in God; we must pray to the Father in his name, we must ask forgiveness of our sins for his sake: It is by him we must offer up our sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise; Heb. xiii, 15. and by him we must present all our services of obedience, and whatsoever we do in word or deed, must be all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Col. iii. 17. that we may be accepted of the Father, and that the Father may be glorified in his Son. This is the appointment of the blessed God, and this must be our practice till we come to the fulness of this salvation in heaven, where we shall dwell for ever in the presence of God, and where we shall join with all the holy and happy tribes of mankind, of every age and nation, in ascribing blessing, and honour, and glory, and praise, to him that sits upon the throne, as our reconciled God, and to the Lamb for ever, as our glorious and successful Mediator. Amen.

ESSAY VI.

A VIEW OF THE MANIFOLD SALVATION OF MAN BY JESUS CHRIST, REPRESENTED IN ORDER TO RECONCILE CHRISTIANS OF DIFFERENT SENTIMENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

MANKIND by nature lies under the ruins of the fall, both as guilty and as sinful. We are guilty in our persons, and exposed to the divine anger, as well as sinful in our natures, and ever ready to break his holy law. Whosoever therefore becomes our complete Saviour must relieve us under both these distresses.

As we are guilty in the sight of God, we are condemned in the court of his law' and justice, we are liable to bear the punishment due to our sins, and we have lost all pretence of right to the favour of God and eternal life. Now our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, who has undertaken the work of our salvation, is an all-sufficient Saviour in every respect; by his obedience, death, and intercession, he relieves us from the guilt of sin, and so delivers us from all obligations to the punishments of hell: He reconciles us to God, and gives us a right to life and salvation in the heavenly world.

As we are sinful creatures we are ever ready to offend God afresh, and are utterly unfit for his heavenly presence: And Christ saves us in this respect, by changing our vicious nature and temper, sanctifying us by his grace or Holy Spirit, so that we may be prepared for the enjoyment of God in heavenly places.

In these two things the substance of our salvation chiefly consists: And since these divine affairs could not be so well understood by us, according to those sublime ideas by which God the Father and his Son transact them in their eternal counsels and their subsequent dispensations, therefore God has been pleased to reveal them to us under such ideas or representations, and in such forms of language, as are borrowed from our common affairs in human life: And that not only by one figure or emblem, but by many representations, that we might view them on all sides, and have a fuller knowledge of them, so far as is sufficient for our present state, or necessary to our salvation.

SECTION I.

THE CHARACTERS OF CHRIST AS OUR DELIVERER FROM THE SINFULNESS OF OUR

NATURES.'

FIRST, let us take a very brief survey of this matter, as our Lord Jesus Christ delivers us from our sinful natures, or the power of sin that works in us, for he is our sanctification as well as our righteousness; 1 Cor. i. 30.

Our blessed Saviour, in this respect, is sometimes represented as our almighty Redeemer, who rescues us from the power of Satan, and of our own lusts, by the more powerful influences of his Spirit: He is our Sanctifier, who renews the image of God in us, which was lost by our first apostacy, and this he does by his sovereign creating power, for we are created anew unto good works, in or by Christ Jesus: Eph. ii. 10. He is sometimes set forth as our prophet, to give us light and the knowledge of God, and of the way of salvation, by the divine instructions of his gospel. He is our example to go before us, and to mark out for us the path of duty and holiness by his own footsteps, and to encourage our walking therein by his precedency, and so he is also our forerunner to heaven. Christ is also our King to give us laws and rules of life, and to rule in our hearts by giving us an inclination to obey his laws: By his royal power also in his exalted state, he subdues sin in us, he mortifies our unruly appetites and passions which are his enemies, he brings every power of our nature into obedience and subjection to himself. He fits us for the heavenly kingdom, and actually bestows upon us this final happiness. He is also represented in scripture as our vital head, or head of spiritual life, and believers are his members; and so his Spirit becomes the spring of spiritual life in us, renews our sinful nature, raises us from death in trespasses and sins, conveys a new and divine life to us, and will at last, by the same Spirit, raise our bodies from the dead, to live for ever with him.

