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THE

OPENING SERMON

BEFORE THE

CONVENED WITH THE

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, BROOKLYN,

JUNE 17,,. 1851.

BT BEV. THOMAS ARMITAGE, A.M.

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ROLMAN * GRAY, PUBLISHERS AND PRINTERS, U6 WILLIAM STBEET.
1851.

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THE

OPENING SERMON

BEFORE THE

Jinbott %iwx SUanriatirm $nfy.

CONVENED WITH THE

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, BROOKLYN,

JUNE 17, 1851.

BT REV. THOMAS ARMITAGE, A.M.

Ntto-HHavk:

HOLMAN <fc GRAY, PUBLISHERS AND PRINTERS, U6 WILLIAM STREET.
1851. .

New York, Jane 23, 1851.

Rev. Thomas Armitage :
Dear Sir — The undersigned, believing that your sermon preached before the
Hudson River Association South, and repeated by request of your church and congre
gation, in their place of worship, is worthy of publication, and would be read by many
with great benefit to the cause of evangelical truth, respectfully solicit a copy of the
same for the Press.

Very truly yours,
LEVI DTJRYEA,
B. M. CASSIDY,
NORMAN COOK,
J. P. BLIVEN,
CHARLES A. BALDWIN,
DANIEL BRITTON,

RICHARD E. PETERSON,
RICHARD HUNT,
P. E. RANDOLPH.
SIMEON S. TRAVIS,
SANDY HIGGINS,
ANDREW 3?. SWANY,
CHARLES T. GOODWIN.

To Messrs. Richard E. Peterson, Richard Hunt, and others.
Beloved Brethren — "Benefit to the cause of evangelical truth," should be the
aim of every Christian. And if in your judgment, the publication of the above named
sermon will in any measure contribute to the furtherance of that blessed cause, it is
herewith submitted to your service ; attended with the earnest prayer, that whatever
of gospel truth it contains, may be sanctified to the glory of God and the salvation
of men. Yours affectionately, THOMAS ARMITAGE.
New York, June 24, 1851.

SERMON.

Heb. 13: 10. "We have an Altar."
The history of the altar and the history of man is an indissoluble unit.
"Write the history of humanity, and you have penned the history of the )
altar. Pen the history of the altar, and you have written the history of?
humanity. Hence, the altar has ever occupied a more prominent place in (
the thoughts and affections of man, than any other object. It has exerted )
a mightier influence in molding his character, in modifying his relations, in /
controlling his conscience, his heart, and his destinies, than all else connected <,
with his existence. No age of the world, no nation, no tribe, no clan, nor )
individual, in any sphere or under any circumstances, has been entirely )
exempt from its influences. The altar has identified itself with the throne,
the senate, the cottage, and the jungle. Altars have stretched in an inter
minable succession from people to people, from pole to pole ; marking every
phase of barbarism, every step of civilization, every form of civil polity, and
every religious system. From the most remote period to this hour, when
have their fires been quenched 1 In what cloud has not their columns of
smoke mingled ? In what mountain or vale have not their victims been
immolated 1 And what people have not delighted to pay homage before
them? Not the pagans, surely, for the altar has ever been both the basis and
the boast of paganism. Did they fear the approach or deprecate the presence
of disaster and calamity 7 Immediately a hecatomb of victims is bound to
the altar, for the purpose of averting wrath or propitiating favor. Did
they return thanks for blessings 1 Not until they had imbrued then-
hands, and the turf of their forests, in sacrificial blood. Would they
clothe their chiefs with authority, sanctioned with the solemnity of an
oath 1 That oath must be administered over fumes of incense, arising from
some " Altar of Victory," as that at the vestibule of the Roman Senate-
chamber, on which oaths were administered daily. For in the altar they
discovered a power to awe the profligate — to terrify the perjurer — to
restrain the perfidious — to ratify the pledge of fidelity — and to bind all in
the bands of unity. They visited the altar before a conflict and after a
victory ; in times of pestilence and in times of health ; before appealing to
a court of judicature^ or inquiring at the shrine of an oracle. Their altars

OPENING SERMON.

