they would plead possession before him having been Priests before him And then he further backs his reason by this that those Priests served as it follows ver 5. unto the example and shadow of heavenly things And therefore it is onely a reall Priest-hood in Heaven which must put them out of place and till such a Priesthood comes they must serve still for the truth which these served to shadow out is not till then fulfilled This you have also Ch. 9. 8. The first Tabernacle was to stand untill a Priest went into Heaven and did act that office there so that if Christ will be a Priest alone he must become a Priest interceding in heavē or else High-priests must come up again and share that office with him and so hee should as good as fall from his office and lose all that he had done Yea thirdly this part of his Priesthood is of the two the more eminent yea the top the height of his Priesthood And this is held forth to us in the Types of both those two orders of Priesthood that were before him and figures of him both that of Aaron and Melchisedec 1 This was typified out in that Leviticall Priesthood of Aaron and his fellows The highest service of that office was the going into the Holy of Holies and making an atonement there yea this was the height of the High priests honour that he did this alone and did constitute the difference between him as he was High priest and other Priests For they killed and offered the sacrifices without as well as he every ordinary Priest did that But none but the High Priest was to approach the Holy of holies with bloud and this but once a yeere Thus Heb. 9. 6 7. The Priests namely those inferiour Priests went alwayes that is daily morning and evening into the first Tabernacle or Court of Priests which was without the Holy of holies accomplishing the service of God namely that offering of the daily sacrifice But into the second namely the Holy of holies went the High-priests alone every yeere So then this was that high and transcendent prerogative of that High-Priest then and which indeed made him High-priest and answerably the highth of our High-priests office although he alone also could offer a satisfactory sacrifice as the Apostle shews Heb. 9. and 10. yet comparatively lay in this that he entred into the heavens by his bloud and is set downe on the Majesty on high and in the vertue of his sacrifice there doth intercede I know but one place that calleth him the Great High-priest higher before then Aaron and that is Heb. 4. 14 16. And then it is in this respect that he is passed into the Heavens as it follows there 2. The excellency of this part of his Priesthood was likewise typified out by Melchisedechs Priest-hood which the Apostle argueth to have been much more excellent then that of Aarons in as much as Levi Aarons Father payed Tythes to this Melchisedech in Abrahams loyns Now Melchisedech was his type not so much in respect of his oblation or offering of Sacrifice that work which Christ performed on earth but in respect of that work which he for ever performs in Heaven therefore that same clause for ever still comes in in the quotation and mention of Melchisedechs priesthood in that Epistle because in respect of that his continuall intercession in Heaven Melchisedech was properly Christs type And accordingly you may observe Psal 110. when is it that that speech comes in Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech but then when God had him sitting at his right hand ver 1. So that as the transcendent excellencie of Christs Priesthood was typified out by Melchisedechs rather then Aarons as being the better priesthood of the two so this the most excellent part thereof was typified out thereby namely that which Christ for ever acteth in heaven And 3. This the chief argument of the Epistle to the Heb. To confirm this you shall find this to be made the top notion of this Epistle to the Heb. and the scope of it chiefly to discourse of Christs eternall Priesthood in heaven to shew how therein Melchisedech was a type of him This is not onely expressed both in Heb. 7. 21. and 25. where this same for ever is applyed to his Intercession ver 25. but more expresly in Chap. 8. 1. where the Apostle puts the emphasis upon this part of his Priesthood saying That of the things which we have spoken or which are to be spoken for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will beare either this is sayes he the summe or argument of all the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies as well The head the chiefe the top of all and above all as it doth the sum of all And what is it that he thus professeth to be both the maine subject and argument of this Epistle and the top and eminent thing in Christ he intends to discourse of It follows That We have such an High-Priest as is set down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens And of the Priestly office he alone discourseth both before and after and in the following verses calleth his Ministerie or office in respect to this A more excellent Ministerie ver 6. he being such a Priest as was higher then the heavens as he had set him out in the latter part of the former Chap. And therefore you may observe how in his Preface to this Epistle to the Heb. in the first Chap. ver 3. he holds up this to our eye as the argument of the whole saying When he had by himself purged our sins he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high Yea His oblation else would have beene ineffectuall to conclude this All his Priesthood would have been ineffectuall if he had not acted the part of a Priest in heaven by Intercession there for by his death he did but begin the execution of his office in heaven he ends it and if he had not fulfilled his office in both the worke of our salvation had not beene fully perfected it was therefore as necessary as oblation it self Not but that his Death was a perfect oblation it was perfect for an oblation to which as such nothing can be added There needed no more nor anyother price to be paid for us by that one offering he perfects us for ever as Heb. 10. 14. and became himselfe perfect thereby Heb. 5. 9. And in the 9. Chapter ver 12. By his own bloud he entred into the Holy place having obtained eternall redemption for us Mark how before he entred by his bloud into heaven he had fully obtained a redemption and that eternall that is for ever sufficient which done he became through his Intercession in heaven an applying cause of eternall salvation a Heb. 5. 10 11. hath it So that as in his death he paid the full summe
