science, it is no easy matter to believe that the blood that was shed without the gates of Jerusalem, in the day when this great sacrifice was offered up, is able to wash away all our sins; and that we have nothing else to betake ourselves to; God would have nothing else. Christ tells his Father, Heb. x. 5. Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: burnt-offerings and sacrifices of the law, the Father would take none of these of Christ, but he took his own sweet life, he took his own heart blood for the expiation of the sins of his people.

4thly, In coming to this blood of sprinkling, I would give you this advice: Attend upon all the means of Christ's appointment, in order to the getting the sensible sprinkling of this blood upon your consciences. When you believe its great power and virtue, you must put in for a share therein; and the Lord's appointed means for this end they should all be well used. When you come to pray, it should be in virtue of this blood, that you may feel more of it, and be brought nearer to God by it; for if ever you have any communion with God, it must all be through the virtue of this blood; if we are brought near to him, it is by the blood of Jesus. Eph. ii. 13. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Ye were without Christ, and without hope, and without God in the world, but now the matter is far changed, ye are brought near by the blood of Christ. This should be especially minded when we come to the Lord's table; the great thing we come there for is to remember our Lord's death, to his praise and to our profit: all the saving blessings that we stand in need of for time and for eternity, are all the fruits of his death. This is the first exhortation, Come to the blood of sprinkling.

Use 2. Abide by this blood of sprinkling, stay and dwell by it; this fountain is opened for sin and uncleanness, and as long as sin and uncleanness remain in us, we have work and employment still for this blood of Jesus. Take heed to yourselves, that ye fall not in the crying sin of this day: Sirs, there is a plague growing in the land and city we live in, and a dreadful one it is; I will take the liberty to speak of it, for it has been many times the very thoughts of my heart, That

never were there so many guilty of sin against the Holy Ghost at any time, or in any place, as are now in London. Read what the apostle saith of them, Heb. x. 29. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath despite unto the spirit of grace? These three go together, treading under foot the Son of God, counting the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, and doing despite to the spirit of grace. These blasphemies that are daily sounding in our ears, that Jesus Christ is but a mere man, are here charged by the apostle to be a treading under foot the Son of God; but he will have them under his foot ere long; His foes shall be made his footstool, Psal. cx. 1. The Son of God and all his enemies, were they ever so mahy, are a very unequal match. Let believers cry to him to assert his own name, his interest and glory, and to trample upon his enemies in his fury. It is here charged on them, that they count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, that is, they count it to be a common thing. Those are grievous apostates indeed, that count no more of the blood of Christ, than of the blood of a good honest man, shed by the hands of wicked men for the truth's sake. They reckon that the blood of Jesus Christ hath no more power for the saving of men than the blood of one of the martyrs; and it is said of these, that they do despite to the spirit of grace. Take heed to yourselves, there is a great snare and a great danger here; remember it, Your salvation, if ever you come by it, must come by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus; and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus could never have saved any man, except it had been the sprinkling of the blood of God. Acts xx. 28.

Use 3d and last. As to this blood of sprinkling, you must not only come to it and abide by it, but you must learn to die in it, and pass to heaven in it. Jesus Christ entered into heaven with his own blood, and we must imitate him, and follow him with his own blood; that is, if I may so say, we must take and keep the mark of the sprinkled blood of Jesus upon our consciences, as our grand pass for heaven and eternal life. The poor dying believer thinks with himself, «I

"have nothing to trust to but the blood of Jesus Christ; I "have ventured on it, and the virtue of it hath reached my “conscience many times, and now I would go down to the "grave, and rise again in judgment, with this sprinkling of "the blood of Jesus upon me, as my only ornament, my only "plea, and my only praise, to eternity." We want to have the virtue of this blood more and more sprinkled upon our consciences, that we may lift up our faces with confidence towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the atonement.

SERMON IV.

