oeT71zcf 2. Inch a thing, and accepting thereof, makes that we are thus purged and made clean. But; 2dly, Beide the excellency of the Sacrifice, we ave the excellency of the Prieft that offered it. O what pertinent and powerful reafoning doth the apoflle ufe, Web. 7. to prove the excellency and preheminency of Je, fus Chrift our great high Prieft above and beyond all the Levitical priefts ! Thefe priefts were temporal, he is e- ternal ; they were but fervants, he is the Son ; they were confecrated without an oath, he with an oath, ac- cording to the order of Melch. ifedec ; They offered many facrifices and often, he offered but one facrifice, and but once, as it is, v. 27. of that 7th Chapter, and Chap. 9. 28. and Chap. 10. 12, 14. Whereby he bath for ever perfeeled them that are fanEtified : And (faith he) fuch a high Prieft became us, who is holy, harmlefs, undefiled, feparate from ¡inners, and made higher than the heavens. idly, There is the excellency of the Altar on which the Sacrifice was offered up ; and the Altar is (as the Lord lays) that which fanétifies the Sacrifice. This was the Godhead of our bleffed Lord Jefus, He, through the eternal Spirit, of- fered up himfelf Tho', as a man, he had a beginning,yet, as God, he had no beginning ; and through the Godhead he offered up his human nature, which had its worth and efficacy from the divine nature, to which it was united in his bleffed perfon. In thefe three, the worth, value, and tranfcendent excellency of this Sacrifice is held out ; the Sacrifice itfelf is Chrift, as Man offered up both in his body and foul ; the Altar on which it is offered, which makes the Sacrifice favour fo very fweetly to God, to be of fuch value and worth, and to be fo highly acceptable, is the eternal Spirit, the Godhead of the fecond Perlon of the glorious, dreadful and adorable Trinity There- fore, A is 20. 2.8. God is Paid to purchafe, or redeem, the Church with his own blood ; not with f leer or gold, or any corruptible things as Peter Pays ; and the Prieft is Chrift, God and Man in one Perfon e He is the Sacrifice in refpeet ry'of his human nature, the Altar in refpe& of his divine nature, giving value and vertue to the human nature For,tho' his human nature was in itfelf unfpotted, yet, bey. ng as fuch a finite creature, the divine nature to which 1*
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