and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever.

Amen:

4. This doctrine affords us the strongest affurance that can be, that God is willing to pardon our fins, and to be reconciled to us. There is in the natural confcience of man when opened by a piercing conviction, fuch a quick fenfe of guilt, and of God's avenging juftice, that it can never have an entire confidence in his mercy till juftice be atoned. From hence the convinced finner is reftlefsly inquifitive how to find out the way of reconciliation with a holy and righteous God. Thus he is reprefented inquiring by the prophet, Wherewith Shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? fhall I come before him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old? will the Lord be pleafed with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my first-born for my tranfgreffion, the fruit of my body for the fin of my foul? The fcripture tells us, that fome confumed their children in the fire to render their idols propitious to them but all thefe means were ineffectual, their moft coftly facrifices were only food for the fire; nay, inftead of expiating their old fins, they committed new ones by them, and were so far from appealing, that they inflamed the wrath of God by their cruel oblations. But in the gospel there is the most rational and eafy way propounded for the fatisfaction of divine juftice, and the juftification of man. Hence fays the apoftle, Rom. x. 6. 7. 9. The righteousness which is of faith Speaketh on this wife. Say not in thine heart, Who fall afcend into heaven? (that is, to bring Chrift down from above); or, Who fhall defcend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Chrift again from the dead). If thou shalt confefs with thy mouth the Lord Jefus, and fhalt believe in thine heart, that God hath raifed him from the dead, thou falt be faved. The apoftle here fets forth the care and anxiety of an awakened confcience. He is at a lofs to find out a way to escape deserved judgement: for fuch things as are on the furface of the

earth, or floating on the waters, are within our view, and may easily be obtained; but thofe which are above our understandings to difcover, or our power to obtain, are proverbially faid to be in the heavens above, or in the depths beneath; and it is applied here to the different ways of juftification by the law and by the gospel. The law propounds life upon an impoffible condition. But the gofpel clearly reveals to us, that Chrift hath performed all that was neceffary to our juftification, and that by a true faith we fhall have an intereft in it. Chrift's afcenfion into heaven is a convincing proof, that the propitiation for our fins is perfect; for otherwise he had not been received into God's fanctuary, and admitted into the facred place. Therefore to be under anxious and perplexing inquiries how we may be justified, is to deny the va lue of Chrift's righteousness, and the truth of his afcenfion. By virtue of the facrifice and righteoufnefs of Chrift, the foul is not only freed from the fear of God's wrath, but hath a lively hope of his favour and love. This is expreffed by the apoftle, Heb. xii. 23. when he reckons among the privileges of believers, that they are come to God, &c. The apprehenfions of God as the righteous Judge of the world ftrike the guilty creature with dread and terror; but as he is fweetened by Chrift the Mediator, we may approach unto him with a humble and holy confidence.

5. We muft lay hold on this facrifice, if we would be faved. This is the only facrifice that fatisfied offended juftice, and no other could do it. Therefore we must have recourfe to this, if we would have peace with God. Under the law the people were to be sprinkled with the blood of the facrifice; and fo muft we be with the blood of Chrift. It is faid, Exod. xxiv. 8. that Mofes took the blood of the covenant, and Sprinkled it on the people. This fignified the fprinkling of their confciences with the blood of Chrift, and their obtaining redemption, juftification, and accefs to God through it alone. Hence our Saviour VOL. II. F

is described by this part of his office, If. lii. 15. He fball fprinkle many nations. Our guilt cannot look upon God as a consuming fire without a propitiatory facrifice. All our fervices are lame and defective, impure and imperfect, fo that they will rather provoke God's juftice, than merit his mercy. We must therefore have fomething to put a stop to a juft fury, expiate an infinite guilt, and perfume our ur favoury fervices, and render them acceptable to a holy and righteous God; and that is only the facrifice of Chrift. This is full of all neceffary virtue to fave us: but the blood of it must be fprinkled upon our fouls by faith. Without this we fhall remain in our fins, under the wrath of God, and expofed to the fword of divine juftice; and our mifery will be heightened by our ha ving the offers of Chrift and his grace. O, it is a fearful thing for men to have this facrifice pleading a gainft them, and this precious blood crying for vengeance from heaven upon them; as innocent Abel's blood cried to heaven for vengeance against the unnatural cruelty of his wicked and inhumane brother.

