through his blood. He hath reconciled us to God by the cross P, in the body of his flesh through death 9.' 'God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. His blood was 'shed

and without shedding

for many, for the remission of sins,' of blocd is no remission t.' It is this blood of sprinkling' that speaketh better things than the blood of Abel ":' and it is by the blood of Jesus' that men must enter into 'the holiest, as many as enter. I have thrown these texts together without note or comment; for they need none, they interpret themselves. Let but the reader observe, with what variety of expression this great truth is inculcated, that our salvation chiefly stands in the meritorious sufferings of our Saviour Christ. The consideration whereof made St. Paul say, 'I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified:' namely, because this was a most essential article, the very sum and substance of the Gospel. In these and in a great many more passages that lie spread in all the parts of the New Testament, it is as plain as words can make anything, that the death of Christ is proposed to us as our sacrifice and reconciliation, our atonement and redemption. So it is not possible for any man, that considers all this, to imagine that Christ's death was only a confirmation of his Gospel, a pattern of a holy and patient suffering of death, and a necessary preparation to his resurrection. . . . By this all the high commendations of his death amount only to this, that he by dying has given a vast credit and authority to his Gospel, which was the powerfullest mean possible to redeem us from sin, and to reconcile us to God. But this is so contrary to the whole design of the New Testament, and to the true importance of that great variety of phrases, in which this

matter is set out, that at this rate of expounding Scripture we can never know what we may build upon; especially when the great importance of this thing, and of our having right notions concerning it, is well considered y'

The least that we can infer from the texts above mentioned is, that there is some very particular virtue, merit, efficacy, in the death of Christ, that God's acceptance of sinners, though penitent, (not perfect,) depended entirely upon it. Common sacrifices could never make the comers thereunto perfect but it was absolutely necessary that the heavenly things should be purified with some better sacrifice. Which is so true, that our Lord is represented as entering into the holy of holies (that is heaven) by his own blood b,' where 'he ever liveth to make intercession for those that come unto God by him .' The efficacy even of his intercession above (great and powerful as he is) yet depends chiefly upon that circumstance, his having entered thither by his own blood; that is to say, upon the merit of his death and passion, and the atonement thereby made. His intercession belongs to his priestly office, and that supposes the offering before made for there was a necessity that he should have somewhat to offer d,' and nothing less than himself e. Seeing therefore that, in order to our redemption, Christ suffered as a piacular victim, (which must be understood to be in our stead,) and that there was some necessity he should do so, and that his prevailing intercession at God's right hand now, and to the end of the world, stands upon that ground, and must do so; what can we think less, but that some very momentous reasons of justice or of government (both which resolve at length into one) required that so it should be.

Bishop Burnet on Article II. pp. 70, 71.

Heb. X. I. a Ib. ix. 23. Heb. ix. 12. Note, it is not only said that Christ entered into heaven by his own blood, but he is there also considered as the Lamb slain: Rev. v. 6. Which further

shews wherein principally the virtue of his intercession consists. • Heb. vii. 25; cp. Rom. viii. 33, 34. Heb. ii. 17; ix. 24. 1 John ii. 2.

d Heb. viii. 3; v. I. Heb. ix. 14, 25, 26, 28; compare i. 3.

We are not indeed competent judges of all the reasons or
measures of an all-wise God, with respect to his dealings
with his creatures; neither are we able to argue, as it were,
beforehand, with sufficient certainty, about the terms of
acceptance, which his wisdom, or his holiness, or his justice,
might demand. But we ought to take careful heed to what
he has said, and what he has done, and to draw the proper
conclusions from both. One thing is plain, from the terms
of the first covenant, made in Paradise, that Divine wisdom
could have admitted man perfectly innocent to perfect happi-
'ness, without the intervention of any sacrifice, or any
Mediator: and it is no less plain, from the terms of the
new covenant, that there was some necessity (fixed in the
very reason and nature of things) that a valuable considera-
tion, atonement, or sacrifice, should be offered, to make fallen
man capable of eternal glory f. The truth of the thing
done proves its necessity, (besides what I have alleged from
express Scripture concerning such necessity,) for it is not
imaginable that so great a thing would have been done upon
earth, and afterwards, as it were, constantly commemorated
in heaven, if there had not been very strong and pressing
reasons for it, and such as made it as necessary, (in the
Divine counsels,) as it was necessary for a God of infinite
perfection to be wise and holy, just and good. When I said
constantly commemorated in heaven, I had an eye to Christ's
continual intercession h, which is a kind of commemoration

Si non fuisset peccatum, non necesse fuerat Filium Dei agnum fieri, nec opus fuerat eum in carne positum jugulari, sed mansisset hoc quod in principio erat, Deus verbum: verum quoniam intravit peccatum in hunc munduin, peccati autem necessitas propitiationem requirit, et propitiatio non fit nisi per hostiam, necessarium fuit provideri hostiam pro peccato.' Orig. in Nun. Hom. xxiv. p. 362.