this worke of Intercession for us and that in heaven to be added to all the former For the first I will proceede therein by degrees First It is one part of his Priest-hood You must know that Christ is not entred into heaven simply as a fore-runner which hath been explained to take up places for you but as a Priest also Made a Priest after the order of Melchisedec which is more then simply a Forerunner Yea his sitting at Gods right hand is not onely as a King armed with power and authority to save us but he sits there as a Priest too Thus Heb. 8. 1. We have such an High Priest who is set downe at the right hand of the Majesty on high In the old Leviticall Priest-hood Two parts of the High-Priests office the High-Priests office had two parts both which concurred to make them High-Priests First Oblation or offering the Sacrifice Secondly Presentation of it in the Holy of Holies with Prayer and Intercession unto God to accept it for the sinnes of the people The one was done without the other within the Holy of Holies This you may see in many places especially Levit. 16. 11 15 16. where you have the Law about the High Priests entring into the Holy of Holies he was not to come into the holy place till first he had offered a Sacrifice for himselfe and the people ver 11. and 15. and this without Then secondly when he had killed it he was to enter with the bloud of it into the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the Mercie-seat therein with it ver 14 17. and to go with Incense and cause a cloud to arise over the Mercie-seat And this you have also Heb. 13. 11. it is said that The bloud of those beasts that were burnt without the Camp was brought into the Sanctuary by the High-Priest And in that 16. of Levit. you shall finde the Atonement made as well by the bloud when brought into the Holy place ver 16. as by the killing of the beast ver 11. Both these were acts of the High-priesthood for Atonement And this was done in a Type of the Priestly office of Christ and the parts thereof So Heb. 9. 23. he cals all those transactions under the Ceremoniall Law the patterns of things heavenly instancing in this part of Christs office ver 24. For Christ sayes he is not entred into the Holy places made without hands as that was which are the figures of the true but into heaven it selfe to appear in the presence of God for us Now then in answer to this Type there are two distinct parts of Christs Priesthood First 1. Christs offering up himselfe the offering himselfe a Sacrifice up to death as Heb. 9. 26. which answers to the killing of the Sacrifice without the Holy of Holies for answerably he was crucified without the City Heb. 13. 12. Secondly 2. Entring into the Heavens to Intercede he carryed this his bloud into the Holy of Holies namely the Heavens Heb. 9. 12. where he appeares ver 24. and there also prayes in the force of that bloud And the Type of those prayers was that cloud of Incense made by the High-Priest so it is expresly interpreted Rev. 8. 3. c. The Angel Christ is said to have had much Incense to offer it with the prayers of all the Saints Which Incense is his owne prayers in heaven which he continually puts up when the Saints pray on earth and so perfumes all their prayers and procures all blessings for them Both these parts of his Prist-hood the Apostle Iohn mentions in his first Epistle Both proved Chap. 2. ver 2. where as he cals Jesus Christ a propitiation for our sins that is an Oblation or Sacrifice offered up for us So likewise he cals him our Advocate both going to make up this his office And indeed this latter of Intercession and bringing his bloud into the Holy of Holies or heaven is but the same action continued That bloud which he offered with tears and strong cryes on the Crosse where he likewise interceded the same bloud he continues virtually to offer up with prayers in the heavens and makes Atonement by both onely with this difference On earth though he interceded yet he more eminently offered up himselfe In heaven he more eminently intercedes and doth but present that Offering Secondly this was so necessary a part of his Priest-hood that without it he had not been a compleat Priest Without Intercession he had not been a perfect Priest Thus Heb. 8. 4. If he were on earth he should not be a Priest That is If he should have abode on earth he should not have been a compleat Priest Paul saith not that if he had offered that his sacrifice on earth he had not been a Priest for that was necessary but that if he had staid still on earth after he had offered it he had not been a Priest that is a perfect Priest for he had then left his office imperfect and had done it but by halves seeing this other part of it the work of Intercession lay still upon him to be acted in heaven Thus the High-priest his Type if he had only offered Sacrifice without the Holy of holies had not been a perfect High-Priest For to enter into the Holy of holies and to act the part of a Priest there This the peculiar work of the High-Priest who was in this Christs Type was the proper peculiar work of the High-Priest as such Which shews that Christ had not been an High-Priest if he had not gone to heaven and Priested it there too as I may so speak as well as upon earth Yea if Christ had not gone to heaven and were not now become a Priest there then the Leviticall Priest-hood were still in force and should share the honour with him and the High-priest must continue still to goe into the Holy of holies To this purpose you may observe that so long as Christ was on earth though risen the Types of the Law held in force and were not to give way till all the truth signified by their Ministery was fully accomplisht and so not untill Christ was gone into heaven as a Priest and there had begun to doe all that which the High-priest had done in the Holy of holies and as his Type fore-signified And this is plainly the meaning of what follows in that Heb. 8. ver 4. as the reason or demonstration why that Christ should not have been a Priest if he had not gone to heaven not onely as a King but as a Priest too as he had affirmed ver 1. Seeing sayes he that there are Priests upon earth that doe offer gifts according to the Law The force of the Reason lyes thus There are already Priests and that of a Tribe he was not of that offer gifts on earth before he came into the world And therefore if that had beene all his Priest-hood to be a Priest on earth
of all he owed unto which payment nothing can be added no not by himselfe though he would come and die again it was made at that once as perfect that is for an oblation as ever himselfe could make But yet still by Gods ordination there remained another further action of another kind that was to be added to this of oblation and that is Intercession or praying for us in Heaven otherwise our salvation by his death were not perfected for if his Priesthood be imperfect our salvation then must needs be so The presenting of that his Sacrifice in heaven was the consummation of his Priesthood and the performance of that part there the perfection of it CHAP. III. The second The speciall peculiar influence that Intercession hath into our Salvation and Justification and the Reasons why God appointed it to be added to the former TO come now more particularly to shew that proper and speciall influence that Intercession hath into our Salvation and what it addes to the Oblation of Christs death though in its kinde perfect in order to the effecting our salvation and so shew the more inward reasons why God ordained for upon his ordination alone this is to be put this work of Intercession in heaven to be joyned with his death And both these I shall put promiscuously together for in laying down the Reasons why God thus ordered our salvation to be brought about by it that influence also which Intercession hath into our salvation will together therewith appeare The Reasons either respect 1 God himselfe who will have us so saved as himselfe may be most glorified Or 2 respect us and our salvation God ordering all the links of this golden chaine of the Causes of our salvation as should make our salvation most sure and stedfast as David in his last Song speaks First sort of reasons respect God 2 Sam. 23. 