so taking all together as one presents it unto God the Father for our acceptance And this he does now as our High-Priest for if we look into this book of the Hebrews we shall find That the Apostle speaking of the High Priest relating unto Jesus Christ saies in the 5. Chapter and the 1. verse That it was his work to offer Gifts That he may offer both Gifts and sacrifices And so in the 8. Chapter and the 3. vers Every High-Prist is ordained to offer Gifts and Sacrifices Thus we have another great work of our great High-Priest which is To offer up all our Prayers our Duties our Gifts unto God the Father which if ye will we may call another part of Christs Intercession but I handle it distinct Now that I may open cleer this great Gospel-Mystery I shall endeavour to discover First What Jesus Christ our High-Prist doth when be does offer up our Gifts unto God the Father Secondly What abundance of favour and acceptance this our great High-Priest himself hath in Heaven Thirdly That he doth improve all that his own acceptance for our acceptance planting all our Duties upon his own acceptance upon that acceptance that he hath with the Father Fourthly What abundance of acceptance therefore we have in all our Duties by him Fiftly How this doth conduce to our Grace and to our Comfort First Quest 1 What doth our Lord and Saviour Christ our great High-Priest when he offers up our Gifts unto God the Father First Answ 1 He doth take our persons and carries them in unto God the Father in a most unperceivable way to us He knows that if our Person be not first accepted our Duty cannot be accepted Love me and love my Duty love me love my Service hate me and hate my Service In the Covenant of Works God did first accept of the work and then of the Person the Person for the work But in the Covenant of Grace God doth first accept of the Person and then the Work Now therefore that our Work and our Duty may be accepted with God the Father The Lord Christ our High-Priest doth first take our Person and our Name and carries them into the presence of God the Father This was plainly shadowed out unto us by that of the High-Prest Who went into the Holy of Holiest with the Names of all the Tribes upon his breast Which the Apostle speaks out plainly Eph. 3.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In whom we have accesse with boldness The word Accesse as some observe is Manuduction Hand-leading In whom we have an Hand-leading or by whom we are led by the Hand unto God the Father As a child having run away from his Father is taken by the hand of a friend or of his Elder brother and brought again into the presence of his father So all we having run away from God are taken and led again into the presence of the Father by the hand of Jesus Christ He is that ladder that Jacob saw upon whom we do ascend into the bosome of God and go into Heaven Our High-Priest Jesus Christ doth first take our Persons and lead us into the presence of God the Father That is the first Secondly As he doth take our Persons and lead and carry us into the presence of God the Father So when we do perform any Duty he doth observe what evil or failing there is in that Duty and draws it out takes it away before he presents the Duty-unto God the Father A Child that would present his father with a Nose-gay or Posie goes into the garden and he gathers flowers and weeds together but coming to his mother she takes them and picks out the weeds and binds up the flowers by themselves and so it is presented to the father Thus it is with us We go to Duty and we gather weeds flowers together But the Lord Jesus Christ he comes and picks out the weeds and then he presents nothing but flowers unto God the Father And this we have plainly set forth unto us by that of the High-Priest taking away the iniquities of the Holy things of Gods people in the 28. Chapter of Exodus Thou shalt make a plat-form of pure gold at the 36. verse and grave upon it like the ingravings of a signet HOLINES UNTO THE LORD And thou shalt put it on a blue lace that it may be upon the Mytre upon the forefront of the Mytre it shall be Then at the 38. verse And it shall be on Aarons forehead that is the High-Priest that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the Children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy guifts and it shall be alwaies upon his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord. Thus taking away the iniquity of their holy things So it is said concerning our Saviour Christ in the 3. Chapter of Malachy the 2 3 4. verses Who may abide the day of his coming plainly understood of Christ as appears by the first vers Then at the 3. He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he shall purifie the Sons of Levi and purge them as gold and selver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness Then shall the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as in the dayes of old Then shall their offerings be pleasant When when he hath purg'd their sacrifices and their offerings This in the daies of his flesh and now much more This is the Second thing that the Lord Christ our great High-Priest doth in offering up our Gifts unto God the Father He takes out the weeds Thirdly As he takes away the iniquity of our holy things So he observes what good there is in any of our Duties or Performances and with that he mingles his own Prayers and Intercessions his own Intense and presents all as one work mingled together unto God the Father This we have so fully in the 8. Chapter of the Revelation that I need name no other place Another Angel at the 3. verse stood at the Altar having a golden Censer and there was given unto him much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar which was before the Throne And the smoke at the 4. verse of the incense which came with the prayers of the Saints ascended up before God out of the Angels hand This must needs be understood of Christ for no Angel does intercede but Christ who is called The Angel of the Covenant 'T is said here He stood at the Altar having a golden Censer Which none of the High-Priests had and there was given unto him much incense and this he offered with the prayers of all the Saints and the smoake of the incense came with the prayers of the Saints and ascended up before the Lord. He alludes unto the way and custome of the Jewes and the High-Priest shewing that the Lord Jesus Christ doth
Debter when he comes and looks upon the book he is able to reade all the particulars Item for such a thing and Item for such a thing and Item for such a thing but the man being not aquainted with the nature of crossing the book he is able to reade all th particulars and he charges it still upon himselfe because he does not understand the nature of this crossing the book and he is as much troubled how he shall pay the debt as if it were not paid at all So now 't is here The Lord Jesus Christ he hath come and cross't our book with his own blood the sins are to be read in your own consciences but we being not acquainted with the nature of Christs satisfaction and the crossing of the book we charge our selves as if no sin at all were satisfied for us Yet when the Lord Jesus Christ was made an offering for sin upon the Cross then he did give full satisfaction unto God the Father And that 's the Third Fourthly This now he hath done as our great High-Priest and in a more transcendant and eminent way than ever any high-Priest did before For though the High-Priest did come and make an atonement for a poor sinner yet he himself was never made a sacrifice the Priest offered up a sacrifice but himself never was made a sacrifice But our great High-Priest does not only offer up a sacrifice but Himself is made a sacrifice Yea that sacrifice that was then in the times of the old-Testament it could not purge the conscience not only because as the Apostle speaks it was the blood of bulls and goats but because the sacrifice was performed successively as thus A man sinned then he brought a sacrifice sins again and then he brings another sicrifice and once every yeare the High-Priest goes into the holy of holiest to make an atonement But in the mean while a poor soul might think thus What if I die before the year come about what will become of me the High-Priest he goes once a year into the Holy of Holyest and sprinkles the mercy-seat but what will become of me if I die before that time But now our great High-Priest he does not only offer up a sacrifice and Himself the sacrifice but he offers up a sacrifice once for all So saies the Apostle So