Thus much concerning one branch of our salvation, viz. the recovery of our nature from the sinfulness thereof, which I shall no longer insist upon here.

SECTION II.

THE CHARACTERS OF CHRIST AS OUR DELIVERER FROM THE GUILT AND PUNISHMENT OF SIN.

THE other branch of our salvation is, that which I chiefly have in view at present, viz. that which consists in the deliverance of our persons from the guilt of sin, from condemnation, and punishment, and in that right to eternal life which is provided and given us by our Lord Jesus Christ. There are many representations thereof in scripture, borrowed from the affairs of men; and the characters which our blessed Lord sustains, together with the respects that our faith and our salvation bear to him under these characters, are chiefly such as these:

I. The first and most general character which our Lord Jesus Christ assumes, is that of a Saviour, by which name he is most frequently called in the New Testament. This is the very signification of his proper name Jesus, in the Hebrew; Matt. i. 21. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. He saves or delivers us from sin, and from all the painful or criminal effects and consequences thereof: He delivers us from the wrath to come; 1 Thess. i. 10. he saves us by withholding the divine anger from us, and taking away every thing that provoked it, or might provoke it.

Salvation is the natural word to express the blessings we receive from Christ, as he is our Saviour, that is, salvation from the guilt of sin and punishment thereof, partly in

this world, and chiefly in the world to come. Faith* gives us a special interest in these blessings, by choosing him or receiving him as our Saviour, by "looking to him from the ends of the earth, from the borders of hell, that we may be saved; Isaiah xlv. 22. by calling upon the name of the Lord, that we may be saved; Rom. x. 13. and by yielding obedience to him: So faith in a large sense may be represented, for Heb. v. 9. He is the Author of eternal salvation to them that obey him, or accept of all the blessings of salvation in his own appointed way.

II. The next title which is given to our Lord Jesus, on this account, is a Mediator, to make peace between an offended God and offending man; 1 Tim. ii. 5. There is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, even the man Christ Jesus. He is that days-man as Job speaks, chapter ix. 33. that great Reconciler, that Umpire or person who can argue for us with the blessed God, who is able to lay his hand upon both, to come between God and man, and to remove this dreadful difference betwixt them. And this he did by all those methods which God has appointed in the covenant of redemption made with his Son Jesus Christ, that is, by his incarnation, his obedience, his sufferings, his death, his intercession, &c.

Our salvation under this character is called peace; Rom. v. 1. Jesus Christ himself, for this reason, is called our Peace or Peace-maker; Eph. ii. 24. and Isaiah xxvii. 5. where a sinner is represented as taking hold of the strength or arm of the Lord, in order to make peace with him. It is called reconciliation to God; 2 Cor. v. 18. and the gospel is called the word of reconciliation: And let it be observed, that our Mediator not only takes away the difference between God and man, but has also proceeded so far as to obtain an interest in the love and favour of God for ever, instead of his former wrath, and displeasure, and condemnation.

Faith applies this salvation to us, or secures to us an interest therein, by our humble acceptance of Jesus Christ for such a Mediator as God has proposed him in his word. Now this acceptance of him as our Mediator, implies in it an earnest desire of reconciliation to God by him, as St. Paul beseeches the Corinthians to be willing to be reconciled. It is an inward and hearty approbation of what Christ has done, and what he does for our reconciliation in his mediatorial offices, attended with sincere repentance for past offences, and a submission to God for time to come, which is necessarily, and in the very nature of things required of all that would be reconciled to God, by the mediation of Christ, and hereby we become partakers of those blessings of pardon, peace and grace, which are procured by our great Mediator.

