God? Not only has he opened and consecrated for us a new and living way into the holiest, but he now presents before the throne in behalf of all his people, the tokens of the fulfillment of his own eternal engagement to satisfy for their sins, and receives for them all those gifts of grace that are needful to make his death effectual in their perfect redemption. The expiatory sacrifice, and the irresistible intercession of Christ, are inseparably connected. Such was his view of the honor that was due to that eternal law which was a transcript of his own moral perfections, that he could never have offered a single plea for the sinner, unless he had first laid the foundation for such intercession, in his obedience unto death. The intercession is only the completion in heaven of the work so gloriously begun on earth. Its object is, that by the presentation before the Father of his finished righteousness, he may put the heirs of promise into actual possession of the blessings of redemption. It has reference not only to their final salvation, but to all those gracious influences that are necessary to their preservation from evil, to their unity in the Spirit, to their maintenance in faith, to their sanctification through the truth, to the fulfillment of his joy in them, and in every way to their growing meetness for heaven. He who on earth was so affected by the distresses and wants of his people, that on the eve of his final agony, he could forget himself in his thought

faith of the worshiper penetrated the true meaning of the outward form, and saw in the bleeding victim and sacrificing priest the foreshadowing of a perfect atonement, and of an effectual mediation. In every animal whose blood streamed from the altar, or was sprinkled on the mercy-seat, there was a new proclamation that our salvation must be procured, not by works of righteousness which we have done, nor by personal suffering for sin, but by the righteousness and sufferings of some great representative, appointed and accepted for this very purpose, that he might reconcile us to God.

The same truth was significantly taught, when, on the great day of atonement, while one goat was offered as a sin-offering, the hands of the high priest were laid upon the head of another, the sins of the whole congregation were confessed over him, "putting them upon his head;" and he was then sent away into the wilderness, bearing an imaginary burden of guilt, which had thus been transferred from the real culprit to this his representative, under a dispensation of figures and similitudes.

What did it all mean, but to direct our eyes to "the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world;" to him who "was made sin for us though he knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him;" to him who "bare our sins in his own body on the tree?" "Surely he hath borne

our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."

And now for the relief of our fears there is exhibited to our view, not a succession of feeble and sinful men who cannot even atone for their own guilt, but one great, only High Priest, whose Divine nature exempts him from personal obligation to the law, and gives us the strongest possible assurance of the success of his mediation. We see, too, in the death of Christ, not the blood of sacrifices which " can never make the comers thereunto perfect," though repeated a thousand times, but one, sufficient, true, and eternal sacrifice "of the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." The comfort which we receive in the Gospel, depends principally upon a discovery of the glory and grace of this great High Priest and Mediator, not as giving a merely general exhibition of the wrath of God against sin, and honoring the law in its precept and penalty, but as standing in a special relation to all who believe on him, as their substitute and representative, who in their stead has satisfied all the claims of Divine jus

tice, and reconciled them to God. They may feel that in consequence of what Jesus has done and suffered for them, God is become their Father in Christ, "not imputing their trespasses unto them." If the death of Christ is any thing to us, or ever shall be, it is every thing—a finished and accepted satisfaction, a full and acknowledged payment, entitling us to an eternal discharge from all pains and liabilities arising from our transgression of the law, at whatever moment we choose to claim it. "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Another important part of the priestly office of Christ, which faith regards with unutterable satisfaction, is his intercession before the throne of God in behalf of his people.

It was not enough on the great day of national sacrifice, that the High Priest should offer the victim. appointed by law upon the altar in the outer court. He, and he only, must bear the blood into the holy place within the vail, that there he might present it unto God, sprinkling it upon and before the mercyseat. And what did this mean, but that Jesus Christ having, "through the Eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God," having shed his own. precious blood, and borne the punishment due to our sins in the garden and on the Cross, has now ascended on high into the heaven of heavens, the place of the immediate presence and ineffable glory of

God? Not only has he opened and consecrated for us a new and living way into the holiest, but he now presents before the throne in behalf of all his people, the tokens of the fulfillment of his own eternal engagement to satisfy for their sins, and receives for them all those gifts of grace that are needful to make his death effectual in their perfect redemption. The expiatory sacrifice, and the irresistible intercession of Christ, are inseparably connected. Such was his Iview of the honor that was due to that eternal law which was a transcript of his own moral perfections, that he could never have offered a single plea for the sinner, unless he had first laid the foundation for such intercession, in his obedience unto death. The intercession is only the completion in heaven of the work so gloriously begun on earth. Its object is, that by the presentation before the Father of his finished righteousness, he may put the heirs of promise into actual possession of the blessings of redemption. It has reference not only to their final salvation, but to all those gracious influences that are necessary to their preservation from evil, to their unity in the Spirit, to their maintenance in faith, to their sanctification through the truth, to the fulfillment of his joy in them, and in every way to their growing meetness for heaven. He who on earth was so affected by the distresses and wants of his people, that on the eve of his final agony, he could forget himself in his thought