534 THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. And as a much meaner person than the Son of God, viz. a prophet or an apostle, might have been sent from heaven to teach all the doctrines which Christ taught, and to become a martyr for them; so in fact the apostles and a thòusand martyrs in the primitive times did teach the same doctrines, did bear witness to the same truths, and did actually die in confirmation of them : They suffered deaths full of barbarity and anguish in vindication of the same gospel, they sealed the same covenant of grace with theirblood : And yet it is never said concerning any of them, that they " redeemed us with their blood," that " they were made a curse for us, or a sin-offering to reconcile us to God ;" They are never said " to make atonement for our sins," nor "-to give their lives as a ransom for us :" They never are represented as " bear, ing our sins on their own body on the tree," though several of them were crucifiedas well as Christ; nor are we ever said to " be washed from our sins in their blood." These are expres, sions far above the dignity of their sufferings, and such as belong only to the blessed Jesus : It would be a sort of blasphemy against the Son of God toe speak thus concerning the apostles and martyrs. And yet why might not these expressions be as well applied to the apostles and the primitive martyrs, especially such as were inspired of God to teach the same doctrines, and appointed to die in vindication of them, if their sufferings were designed for the same purpose, and meant the same thing as the sufferings of the Son of God? ? Att this rate we might have a hundred Saviours and Redeemers, a hundred sacrifices for sin, and we might wash away our iniquities in the blood of a hundred martyrs. Whereas, alas ! the highest and best of them who f0 stand before the throne of God in white garments ;" Rev. vii. 14. they'all, " washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb,", though they themselves came out of great tribulations, laid down their own lives as witnesses to the same gospel, and set the seal of their blood to the truth of the same promises. Surely the blessed Jesus, our only Redeemer, died to accomplish more sublime purposes than ever they could pretend to ; he laid down his life to procure and obtain that par- don and that salvation both for them and for us, which no meaner persons could ever obtain by a thousand lives, or the blood of ten thousand Martyrdoms. Perhaps Agrippa will tell me, that Christ himself express- ly astrures Pilate ; John xviii. 87. " To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear wit- ness to the truth ;" and therefore it is evident from his own words . that his prophetic office was the very design of his incarnation. But I hope Agrippa will allow this answer, viz. that Christ came into the world for several ends, of which-this was but one, " to bear witness to the truth ; And he himselfas expressly tells his
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