and command of the law. Now, our natural want of ability to yield fatisfaction, and our natural want of perfect conformity to the law, make juftice and holiness, and other perfections of God, fand in the way of our falvation, and of our accefs to heaven, like a vail that can never be rent by us; efpecially confidering, that there is,

3. A third vail, and that is the vail of fin on our part. This is a feparating vail betwixt God and us, Ifa. lix. 2. Your iniquities have feparated betwixt

you and your God. Now, before we can get near unto God, this vail must be rent, the guilt of fin must be expiated; for without fhedding of blood there is no remission: the filth of fin must be purged; for, who fhall afcend to the hill of the Lord, and ftand in his holy place, but he that hath clean hands and a pure heart? The power of fin must be broken.--There is, by nature, in us all a power of ignorance; our minds are become a dungeon of darknefs, and this is fuch a vail betwixt God and us, that unless it be removed, there is no hopes of mercy: therefore fays the prophet, it is a people of no underStanding; therefore he that made them, will not have mercy on them.-There is in us a power of enmity, The carnal mind is enmity against God, etc.-We are enemies to God by wicked works: this is another vail that muft be rent by the arm of almighty power; for it is a vailand curtain that the devil hath ftrongly wrought, like a web, with the warp and waft of pride, carnality, fecurity, worldliness, and all other wickedness whatsoever, which are but fo many threads and pieces of this web, this vail of enmity.-There is a power of unbelief, that is another vail, that on our párt ftands betwixt us and and the holy place, and feparates us from divine favour; He that believeth not, is condemned already.

II. The second thing, How the death of Christ hath rent the vail: when he gave up the ghost, behold the vail was rent.

1. By the death of Chrift the vail of a broken covenant was rent in twain, fo as we might get to God through that vail of the law; for the law was fulfilled

in every part of it, by his obedience to the death. Was the precept of the law a perfect obedience? Well, Chrift by his obedience to the death, did magnify the law, and make it honourable, brought in an everlasting righteousness his death was the finishing ftroke, the highest act of that obedience whereby the law was fulfilled. Was the promise of life in the law, or firft covenant forfeited by us? Well, Chrift rent this vail, by redeeming the forfeiture with the price of his blood: he bought back the inheritance for us that we had loft, making a purchase of us, and of eternal falvation for us. Was the penalty of death in the law ftanding alfo in the way? Well, Chrift comes in the finner's room, endures this penalty, by coming under the curfe of the law, becoming obedient to the death, enduring the wrath of God, and delivering us from the wrath to come and fo behold, the vail of a broken covenant

was rent.

2. By the death of Chrift, the vail of God's injured attributes, that ftood betwixt God and us, was rent and removed. Chrift hath fatisfied the juftice of God, by offering himself a facrifice, Eph. v. 2. This offering being through the eternal Spirit, it was of infinite worth and value: here the altar fanctified the gift; the altar was the Godhead of Chrift, the offering was made upon the altar of the divine nature; and there-. fore this blood of Chrift is called the blood of God. This facrifice was of infinite worth and value, for doing the bufinefs of poor man, in atoning juftice, and fo rending this vail. But now, as Chrift hath fatisfied the juftice of God, by enduring the penalty and threatening of the law; fo he hath vindicated the holiness of God, by fulfilling the precept and command of the law, which he not only did through the whole courfe of his life, but perfectly finished in his death. Now, if Christ hath fulfilled the law, fatisfied the juftice, and vindi-. cated the holinefs of God, by his obedience to the death, then we may fee and fay, Behold the vail was rent. But,

3. There is the vail of fin on our part; how is this rent by the death of Chrift? Why, the Lamb was fa

crificed

pur

crificed to rend and remove this vail, Behold the Lamb of God, that takes away the fin of the world. By his death, the guilt of fin is expiated; for God fet him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteoufnefs for the remission of fins, etc. By his death the filth of fin is purged; for the blood of Chrift cleanfeth from all fin, and that both meritorioufly and efficacioufly; for, by his death, the power of fin alfo is broken fundamentally, feeing by his death he purchased the Spirit; which, in due time, he pours out, and thereby actually removes the vail on our part, which he had done fundamentally and virtually on the crofs. By this purchased Spirit he rends the vails of darknefs and ignorance: The God who commanded light to fhine out of darkness, fhines into the heart, etc. All the light of nature, reafon, education, and human literature cannot rend this vail, till the man receive the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Chrift. By this chafed Spirit he rends the vail of enmity, fhedding abroad his love upon the heart; and indeed the view and apprehenfion of God's mighty love in Chrift, can rend that mighty vail of enmity; for we love him whenever we fee that he first loved us, 1 John iv. 19. When the foul fees the God, whofe majesty he dreaded, is now a God in Chrift, reconciled to the foul through the facrifice that Christ offered up, then the foul is reconciled to God, and fo the vail of enmity rent in twain. By this purchased Spirit he rends alfo the vail of unbelief; for, as he is a Spirit of light, to remove the vail of darkness, and a Spirit of love, to remove the vail of enmity; fo he comes into the heart, as a Spirit of faith, and removes the vail of unbelief; he begins the rent of humiliation, when he rends the heart in twain with a fenfe of fin, and a fight of its undone ftate; when he makes the foul take with fin, and justify the Lord, though he should damn him for his fin. He makes the rent of the vail wider by a gracious manifestation, like that, John iị. 11. He manifefted forth his glory, and his difciples believed on him. Thus he rends the vail of unbelief; and compleats the rent of this vail when faith

is turned into vifion. the vail was rent.

Thus you fee how by his death

III. The third thing, In what manner was the vail rent? All I fay on this head, fhall be in allufion fhortly to the rending of the vail of the temple here: which we fee, was in a wonderful manner ufhered in with a bebold.

1. Behold, it was rent; not only drawn afide, but rent. The curtain was not only drawn aside, but torn to pieces, as if God had been displeased at the vail of partion betwixt him and us; angry at the vail of feparation, and enraged that there fhould have been any vail to intercept between him and us. God's heart was fet 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 difappoint 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, inight 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 be twixt 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 highest 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 juftice and holiness 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? VOL. I.

Р

But

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 stop here: For,

.

4. The vail is alfo rent to the BOTTOM: the bottom of this vail, that did separate 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 in 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,

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 vanquifhed, yet there might be fomething 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 rent as well as both ends; fo that there is accefs from the lowest part of mifery to the highest happinefs, 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 bot

tom.

IV. The fourth thing, For what END was the vail rent? I fhall tell you only thefe two ends of it. 1. That Christ might enter into the holieft as our High-priest for

us.