III. The Third thing, In what Manner was the vail rent? All I fay on this head, fhall be in allusion fhort, ly to the rending of the vail of the temple here: which we fee, was in a wonderful manner ufhered in with a Behold. 1. Behold, it was RENT; not only drawn afide, but rent. The curtain was not only drawn afide, but torn to pieces, as if God had been difpleafed at the vail of partition betwixt him and us; angry at the vail of feparation, and enraged that there thould have been any vail to intercept between him and us. God's heart was set upon a reconciliation betwixt him and us, and therefore his hand tears the curtain that was hanging up betwixt him and us; gave it fuch a rent, as it might never be whole again; all the devils in hell cannot few up the rent, fo as to disappoint God's defign of bringing his people into union and communion with him. 2. Behold, the vail of the temple was not only rent, but rent in TWAIN: the vail that was one, was made two, that God and man, who were two, might be made one. It was not half rent, but wholly rent; rent in twain, a full and complete rent; fhewing, that Chrift, by his death, would not be a half Saviour, but a complete Saviour, and the Author of a full and complete falvation; taking entirely out of the way whatever feparated betwixt God and us, not leaving fo much as a stitch of the curtain to hold the two fides of the vail together; no, the vail was rent in twain. And not only fo, but, 3. Behold the vail was rent FROM THE TOP to THE BOTTOM: The vail was rent from the Top, the higheft thing that feparated betwixt God and us was rent in twain; we could never have reached up to the top of the vail; yea, the hands and arms of all the men on earth, and angels in heaven, were too fhort to reach to the top of the infinite justice and holinefs of God, that interpofed betwixt him and us: the top of this vail, this wall of partition, was higher than heaven; what could. we or any other creature do for rending it from the top? But Chrift put up his hand, as it were, to the top of the vail, and rent it from the top. The rent begins at the top, but it does not ftop here: For, 4. The vail is alfo rent to the BOTTOM: the bottom of this vail, that did feparate betwixt God and us, did reach as deep as the bottom of hell: who could defcend to hell for us to rend the vail to the bottom? According to the lamentation of one Joannes Seneca upon his death-bed, We have here, (fays he) fome that will go to the quire for us, fome that will play for us, fome that will fay Mafs for us, fome that will pray for us; but where is there one that will go to hell for us? But, O happy believer, Chrift is one that hath gone to hell for you, that he might quench all the flames of hell with his blood, and conquer all the powers of hell that were the way betwixt you and heaven. He defcended to hell, in a manner, that he might rend. the bottom of the vail. But there is yet more here, he not only rends the vail at the top and at the bottom, but, in 5. From the top to the bottom ALL is rent; both the top and the bottom, and all that is betwixt the top and the bottom, all the impediments betwixt heaven and hell are removed. Though heaven be purchased, and hell vanquished, yet there might be femething in the earth, fomething in the world, betwixt heaven and hell that might obftruct the paffage to the holieft; well, but the rent is from the top to the bottom all that comes betwixt the top and the bottom is reat as well as both ends; fo that there is accefs from the lowest part of mifery to the higheft happiness, a long rent, in a manner, from the top of heaven to the bottom of hell. We fell as low as hell by fin, but Chrift by his death hath made an open way from hell to heaven; for, "Behold, the vail was rent in twain from the top to the bottom." IV. The Fourth thing, For what END was the vail rent? I fhall tell you only thefe two ends of it. 1. That Chrift might enter into the holieft as our High-prieft for us. us. 2. That we might enter in alfo after him and thro? him. 1. I fay, the vail of the temple was rent, that Christ our glorious High-prieft might enter into the holy of holies in our name, I told you, that the vail of the temple was that which parted betwixt the holy place and the most holy, and which kept off people from drawing near to the molt holy place. The vail was for concealment; and none might enter within the vail but the highprieft, and he was not to enter in without blood, the blood of the facrifice along with him, as you fee, Heb. ix. 3.7. Now, the moft holy place was a type of hea ven; fo our Lord Jefus Chrift having fhed his own blood entered within the vail into heaven, the true holy of holies, carrying in with him the blood of his own facrifice, Heb. ix. 12. Not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place." Not that Chrift did carry into heaven his own fubftantial blood in his hand; we are not to understand it fo carnally, but that, in a fpiritual fenfe, and virtually, he did fo. Under the law, the day of atonement was upon that day when the high-prieft went into the holy of holies, Lev, xvi. 30.; on that day the people were pardoned all their fins, and cleanfed from all their tranf greffions: when the high-prieft had been within the vail in the holy of