or blood, as they speak, overthrows all typical relation between it and the sacrifices of old. Nay, on that supposition, they were suited rather to deceive the church; for the universal testimony of them all was, that atonement for sin was to be made by blood, and no otherwise. But, according to these men, Christ offered not himself to God for the expiation of our sins, until he had neither flesh nor blood! They fully declare that, according to their notion, there was indeed no manner of similitude between the things compared, but rather that they were opposite. The ground of the apostle's comparison is, that they were both by blood; Christ by his own blood, the high priests by the blood of calves and goats; but, according to the sense of these men, herein consists the difference between them, that the one was with blood, and the other without blood, which is expressly to contradict the apostle.

What they observe of the sacrifices of old. that not the 'bodies of them, but only the kidneys and fat were burned, and the blood only carried into the holy place, is neither true nor any thing to their purpose, Lev. xvi, 27; xvii, 11. It doth not therefore thence follow, as is pretended, that the Lord Christ "offered not himself a sacrifice to God on the earth, but did so in heaven only;" but the direct contrary doth follow; for the blood of the sin offering was offered on the altar, before it was carried into the holy place; which was the type of Christ's entrance into heaven.

§2. The apostle's design in this verse is, to declare the dignity of the person of Christ in the discharge of his priestly office above the high priest of old. And this he doth-from the excellency of his sacrifice, which was his own blood; and from the place into which he entered by virtue of it, which was heaven it

self; and finally-from the effect of it, in that by it he procured eternal redemption.

I shall open the words, not in the order wherein they lie in the text, but in the natural order of the things themselves.

3. (Eis ta aliu) into the holies; the same word by which he expresseth the second part of the tabernacle; but in the application of it to Christ the signification is changed. Here it signifies what the other typified, ver. 24; the place of the glorious residence of God's presence or majesty. "He entered." This entrance of Christ into heaven upon his ascension may be considered-both as it was regal, glorious, and triumphant, and as it was sacerdotal. Peace and reconciliation being made by the blood of the cross, the covenant being confirmed, eternal redemption obtained, he entered as our High Priest into the holy place, the temple of God above, to make his sacrifice effectual to the church.

This he did (Qanak) once only, once for all; not once (or one day) every year, as the legal high priest; a full demonstration that his one sacrifice had fully expiated the sins of the church.

$4. Of this entrance it is said, that "he did not do it by the blood of goats and calves;" (de) neither; which refers to what was before denied of him, as to his "entrance into the tabernacle made with hands."

This entrance is at large described, Lev. xvi. It was by the blood of a bullock and a goat, which the apostle here renders in the plural number, “calves and goats;" because of the annual repetition of the same sacrifice. The order of the institution was, that first the bullock or calf was offered, then the goat; the one for the priest, the other for the people. This or er be longing not at all to the apostle's purpose, he expres seth it "goats and calves." The word (rpalos,) which

we render goat, expresseth (totum genus caprinum) that whole kind of creature, be it young or old; so the bullock the priest offered for himself was (5, porxos, juvencus, ex genere bovino, genus vitulinum) all young cattle. The high priest entered into the holy place (di apalos) by their blood, which he was to offer at the altar for a sin offering, Lev. xvi, 6, 11; and there alone atonement was to be for sin, Lev. xvii, 11. So faris it from truth, that expiation for sin was made only in the holy place; and that it is so by Christ without blood, as the Socinians imagine. He was to carry some of the blood of the sacrifice into the sanctuary to sprinkle it there to make atonement for the holy place, in the sense hereafter mentioned on ver. 23. He doth not declare with what the high priest entered into the holy place, for he entered with incense as well as with blood; but what it was by virtue of which he entered so as to be accepted with God. And so all things exactly correspond between the type and the antitype. For,

§5. It is affirmed of him that he entered (dia de To id18 aipalos) but by his own blood; by virtue of it when shed, when he offered himself to God, which laid the foundation of his priestly administration in heaven, and by which all the good things he effectually com municates to us by that administration were procured.

This exposition is the centre of all gospel mysteries, the object of angelic and human admiration to all eternity. What heart can conceive, what tongue can express the wisdom, grace, and love, that here unite their splendors! "God purchased the church with his own blood!" Acts xx, 28. How unquestionable, how immutably perfect must the atonement be that was thus made! how glorious the redemption that was thus procured!

§6. "Having obtained eternal redemption." The Greek word (sugauevo;) is variously rendered; but it is used, in all good authors, for not only to find, but to obtain by endeavors, see Rom. iv, 1; Heb. iv, 16. He obtained effectually eternal redemption by the price of his blood; and it is mentioned in a tense denoting the time past, to signify that he had obtained it before he entered into the holy place. All redemption respects a state of bondage and captivity; and both in the scripture, and in the common notion of the word, "redemption" is the deliverance of persons from a state of bondage; and this may be done either by power;—or by payment of a price: the latter only is properly so called. The (Aulpwois, from Avipov) redemption that is by Christ, is every where said to be a price, a ransom, see Matt. xx, 28; Mark x, 45; 1 Cor. vi, 20; 1 Tim. ii, 6; 1 Pet. i, 18, 19. In short, it is the deliverance of persons out of a state of captivity and bondage by the payment of a valuable price or ransom. And the Socinians offer violence not only to the scripture, but to common sense itself, when they contend the redemption, which is constantly affirmed to be by a price, is metaphorical; and that only proper which is by power.

The ransom in this redemption is expressed two ways: by what gave it worth, that it might be a sufficient ransom for all, viz. The person of Christ, "He gave himself for us," Gal. ii, 20. "He gave himself a ransom for all, 1 Tim. ii, 6. "He offered himself to God," ver. 14; and-by the special nature of it, viz. his own blood, see Eph. i, 7; 1 Pet. i, 18, 19: and this blood of Christ was a ransom or price of redemptionpartly from the invaluableness of that obec ence which he yielded to God in the shedding of it, and partly, because it was also to be an atonement, as offered to God in sacrifice. For it is by blood, and no otherwise,

is atonement made, Lev. xvii, 11; wherefore he is "set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood," Rom. iii, 24, 25.

That Christ gave himself a ransom for sin; that he did it in shedding his blood for us, wherein he made his soul an offering for sin; that hereby he made atonement, and expiated our sins; and that all these things belonged to our "redemption," is the SUBSTANCE OF THE GOSPEL. That this redemption is nothing but the expiation of sin, and that the expiation of sin is nothing but an act of power and authority in Christ now in heaven, as the Socinians dream, is to reject the whole gospel.

This redemption is said to be "eternal," on account of the subject matter of it, which are things eternal, and not carnal or temporal. It was not for a season, like that of the people out of Egypt, or the deliverances which they had afterwards under the judges, and on other occasions. They endured in their effects only for a season, and afterwards new troubles of the same kind overtook them. But this was "eternal" in all the effects of it, none that are partakers of it, do ever return into a state of bondage; so it endures in those effects to all eternity in heaven itself.

§7. (II.) And sundry things we may observe from this verse,

1. The entrance of our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven as our High Priest, to appear in the presence of God for us, and to save us to the uttermost, was a thing so great and glorious, as could not be accomplished but by his own blood; "not by the blood of bulls and goats." Men seldom rise in their thoughts to the greatness of this mystery; even the faith of the best is but weak and imperfect in comprehending the glory of it. Our relief is, that the uninterrupted con