l. 10. p. 360. when making gaudy offerings to them No let but the hand free from guilt be lifted up to the Altars of the Gods not the most rich or costly hecatombs shall sooner reconcile the angry Deities than those I shall add no more to shew that sense the Pagans had of the ends of religion but onely make a short reflection upon God's justice in dealing with Mankind as set down by St. Paul He tells us God will render to every man according to his deeds Rom. 2.6 c. to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life but to them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish to every soul of man that doth evil to the Jew first and also to the Gentile Now that the Jews and Gentiles who stood upon no equal ground yet should suffer equally in case of disobedience seems to some very harsh but if again it be considered that that God who gave the Jewish Nation such great advantages required of them proportionably great returns whilst the Gentiles who had been partakers of less light were onely required to walk in that light they had to come up as near to a perfection in faith and virtue as that would admit of This consider'd the Gentiles were every whit as guilty in neglecting their duties which were lighter and fewer as the Jews in neglecting theirs which were more numerous and difficult since the disobedience to the Divine commands is as notorious in one case as in the other and this reflection reaches farther and teaches those who are more weak and ignorant not to presume too much upon God's mercy because they know so little since it 's as reasonable they should perform that little they know as that we who know more should do our duties and their negligence and proportionable unfruitfulness in good and ours proceed from one and the same damnably offensive principle for as the Apostle urges it v. 12. as many as have sinn'd without Law shall perish without Law and as many as have sinn'd in the Law shall be judg'd by the Law This every Man must acknowledge to be the greatest equity in the World the faith and works of the Jews and so of Christians shall be canvas'd and examin'd by those rules of faith and practice extraordinarily imparted to them the Gentiles had no such Law but the light of Nature was their guide therefore their works shall be tried by that and by no other light now a defect in obedience to the innate light of nature is as much a contempt of God and so as criminal as a defect in obedience to the written Law of God and consequently as justly punish'd now how far this natural light extends as these passages I have quoted from Heathen Writers considerably evidence so the Apostle tells us That the Gentiles which have not the Law i. e. the same Law that was given to the Jews v. 14. do by nature the things contain'd in the Law they not having the Law are a Law unto themselves This proves that truth that God's written Law is not a disannulling but a confirming and enlarging upon the Law of Nature in the manner of a Commentary upon an intricate Text to illustrate and explain it well then The Gentiles shew this natural Law written in their hearts by the witness of their consciences and their thoughts in the mean time accusing or excusing one another v. 15. for having as I shew'd before clear apprehensions of the Being of a God and having made very considerable discoveries of his nature so far as legible in the works of the Creation they cannot upon a serious debate with themselves and weighing their own actions by their own notions and rules but have an infallible certainty of the rectitude or pravity of their actions and this is as much as a Jew or Christian can do by his publick Laws and an exact scanning of them Now if my Conscience can certainly inform me of things essentially and eternally so whether they be good or bad the same Conscience will give me as infallible a certainty that God is and must be just when he rewards me according to my actions whether they be good or evil he calls me to account for what I do know not for what I do not know and punishes me for transgressions within the reach of my understanding to have avoided and not for those that were unintelligible without a positive revelation and this even corrupted Reason will own is agreeable to the strictest rules of equity and justice We are to enquire since we have seen what Jews and Gentiles before our Saviour's birth into the World understood concerning the nature and ends of Religion which every one for himself supposed to be true since none can be thought mad enough to trouble himself about that religion he certainly knew to be false We are to enquire how far both Jews and Gentiles had deprav'd and perverted those ends and what care they took to manage themselves according to that knowledge they really had when our Saviour appear'd in the flesh And here again we may begin with the Jews among whom if we find an extraordinary degeneracy we can the less wonder at it among the Gentiles If then we examine the state of things among them we have it thus It was once among them Do this and live i. e. Live here on Earth in a strict obedience to those things commanded you in the Law and you shall be rewarded with an happy future life Now when the terrors and glories of Mount Sinai were fresh in memory and Parents according as they were order'd took care to inculcate God's power justice and goodness particularly exerted toward the People of Israel into their Children and gave agreeable examples in themselves obedience was the common study and peace here and a glorious expectation hereafter the common consequence But when a new generation arose who had not seen God's wonderful dealings with his people and the too prevailing examples of neighbouring Idolaters taught the Israelites a wicked ingratitude the Law of God was slighted and as it is among us at this day the Man who could defie Heaven with the greatest audacity was the most set by And though frequent judgments over-took their Impieties there was no thorough purgation made among them but they went on to add sin to sin so that among the Scribes and Pharisees the great Zealots of the Law at the time of Christ's coming in the flesh things were at that pass that the blessed Jesus had reason when he told his Auditors that Except their righteousness should exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees Matth. 