SECTION 11. 535 disciples, that there is another end also to which he came, and it would have been to very little purpose to have told Pilate of that, Mat. xx. 28. " The Son of man came to give his life a ransom for many ;" and John x. 10. " I am come that the sheep might have life ;" and in verse 11 he informs us by what means he procures this life for his sheep, viz. " I am the good shepherd who givethhis life for the sheep;" and verse18. who ".received commandment from the Father to lay down his life asid take it again." St.. Paul teaches the Jews the same doctrine, and assigns the same end for Christ's incarnation ; lieb. ü. 14. " Be- cause the children were partakersof flesh andblood, Christ him- self took part of the same, that through his own death be might destroy the devil and bis works; in Heb. x. 5-10. because the Jewish sacrifices and offerings of beasts could not take away sin, " Christ had a body prepared for him, that through the offering of this body of Jesus once for all, we might be perfected by his own sacrifice." And Peter assures us; 1 Pet. i. 19, 20. that " we are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, who was fore - ordained from the foundationof the world,. but was manifest in these last times." . Thus it appears that the great end for which Christ came, was to obtain pardon of sinby dying for,us. Let me add to this, that not only in the decree of ,God, but in the very first promise given to man .after his fall, Christ is re- presented as one appointed to suffer ; Gen. iii. 15. The " ser- pent was to bruise his heel." In the first and most significant figures óf him by sacrifices, his death andblood were prefigur- ed : -In the various promises of the Messiah, especially by Isaiah and Daniel, he is held forth as a Saviour from sin, by his being cut of£, by his suffering and dying, and being madea sin-offering. Are not all these things sufficient to teach. Agrippa, that our blessed Lord was not merely put to death by the occasional rage of the wiekeçl Jews against him as a teacher of holiness, and a reformer of mankind, as he supposes, but that he was originally designed and appointed to die a sacrifice for sin? It is plain, that he was early foretold and prefigured in the promises and types and propheciesunder this character of a suffering Saviour that he Caine into our world for this end, and that he was at last delivered, pr given tip into the hands of his crucifiera, " by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, for this pur- pose :" Acts ii. 23. And as such he is described and preached by himself and his apostles. Paulinus was going on with -his queries, whenone in the company, 1 thinkit was Cavenor, interrupted him thus : I have lately heard, Sir, that some of the friends and followers of Agrippa have been made sensible, that " a mere martyrdom to bear witness to the truthof thegospel," is not sufficient to answer
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