6. Hence fee that God will never feek fatisfaction for fin from thofe that are in Chrift Jefus. He gave full and complete satisfaction to the law and juftice of God for all the wrongs and injuries done thereto by the fins of men, the fufferer being God, and his di vine nature stamping an infinite value upon thein. Now, if the creditor receives full fatisfaction for an offence done, or complete payment of a debt due, by a debtor, from the hands of a furety; neither law nor juftice will permit, the creditor to afk any further fatisfaction or payment from the principal debtor. He can raife no fuit or action against the debtor, in regard he has fully fatisfied him by the action and deed of his furety. Law and juftice are fully fatisfied by the obedience and fatisfaction of Chrift fubftituting himself in the room of finners, and making his foul an offering for them, fo as they can crave no more: therefore

there can be no condemnation to thofe that are in him, and have taken the benefit of his fatisfaction, and prefent it to God as theirs, performed in their room and ftead. Hence the apostle fays, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. O feek to have your ftation in Chrift, and fo you fhall be placed beyond the reach of condemnation. You may indeed, though in Chrift, fuffer chaftifements and corrections; yet these are the corrections and chaftifements of a Father, not of a Judge; and in tended for your good, to cause you forfake fin, aud enhance the value of the facrifice of Chrift, and not for fatisfaction to juftice, whofe highest demands have been fully fatisfied by the Surety in your room.

7. Hence fee the certainty of falvation to, and that God will beftow all the benefits purchased by Christ on, those who believe. Chrift has fully fatisfied justice for all those whom he reprefented as a Mediator; fo that it has nothing to demand of the Surety, nor of thofe whofe perfons he fuftained in that undertaking, Hence their falvation is infallibly fecured; and juftice is bound to accomplish it. Mercy pleads for it; juftice fully fatisfied cannot difpute the validity of the claim, and chearfully confents to their acquittal from guilt and condemnation. Thus righteoufness and peace kiss each other in the abfolution of the guilty finner that believeth in Jefus,

8. Blefs God for the gofpel, that discovers unto us this infallible way of being delivered from condemna tion and wrath, this fure way to peace and reconciliation with God, this precious balm for a troubled confcience, and this effectual remedy for appealing an angry God. O prize the gofpel, and the precious difco veries thereof, in which all bleffings are contained. And accept of a flain Saviour as your only Redeemer from fin and wrath, from hell and condemnation, And glory in his crofs, and what he hath done for your redemption and deliverance,

Fa

Of CHRIST'S INTERCESSION.

The fecond part of our Lord's prieftly office is his interceding for his people, viz. all thofe for whom he fatisfied divine juftice. As his interceffion is founded upon his making fatisfaction to law and juftice for their fins, and plainly fuppofes his having offered himfelf a facrifice in their name and ftead, fo the objects thereof muft be the fame. As he died only for those for whom he intercedes, fo he intercedes for none but fuch as he fhed his precious blood for, as has been fhewn in the preceding part of this difcourfe.

In difcourfing further from this point, I fhall fhew, 1. The different periods of our Lord's interceffion. 2. Wherein his interceffion confifts.

3. The neceffity of it.

4. Deduce an inference or two.

First, We may confider the periods of our Lord's interceffion. And this may be taken up in a threefold period of time wherein it was made, viz. before his incarnation, during the ftate of his humiliation, and now in his exalted ftate.

1. Chrift interceded for his church and people before his manifeftation in the flefh. Though this office be most eminently performed fince the union of the divine and human natures in the perfon of Chrift, yet it was alfo effectually performed by him before his affumption of our flesh. He interpofed then by virtue of his engagement to make his foul an offering for fin; and he intercedes now by virtue of his actual performance of that engagement, As he was a Lamb flain from the foundation of the world, fo by that fame reafon he was an Advocate pleading from the foundation of the world. It was through the merciful interpofition of the Son of God, in confequence of the covenant betwixt the Father and him, that deferved vengeance came not upon the world for fin at the firft commiffion of it. We find him in the Old Teftament pleading for the church long before he affumed the hu man nature, Zech. i. 12. and the faints making ufe