were personal and anonymous, for they had " gods many and lords many,"
to whom they were dedicated in common with " unknown gods." In a
word, the glory and shame of paganism is the altar.
And is it less true, that the altar is the basis and the boast of Judaism 1
Take away the altar from the religion of the Jew, and the glory has
departed. Tou have dampened his best hopes, and awakened his worst
fears. With him the gaudy temple is a mere toy, and the imposing
priesthood a flitting shadow, in the absence of the altar. David was not
the only Jew who has said, " I will go to the altar of God, unto God my
exceeding joy." In the altar of God was a recognition of sin — of deserved
punishment — and of Divine propitiation — with freedom of access to God.
Therefore in olden times, every Jew kept his eye and heart steadfastly
fixed upon the altar. The peasant had an eye to it when he scattered his
seed, and put in his sickle, and bound up his sheaves. The shepherd had an
eye to it, in the skipping of every lamb, and in the bleating of every herd.
The whole Jewish tenantry daily welcomed the rising sun, because his first
beams kissed the morning altar ; and rejoiced in his daily setting, because
his last rays smiled upon the embers of the evening offering. They also
hailed every revolution of the seasons, because, three times a year they
summoned the tribes to the solemn places of propitiation. And singular
and perplexing as is the condition of that people to-day — singular and
perplexing as are their properties of character, their opinions of faith, and
their practices ; there is nothing about them so perplexing to a contempla
tive mind, as the thought that there is still fostered in their souls, the
hope of one day raising their acclamations and hosannahs around the
empurpled altars of Shiloh ! While the revolutions of time, the rise and
fall of kingdoms, and the rapid march of science, have either obliterated
whole races of Gentiles, or so amalgamated them as to annihilate their
identity, this burning love for the altar has superintended the erratic
generations of the Jewish people, so that even now, as distinctly as in
former ages, their every son and daughter bears unmistakable marks of
Abrahamic origin ! Their corruption of morals and their fiscal prer
eminence, have not superinduced forgetfulness of the altar; while the
instituted oppressions and attempted extirpations of ancient and modern
foes, have in no measure quenched their love for its fires ! Alas ! that the
execrating prayer of their fathers should still hang and tingle on the ear
of Jehovah ! Alas ! that their cry, " His blood be upon us, and upon our
children,'' should ever have rent the air, in discordant suppliancy with the
imploring voice of the dying Savior ! That awful prayer was registered
on high. For when once the hand that was transfixed to the cross had seized
the mediatorial sceptre, it was fearfully answered, by pressing to the lips
of those who uttered it, a cup of indignation and wrath, tribulation and
anguish, compared with which wormwood is nectar, and gall is honey !

HUDSON RIVER ASSOCIATION SOUTH.

That blindness which happened to them then, still clouds their vision.
For if we approach a Jew with the proffer of salvation by Jesus Christ, he
is grievously offended at the absence of all the physical apparatus of
propitiation in the gospel. He contemptuously rejects the gospel as
utterly unworthy of his credence or notice. Or at the least, he demands
in connection with it, the attractive appendages found in the system he is
exhorted to abjure ; he demands a priesthood, a sacrifice, and an altar !
Nor is that demand at all met, when pointed as by the Romish Pontiff, to
an altar of wood or stone, to a mitred Priesthood, and to the Eucharistic
elements. " There," he exclaims, " is the altar and the wood, but where is
the Lamb for a burnt-offering ?" There may be an altar, but is it built
according to the pattern shown in the mount 1 There may be a sacrifice,
but it is an unbloody one, therefore an abortive and inefficient sacrifice.
And can he be withstood in these protestations ?
My Christian brethren, is the Christian religion then, the only religion
which can boast no sacrifice, no altar? Must we after all, yield the palm to
the pagan and the Jew, and confess our entire destitution of these fundamental
requisites 1 I hear a response of dissent ; a voice from the text says, No.
No. " We have an altar." And an altar, so overreaching in superiority
the claims of every other, as to disallow all right of participancy in its
provisions, to the votaries of the abrogated covenant. " We have an altar,
whereof they have no right to eat, who serve the tabernacle." A living
altar, a gospel altar, the joy of our hearts, and the hope of our lives. An
altar which has stood for ages with acceptance in the Divine presence ;
and we rejoice to find it still here this morning — "Jesus Christ the same
yesterday, to-day, and for ever."
Brethren, let me exhort you then, with confidence and joy, yet with fear
and trembling, to gird up the loins of your minds, and accompany me, with
your solemn festal sacrifices, to our gospel-altar this morning, that we
may contemplate there —
I. Its elemental characteristics.
II. Its sacerdotal glories.
Contemplate I. The gospel-altar in its elemental characteristics.
In the New Testament style, we sometimes find that the term " altar,"
is used to denote the sacrifice upon it. As when Paul says, that " those
who eat of the sacrifices are partakers of the altar." The term is here
used in an accommodated sense, as the term "cross" is used, in several
instances in which the apostles speak of "preaching the cross," and "glory
ing in the cross." Evidently alluding not to the portions of wood so
denominated, but to the merit and satisfaction, resulting from sufferings
endured in connexion with the cross of wood. So that to "preach the
cross," and " to glory in the cross," in the apostolic sense, is to preach and
to glory in an atoning Savior; and thus to glory in and preach the

