DISC. v.3 THE ATONEMENT OF CHRIST MANIFESTED, 195 cleanse them from sinful defilements : And the Lord Jesus Christ at last appeared, or was set forth hereby, as the great deliverer from the wrath of God, and as typified under all these figures and shadows. Heb. x. 1 -12. The law having a shadow of good things to come, but not the very image of the things, those sacri- fices were all imperfect as to the grand design ; for they could not cleanse the consciences amen from guilt be- fore God Het.. X. 1, 2. In this respect Christ alone was the true Sacrifice ; Heb. ix. 11, 12. : And this was the reason of shedding of the blood of beasts according to the law : Heb. ix: 14, l 5, 22. For there was no remission without blood. The blood of Christ by virtue of his union with the true God, had in- finite and immortal value in it. Christ, the Lamb of God, offered himself without spot unto God, to purge our consciences from ,dead works, (or from works that deserve death) that we might serve the living and true God with acceptance : Thus Israel, considered as a national church, derived this advantage from our Lord Jesus Christ. And it was with,this view that the national atonement, or the bullock that was offered every year for the sins of the whole nation ? Lev; xvi. and xvii chapters, attained its proper effect, and delivered the whole nation from national guilt, and that destruction which the justice of Godmight have brought upon it for sin. 5. It was in the view of this great sacrifice, slain from the foundation of the world, that God pardoned the personal guilt of men, and forgave thousands of sins tinder the Old Testament, and spared the guilty, each of them in their day and season, and took away the, guilt of their iniquities. So David was forgiven his adultery and his murder, crimes of the deepest dye for which David knew of no sacrifice ; Ps. 16. and for which no man could be pardoned or justified by any ceremonies in the Jaw of Moses. And therefore the apostle says ; Jets xiii. 38, 39. 'By this man, even Jesus Christ, there was forgiveness appointed for those sins for which no sacri- fices were ordered by the law of Moses, nor any sacri- fices were offered, or accepted, according to the levitical law. Rom. iii. 24, '25 God has set him forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood ; to declare his u2
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