that now when a Christian hath sinned he is not to think of a sacrifice that is yet to come a year hence but he is to look unto that which is done already a sacrifice once offered and once for all So that he needs not be in suspence now as the Jewes were his Conscience it may be fully purged from sin Again Take the High-Priest in the times of the old-Testament and though he did make an atonement for the sins of the people yet sometimes also he did make the people to sin It is said of Aaron the great High-Priest concerning the golden-Calf that he did make the people naked But the Lord Jesus Christ our great High-Priest he makes an attonement for sin and never does make them sin He is so far from making the people naked that he covers them with his righteousness that their nakedness may not appear Here 's a glorious High-Priest Yea This High-Priest of ours He does not only make an atonement for sin committed and paies the debt but he does also become our Surety unto God the Father He does not only pay the debt that is past but he becomes a Surety for time to come None of all those High-Priests that ever did so not Aaron not any High-Priest that ever gave his bond unto God the Father that any sinner should never sin no more But our Lord Jesus Christ our High-Priest he becomes our Surety and what Surety not an ordinary surety for amongst us the Surety joyns and does become bound with the Debter but still it runs in the name of the Debter and the Debter he gives the bond for to pay the debt But now here our Surety he gives the bond and we that are the Debters we do not give the bond for to pay the debt there is no godly man or beleever that ever gave a bond unto God the Father that he will pay the debt but our Surety comes and the bond goes in the name of the Surety and the Debters name is out Oh! what a glorious and blessed High-Priest is here here is a High-Priest beyond all the High-Priests that ever did go before And that 's the Fourth thing Fifthly How does all this conduce to our Comfort or Holiness First How does all this make to our Comfort Quest first Answ 1 Is it not a comfortable thing in the eares of a poor sinner that there is a Magazine and a Storehouse of Mercy set up that the Lord hath erected an office of Love and of meer compassion for poor sinners Is it not a comfortable thing that God the father is satisfied and so your sins pardoned Mark 2.5 Son saies Christ unto the palsie man be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee He does not say Be of good comfort thy disease is healed No whether thy disease be healed or whether it be not healed this is comfort Son thy sins are forgiven thee If the Lord Jesus Christ hath satisfied for my sins may a beleever say then whatsoever affliction I do meet withal it does not come upon me as a punishment properly it does not come upon me as an arrest for to pay my debt When a Reprobate is smitten and afflicted all his miseries they are arrests for to pay his debt Hath the Lord Jesus Christ satisfied Divine Justice and God the father for me then surely these afflictions they do not come for me to make satisfaction Again If the Lord Jesus Christ hath satisfied for my sins may a beleever say then I shall never be Damned I shall never fall from grace I have had many fears that I should fall from grace and so go to Hell and perish at last But if the Lord Jesus Christ hath satisfied Divine Justice for my sin then God the father will never punish my sin again for it was punish't in Jesus Christ therefore I cannot fall from grace therefore I can never be Damned And if the Lord Jesus Christ hath satisfied Divine Justice as our great High Priest Then I may come with boldness unto the Throne of grace A debtor so long as his debt is unpaid he dares not come by the prison door by the Compter door he is afraid of every Sergeant he is afraid of his friends that they should be Sergeants but when his debt is paid then he dares go up and down with boldness And so the poor soul when he knows that his debt is paid and Christ hath satisfied then he may go with boldness unto the Throne of grace But you will say Quest I cannot have the comfort of this because I cannot say that Christ hath satisfied for me How shall I know
have been and I am a great transgressor but I come unto God by Christ I am one of the coming-transgressors I have been a transgressor but I am a coming-transgressor I come unto God by Christ Stand you by also this Intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ it belongs unto you And let me tell thee for thy comfort poor soul whatsoever thou hast been that comest unto the Lord by Christ the Lord Jesus Christ our great High-Priest he is gone to Heaven to intercede for thy soul But you will say Obj. There is one thing that makes me afraid he will not intercede for me I have been so great a transgressor for I have been a transgressor against Jesus Christ this High-Priest Oh! I have sinned against this great High-Priest Jesus Christ and therefore I am afraid he will not intercede for me For answer to this I shall only desire you to turn to the 16. Chapter of Numbers the 41. verse and consider it duely Answ we reade there that all the Congregation murmured against Moses and Aaron Aaron was the High-Priest And saies the text all the Congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron saying Ye have killed the people of the Lord. They had murmured against Moses and Aaron Then at the 46. verse Moses said unto Aaron Take a Censer put fire therein from off the Altar put on incense go quickly unto the Congregation and make an atonement for them for there is wrath gone out from the Lord the plague is begun And see what Aaron did And Aaron took as Moses commanded and ran into the midst of the Congregation and behold the plague was begun among the people and he put on incense and made an atonement for the people And he stood between the dead and the living and the plague was stayed They had sinned against Aaron the High-Priest and yet Aaron but the Typical High-Priest he was but a Type of Christ he ran in although they had sinned against him and he stood betwen the dead and the living and made an atonement for them Oh! if there was so much bowels and compassions in the Type in Aaron when they had sinned against him as to go and intercede for them How much more is there in our Lord Jesus Christ who is the Typified High-Priest to poor souls to intercede for them But now this may be more fully made out to us if we do but take in the Third thing and that is The Lord Jesus Christ he is infinitely willing to intercede for us We have seen who those are unto whom the Intercession of Christ belongs namely Such as have had any fellowship with God the Father or with Christ Such as do beleeve or shall hereafter beleeve And all those poor transgressors that come unto God the Father by Christ Now observe how infinitely willing the Lord Jesus Christ is to intercede for us that are thus That will appear thus First He must needs be willing to do that which he hath received his anointing for It is said of Aaron that he was anointed and that ointment ran down upon his beard and unto the skirts of all his garment not a piece of Aarons garment but was perfumed with the ointment that Aaron was anointed with Surely there is not a skirt of the garment of Jesus Christ but the anointment wherewithal He our High-Priest was anointed does run down upon him He is the Messiah the anointment So he is called in the 10. of Isaiah The anointment He was anointed with the oyle of gladness above all his fellows above all the High-Priests that ever were before him And he was anointed for this very end That he might do the work of the High-Priest which is to Intercede for the sins of the people And therefore in that place in John 1 John 2.1 If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ Christ signifies Anointed If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father But who is that He is Jesus that signifies your Saviour and so he is willing to intercede I but it may be he is not able to do it it may be he hath not received the anointing to do it Yes He is called Christ If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ or if you will Saviour Anointing So that he is anointed for this end and purpose to be your Advocate Now if a man do receive money for to lay out for the benefit of others poor Orphans or the like if a man be faithful certainly he will lay out the money for them according to the intention of him that did trust him with the money The Lord Jesus Christ he hath received