5. Or 3 respect Christ himself whose glory is to be held up throughout continued as the Author and Finisher of our Salvation Beginner and Ender of our Faith and Justification The first sort of Reasons respect God himselfe 1. 1. In generall God will bee dealt with like himselfe In generall God will be dealt withall like himselfe in and throughout the whole way of our salvation from first to last and carry it all along as a Superiour wronged and so keepe a distance between himself and sinners who still are to come to him by a Priest and a Mediator as Heb. 7. 25. hath it upon whose mediation and intercession for ever as there at least till the day of Judgement their Salvation doth depend and therefore though Christ in his dispensation of all to us downward doth carry it as a King as one having all power to justifie and condemne as hath beene shewne yet upward towards God he carries it as a Priest who must still intercede to do all that which he hath power to do as a King Therefore in the second Psal after that God had set him up as King upon his holy hill ver 6. namely in heaven and so had committed all power in heaven and earth to him then he must yet ask all that he would have done Aske of me and I will give thee c. ver 8. sayes God to him For though he be a King yet he is Gods King I have set My King c. and by asking him God will be acknowledged to be above him But more of this hereafter But 2. 2. More particularly for the glory of Gods Free grace more particularly God hath two Attributes which he would have most eminently appear in their highest glory by Christs effecting our salvation namely Iustice and Free grace and therefore hath so ordered the bringing about of our salvation as that Christ must apply himselfe in a more especiall manner unto each of these by way of Satisfaction to the one of Entreaty to the other Justice will be known to be Justice and dealt with upon its owne tearmes and Grace will be acknowledged to be Free grace throughout the accomplishment of our salvation You have both these joyned Rom. 3. 23 24 25. Being justified freely through his grace by the Redemption that is in Christ Iesus That he might be just and the justifier of him that beleeves Here is highest Iustice and the freest Grace both met to save us and both ordained by God to be declared and set forth as ver Which looks to be applyed unto in a way of entreaty and Intercession 25. and 26. have it I said before that God justifies and saves us through free grace so absolutely freely as if his Justice had had no satisfaction Now therefore our salvation depending being carryed on even in the application of it by a continuation of Grace in a free way notwithstanding satisfaction unto Justice therefore this free grace must be sought to and treated with like it selfe and applyed unto in all and the soveraignty and freenesse of it acknowledged in all even as well as Gods Iustice had the honour to be satisfied by a price paid unto it that so the severity of it might appeare and be held forth in our salvation Thus God having two attributes eminently to be dealt withall his Justice and his free Grace it was meete that there should be two eminent actions of Christs Priesthood wherein he should apply himselfe to each according to their kind and as the nature and glory of each doth require And accordingly in his death he deals with Iustice by laying downe a sufficient price and in his Intercession he entreateth Free grace and thus both come to be alike acknowledged In the 4. Heb. 16. we are encouraged to come boldly to the Throne of grace because we have an High-priest entred into the Heavens Observe how it is called a Throne of grace which our High-priest now in heaven officiates at So called because his Priesthood there deals with free grace chiefly it is a Throne of Grace and so to be sued unto therefore he treateth with God by way of Intercession Of this Throne of Grace in heaven the Mercie-seat in the Holy of holies was the Type And as there the High-priest was to bring the bloud and Mercie-seat together he was to sprinkle the bloud upon it so Christ And as the High-Priest was to go into the Holy of holies by bloud so with Incense also that is Prayer To shew that Heaven is not opened by meere Iustice or bringing onely a price in hand for it but by Grace also and that must be entreated and therefore when the Priest was within that holy place he was to make a Cloud over the Mercie-seat which cloud of Incense is Prayer whereof Incense was the Type Rev. 8. 3. And thence it is that Christ hath as much work of it still in heaven as ever though of another kind He dealt with Iustice here below to satisfie it and here got mony enough to pay the debt but in heaven he
deals with Mercy Therefore all the Grace he bestows on us he is said first to receive it even now when in heaven Acts 2. 33. it is said of him after his going to heaven and that he was exalted c. that he received the promise of the Spirit which Ioh. 14. 16. he told them he would pray for And this is part of the meaning of that in Psal 68. 18. He ascended up on high and received gifts for men sayes the Psalmist The Apostle renders it Ephes 4. gave but you see it was by receiving them first as fruits of his Intercession and asking after his ascending He is said both to give as being all of his own purchase and as having power as a King also both to doe and bestow all he doth and yet withall he is said to receive all that he gives because as a Priest he intercedes for it and asks it Free grace requires this This is the first thing Yea 2. Gods justice stood upon it Secondly Justice it selfe might stand a little upon it though there was enough in Christ his death to satisfie it yet having been wronged it stood thus far upon it as those to whom a debt is due use to doe namely to have the money brought home to Gods dwelling house and laid downe there God is resolved not to stoope one whit unto man no nor to Christ his Surety Justice will not onely be satisfied and have a sufficient ransome collected and paid as at Christs death but he must come and bring his bags up to heaven justice will be paid it upon the Mercie-seate For so in the Type the blood was to be carried into the Holy of holies and sprinkled upon the Mercie-seat And therefore his Resurrection Ascension c. were but as the breaking through all enemies subduing them to the end to bring this price or satisfaction to the Mercie-seat and so God having his money by him might not want wherewithall to pardon Sinners so as the blood of Christ is currant money not only on earth but in heaven too whither all is brought which is for our comfort that all the treasure which should satisfie God is safely conveyed thither and our Surety with it The second sort of reasons why God ordained Christs intercession to be joyned to his Death Second sort of reasons it was best for the effecting our Salvation are taken from what was the best way to effect and make sure our salvation and secure our hearts therein and these reasons will shew the peculiar influence that Intercession hath into