OPENING SERMON.

Savior,' is to glory in and preach the cross. In like manner, the term
" altar " as applied by the apostle to Christ, relates to the offering of Him
self in sacrifice. And not to that only, but also to the sanctifying efficacy
of His atonement, as establishing a Christian altar ; to which we may bring
all our sacrifices and services. The erection of any material altar for this
purpose, would be derogatory to His sacrifice, and to Him as an altar ; while
it would disqualify us entirely, for compUance with the requisition of the
fifteenth verse ; " By him therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to
God continually.'' And again. " Ye are a holy priesthood, to offer up
spiritual sacrifices ; acceptable to God, by Jesus Christ."
Every priest Standing and daily offering sacrifices, must needs have an
altar at which to officiate. For there can be no priest without an altar.
And an altar is useless without a sacrifice. Hence if we offer sacrifices to
God by Christ, Christ is our altar. And if the Savior offered His soul a
sacrifice for sin, that upon which He offered it, was His altar. He was not a
priest without a sacrifice, He presented no sacrifice without an altar, and
His altar was His own incomprehensible nature ; therefore in the incompre
hensible nature of Jesus, " We have an Altar." The gospel-altar then, is a
perfect embodiment of the Divine essence ; and at the same time, a perfect
representation of human necessity.
Two striking characteristics stand forth in the whole gospel scheme.
Necessity and fullness. Weakness and power.* God directing, and man
following. We discover these in the first developments of the redemptive
economy. Scarcely have I read in the Divine Word, of man's mighty intel
lect and passions, enwrapt in adoration of his Maker, and hallowed by His
heavenly image ; before I see that mighty heart petrified by depravity, and
that giant intellect enchained by sin. He who but yesterday, found his
sole delight in the service of his Creator, and sent his soul on the fleetest
pinions to read the glory of God in distant spheres, or stooping to hold
delightful converse with God in the smiling flower, and the blade of grass
at his feet ; now stands in need of heavenly illumination to make him
comprehend what is right, and of spiritual influence, to move his passions,
to affect his heart, and to dispose him to do it. What is meant by the
terror and trembling of the first pair, as they walk through the garden in
the cool of the day 1 What alarms them ? True, they hear a voice— but it
is the voice of their Friend, the voice of their Benefactor. A voice well
known, and often heard. Why then this panting of the heart under the
shade of the trees 1 Ah ! in this first strange throbbing of the human
breast, is a testimony of guilt and defencelessness. But yet no greater an
exhibition of guilt, than of the rich displays of infinite mercy, forthwith,
opened to them in the covenant of grace. For there can be no doubt that
when the first promise was given to them, there was given with it, an ade
quate idea of the oblation by which they were to be redeemed. And this

HUDSON RIVER ASSOCIATION SOUTH.