the Anointing he is anointed as our great High-Priest to do the work of the Priestly Office and this is one work to Intercede and therefore he must needs be very willing to do it Again The more any thing is the work of a mans Relation wherewithal he is clothed the more if he be faithful is he willing to do the work And I pray mind it a little When men are exalted and come to Greatnesse or Honor then they give down the comforts of their Relation unto those that depend upon them If a father come to any great preferment the comfort of the Relation of a father then fals down upon the children runs down then upon the fruit of his loynes And so if one friend do come unto preferment the comfort of the Relation or friendship fals down Now the Lord Jesus Christ he is our High-Priest and he is now exalted he is gone to Heaven and therefore all the comforts of all the Relations that he stands in towards us do now fall upon us And therefore he is willing he is very willing because this is the work of his Relation And further It is the work of his Office What a man does by office that he does willingly what a man does by office he does industriously he does not do it by the bye what a man does by office he does it readily according unto a mans place or office so will his interpretation be Suppose now a Child that hath very good parts come before three men of three several professions A Lawyer a Minister and a Merchant The Child having very good parts the Merchant saies He will make a very good Merchant the Lawyer saies He will make a very good Lawyer and the Minister saies He wil make a very good Scholar according to their three Relations or Places or Office or work their interpretation is So now if three men of three several Trades whose work lies about wood come and behold a fine green-tree One man saies It is good for this And another saies It is good for that and the third saies It is good for another use according to his Place and Calling will his interpretation be So now when a poor soul comes before God Moses the Law looks upon him And the
nothing that does so satisfie God the Father as Obedience and the more full the Obedience is the more God the Father is satisfied thereby Now it is said of our Lord and saviour Christ That in this great sacrifice upon the Crosse he was Obedient He was Obedient even to the death of the Cross That he that did make the Law should come down from Heaven and be subject to the Law what Obedience was here Obedient to the Death Yea unto the Deaths in the plural Number And he made his grave with the sinners and his Deaths was with the rich He made his grave with the wicked and with the rich had his Deaths Isaiah 5â— ver 9. It is in the Plural Number in the Hebrew though in your English translation it is in the Singular As if the holy Ghost had called death the Second death that our Lord Christ had in some measure suffered For if you consider things truly and rightly I beleeve you will find that our Lord and Saviour Christ when he died and was in his agony he did not only indure the first but the torments of the second death He overcame no more than he submitted to he overcame death by submitting to death Now he overcame the second death also and therefore in some measure submitted to the torments of it so far as he was capable Look what the first Adam should have indured for his sin in the fall that the second Adam now did indure in some measure for to take it off The day that thou eatest thou shalt die the death It was not barely the corporal and outward death but it was the second death If our Lord and Saviour Christ did not indure the torments of the second death the wrath of God upon his soul why did he sweat drops of blood and tremble and shake so when he came to die There is many Saints and Martyrs when they come to die they go skipping and leaping and rejoycing and our Lord and Saviour when he came to die he sweats drops of blood surely there was more than an outward death Oh! the wrath of God and the torments of the second death was upon his soul Thus obedient he was and this obedience of his it was volontary for he needed not to have died but he saw that God the father was dishonoured by mans sin and that poor man would be lost and rather than that should be he does volontarily offer himself unto this Obedience Loe I come saies he in the volum of the book it is written of me I delight to do thy will and thy Law is within my heart Psal 40.7 8. Mark what an expression there is in that Psalm 't is spoken concering Christ as is plainly interpreted by the Apostle in the 10. of the Hebrews at the 6. verse Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire mine eares hast thou opened or bored The Apostle when he translates these words he translates them thus My body hast thou prepared But reade them as they are here in the Psalm Sacrifice and offring thou didst not desire mine eare hath thou bored That as when a servant was willing to stay with his Master and to do him yet more service the servants eare was to be bored So saies the Lord Christ I am as willing to do this work to be thus obedient as a servant whose eare is bored is willing to stay with his master And mine eare hast thou bored saies he ah here 's obedience here 's obedience this now did infinitly satisfie God the Father In so much that ye may see what is said in that same 5. of the Ephesians and the 2. verse Who hath loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour The whol world it was ful of a stench before and the Lord was displeased with man before but now when Christ comes and offers up this sacrifice he did thereby give full satisfction unto God the father for it was a sweet swelling-savour unto God the Father So that thus the Father he was fully satisfied To this I shall ad one word When the Lord Jesus Christ offered up himself a sacrifice unto God the Father and had our sins laid upon him he did given more perfect satisfaction unto Divine justice for our sins than if you and I and all of us had been damned in Hell unto all eternity For a Creditor is more satisfied if his debt be paid him all down at once than if it be paid by the week A poor man that cannot pay all down will pay a groat a week or sixpence a week but 't is more satisfaction to the Creditor to have all paid at once Should we have been all damned we should have been but paying the debt a little and a little and a little but when Christ paid it he paid it all down to God the Father Had we gone to Hell and been damned for ever we had alwaies been satisfying of God I but God had never been satisfied but now when Christ makes satisfaction God was satisfied The Creditor if he be a merciful and a good man is more truly satisfied where the Debter is spared he does not desire that the Debter should be cast into prison and there lie and rot but he is better satisfied with the sparing of the Debter let me have but my Money and so the Debter be spared I am willing nay I desire it saies the good Creditor Now if all we had bin cast into everlasting burnings indeed the debt should have been a paying but there the Debter had been lost But not when Christ comes and makes satisfaction unto Divine justice Ah! poor man is redeemed here is the Debter spared And therefore the Lord he is infinitly more satisfied by the satisfaction that Christ made upon the Cross for our sins than if all we had gone to Hell and been damned to all eternity Oh! what a glorious and blessed satisfaction did this our High-Priest make unto God the Father But you will say then Quest If the Lord Christ made this full satisfaction unto God the Father how is it that Beleevers many of them have their sins and debts standing upon the score still in their Consciences so perplexed in regard of sin as if there were no satisfaction at all made Luther cals this aspect of sin A sacralegious aspect Answ and beholding of sin As now saies he If a man take out of an holy place some goods and bring them into his owne house This is sacraledge So for me to go and take my sins From Christ and lay them in mine own bosome this is sacraledge saies Luther But the reason of it is this Because that men do not study this Truth but was ignorant of it As suppose that a man do owe three or four hundred pound to a shop-keeper for wares and commodities that he hath taken up there a friend comes and he payes the debt crosses the book but the