5.20 they should in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven If therefore the very best among the Jews as they were generally esteem'd were utterly uncapable of eternal happiness what may
from heaven which all wise men have hitherto believed then the writers of the New Testament had no other way to prove their own inspiration but by agreement with the former lest the holy Spirit to whose conduct both pretended should seem inconsistent with himself or variable as mens humours could apprehend him It 's not now to be doubted but that our Saviour who knew what was in Man therefore all along gave just preventives of those Cavils which the malicious Jews could afterwards raise against him and therefore in his first Sermon upon the Mount he shews himself so far from evacuating what was in its own nature moral and perpetually obliging that he on the contrary clears it from all those putid glosses the Jewish readers or Rabbins had fixt upon it and whereas they had endeavoured to find as many starting holes from the severity of good Morals as the Jesuites of later years have done he gave his hearers the full sense and meaning of the Law that so by pretending to liberty from its rigours they might not run themselves into eternal woes and in plain terms lets them know that whereas they were ready simply to imagine the severities of the Scribes and Pharisees very extraordinary and meritorious they were infinitely deceived and that except their righteousness should exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees they should in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven Matth. 5.20 It was doubtless the full end and design of Moses and the Prophets to advance the honour of that God who employed them to make his Name and his Laws respected not only among the tribes of Israel but among all those nations to whose knowledge their writings were likely at any time to come who by the rationality and tendency of the Laws would certainly judge of the wisdom goodness and integrity of the Law-giver but when those Prophets and others had done their best their endeavours were mixt with so many failures and imperfections that sometimes they fell themselves a great way under God's displeasure as Moses by his infidelity and presumption at the rock The man of God that Prophesied against the Altar in Bethel by yielding to the lying suggestions of the old Prophet Jonah by his frowardness because of God's superseding his prophetical denunciation by his long suffering and mercy extended to penitent sinners c. And besides in all those services those holy Men perform'd they could claim no higher a title than that of undeserving servants for that they had only done what was their plain duty and in case of failure they were obnoxious to very severe penalties and Moses tho' he have that honourable character that he was faithful in all God's house it was but as a servant still and for a testimony of those things that were to be spoken after Heb. 3.5 6. But Christ as a Son over his own house took a more exact and effectual care in all things to promote the glory of his Father It 's natural for the Son to be more sollicitous in such cases than a mercenary servant who does what he does prompted both by a fear of punishment and an earnest expectation of reward above both which things a pious Son always lives and therefore whereas the rest always call God their Lord and King c. the blessed Jesus continually calls him his Father his heavenly father and by that relation he so stands in to the Almighty and by what he has done for us in taking our nature upon him and the consequences of that assumption he has procured the same privilege superiour to what was apprehended by those of old with assurance of being heard to say in our Prayers Our Father which art in heaven But to effect all this in relation to his Fathers honour and our good how many scorns abuses persecutions and barbarous cruelties did he undergo from wicked Men yet as freely as if he had been altogether unconcern'd so long as Men could but any ways be reduced to an acknowledgment of their errors and a serious repentance What he underwent so made him as Man the more fit to prescribe Laws to others who were likely to suffer extremely from the same foolish world for embracing those truths he delivered them as we always esteem an Humble man most fit to teach others humility and a Charitable man charity and a Patient man patience For tho' others may declaim as well in commendation of the same virtues and in reproof of the same vices yet the discourses of exemplary persons are justly expected to make the deepest impressions upon their hearers With this advantage our blessed Lord instructed every one that would receive his Doctrine in the ways of happiness he