III. Christ is set forth as our High-Priest in the New Testament, as he was typified under that character in the Old Testament, and especially in the epistle to the Hebrews, chapters iv. viii. and ix. Now in fulfilling this office, he offered a sacrifice acceptable to

*It is granted that the word faith in Christ, in its most strict and proper sense, signifies a trust in him, according to the several discoveries made of him in the gospel: But if taken in its most large and general sense, as it implies the address or application of a sinner to Jesus Christ for salvation, it includes in it those various actions of the soul which are attendants on this trusting, either with it, before it, or after it, as many scriptures sufficiently

manifest.

+ The personal ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, was repent and believe the gospel; Mark i. 15. The message with which he sent his apostles to the Jews was the same; Mark vi. 12. Luke ix. 6. and the business of St. Paul among the gentiles, was to testify to them repentance toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus; Acts xx. 21.

God upon earth, even a sacrifice of atonement, or propitiation by his own blood, and he ascended to heaven to present it there before the throne of God; Heb. viii. 3. and ix. 12, 22, 24. He went thither, not without blood, to appear for us in the presence of God, and to intercede for us in the virtue of his sacrifice, chapter vii. 25. which, in the language of scripture, is represented " as carrying his blood into heaven, and as it were appearing with it there before the throne of God." All which was shadowed out by the highpriest carrying the blood of the sacrifice into the holy of holies, and sprinkling it there at the mercy-seat.

Our salvation under this character is called also peace, pardon, or remission of sins, reconciliation and eternal redemption, and the promise of the eternal inheritance; Heb. ix. 12, 15. Faith entitles us to the saving benefits of the priesthood of Christ, by the acceptance of him as our High-Priest and Intercessor, to make our peace with God, by appearing before God for us in the virtue of his sacrifice, and making intercession for us there. Or faith may be represented as our coming to God the Father by Jesus Christ, as our HighPriest, or applying to the throne of grace for mercy under the umbrage and encouragement of Jesus our High-Priest, who has gone thither for us; Heb. iv. 14—16.

IV. Our Lord Jesus Christ is described not only as our High-Priest, but he himself was also the very sacrifice of propitiation or atonement, to take away our sins; Heb. ix. 12, 26. He offered himself up to God for us as a sacrifice; Eph. v. 2. and his blood was shed for the remission of our sins, as in the words of the institution of the Lord's Supper, recited by the several evangelists, and by St. Paul; 1 Cor. xi. Isaiah liii. 10. God the Father was pleased to make his soul an offering for sin.

Our salvation this way has the same names as under the former head, viz. the washing away our sins by his blood; Rev. i. 5. The forgiveness of sin, reconciliation to God, &c. Our faith is called faith or trust in his blood as our propitiation; Rom. iii. 24. It is a dependence on the virtue and efficacy of this blood of Christ, for the procuring our pardon: It is a sort of confession of our sins over the head of the sacrifice, which was an ancient ceremony in the levitical law, sometimes performed by the offender, and sometimes by the priest, whereby sins were transferred to the sacrifice who was to suffer for them, either by being slain, or by being sent into the land of separation and destruction; Lev. i. 4. and iii. 13. and v. 6. and xvi. 21. It is as it were a putting our guilty souls under the sprinkling of this atoning blood, that we may be cleansed from every defilement, and it doth, as it were, present to God the Father that blood on which our hope is placed.

V. Christ is yet further represented to us as an Advocate, which idea is a very different thing from his intercession as a High-Priest; 1 John ii. 2. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. The proper design of an high-priest is to transact affairs between God and man, for reconciliation and divine favour, &c. An advocate is a person appointed and chosen to plead before a court of justice against a charge of accusation, and by his pleading to bring off his client with honour, or to defend one who is charged with a crime, from the condemnation and death which might be due to it. So our Lord Jesus Christ, our Advocate, pleads against the charges which the law of God, or which Satan, our adversary, may bring against us; not by pretending that we are not guilty, but by pleading the atonement made by his blood for our sins, by pleading our pardon in the court of heaven, and by pleading his own righteousness, as the foundation of our hope; and therefore as the apostle in this very