pointing out its value-as declaring its continual efficacy-and, as asserting its universal influence. Let us view the text

I. As pointing out its value.

It declares the way of pardon to be by the blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God. By the blood of Jesus, in our text, we are to understand the last sufferings and the death of the Saviour. This blood is the ransom of our souls, the price of our redemption, and the expiation of our sin. This was the highest and most excellent part of his obedience. Being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

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His whole life was a scene of suffering, but his death completed his obedience; in that he manifested the greatest love to God his Father, and men, his people. The expiatory sacrifices under the law were always bloody: death was to be endured for sin, and blood was the life of the creature; so the blood, the death of Christ, is the cause of our life, justification, sanctification, and glorification. The value of this sacrifice is infinite; and its value is plainly pointed out in the passage before us. It is the blood of Him whose name is Jesus; a name which is above every name; a name which is as ointment poured forth; and a name which causeth those who know it, to be joyful in Him that bears it. It is a name at which every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that he

is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. It is a wonderful, glorious, ineffable, and unspeakable name. The honorary title by which the Saviour is distinguished, stamps the greatest dignity on his sacrifice, and confirms its value. The blood mentioned in the text is the blood of a Saviour, as the name imports. It is the blood of one appointed and commissioned to save his people from the guilt, the power, the practice, and the love of sin. He rescues their souls from the power of Satan; and, having delivered them from all their vain expectations and false refuges, he saves them from the curse of the law;-to them there is no condemnation, because they are in Christ, by a living faith and vital union.

Jesus is a Saviour, because he finally delivers all his people from sinking into the pit of hell, being himself their ransom; and the blood of which we speak is the blood of one who has almighty power to save, even to the very uttermost, all that come unto God by him; and he has a full commission from God the Father to execute his eternal purposes of love to men, in saving them with an everlasting salvation: hence he is called Christ, having been anointed by the Father for this express purpose. The blood of which we speak is infinitely valuable, because it was shed by the Christ of God. Of him it is said, "Grace is poured into thy lips; therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows:"for him hath God the Father sealed. He himself

said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me." The priests, under the mosaic dispensation, were anointed; see Leviticus, the 4th chap. and 3d verse; Numbers, the 3d chap. and 3d verse; besides many other passages. Now Jesus is the anointed of the Lord, the Spirit was poured upon him without measure. Hence, when we pray for acceptance with the Father, we say with the psalmist, "Look upon the face of thine anointed." This anointing eminently qualifies him for the important office of a Saviour to his people. And must not that sacrifice be exceedingly valuable, which was made by the Christ of God? Must not that blood be precious which was shed by the Lord's anointed? The text then evidently points out its value, when it calls it the blood of Jesus Christ. It would be well for us, if our consciences were more and more assured of our interest in the salvation of Jesus Christ; then with what deep humility, unfeigned gratitude, and joyful praise, should we contemplate the subject.

Jesus is the Son of God, therefore his atonement is infinite; and, consequently, unspeakably valuable. It is the blood of Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, that cleanseth us from all sin. It is true that this blood was the blood of Christ's humanity, yet the merit of it was derived from his divinity. It was not his blood, as the Son of the virgin, which is the means of salvation, but his blood as he was the Son of God. We need not wonder then that it has efficacy sufficient to cleanse

believers in all ages of the world from their vast load of guilt, when we recollect that it is the blood of Christ, who is God over all, blessed for evermore. Oh! how infinitely valuable does the sacrifice of Christ appear, on account of the divinity of his person! Let us all then highly value the atonement, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, for his was the blood of the Son of God.

What a privilege it is to belong to that church which he has purchased with his own invaluable blood! Our faith is precious, inasmuch as it lays hold on the atonement of a precious Saviour, who shed his invaluable blood for sinners of the human race. It is the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, which cancels the debt we all owe to God, which is the way by which we are delivered from condemnation, which insures our pardon, and by virtue of which we arrive at glory. Having considered the text, as pointing out the infinite value of the blood of Christ, we hold it up to your view

II. As declaring its continual efficacy.

The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth from all sin; it has a cleansing quality. And here it is evidently implied, that man by nature is defiled-is brought into such a state as to need cleansing-and who can doubt this solemn truth?-who, that studies his own heart, makes daily observations on mankind, reads the page of history, and peruses the sacred volume? There is not one who does these things, but will confess that man is by

nature defiled. Sin is of a defiling nature, and it renders the subject of it impure in the sight of a holy God, who can never look upon sin with the least degree of approbation. It makes a man the disgust of angels and glorified spirits, the abhorrence of good men, and the fit companion for devils. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. So none but God can new create the soul. All men by nature are defiled with sin; they come into the world polluted, and soon, by a long list of actual crimes, they render themselves more obnoxious to Divine justice, and expose themselves to eternal wrath. From the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, there is nothing but wounds, bruises, and putrifying sores. Sin has completely ruined us-made us defiled in every power and faculty of the soul, and left us without God, and without hope in the world.

Oh! what great reason have we all to lament the polluted state of man, and to put up the prayer of the Psalmist, saying, "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me!" Or to say, in other words, "Lead us to the blood of Jesus Christ thy Son, which cleanseth us from all sin." Blessed be God there was a day when "this fountain was opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness." But here we would observe, that the blood of Christ does not perfectly cleanse us from the sense of sin. The sparks of the fiery law will flash in our consciences-very often the smiles