Q. Hou did Christ enter into the holy place to offer himself? Ans. Would not any one imagine, [from this question,] that it was said in the Scripture that Christ entered into the holy place to offer himself? that that is taken for granted, and the modus or manner how he did it is alone inquired after? This is but one part of the sophistry Mr B. makes use of in this Scripture Catechism; but it is so far from being a true report of the testimony of the Scripture, that the plain contrary is asserted,-namely, that Christ offered himself before his entrance into the holy place not made with hands, and then entered thereinto, to appear in the presence of God for us. Christ entered by his own blood into the holy place, inasmuch as, having shed and offered his blood a sacrifice to God, with the efficacy of it, he entered into his presence to carry on the work of his priesthood in his intercession for us; as the high priest, having offered without a sacrifice to God, entered with the blood of it into the most holy place, there to perfect and complete the duties of his office in offering and interceding for the people. The remaining questions of this chapter may be speedily despatched. His sixth is: Q. What benefit happeneth by Christ's priesthood? A. Heb. v. 9, 10. Though the place be very improperly urged as to an answer to the question proposed, there being very many more testimonies clearly and distinctly expressing the immediate fruits and benefits of the priestly office of Christ, yet because we grant that by his priesthood, principally and eminently, Christ is become the author of salvation, we shall not dissent as to this question and answer. Only, we add as to the manner, that the way whereby Christ by his priesthood became the author of salvation consists principally in the of fering up of himself to death in and by the shedding of his blood, whereby he obtained for us eternal redemption, Heb. ix. 14, 26. But this Mr B. makes inquiry after: Q. How can Christ save them by his priesthood? Ans. We acknowledge the use of the intercession of Christ for the carrying on and the completing of the work of our salvation, as also that it is the apostle's design there to manifest his ability to save beyond what the Aaronical priests could pretend unto, which is mentioned chap. vii. 25; but that "he saves us thereby," exclusively to the oblation he made of himself at his death, or any otherwise but as carrying on that work whose foundation was laid therein (redemption being meritoriously procured thereby), I suppose Mr B. doth not think that this place is any way useful to prove. And that place which he subjoins is not added at all to the advantage of his intendment; for it is most evident that it is of the offering of Christ by death and the shedding of his blood, or the sacrifice of himself, as verse 26, that the apostle there speaks. There is not any thing else that is needful for me to insist upon in this chapter; for though the Scripture instructs us in many other uses that we are to make of the doctrine of the priesthood of Christ than what he expresses in his last question, yet that being one eminent one amongst them (especially the foundation of coming with boldness to the throne of grace, being rightly understood), I shall not need to insist farther on it. Not to put myself or reader to any needless trouble, Mr B. acknowledging that Christ is a high priest, and having opposed only his investiture with the office whilst he was upon the earth, and that to destroy the atonement made by the sacrifice of himself, having proved that he was a priest properly so called, I shall now prove that he was a high priest whilst he was upon earth, and show afterward what he had to offer, with the efficacy of his sacrifice, and the intent thereof: 1. The Scripture will speedily determine the difference: Eph. v. 2, "Christ hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour." He that offereth sacrifices and offerings unto God is a priest; so the apostle defines a priest, Heb. v. 1. He is one "taken from amongst men," and "ordained to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins." Now, thus did Christ do in his giving himself for us. Ilapédwxev, "he delivered himself for us." "To deliver himself," or "to be delivered for us," notes his death, always in contradistinction to any other act of his: so Eph. v. 25, Gal. ii. 20, Rom. viii. 32, iv. 25, "Os Tapedón dià và TαρaжTwμara ἡμῶν, καὶ ἠγέρθη διὰ τὴν δικαίωσιν ἡμῶν. In that delivery of himself he sacrificed, therefore he was then a priest. ત To this Socinus invented an answer, in his book "De Servatore," which he insists on again, Ep. 2 ad Niemojev., and whereunto his followers have added nothing, it being fixed on by them all, in particular by Smalcius in Cat. Rac.; and yet it is in itself ludicrous, and almost jocular. The words, they tell us, are thus to be read: Παρέδωκεν ἑαυτὸν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν, and there they place a point in the verse, προσφορὰν καὶ θυσίαν τῷ Θεῷ, without any dependence upon the former words; making this to be the sense of the whole: "Christ gave himself to death for us; and O what an offering was that to God! and O what a sacrifice!" that is, in a metaphorical sense; not that Christ offered himself to God for us, but that Paul called his giving himself to die "an offering," or a thing grateful to God, as good works are called "an offering," Phil. iv. 18;—that is, the dying of Christ was "præclarum facinus," as Volkelius speaks. But, 1 1 Volkel. de Ver. Relig. lib. iii. cap. xxxvii. p. 146. (1.) It is easy to answer or avoid any thing by such ways as this. Divide, cut off sentences in the dependence of the words, and you may make what sense of them you please, or none at all. (2.) These words, porpopàv xai Sucíav, have no other word to be regulated by but rapidwxev, and therefore must relate thereunto; and Christ is affirmed in them to have given himself "an offering and a sacrifice." (3.) These words, "An offering and a sacrifice,” are not a commendation of Christ's giving himself, but an illustration and a description of what he gave,—that is, himself, a sacrifice of sweet savour to God. So that notwithstanding this exception (becoming only them that make it), it is evident from hence that Christ offered. himself a sacrifice in his death, and was therefore then a priest fitted for that work. 2. Heb. y. 6, 7, "As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death," etc. Verse 6, the apostle tells us that he was a priest; and, verse 7, what he did by virtue of that priesthood,πpoońveyne deźoeis καὶ ἱκετηρίας. It is a temple expression of the office of a priest that is used. So verse 1, a high priest is appointed iva poopéen, "that he may offer." Now, when did Christ do this? It was "in the days of his flesh, with strong crying and tears;" both which evidence this his offering to have been before his death and at his death. And his mentioning of prayers and tears is not so much to show the matter of his offering, which was himself, as the manner, or at least the concomitants of the sacrifice of himself,-prayers and tears. And these were not for himself, but for his church, and the business that for their sakes he had undertaken. 