halies, then was the atonement actually made: though the blood was fhed without the camp, yet the atonement was not made till it was brought into the holy place, Lev. xvi. 14, 15. What did this typify, but that our atonement was perfectly made upon Chrift's going into the holy of holies, namely heaven? See Heb. ix. 24. "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 prefence of God for us." Perhaps you have thought hitherto that the work of our redemption was perfectly completed on the crois, fo as there was no more to be done; but know, it was not enough for the facrifice to be killed without the camp, but the blood must be carried into the holy of holies; all was not done till that was done. Indeed when Chrift died, the facrifice was fain, the blood was shed; there there was no more facrifice to fucceed, all was finished in that refpect; but yet all was not done until the true vail being rent as well as the typical; the blood of Chrift was carried into the holy place within the vail, that is, into heaven, Though Chrift did not perfonally afcend to heaven, as I faid in the explication, till above forty days after, yet he immediately acquired a right to enter, and had a virtual admiffion; fo that his entrance began in his death; and when he afcended into heaven he completed and perfected that in his own perfon, in the true holy of holies; heaven itfelf, which the highpriest did typically in the figurative holy of holies, which was of old under the law in the earth; and there hath Chrift, in the power and virtue of his blood, made atonement and as the high-priest did under the law, he carried in with him all the names of all the tribes of Ifrael on his breaft; and by the power of this blood of the facrifice made a full atonement. But then, 2. Another end of rending the vail was, not only that he might make a way for himfelf, as our Priest, into the most holy place, but that he might make a way for us in him; that we might enter in alfo, and have accefs to God thro' him; access to heaven thro' him. See therefore how the believer is faid to follow in after Christ into the holieft within the vail, Heb. vi. 19, 20. They, are faid to flee for refuge to the hope fet before them, "Which hope we have as an anchor of the foul, both fure and ftedfaft, entering into that within the vail, whi ther the Forerunner is for us entered, even Jefus, made an High-prieft for ever after the order of Melchifedec. Heb. x. 19, 20. We have boldnefs to enter into the holieft by the blood of Jefus, by a new and living way, which he hath confecrated for us through the vail, that is to fay, his flefh." Where our way to heaven, or to the holieft, is faid to be thro' the blood of Chrift; or, which is all one, thro' his flesh offered as a propitiatory facrifice; by which, as by the rent vail, we have boldnefs to enter. Now, this entrance into the holieft, or accefs to God that we have in Chrift, is two-fold, either inchoative here, or confummate hereafter. (1.) There is an initial, inchoative, or begun entrance that that we have into the holiest in time. In the most holy place was the golden altar, and fymbols of God's pref ence and glorious majefty, and accefs thereto was typical of our accefs to God and heaven; which accefs we have now with boldnefs even in time, through the rent vail by which our High-prieft hath entered into the holy place, Heb. iv. 14. 16. Seeing then that we have a great High-prieft that is paffed into the heavens, Jefus the Son of God, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace." And fo it is inferred from this fame doctrine, Heb. x. 22. "Let us draw near with a true heart, in full affurance of faith." Queft. What is that nearness to God, and accefs to him, that a man hath in time, when he is brought within the vail? Anfw. In a word, It lies not only in the firft application of grace, and change of the man's ftate, when, in Chrift Jefus, he that was afar off, is made nigh by the blood of Christ: for, whenever the virtue of that blood comes upon us, by the Spirit of Chrift, God comes near to us, and we are brought near to God; but there is ftill more and more nearness enjoyed by his people. Exerci fed Chrif tians are able to give a diftinct account of their having this nearness at fome times, and of their want of it at other times. He may be fufpected indeed for an hypocrite that hath no changes, Pfal. Iv. 19.; for the true Chriftian's fky is never long clear and without clouds: change of weather, and change of way, is ufually found by travellers to heaven. Every believer indeed hath ftill the Spirit of Chrift dwelling in him; " For, If any man have not the Spirit of Chrift, he is none of his." But there are fome fingular outpourings of the Spirit promised and beftowed, and well known by all believers, and they are precious enjoyments. This Spirit the world. cannot receive, because it fees him not, neither knows him, fays Christ; "But you know him, for he dwells with you, and fhall be in you," John xiv. 17.-This accefs to God within the vail, is fometimes experienced in prayer; yea, most frequently in that exercife is the light of God's countenance lifted up, and the foul made to fay, "I love the Lord, because he hath heard the voice of my fupplication." Do not ye, believers, know this, that fome |