Letter XVI. THE EFFECTS OF CHRIST'S DEATH. Dear Brother Benjamin, § 1. We will now proceed to consider the effects of Christ's death, or sacrifice. As the deliverance of our fathers from the Egyptian bondage was accomplished immediately after the paschal lamb was slain, so when "Christ our passover was sacrificed for us," the whole work of redemption was completed. Hence the Lord Jesus, with his dying breath, but with a loud voice, cried, "It is finished!" The full meaning of this comprehensive and triumphant exclamation of the Redeemer will be better understood when we shall see him "no more through a glass darkly, but face to face." The prophecies of his humiliation were accomplished; the prefigurations and shadows of his death were substantiated; the battle with the powers of darkness was over; the righteousness of the law was fulfilled; the payment of the price of redemption was completed; and the work which the Father gave him to do was finished in the highest degree of perfection. Such is the virtue and efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ, that every thing formidable and burdensome is removed, every thing great and glorious procured; justice with all its vengeance appeased; the law with all its retinue of curses silenced; sin with all its demerits expiated; the covenant with all its benefits ratified; peace with its blessings restored; the spirit with all its treasures bestowed; our services purified from their filth; our consciences pacified from their fears; whatsoever is grievous abrogated; the veil of the temple, with all the heavy weight of ceremonies, rent in twain; hell quenched, and heaven prepared and furnished for all that imitate God in his valuation of this sacrifice. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men," which was the (prophetic) song of a multitude of angels at the birth of Jesus, was effected by his vicarious sacrifice on the cross. In a former letter I have stated that the sentence pronounced in Paradise on the tempter was a curse to Satan, and included a promise of the Savior; and I will now show its accomplishment in the death of Christ. This may be considered, § 2. 1. In regard to Jehovah. Satan aimed to rob God of his glory, and to restore the glory of God was that which Jesus aimed at when he came into our world, and that which he perfected when he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. The glory of all the attributes of God appeared in the face or manifestation of Christ. They all centered in him, and shone forth from him in all their brightness, and in a full combination set off one another's luster; not only in his incarnation, but also, and that chiefly, in his sacrifice. Mercy could not be glorified, unless justice had been satisfied; and justice had not been evident, if the tokens of divine wrath had not been upon him; grace had not sailed to us, but in the streams of his blood-" without the shedding of blood there is no remission." Justice had not been so fully known in the eternal groans of a world of creatures, nor could sin have appeared so odious to the holiness of God, by eternal scars upon devils and men, as by the deluge of blood from the heart of the sacrifice. Wisdom, in the contrivance, had not been evident without the execution. The cross of Christ, which is "foolishness to the Greeks, and a stumbling-block to the Jews," is the wisdom as well as the power of God unto salvation. Here unsearchable depth of wisdom was unfolded, a depth more impossible to be comprehended in our minds than the whole heaven and earth in our hands. Such a wisdom of God shines in the cross as the angels never beheld in his face upon the throne. wisdom to cure a desperate disease by the death of the Physician; to turn the greatest evil to the greatest glory; to bring forth mercy by the shedding of blood. But the death of Christ is a display of power as well as of wisdom. Dear Benjamin! turn your eye toward Calvary, where our Lord was crucified, and behold exertions greater and more marvelous than the creation and support of the universe: Almighty God strengthening his dear Son with his arm, and bruising him under his wrath, sustaining him under a weight which would have crushed the creation, and by his weakness breaking the forces of earth and hell, which were in opposition. Revenging wrath is a weight which creatures are not able to bear. Principalities and powers sunk beneath it, into outer darkness and endless misery. The wrath which crushed them hung over man, who was seduced to join their rebellious powers. Men, chosen to everlasting life, were by nature children of wrath, even as others. But for the chosen generation the Lord Jesus Christ was made under the law, and endured the wrath which their sins deserved, endured it all, endured it all at once, and in the strength and glory of his weakness endured it all alone! The beams of holiness, which is the essential glory of the nature of Jehovah, and revealed glory of his will, shine bright and awful in the death of Jesus. In the triumph over Egypt, on the banks of the Red Sea, Moses and the children of Israel sang, "Who is like unto thee, O Lord, glorious in holiness?" and, in remembering the triumph of the cross over principalities and powers on Calvary, the song of Moses rises into the song of the Lamb, and transmits the praise of the glory of his holiness from generation to generation. The light of the knowledge of the glory of the holiness of God never broke forth in such luster and majesty. The punishment of angels, the destruction of the old world, the overthrow of the cities of the plain, the drowning of Pharaoh and his hosts, the pools of Nineveh, the humiliation of Nebuchadnezzar, and the ruins of Babylon, are manifestations of the glory of his holiness and righteousness; but these are all in a manner eclipsed by the brighter and more awful glory that beams from the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why was that just one wounded and bruised? why was his righteous soul filled with sorrow? his blessed head crowned with thorns? his glorious face defiled with spittle? and his holy body nailed to a tree, and lifted up on a cross, between two thieves? It was because God is glorious in holiness, hates iniquity, and punishes it wherever it is found. Lastly, "God is love!" and the sacrifice of Christ is the manifestation of this glory of his nature. "In this," saith the apostle, " was manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John, 4: 9-10. When the believing eye turns toward the cross, the love of God to sinful, guilty, and miserable men, shines forth, and becomes the object of contemplation, and theme of discourse, which can never be sufficiently praised and adored. May you and I, my dear Benjamin, "be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge." Eph. 3:18, 19. § 3. 2. In the next place, we may view the effects of Christ's death in regard of himself as Mediator. It hath already been shown from the Scriptures of the Old Testament, that in the stipulations of the covenant of redemption a variety of promises were made to the Messiah, particularly as relating to his exaltation; all these are applied, in the New-Testament, to Jesus Christ. Thus the apostle informs us, that beside the essential native power and dominion over all which Christ hath as God, but which was, as it were, veiled during his state of humiliation, the Father hath exalted him, as Mediator, to the highest dignity and universal sovereign dominion over every thing in heaven, and earth, and hell. From the many precious passages which relate to this all-important and most interesting subject, I have selected but a few, and pray that my dear Benjamin may feel the sweet truth they contain. "As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." John, 17:2. "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man; and being formed in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Phil. 6:11. "Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all." Eph. 1:20-23. "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Heb. 12:2. By the death of Christ the covenant was ratified, confirmed and sealed, and the blessings of it put into his hands, to be disposed of at his pleasure. "For it has pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell." Col. 1: 19. I have already shown that the covenant which was made known to Adam immediately after the fall, was accompanied with the sacrifices of beasts, both to show to him a token of |