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vation of men. Now, that muft needs be fragrant and acceptable to God, which accomplished the triumph of all his attributes.

Queft. But did not thofe facrifices which were in ufe under the law, fatisfy the juftice of God, and take away the fins of the people?

To this I answer in the negative. These facrifices were but fhadows by their inftitution, and were to have their accomplishment in fome other, and therefore could make nothing perfect. See what the apoftle Paul faith, who was once very zealous for them, Heb. x. 1. 4. 11. For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never, with thofe facrifices which they offered year by year con tinually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For it is not pofible that the blood of bulls and of goats fhould take away fins. And every priest ftandeth daily miniftering, and offering oftentimes the fame facrifices, which can never take away fins. More particularly,

1. It was against common reafon that the fin of a foul fhould be expiated by the blood of a beäft; that the fufferings of a nature fo far inferior could be a fufficient compenfation for the crime of a nature so much fuperior to it. The prophet fpake the true reason of mankind, when he afferted, that the Lord would not be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil; that he would not accept of the firft-born of the body as a fatisfaction for the fin of the foul, Micah vi. 6. A rational facrifice was only fit to atone for the fin of a rational being. There was no agreement between the nature of a man and that of a bullock. The nature that finned was alfo to fuffer, and fo to bear the punishment due by the law. The foul that finneth, it shall die, faith the Lord, Ezek. xviii. 4. If God had been content with the blood of beafts for the fins of men, then there had been no fufficient discovery of the feverity of his juftice, the purity of his holinefs, nor the grandeur of his grace. It was inconfiftent with the honour and majefty of VOL. II.

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God, who had denounced a terrible curfe upon all the tranfgreffors of the law, and published it with fo much dread and awful folemnity, as thunders and lightnings, fire and fmoke, and terrible earthquakes, to make fo light of it as to accept of the blood of a few mangled beafts, in the room of the offender. Would God appear upon mount Sinai with ten thousands of his angels to publish a fiery law, and let all the threatenings of it vanifh into fmoke? Can any in reason think that all thofe fearful curfes fhould be poured out upon a few irrational and innocent creatures, who had never broken that law? Can it ever enter into the heart of man to think, that, after fo folemn and terrible a proclamation, he would acquiefce in fo flight a compenfation as the death of a poor beaft? None can poffibly entertain fo mean and despicable thoughts of the infinite majefty, juftice, and holinefs of God, or of the vile and deteftable nature of fin, and the greatness of its provocation, as to imagine that the one could be contented, or the other expiated, by the blood of a lamb or a bullock. Our own confciences will tell us, that if God will have a facrifice, it must be proportioned to the majesty of him whom we have offended, and to the greatnefs of the crime which we have committed. If all the cattle upon a thousand hills were facrificed, and all the cedars in Lebanon were cut down for wood to burn the offering, it could not be a fweet-fmelling favour to God. There is an infinite difproportion between this kind of facrifice and the glorious Majefty of heaven.

2. The repetition of thefe facrifices fhews their infufficiency for the expiation of fin. For where the confcience is once purged, and the remiffion of fin obtained, there is no more offering for fin, as the apostle tells us, Heb. x. 18. But the repeating of the facrifice plainly intimates, that the perfon for whofe fake it is repeated is in the fame condition now, that he was in at the time of the former oblation. The apoftle tells us, that if the law could have made men perfect, then

thefe facrifices would have ceased to be offered, becaufe that the worshippers once purged fhould have had no more confcience of fins; but in thofe facrifices there was a remembrance again made of fins every year, Heb. x. 2. 3. Had the wrath of God been appeared by them, why fhould the fire burn perpetually upon the altar? why fhould it be fo fed continually with the carcafes of flain beafts? As often as they were offered, there was a confcience of fin excited in the presenter of them, and iniquity was called to remembrance. The whole fcene of the legal adininiftration loudly proclaimed, that the wrath of God against fin was not ap peafed, and that the guilt of the foul was not wiped off. If a man had prefented a facrifice for his fin one day, and fallen into the fame or fome other fin before night, he must have repeated his facrifice for a new expiation. Had there been any efficacy in them to purge away fin, then they had ceafed; and there would have been no repetition of them.