not only in simple language, but likewise in the slaughter and sacrifice of
tho beasts with the skim of which the " Lord God" clothed them that day.
Here was the first lesson in the doctrines of grace, and the first illumination
of those doetrines before man, in the first evening sacrifice presented by the
hands of the great " High Priest," Himself. If Christ finally put away
sin, in the end of the world, by offering the last evening sacrifice, it was
not until he had prefigured it by the presentation of the first, in Eden.
Certain it is, that blood flowed, and that beasts were slain in Eden, and
that God the Son in visible personage slew them, for the Messiah said, " He
that hath seen me, hath seen the Father." Yet " no man hath seen the
Father but the Son." There could be no purposes for which they were
slain, of which at least we can have any conception, excepting those of food,
and covering, and sacrifice. To suppose that life was taken for the purposes
of raiment, is unreasonable, as this demand could have been amply met in the
fleece of the flock, without pouring out its life. And as to food, living crea
tures were not needed at that time, for God had said unto Adam, " Behold I
have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth,
and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed ; to you it shall
be for meat." Indeed we have no evidence whatever, that the flesh of
animals was used for food at all, before the deluge. For it was not till after
the flood that God said to Noah, " Every moving- thing that liveth, shall be
meat for you." The fair conclusion therefore is, that these beasts were
slain by Jehovah, for sacrificial purposes. Here then, we see man's help
lessness, and at the same time the divine provision. Man could know his
misery, and feel his misery, and plead his guilt, but he could not devise a
system of expiation. And as to atonement for sin being found in the
substitution of another, it was not only unnatural, but contrary to, and
above reason, to suppose that the death of the innocent could satisfy for
the sin of the guilty. Then provided he had made the discovery, he had
nothing whatever to offer. Everything about him belonged to God. Could he
have moved the whole hierarchy of heaven, to march in solemn procession, to
lay down their lives for him, it would have been of no avail. Because they
never could have established the claims of merit. Every created intelli
gence, angelic, or super-angelic, owes all his life and powers to God, and
holds them in trust for his service. So that when he has devoted every
moment, and every motion of his being to God, he has but discharged a
bare debt to his Creator, without establishing any claim of merit. Merit is
established upon a work of supererogation, the doing of more than duty
binds us to do. But as no creature can ever do more than his duty, he
can never establish such a claim. Here then steps in God's appointment,
and in that appointment we see a symbolic reference in Eden, to the great
Restorer of the human race. For a time, he was to be concealed under the
vail of mysterious allusions, or enveloped in clouds of ambiguous figures

OPENING SERMON.

and emblems ; still sufficiently opening the economy of redemption, as to
enable Adam and his children to present their offerings to God by him, on
altars devoted to this purpose.
Thus Cain and Abel approached their altars with their several sacrifices.
Each laid his offering before the Lord to await an answer, with this
important distinction between them, that Abel was actuated by faith in all
he did. The faith of the stripling priest, saw a pregnancy of meaning in
the quivering of every nerve, and the gushing of every bloody stream, from
the breast of "the first-born of the flock." Heaven and hell gazed with
astonishment upon these strange transactions, " Which things the angels
desired to look into." Amazement took hold of all created responsibilities.
The heart of Divinity beat with quickened pulsations. The sacrificial
torch is applied — " God testified of his gifts" in answering by fire, and on
the smoking pile was written to him that could read it, " Behold the Lamb
of God who taketh away the sin of the world."
£ From age to age, in this manner, the minds of men became accustomed to
the connexion between the pardon of sin, and the shedding of blood. Until
it became the undisputed tenet of all nations, that " Without the shedding
of blood there is no remission of sin." In the same way, antideluvian
patriarchal faith, and piety, came to the distinction between clean and
unclean beasts and birds, so that at the flood " the preacher of righteousness"
preserved the clean by sevens, while the unclean were admitted into the ark
only by pairs. Noah thus instructed, no sooner issued forth of the ark into
the new world than he "built an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean
beast and every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings on it." The ablu
tion of the earth with water was not sufficient. It must be washed with
blood in order fully to purge its guilt. Before human blood could be
allowed to circulate again throughout this vast waste, the life of clean
victims was required by the effusion of blood, as the only medium through
which life circulated. Therefore a strangled bird or beast, must not touch
that or any altar, but the warm life of the victim must be freely poured
out. And as it began to flow, " The Lord smelled a sweet savor, and the
Lord said in his heart, I will not curse the ground any more for man's sake."
Keeping these things in view, a patriarch no sooner pitched his tent in
any place, than he also built an altar, and there by sacrifice called upon the
name of the Lord. While the warriors of antiquity marked their progress
by the ruins of encampments and the heaps of the slain, the stations of these
"fathers of the faithful," were traced by the altars they reared, as monu
ments of their reconciliation to God, and of their peace with men. And
when God made choice of a covenanted people, the sacrificial rites were
rather augmented than diminished. Every truth, and every ordinance
was made vocal with their wonderful significancy. The watchword on
every breeze— the badge of every order — and every letter of the ritual — '