that Jesus Christ is my High-Priest so as to have satisfied for me Ah if I did but know that the Lord jesus Christ were my High-Priest in this particular so as to have satisfied for me then should I have comfort indeed how shall I discover that I am afraid he hath not satisfied for me And why not for thee man or woman why not for thee Ans 1 I shall tell you what I have heard concerning a young man that lay upon his death bed and went to Heaven While he was lying upon his death bed he comforted himself in this That the Lord Christ died for sinners Oh! blessed be the Lord saies he Jesus Christ hath died for me Satan came in with this temptation to him I but young man why for thee Christ died for sinners but why for thee how canst thou make that appear that Christ died for thee Nay Satan saies he and why not for me Ah the Lord Jesus he died for sinners and therefore Satan why not for me So he held his comfort and went up to Heaven triumphing So say I to thee poor drooping soul that labours under Temptation Why not for thee why not for thee and say so unto Satan Why not for me Again Christs satisfaction it lies open for all sorts of sinners to come unto it As the promise Ans 2 it runs indefinitely and if a man come to the promise and apply it his very applying the promise does make it His. You say Oh! that I did but know that the promise belongs to me I say thy very resting upon the promise makes it to belong to thee So the satisfaction of Jesus Christ this piece of Christs Priestly Office it lies open for all sorts of sinners for to come unto it and your very resting upon it and applying it to your own souls it makes it to belong unto you Furthermore If Jesus Christ be willing that you should think that he hath satisfied for you Ans 3 then it is no presumption for you to think so Now saies he at the Lords Supper Take my blood that is shed for thee I apply it to thee Behold thy King cometh unto thee When he rode upon an Asses colt it was not said Behold thy Lord cometh but behold thy King cometh to thee he would have every one so to think More especially Ans 4 If that a poor Christian now might not to unto Jesus Christ as unto his High-Priest and say that he is an High-Priest to me then are we Christians in a great deal worser condition than the Jews were for when a Jew had sinned he might carry his sacrifice to the Priest and he might say That this Priest here belongs to me And there was never a Jew amongst all the people of the Jewes but when the High-Priest sprinkled the Mercy-Seat but he might say This he hath done for me Now we are not in a worse condition than the Jews were this High-Priest is beyond all the High-Priests that ever was before him and therefore there is never a poor Christian but he may go to the Lord Christ and say Oh! my High-Priest and this my High-Priest hath satisfied for me Oh! what comfort is here to poor drooping souls Lift up your heads O all ye Saints and Children of God me thinks here is that indeed that might bring you off your own sands When there is no water in the river but his own the tyde comes not in no sea-water only the water of the river the native water as I may so speak then your bottoms your ships they stand upon the sands but when the tyde comes in then they are raised and come off the sands then And so long as thou hast nothing in thy own channel but thine own righteousness thou stickest upon the sands in the deep mire But now when the tyde of the Lords satisfaction comes in there is a full-sea of mercy and satisfaction able to swim the heaviest vessel made by Jesus Christ Ah me thinks this should lift up a poor soul and fetch him off from his sands Be of good Comfort them Thus it 's evident how this truth does much conduce to our Comfort But you will say Quest Does it not much conduce to our Grace or Holiness too Or if it do I pray how Yes Answ 1 This truth does conduce much to our Holiness too You shall observe that the new Covenant of grace it is laid and founded upo the satisfaction of jesus Christ upopn the Crosse upon that oblation Three times the Apostle Paul makes mention of the new Covenant of grace in the book of the Hebrews the 8 9 and 10. Chapters and in all these places he laies the Covenant of grace and founds it upon the satisfaction of Jesus Christ But especially in the 9. Chapter the 13 14 and 15. verses The 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God Then at the 15. And for this cause he is the Mediator of the new Testament For this cause plainly laying the new Covenant of grace upon the satisfaction of Jesus Christ upon this part of his Priestly Office So then thou maiest now go unto God the Father and say Lord thou hast made a Covenant of grace with poor man and this Covenant of grace is founded upon the Priestly Office and satisfaction of Jesus Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ he hath satisfied for me and the new Covenant promises that we shall be all taught of God Lord I amignorant Oh! therefore now by the satisfaction of Christ let me be taught of thee that I may be made wise unto salvation And so again Lord thou hast made a Covenant of grace with poor man this is laid upon the satisfaction of Jesus Christ The Covenant of grace saies I will write my Law in your inward parts Now O Lord seeing Jesus Christ hath founded this Covenant in his blood and I am one of those that he hath made satisfaction for Oh! write thy Law in my inward parts that I may do all thy wills But again Answ 2 in the Second place that we may see how this do conduce to our Holiness Strengthen faith and we strengthen all if faith be weakened all grace is weakened Strengthen your faith and you strengthen all your Holiness and all your Graces The way to strengthen a bough or a branch of the tree is not to carry dung up into the tree but to lay it to the root Strengthen the root and ye strengthen all the branches Faith is the Root-grace now the knowledge and the thorow degesting of this truth That the Lord Jesus Christ is our great High-Priest in this point of satisfaction it does wonderfull strengthen our faith For the more I know that God is willing and and Christ willing to shew mercy unto me the more my faith is strengthened I know this That every man is willing
to do the work of his office if he be faithful A Porter is willing to carry a burden why because it is his office to do it It is the office of Jesus Christ for to bear our sins It is his Office to be the great High-Priest that does satisfie God the Father for our sins Surely therefore he is willing to do it for he is faithful in his office But besides Answ 3 The more I see an holy Necessity upon Christ Jesus for to show mercy to me the more my faith rises It 's very remarkable The Lord Jesus Christ as God he may refuse and might refuse whether he would show mercy to us or no But now as a High-Priest he cannot refuse a poor sinner that does come unto him If I know that Christ is able to satisfie is able to show mercy to me my faith stirs a little at the sight of Christs ability If I know that Christ be willing to show mercy to me my faith rises higher but if I know that Christ cannot refuse me if I do come unto him then my faith rises up to a great height indeed When a poor sinner amongst the Jews had sinned and brought his sacrifice to the High-Priest the Priest might not refuse it Our Lord Jesus Christ is our great High-Priest I say as God he may refuse but now he being our great High-Priest therefore when a poor sinner comes to Jesus Christ as a High-Priest he cannot refuse Oh! what a great strengthening is this to faith Strengthen faith and you strengthen all the right understanding of this truth doth wonderfully strengthen faith Further Answ 4 The more a man is ingaged to Jesus Christ and takes himself to be ingaged to him the more Holy he is the more a man sees himself freed from sin by Christ the more he takes himself to be ingaged to Christ for freeing of him from his sin Now this truth tels us how Christ hath satisfied for our sins freed us from sin and so we shall be the more ingaged to Christ If a man were going to prison even at the Compter door for a great sum of money and the door were unlocking if a man should come and speak to the Sergeant Hold your hands here is money for you I will pay this mans debt and laies the money down would not this poor debtor take himself for ever ingaged to that man that should thus come and lay down the money and free him so seasonably from the Compter and prison Thus it was with the Lord Christ Ah we were all going to prison everlasting prison chains of darkness and he comes and laies down the money makes full satisfaction to God the Father as our great High-Priest Oh! what an ingagement is this to every soul unto the Lord Christ to become