lefs, then should no Place have been fought for the Second, for finding Fault with them, faith the Lord, I will put my Laws into their Minds, and write them in their Hearts, and they shall not teach every Man his Neighbour, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know me from the greatest to the leaft; for I will be merciful to their Unrighteousness, and their Sins and Iniquities I will remember no more; in that he faith, By a new Covenant, he hath made the firft old; and that which decayeth, and waxeth old, is ready to wanifh away, chap. viii. ver. 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13. and chap. x. ver. 16, 17.

6. IN chap. ix. the Apoftle compares the Rites and bloody Sacrifices of the Law, and thews how far inferior they are to the Blood and Sacrifice of Christ, who not by the Blood of Goats and Calves, but by his own Blood, entered at once into the holy Place, having obtained eternal Redemption for us; for if the Blood of Bulls and of Goats, and the Abes of an Heifer Sprinkling the Unclean, fanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh, how much more shall the Blood of Chrift, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself, without Blot, to God, purge your Confciences from dead Works, to ferve the living God? ver. 12, 13, 14.

7. IN chap. x. he fhews the Weakness of the Law-Sacrifices; which, being offer'd up Year by Year continually, could not make the Comers thereto perfect; for then they would have ceafed to have been offered, because that the Worshippers, once purged, should have had no more Confcience of Sins. Ver. 1, 2. Then faid he, Lo, I come to do thy Will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the fecond, by the which Will we are fanctified, through the Offering of Jefus Chrift, once for all. Every Prieft ftandeth miniftring, and offering the fame Sacrifices, which can never take away Sins; but this Man, after he offered one Sacrifice for Sins for ever, fat down at the Right-hand of God; for by one Offering he hath perfected, for ever, them that are fan&tified; that is, those who obey his Commands, v. 9, 10, 11, 12, 14. And in v. 18. he tells them, Where Remiffion of Sins is, there is no more Offering for Sins.

IN the reft of the Chapter, the Apostle exhorts the Hebrews, whom he calls his Brethren, to have the Boldness to enter in with him into the Holieft, by the Blood of Jesus; and having a High Prieft over the House of God, to draw near with a true Heart, in full Affurunce of baving our Hearts fprinkled from an evil ConScience, and our Bodies washed with pure Water,

and to hold fast the Profeffion of our Faith, without wavering; and to confider one another to provoke unto Love, and to good Works; not forfaking the assembling ourselves together, as the Manner of fome is; but exhorting one another, and fo much the more, as ye fee the Day approaching. And he enforces his Argument, by telling them, that if we fin wilfully after the Knowledge of the Truth, there remaineth no more Sacrifice for Sins.

Now, in all this Epiftle, where this Matter is fo fully and at large explained, (as well as in many other Parts of Scripture, where the Jewish Priesthood, Rites and Ceremonies are plainly abolished) there is not one Word or Hint given of any other to be established upon the Ruins of it. In all the Chapters which I have quoted, no Prieft, Sacrificer, Prophet, Mediator, Intercsfor, Reconciler, Benedictor, Embaffador, or Spiritual Prince, is once mentioned, but Jefus Chrift alone; though one might have expected to have met with him, or to have heard of him here, if there was to have been any fuch Perfon in Nature. On the contrary, the Apostle himself addreffes to the Hebrus as his Equals, and claims no Right, Privilege, or Superiority over them; talks to them always in the Plural Number; nor does he, in

the

the modern Phrafe, fay, Pray ye, &c. but joins himself with them in every Act of Love and. Duty.

IF this was the Cafe of the Hebrews, who were Parties to the Horeb Contract, by which God became their temporal King, and confequently, they became bound, and Subjects to all the Laws of Mofes; the Argument is much stronger in behalf of the Gentiles, who were never any way concerned in the Jewish Priesthood, Rites. and Ceremonies; and there muft be therefore a very plain and pofitive Inftitution and Establishment found out in Scripture, before they can be fubjected to it..

NUMBER XLVIII.

Wednesday, December 14. 1720.

All Prieftly Power inconfiftent with the Gospel, and renounced by it.

HAVE fully fhewn, in my last Paper, that as there is but one Sacrifice in the Chriftian Religion, fo. there is but one Sacrificer or Prieft,

who, as our Church declares in

the Communion Service, made one Oblation of himself, and once offered up a full, perfect, fufficient Sacrifice, Oblation, and Satisfaction, for the Sins of the whole World; and agreeably to this Declaration, in the 13th Article, The calls the Sacrifices of the Popish Priests. dangerous Deceits, and blafphemous Fables..

I CANNOT with my beft Inquiry find out, that in the whole Chriftian Religion, there are any

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