our Salvation and therein as in the former First in generall God would have our salvation made sure and us saved all manner of wayes over and over 1 1. In generall God would have us saved all manner of wayes By ransome and price as Captives are redeemed which was done by his Death which of it selfe was enough for it is said Heb. 10. to perfect us for ever 2 2. The Application of Redemption to us from Christs Intercession By power and rescue so in his Resurrection and Ascension and sitting at Gods right hand which also was sufficient Then 3 3. More particularly our justification depends on it again by Intercession a way of favour and entreaty and this likewise would have beene enough but God would have all wayes concurre in it whereof notwithstanding not one could fail a three fold cord whereof each twine were strong enough but all together must of necessity hold Secondly The whole Application of his redemption both in justifying and saving of us first and last hath a speciall dependance upon this his Intercession This all Divines on all sides doe attribute unto it whilst they put this difference betweene the influence of his death and that of his intercession into our salvation calling his death Medium impetrationis that is the meanes of procurement or obtaining it for us But his intercession Medium applicationis the Meanes of applying all unto us Christ purchaseth salvation by the one but possesseth us of it by the other Some have attributed the Application of Iustification to his Resurrerection but it is much more proper to ascribe it to his Intercession and what causall influence his Resurrection hath into our Iustification hath been afore in the third Section declared But that his eternall Priesthood in heaven and the work of its Intercession is the applying cause of our eternall salvation in all the parts of it first and last seems to me to be the result of the connexion of the 8 9 and 10. verses of the 5. Chap. to the Hebrews For having spoken of his obedience and sufferings unto death ver 8. and how he thereby was made perfect ver 9. he sayes And being thus first made perfect he became the Author or applying cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of eternall salvation unto all them that obey him and this by his being become an eternall Priest in heaven after he was thus perfected by sufferings for so it follows ver 10. Called of God an High-priest after the order of Melchisedech And Melchisedechs Priesthood was principally the type of his Priesthood in heaven as was before declared One leading instance to shew that his Intercession was to be the applying cause of salvation was given by Christ whilst he was on earth thereby manifesting what much more was to be done by him in heaven through his Intercession there when he was on the Crosse and as then offering that great sacrifice for sin he at that time also joyned prayers for the justification of those that crucified him Father forgive them for they know not what they doe So fulfilling that in Esay 53. ult He bare the sins of many and made Intercession for the transgressours And the efficacie of that prayer then put up was the cause of the conversion of those three thousand Acts 2. whom ver 35. the Apostle had expresly charged with the crucifying of Christ whom ye by wicked hands have taken crucified and slaine These were the first fruits of his Intercession whose prayers still doe reap and bring in the rest of the crop which in all ages is to grow up unto God on earth 3. And more particularly as the whole Application in generall so our Iustification in the whole progresse of it depends upon Christs Intercession As 1. 1 The first act of our justification and our conversion depends upon it Our first actuall or initiall Iustification which is given us at our first conversion depends upon Christs Intercession Therefore in the fore-mentioned prayer on the Crosse the thing he prayed for was Forgivenes Father forgive them You heard before that Christs death affords the matter of our justification as being that which is imputed the ransome the price the thing it self that satisfies And that his Resurrection was the originall act of Gods justifying us in Christ We were virtually justified then in Christ his being justifyed as in a Common Person But
besides all this there is a personall or an actuall Iustification to be bestowed upon us that is an accounting and bestowing it upon us in our own persons which is done whē we beleeve and it is called Rom. 5. 1. a being justifyed by faith and ver 10. receiving the atonement now this depends upon Christs Intercession and it was typified out by Moses his sprinkling the people with blood mentioned Heb. 9. 19. which thing Jesus Christ as a Mediator and Priest doth now from Heaven For Heb. 12. 24. it is said You are come to Heaven and to Iesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and as it is next subjoyned to the blood of sprinkling he shed his blood on the Crosse on earth but he sprinkleth it now as a Priest from Heaven For it is upon Mount Sion to which he had said first in the former verse ye are come and so to Christ as a Mediator standing on that mount and sprinkling from thence his blood and so therein there is an allusion unto Moses Christs Type who sprinkled the people with the blood of that ceremoniall covenant the type of the covenant of grace Now in the 1 Pet. 1. 2. The sprinkling of Christ his blood as it is there made the more proper work of Christ himselfe in distinction from the other persons and therefore was done by Moses who was his type so is it also put for our first justification And this sprinkling as it is there mentioned is from the vertue of his intercession And therefore in that place of the Heb. forecited he attributes an intercession unto it as the phrase that follows which speaks better things c. doth imply of which more hereafter Yet concerning this first Head let me adde this by way of caution which I shall presently have occasion to observe that though this our first justification is to be ascribed to his Intercession yet more eminently Intercession is ordained for the accōplishing our salvation this other more rarely in the Scripture attributed thereunto Secondly 2. The continuance of our justification depends upon it The continuation of our Iustification depends upon it And as his Intercession is the virtuall continuation of his Sacrifice so is it the continuing cause of our justification which though it be an act done once as fully as ever yet is it done over every moment for it is continued by acts of free Grace so renewed actually every moment There is a standing in Grace by Christ spoken of Rom. 5. 2. as well as a first accesse by Christ and that standing in grace and continuing in it is afterwards ver 11. attributed to his life that is as it is interpreted Heb. 7. 