mand of the holy law. God cannot justify the sinner, nor accept of him as righteous, unless he hath a complete righteousness; not a lame, partial, and imperfect righteousness; but a righteousness every way commen surate to the extensive precept of the law, will satisfy an infinitely holy God. As infinite justice cannot be satisfied, without a complete satisfaction, answering to the threatening and penalty of the law; so the infinite holiness of God cannot be satisfied without a perfect obedience, answerable to the precept and command of the law. Now, our natural want of ability to yield satisfaction, and our natural want of perfect conformity to the law, make justice and holiness, and other perfections of God, stand in the way of our salvation, and of our access to heaven, like a vail that can never be rent by us; especially considering, that there is,

3. A third vail, and that is the vail of sin on our part. This is a separating vail betwixt God and us, Isa. lix. 2. "Your iniquities have separated betwixt you and your God." Now, before we can get near unto God, this vail must be rent, the guilt of sin must be expiated; for without shedding of blood there is no remission: the filth of sin must be purged; for, who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord, and stand in his holy place, but he that hath clean hands and a pure heart? The power of sin must be broken.-There is by nature, in us all a power of ignorance; our minds are become a dungeon of darkness, and this is such a vail betwixt God and us, that unless it be removed, there is no hopes of mercy: therefore says the prophet, "It is a people of no understanding; therefore he that made them, will not have mercy on them."-There is in us a power of enmity, "The carnal mind is enmity against God," &c. We are enemies to God by wicked works; this is another vail that must be rent by the arm of almighty power; for it is a vail and curtain that the devil hath strongly wrought, like a web, with the warp and waft of pride, carnality, security, worldliness, and all other wickedness whatsoever, which are but so many threads and pieces of this web, this vail of enmity.There is a power of unbelief, that is another vail, that on our part stands betwixt us and the

holy place, and separates us from divine favour; « He that believeth not, is condemned already."

II. The second thing, How the death of Christ hath rent the vail; when he gave up the ghost, behold the vail was rent.

1. By the death of Christ the vail of a broken covenant was rent in twain, so as we might get to God through that vail of the law; for the law was fulfilled in every part of it, by his obedience to the death. Was the precept of the law a perfect obedience? Well, Christ by his obedience to the death, did magnify the law, and make it honourable, brought in an everlasting righteousness: his death was the finishing stroke, the highest act of that obedience whereby the law was fulfilled. Was the promise of life in the law, or first covenant forfeited by us? Well, Christ rent this vail by redeeming the forfeiture with the price of his blood: he bought back the inheritance for us that we had lost, making a purchase of us, and of eternal salvation for us. Was the penalty of death in the law standing also in the way? Well, Christ comes in the sinner's room, endures this penalty, by coming under the curse of the law, becoming obedient to the death, enduring the wrath of God, and delivering us from the wrath to come: and so behold, the vail of a broken covenant was rent.

2. By the death of Christ, the vail of God's injured attributes, that stood betwixt God and us, was rent and removed. Christ hath satisfied the justice of God, by offering himself a sacrifice, Eph. v. 2. This offering being through the eternal spirit, it was of infinite worth and value: here the altar sanctified the gift; the altar was the Godhead of Christ, the offering was made upon the altar of the divine nature; and therefore this blood of Christ is called the blood of God. This sacrifice was of infinite worth and value, for doing the business of poor man, in atoning justice, and so rending this vail. But now, as Christ hath satisfied the justice of God, by enduring the penalty and threatening of the law; so he hath vindicated the holiness of God, by fulfilling the precept and command of the law, which he not only did through the whole course of his

life, but perfectly finished in his death. Now, if Christ hath fulfilled the law, satisfied the justice, and vindicated the holiness of God, by his obedience to the death, then we may see and say, "Behold the vail was rent." But,

