Twenty sermons preached at Oxford before His Majesty, and elsewhere

First, For us, and so he offered up himself a Sacrifice, a sweet smelling Sacrifice unto God, Eph. 5.2. Mark the point is, he is not only the Sacrifice, but the Sacrificer. He offered up himself, saith the Apostle; He was the Priest, and it was part of his Priest-hood to offer up himself. The Sacrifices in the old Law that typified him, were only sufferers. The poor beasts were only passive: but our Saviour he must be an Actor in the business. He was active in all that he suffered. He did it in obedience to his Fathers Will, yet he was an Agent in all his Passions, John 11.43. He groaned in Spirit, and was troubled; the Greek is [Greek or Hebrew], or (as it is in the Margin) He troubled himself. With us in our Passions it is otherwise: we are mere sufferers. Our Saviour was a Conqueror over all his passions, and therefore unless he would trouble himself, none else could trouble him: unless he would lay down his life, none could take it from him; unless he would give his cheek to be smitten, the Jews had no power to smite it. Isa. 50.6. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, and hid not my face from shame and spitting. In all these we should consider our Saviour, not as a Sacrifice only, but a Sacrificer also; an Actor in all this business: their wicked hands were not more ready to smite, then he was to give his face to be smitten, and all to show that it was a voluntary Sacrifice. He did all himself; He humbled himself unto the death, Phil. 2.8. And now by all this we see what we have gotten: we have ⟨p. 83⟩gotten a remedy and satisfaction for sins. That precious blood of that immaculate Lamb takes away the sins of the world, because it is the Lamb of God, under which else the World would have eternally groaned.

First, For us, and so he offered up himself a Sacrifice, a sweet smelling Sacrifice unto God, Eph. 5.2. Mark the point is, he is not only the Sacrifice, but the Sacrificer. He offered up himself, saith the Apostle; He was the Priest, and it was part of his Priest-hood to offer up himself. The Sacrifices in the old Law that typified him, were only sufferers. The poor beasts were only passive: but our Saviour he must be an Actor in the business. He was active in all that he suffered. He did it in obedience to his Fathers Will, yet he was an Agent in all his Passions,