1 PETER i. 2.

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace be multiplied. I TOOK up the preface to this epistle, contained in the two first verses of it, in three things; 1st, the name of the penman or writer of it, Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ; what he was by nature, and what he was raised to by grace. How he fell, and how he was raised again, I have spoken to.-The second thing in the words is the description of the parties that he writes this epistle to; and they are described by their state before the world, strangers scattered through several countries; that I have also considered. They are also described further by their state before God; Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus-Of the first of these, the first spring of eternal salvation, the election of grace, I formerly discoursed. There is a great reverence to be paid to this unsearchable counsel of God; it is to be firmly believed, it is plainly to be declared, but it is not curiously to be inquired into. The next thing in the description of the parties here written unto, and to which elec

tion has a respect, is the blood of Jesus Christ, and the sprinkling of it; for though it is the third thing in the order of the words, yet because it is the next in the order of nature, I thought fit to consider it in the second place. The last occasion, I discoursed something concerning this, though but briefly, in regard of the greatness and weight of the theme. I told you what the blood of Jesus was, and how he came by it; God's own Son did partake of flesh and blood, in God's wisdom and wise counsel about our salvation. How it was shed, and what the sprinkling of it was I spoke to; the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus is nothing else but the displaying and exerting of its merit, power, and virtue: for the blood of Christ, when it was shed on the cross, fared just as did the blood of another man, when drawn forth by violence out of his veins; it poured down on the earth, and by that bloodshedding he did die; just as another man would have died: but the sprinkling power and virtue of it, was of greater extent than any created blood could ever have. Abel's blood had a voice in it; The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground, said the Lord to his bloody murderer Cain, Gen. iv. 10. The meaning was, that his crime in shedding it did cry to the righteous Judge of the earth, for vengeance on the shedder of it. And it is this blood only, so far as I remember, that is spoken of in the word as having a voice in it; and it is twice spoken of, Gen. iv. 10. and Heb. xii. 24. And some think there was something of this meant in those words, He being dead yet speaketh, spoken also of Abel, Heb. xi. 4.

APPLICATION. I would speak a few more things in the application of this truth, That the sprinkled blood of Jesus is one great mean of our salvation, that is, the Son's part; there is the part of the Father in our salvation, in his gracious chusing us; and there is the Son's part, in his gracious redeeming us by his blood; and there is the Holy Ghost's part, in sanctifying by his grace; and all these three are in our text. The first is an eternal act of God the Father; the second is an act of God the Son, done at once in the fulness of time; the third is a constant act of God the Holy Ghost towards

all the heirs of eternal life. All that were chosen, were chosen from eternity, and all that were redeemed were bought in one moment by the blood-shedding and death of the Son of God; but sanctification is a work on our persons and on our nature, and is a constant work throughout all ages and generations. The Father's election was at once from eternity, the Son's redemption was at once, in one act in time: By one offering, saith the apostle, Heb. x. 14. he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified; but the sanctification of the Spirit, that comes upon the heirs of glory from one age to another. The Holy Ghost is still sanctifying, but Christ is not still redeeming, far less is the Father still electing; there is no timeelection, though there is time-sanctification.

Use 1. The first use that I would now make of this truth, That the sprinkled blood of Jesus Christ hath so great a hand in our salvation, and is so great a part of it, shall be to call upon you to a holy wondering and admiring at this strange way of our salvation; at this saving us by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus! A great many people are minding heaven, and praying to be in heaven, and hoping for heaven, that yet to this day never knew the way to heaven; but think the way to heaven is to be good, to pray, to be holy as they call it these things indeed are the exercise of a man that is in the way to heaven, but these are not the way to heaven; the way to heaven is Jesus Christ; I am the way, the truth, and the life, saith our Lord to Thomas, John xiv. 6. and Christ is the way to heaven, as a slain Saviour; but how few are there that know him? Therefore our first exhortation is, To take a view of this sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, and wonder at it, that this should have so great a hand in our salvation. I shall offer a few things about it.

1st, There appears in this way most wonderful love towards persons. Pray observe what I say, in making this sprinkling of the blood of Jesus to be the grand means of our salvation, there appears to be wonderful love towards persons. Jesus Christ did not die at a peradventure, the great price of his blood was not laid down and he ignorant of what should come of it: he knew exactly (if I may so say) every penny that he laid down, and every redeemed soul that he was to take up.