HUDSON RIVER ASSOCIATION SOUTH.

proclaimed from morning to night — from new-moon to new-moon — from
jubilee to jubilee — " Atonement — Atonement — Atonement !" This in fact was
all the church heard or knew. Blood was constantly streaming before her
eyes, and in the most striking manner pointing to that great and perfect
atonement to be made by the anti-typical Mediator, on the holy anti-typical
Altar, when he should " remove the iniquity of the land in one day."
Never did human architect draft a plan and execute it in detail with accu
racy as infallible, as that with which both the shadow and substance was
arranged to be studied by the spiritual Jew. And he, seeing the day of
Christ with gladness, stretched his faith beyond the shadow, to draw life
from the substance. That Jew must have been blind indeed, who even
before the time of the Tabernacle, could discover nothing prefigurative in the
requirement of Jehovah, that every altar built, should be left in its natural
state, and that no tool should be raised upon it, to dress or polish it. And
blinder still must he have been, who in either the Tabernacle or Temple,
could vacantly gaze upon the brazen and golden altars, without descrying in
them "a shadow of good things to come;" when God should, as he had
promised, raise up unto his people, " a horn of salvation."
Thus my brethren, along the whole tract of revelation, from the first, we
perceive the great Restorer of the human race, hastening forward, through
successive scenes of symbolic instruction, typical representation, and pro
phetic discovery, to that august "fullness of time" appointed by infinite
wisdom, as the maturity of preceding ages, and " the bringing in of the
only-begotten, into the world," when the Christian church should rejoice in
this exultation, " We have an Altar."
That " fullness of time" having arrived, the " Lamb of God," was manifested
jn his true redeeming character, as " the seed of the woman," " in the form of
a servant." This was absolutely necessary, that the full penalty of sin, might
be endured by one of the descendants of the guilty progenitors. For if
every attribute of our nature was not consolidated into the very elemental
being of the atoning victim, our abject necessity could not be properly
represented in the remedial expedient.
Our Deliverer must be a human Deliverer ; and as such, he must be free
from the general pollution of human nature, or death would have been his
own doom in the regular administrations of justice, and there could have
been no merit whatever in its endurance. A valueless and impure sacrifice
was ever abhorred. There must be some value in the offering, either relative
or intrinsic, to command even the faith of the penitent, not to name the
favor of the propitiated.
Let it always be borne in mind, then, that our Priest and Sacrifice was
truly man. Man, pure and spotless, " holy, harmless, undefiled and separate
from sinners." Man, not of the human race by natural generation, but by
voluntary action. Not connected nearly or remotely with any imputed
2

10

OPENING SERMON.

moral taint ; for as He was never in the loins of Adam, He never came under
the ban of imputed condemnation. In Him we behold the expression of
pure Divine benevolence, brought down to the observation of our senses,
and yet presented to our hearts in the attractive character of a friend and
BROTHER ! He tenderly sympathized with the various scenes of want and
wretchedness which so constantly flitted before Him, and to every case
afforded His miraculous assistance, sharing the sorrows of the afflicted, and
healing the broken-hearted. The tears He shed at the tomb of Lazarus, — the
pathetic lamentation He poured forth over guilty Jerusalem, — the heart
rending look by which He recalled the apostate Peter, — the prayer He
offered in His last moments for those who were shedding His blood, — and
the warm living sensibility, by which He was not ashamed to call His
meanest followers brethren, — all testify to the purity, the tenderness, the
perfection of His spirit as a human Redeemer.
But further, it was necessary that this redeeming Kinsman should possess
a nature corresponding in dignity and worth, with the nature of that Being
to whom He was to make satisfaction by His death. On no other principle
could it be consistent with God, to receive the death of one individual as
a satisfactory atonement for the sin of many. For although a divine
nature, that is, God as God, could not bleed and die, a divine person could
do both. For the person being one, the acts and sufferings of each nature
are the acts and sufferings of the same person. Hence the " holy thing,"
formed by the Holy Spirit, was so united to the " Eternal Word," that the
two natures became one person. And this, without either conversion or
confusion of natures, Godhead not losing an attribute of character, and
manhood not losing an atom of its identity. He, who from eternity had
subsisted in " the form of God, being the effulgence of the Father's glory,
and the express image of His person, was found in fashion as a man."
At the birth of Christ you see a man persecuted by Herod, and a God
adored by eastern Sages. At the immersion of Christ you see a man immersed
by the hands of John in Jordan, and you hear a God proclaimed from
heaven by the voice of the Invisible. In the struggling ship you see a
man who slumbers, overpowered by the weakness of the flesh ; and on the
crest of the roaring billow, you see; a; God imposing silence on wind and
wave by a word. In the field you behold a man breaking bread to a
starving multitude ; and on its emerald bosom, you see a God blessing and
multiplying it. At the mouth of that sepulchre you see the heaving bosom
and falling tear of a man ; but the voice of a God calls back from glory, the
spirit of a believing Jew, to re-animate a body which had been dead four
days. On the cross a man bleeds, and groans, and dies ; . but a God agitates
universal nature to an emotion. In the grave you see a man laying down
his body ; but you see a God, taking it up again ! "0 the depth of the