Est ergo duplex, ut legalium

quarundam victimarum, ita Christi
oblatio, prior mactationis, altera
ostentionis legalium victimarum;
prior peracta in templo, altera in
ipso penetrali: Christi prior in
terris, posterior in caelo. Prior
tamen illa non sacrificii prae-
paratio, sed sacrificium: posterior
non tam sacrificium, quam sacri.
ficii facti commemoratio.' Grot.
de Satisfact. in fine.
h Christ is not entered into the
holy places made with hands,

of the sacrifice which he once offered upon the cross, and is always pleading the merit of. Which shews still of what exceeding great moment that sacrifice was, for the reconciling the acceptance of sinful men with the ends of Divine government, the manifestation of Divine glory, and the unalterable perfection of the Divine attributes. And if that sacrifice is represented and pleaded in heaven by Christ himself, for remission of sins, that shews that there is an intrinsic virtue, value, merit in it, for the purposes intended: and it shews further, how rational and how proper our Eucharistical service is, as commemorating the same sacrifice here below, which our Lord himself commemorates above. God may reasonably require of us this humble acknowledgment, this self-abasement, that after we have done our best, we are offenders still, though penitent offenders, and have not done all that we ought to have done; and that therefore we can claim nothing in virtue of our own righteousness considered by itself, separate from the additional virtue of that all-sufficient sacrifice, which alone can render even our best services accepted i.

If it should be objected, that we have a covenant claim by the Gospel, and that that covenant was entirely owing to Divine mercy, and that so we resolve not our right and title into any strict merits of our own, but into the pure mercy of God, and that this suffices without any respect to a sacrifice: I say, if this should be pleaded, I answer that no such covenant claim appears, separate from all respect to a sacrifice. The covenant is that persons so and so qualified shall be acceptable in and through Christ, and by virtue of that very sacrifice which he entered with into the holy of holies, and by which he now intercedes and appears for us. Besides, it is not right to think nor is it modest or pious to say, that

(which are the figures of the true); but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for

us.'

Heb. ix. 24.

See our XIth Article, with Bishop Burnet's Notes upon it, and Mr. Welchman's.

in the economy of every man's salvation, the groundwork only is God's, by settling the covenant, and the finishing part ours, by performing the conditions; but the true order or method is for our Lord to be both the Author and Finisher of the whole. The covenant, or rather, the covenant charter, was given soon after the fall to mankind in general, and has been carried on through successive generations by new stipulating acts in every age: so likewise was the atonement made (or considered as made) once for all, but is applied to particulars, or individuals, continually, by means of Christ's constant abiding intercession. Therefore it is not barely our performing the conditions, that finishes our salvation, but it is our Lord's applying his merits to our performances that finishes all. Perhaps this whole matter may be more clearly represented by a distinct enumeration of the several concurring means to the same end. 1. The Divine philanthropy has the first hand in our salvation, is the primary or principal cause. 2. Our performing the duties required, faith and repentance, by the aid of Divine grace, is the conditional cause. 3. The sacrifice of Christ's death, recommending and rendering acceptable our imperfect performances, is the meritorious cause. 4. The Divine ordinances, and more particularly the two Sacraments, (so far as distinct from conditional,) are the instrumentalk causes, in and by which God applies to men fitly disposed the virtue of that sacrifice. Let these things be supposed only, at present, for clearer conception: proofs of everything will appear in due time and place. By this account may be competently understood the end and use of commemorating the sacrifice of our Lord's passion in the holy Communion. It corresponds with the commemoration made above: it is suing for pardon, in virtue of the same plea that Christ himself sues in, on our behalf:

I understand 'instrument' here in no other sense, but as deeds of conveyance, or forms of investiture, such as a ring, a

crosier, letters patent, broad seal, and the like, are called instruments: which shall be explained hereafter.

qp.146.