the Lord Christs for ever Lastly The more a man does deny his own righteousness Answ 5 the more Holy he is with Gospel-Holiness It is said of the Jewes That they going about to establish their own righteousness submitted not unto the righteousness of Christ So on the contrary when a man does go about to establish the righteousness of Christ then he submits unto it and then he denies his own righteousness The more we see a fulness of satisfaction made by Jesus Christ for all our sins unto God the Father the more we acknowledge Christs righteousness and the more we establish it and the more we shall be brought off from all our own righteousness Oh! Therefore now as ever you do desire to have more Grace more Holiness more Comfort study and study much this Priestly office of Jesus Christ There are many that complain that they cannot profit under the means of grace That they have hard hearts That the waies and Ordinances of God are not sweet to them Prayer they do perform but with no sweetness they do not relish the blood and Spirit of Christ upon their spirits in their duties c. Many complain that their sins and temptations like the sons of Zarviah are too mighty for them and that one day they shall be slain by the hand of Saul such a lust such a corruption No wonder that we have these complaints when we do not go unto the store-house of comfort and grace that the Lord hath set open for us The Priestly office of Christ it is the great Magazine and Storehouse of all that grace and comfort which we have on this side heaven if ye do not go unto it is it any wonder that ye want comfort or that ye want grace I appeal to you now are there not some nay many that never went to Jesus Christ as their High-Priest to this day Ah are there not some even Professors that do not know what the Priestly Office of Jesus Christ meanes Oh! No wonder poor soule so uncomfortable no more stength against thy temptations If the State should appoint a man for to relieve poor maimed souldiers that go a begging if they meet with the sawme man that is appointed by the State and they beg of him in the streets as an ordinary man he relieves them not but now if they come unto him as a man appointed by the State for relief of such then he relieves them according to the duty of his place So it is with men they go to Christ in an ordinary way they do not go to Christ as the great Lord Treasurer of all our grace as our great High-Priest they do not go unto him as in office set up in office by God the Father for such reliefe they do not addresse themselves to him as their High-Priest to make satisfaction for them and therefore they go away and have no relief But would we have more strength against corruption would we walk more comfortably in our course would we find the waies of God Ordinances and duties more sweet and comfortable to our souls then reade and consider that place in the Canticles 2.3 As the apple-tree among the treesof the wood so is my beloved among the sons I sate down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet unto my tast The spouse speaks it concerning Christ What is this fruit of Christ Your Justification Adoption Vocation Sanctification Consolation it is al the fruit of Christ All your own Duties your Prayers Reading Meditation they are all the fruit of Christ The injoyment of al his Ordinances al your spiritual priviledges under the Gospel they are the fruit of Christ Now saies she I sate down under his shadow and his fruit it was sweet unto my tast As it is unto a man that does love fruit be it Pears Apples Cherries or the like I love this fruit saies he but yet notwithstanding I must needs go where this fruit grows and gather it off the tree and when he hath gone to the tree and taken the fruit off the tree saies he I sate down under the tree I had not the fruit the Apple or Cherry brought unto
Chapter of the Hebrews the 24. verse Christ is not entred into the holy place made with hands but into Heaven now to appear in the presence of God for us He does not in an ordinary way and manner appear for us in Heaven but with an Emphasis he does openly and publickly before all the Saints and Angels appear for us in the presence of God the Father It is a comfort unto a man sometimes to have a good friend at Court at the Kings elbow that may own him and appear for him but though a man have a friend at Court sometimes if there be any danger he will not appear and own a man it may be he will own him and countenance his Cause as long as there is no danger but no longer But now here we have a friend in Heaven that will appear for us and own our Causes and our souls and in all conditions appear for us That is the First Secondly Answ 2 He doth not only appear for us but by vertue of his Priestly Office he does carry the power merit and vertue of his blood into the presence of God the Father in Heaven and sprinkles the Mercy-Seat with it seven times Seven is a note of Perfection Those that Christ suffered for he does Intercede for He takes all their bonds and he carries them in unto God the Father and he saies Father I have paid these bonds I have paid this debt I have satisfied thy Justice for these poor sinners and now my desire is that they may be acquitted from these bonds and from these debts This also is remarkable in that 9. Chapter of the Hebrews 11 12. verses Thirdly Answ 3 He doth not only carry the power and vertue of his blood and present it to God the Father for our discharge but he does also plead our Cause in Heaven answering unto all those accusations that are brought against us And therefore we may reade what the Apostle saies in the 8. of the Rom. 33. ver Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is God that justifies who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that he is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us Upon this ground the Apostle speaks thus Who shall condemn them Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God the Father to take off all accusations that shall be brought against them Let the World condemn let Moses condemn let Satan condemn Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God the Father to take off all accusations that shall be raised against them Concerning this there is a clear and full instance in that notable Scripture the 3. Chapter of Zachariah and the 1. verse We find Satan standing at the right hand of Joshua to resist him He shewed me Joshua the High-Priest standing before the Angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right band to resist him It was the custome of the Accuser to stand at the right hand of the accused Psalme 109. ver 6. Set thou a wicked man over him and let Satan stand at his right hand take the wall of him in his accusation condemning of him Now here Satan-standing at Joshua's right hand notes his accusing of him Well what was the matter that he accused him of Ye shall find that there was matter verse the 3. Now Joshua was cloathed with filthy garments and stood before the Angel Satan came and accused him that he had filthy garments and so he had for the Priests had defiled themselves in Babylon in marrying of strange wives as Joshua and his children are charged in the 10. Chapter of Ezra and the 18. verse Give me leave a little to open this charge of Satan that we may see Satan had matter of Charge and accusation against Joshua And among the sons of the Priests there were found that had taken strange wives namely of the sons of Joshua He was High-Priest So that now Joshua had defiled his garments thre was then matter of accusation for Satan to work upon But now our Lord Jesus Christ our great High-Priest steps in and takes off this accusation The Lord said at the 3. of Zachariah 2. verse unto Satan The Lord rebuke thee O Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee The word used by the Septuagint is the same that is used for Excommunication And it is here twice repeated The Lord rebuke thee even the Lord rebuke thee not only to show the fulnesse of Satans rebuke but to show the fulnesse of the intercession of Jesus Christ Now would we see the fulnesse of Christs apology for Joshua Saies the Lord unto Satan The Lord rebuke thee even the Lord rebuke thee And saies he at the latter end of the 2. verse Is not this a brand pluck't out of the fire Thus it is true Lord that Joshua hath filthy garments but yet notwithstanding Joshua is but as a brand pluck't newly out of the burning Take a brand and pull it newly out of the fire and there will be dust ashes and dirt about it Lord saies he Joshua is but newly puld