SECTION iÍ. 613 tightéoùs, that by his own blood he obtained eternal redemption for us; that the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, shouldpurge our comciences from dead works, that is, from works deserving death ; and that Christ appeared in the endof the world, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself ? And do St. Peter and St. John, whom I suppose Agrippa acknowledges to be inspired writers, intend nothingmore than the same plain doctrines and dictates of natural reason, when they teach the great truths of the gospel in the same strange language, when they tell us that " Christ suffered, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God ;" 1 Pet. iii. 18. " that he bare our sins in his own body on the tree ;" 1 Pet. ii. 24. " that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin ;" 1 John i. 7. " that he is a propitiation for our sins ;" 1 John ii. 2. " that he hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood ;" Rev. i. 5. and that " by his blood he hath redeemed us to God ;" chapter v. 9. And did ourblessed Lord himself de- sign nothing but to restore the religionof nature, 'when he told the Jews, that " the good Shepherd laid down his life for the sheep ;" John x. 11. that " the Son of man came to give his life a ransom for many ;" Mat. xx. 28. that " they must eat his flesh and drink his blood if they would have eternal life ;" John vi. 53-58. for "his flesh was that bread which he gave for the life of the world, and his blood is drank indeed: that his body was broken and his blood shed for the remission of their sins ;" Mat. xxvi. 28. 1 Cor. xi. 24. Did ever men teach the plain dictates of reason or the law of nature concerningour duty to God andone another, and our hopes of his acceptance, in suchdark and distant language ? And could they ever desire or expect their hearers shouldunderstand them, and shouldby this preaching be taught to build their hopes of eternal happiness upon the belief and practice of natural religion ? Aresuch per- sons as these the fittest to make divine messengers to truth and duty of an ignorant world, and to guard them against all super- stitious fancies and erroneous conceits about divine things ? I suppose, or may guess there are many things will be said by seine of the friends ofAgrippa to reconcile the readers of the New Testament to his absurd and perverted sense of it. As First, That when our Saviour tells the Jews ; John vi. 54. that they " must eat his flesh and drink his blood if they would have eternal life," he only imitates the manner of the oriental nations, and the style of the Jewish writers, while his design is merely to invite them to receive his doctrine and becomehis dis- ciples; for it was their ancient custom to represent wisdom and knowledge, as the food of the soul; Prov. ix. 5. " Wisdom crieth in the streets, come, eat of my bread and drink of the Pine which I have mingled. Philo the Jewoften speaks ofpru- VoL. iv. K x
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