used all the allurements of irresistible Wisdom and unanswerable Reason all the motives of Mercy and Goodness to procure their attendance and obedience He set them a compleat pattern of obedience to God and of innocence and holiness in his converse and then gives that as a standing rule that his Disciples should follow his example and let their light shine before Men for that very end that others seeing their good works might glorifie their Father which was in Heaven But when the blessed Jesus design'd the reformation of a sinful World the nature of his Doctrine and the manner of its propagation was adapted rightly to so admirable an end And therefore whereas the wretched Heathen part of Mankind did infinitely dishonour their Creator whereas they exactly answer'd that account of the Apostle When they knew God they glorified him not as God neither were thankful Rom. 1.21 22 c. but became vain in their Imaginations and their foolish hearts were darkned they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible Man and to Birds and to four-footed Beasts and to creeping things they changed the truth of God into a lie and worshipp'd and serv'd the creature more than the Creator whence they were filled with all unrighteousness fornication wickedness covetousness malice envy c. Whereas this was their real condition infinite numbers of them by this means running head-long into everlasting damnation and yet the ill-natured Jews to whom the Oracles of God were at that time committed took no care for their recovery pleasing themselves onely with a fond conceit of their own righteousness crying to all the rest of Mankind Stand by your selves come not near us for we are holier than you Since they only talk'd of their being the people of God and boasted of his Temple studying more to proselyte Men to an outward Circumcision and a few empty Ceremonies than to real inward holiness and integrity since these very Jews did but abuse their own greater advantages and trample upon the most excellent and obliging part of the Law our Saviour rectified their Error by the dilatation of his own Doctrine and taking exact care to have it spread as far as humane guilt had extended before so
offered both Gifts and Sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect as concerning the Conscience but Christ being come an High-Priest of good things to come not by the Blood of Goats and Calves but by his own Blood he enter'd in once into the Holy Place having obtained eternal Redemption for us that eternal Redemption is an absolute Freedom from the Punishment of Sin effected by Christ but only signified by Jewish Institutions the utmost of the virtue of those Symbolical Rites The same Author presently subjoins the Blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the Vnclean sanctified to the purifying of the Flesh i. e. God having for the use of the Jews ordained those Rites and Sacrifices and promised to receive them as Clean who punctually observed his Institutions they were consequently Legally clean who so observed them but otherwise than in the Sense of the Law no cleaner than the rest of Mankind who never heard of those Institutions but the Argument follows à fortiori How much more shall the Blood of Christ v. 13 14. who through the eternal Spirit offer'd himself without spot to God purge our Consciences from dead works to serve the Living God The Difference then between the Sacrifices is apparent enough those could only give a Legal Purity to Jews and that only to their Flesh without which Ceremonial Purity Men may be saved but the Sacrifice of Christ reaches the Pollutions of the Soul takes away the Defilements of the Mind and opens a free passage for us to the throne of Grace without which means Remission of Sins and eternal Salvation are never to be obtained Again the Apostle speaking of that Blood which according to the Levital Law was to be sprinkled upon several things adds It was necessary that the Patterns of things in the Heavens should be purified with these or rather the Patterns of Heavenly things for so the following Words explain the Phrase but that the Heavenly things themselves should be purified with better Sacrifices than these for Christ is not entred into the Holy places made with hands which are the Figures of the true but into Heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us i. e. as a Mediatour on our behalf but he enter'd not there that he might offer himself often as the High-Priest entred into the Holy place every year with the Blood of others for then must he often have suffered since the foundations of the World v. 22. ad 27. but now once 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the perfection or completion of Ages i. e. in the fulness of time hath he appear'd to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself The same Divine Author urges the matter further in the following Chapter and directly confirms what I before asserted That the Law having a Shadow of good things to come and not the very Image of the things can never with those Sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect for then they would not have ceas'd to be offered because that the Worshippers once purged should have had no more Conscience of Sins and if the Worshippers could have been so purged at once by those Legal Sacrifices the successive continuance of them would in the same manner have purged all those concerned in them and then another and a better and greater Sacrifice would have been altogether needless but alas in those Legal Sacrifices there was