build up one another in their most holy faith 5." And the apostle often speaks of edifying the Church, edifying the body of Christ, edifying one another in love, that "all things may be done to edifying," and the like. All which expressions have relation to this spiritual house, denoting the necessity of our being edified, or built up, in faith and love, so that we may be real parts of it, and grow up into a holy temple in the Lord.

But in every temple of the Lord it is necessary that there be likewise a priesthood to offer sacrifices suitable to such a temple. And so there is here for the apostle having said, that the saints are a "spiritual house," or temple, he adds, that they are also an “holy priesthood." As they are the "living stones" of which this temple is composed and consisteth, so they are likewise all of the order of priesthood; "an holy priesthood," proper for such an house, where the most holy God resideth. This was first revealed in the Old Testament, where God said, "his people should be unto him a kingdom of priests "." A kingdom wherein all the subjects are both "kings and priests;" or, as St. Peter a little after my text expresseth it, a "royal priesthood "." And how they come to be so we learn from St. John, saying, that "Jesus Christ hath made us kings and priests to God and the Father." As he gives his saints a kingdom, so he consecrates them all to be priests: not such as were under the law, when the priesthood was confined to one family, and offered up only carnal sacrifices; but they are an "holy priesthood," ordained to “offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."

For the understanding of which words it will be necessary to consider, what sacrifices they are which the saints offer up to God; wherefore they are called spiritual sacrifices; and that these spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

First, therefore, a sacrifice, in general, is properly

' Jude 20.

7

1 Pet. ii. 9.

6 Exod. xix. 6.
Rev. i. 6 ; V. 10.

something that we give or offer to God of our own. For, though we have nothing but what he first gives to us, yet when he hath given it to us, we have a civil right to it; it is our own in respect of all other men: but when we give it back again to God, divesting ourselves of our own right to it, and transferring it wholly to him, then he looks upon it as a sacrifice offered up to him, and is pleased to accept of it as such. Under the law God commanded that oxen, and sheep, and lambs, and such like living creatures, should be offered up in sacrifice to him, which, being killed by a priest, were consumed either by fire upon the altar, or else by those who waited at it, and so were fed, as it were, at God's table of such things as were offered to him. But these sacrifices being ordained only to foreshow and typify the “Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world," they ceased, in course, when "he had offered up himself a sacrifice for our sins upon the cross." But now, under the Gospel, other kind of sacrifices are required of us. We are now commanded to "present our bodies as a living sacrifice"." Not to kill them, but to offer them up alive, as a "living sacrifice," by devoting ourselves wholly to the service of God, by "mortifying our members that are upon the earth," and "crucifying the flesh with the affections and lusts "," by keeping our bodies under, and bringing them into subjection to our souls, by subduing our passions, "denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and living soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world 3."

Hence all manner of good, pious, and charitable works, that are done in obedience to God, and for his service and honour, are now called "sacrifices." As where the apostle saith, that the things which the Philippians sent him were "an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing unto God." And "to do good," saith he, "and to communicate

9 Rom. xii. 1.
3 Tit. ii. 12.

1 Col. iii. 5.

2 Gal. v. 24. Phil. iv. 18.

forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased 5."

6

Indeed, under the law itself these were reckoned the best sort of sacrifices, and preferred before those that were ordained in the ceremonial law: "Behold," saith Samuel, "to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams "." "The sacrifices of God," saith David, "are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise "." "Wherewithal," saith the prophet, "shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt-offerings, and calves of a year old? will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath showed thee, O man, what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God $?"

There are many such places in the Old Testament where this is so plainly revealed, that the scribe who talked with our Saviour could not but own, that for a man to love God "with all his heart, and his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt-offerings and sacrifices "."

But sacrificing, in general, being a public owning of God, and his sovereignty over the world, whereby we openly testify our acknowledgment and belief, that he is the Almighty Creator, Possessor, and Governor of all things, and that we are obliged to him for all the blessings we enjoy; therefore by the sacrifices which are here said to be offered by the "holy priesthood" spoken of in my text, such duties seem to be more especially understood, whereby we now set forth the glory of God, by joining together in making our public profession of our dependence upon him, and our manifold obligations to him.

5 Heb. xiii. 16.

8 Mic. vi. 6—8.

6

1 Sam. xv. 22.
7 Ps. li. 17.
9 Mark xii. 33.

Particularly our open or public praying to him, and to him alone, for all the good things that we want. For hereby we plainly discover that we believe him to be the Author and Giver of "every good and perfect gift" that we neither have, nor can have, any thing but what we receive from him; and that he is so just and true to his word, that he will give us whatsoever he knows to be good for us, "if we ask it of him according to his will." And, therefore, under the law itself their public prayers always went along with their daily sacrifices both morning and evening, and were performed at the same time, even while the lamb was roasting upon the altar; and this was itself also reckoned as a sacrifice offered up to God. "Let my prayer," saith David, "be set forth before thee as incense; and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice'."

Especially considering that prayer always was, and ought to be, accompanied with praise and thanksgiving to God, which is so properly a sacrifice, that it is often called by that name. "I will offer," saith David, “to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving 2." "And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing," or "singing 3." And this, even in those days, was more acceptable unto God than all their other sacrifices. "I will praise the name of God," saith he, "with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs." The apostle, also, to show that this is properly an evangelical sacrifice, such as St. Peter speaks of in my text, saith, "By him therefore," even by Christ, "let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name "."

But the sacrifice that is most proper and peculiar to the Gospel is the sacrament of our Lord's Supper,

3 Ps. cvii. 22.

1 Ps. cxli. 2.
Ps. Ixix. 30, 31.

2 Ps. cxvi. 17.

5 Heb. xiii. 15.

instituted by our Lord himself, to succeed all the bloody sacrifices in the Mosaic law.

For, though we cannot say, as some absurdly do, that this is such a sacrifice whereby Christ is again offered up to God both for the living and the dead, yet it may as properly be called a sacrifice as any that was ever offered, except that which was offered by Christ himself; for his, indeed, was the only true expiatory sacrifice that was ever offered. Those under the law were only types of his; and were called sacrifices only upon that account, because they typified and represented that which he was to offer for the sins of the world: and, therefore, the sacrament of Christ's body and blood may as well be called by that name as they were. They were typical, and this is a commemorative sacrifice; they foreshowed the death of Christ to come: this shows forth his death already past: "For as often," saith the apostle, "as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come." This is properly our Christian sacrifice, which neither Jews nor Gentiles can have any share in, as the apostle observes: "We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the tabernacle";" an altar, where we partake of the great Sacrifice which the eternal Son of God offered up for the sins of the whole world, and ours among the rest, that Almighty God may be reconciled to us, and receive us again into his love and favour, and make us happy in the enjoyment of it for ever; which is so great a blessing, that they who really mind their own good and welfare, can no more forbear to partake of this Sacrament when they may, than they can forbear to eat when they are hungry, and have meat before them.

These are those spiritual sacrifices which the "holy priesthood," or whole body of saints, offer up to God. The apostle calls them "spiritual," in opposition to those "carnal sacrifices" that were offered by the Levitical

1 Cor. xi. 26.

Heb. xiii. 10.