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 biessings 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 is. Now in fulfilling this office, he offered a sacrifice acceptable to 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 high-priest 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 high-priest, or applying to the throne of grace for mercy under the umbrage and encouragement of Jesus our highpriest, who is 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

* 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 test by to then repentance toward God, and faith'in our Lord Jesus z

Acts xx. 1.

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. Is. 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 farther represented to us 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 or 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 text calls him Jesus Christ the righteous; in Rev. xii. 10, 11. Satan is represented as accusing the saints day and night before God. Jesus Christ is their advocate, representing his own blood, and in this sense they are said to cast down the accuser by the blood of the Lamb, which pleads and speaks better things than the blood of Abel; that is, it pleads for mercy, whereas the blood of Abel pleaded for vengeance.

Our salvation, in this sense, is called freedom from guilt, absolution or acquitment from the penalty, and a vindication of

christians from the charge of sin, and the condemnation thereof, which is obtained by the prevailing power and interest which Jesus Christ our advocate has at the court of heaven, and by representing before the throne of God our pardon purchased by his blood, so that Satan has no further charge against us. By faith we commit our case and circumstances to this great advocate, and we become his clients, dependents upon him; and in this sense, faith may be said to cast down our accuser by the blood of the Lamb, by trusting in this great and blessed advocate, or resigning the important concerns of our souls to his care and faithfulness, to be transacted by him before the bar of God in heaven.

VI. Our Lord Jesus Christ is set forth as our sponsor or surety; Heb. vii. 22. Jesus was made a surety of a better testament, that is, the new covenant of grace, as manifested in the gospel. A surety is properly one who undertakes for another to do or suffer something for him, or who undertakes that this other person shall do such services, or suffer such penalties, or enjoy such privileges. So our Lord Jesus Christ has undertaken to answer the demands of the law of God for us who had broken it, to pay a compensation for our violations of the law, and to make peace betwixt God and us. He has also undertaken, that all his people shall be sanctified and brought safely to the heavenly world. So Judah became a surety to his father Jacob for his brother Benjamin, whom he took with him into Egypt. Gen. xliii. 9. I will be surety for him; of my hands shalt thou require him. Reuben in the foregoing chapter was in like manner a sponsor for him, verse 37. Deliver him into my hands, and I will bring him to thee again: and Joseph bound Simeon in Egypt as a surety for the return of his brethren, and Benjamin with them, verses 19, 36.

Now as Christ was our surety, so our salvation may be called a freedom from our obligation to the penal law of God, which our Lord Jesus took upon himself to answer; Rom. vii. 6. We are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held. Gal. iii. 13. Christ hath redeemed us, or freed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. Nor is this obligation of Christ as a sponsor, quite fulfilled, till he has brought us all to heaven, and can say to his Father, Lord, here am I, and the children which thou hast given me; as Heb. ii. 13. and shall present us before the throne without spot or blemish; Jude 24, 25. and Eph. v. 25-27. Now faith gives us an interest in all that Jesus Christ has done as our sponsor by trusting ourselves with him entirely under that character, and accepting him as the surety of this everlasting covenant.

VII. Christ is exhibited in the scripture as the second Adam, as a common head of his people, as a public person, and their

representative. This has some difference in it from the former character, though in many respects they agree and coincide. Adam was the head of all his offspring, a common person and representative for them, but not so properly their surety in every sense. Christ is what Adam was; Rom. v. 14. 1 Cor. xv. 47. Christ is not a common person or representative in his intercession or his advocateship, though he is properly a surety therein, for he has undertaken as a surety for us, to plead in the court of heaven, and to bring us off with safety and honour: But in his obedience, in his death, and his appearance for us in heaven, he is our common head and representative.

