SERMON I

That the Blood of Chrift cleanses us from Sin.

HEBR. ix. 14.

How much more fhall 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.

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HE Apostle, in the foregoing part of SER M. this chapter, fhewing how the great anniversary facrifice of expiation was a type of Chrift, proceeds to compare the blood of those beafts which were offered up in it with the blood of Chrift; in feveral instances all, contained in this verse. For,

Whereas in the feast of expiation the Highpriest offered up the blood of bulls and goats, Chrift offered up

himself.

The High-prieft was a finner, and offered up thofe facrifices for his own fins as well as for the fins of the people; but Christ offered up himself without fpot, and in him was offered the blood of the lamb of God without Spot, and without blemish.

Again, the High-prieft offered up the blood of beafts only, but here was offered VOL. I.

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up

the

blood

SER M. blood of a man, the blood of Chrift.
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Nor was it a facrifice meerly human neither, but it was offered up διὰ πνεύματος αιωνίς, through the eternal fpirit, not through the holy fpirit, as fome few copies have it by a very obvious mistake By which is fignified, that it was the blood of a divine perfon, the blood of a man united to the divinity.

But

And lastly, which was the defign and inference he makes from all the reft, he compares them as to their power and efficacy. The blood of thofe facrifices could cleanse men only from legal impurities, fuch as were contracted by touching a dead body; eating meat that was forbidden by the law; drinking out of an unclean veffel; and fuch like. the blood of Chrift purges the confcience, and wafhes away the guilt and pollutions of the foul. For if the blood of bulls and goats, and the afbes of an heifer Sprinkling the unclean fanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; much more fhall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal fpirit offered himself without spot to God, purge the confcience from dead works to ferve the living God.

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The word here used of the blood of Chrift is zalapíw to purify (i. e.) by cleansing or washing, as appears from the fprinkling to which it is oppofed in the foregoing verfe; and in other places where the very expreffion of washing is ufed with respect to the blood of Chrift.. ".. And by dead works, is meant fuch fins as men have been guilty of in the former course

of

of their lives; as appears by its oppofition to SER M. that legal uncleannefs, which men had actu- I. ally contracted. So that the Senfe is this, the W blood of Chrift hath washed away the guilt of those fins you committed in the former course of your lives, and fo put you in a condition of grace, and ferving the living God.

In difcourfing on thefe words, before I fpeak more particularly of the virtue and power of the blood of Chrift, in refpect of men, it will be neceffary to obferve to you. these two things.

1. That it was an opinion univerfally prevailing among all nations, that washing of the body was neceffary to take away the guilt

of fin.

2. That the whole cuftom of religious ́ washing with water, or fprinkling with blood, referred to the washing away of fin by the blood of Chrift.

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I. As to the first, it is very plain that the cleanfing of the body is a very apt and obvious emblem of the innocence of the mind, and indeed the only way we have of raifing any image of it in this life. For we do, not know how fin pollutes the foul, nor how virtue beautifies it; the horrid deformity of guilt, and the ravishing beauty of virtue and innocence; the alteration they make in the mind, for the better or the worse, will not be feen 'till the great change at the refurrection; when all the beauties and deformities of the mind fhall be as difcernible as thofe of the body are now: Therefore

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SER M. Therefore I fay it was very natural for men to

I.

fall into this custom of washing, whenever they had any occafion to manifest and declare their innocence: As Pilate did when he washed his hands, and declared himself innocent of the blood of Christ.

But this could not be the reason of that washing which was occafioned by a sense of fin; this was not to manifeft their innocence, but to wash away their guilt: And this was the reason why, both among Jews and Heathens, most of their facrifices were attended with folemn wafhings. For they did not think it fufficient that atonement was made to God, in the punishment of their fin, by the effufion of blood; for if that was all, there had been no occafion for any further ceremony; but they imagined fomething more was to be done, and that the foul was to be actually cleanfed from fin; and therefore the cuftom of washing and fprinkling prevailed. Not that every one that used it knew the reafon of the thing, and the immediate defign and tendency of it; but, as it is in the case of facrifices, when a custom prevails univerfally in the world, without any apparent reason, it is a great argument that there must be some foundation for it in natural or revealed religion.

The Jews were enjoined great variety of wafhings; their priests and their people were cleanfed and confecrated by washing; all manner of legal uncleannefs was purged and purified