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle fignified) and where God has his Refidence among the true Cherubim or Angels of Glory, and there to sprinkle

an

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on the Mercy-Seat, or to prefent before the SER M.
Throne of God, the precious Blood he had
It will be neceffary

shed on the Crofs.
therefore in order to prove that Chrift was
indeed a perfect High Prieft, and a Priest of
thofe good Things which the earthly ones
prefigured, to fhew that his Blood was not
only shed on the Crofs, but that it was also
offered and prefented by himself before his
Father in Heaven.

That Jefus, after he died on the Cross, did truly arife and afcend into Heaven; it is not my present Business to prove. Nor do any of you, I hope, who read the Scriptures, or attend to hear them read and explained, want it to be proved. You remember, I doubt not, fome of the many indifputable Teftimonies which the New Teftament affords us of it. But that he entered into Heaven as our great High Prieft, in order to exhibit his Blood to his Father, it is pertinent to my present Occafion to fhew. Though to prove as much as is fufficient to my Point, I need only to read my Text again. Into the fecond [i. e. into the inmost or most holy Place] went the High Prieft alone, [the High Prieft under the Law] once every Year, not without Blood, which he offered for himself and

SRR
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M. for the Errors of the People.But Chrift being come, an High Prieft of good Things to come, by a greater and more perfect Tabernacle, not made with Hands, that is to say not of this Building, [which is only a Figure of the heavenly Tabernacle above; compare v. 24. neither with the Blood of Goats and Calves, but with his own Blood he entered in once into the [true] boly Place, into Heaven itself, there with that Blood to appear in the Prefence of God for us, having obtained for us eternal Redemp

tion.

And by thus presenting his facrificed Body and Blood to his Father, with all the Wounds it received on the Crofs, he accomplished what the High Prieft typically performed, when he sprinkled the Blood of his Sacrifice before the Mercy-Seat in the Tabernacle, i. e. He presented it to his Father as a Sacrifice which himself had agreed to accept in full Satisfaction for the Sins of all for whom it had been offered, and whom the Father on this Condition had covenanted to reftore to Pardon and Life. And for the obtaining of this, his Wounds are vocal, and his Blood speaks: Jefus the Mediator of the new Covenant, and the Blood of Sprinkling, which he sprinkles, Speaks better Things than

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that of Abel, Heb. xii. 24. i. e. than the SER M. Blood of Abel's Sacrifice *: Which, although it was accepted, and well pleafing to God, as it was a Type or Shadow of that great fprinkling of Blood which taketh away the Sins of the World, was yet no more to be compared with the Blood of Chrift itself, than the Blood of a Lamb is with the Blood of the Son of God. The Blood of Chrift

Speaks better Things, i. e. it is more available to the appeafing the Wrath of God against our Sins, than either Abel's or Abraham's, or the Patriarch's, or Mofes, or than all the Sacrifices put together either before or under the Law. For his Blood being the very Price which God had promifed to accept for all the Bleffings to Mankind covenanted for between HIM and his beloved Son; the Son's prefenting it, as our High Priest before the Father in Heaven, not only Speaks for, but humbly demands thofe Bleffings for us: It reminds God continually of the Covenant agreed to: And Chrift having performed his Part of that Covenant, he claims the Performance of it on the Father's Part, as a Debt due to his meritorious Sufferings and Death on the Crofs; as a Purchase bought

* See Knatchbull and Hammond.

at

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SER M. at an accepted Price. So that the Interceffion which Chrift makes to God, is not performed by him as a proftrate Supplication, with bended Knees, uplifted Hands, and lowly Supplications; but in such a Manner as comports with the kingly Majefty he is advanced to; in fuch as at the fame Time afferts his own Purchase of, and confequently his own Right to the Bleffings he fues for; and which therefore his Father cannot in Justice deny him. St. John tells us that Jefus Chrift the Righteous is our ADVOCATE with the Father, 1 John ii. 1. And the Office of an Advocate is to demand Audience and Sentence in a judicial Way: He does not offer a Petition in the Name of his Client that may be granted or refufed, but puts in a Claim which the Court holds itself obliged to allow. In fuch a Manner does Christ intercede. Who then fhall lay any Thing to the Charge of God's Elect? Shall God that juftifieth? Who is he that condemneth? Shall Chrift that died, yea rather that is rifen again, who is even at the right Hand of God, and maketh Interceffion for us? Rom. viii. 33, 34. For we have fuch an High Prieft who is fet (fet down, and with Authority,) on the right Hand of the Majefty in the

Heavens :

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