out of the burning and therefore Lord he must needs have some ashes and some dirt and some filth about him O Lord saies Christ although that Joshua be clothed with filthy garments I will take away those filthy garments verse the 4. He answered and spake unto those that stood before him saying Take away the filthy garments from him and unto him he said Behold I have caused thine iniquity to passe from thee and I will clothe thee with change of raiment This can be none but Christ Thus Christ takes off the accusation that was brought against Joshua by Satan for his filthy garments And so does the Lord Christ now If a poor soul fall into any sin defile his garments Satan he comes in and takes the right hand of him stands at the right hand and accuses by reason of this filthy garment but our Lord Jesus Christ our great High-Priest he being at the right hand of the Father takes up the cause and answers to the accusation True Lord this poor soul indeed hath filthy garments but he is but as a fire-brand pluck't newly out of the burning He was in his natural and sinful condition the other day in his burning and he is but newly changed and therefore he must needs have some dirt and some filth upon him as a fire-brand pluck't out of the burning and therefore consider him in that respect and though he have filthy garments now upon him yet I will give him change of raiments and take away his filthy garments Thus the Lord Christ steps in to God the Father and answers to all those accusations that are brought against him to God the Father This is the Third thing that he does by way of his Intercession Again Answ 4 He doth not only plead our Cause and take off accusations that are
and does intercede he must needs prevail because the Father loves him for his interceding the Father likes the matter as well as he loves you the better for it Thirdly This will appear also if we consider upon what termes our Lord and Saviour Christ our great High-Priest was taken and admitted into Heaven the Holy of Holiest so it is called He was Honourably received into Heaven and he ws received thither for to do the work of the High-Priest He was Honourably received when he came to Heaven Sit thou down at my right hand saies God the Father to him a note of Honour When Solomon would expresse his Honour to his mother he set her down at his right hand Thus God the Father would expresse the Honourable welcome that Christ had when he came to Heaven Sit thou down on my right hand saies he Now ye shall observe that when soever this is made mention of The sitting down at the right hand of God the Father it is made mention of not with the Kingly Office of Christ but with the Priestly Office of Christ as if that he were set down there to do the work of the Priestly Office One would think I say that this should be exprest with the Kingly Office of Christ but you shall find it running along in the Scripture still with the Priestly Office of Jesus Christ Look into the 8. Chapter of the Hebrews the 1. verse Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum We have such an High-Priest who is set on the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in the Heavens It 's named with the Priestly Office And so again in the 10. Chapter of the Hebrews at the 11. and 12. verses Every High-Priest standeth dayly ministring and offering often times the same sacrifices which can never take away sin But this man speaking of Christ after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sate down on the right hand of God It is carried a long with the mention of the Priestly Office of Christ as if he were sate down on the right hand of God the Father in Heaven on purpose to do the work of the Priestly Office When Jesus Christ came into Heaven into the Holy of Holiest he came thither as our great High-Priest and he said unto God the Father Lord I am not now come in mine own name for my own sake only but I come as the great High-Priest having on this Brest-plate the name of all the Elect and I come to intercede for poor sinners I come as High-Priest Saies God the Father to him Welcome upon those termes welcome upon those termes not wich standing thou doest come in their names come and sit down at my right hand saies God the Father to him Thus Father is ingaged for he received him upon those termes into Heaven as our great High-Priest the Father therefore is engaged to hear his Intercession and so the intercession of Jesus-Christ must have a great deal of power and prevalency with God the Father in Heaven This is the Second thing But Thirdly Does the Lord Jesus Christ intercede for us in Heaven as our great High-Priest Yes and he does do this in a more transcendent and eminent way and manner than ever any High-Priest did before Him For First He hath gone through more Temptations than ever any High-Priest did He was tempted saies the text that he might succour those that are temped as an High-Priest If he was Tempted that he might succour those that are Tempted succour them as an High-Priest then the more he was Tempted the more experimentally able he is for to succour those that are Tempted Never any High-Priest that was Tempted like unto Christ He was saies the Apostle in all things tempted like unto us sin only excepted Poor soul name any temptation that thy heart is scared at the thoughts of and you will find that the Lord Jesus Christ he was tempted with that temptation You will say I am often times tempted to doubt Whether I be the Child of God or no and that very often So was Christ too you know the place in the 4. of Matthew If thou be the Son of God and if thou be the Son of God twice that the Devil would set an If upon Christs Son-ship Oh! but I am tempted often times to use indirect means to get out of trouble So was Christ too Command that these stones be made bread saies the Devil to him Oh! but sometimes I have been tempted even to lay violent hands upon my self So did the Devil tempt Christ too Cast thy self down off the pinacle of the Temple that was a temptation Oh! but I am tempted unto such evil things that truely I am afraid to speak of such Blasphemies such horrid and wretched Blasphemies as I think never came upon the heart of any child of God so that I am afraid to think of them and ashamed to mention them And was not Christ so was not he tempted so Saies the Devil to him All this will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Oh! horrid Blasphemy Blush blush O Sun that the Lord Jesus the God of glory should fall down to the Devil and worship the Devil what wretched blasphemy was here that he should speak this and yet the Lord Jesus Christ he was tempted to it What shall I say He was in all things tempted like unto us sin only excepted Now there was never any High-Priest that was so tempted and he was therefore tempted that he might succour those that are tempted He is more able as our High-Priest to intercede to put in for you and to succour you than ever any High-Priest was before him Again As he hath gone through more Temptations than ever any High-Priest did So also he is filled with more Compassions It behoved the High-Priest to be Merciful it is an office of love and Mercy Now our Lord and Saviour Christ saies the Apostle is such an High-Priest as cannot but be touched with your infirmities the High-Priest that did go before him sometimes was not touched with their infirmities Hannah came and prayed and Eli's heart was not touched with her infirmity at the first But our High-Priest cannot but be touched he does sympathize with us under all our infirmities He is afflicted in all our afflictions It was the work of the High-Priest to sympathize with the people and yet notwithstanding there was a law that the High-Priest might not mourn for his kindred in that he might not as others sympathize or mourn But now our Lord Jesus he does fully sympathize with us and therefore goes beyond all the High-Priests that ever was before him Further He is more faithful in his office and place than ever any High-Priest was Aaron was an High-Priest butunfaithful in the matter of the golden calfe But our Lord and Saviour Christ he is more faithful than Moses was In this 3. Heb. 1.2 verses and so on Wherefore