HUDSON RIVER ASSOCIATION SOUTH. 11
riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God ! How unsearchable are
his judgments, and his ways past finding out !"
Brethren, without this mysterious combination of natures in the person
of Jesus, He could not have presented to the Father a satisfactory oblation
for the sins of the world. As man He could not atone, as God He could not
suffer; but as God-man He did both, by which we can rejoice to-day in the
assurance that we have both a sacrifice and " an Altar."
It is not only the province of an altar to receive and sustain whatever gift
is laid upon it, but the altar must also sanctify that gift. This the cross of
wood could not do. So far from it, indeed, that it is written, " cursed is
every one that hangeth on a tree." Had the tree, then, been His only altar,
the first howling curse which prowled about it, must have shattered both
victim and altar into nonentity. The altar upon which His soul must be
bound a bloody offering for sin, must be fitted to endure the fiercest scorch-
ings of intense wrath, until its vehemen-e should consume the holocaust to
its ashes, and lick the trenches of the water and the blood ! On the stead
fastness of that altar hung considerations and consequences more momentous
than this universe had ever witnessed before. The historic page had
testified of the curdled life-stream of millions, in which warriors had dyed
their garments to the deepest hue,— of maddened passions excited and
inspired by the spirit of a diabolical ambition, until fiend-like elements were
enkindled in the souls of furies, who rushed forth to administer indiscrimi
nate burial, beneath the escutcheon, the banner, or the shroud ! The annals
of time had taken cognizance of banished seers, impaled prophets, and a
noble army of ghastly martyrs. The experience of man was desperately
intimate with the tender mercies of conflagration, the appalling tramp of
earthquake, the pallied petrefaction of pestilence — together with the blotting
out of empires in a day, and the overthrow of monarchies in a night ! But
oh ! to see the Infinite God rise from his throne in anger ! Oli ! to see the
heavens arched with the dark cloud of vengeance — man's moral destiny
written on the brow of that arch in characters blacker than itself, — and the
angel of death standing to seal the curse, and execute the doom of earth !
Oh! to think of heaven eternally lost — hell securely purchased — and count
less generations sinking for ever, amid the roar of a thousand thousand fiery
cataracts, to swell the congregation of the damned ! But oh ! above all, to
feel the burning anger of an outraged Infinite, scorching the mystic nerves
of a holy soul, and sending sick convulsions to its inner chambers ! Oh ! to )
attract the descending thunderbolts of Jehovah, launched with a frown, /
against the " Fellow of his bosom, while in the act of treading the '-wine
press alone" — surely to endure this, called for no Altar less unchangeable
and unmoveable, than the God-head of the Eternal Son ! Another Altar
than this must have been utterly demolished under the mountain of guilt
which pressed it, and the stormy elements which encompassed it. Already,