every year made a Remembrance of the same Sins and of the Guilt of the same Sinners Heb. 10.1 2 3 4 10 11 12 14. for it was not possible that the Blood of Bulls and of Goats should take away Sin But now by the will of God we are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all Every Jewish High-Priest stood daily ministring and offering the same Sacrifices which can never take away sin but this Man after he had offered one sacrifice for sin for ever sat down on the right-hand of God nor did he need to offer oftener for by one Offering he has perfected for ever them that are sanctified The Difference then between the Sacrifice of our Saviour and those of the Law is notorious but now if Remission of Sins could be granted to the Offerer of a Legal Sacrifice and yet a Legal Sacrifice could not take away the Sins of the Offerers and if the single Sacrifice of Christ did really take away Sins both which things are asserted in the Texts now cited then a great deal more must be meant by Christ's Sacrifice taking away sin than the bare Remission of Sins amounts to It must signifie taking away that Guilt of sin by which Men are render'd obnoxious to Punishment which considering that Justice inherent in Almighty God cannot be removed but by substituting somewhat so innocent in the Sinner's room that the Sufferings of that Innocent may satisfie for the Impunity of the Sinner but it being inconsistent with Justice to punish the Innocent for the Sinner if the Innocent be unwilling or depend upon his Innocence as his Security from Punishment therefore our Saviour for the acquittal of Divine Justice offer'd himself voluntarily to die for us and that when no Power on Earth could have taken away his Life from him which Offer of his being the effect of his eternal Will and his eternal Will the same with that of his Father Eternal Justice required his Sufferings and accepted those Sufferings though to be undergone in time as really and in their own intrinsic Nature equivalent to those Punishments otherwise due to a sinful World Upon the whole Christ died for or in the room of Sinners not to prevent their temporal but their eternal Death and by his Humiliation and his Death who was so Innocent and so Great gave eternal Justice as absolute Satisfaction as the eternal Punishment of all those who are now saved through Him would have done and therefore when Socinians seek for a reason for their denying Christ's Death to have been in our stead and fly to that of St. Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Christ died for our Sins 1 Cor. 15.3 and plead from thence that since it cannot be said that Christ died in the room of our Sins no more can it be said that he died in the room of Sinners this is meer Stuff and Cavil for if Christ died on account of our Sins which is the direct English of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it 's then the more probable He died in the room and stead of those Sinners or suffer'd a vicarious Punishment for them for or on account of whose Sins he resign'd himself to the Death upon the Cross Or they know it 's no uncommon thing in Scripture to put Sin for Sinners and they 'll confess though not in that sense which we do that He who died for Sin died for Sinners they being inseparable from one another But
which it was impossible they should be expiated and to put them to extraordinary Troubles and Expence for those things by which in themselves they could reap no good and which further had no respect to any thing that could advantage them the Jewish Rabbins therefore always understood by such Expiations the Transferring of that Punishment due to One upon some Other to whom it was not due whence that Wish Vid. Buxtorfii Lex Talmud in voce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 May those Chastisements which I undergo be expiatory or satisfie for Rabbi such a one and his Children and again Let thy Expiation be upon us and let us suffer in thy room whatsoever thou oughtest to suffer and Rabbi Moses ben Maimon commenting on that Phrase used by one May I be an Expiation for them tells us it 's as much as to wish that He might be a Redemption Oughtr de Sacrif l. 2 c. 6. p. 336 or the Redemption-Price or the Ransome for them and it 's a mode of Speaking whereby is express'd an extraordinary Love to this the Apostle St. Paul alludes when he wishes he might be Anathema Rom. 9.3 Gal. 3.13 for or in the room of his Countreymen and our Lord really was made a Curse for us or in our stead and so became indeed an Expiation or a Propitiation for our Sins We allow it may be true that He who is once reconciled may remit what he pleases of his Right but he must be reconciled first now that infinite Justice essential to Almighty God could not be reconciled to Man without a compleat Satisfaction and yet he may be said justly to abate of the Rigour of his Right who will accept of a Satisfaction offer'd which he 's not bound to do as among Men it 's wholly at the determination of the Supreme Power whether they will execute the Malefactor himself or accept of the Punishment of some other who voluntarily offers himself to die for the Malefactor Justice may if it please insist on the One and it 's no Injustice to accept the Other What the Socinians at last endeavour to avoid is that Agreement between the Legal expiatory Sacrifices and that of our Redeemer where they would fain impose on us a new Fancy of their own i. e. That our Saviour's Sacrifice was not compleated till he ascended into Heaven to present himself there before his Father and this they