3. Heb. i. 3, "When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." The purging of our sins was by sacrifice; there was never any other way xalapiouou. But now καθαρισμοῦ. Christ did this before his ascension: Kalapioμdv Tornoάuevos,-"When he had by himself," or after he had, "purged our sins;" and that di' iavroũ, "by himself," or the sacrifice of himself. That our sins are purged by the oblation of Christ the Scripture is clear; hence his blood is said to "cleanse us from all sin," 1 John i. 7. And, Heb. x. 10, "sanctified" is the same with "purged," and this "through the offering of the body of Christ parag." Christ, then, offering this sacrifice whilst he was on the earth, was a priest in so doing. Unto this may be added sundry others of the same import: Chap. vii. 27, "Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself." The one sacrifice of Christ is here compared to the daily sacrifices of the priests. Now, those daily sacrifices were not performed in the most holy place, whither the high priest entered but once in a year; which alone was a representation of heaven: so that what Christ did in heaven cannot answer to them, but what he did on earth, before he entered the holy place not made with hands. And chap. ix. 12, "He entered by his own blood into the holy place, aiwvíav λurpworv súpáμevos,”—“ after he had obtained eternal redemption." Redemption is everywhere in the Scripture ascribed to the blood of Christ; and himself abundantly manifesteth in what account it is to be had, when he says that "he gave his life a ransom," or "a price of redemption." Where and when Christ laid down his life we know; and yet that our redemption or freedom is by the offering of Christ for us is as evident: Chap. ix. 26, "He put away sin" (which is our redemption) "by the sacrifice of himself;" so that this sacrifice of himself was before he entered the holy place; and consequently he was a priest before his entrance into heaven. It is, I say, apparent from these places that Christ offered himself before he went into the holy place, or sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high; which was to be proved from them. 4. Christ is often said to "offer himself once for all;" designing by that expression some individual action of Christ, and not such a continued course of procedure as is his presentation of himself in heaven, or the continuation of his oblation, as to its efficacy, by his intercession. So Heb. vii. 27, Touro Toinσev ipárağ ix. 28, "ATαž Podevexosis, etc.; x. 10, 12, 14. In all these places the offering of Christ is not only said to be one, but to be once offered. Now, no offering of Christ besides that which he offered on the earth can be said to be once offered; for that which is done in heaven is done always and for ever, but that which is done always cannot be said to be done once for all. To be always done or in doing, as is Christ's offering himself in heaven, and to be done once for all, as was the oblation spoken of in those places, whereby our sins are done away, are plainly contradictory. It is said to be so offered ära as to be opposed unto oλλáxis, whereby the apostle expresses that of the Aaronical sacrifice, which in two other words he had before delivered. They were offered εἰς τὸ διηνεκές and καθ' ἡμέραν, that is, πολλάκις: in which sense his offering himself in heaven cannot be said to be done ἅπαξ, but only that on the cross. Besides, he was ἅπαξ προσενεχθεὶς εἰς Tò toλλãv åveveynɛñ àμaprías, chap. ix. 28, and how he did that we are informed, 1 Pet. ii. 24, Ος τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν αὐτὸς ἀνήνεγκεν ἐν τῷ σώ ματι αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὸ ξύλον,—he did it in his own body on the tree. ર Besides, the apostle, Heb. ix. 26, tells us that he speaks of such an offering as was accompanied with suffering: "He must often have suffered since the foundation of the world." It was such an offering as could neither be repeated nor continued without suffering that he treats of. We do not deny that Christ offers himself in heaven,-that is, that he presents himself as one that was so offered to his Father; but the offering of himself, that was on earth: and therefore there was he a priest. 5. Once more; that sacrifice which answered those sacrifices whose blood was never carried into the holy place, that must be performed on earth, and not in heaven. That many proper sacrifices were offered as types of Christ, whose blood was not carried into the holy place, the apostle assures us, Heb. x. 11. The daily sacrifices had none of their blood carried into the holy place, for the high priest went in thither only once in the year; but now these were all true sacrifices and types of the sacrifice of Christ, and therefore the sacrifice of Christ also, to answer the types, must be offered before his entrance into heaven, as was in part declared before: yea, there was no other sacrifice of these but what was performed in their killing and slaying; and therefore there must be a sacrifice, prefigured by them, consisting in killing and shedding of blood. All this is asserted by the apostle, Heb. vii. 27, "Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself." Those sacrifices which were offered xao uspav, "daily," were types of the sacrifice of Christ, and that of his which was offered ipáñаž did answer thereunto,-which was his death, and nothing else. CHAPTER XXI. Of the death of Christ, the causes, ends, and fruits thereof, with an entrance into the doctrine of his satisfaction thereby. MR BIDDLE'S twelfth chapter is concerning the death of Christ, the causes, and fruits, and ends thereof; the error and mistake whereabout is the second great head of the Socinian religion. Next to his person, there is not any thing they set themselves so industriously to oppose as his death, in the sense wherein it hath constantly hitherto been embraced by all Christians,-as the great foundation of their faith and confidence. That the Lord Jesus, our mediator, did not, by his death and sufferings, undergo the penalty of the law as the punishment due to our sins; that he did not make satisfaction to God, or make reconciliation for transgressors; that he did not thereby properly redeem us by the payment of a ransom, nor so suffer for us as that our sins should, in the justice of God, be a meritorious cause of his suffering,--is the |