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for despair. Yet there are professing christians who give themselves up to a morbid melancholy brooding over their sins and short-comings, which could be warranted only on the supposition that there were no advocate with the Father, no intercessor within the vail, no days-man to plead their cause and secure their salvation. A view of the fact and properties of the Saviour's intercession should charm away all gloomy forebodings; and christians, who feel as if cast out from God's sight, would we exhort to look again to that Holy Temple where pleads the Minister of the upper sanctuary, and to be no more sad.

Let all seek an interest in, and daily improve, this view of the Saviour's character and work. Those who are duly sensible of their situation will be disposed, like the Israelites when they were bitten with the fiery serpents, to look around for some one to pray for them. To whom can they go with safety but to Christ? He alone can pray for the people. Let them believe in his name, trust in his merits, and obey his commands, and they may lay their account with sharing in the benefits of his intercession. Daily they need, and they may daily have recourse to him, in this character. Oh that men would consider the misery of being without an interest in this part of the Saviour's work! To be without the prayers of our friends is deemed a calamity. To be denied the intercession of such men as Noah, Daniel, and Job, is justly represented in scripture as no light thing. 'Pray not thou for this people, nei

ther lift a cry or a prayer for them,' is one of the heaviest judgments that can befall a backsliding nation. How dreadful beyond all conception, then, must it be to have no interest in the prayers of Christ! But this is not all, for not to have his prayers for us is to have them against us. He prays for the destruction of his enemies. That blood which speaks so powerfully for the salvation of those who believe, cries loudly for vengeance on such as despise and abuse it. Let the unbelieving and ungodly ponder this, and tremble. And who can tell the happiness which an interest in the intercession of Christ is fitted to yield! It is a doctrine full of comfort to saints, as of terror to sinners. It is calculated to fill the heart with joy, to know that, whatever may be their sinful weaknesses and infirmities, they shall not bring them into condemnation, that, whatever be their temptations, their faith shall not be permitted to fail,—that, whatever their backsliding, they shall not finally fall away,—that, however weak, and cold, and confused, their devotions, they shall be rendered, nevertheless, a sweet-smelling savour to God. In sin and duty, in health and sickness, in prosperity and adversity, in life and death, the doctrine of Christ's intercession gives joy and comfort to the believer. Be it, then, the concern of all who read these pages, earnestly to seek such an interest in what the Saviour has done and is still doing, that they may be able to assume as their own, the triumphant appeal of the apostle :-'Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God

that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, WHO ALSO MAKETH INTERCESSION FOR US. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?'

THUS have we brought to a conclusion our inquiries into these deeply-interesting subjects. And we cannot part with our readers, without reminding them of the necessity of making a personal application of the glorious truths which have occupied their attention, before turning their thoughts to any thing else. Let them not regard them as matters of curious speculation, or content themselves with a mere doctrinal belief. To their being rightly appreciated, and properly improved, they must become the subjects of a saving faith. No doctrines stand more closely connected with the eternal salvation of the soul. Let not the reader, then, rise from the perusal of these pages, without seriously and conscientiously asking himself these questions:-Am I interested in the atonement and intercession of Jesus Christ? Have I faith in the sacrifice of the great High Priest? sprinkled with his precious blood? in my behalf with the Father? Is my name engraven on his heart? Have I any good reason to conclude, that he is even now praying that my sins may be forgiven, that my faith may not fail in the hour of temptation, and that I may be kept from the evil which is in the world? Were I called, at this moment, to recline my head on the pillow of death,

Has my soul been
Does he plead

could I indulge the comforting assurance that the advocate within the vail, whom the Father heareth always, would present on my behalf the request, 'Father, I will that he whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,' and that, in answer to this prayer, my disembodied spirit should be ushered, in perfect holiness, into the immediate and unclouded presence of my covenant God, and into all the glories of the heavenly kingdom? These are solemn questions. Let no one neglect to put them to himself, or hesitate to press them, till, if no favourable answer can be candidly returned, at least such convictions have been awakened, as no occupation can dissipate, no exercise allay but a believing appropriation of the blood and advocacy of the great High Priest of our profession. May the Spirit of all grace, whose prerogative it is to take the things of Christ and show them unto men, be pleased to grant, that the perusal of these sheets may thus prove the means of salvation to many; and to the only wise God, our Saviour, be all the glory. Amen!

INDEX.

Abel's sacrifice, 102.

Absurdity of supposing Christ's atonement to be indefinite, 267.
Acceptance of sacrifices, a proof of their divine origin, 100.

'All men,' passages in which the phrase occurs explained, 300.
Ancient sacrifices, 84. Vicarious nature, 89. Use and design, 112.
Antiquity of sacrificing, 84.

Apostolical writings, proof of atonement from, 180.

Application of atonement limited, 251.

Appointment of God, an element in the value of Christ's atonement, 242.
Atonement, doctrine defined, 7. Term explained, 9.

Objections to,

considered, 18. Necessity of, shown, 56. Proof of reality, 83.

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Cain, expostulation of God with, 106.

Causation, law of, observed in man's salvation, 214.
Christ, legally though not personally guilty, 40.

rily, 42, 236. His divine dignity, 218.
Originally under no law, 232.

Coats of skin used by our first parents, 86.

Creation, how connected with atonement, 336.

Curse, in what sense Christ made a, 186.

Death of Christ voluntary, 238.

Definite atonement explained, 248.

Results, 317.

Suffered volunta-
His innocence, 228.

Divinity of Christ, essential to value of atonement, 218.

Efficacy of Christ's death, proved by his intercession, 407.

Elect, only for such Christ makes intercession, 368.

Example, not sufficient to account for the sufferings of Christ, 176.

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