1134 THE ATONEMENT 9F MUST MANIFESTED. the blood of Jesus, as is elsewhere said concerning the blood of Abel, has a voice in it, and pleads for ever for better things than the blood of Abel did; lieb. xii. 24. Glory be to God for pro- viding this everlasting sacrifice, and for revealing such a vision in the midst of the throne, for our constant contemplation. 4. This vision appears on the throne as an everlasting en- couragement for the vilest and most guilty sinnersof all ages to trust in the sacrificeof the Lamb that was slaiq. When we re- member the scarlet and crimson sins of David, Solomon, and Manasseh, and of the Corinthians, which are reckoned up ; 1 Cor. vi. 10, 11. the saintson earth may say, and such were we, drenched all over anddefiled with iniquities, whose evil thoughts, evil works, and evil actions, are without bounds and without number,' but they are all washed away in this divine laver, with all the infinite evil and guilt of them, against the Majesty and the grace of God; for the virtue and the dignity of the united godhead, which dwells in the man Christ Jesus, runs through the whole of his sacrifice, and makes it of infinite and everlasting value ; whereby sins of all manner of aggravations are removed from those that believe in Jesus ; 1 John i. 7. Mat. xii. 31. No manner of crimes are sufficient to create despair, where this atonement is provided. 5. It may also be designed as an encouraging memorial to relieve old sinners under the guilt of sins, oflong continuance, and laden with many aggravations ; for as the yearly sacrifice of atonement, whose blood the high-priest carried into the holy place, and appeared there before God, cancelledthe guilt of all the nation for all the days of that year : so Christ, being entered into the hob,' place made without hands, and dwelling there for ever, with his own blood answers for the sins of those that believe in him, which they have been all their lives committing against God, if they are but deeply convinced of their long and repeated iniquities, and with humble faith fly to Jesus, the hope that is set before them. Look up, therefore, Iookup, yehumble penitents, thathave been guilty ofmany andrepeated crimes, and are almost drowned in tears of repentance, and are ready to die under despair, be- cause of your aggravated iniquities, look unto thisblessed.emblem on high, the Lamb, as it had been slain : This sacrifice gives foundation for hope, not only that'we shall be cleansed from all our secret faults, whichare more thanwe can think, or reckon up, but even from presumptuous sins, whichare of the deepest dye Mark iii. 28. All manner of sins and blasphemies, says our Saviour, shall be forgiven unto men. Look up to this blessed emblem, and you shall find this salvation complete and per- fect, and your consciences pacified, under the agonies of your own, guilty reflections, through the blood of Jesus, who died.
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