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BOTH TERMINATE AT THE SECOND ADVENT. 121

But why quote passages expressly linking the mission and work of the Spirit with Christ's sacerdotal Intercession and regal Glory at the right hand of God? For it is admitted on all hands, that the whole application of Christ's work in the flesh is accomplished in every one of his people, from first to last, by the agency of the Spirit, communicated through his continual intercession. Thus this department of Christ's priestly office holds at once of the purchase and of the application of redemption. The actual salvation of any soul, as it is by virtue of his meritorious death which his intercession pleads, so it is through the agency of his Spirit which that intercession procures. In this intercession the merit of his death and the might of his Spirit find their legal connexion, and by means of it the one passes into the other. There is a continuous presentation of his sacrifice, or of Himself in the virtue of it, in order to a continuous acknowledgment of his right to receive and dispense the Spirit to each of his redeemed in succession, down to the last, when he "appears the second time without sin, unto salvation." This appearing lies, as we have seen, at the other extremity of the Redeemer's work. We have nothing here to do with questions regarding the active agency of the Spirit, the exercise of intercession, and other mediatorial functions of Christ, in the everlasting state. My views on that subject differ in nothing, I suppose, from those of others sound in the faith, and of my esteemed opponents in this great question. But it is with the intercession of Christ and the work of the Spirit for saving purposes, or during the period when the saving of souls is going on-that I have exclusively to do here. And this, I think I have shown, is to cease at the second coming of Christ.

The force of our reasoning on this head is felt and admitted even by pre-millennialists themselves, when their

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particular scheme of the advent does not happen to require their opposition to it. Take the following proof of this from good Joseph Perry, "an unworthy servant in the work of the gospel," whose pre-millennial system certainly has its own difficulties, as we have seen, though this is not one of them :

"There are some things," says he, "that these last do hold (meaning those who in his day held the views now most prevalent amongst pre-millennialists), that I cannot by any means assent to; and that is, when Christ shall be established upon the throne of his glory, in his kingdom, and all the saints with him, in a perfect, incorruptible state of immortality, that then there shall be preaching of the gospel, and conversion-work go forward among the multitude of the nations that shall be found living when Christ cometh, according to the opinion of some good men. I say this is that which I cannot fall in with, but must profess my dislike against, because I cannot believe that the Lord Jesus Christ will come down from heaven, and LEAVE THAT GREAT WORK OF HIS INTERCESSION NOW AT GOD'S RIGHT HAND, UNTIL THE WHOLE NUMBER OF GOD'S ELECT AMONG JEWS AND GENTILES ARE CONVERTED, AND THE MYSTICAL BODY OF CHRIST IS COMPLETED. AND IF SO, WHERE IS THERE ANY ROOM FOR CONVERSION-WORK TO GO ON AFTER THIS?"*

The honest man never thought there could be a question about Christ's coming putting an end to his intercession. And what he could not comprehend was, how, when his coming had brought him out from within the veil and put an end to his intercession, his mystical body should still be incomplete, and conversion-work go on as before.

So natural is this view of the intercession of Christ, that we find even those to whose system it is fatal, letting it slip from their pen, as if unaware at the moment what they were conceding. For example, in one of the volumes of

* Glory of Christ's Visible Kingdom, pp. 219, 220.

IN CONFIRMATION OF THIS-SUMMARY.

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Lent Lectures on the Second Advent, I find Mr. Barker, on Heb. vii. 25, thus expressing himself

"It is absolutely necessary to remember that the word 'ever' signifies continuity, not eternity of action; for THE OFFICE OF CHRIST AS OUR INTERCESSOR WILL HAVE ITS CLOSE WHEN HE HAS BROUGHT ALL HIS PEOPLE WITH HIM."* And when will that be? The whole tenor of the lecture answers, at the time mentioned in his text, when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout,' when we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with the risen in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever bo with the Lord.""-(1 Thess. iv. 16, 17.)

"When Messiah," says the Duke of Manchester, "shall leave the 'Holy of Holies,' where he has now entered, to appear in the presence of God for us'-INTERCESSION WHICH IS PECULIAR TO HIS BEING IN THE HOLY OF HOLIES, SHALL HAVE CEASED. Coincident with this (he adds), upon resigning the kingdom (that in which he now reigns, but which he will resign at the millennium) to the Father, he will leave the throne of grace,' on which he shall reign until the effectual application, by the Holy Ghost, of all his work towards the restitution of all things.'"+

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And now, summing up the argument of these two chapters, what have we found? We have found that when Christ comes, as the Church will then be complete, so the means of grace and the agencies of salvation will then terminate. In other words, as there will then be no more souls to be saved, so the whole provision for saving them will be withdrawn. The object of the Scripture will be exhausted;

* The Hope of the Apostolic Church, p. 184. Compare p. 204. 1846. + Hora Hebraicæ, p. 90. 1835.

In his "Finished Mystery," his Grace seems to intimate that I have so far misunderstood him, as at least to draw a wrong inference from his statement. I regret this, and the more as 1 have not been able to catch the precise import of his explanation. The reader, therefore, will bear in mind that his Grace does not admit the conclusion which his words seem to suggest.

both the sealing ordinances of the New Testament will disappear, and with them the grace which they "signify and seal;" in a word, the intercession of Christ and the work of the Spirit, for saving purposes, will then terminate. I have not sought to establish one of these positions as a mere inference from another. Each of them has been established independently of all the rest. Each of them is thus a check upon the rest, and a test of their soundness. And thus the whole argument on this branch of our subject is cumulative; making it evident, on a number of different but connected grounds, that a millennium after the second advent was never designed, is not provided for, and will not take place.

CHAPTER VII.

THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST-ALREADY IN BEING ITS MILLENNIAL ESSENTIALLY THE SAME WITH ITS PRESENT CHARACTER-ITS ORGANIC FORM UNCHANGED.

Two things are in question here-the PERIOD and the NATURE of Christ's kingdom and reign. But as the one determines the other, it will be most convenient to handle them together. It is a very glorious and comprehensive branch of our subject. The points embraced under it, however, are of the most multifarious description, the texts with which we are met heaped up with often little or no classification, and the speculations drawn out of them almost endless. Besides, on no part of the subject are our friends more at variance amongst themselves. When you have disposed of the texts and demolished the views of one writer, you find another untouched, who claims to be heard and tried on his own merits. More than once have I thrown down their books with a sigh, having lost myself in the thicket of texts and contradictory opinions in which I had got entangled, and nearly despairing of being able to bring order out of this mass of confusion. If, however, we can seize on such prominent characteristics of Christ's kingdom and reign as our friends agree on amongst themselves, and bring these to the test of Scripture, the intelligent inquirer will be satisfied, and all that is essential will be gained.

The following proposition, then, will be all but univer

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