25. his living ever to intercede We owe our standing in grace every moment to his sitting in Heaven and interceding every moment There is no fresh act of justification goes forth but there is a fresh act of intercession And as though God created the World once for all yet every moment he is said to create every new act of providence beeing a new creation so likewise to justifie continually through his continuing out free grace to justifie as at first and this Christ doth by continuing his Intercession he continues a Priest for ever and so we continue to be justifyed for ever 3. A full security of our justification given thereby forever There is hereby a full security given us of justification to be continued for ever The danger either must lie in old sins comming into remembrance or else from sins newly to be committed Now first God hereby takes order 1. Against the remembrance of sins past that no old sins shall come up into remembrance to trouble his thoughts as in the old Law after the Priests going into the Holy of holies their sins are said yet to have done Heb. 10. 3. and to that end it was that he placed Christ as his Remembrancer for us so neere him to take up his thoughts so with his obedience that our sinnes might not come into mind not that God needed this help to put himself in mind but onely for a formality sake that things being thus really carryed between God and Christ for us according to a way suiting with our apprehensions our faith might be strengthened against all suppositions and feares of after reviving our guilts Look therefore as God ordained the Rain-bow in the heavens that when he lookt on it he might remember his Covenant never to destroy the world againe by water so he hath set Christ as the Rain-bow about his Throne And look as the Bread and Wine in the Lords Supper are appointed on earth to shew forth Christs death as a Remembrancer to us so is Christ himselfe appointed in heaven to shew forth his death really as a Remembrancer thereof to his Father and indeed the one is correspondent to the other Onely the Papists have perverted the use of the Lords Supper by making it on earth a commemorative sacrifice to God when as it is but a Remembrancer thereof to men and besides their Priests therein do take upon themselves this very office of presenting this sacrifice to God which is proper onely to Christ in Heaven But God when he would make sure not to be tempted to remember our sins any more nor trouble himselfe with them hath set his Christ by him to put him in minde of his so pleasing an offering So the High-Priests going into the Holy of holies was for a memoriall and therein the Type of Christ And this is plainly expresly made the use of this execution of his Priestly office in Heaven Heb. 8. where the Apostle having discoursed of that part of his office as the chiefe thing he aimed at in this Epistle ver 1. and of the necessity of it ver 3 4 and 5. and excellencie of it in this respect ver 6. he then shews how from thence the new Covenant of pardon came to be sure and stedfast that God will remember our sins no more ver 12. which he there brings in as the proper use of this Doctrine and of this part of his Priesthood 2. 2. To prevent the accusing condemning us by new sinne for times to come As by reason of intercession God remembers not old sins so likewise he is not provoked by new For though God when he justifies us should forgive all old sins past for ever so as never to remember them more yet new ones would break forth and he could not but take notice of them and so so long as sinne continues there is need of a continuing intercession Therefore for the securing us in this it is said Rom. 5. 10. That if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life Where we see that his Death is in some more speciall manner said to procure reconciliation at first for sinnes of unregeneracie and to bring us to
it selfe for them and handle matters so as Justice shall be as forward to save them as any other Attribute So that if God be said to be righteous in forgiving us our sins if we doe but confesse them as Chap. 1. of this 1. Epist of Iohn ver 9. then much more when Iesus Christ the righteous shall intercede for the pardon of them as he adds in the second ver of the ensuing Chap. and this if he will be just The worst Case he will make a good one not with colouring it over as cunning Lawyers doe or extenuating things but with pleading that righteousnesse which being put into the opposite ballance shall cast it for thee be there never so many sinnes weighed against it Yea and he will be just in it too and carry all by meere righteousnesse and equity In the explication of this Branch This explicated my purpose is not to insist upon the demonstration of that all-sufficient fulnesse that is in Christs satisfaction such as may in justice procure our pardon and salvation because it will more fitly belong to another Discourse but I shall absolve this point in hand by two things which are proper to this head of Intercession First By two considerations by shewing how that there is even in respect to Gods Justice a powerfull voice of Intercerssion attributed unto Christs bloud and how prevalent that must needs be in the eares of the righteous God Secondly especially when Christ himselfe shall joyne with that cry and Intercession of his blood himselfe in Heaven appearing and interceding in the strength of it For the first 1. How an Intercession and appeale to Gods justice is attributed to Christs bloud the Apostle Heb. 12. 24. doth ascribe a voice an appeal an Intercession unto the bloud of Christ in Heaven The blood of sprinkling sayes he speakes better things then the blood of Abel He makes Christs very bloud an Advocate to speak for us though Christ himselfe were silent as he sayes in another case Abel though dead yet speaketh Heb. 11. 4. Many other things are said to cry to Scripture and I might shew how the cry of all other things doe meet in this but Bloud hath the loudest cry of all things else in the eares of the Lord of Hosts the Iudge of all the world as he is in the 23. ver of that 12. Chap. styled Neither hath any cry the eare of Gods justice more then that of bloud The voyce of thy brothers bloud sayes God to Cain cryes unto me from the ground Gen. 4. 10. Now in that speech of the Apostle forecited is the allusion made unto the bloud of Abel and the cry thereof And he illustrates the cry of Christs bloud for us by the cry of that bloud of Abel against Cain it speaks better things then the bloud of Abel And his scope therein is by an Antithesis or way of opposition to shew that Christs blood cals for greater good things to be bestowed on us for whom it was shed then Abels bloud did for evill things and vengeance against Cain by whom it was shed For look how loud the bloud of one innocent cryes for justice against another that murdered him so loud will the bloud of one righteous who by the appointment and permission of a supreame Judge hath been condemned for another cry for his release and non-condemnation for whom he dyed And the more righteous he was who laid downe his life for another the louder still is that cry for it is made in the strength of all that worth which was in him whose bloud was shed Now to set forth the power of this cry of Christs bloud with justice let us compare it with that cry of Abels bloud in these two things wherein it will be found infinitely to exceed it in force and loudnesse First This cry of his bloud illustrated by a twofold comparison with the cry of the bloud of Abel in all which it exceeds it even the bloud of the wickedest man on earth if innocently shed doth cry and hath a power with Justice against him who murdered him Had Abel