faith in him." And let this abide with you to your latest hour. Let neitlier a relapse into sin deter you from coming thus to Christ ; nor the most spotless continuance in hohness render such a mode of coming to him unnecessary in your eyes. This is the way in which you viay come, however ao-- gravated may have been your guilt ; and this is the way in ■which you must come, however eminent your attainments. It is not possible for you to be too much on your guard ao-ainst either doubting the sufficiency of Christ to save you, or at- tempting to unite any thing with him as a joint ground of your hope. To err in either of these respects will be fatal : it will arm both justice and truth against you, and will make void all that the Lord Jesus has done and suffered for you. But rely simply and altogether upon him, and " you shall not be ashamed or confounded world without end."]
THE ADVOCACY AND ATONEMENT OF CHRIST. 1 John ii. 1, 2. If any man sin, ive have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous ; and he is the propitiation for our sins ; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole ivorld.
THERE are two extremes to which men are apt to incline, namely, presumption and despair; and against both of these the Gospel is designed to guard us. The ungodly world at large imagine that^God will never execute his threatened judgments : and some will take occasion even from the Gospel itself to expect impunity in the ways of sin. But the rich promises of the Gospel were never given for this end : it was never God's design that his ** grace should be turned into licentiousness ;" and therefore the Apostle affectionately warns us against such an abuse of it ; *' My little children, these things I write unto you, that ye sin not." ' On the other hand, there are some persons, who, from a sense of their mani- fold backslidings, are ready to despond. To these the Apostle proceeds to speak : he sets before them the offices which Christ sustains on the behalf of snmers; and encourages them under every fresh contracted -uilt to look unto him as a willing, suit- able, and all-sufficient Saviour.
To
Il78.] Christ's advocacy and atonement, 217
To further this good work in your hearts, we will shew, I. The offices of Christ —
It will be proper to notice first that which is last mentioned in the text —
He is a " Propitiation for sin" — ■ ^
[To understand what is meant by this, we should con- sider the state of man. We were fallen creatures, and, in consequence of our fall, obnoxious to the wrath of God. To restore ourselves to the Divine favour was impossible, because we could not offer any atonement for the sins we had com- mitted. God, though ready to forgive, could not exercise mercy towards us in any way which did not accord with his justice, holiness, and truth. Christ therefore undertook to make satisfaction to the Divine justice, so that " mercy and truth might meet together, and righteousness and peace might kiss each other." This he did by substituting himself in our place. " He bore our sins in his own body on the tree%" and " suffered, the just for the unjust^" Our apprehension of this matter will be greatly assisted, if we consider how it was represented under the Mosaic ceconomy. Bullocks, goats, and lambs were offered in sacrifice to God. The offender, when he brought his sacrifice, laid his hands vipon its head, and transferred to it his guilt ; and then it was put to death in his stead. This sacrifice God accepted on behalf of the offerer, and, out of respect to it, forgave his iniquities ^ This indeed was only a type : but it shadowed forth what was really done by Christ, who " came to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself"^." The whole language of Scripture ac- cords with this explanation, and confirms the truth of this stupendous mystery ^]