Here let us go back, and observe the state of feeling in the apostle's own mind. He had been setting aside the boasting of the Jews in their peculiar privileges as God's chosen people, and proving that they had no reason to exclude or despise the Gentiles. And now, in the name of the Gentiles, he is bringing forward the grounds of their religious boasting. The select nation can no longer glory in God as their peculiar divinity. Once, indeed, it was so, and we Gentiles were aliens and strangers; but now we also are brought near, and called into his family; we also are partakers of his revealed religion, and the hope of his glory; we, therefore, as well as they, may "joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received reconciliation." The apostle was thinking of the general fact, which was so frequently the theme of his preaching and epistles, and to establish which he so anxiously labored; the fact that, in the gospel, the distinction between Jew and Gentile was abolished, the middle walls of partition thrown down, and all nations placed in a state of reconciliation - that general fact, to which most of the passages refer which speak of the world being reconciled and redeemed by the ministry and death of Jesus Christ. When the apostle contemplated this glorious truth, which evinced the equal and impartial mercy of the universal parent, no wonder that his heart was enlarged, and that he spake of it here and elsewhere in ardent accents of joy and triumph.

It should be equally matter of religious rejoicing to us. To see the diffusion of an impartial and universal religion, which gives one light and one hope to all the sons of men; which brings every nation, and kindred, and tongue, into an equal state of favor; which collects in one the family in heaven and on earth, and unites it under one name, - how shall we not triumph and rejoice in this great and sublime

truth, this mystery, as the apostle calls it, "which was kept secret since the world began, but is now made manifest to all nations"?

There is not only reason for joy in this general sense, but in a particular and personal sense. For by this gracious method of reconciliation we are, individually, put in the condition to be pardoned, accepted, and saved; individually introduced to a participation of the highest privileges which God has bestowed on his children upon earth, and of the most glorious hopes which he has opened to them in heaven. We have each of us, personally, been taken from that state in which our fathers were once exposed, “without God and without hope," and made to "sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." If we have any right sense of our privileges, this will be reason for joy indeed-joy that the highway of life is opened before us, and that nothing may hinder us from glory, honor, and immortality, if we be but faithful to ourselves; joy in God, who has thus manifested his divine love, and not suffered even our sins to separate us from his mercy. To him, then, be our gratitude given. "All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ." Of his own voluntary and unsolicited grace, unmoved, except by the inherent and immutable benignity of his own nature, he sent his Son to bestow on us that light, to secure for us those advantages, to establish for us those means, by which pardon and life may be ours; to toil for us that we might be free, to die for us that we might live. To him, therefore, be our gratitude and praise; in him be our joy; in him, as our God and Father, be our trust and hope.

Such is the doctrine of our text and of the New Testament. Thus is it calculated to excite gratitude to our heavenly Father, and heighten our devotion.

SERMON VIII.

JESUS THE INTERCESSOR.

ROMANS VIII. 34.

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.

THIS is one of the only two passages in the New Testament, which speak of Jesus as making intercession. In what this intercession consists we are nowhere distinctly told. The passage before us does not describe it, and the other passage in Hebrews (vii. 25) speaks of it only in a general and figurative adaptation of a ceremonial observance of the Mosaic ritual. This consisted in the sprinkling of blood on the mercy-seat, upon the annual day of propitiation. In conformity with this, some have been fond of representing the intercession of Jesus, as the sprinkling of his blood before the throne of God in heaven. But this is to speak without any distinct sense; for we know that there is no material throne in heaven, and that he did not strictly bear thither the blood which flowed upon the cross. It is but a strong figure, which needs to be explained.

Others suppose it to signify simply the presenting of his humanity, (as they term it,) that is, his ascended human body, before God, to remind him, by its presence, of his

gracious promises to men, and of what had been suffered for them. They suppose this perpetual exhibition of the body in which he suffered, to be the essence of that intercession which he makes for his church.

Others suppose it to consist in his perpetually pleading his merits before God, and claiming the reward of his obedience and death, in the salvation of the saints.

It is not necessary to discuss all, or either, of these opinions. They are merely inferences from single undefined expressions, like that of our text, and may seem to be more or less plausible, according to the general notions of that religious system which any one may have adopted.

Let us, then, pass by these, and examine the subject for

ourselves.

To intercede, or to make intercession, signifies to interpose, in behalf of another, to some third person, who has power to show him favor. This may be done either by action or by word. Whatever, therefore, our Lord has done, by his life, death, labors, or prayers, in behalf of man, may be considered as part of his intercessory office.

For by all these he stepped in, like Aaron with the censer to stay the plague, between man and ruin, and by all helped forward his salvation. It is consequently supposed by many, that this language is only a general expression to signify, that he "exercises kind offices" in behalf of men. In this case, however, it is plain that intercession would be precisely the same thing as the exercise of his mediatorial office. All the services, which Christ has rendered man, are done by him as Mediator. That office comprehends every exercise of his love, every display of his benevolence, every effort to extend salvation. Intercession should be regarded as one of these modes of exertion, rather than as all. Even if it were' allowable to consider the term as in

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cluding all his kind offices toward man, or as an indefinite phrase to signify whatever it may be which he does for man in his exalted state; yet it may be more strictly exact to understand it as intending intercession by prayer. This seems to be the more usual sense of the word, both in our own language and in that of the original Scriptures.

The doctrine, then, seems to be, that our blessed Lord, who poured out his prayers as well as his life for men when on earth, forgets not, in his exalted state also, to seek their benefit by his prayers, and thus to express the interest which he still takes in that race for which he labored and died.

It will be my object to illustrate the truth of this doctrine, to clear it from objection, to explain its purposes, and unfold its uses.

I. 1. We may remark, in the first place, that Jesus should be engaged in such an office, is perfectly consonant to all that we know of the mode of the divine administration, and to all that we understand of the method of God's operations in the universe. He has every where established a uniform system of mutual dependence. Nothing stands by itself. No being exists alone. All lean upon each other. Every individual is made to help others, and to receive help from others. It is a large, comprehensive arrangement of beneficence, in which God's kind purposes are effected by causing his creatures to do kind offices to one another. The very worlds which roll through space are dependent on each other, and influence each other. Men are dependent on one another for existence and for happiness. The parent and child, the teacher and pupil, the ruler and subject, the rich and poor, all are needful to each other. And look where we may, every thing and every being seems made, not for itself only, but for the benefit of others also.