556 THE sACRIiICE OF CHRIST. Jewish tropes and figures be capable of doing? What doe. trine is there that they cannot evaporate and destroy 1 In short,., if we accustom ourselves to such interpretations of scripture as Agrippa makes use of, it will gradually lead us into sucha gross abuse of words and phrases, that we may bring our consciences and our lips frequently to speak one thing and mean another : And if Christ and his apostles mean no more when they preach the gospel to the Jews or Gentiles in all these sacrificial phrases than what Agrippa pretends, I fear men will be tempted to set up for a defence of loose and large equivocation upon the foot of tropes and figures, and make Christ andhis apostles their pat- tern and their example. And that 1 may multiply no more particulars on this awful and displeasing subject, I add, inthe last place, that this unhappy doctrine brings even the salvation of our souls into question and danger. I would not dare pronounce damnable heresy or des- truction where Christ or his apostles have - not pronounced it and yet I Would notventure to approachwithin the sweepof such a sentence. I should be dreadfully afraid of standing under the terror and vengeance of that. text ; Heb. -x. 26, 27. If we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful lookingfor of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversary. The case here described seems to be this : The sacred writer had beendiscoursingin the beginning of thisepistle about the dignity of the person of our blessedLord, and had introduced him in the following chapters into his glorious office of a high -priest : But, in the ninth and tenth chapters, he de- scribes very particularly his becoming a sacrifice for the sins of nnen, and shewshow he made atonement for our moral transgres- sions in the sight of God as the Lord of conscience, even as the blood of bulls and goats under the Jewish, law made atonement for legal defilements or ceremonial faults before God as king of their nation, or as visible head of their church. This is called, lieb. ix. 13. Sanctifying the unclean to the purifying of the flesh ; and he then argues, " How much more, shall the blood of Christ, Who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, or works deserving death, that you may serve the living God." And to make it further appear that this is not a mere matter of speculation or opinion, he subjoins a further practical use of it in the tenth chapter, when he had finished this doctrine in the eighteenth verse, he shears us in the succeeding verses what use we are to make of it ; and that is to enter into the holiest, or address the God of heavenwith confidence -by the bloodof Jesus, and drawnear to him infull assuranceoffaith having our hearts as it were sprinkled with his blood of atonement, and delivered
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