XVII.

among other things, "in divers outward DISC. "washings and cleanfings." But may it not be here asked, as in another instance, "Doth God take care for these? Or faith

he it not for our fake?" Hath he not enjoined fuch external rites, for the fake of conveying by them to future ages and generations, no less than to those then present, fome truths of universal use and importance?

Of one thing we are all well affured. That alone which renders man and the creation otherwife than acceptable in the fight of their Maker, is fin. That alone which can reinftate them in his favour, is the redemption by Chrift. By means of the former we are affirmed to have become

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corrupted, polluted, defiled, unclean;" by the inftrumentality of the latter we are faid to be "purged, purified, washed, cleanfed" terms all borrowed from the legal ceremonies, at once explaining them, and being explained by them.

DISC.

XVII.

Could the fhadow of a doubt remain upon this head, it must be difperfed by that full, direct, exprefs declaration, which the apostle has made, in the ixth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews; perfons, who, if their education had been what it ought to have been, would have known these things, and not needed that any man fhould teach them.

"The first tabernacle was a figure for "the time then present, in which were of"fered both gifts and facrifices, that could "not make him that did the service per

fect, as pertaining to the conscience; "which stood only in meats, and drinks, "and divers washings, and carnal ordi"nances, impofed on them till the time of "reformation. But Chrift being come, an "high priest of good things to come, by a "greater and more perfect tabernacle, not "made with hands, that is to say, not of "this building; neither by the blood of

goats and calves, but by his own blood, " he entered in once into the holy place,

XVII.

having obtained eternal redemption for DISC. "us. For if the blood of bulls, and of goats, and the afhes of an heifer fprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall "the blood of Chrift, who, through the "eternal Spirit, offered himself without

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spot to God, purge your conscience from

"dead works, to ferve the living God? "Almost all things are by the law purged " with blood, and without shedding of blood "there is no remiffion. It was therefore

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neceffary that the patterns of things in "the heavens fhould be purified with "these; but the heavenly things themselves "with better facrifices than these. For "Chrift is not entered into the holy places "made with hands, which are the figures "of the true; but into heaven itself, now "to appear in the presence of God for us,"

It seems impoffible, that, by any paraphrase, or commentary, thefe words can be rendered plainer than they are in them

felves.

DISC.

To apply, therefore, this general reasonXVII. ing of the Apostle to the ceremony of

the day, the purification of women after childbirth, under the law; if it be asked, what fuch ceremony was intended to import? can a better anfwer be given to the question, than that which is given by the ftandard writer on the feftivals of our church?

"It imports, that, fince Adam's fall, "we are conceived in fin; that our birth "is impure; that we derive from our pa"rents an hereditary ftain, whereby we are "naturally unclean, and children of wrath; "and to fhew the contagion thereof, not only the child was circumcifed, but the "mother also was cleanfed by a facrifice " for fin."

But here, the difficulty may be thought rather increased, than diminished ; fince nothing of this kind could hold good refpecting the bleffed virgin, and "that holy

thing which was born of her," and justly

called,

called, "The Son of God." The morning DISC. of his birth was indeed "a morning with- XV11. "out clouds." No spot then fullied the face of heaven. Why, therefore, must fuch a mother, and fuch a fon, pay obedience to the law? The fon paid obedience, as when he submitted to be circumcifed, and to be baptised, not that he had any fin to be put off, or washed away, but because, being "made of a woman, and "made under the law," it became him to obey the law, or, as he expressed it to John, who proposed the question at his baptism, "to fulfil all righteousness." In himself he was not a finner; but in our ftead, he was content to appear as fuch. The holy virgin placed herself, upon this occafion, on a level with other women, when she was fo much above them, to exhibit a pattern of humility and obedience, of gratitude and devotion, of regard and reverence for the ordinances of God, which no one is privileged to neglect or flight, but which all should attend, however they may fancy themselves not to need, or not Bb-4=

to