reconciled, and have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ;” by Him, “being now justified by His Blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him:” and so truly “we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom we have now received the Atonement.” {150} He is the great High Priest, with power in Himself as none other has, or can have, to offer up the sacrifice and “make reconciliation for the sins of the people.” He is the immaculate Victim, the one only meritorious Sacrifice, “once offered to bear the sins of many,” Whose “Blood speaketh better things than that of Abel.” He is the true Paschal Lamb, “without blemish and without spot;” “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world;” the Lamb “slain,” (in God’s design, and His own ever-merciful intention,) “from the foundation of the world,” but manifested for this purpose “in the fulness of the time.” He is the great Physician, causing joy wherever He goeth, because He can heal all diseases; He is the great Lawgiver, proclaiming His will; He is the great Prophet, ordaining and promulgating His method of salvation; He is the great King, setting up His kingdom, marking out its boundaries, and ruling His subjects; He is the great Captain, ordering His armies, displaying His banners, giving out His weapons, going forth “conquering and to conquer;” He is the one Mediator, He is the availing Intercessor; He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; He is the Sun and Centre of the whole mediatorial kingdom; He is the Lord of this world and of the world to come!—And all this, because He is (as He is and ever hath been) “God the Son: God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God; of one substance with the Father;” and because, in mercy to us, He became also the Son of Man, “conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary.”