must needs be Christ for no Angel intercedes but Christ alone What is the fruit of this Intercession at the 13. verse The Lord answered the Angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words I indeed good words and comfortable are the fruit of the Intercession of Jesus Christ It is a matter of great comfort this That the Lord Christ our great High-Priest is in Heaven to intercede for us Is it not a comfort to a poor man to have a friend above neer the King or in the Court that may be able to do him kindness A man sometimes saies I had a friend indeed in the Court but now he is dead I but here is a friend that never dies He ever lives to make Intercession Friends may alter and turn enemies but he changeth not Our Lord and Saviour Christ said unto his Disciples Rejoyce not in this that the Devils fall down like lightning before you but rejoyce in this That your names are written in Heaven it is a matter of great joy to have ones name written in Heaven Oh! but what is it then to have ones name written in the chiefe part of Heaven to have ones name written there upon the breast-plate of Jesus Christ our great High-Priest that is gone into the Holy of Holiest Thus it is The Lord Christ is now gone to Heaven entred into the Holy of Holiest and carries our names into the presence of God the Father and there pleades and intercedes for us Oh! what matter of comfot is here But you will say unto me Object This is indeed exceeding good and very comfortable in it self but what is this to me for I am afraid that the Lord Christ does not intercede for me if indeed I could perswade my self that the Lord Jesus were in Heaven as my High-Priest to intercede for me I think verily I should have comfort though I were in the lowest bottom though I were in Hell it self but Oh! I am afraid to bear my self upon the Intercession of Jesus Christ lest I should presume This is the great Objection and stands up continually Ans to resist the comforts of Gods people Give me leave therefore to deal with this Objection all along and to take it off that so the comfort may fall the more fully upon you First I will shew It is no presumption for us to bear our selves upon the Intercession of Jesus Christ Secondly Who those are that the Lord Christ does Intercede for in Heaven And Thirdly How willing how infinitely willing he is to Intercede for us that so I may bring the comfort neerer to our own bosomes First I say it is no Presumption for us to bear our selves upon the Intercession of Jesus Christ no Presumption to beleeve We know the story of the woman in the Gospel that came unto our Lord and Saviour touching the hem of his garment for her cure and she was cured thereby But our Saviour perceiving vertue to be gone from him he cals out the person Who hath touched me come forth and the woman came forth trembling Our Lord and Saviour Christ does not say to this poor woman How dare you thus touch me how durst you thus presume to do it Consider The woman had no Command to do it no Precept to back her The woman had no promise to engage her that if shee did touch the hem of his garment she should be cured The woman had no Example never any before that touched the hem of his garment and was cured No Commandement No Promise No Example Surely now if any woman or man should Presume it should be this woman that had no Commandement nor no Promise nor no Example and yet the Lord Jesus Christ does not chide her away does not tell her she had presumed but O woman thy faith hath saved thee thy faith hath made the whole Let me speake this home we have a Command now to beleeve in Christ and a Promise Those that come unto him he ever liveth to make Intercession for them And we have Examples of many that have come unto Jesus Christ born themselves upon his Intercession and have gone away cured what was it no Presumption for the woman to come and touch Christ without a Commandement and a Promise and an Example and have you Examples and have you Promises and have you Commandements to beleeve and will you say this is Presumption Be not deceived it is no Presumption for thee poor soul to bear thy self at length upon Jesus Christ Secondly To make this out a little more fully I shall discover who those are that the Intercession of Jesus Christ does belong unto 1 Joh. 2.1 If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous You will say This is to be carried upon those that were spoke of before and those were such as had fellowship with the Father Truely our fellowship is with the Father and with his Sonne Jesus Christ Chap. 1. verse 3. Now if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous If any man that hath fellowship with the Father or Christ sin they have an Advocate with God the Father First therefore stand you by I pray that we will take for granted all you that ever had any fellowship with God the Father or with Jesus Christ this Doctrine of the Intercession of Jesus Christ and the comfort hereof does belong to you Moreover In the 17. Chapter of John there we find that our Saviour saies He prayes for those that do beleeve and should beleeve Those that he prayes for here he intercedes for in Heaven Neither pray I for these alone at the 20. verse but for them also which shall beleeve on me through thy word I do not pray only for those that do beleeve now but for them also which shall beleeve Well then here is a second sort Those that do beleeve and those that wait upon the Lord in the Ordinance that they may beleeve or shall beleeve Stand you by also you are another sort of people that the Intercession of Jesus Christ and the comfort thereof does belong unto But now yet further If we look into the 7. Chapter of this Epistle unto the Hebrews at the 25. verse we shall find these words Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make Intercession for them Who are those Those that come unto God by him Lay this and 53. Chapter of I saiah the 12. verse together He was numbred with the transgressors speaking of Christ cleerly and he bare the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors It may be thou canst not say I have fellowship with God the Father it may be thou canst not say I do beleeve I am perswaded that I do beleeve thou canst not say so Well but can you say thus Through the Lords grace I do come unto God by Christ I
Devil looks upon him And Jesus Christ looks upon him The work of the Law is to Condemn The work of the Devil to Accuse And the work of Jesus Christ is to Intercede it is the work of his office Now therefore assoon as the Devil sees such a soul Oh saies he here 's a fine instrument for me here 's a fit subject for me to injoy Assoon as Moses sees this man Here 's a fine subject for me to condemne unto all Eternity But when Jesus Christ looks upon such a soul saies he Here 's a fine soul for me to save unto all Eternity to intercede for why because it is his Office and what a man does by office he interprets accordingly Therefore what the Lord Jesus Christ does he does by office and he does it readily and willingly And I will give you one demonstration of it It was the end why Jesus Christ was taken into Heaven into the Holy of Holiest that he might Intercede According to the Scriptures mentioned before in Heb. 9.24 For Christ is not entered into holy places made with hands but into Heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us He does not say thus Christ is now gone to Heaven to be glorified there Christ is now gone to Heaven to injoy the bosome of his Father for his own happiness No but he is gone into Heaven to appear in the presence of God for us This is the end of his ascention And so again in the 7. of the Hebrews Wherefore he is able to save to the uttermost seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us What is he in Heaven to be glorified there No but the end why Christ is in Heaven Is to make intercession for poor sinners And therefore he must needs be infinitly willing to do this because it is the end of his going thither into the Holy of Holiest Oh therefore be of good comfort all you that do come unto God by him for he is willing to intercede for you And let not any thing discourage you It may be you will complain and say Oh! but I am much opposed here in this world What matter so long as Jesus Christ does intercede for me in Heaven and speaks good words unto God the Father for me in heaven what though I be opposed by men It may be you will complain and say Oh! but I am much tempted and cannot pray Be humbled for it but yet know this That when you cannot pray Christ prayes for you and he prayes that you may pray It may be you complain and say Oh! but I labour under such and such corruptions and the Devil he is busie with me exceeding busie and I cannot overcome them and the Devil stands at my right hand for to tempt me and to lead me into such and such sins Wel be it so yet notwithstanding the Lord Jesus Christ he is at the right hand of our