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To Two Things fhould be done, in order to a juft Difcourfe upon this Point.

Firft, To give an Account, how the Death of Chrift was a Means for the putting away of Sin, in the first Senfe I gave, that is, the procuring the Pardon of it.

Secondly, How it was a Means of putting it away in the other Senfe, that is, the detroying or mortifying it in us.

But thefe Things being foreign to our prefent Business, and more proper for the Argument of a Good Friday Sermon; I fhall fay no more of them, but proceed to my last Point.

V. The Fifth and laft Thing obfervable from the Text, is the Difference of Chrift's Sacrifice, whereby he put away Sin, from the Mofaical ones Which Difference, fo far as it is here taken notice of, confifts in this; That the Legal Sacrifices, for the Expiation of Sin, were daily offered; but Chrift offered the Sacrifice of bimfelf, but once, Once in the End of the World, &c. P

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The Apoftle, in this Chapter, is difcourfing of the Difference between the Law and the Gofpel. And as to that Point, he infifts much on the Difference of their Sacrifices. The Chriftians that owned the Gospel, had but one Sacrifice, the Sacrifice of Chrift once offered; whereas thofe that were under the Law, were forced to have many. Nay, even the moft folemn Sacrifice that God had appointed, for the Expiation of their Sins, was repeated once a Year, as the Apoftle tells us, in the Verfe before my Text. But now the Z 2 Sacrifice

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Sacrifice of Chrift, which he puts by way of Oppofition to theirs, that was but once offered, and was never to be repeated. This is the Point with which he concludes this Chapter: Two Verfes after my Text, Chrift, faith he, was once offered, to bear the Sins of many, and unto them that look for him, fhall be appear the Second Time unto Salvation.

This is the Apostle's Doctrine, and I infift on it now, because all thofe that defign, on this Day, to receive the Holy Sacrament, are concerned in it.

Let us from hence take notice, that in this Service of the Holy Communion, we are not to pretend to offer Chrift as a Sacrifice to his Father: His Sacrifice was but once to be offered, and that was done Seventeen Hundred Years ago; and in the Virtue of that Sacrifice once offered, all faithful Chriftians, and fincere Penitents, fhall receive Remiffion of Sins, and all other Benefits of his Paffion. But for us to think of offering Chrift again as a Sacrifice, is in effect to put ourselves into the fame Rank and Condition with the unbelieving Jews, that is, to need the Repetition of the fame Sacrifices every Year, nay, every Day, which is the very Reafon, for which the Apostle denies the Efficacy of them.

We do not, indeed, deny, but that every Time we approach to the Lord's Table, for the receiving of the Holy Communion, we offer Sacrifices to God: For we offer our Alms, which we beg of God to accept as our Oblations; and thefe, in the Language of Scrip

ture,

ture, are Sacrifices with which God is well pleafed.

We likewife offer our Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving to God, for the Death of our Saviour: and all our Prayers and Supplications, we put up in his Name, and in the Virtue, and for the Merits of that Sacrifice he offered to God in our behalf: and in fo doing, we commemorate that Sacrifice both to God, and before Men. And this is all, we are confident, that the Ancient Church meant by the great Chriftian Sacrifice, or the Sacrifice of the Altar.

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But if we go further, if we will in the Communion pretend to offer up the Body and Blood of Chrift in Sacrifice to God, that was once facrificed upon the Crofs; it is intolerable. It is a thing that was never dreamed of in the firft Ages of the Church: It is directly contradictory to the Foundation of all the Apoftle's Argument and Difcourfe here in the Text; and the every Suppofal of it, brings along with it, many grievous Abfurdities in the Theory, and fomething that looks like Impious in the Practice.

And yet this is the conftant and avowed Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome, in every Sacrament they have, and that is in every Mafs that is faid among them. The main Bufinefs of that Myftery, they make to confift in the Priest's offering up to God the very Body and Blood of Chrift, the fame Body and Blood that was once offered up at Jerufalem; this they pretend to offer up as a Sacrifice overy Day: And they attribute to this their Offering

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Offering the fame Virtue and Efficacy that the Apoftles and all Chriftians have always attributed to the one Sacrifice of Chrift upon the Crofs; that is, that it is a true propitiatory Sacrifice for the Living and for the Dead: And none among them dare deny this, under pain of an Anathema, as the Council of Trent hath ordered the Matter.

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Good God whither will Intereft and Faction, and Zeal for a Party transport Men? But it is not my Bufinefs to expofe them, but to put you in mind of what concerns ourselves, namely, as I faid, that when we come to the Lord's Table, we do not approach thither, with a Belief that our Lord Jefus is there again offered, but only with a Defign to commemorate his Sacrifice that was once offered. We come not thither to facrifice Chrift, but to be Partakers of his Sacrifice. We are not to feast God; but God there feafts us, and that with the best Food in the World; fuch Food as will nourish us to Eternal Life, if we be worthy Guests: Only we must not appear before God empty at this Solemnity: We muft offer to him of our Subftance: We must offer our Prayers and Supplications, not only for our felves, but for all the World; but more especially for all that are called by the Name of Chrift; and among thofe, moft particularly, for our own Ghurch and Kingdom, and all Orders and Degrees of Men therein, We muft offer likewife ourselves, our Souls and Bodies a living Sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our reasonable Service. And laftly, tò conclude,

clude, we must offer our most hearty and affectionate Thanks to God Almighty, for that incomprehenfible, Inftance of his Love, in fending Chrift Jefus to us, to be our Saviour; for his wonderful Birth, for his Holy Life, for his precious Death, for his glorious Refurrection and Afcenfion, and for his Interceffion for us, at the Right Hand of God.d

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And Othou bleffed Saviour, that haft done all this for us, give us fuch a lively Senfe of thy marvellous Love, in leaving thy Glory, and taking Human Flesh upon thee, that thou mighteft dwell among us, and inftruct us in our Duty, and affift us in the Performance of it, and encourage us thereto by the glorious Hopes of a never-dying Life, and at laft make thyfelf an Offering for our Sins! O let thefe Things fink fo deeply in our Minds, and fo wholly poffefs our Hearts, that we may entirely give up ourfelves to thee! That we may with our whole Souls embrace all thy Doctrines and Revelations That we may endeavour in all our Actions, to conform ourselves to thy Example; and make it the Bufinefs of our Lives to be obedient to thy Precepts, to fubmit to thy Will, and to be contented to be difpofed of by thee, in all the Circumstances of our Lives. O let nothing in thy Religion, ever be an Offence to us! But enable us to hold the Profeffion of our own Faith, in thee, without wavering, in all the Trials and Difficulties thou fhalt think fit to expofe us to; that fo in Faith and Obedience, in Patience and Perfeverance, we may ever wait for, and at laft obtain that Crown

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