murdered Cain Cains bloud would have cryed and called upon Gods Justice against Abel but Abels bloud there is an emphasis in that Abels who was a Saint and the first Martyr in Gods Kalender and so his bloud cryes according to the worth that was in him Now Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints and the bloud of one of Them cryes louder then the bloud of all Man-kind besides Now from this I argue If the bloud of a Saint cryes so what must the bloud of the King of Saints as Christ is called Revel 15. then doe If the blood of one member of Christs body what will then the blood of the head far more worth then that whole body how doth it fill Heaven and Earth with out-cries untill the promised intent of its shedding be accomplisht And as the Antithesis carries it looke how the blood of Abel cryed for the ruine and condemnation of his brother Cain so does Christs blood on the contrary for our pardon and non-condemnation and so much the lowder by how much his blood was of more worth then Abels was This was the blood of God so Act. 20. Who therefore shall condemne But 2. Christs blood hath in its crie here a further advantage of Abels blood attributed to it For that cryed but from earth from the ground where it lay shed and that but for an answerable earthly punishment on Cain as he was a man upon the earth but Christs blood is carried up to Heaven for as the High-priest carried the blood of the Sacrifices into the Holy of holies so hath Christ virtually carried his blood into Heaven Heb. 9. 12. And this is intimated in this place also as by the coherence will appeare For all the other particulars of which this is one whereto he sayes the Saints are come they are all in Heaven You are come saies he ver 22 to the City of the living God the Heavenly Hierusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the Church of the first borne who are written in Heaven and to God the Iudge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect All which things are in Heaven neither names he any other then such And then adds And to the blood of sprinkling which speakes c. as a thing both speaking in Heaven and besprinkled from Heaven yea wherewith Heaven is all besprinkled as the Mercie-seat in the Holy of holies was because sinners are to come thither This Blood therefore cries from Heaven it is next unto God who sits Judge there it cries in his very eares whereas the cry of blood from the ground is further off and so though the cry thereof may come up to Heaven yet the blood it selfe comes not up thither as Christs already is Abels blood cryed for vengeance to come down from heaven but
of many things about Intercession And which I would also commend to and leave with poore Beleevers to have recourse unto for their comfort as a sufficient Abundary of Consolation unto their Soules and as a Catholicon or universall Cordiall against all faintings and misgivings of spirit whatsoever In the words observe 1. A Definition of Faith by the lowest acts of it for the comfort of weake Christians 2. Encouragements unto such a Faith opposite to all misgivings and discouragements whatsoever 1. A Definition of Faith and such as will suit the weakest Beleever It is a comming unto God by Christ for Salvation 1. It is a comming to be saved Let not the want of Assurance that God will save thee or that Christ is thine discourage thee if thou hast but a heart to Come to God by Christ to be saved though thou knowest not whether he will yet save thee or no. Remember that the Beleevers of the New Testament are here described to be commers to God by Christ Such as goe out of themselves and rest in nothing in themselves do come unto God through Christ for Salvation though with trembling 2. It is a Comming unto God For he is the ultimate object of our Faith and the person with whom we have to do in believing from whom we are to receive Salvation if ever we obtaine it 3. It is a Comming unto God by Christ which Phrase is used in this Epistle in an allusion to the worshipers of the Old Testament who when they had sinned were directed to go to God by a Priest who with a Sacrifice made an Atonement for them Now Christ is the great and true High-Priest by whom we have accesse to the Father 2. Ephes 18. The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a leading by the hand Doest thou not know how to appeare before God or to come to him come first to Christ and he will take thee by the hand and go along with thee and leade thee to His Father 4. It is a comming unto God by Christ for Salvation Many a poore soule is apt to thinke that in comming to God by Faith it must not aime at it selfe or its own Salvation yes it may for that is here made the errand or businesse which faith hath with God in comming to him or which it comes for and this is secretly couched in these words for the Apostle speaking of the very aime of the heart in comming he therefore on purpose mentions Christs ability to save He is able to save Secondly Here are many encouragements to such a Faith as is not yet grown up unto assurance of Salvation 1. Here is the most suitable object propounded unto it namely Christ as Interceding which work of Intercession because it remains for Christ as yet to doe for a soule that is to be saved and which he is every day a doing for us therefore it is more peculiarly fitted unto a Recumbents Faith For when such a soule comes and casts it selfe upon Christ That thing in Christ which must needs most suit that kind of Act is that which is yet to be done by Christ for that soule Now for that soule to come to Christ to die for it and offer up himselfe a Sacrifice as Sinners did use to come to the High-Priest to sacrifice for them this were bootlesse for as it is ver 27. he hath at once done that already And as for what is already past and done such a beleevers faith is oftentimes exceedingly puzled what manner of act to put forth towards Christ about it as for example when it is about to come unto God it heares of an Election of some unto salvation from all eternity made by him because this is an act already past by God the soule knows it to be in vain to cast it selfe upon God for Election or to come unto him to elect choose it selfe And so in like manner when the soule lookes upon Christs Death because it is done and past it knowes not how to take it in in beleeving when it wanteth assurance that Christ dyed for it though it should come to Christ to bee saved by vertue of his death But there is this one worke that remaines still to be done by him for us and which he is daily a doing and that is Interceding for he lives ever to Intercede or to pray for us in the strength and merit of that his Sacrifice once offered up This therefore is more directly peculiarly fitted unto a Faith of Recumbency or of Comming unto Christ the proper act of such a Faith as it is distinguished from Faith of Assurance being a casting ones selfe upon Christ for some thing it would have done or wrought for one Hence Intercession becomes a fit object for the aime and errand of such a Faith in this its comming to Christ as also to be saved is it being a thing yet to bee wrought and accomplisht for me by Christ is therefore a fit marke for such a Faith to levell at in its comming to Christ Those Acts of God and Christ which are past Faith of Assurance doth more easily comply with such a Faith takes in with comfort that Christ hath dyed for me and risen again and doth now Intercede for me and so I shall certainly be saved but so cannot this weake faith doe Come thou therefore unto Christ as to save thee through his Death past and by the merit of it so for the present and for the time to come to take thy Cause in hand and to Intercede for thee it is a great reliefe unto such a Faith as cannot put forth Acts of Assurance that what hath beene done by Christ hath been done for it that God hath left Christ this work yet to doe for us So as the Intercession of Christ may afford matter to such a Faith to throw it selfe upon Christ to performe it for us and it may set him aworke to doe it 2. Now if such a soule aske But will Christ upon my comming to him for salvation be set avvork to intercede for mee and undertake my cause I ansvver it out of those vvords He lives to intercede for them who come to God by him He lives on purpose to performe this vvork it is the end of his living the businesse of his life And as he received a commandment to dye and it was the end of his life on earth so he hath received a command to intercede and to be a common High-Priest for all that come to God by him God hath appointed him to this work by an oath He sware and would not repent Thou shalt be a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech and this is the end of his life in heaven That as in the Old Law the High-priest Christs type in this ought to offer up the sacrifice of every one that came unto God by him as HEB. 5. 5. in like manner Christ for it is his calling as you have it
that because of his Fathers command It is evidenced thus For it being a Law vvritten in the midst of his bowels by his Father it becomes naturall to him and so indelible and as other Morall Laws of God written in the heart are perpetuall And as in us when we shall be in heaven though Faith shall faile and Hope vanish yet Love shall continue as the Apostle speaks so doth this love in Christs heart continue also and suffers no decay and is shewne as much now in receiving sinners and interceding for them and being pitifull unto them as then in dying for them And this love to sinners being so commanded pressed upon him as was said that as he would have his Father love him he should love them and so being urged upon all that great love that is betweene him and his Father this as it must needs worke and boile up a strong love in him unto sinners so likewise the most constant and never-decaying love that could be And this is argued from the analogie of that principle upon which Christ urgeth us to love himself Iohn 15. 10. He moveth his Disciples to keep the Commandments he gave them and useth this argument For so shall you abide in my love and backs it with his owne instance even as I have kept my Fathers commandments and abide in his love Now therefore this being the great Commandment that God layeth on him to love and die for and to continue to love and receive sinners that come to him and raise them up at the latter day certainly hee continues to keep it most exactly as being one of the great tyes betweene him and his Father so to continue in his love to him Therefore so long as hee continues in his Fathers love and now he is in heaven and at his right hand he must needs continue in highest favour with him so long wee may be sure he continues to observe this And thus that he should continue still to love us both love to his Father and love to himselfe obligeth him we may therefore be sure of him that he both doth it and will doe it for ever O what a comfort is it that as children are mutuall pledges and tyes of love betweene man and wife so that wee should be made such betweene God the Father and the Sonne And this demonstration is taken from the influence of the first Person of the Trinity namely from God the Father Then secondly this his love is not a forced love which he strives onely to beare towards us because his Father hath commanded him to marry us but it is his nature his disposition Which added to the former affords a second demonstration of the point in hand and is drawn from God the Sonne This disposition is free and naturall to him he should not be Gods Son else nor take after his heavenly Father unto whom it is naturall to shew mercie but not so to punish which is his strange worke but mercie pleaseth him he is the Father of mercie hee begets them naturally Now Christ is his own Sonne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as by way of distinction hee is called and his naturall Sonne yea his humane nature being united to the second Person is thereby become the naturall Son of God not adopted as we are And if he be his naturall Son in priviledges then also his Fathers properties are naturall to him more naturall then to us who are but his adopted sons And if we as the elect of God who are but the adopted sons are exhorted to put on Bowels of mercie kindnesse humblenesse of minde meekenesse c. as Col. 3. 12. then much more must these dispositions needs be found in Christ the Naturall Son and these not put on by him but be as naturall to him as his Son-ship is God is love as Iohn sayes and Christ is love covered over with slesh yea our flesh And besides it is certain that as God hath fashioned the hearts of all men and some of the sonnes of men unto more mercie and pitie naturally then others and then the holy Spirit comming on them to sanctifie their natural dispositions useth to work according to their tempers even so it is certain that he tempered the heart of Christ and made it of a softer mold and temper then the tendernes of all mens hearts put together into one to soften it would have been of When he was to assume an humane nature he is brought in saying Heb. 10. A body hast thou fitted me That is an humane nature fitted as in other things so in the temper of it for the God-head to work and shew his perfections in best And as he tooke an humane nature on purpose to be a mercifull High Priest as Heb. 2. 14. so such an humane nature and of so speciall a temper and frame as might be more mercifull then all Men or Angles His humane nature was made without hands that is was not of the ordinary make that other mens hearts are of though for the matter the same yet not for the frame of his spirit It was an heart bespoke for on purpose to be made a vessel or rather fountain of mercie wide and capable enough to be so extended as to take in and give forth to us again all Gods Manifestative mercies that is all the mercies God intended to manifest to his elect therefore Christs heart had naturally in the temper of it more pity then all men or Angles have as through which the mercies of the great God were to be dispensed unto us and this heart of his to be the instrument of them And then this man and the heart of this man so framed being united to God and being made the naturall Son of God now naturall must mercie needs be unto him And therefore continue in him now hee is in Heaven For though he laid down all infirmities of our nature when he rose again yet no graces that were in him whilst he was below they are in him now as much as ever and being his nature for nature we know is constant therefore still remains You may observe that when he was upon earth minding to perswade sinners to have good thoughts of him as he used that argument of his Fathers command given him so hee also layes open his own disposition Mat. 11. 28. Come to me you that are weary and heavy laden for I am meek and lowly of heart Men are apt to have contrary conceits of Christ but he tells them his disposition there by preventing such hard thoughts of him to allure them unto him the more We are apt to thinke that hee being so holy is therefore of a severe and sowre disposition against sinners and not able to beare them no sayes he I am meek gentlenesse is my nature and temper as it was of Moses who was as in other things so in that grace his Type he was not revenged on Miriam and Aaron but interceded for them So