Our salvation in this sense, may be called the glory of God; Rom. v. 2. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God: And it may be called eternal life. Both these describe the happiness which was promised to man upon his perfect obedience to the law at first; Rom. ii. 10. and iii. 23. By sin, we are fallen short of the glory of God; but we obtain by Jesus Christ salvation with eternal glory." In this sense Christ is our forerunner into heaven, and he, as our public representative, appears there for us, and has taken up places or mansions in our name; Heb. vi. 20. We shall sit on his throne; Rev. iii. 21. It is also called an inheritance, and we are heirs of Gad, and joint-heirs with Christ;

Rom. viii. 17. as we are one with him.

Faith accepts of Christ as our common head, or great representative, and gives us an interest in this salvation, by uniting us to Christ, and making us one with him. Christ is the original Son of God, and we are also the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus; Gal. iii. 26. and thus we are co-heirs with Christ, he as the head, and we as the members; and faith saves us, as it has been called the bond of union between Christ and us. When we become believers in Christ, whatever was done to Christ as a head or a common person, is then applied to us, either in the right to it, or in the possession of it. Christ was justified from sin, that is, from all imputed sin, at his resurrection, and when we become the seed of Christ by regeneration through faith, we are justified in him, much in the same manner as we were condemned in Adam, that is, as soon as we become the sons of Adam by a natural birth: As there is no new actual and particular sentence of condemnation passed upon us at our birth, but we fall under the general condemnation, when we become the sons of Adam; so there is no new act of justification passed by God upon the creature at his regeneration or believing, but the word of God, which is his sentence, pronounces us justified at our faith, or our new birth; and our condemnation is taken away as soon as we are in Christ. Rom. viii. 1. There is no condemnation now to them that are in Christ Jesus.

VII. Another character which Christ sustains, is that of

:

a Redeemer, and it is generally represented, both in the scripture and by our divines, as one who redeems us both by power and by price. Now the redemption of us by his powerful grace_out of the slavery of Satan, and our own lusts, and our rescue from the temptations of this world, belong rather to the other part of this salvation, wherein his sanctifying influences are necessary and requisite But when Christ is considered as a Redeemer by price, he frees us by the price of his own blood as a ransom, chiefly from the bands of the vindictive justice of God, and from the bonds of the guilt of sin and condemnation, whereby we are held as breakers of the law of God. Yet our redemption from the slavery of sin and Satan, may be also attributed to the blood of Christ which purchased sanctifying grace for us. The name of a Redeemer is very applicable to both parts of our salvation. So he gave his life a ransom for many; Mat. xx. 28. He redeemed us from the curse of the law, by being made a curse for us; Gal. iii. 13. He redeemed us also by his precious blood as of a lamb without blemish or spot, from our vain conversation or slavery to sin; I Pet. i. 18, 19. And thou art worthy, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood; Rev. v. 9.

Salvation in this respect is called redemption; Rom. iii. 24. eternal redemption; Heb. ix. 12. and we are said to be bought with a price; 1. Cor. vi. 20. and therefore we are the Lord's and not our own. Faith applies this benefit to us by our accepting the Lord Jesus Christ under this character as a Redeemer of our persons from this condemnation, or as our great friend who ransomed our souls from imprisonment under the bonds of the condemning law and justice of God, who purchased and ransomed us from our captivity, bonds and miseries in every sense.

IX. To sum up all other characters, I add in the last place, Christ is represented as our great friend and benefactor, one who came down from heaven to seek and to save lost sinners here on earth: He made a visit to our world to take special notice of all our wants, in order to relieve them all, and to do, and to procure for us whatsoever we stood in need of, in order to our eternal happiness. Under this character he first instructed or taught us the doctrine of our lost estate, and acquainted us with the methods of his salvation; he procured or purchased for us, by his death, not only pardon of sin and future blessedness, but every grace and every blessing which was necessary, in order to our full possession of heaven, and no greater friendship can any man shew to another, than to lay down his life for him; John xv. 13.

Under this view salvation or eternal life is called the gift of God by Christ Jesus; Rom. vi. 23. Abundance of grace, and the gift of righteousness in order to reign in life; Rom. v. 17. He bought again for us our forfeited inheritance in heaven. Observe this notion of Christ, as a benefactor respects his doing