mission of Sins, and for the Redemption of his Church, as His own BLOOD, Acts xx. 28. That Blood, therefore, and those Sufferings, which the Divine Equity required to be human, became, in consequence of this Relationship, and of that indissoluble Union from which it resulted, possessed of the most sovereign Efficacy, and intrinsic Value, for ALL the purposes of man's salvation. The precious Blood of Christ, was HIS LIFE; and God Himself was in that LIFE!-Every Drop of the sacred living Fluid, that was expressed through his agonised pores in the Garden, and in the Judgment-hall, or which flowed more copiously from his wounded heart, and hands, and feet, on Calvary, was FULL of God,

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OF GOD, and of THE FULNESS OF GOD, which dwell in Him BODILY;—and every Drop of the Water which, with the Blood, came forth through his pierced Side, was FULL OF GOD, and of the FULNESS OF GOD;—and every Attribute of that pure Spirit, which he dismissed in his Death, and dismissed sacrificially, was FULL OF GOD, and FULL of THE FULNESS OF GOD! This was the deep, the high, the holy ordinance of Heaven: He who knew how to create, knew also how to REDEEM.

An additional and most essential Act of the Godhead, in this glorious dispensation of Justice and Love, was to set the Seal of His Acceptance and Approbation upon the Acts, Sufferings, and Death, of

His

His Son, by raising Him up from the dead. It has already been remarked, that his human Life was an immortal Life; and that it required the same omnipotent power to lay it down, as to resume it. By this power then, on the third day, he took up his Life again; and was thus declared to be the Son of God, with power, by the Resurrection from the dead, Rom. i. 4. And so essential was this Act of Jehovah to the accomplishment of the Work of Redemption, that the Apostle declares, if Christ be not risen, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept; God having set him at his own right-hand, in the heavenly places,

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places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, Ephes. i. 20, 21.

Finally, the Atonement made by the all-meritorious sufferings and death of Jesus, was PRESENTED to the Father, through or by the Spirit, as a "perfect redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction, for all the sins of the whole world, both original and actual." The Sacrifice made in and by the Human, was presented through the Divine Nature: so an Apostle reasons:—If the ceremonial purification of the flesh could be effected by the blood of bulls and of goats,

with

with the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean; how much more shall the Blood of Christ, who, THROUGH THE ETERNAL SPIRIT, offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, Heb. ix. 14. He offered himself to God through the eternal Spirit, which dwelt immeasurably within him. This great circumstance was not less essential than any of the former, to the completion of his redeeming Acts; for, as under that dispensation which typified this, the general Atonement was not consummated until the High Priest had entered the Holy of Holies, and sprinkled the Blood of the expiatory Sacrifices on and before the Ark of the Covenant; so neither was the sacrifi

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