An answer to the discourse of Mr. William Sherlock, touching the knowledge of Christ,…

I shall now examine what influence the Sacrifice of Christ's Death, ¹and the ⟨p. 455⟩Righteousness of his life have upon our acceptance with God: And all that I can find in Scripture about this, is, that to this we owe the Covenant of Grace, that God being well pleased with the obedience of Christ's Life, and the sacrifice of his Death; for his sake entered into a new Covenant with mankind; wherein he promises pardon of sin and eternal life to those who believe and obey the Gospel: This is very plain with reference to Christ's death. Hence the Blood of Christ is called the blood of the covenant, Heb. 10.29. And Christ is called, the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Heb. 13.20. And the Blood of Christ is called, the blood of sprinkling, which speaks better things than the blood of Abel, Heb. 12.24. which is an allusion to Moses, his sprinkling the blood of the Sacrifice, whereby he confirmed the Covenant between God and the children of Israel, Heb. 9.19, 20, 21. For when Moses had spoken every Precept to all the people according to the Law (when he had declared the terms of this Covenant to them) he took the Blood of Calves and Goats, with Water and scarlet Wool, and Hyssop, and sprinkled both the Book, and all the ⟨p. 456⟩People, saying, This is the blood of the testament, which God hath ordained to you: Thus the Blood of Christ is called, the blood of sprinkling; Because by his Blood God did seal and confirm the Covenant of Grace, as the sprinkling of the blood of beasts did confirm the Mosaical Covenant, Hence we are said, to be justified by the blood of Christ, Rom. 5.9. that is, by the Gospel-Covenant, which was confirmed with his Blood: Christ is called a propitiation through faith in his blood,