conclude from the custom of the High-priest's entring into the Holy of Holies with the Blood of the yearly Sacrifice offer'd for the Sins of the People We must certainly own that the High-priest did enter that Sacred place with Blood but we are to consider that there were other expiatory Sacrifices beside that which was offer'd once a Year and which prefigured the Suffering of our Lord in which no such Ceremony was used as all those Sacrifices offered by particular Offenders for those Sins they were personally guilty of they endeavouring by such means to make an Atonement for their Sins and these particular Sacrifices were compleat in themselves and procured Remission of Sins for the Offerer and were certain Types of that great Sacrifice afterwards to be offered and the Paschal Lamb it self of all others the most lively representation of that Lamb of God who in fulness of time was to die for the Sins of the World was killed and eaten without any such Circumstances as carrying the Blood of it into the most Holy place and the Annual Sacrifice was really offered when it was kill'd and afterwards burnt without the Camp Levit. 16.16 the End and Design of sprinkling the Blood of the Goat and of the Bullock upon and before the Mercy-seat was to make an atonement for the Holy place it self because of the Vncleanness of the Children of Israel and because of their Transgressions in all their sins as the Text teaches us i. e. though the Holy of Holies were the place of the more special Presence of God which render'd it venerable and glorious yet it being among Men who were very disobedient and rebellious it contracted somewhat of Uncleanness and Pollution from them a Pollution so infectious Psal 78.60 that it made God forsake his Tabernacle in Shilo even the Tent which he had pitched among Men it was on account of such Pollutions that God threatned Israel afterwards to destroy that House which was called by his Name and commands them Go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh Jer. 7.12 14. where I set my Name at the first and see what I did to it for the Wickedness of my People Israel therefore will I do unto this place which is called by my Name wherein ye trust as I did to Shiloh i. e. I will make it a desolation for such was Shiloh made on the same reason This was then the case of the Holy of Holies and it stood in need of a formal Sanctification in the ceremonial way for the Wickedness of those who were concern'd about it now this Expiation of the Holy place had no relation to the Remission of Mens Sins as the devoting and killing and burning the Sacrifice had but the great Sacrifice there offered by the High-priest was that of Prayer and Supplication shadowed out in that Levit. 16.12 13. That he was to take with him into the most Holy place a Censer full of burning Coals of fire from off the Altar of the Lord and his hands full of sweet Incense beaten small and to put the Incense upon the fire before the Lord that the cloud of Incense might cover the Mercy-seat that was upon the Testimony that he might not die by all this signifying that Sinners appearing even before the Seat of Mercy without offering an Atonement to Heaven in the most humble and solemn Devotions can expect nothing but Ruines and Destruction and as we rationally conclude that the Priests were not wont to offer Sacrifices without Prayers in general so we conclude that even this Symbolical Ceremony was not perform'd without some Prayers and Ejaculations at least God's Priests being appointed under the Mosaic Law too not only to offer Sacrifices of several kinds but to offer up Prayers and Praises to God in the name of that People over whom they presided in Religious matters But now though we commonly look upon the Holy of Holies whether in the Tabernacle or in the Temple as an Emblem of Heaven being guided by the Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrews yet we know that Heaven can be the Receptacle of nothing defil'd or impure therefore it can contract no Impurity from any thing in it or about it therefore our Saviour's Sacrifice was compleat in dying on the Cross for our Sins Heb. 9.12 but by his own Blood he entered into the most Holy that is into Heaven in his humane Nature or that Body in which he had suffered on Earth his free offering himself and freely sacrificing himself he being our Priest and Sacrifice
both at the same time opened him that entrance into Heaven but there as our great and never-dying High-priest he makes Intercession for us to his Father he presents to his Father's view those mighty Sufferings he had undergone on our Account which serving as a Memorial of that eternal Determination of the Deity for Man's Redemption has the same and greater Efficacy on our behalf than a Plea from divine Truth and Justice it self he being invested with that Almighty Power of bestowing those Blessings he has purchas'd for us and the Demonstrations of his Merits his Will and his Goodness being all one Act. It 's true the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us Heb. 9.7 that the High-priest went not into the Holy place without Blood which he offered for himself and for the Errors of the people but how that was we have explained before since that Blood was made use of for purifying even the Holiest Place render'd impure by the Sins of the High-priest himself and by the Errors of the People Perhaps it would not be amiss to take some notice of those different Expiations of Sins in the Old and in the New Testament which the Socinians in their discourses concerning Christ's Priesthood