we are saved, not by works of righteousness which we have done. The only procuring cause of our salvation is Jesus Christ. Every thing which we receive comes to us on account of what he has done and suffered : if the Father's love appear to us, or if the Spirit be shed forth upon us, it is, as the text observes, " through Jesus Christ." It was his death which removed the obstacles to our salvation : the justice of God required satisfaction for our breaches of the divine law : the dishonour done to the law itself needed to be repaired : the truth of God, which was engaged to punish sin, needed to be preserved inviolate. Unless these things could be effected, there could be no room for the exercise of mercy, because it was not possible that one perfection of the Deity should be exercised in any other way than in perfect consistency with all the rest. But the death of Christ removed these obstacles. Christ offered himself as an atonement for sin ; and at once ho- noured the law, satisfied justice, and paid the utmost farthing of our debt : thus, " mercy and truth meet together, and righteousness and peace kiss each other :" yea, by this means, " God is faithful and just, (not to condemn us, but) to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Nor is it in this view only that Jesus Christ pro- cures our salvation : He has taken upon him the office of an advocate, which he is ever executing in heaven : " He ever lives," says the Apostle, "to make intercession for us." He pleads our cause with the Father : he urges his own merits on our behalf : like the high-priest of old, he presents blood, yea, his own blood, before the mercy-seat, and fills the most holy-place with the incense of his own intercession. Thus does he continually prevail for us ; and we, for his sake, are loaded with all spiritual and eternal benefits.
That we obtain mercies thus, by virtue of his death and intercession, is evident also from other Scriptures ; the Apostle says, that we have redemp- tion through Christ's blood ; and our Lord says, '' I