SERMON XXXt:. 499 to put Mm to grief, and to snake his soul an oferingfor sin. By the knowle ge of him shall he justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. How exceeding plain and strong is this language to support my doctrine, and how exceedinghard to construe it to any other sense ! It may not be amiss to subjoin the witnessof John the Bap- tist, who was more than a prophet, and the very fore-runner of the Messiah ;- John i. 26. Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sie of the world. Now a Lamb takes away sin in no other way than by dying as a sacrifice. Thus our blessed Re- deemer who, once in the end of the world, appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, as a great High priest, was, as it were, ushered into his officeby a long train of types and prophe- cies : All these went before him, that when his great sacrifice was offered, it might not seem a strange thing, but might be more easily received by all the world, who stood in so much need of him, and to whom the tradition of sacrifices had been conveyed from Noah ; and especially by the Jews, who had so much notice of him before, by more express revelations beyond what the heathens could learn by their broken traditionsof sacrifice. V. Our Saviour himself, among the rest of his ministrati- ons as a prophet, taught us the doctrineof atonement for sin by his death, and that in these threeways : 1. He did speak of it, though but sparingly, in plain And express language to his own disciples in private. Mat. xx. 28. The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life á ransomfor many: And this he spoke a little after he had foretold his sufferings, his crucifixion, his death, and his risingagain the third day. 2. He preached this doctrine publicly to themultitude in pa, rables and figures of speech ; John vi. 51. The bread that Iwill give is my flesh, which I willgive for the life of the world. Ex- cept ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye hove no life in you: Which can signify nothing but his dying as a propitiation, for sin, that we might live by our feeding upon his sacrifice, or partaking the benefit of it. Johnxii. 24. The hour is come that the Son of man must be glorified. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone : but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Verse 32. IfI be lifted upfrom the earth, Iwill draw all men unto me : This he said, signfyin,a what death he shoulddie. His being lifted up on the cross should draw many souls to higi as their way to the favour of God. Once lie spoke it in a little plainer language, in public ; John x. 11. where he represents himself as the good Shepherd, who lays down his life for his-sheep. 2. He taught the same doctrine both in types or- emblems,
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