3. There is the vail of sin on our part: How is this rent by the 'death of Christ? Why, the Lamb was sacrificed to rend and remove this vail," Behold the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world." By his death, the guilt of sin is expiated; for God set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins, &c. By his death the filth of sin is purged; "For the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin:" and that both meritoriously and efficaciously; for, by his death, the power of sin also is broken fundamentally, seeing by his death he purchased the spirit; which, in due time, he pours out, and thereby actually removes the vail on our part, which he had done fundamentally and virtually on the cross. By this purchased spirit he rends the vails of darkness and ignorance: "The God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, shines into the heart," &c. All the light of nature, reason, education, and human literature cannot rend this vail, till the man receive the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ. By this purchased spirit he rends the vail of enmity, shedding abroad his love upon the heart; and indeed the view and apprehension of God's mighty love in Christ, can rend that mighty vail of enmity; for we love him whenever we see that he first loved us, 1 John iv. 19. When the soul sees the God, whose majesty he dreaded, is now a God in Christ, reconciled to the soul through the sacrifice that Christ offered up, then the soul is reconciled to God, and so the vail of enmity rent in twain. By this purchased spirit he rends also the vail of unbelief; for, as he is a spirit of light, to remove the vail of darkness, and a spirit of love, to remove the vail of enmity; so he comes into the heart, as a spirit of faith, and removes the vail of unbelief: he begins the rent of humiliation, when he rends the heart in twain with a sense of sin, and a sight of its undone state; when he

makes the soul take with sin, and justify the Lord, though he should damn him for his sin. He makes the rent of the vail wider by a gracious manifestation, like that, John, ii. 11. "He manifested forth his glory, and his disciples believed on him." Thus he rends the vail of unbelief: and completes the rent of this vail when faith is turned into vision. Thus you see how by his death the vail was rent.

III. The third thing, In what manner was the vail rent? All I say on this head, shall be an allusion shortly to the rending of the vail of the temple here: which we see, was in a wonderful manner ushered in with a behold.

1. Behold, it was RENT; not only drawn aside, but rent. The curtain was not only drawn aside, but torn to pieces, as if God had been displeased at the vail of partition betwixt him and us; angry at the vail of separation, and enraged that there should have been any vail to intercept between him and us. God's heart was set upon a reconciliation betwixt him and us, and therefore his hand tears the curtain that was hanging up betwixt him and us; gave it such a rent, as it might never be whole again; all the devils in hell cannot sew up the rent, so as to disappoint God's design of bringing his people into union and communion with him.

2. Behold, the vail of the temple was not only rent, but rent in TWAIN: the vail that was one, was made two, that God and man, who were two, might be made one. It was not half rent, but wholly rent; rent in twain, a full and complete rent; shewing, that Christ, by his death, would not be a half Saviour, but a complete Saviour, and the author of a full and complete salvation; taking entirely out of the way whatever separated betwixt God and us, not leaving so much as a stitch of the curtain to hold the two sides of the vail together; no, the vail was rent in twain. And not only so, but,

3. Behold the vail was rent FROM THE TOP TO THE BOTTOM: The vail was rent from the TOP, the highest thing that separated betwixt God and us was rent in twain; we could never have reached up to the top of the vail: yea, the hands and arms of all the men on

earth, and angels in heaven, were too short to reach to the top of the infinite justice and holiness of God, that interposed betwxt him and us: the top of this vail, this wall of partition, was higher than heaven; what could we or any other creature do for rending it from the top? But Christ put up his hand, as it were, to the top of the vail, and rent it from the top. The rent begins at the top, but it does not stop here: For,

4. The vail is also rent to the BOTTOM: the bottom of this vail, that did separate betwixt God and us, did reach as deep as the bottom of hell: who could descend to hell for us to rend the vail to the bottom? According to the lamentation of one Joannes Seneca upon his death-bed, We have here, (says he) some that will go 'to the quire for us, some that will play for us, some 'that will say mass for us, some that will pray for us; but where is there one that will go to hell for us?" But, O happy believer, Christ is one that hath gone to hell for you, that he might quench all the flames of hell with his blood, and conquer all the powers of hell that were in the way betwixt you and heaven. He descended to hell, in a manner, that he might rend the bottom of the vail. But there is yet more here, he not only rends the vail at the top and at the bottom, but,

5. From the top to the bottom ALL is rent; both the top and the bottom, and all that is betwixt the top and the bottom, all the impediments betwixt heaven and hell are removed. Though heaven be purchased, and hell vanquished, yet there might be something in the earth, something in the world, betwixt heaven and hell that might obstruct the passage to the holiest; well, but the rent is from the top to the bottom: all that comes betwixt the top and the bottom is rent as well as both ends; so that there is access from the lowest part of misery to the highest happiness, a long rent, in a manner, from the top of heaven to the bottom of hell. We fell as low as hell by sin, but Christ by his death hath made an open way from hell to heaven; for, "Behold, the vail was rent in twain from the top to the bottom."

IV. The fourth thing, for what END was the vail rent? I shall tell you only these two ends of it. 1. That