CHAPTER XV.

On the Intercession of Christ.

WHEN the high-priest, once a-year, entered into the most holy place, he carried the fume of the sweet incense, and the blood of the killed sin, or sinoffering, with him. The fume was to cover the mercy-seat upon the ark of the testimony, and the blood was to be sprinkled before it. This shadowed forth the interceding office of the great High-Priest of our profession in the holiest of all. He is entered there with his own blood, by which he hath made a perfect atonement for his people, and with his own righteousness, which both covers himself, as the propitiation, and his whole church under him, so as to render every one, and altogether, acceptable to the pure attributes of Jehovah.

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Hence my Redeemer receives his name of Angel, Interpreter, Advocate, or Intercessor. He pleadeth for me, and for all poor sinners who come unto God by him, before the throne of the Highest. fumeth out the merit of his blood, and the excellent perfection of his righteousness filling all heaven, as it were, with the fragrance of that which is unutterably delightful to God himself. No brokenhearted rebel, who cometh unto God by this HighPriest Jesus, shall ever bewail the insufficiency of his advocate, but rather shall bless the Lord for his mercy, in laying his help upon One so almighty.

If he look to this Saviour, then certainly he will be with him as his Angel, Interpreter, or Advocate,

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one among a thousand, to show unto him his uprightness; and he is gracious unto him, and saith, Redeem him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom. Then “his soul is brought back from the pit, and enlightened with the light of the living."

Our High-Priest, bearing our nature," can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, though without their sin: and he is able to save us to the uttermost, or for evermore, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us.' O that I may come,

therefore, boldly, with liberty of speech and with confidence of heart, to the throne of grace, that I may obtain the mercy I want, and find grace to help in the time of my need.

Blessed Lord, thou hast showed me what thou hast done for me on earth, and what thou art now doing for the interests of my soul in thy kingdom. Thou settest before me, in both respects, the motives of the most sure and the most strong consolation; so that in thee I might have the fullest assurance of understanding, of faith, and of hope. work, if it be thy will, this rich consolation within me; for, without the effectual aid of thy power, I may reason upon these motives, but I cannot apprehend them; I may conclude in my mind that they are true, but I shall not be able to apply their sweetness, or strength, or truth, to my heart. Lord, take thy poor servant's cause into thine own hand; plead it for him in the court of heaven; urge it upon him in the court of his own conscience on earth; let

him feel the comfort of both in all the sorrows of his present state; so that no trial, nor outrage from his enemies, no humbling sense of his own infirmities, may be able to stagger his confidence in thee.

Though thou art in heaven, my Jesus, yet thou knowest where I am and whereof I am made; and thou rememberest that I am but dust. O leave me not, neither forsake me; lest my own heart, without any thing else, and especially my own heart with ten thousand evil ones beside, draw me off from my only true hope to some wretched, stupid, corrupting refuge of lies! Intercede for me, as for Peter, that

my faith fail not. He needed an advocate not more than I. O thou that didst plead his cause with everlasting success, plead and take care of mine; that I, together with him, and all the clients of thy grace, may rejoice in thy goodness to my soul, and may bless thy holy name for ever and ever!

CHAPTER XVI.

The Love of the Father.

"IN this is manifested the love of God towards us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." We could have had no life but through the Redeemer; and we could not have had him, but through the tender love of the Father. Nothing more forcibly can show the love of God towards us than this,

that he should give up Christ to the deepest humiliation and sufferings for our rescue and redemption. Had there been any possible method of salvation beside this, consistent with the divine attributes, surely the bitter cup would have passed away from the blessed Jesus, and God would not have permitted him to drink it. But God did not, and therefore could not, in this case, spare his Son, but delivered him up to death for our sakes; and thus, in a most admirable manner and degree, mendeth his love towards us, while we were yet sinners," who therefore as such could have done nothing to deserve it. "Herein is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

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All this ensued according to the covenant of grace, which was settled between the Divine Persons upon the throne of heaven; and when the Lord Jesus was sacrificed, then was this covenant ratified and established. Jehovah interposing himself therein, and through the divided flesh and spirit of the Messiah, satisfying his law and justice for the remission of sins.

By this new testament in the blood of the Saviour, his people are not only admitted into fellowship with himself as their brother, yea, as flesh of their flesh, and bone of their bone, in a more than espoused nearness; but they are also entitled, by a gracious right, to approach unto God as their Father. They are adopted into his family; and the covenant, established in the hands of the Mediator, is the testimony and the seal of it.

Hence they

are no more strangers and foreigners, and much less slaves and enemies, but sons and heirs, children and heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ Jesus ; and so when they look up and pray, they do not take God's name in vain, and speak falsely, when they call Jehovah himself, "Abba, Father;" but they utter what they have a right and privilege to utter, and what the Lord delights to hear.

my soul, thou canst not be in a ten thousandth part so ready to be joyful in this matter, as thy God is to rejoice over thee. If he could regard thee so much, when thou wert dead in condemnation, and an alien, as to give up his Son for thy sake; how much more, when thou art reconciled by such expensive means, will he pour forth his compassion upon thee? If he was kind to thee when he stood as thy Judge, and smote thy Substitute for thy sins; will he, can he, cease to be kind, under the character of thy Father, thy merciful and gracious Father, in Christ Jesus? Lord, remove so wicked a thought, so diabolical a notion of unbelief from my mind! is treason against thy love, thy justice, thy truth, and all those attributes which are the shining rays of thy nature, to harbour so foul an opinion: it is atheism, madness, yea, the very falsehood and blasphemy of hell. Holy Father, drive by thy Spirit such base and abominable suggestions from my heart; and let me claim the privilege of my adoption, let me call myself thy child, though an unworthy child, and thus honour thy faithfulness and truth, by living in the sense of my nearness and dearness to thee!

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soul can most ascend to this its proper