sayes Christ injuries and unkindnesses doe not so worke upon me as to make mee irreconcileable it is my nature to forgive I am meeke Yea but may we thinke he being the Sonne of God and Heire of Heaven and especially being now filled with glory and sitting at Gods right hand he may now despise the lowlinesse of us here below though not out of anger yet out of that heighth of his greatnesse and distance that he is advanced unto in that we are too meane for him to marry or bee familiar with Hee surely hath higher thoughts then to regard such poore low things as we are And so though indeed we conceive him meeke and not prejudiced with injuries yet he may bee too high and lofty to condescend so far as to regarde or take to heart the condition of poore creatures No sayes Christ I am lowly also willing to bestow my love and favour upon the poorest and meanest And further all this is not a semblance of such an affable disposition nor is it externally put on in the face and outward carriage onely as in many great ones that will seeme gentle and curteous but there is all this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the heart it is his temper his disposition his nature to be gracious which nature he can never lay aside And that his greatnesse when he comes to enjoy it in Heaven would not a whit alter his disposition in him appears by this that he at the very same time when he uttered these words tooke into consideration all his glory to come and utters both that and his meeknes with the same breath So ver 27. All things are delivered to mee by my Father and presently after for all this he sayes Come unto me all you that are heavie laden I am meeke and lowly ver 28 29. Looke therefore what lovely sweete and delightfull thoughts you use to have of a deere friend who is of an amiable nature or of some eminently holy or meeke Saint of whom you thinke with your selves I could put my soule into such a mans hands can comprimise my salvation to him as I have heard it spoken of some Or looke how we should have beene encouraged to have dealt with Moses in matter of forgivenesse who was the meekest man on earth or treated with Ioseph by what we reade of his bowels towards his brethren or what thoughts we have of the tender hearts of Paul or Timothy unto the soules of men in begetting and in nurturing and bringing them up to life being affectionately desirous of you we were willing sayes Paul to impart our own soules to you 1 Thes 2. 8. and this naturally as his word is 2 Phil. 20. even such and infinitely more raised apprehensions should wee have of that sweetenesse and candour that is in Jesus Christ as being much more naturall to him And therefore the same Apostle doth make Christs bowels the patterne of his Phil. 1. 8. Ge◠is my witnesse how greatly I long after you in the bowels of Iesus Christ This phrase in the bowels of Christ hath according to Interpreters two meanings and both serve to illustrate that which I intend First in the bowels of Christ is taken causally as if he meant to shew that those bowels or compassions were infused into him from Christ and so longed after them with such kind of bowels as Christ had wrought in him and if so that Christ put such bowels into him hath he not them in himselfe much more Paul had reason to say in the bowels of Christ for in this sense I am sure he once had scarce the heart and bowels of a man in him namely when he was out of Christ how furious and Lion-like a spirit had he against the Saints and what havock made he of them being ready even to pull out their bowels And how came Paul by such tender bowels now towards them who gave him now such tender affections Even Jesus Christ it was he that of a Lion made him a Lambe If therefore in Paul these bowels were not naturall but the contrary rather were naturall to him and yet they so abounded in him and that naturally as himselfe speakes how much more must they needs abound in Christ to whom they are native and in-bred Or else secondly In the bowels is put for Instar Like the bowels or After the bowels according to the analogie of the Hebrew phrase And so then the meaning were this Like as the bowels of Jesus Christ do yerne after you so doe mine Bowels are a Metaphor to signifie tender and motherly affections and mercies so Luke 1. 78. Through the tender mercies In the originall it is The bowels of mercie Thus Paul when he would signifie how tender his affections were he instances in the Bowels of Jesus Christ he making Christ his pattern in this in all Be ye followers of me as I am of Christ Now how desirous was this great Apostle to beget men to Christ he cared not what else hee lost so he might winne some he counted not his life deare nay not his salvation deare but wisht himselfe accursed for his brethren who yet vvere the greatest enemies Christ then had on earth How glad was he when any soule came in how sorry when any fell off falling into a new travail he knew not how better to expresse the anxietie of his spirit for the Galatians till Christ was formed in them Hovv comforted vvas he vvhen he heard tidings of the constancie and encrease of any of their Faith 1. Thes 3. 6 7. and ver 8. he sayes for now we live if you stand fast in the Lord. Reade all his Epistles and take the character of his spirit this vvay and vvhen you have done look up to Christs humane nature in Heaven and thinke vvith your selves Such a man is Christ Paul vvarbles out in all these high strains of affections but the soundings of Christs Bowels in Heaven in a lower key Esay 63. They are naturall to Christ they all and infinite more are eminent in him And this is the second Demonstration taken from his own naturall disposition as Sonne of God A third demonstration shall bee taken from the Third Person of the Trinity the holy Ghost If the same spirit that was upon him and in him when he was on earth doth but still rest upon him now he is in Heaven then these dispositions must needes still entirely remaine in him This Demonstration is made up of two Propositions put together 1. That the holy Ghost dwelling in him concurs to make his heart thus graciously affected to sinners And 2. that the same spirit dwels and continues in and upon him for ever in Heaven For the first It was the Spirit who over-shadowed his mother and in the meane while knit that indissoluble knot betweene our nature and the second Person and that also knit his heart unto us It was the Spirit who sanctified him in the vvombe It vvas the Spirit