12 OPENING SERMON.

in Gethsemane, unsustained humanity had thrice deprecated this vengeance c (
and had thrice unfolded the anatomy of a wounded spirit, prostrated in
appeal to the Father, " that if possible this cup might pass away !"
And if spotless humanity itself began to sink in agony, under the first
consumings of Divine wrath, how much less could a cross of wood afford an
adequate altar, for the endurance of its intensest burnings, when it became
necessary for the Godhead to transfuse an infinite value to every pang, by
which the humanity was excruciated, when the Son of God " tasted death
for every man !" Therefore, my brethren, when we glory, let us glory in
this, (and let no man rob us of our glorying,) that not only have we in
Jesus Christ, a Priest and a sacrifice, but in him also " we have an Altar,"
which is at once a full embodiment of the Divine essence, and a perfect
representative of human necessity.
We will now, in as brief a manner as possible, consider
II. The Gospel-altar in its sacerdotal glories. These are intrinsic and
relative ; but, at the present we will mention only two, and these are relative
glories. 1. Then we remark that one crowning glory of the Savior's sacrifice upon
the Divine altar, is, that it was accepted as a perfect sacrifice. The perfection
of His sacrifice will appear in part, when we consider that it was voluntary.
The willing consecration of a sacrifice to God was essentially necessary, even
under the law. This made it a " corban," a gift sacredly dedicated to God.
In this, however, is apparent the inadequacy of the Levitical Institutions, to
give a perfect, clear, and full representation of the great Antitype. However
willing the offerer might be, the struggling victim was forcibly dragged to
the altar. But in Christ, the true sacrifice for sin, we behold an illustrious
display of voluntary self-consecration. What disinterested love ! What
generous magnanimity in all His words and actions on this great occasion !
" He who was rich for our sakes become poor ;" moved about among His
own tenantry, almost unrecognized and unconfessed, everywhere scattering
blessings, and in return receiving blasphemies. Scarcely did a friend stretch
out the hand of kindness, or tender Him a shelter for a night, among all the
tribes whom He blessed. Yet He displayed all the virtues of a devoted and
willing mind. When His own countrymen desired to invest Him with regal
power, He eluded their purpose by working a miracle and disappeared ; but
when they sought His life, He willingly surrendered Himself. He blamed
Peter for attempting to hinder Him in the prosecution of the work on which
His heart was set, while He hastened Judas to the speedy execution of His
diabolical share in the tragical scene. When tho rude and merciless mob,
armed with swords and staves, came forth to take Him, His very presence
filled them with terror, and they fell back as though struck with lightning
from heaven. "Thinkest thou," (said He to Peter, who sincerely but
imprudently interposed,) " Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my

HUDSON RIVER ASSOCIATION SOUTH. 13
Father, and He shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels."
Gladly would they have hastened to rescue Him 'from the violence of His
assailants. But it was the hour of redemption, and it well became Him to
be " led as a lamb to the slaughter." And when He brought the mysterious
scheme of redemption to its consummation, He showed that the dismissal of
His spirit was the act of His own free and unconquered mind, as He said,
" Father; into thy hands I commend my spirit," and cried, " It is finished !"
But it was necessary that the sacrifice of Christ should be virtuous as
well as voluntary, in order to be accepted. And that it was so, is evident
from the declaration of the apostle, " this man, because he hath offered one
sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down at the right hand of God ;" affording a
striking combination of law and grace, in which " mercy and truth have
met together, and righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Accord
ing to the law, sacrifice was appointed for the smallest offences, but not for
the greatest. For instance no atonement was provided for idolatry and
murder. These crimes admitted of no legal expiation, and the transgressor
was to be punished with death. But by this method of redemption, the
"law is magnified and made honorable" in every part, so that God is as
much glorified in the death of Christ, as he could have been in the personal
condemnation of the greatest of sinners. From that cross on which the
agonized sufferer cried, " It is finished !" there ascended to heaven the
smoke of a sacrifice, the merit of which extends through all the periods of
time, and procures blessings for all the successive generations of men, from
the first parent of our race down to his last descendant. In Gethsemane,
He received the cup of trembling from the hands of the Father, and on
Calvary He drank it to its dregs. It was then and there that He
stretched forth His bleeding hand, and gathering together the sentence of
death, which had extended over the human family, He " took it out of the way,
nailing it to His cross." His sufferings must necessarily precede the glory into
which He did not, could not sacerdotally enter, until He had obtained " eter
nal redemption " for the objects of His love. But after having on His own
Altar offered the expiatory sacrifice, taking with Him the blood thereof, or in
plain terms, invested most fully with its meritorious virtue, He proceeded to
minister in the "true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man." As
He advanced toward it, the cherubim who guarded the way to the tree of life,
sheathed their flaming swords, and fell back, that a path of entrance into
the "holiest of all" might be opened. When He presented Himself before
that unapproachable light in which the Godhead dwells, it assumed a new
and more glorious form, and broke forth upon the vision of the surrounding
angels with brighter effulgence. Seraphs silenced their harps, and princi
palities suspended their songs, while the Mediator sprinkled the atoning
blood upon the holy-place, and the burning throne of Jehovah became a
mercy-seat ! This done, mercy rising from her new throne, with one hand