tell us of i. e. That Legal Sacrifices were only appointed for such Crimes as were committed by Imprudence or Infirmity greater Offenders not being directed to make use of any but were doom'd to die for their Crimes whereas as they say the greatest of Sins provided Men persevere not in them but are truly penitent are expiated by the Sacrifice of Christ and this they prove from that of St. Paul Be it known unto you Act. 13.38 39. that through Christ is preach'd unto you the forgiveness of Sins and by him all that believe are justify'd from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses But here we are to consider that the Political as well as the Religious Laws of the Israelites being given at one time by Almighty God they are so blended together and made Dependents on one another that where an ordinary Sacrifice could not there the Death of the Offender himself might satisfie for the Crime committed A Sacrifice offer'd though by its Institution it were expiatory yet if the Sinner however ignorant or weak persisted in his Sin or approach'd the Altar of God without true Humility and Repentance for the Sin committed his Sin could not be pardoned on account of the Sacrifice offer'd but if such a Sinner did truly repent and amend his Errors his Offering was then accepted and not only temporary but eternal Judgments diverted from him for such Sacrifices typified the Sacrifice of Christ which was powerful to save us from both Worldly Punishments and the Damnation of Hell and as we have before observed the Virtue of those Sacrifices consisted wholly in that relation the Types had to their Antitype Now where the Jewish political Laws reach'd the Life of the Delinquent and took his Blood there it would have been an Impertinence to offer the Blood of other Creatures for him but it follows not but that the same Conditions of hearty Repentance and true Resolutions of amendment might procure the Offender's pardon from God though he suffered under the Rigour of the Sanguinary Laws and the daily Sacrifices were of some import with respect to such Criminals and the Blood of Christ though to be shed afterwards was available to the Salvation of such so a Terrour was struck upon Others by the Delinquent's outward Sufferings and Encouragement was given to the greatest Sinners to repent by the reasonable Hopes of their being pardoned by Heaven who yet were to suffer upon Earth And so we find among Christians in Christian Governments the Laws take notice of and animadvert upon notorious Sins some are punished by lighter Penalties some by Death it self yet the Prayers and Intercessions of the Church offer'd to God in the name of Christ may be and frequently are effectual to the Eternal Salvation of such Persons so justly suffering for their Crimes but for the Text alledged the Import of it is this That by the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ we are really and effectually freed from all Sins whereas the Ceremonies of the Law had no such intrinsic purging Power of themselves all their Validity depending wholly and onely on their Relation to this All sufficient Sacrifice of the Son of God But we are taught by these Innovators that this Sacrifice was not compleat till our Saviour enter'd Heaven Cat. Raco §. 7. p. 173. nor he possest of his High-Priesthood till that time yet at the same time they own Christ was a Priest when hanging on the Cross if he were a Priest he must be our High-priest for we meet with no Gradations in that Office of his in Scripture nor that by executing the Office of an inferiour Priest very well he purchas'd a title to an higher Dignity If he were an High-priest he was compleatly so else he was and he was not the High-priest at the same time but the Socinian Error in this matter lies in not distinguishing rightly of the Priests Offices the Apostle teaches us Heb. 5.1 2. That an High-priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God Now things pertaining to God are not only external Gifts and Sacrifices but those that are internal and Spritual too such as are Prayers and Supplications with respect to which it 's necessary an High-priest should have compassion on the Ignorant and on them who are out of the way for that he himself also is compassed with Infirmities a Sense of his own Wants is apt in any Man to raise a sympathizing Tenderness for others so that when he begs of God Pardon for his own Sins he may at the same time implore Divine Mercy for the Sins of others now the High-priest is compleatly such in doing both or either of these so upon the Cross our Saviour was our High-priest and his external expiatory Sacrifice was compleatly offered in Heaven interceding for us with his Father he there presents that Sacrifice shadow'd to us by what we commonly understand to be the meaning of Prayers and Supplications i. e. Christ in Heaven intercedes as powerfully and effectually for us as if he really did pray and supplicate as present on our behalf but that he should literally do so is unnecessary and not to be understood by his Intercession for us for he 's an Intercessor not only who prays and supplicates immediately for another or on his behalf but He 's one who by some extraordinary Action pleasing to him with whom he intercedes purchases a Power of doing that thing or shewing that Kindness to his Friends at all times by himself which without that purchace he must make continual and repeated Intreaties for such a Power has our Lord purchased for himself by offering himself a Satisfaction for the World's Sins in his Sufferings compleated