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or would not cure us of the inward Sickneffes and Maladies, under which we languished.

But this is not all. In the Second Place, it ought to be taken notice of, what an absurd inconfiftent Notion this kind of Doctrine gives us of the Happineß of Mankind: For whilst they fuppofe, that a Man under the Power and Dominion of Sin, is capable of that Happiness which Chrift purchased for us in the other World (which Happiness, as both Scripture and Reason testify, doth chiefly confift in the Enjoyment of God, and of his Excellencies and Perfections;) they must at the fame Time fuppofe, that a Man may be rendred happy by the Enjoyment of that of which he has no Senfe, no Perception; or rather, to speak properly, that he is the happiest Creature alive, in the Enjoyment of an Object, to which he has the greatest Averfion and Antipathy in the World. Which, if it be not an Abfurdity, I know not what is. When Light can have Communion with Darknes, when God can have Fellowship with Belial; then, and not 'till then, can a wicked Man, a Man that lives in Sin, and loves it, be capable of that Happiness which Jefus Chrift hath purchased for us.

IV. The Fourth Thing I fhould speak to from this Text, is, The Means by which our Saviour brought to pafs the great End of his Appearance, viz. The putting away of Sin. Which Means are faid to be the Sacrifice of himself. Now once in the End of the World, hath he ap peared to put away Sin, by the Sacrifice of himself.

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Two Things fhould be done, in order to a juft Difcourfe upon this Point.

First, To give an Account, how the Death of Chrift was a Means for the putting away of Sin, in the firft Senfe I gave, that is, the procuring the Pardon of it.

Secondly, How it was a means of putting it away in the other Senfe, that is, the destroying or mortifying it in us.

But thefe Things being Foreign to our prefent Business, and more proper for the Argument of a Good-Friday Sermon; I fhall fay no more of them, but proceed to my laft Point.

V. The Fifth and laft Thing obfervable from the Text, is the Difference of Chrift's Sacrifice, whereby he put away Sin, from the Mofaical ones: Which Difference, fo far as it is here taken notice of, confifts in this; That the Legal Sacrifices, for the Expiation of Sin, were Daily offered; but Chrift offered the Sacrifice of Himself, but once, Once in the End of the World, &c.

The Apostle, in this Chapter, is Difcourfing of the Difference between the Law and the Gofpel. And as to that Point, he infifts much on the Difference of their Sacrifices. The Chriftians that owned the Gospel, had but one Sacrifice, The Sacrifice of Chrift once offered; whereas thofe that were under the Law, were forced to have many. Nay, even the most folemn Sacrifice that God had appointed, for the Expiation of their Sins, was repeated once a Year, as the Apostle tells us, in the Verfe before my Text. But now the Sacri

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Sacrifice of Chrift, which he puts by way of Oppofition to theirs, that was but once offered, and was never to be repeated. This is the Point with which he concludes this Chapter; Two Verses after my Text, Chrift (faith he) was once offered, to bear the Sins of many, and unto them that look for him, fhall he appear the Second Time unto Salvation.

This is the Apostle's Doctrine, and I infist on it now, because all thofe that design, on this Day, to receive the Holy Sacrament, are concerned in it.

Let us from hence take notice, that in this Service of the Holy Communion, we are not to pretend to offer Chrift as a Sacrifice to his Father: His Sacrifice was but once to be offered, and that was done Seventeen hundred Years ago; and in the Virtue of that Sacrifice once offered, all faithful Chriftians, and fincere Penitents, fhall receive Remiffion of Sins, and all other Benefits of his Paffion. But for us to think of offering Chrift again as a Sacrifice, is in effect to put ourselves into the fame Rank and Condition with the unbelieving Jews; that is, to need the Repetition of the fame Sacrifices every Year, nay, every Day, which is the very Reafon, for which the Apostle denies the Efficacy of them.

We do not, indeed, deny, but that every Time we approach to the Lord's Table, for the receiving of the Holy Communion, we offer Sacrifices to God: For we offer our Alms, which we beg of God to accept as our Oblations; and thefe, in the Language of Scrip

ture,

ture, are Sacrifices with which God is well pleafed.

We likewise offer our Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving to God, for the Death of our Saviour: And all our Prayers and Supplications, we put up in his Name, and in the Virtue, and for the Merits of that Sacrifice he offered to God in our Behalf: And in fo doing, we commemorate that Sacrifice both to God, and before Men. And this is all, we are confident, that the Ancient Church meant by the great Christian Sacrifice, or the Sacrifice of the Altar.

But if we go further, if we will in the Communion pretend to offer up the Body and Blood of Chrift in Sacrifice to God, that was once Sacrificed upon the Cross; It is intolerable. It is a Thing that was never dreamed of in the first Ages of the Church; It is directly contradictory to the Foundation of all the Apoftle's Argument and Discourse here in the Text; and the very fuppofal of it, brings along with it, many grievous Abfurdities in the Theory, and fomething that looks like impious in the Practice.

And yet this is the conftant and ayowed Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome in every Sacrament they have, and that is in every Maß that is faid among them. The main Business of that Myftery, they make to confift in the Prieft's offering up to God, the very Body and Blood of Chrift, the fame Body and Blood that was once offered up at Jerusalem; this they pretend to offer up as a Sacrifice Z3

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every Day: And they attribute to this their Offering, the fame Vertue and Efficacy that the Apostles and all Chriftians have always attributed to the one Sacrifice of Chrift upon the Cross; that is, that it is a true popitiatory Sacrifice for the Living, and for the Dead: And none among them dare deny this, under Pain of an Anathema, as the Council of Trent hath ordered the Matter.

Good God! whither will Intereft, and Faction, and Zeal for a Party, tranfport Men! But it is not my Bufinefs to expose them, but to put you in mind of what concerns ourselves, namely, as I faid, That when we come to the Lord's Table, we do not approach thither, with a Belief that our Lord Jefus is there again offered, but only with a Defign to com. memorate his Sacrifice that was once offered. We come not thither to facrifice Christ, but to be Partakers of his Sacrifice. We are not to feaft God; but God there feafts us, and that with the best Food in the World; fuch Food as will nourish us to Eternal Life, if we be worthy Guefts: Only we must not appear before God empty at this Solemnity: We must offer to him of our Subftance: We must offer our Prayers and Supplications, not only for our felves, but for all the World; but more efpecially for all that are called by the Name of Chrift; and among thofe, moft particularly, for our own Church and Kingdom, and all Orders and Degrees of Men therein. We muft offer likewife Ourselves, our Souls and Bodies a living Sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which

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