3. The great variety of thefe facrifices fhews their infufficiency to take away fin. There were many gifts and facrifices, bulls and goats, calves and lambs, which fhews that no one thing was fit to typify and reprefent the full expiation wrought by Chritt; whereas he offered but one facrifice, and by that perfected for ever them that are fanctified. As the application of many medicines fhews their infufficiency to cure a difeafe, fo the many facrifices and purifications under the law, plainly evidence that a full and efficacious propitiation for fin was to be fought elsewhere. If the great annual facrifice, which was the most folemn one in that whole inftitution, could not effect it, much less could facrifices of a lower dignity, It is from the repetition of this great facrifice that the apoftle argues the infurficiency of them all, Heb. x.

4. God never intended that thefe facrifices fhould expiate fin by any virtue of their own. The great and glorious Majeity of heaven, who was offended and provoked by fin, is truly infinite; and to latisfy bi

the facrifices must be infinite too. But none of thofe facrifices under the law were fo. Why then were they appointed? Not with any intention to purge away the fin of the foul, but the ceremonial uncleannefs of the flesh, as Heb. ix. 13. 14. where you fee the blood of bulls and of goats fanctifies to the purifying of the flesh. The apoftle compares these and the facrifice of Chrift together, and fhews that the one pu→ rified only the flesh, and the other the conscience, It was not a moral guilt which they were intended to remove, but only a ceremonial one; as when one was defiled by touching a dead carcafe, or a leprous person, which was reckoned a defilement of the body, not of the foul. God hath often difcovered their weakness and infufficiency, and that they could not give him a recompenfe for the injury done him by fin. So If. lxvi. 1. Thus faith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the houfe that build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? By the house or temple here is meant all the Jewish œconomy, the whole lump of legal facrifices. Though all thefe were appointed by God, and had been used by his people for a long time, yet he had no reft in them: they could neither fatisfy his juftice nor vindicate the honour of his law, nor could they ever take away fin, Heb. x. 11. And therefore God rejected them, and they were abolished and difannulled, for the weaknefs and unprofitablenefs of them, Heb. vii. 18, Tho they had been practifed by the Jews for fo many ages, yet not one fin had been expiated by them in all that long tract of time.

5. The infufficiency of thefe facrifices for the fatisfaction of divine juftice, and the expiation of fin, appears from the end and defign of their inftitution, which was to prefigure and reprefent a more excellent facrifice, that was able to do it effectually, even the great facrifice of Chrift. They were but fhadows of good things to come, as the apoftle terms them, and did typically reprefent a crucified dying Chrift as

the fubftance: and whatever virtue they had, it was not in or from themselves, but from their typical relation to him whom they prefigured. They all pointed forth the facrifice of Chrift, by whofe precious blood, fhed in the fulness of time, the fins of the elect were fully expiated. God had no pleasure in thefe facrifices, but only fo far as they reprefented the facrifice of Chrift, which effectually takes away fin, Heb. x. 6. 7. 8.

From what hath been faid on this head, you fee that thofe facrifices which were in ufe under the law, could not fatisfy the juftice of God, and take away the fins of men.

Object. If Chrift fuffered for the fins of his people, then he that was holy, harmless, undefiled, and feparate from finners, must be accounted a guilty perfon, yea even the moft guilty of all others, as having charged upon him all the fins of an elect world.

Anf. There is a twofold guilt to be confidered; namely, a culpable and a penal guilt. He that commits the offence is under culpable guilt; and he who is obliged to fuffer for the offence is under penal guilt, though he did not actually commit it. Now, Chrift as our facrifice was under this penal guilt; the offences committed. by us were charged upon him; and by his voluntary undertaking to be a facrifice for us, he came under an obligation to fuffer for us, as if he had really finned, though we only were the tranfgreffors. This is plain in the cafe of thofe legal facrifices, which were fhadows of Chrift. It appears from them, that these two forts of guilt may be leparated, fo that he who is not culpably guilty may be penally guilty, and may justly fuffer though he did not perfonally fin: for the fins of the people being laid upon thefe facrifices, they were under penal guilt, and did justly sufter as if they had finned; and yet they were not culpably guilty; for they neither had finned, nor were they capable of finning.

Queft. Seeing Chrift offered up his facrifice to fatisfy