a doctrinal lie, and in its horrid consequences necessarily proves a damnable heresy. Do not be startled; I will make good my ground, and prove the truth of my assertions before I have done. Blessed be God, I understand my subject well; and, having the Saviour's honour and glory deeply at heart, am therefore anxious to plead his blessed cause before a perverse, stiff-necked, and gainsaying people.

The Saviour died it is true; but there was no cause of death in him; there was no necessity for his dying, because his human nature was holy and pure, and, being free from sin, of course free from mortality; free from death as respected his own body, individually considered. There was no mortality in him when he was conceived in the womb of the virginnone when he was born, being an holy thingnone while he tabernacled here below, for "he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth" -none when he died-none when he inhabited the tomb-none when he rose from the dead-none when he ascended into heaven -none now that he is seated at the Father's right hand as our head and representative -none when he shall come the second time -nor will there, nor can there, ever be any. His body could not, in any stage of existence, be mortal. He died as a public person; as the surety of, and to save, his people. The Son

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of God offered his human nature as a voluntary sacrifice, to fulfil all his covenant engagements. Hence we read, "I lay down my life for my sheep." "The good Shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." And mind this-"Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself." (Aye, for ever bless him, so he did, as an immortal sacrifice, that was all-sufficient to accomplish the salvation of his people, and answer every purpose for which it was offered. "I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father," John x. 11, 15, 17, 18. Thus we see that the Son of God voluntarily laid down his human nature as a sacrifice for the salvation of his people-he died the just his sacrifice was pure, and it was immortal, because sinless-not only sinless, but in union with him who only hath immortality, and who is the immortal, independent, and self-existent Jehovah. This indissoluble union made it a sacrifice ever available, possessing infinite merit to atone for sin and the guilt of it; to satisfy divine justice; to appease the wrath of God; and for ever to deliver all the objects of God's choice from going down into the pit, where none can ever hope for his truth. All his dreadful sufferings

were for the elect: and they were the sufferings of an holy person: "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities."-" He was made sin for us, who knew no sin (therefore no mortality), that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." His body and soul, the whole human nature, suffered; it was the atoning sacrifice. He bore the sins of many-made intercession for the transgressors-and by his stripes the elect are healed.

But our opponents will say, "What! die for sin, and on account of sin, and yet his body not be mortal!" No, indeed, his body He did not die for his own was never mortal. sins, for he had none, therefore had no mortality; but he died for the sins of his people, for the sins of others. The sins of the elect were all placed to his account-they were his by imputation. Hence he is said to be made sin for us, who knew no sin. And let it be well weighed the imputation of sin did not at all, nor could it at all, affect his holy and pure nature; for that could only have been affected by inherent sin, or actual transgression, from which the human nature of Christ was free, and will be so everlastingly.

I will here shew you again what a dilemma the advocates of this false doctrine are placed in by holding the mortality of the body of

Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is our great High Priest. Hence we read that "such an High Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners," Heb. vii. 26. 66 Every High Priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices; wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer." Then what was Christ's offering? "We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every Priest standeth daily ministering, and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God," Heb. x. 10–12. If, therefore, the body of Christ was the sacrifice offered, as the scripture says, and if our opponents will have it to be a mortal body, then of course, according to their own faith, it was a mortal sacrifice; and to trust in a mortal sacrifice is to trust in that which cannot save. What! a mortal sacrifice make an atonement for sin! A mortal sacrifice satisfy divine Justice! A mortal sacrifice appease the wrath of an offended God! A mortal sacrifice perfect for ever all them that are sanctified! No: Everlasting destruction must be the portion of all them that trust in such a sacrifice. Therefore my assertions, however severe, are true. And, if so, then it is, first, a doctrinal lie; and,

secondly, a damnable heresy. But let us leave these deluded professors, and hear what the Lord says in his word: "But Christ being come, an High Priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building. Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For, if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God (there could be no mortality in an offering without spot), purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God!" "Without shedding of blood is no remission. It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these (with legal sacrifices); but the heavenly things (the elect of God) themselves with better sacrifices than these." But Christ's is no better, if his body was mortal-none at all. But "let God be true, and every man a liar," who contradicts his testimony, as those certainly do who say that the Saviour's body was mortal. We read that "Christ hath put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and by his one offering he