14 OPENING SERMON.

sheathed the sword of justice, still reeking with the blood of the slaughtered
Lamb — and with the other, raised her silver trump, while all heaven rang a
ubilee, and the pealing anthem from harp and voice, rolled through the
eternal arches, "This man, because He continueth ever, and hath an
unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able to save to the uttermost, all ^
them who come to God by him."
2. The last point to which I will call your attention is the glorious inter
cession which is made for the redeemed by the Savior's sacrifice. This is
one of the greatest sacerdotal glories of our gospel-altar, and it is also rela
tive, for it is founded upon His oblation. Oblation is the payment whereby
sinners are redeemed from the curse of the law, intercession is the powerful
plea founded on that payment. Oblation is but one act, the pffering of
Christ ' once for all,' intercession is of perpetual duration ; but oblation is
necessarily preparatory to intercession. We have seen that in both the
Tabernacle and the Temple there were two altars. First, the great brazen-
altar which stood, before the holy place, and on which sacrifices for sin
were offered. This was but introductory to the altar of gold, which stood
before the holy of holies, surmounted with a golden crown. The priest
never went to the golden altar to offer incense, until he had offered a young
bullock, as a sin offering for himself, and a goat for the sins of the people,
on the brazen altar. Then he took a censer filled with burning coals of fire
from the brazen altar, and his hand full of sweet incense beaten small, and
went into the most holy place within the vail — and having seven times
sprinkled the mercy-seat, before the cherubim of glory, he put the incense
upon the fire, the smoke of which ascended before the throne of the propiti
ated God.
So in like manner, " If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,
Jesus Christ the righteous." He needs not the second time to ascend the
altar of sacrifice. His intercession immortalizes His oblation. His is not the
intercession of burning emotion — nor scalding tears — nor fervid argument.
His very blood sprinkled upon the mercy-seat, is vocal ! It has a voice
11 which speaketh better things than that of Abel." It urges with silent, but
persuasive importunity, His last prayer for mortals, " Father forgive them,
for they know not what they do.'' " I beheld," says the beloved disciple,
"and lo ! in the midst of the throne stood a Lamb, as it had been slain."
Still bearing the marks of the sacerdotal knife. Presenting the everlasting
memorials of "His agony and bloody sweat, His cross and passion " 'And
another Angel came and stood by the altar, having a golden censer, and there
was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers
of all saints, upon the golden altar which was before the throne, and the
smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended
up before God, out of the angel's hand." "And I saw under the altar the

HUDSON RIVER ASSOCIATION SOUTH. 15
souls of them that had been slain for the word of God, and for the testimony
of Jesus." " We have an altar."
Not two altars but one. Here, the altar of oblation, is the same with the
altar of intercession — for the glorious unity of our Altar is the sure
pledge of its triumphal victory. "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, to-day,
and for ever." He who ministers over it, is clad in sacred vestments, and
serenely vjews all things advancing by a steady progress to their final con
summation. Nothing is hurried, nothing lingers in His whole adminis
tration, nor will it ; until every knee shall bow before Him, and the altars
of the Pagan and the Jew shall be razed to their foundations, to be
swept away ''as the chaff in the summer thrashing-floor." Even the despi
cable Gentile, may here present his offering "of a broken and a contrite
heart," and it shall be accepted, with the free benediction of our High Priest.
0 let us then, as ministers, preach its glories, as sinners linger about its
foot-stool, and as trembling Christians, " the least of all saints," let us bind
the precious truth to our hearts, as the solace of life, and the triumph of
death. "We, have an Altah !"