Father and he is set down at the right hand of God the Father till all enemies be made his footstool and your sins are his enemies And therefore be of good comfort O all ye people of the Lord. Is there ever a poor myrtle-tree a soul that growes in a bottom in a poor dark condition be of good comfort the Lord Jesus Christ our great High-Priest he is entered into Heaven into the Holy of Holiest there to intercede with God the Father for thee I but Quest you will say unto me Does not this conduce to our Grace and Holiness too and how does it do it This Intercession of Jesus Christ Ans this work of the Priestly Office of Christ and the consideration thereof it does conduce exceedingly unto our Grace and Holinesse For. First What a mighty incouragement is here unto all poor sinners for to come unto Jesus Christ He ever liveth to make Intercession for those that come unto God by him Oh! then who would not come unto God by Christ who would not come unto Jesus Christ Me thinks a poor sinner should say Indeed my sins were so great that I was afraid for to come unto God But now I hear that the Lord Jesus Christ is in Heaven to make intercession for all those that come unto God by him Though I have been a Drunkerd now I wil go unto God by Christ And though I have been a Swearer and though I have been an unclean wanton yet I will go unto God by Christ Indeed I thought that my time was past for I have been an Old Swearer and I have been an Old Drunkard and I have been an Old Sabbath-breaker and I have been a sinner so long that I was even afraid of going to God at all and thought there was no mercy nor no pardon for me But seeing now that this is true That the Lord Jesus Christ is in Heaven to make intercession for all those that come unto God by him Well through the Lords grace now I will go unto the Lord Christ I will go unto Jesus Christ I indeed am a young man and I thought it was to no purpose to go unto God God would not regard poor ignorant ones and I am a poor ignorant creature and thought it was to no purpose for me to go unto God But now I understand this That the Lord Jesus Christ is in Heaven to make intercession for all those that come unto God by him Well then Though I am ignorant yet will I go unto God by Christ and though I am but a poor young thing and scarce understand the termes of Religion yet will I go unto God by Christ Oh! come unto Christ come unto Christ Behold here in the Name of the Lord I stand and make invitation to poor sinners Come poor Drunkard Swearer Sabbath-breaker Unclean heart the Lord Jesus Christ is in Heaven to make intercession for all that come unto God by him and will not you come Oh! how will you answer it at the great day when it shall be said The Lord Jesus Christ made a tender and offer of mercy to you and you would not accept of it you would not come unto him Here is matter of great Incouragment unto all poor sinners to come unto Jesus Christ Again Secondly The more I apprehend or see with a spiritual eye That the Lord Jesus Christ does appear in Heaven for me the more am Fingaged to appear upon earth for him Mark I pray that you may see how this does conduce unto Grace and Holiness Ah! shall the Lord Jesus Christ appear in Heaven before Saints and Angels and God the Father for my soul and shal I be afraid to appear before poor worms for him Shall the Lord Jesus Christ own me in Heaven and shall not I own him upon earth Shall the Lord Jesus Christ as the great High-Priest take my name and carry it upon his breast into the presence of God the Father and shall not I take the Name of Christ and hold it forth to the world Oh! I beseech
you consider what a mighty ingagement is here to stand to and appear for the Lord Christ and to own his Cause in these backsliding times because he is now in Heaven appearing for you and making intercession for you Thirdly The more I confider or apprehend That the Lord Jesus Christ does lay out himself for me the more am I ingaged to lay out my selfe for him The Scripture saies He ever liveth to make intercession for you He laies out his whole Eternity for you Me thinks we have here before us the greatest argument in the world for to make us to walke closely with God in Christ For shall the Lord Jesus Christ spend of his Eternity for me and shall not I spend of my whole time for him He Ever liveth he Ever liveth to make intercession Before the world was made his delight was in the habitable parts of the earth among the children of men He laid out himself in delighting upon you before the world was made Well in due time he comes down into the world and here while he was upon the earth he laid out himself fully for you Then he Dies and goes up to Heaven and saies he I go to prepare a place for you He was at work for you before the world began Then he comes down upon the earth and here he spends all his time for you And now that he is gone to Heaven the text saith He ever liveth to make intercession for you he spends off all his eternity for you Oh! does not the Lord Jesus grutch me Eternity to spend off his Eternity for my soul and shall I grutch the Lord Jesus Christ a little time to spend a little time for him Surely people don't think what Christ is doing in Heaven for them you that are Saints especially if you did you could not be padling in the world so much Shall the Lord Jesus Christ be appearing in Heaven for me and shall I be digging in the world Shall he be making mention of my name unto God the Father and interceding for me and shall I be sinning against him shall I be contending with his children shall I now be joyning with his Enemies shall I be opposing his waies Oh! if people would but think what the Lord Jesus Christ is doing in heaven for them they could not rebel so in the world against him as they do Wherefore that you may be kept from your sins kept frō the world think of these things The Apostle saies These things have I written unto ye that ye sin not and if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous And so say I to you I have been here delivering to you this Doctrine concerning the Priestly Office of Jesus Christ and these things have I preach't unto you that you sin not And therefore that you may be kept from sin and your hearts made more Holy think of the Priestly Office of Jesus Christ he is gone into Heaven to make intercession for you And thus have I discovered the Second Particular of the Priestly Office of Jesus Christ A Third follows SERMON III. HEBREWES 2.17 18. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren that be might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest Preached at Stepney May. 9. 1647. in things pertaining to godliness to make reconciliation for the sins of the people For in that He himselfe hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted WE have found already That the work of the High-Priest was and is To Satisfie and to Intercede for the sins of the people Now if we inquire further we shall find also That the work of the High-Priest was and now is To offer up the gifts of the people unto God To present our Prayers Praises Duties Services and all spiritual Performances unto God the Father and to procure acceptance of him This was done thus In the times of Moses in the Tabernacle there were two Parts or Courts as we reade in the 9. Chapter of the Hebrews In the one which was called The Holy of Holiest there was the Arke the Mercy-Seat the Cherubims of glory and the golden Censer In the other there was the Brasen-Altar upon which they offered sacrifices there was the table of Shewbread the golden Candlestick and the golden Altar upon which incense was This is expresly laid down in the 2 3 and 4. verses of that 9. of Hebrews For there was a tabernacle made the first wherein was the candlestick and the table and the shew-bread which is called the sanctuary And after the Second vail the tabernacle which is called the holiest of all which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold wherein was the golden pot that had manna and Aarons rod that budded and the tables of the covenant And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the Mercy-Seat And as every day morning and evening there was a lamb offered a sacrifice for the sins of the people upon the Brasen-Alter So every day morning and evening there was incense also upon the golden-Altar which was performed while the people were without at prayer mingling that incense with their prayers As it is in the 1. Chap. of Luke the 8 9 and 10. verses It came to passe that while he that is Zacharias executed the Priests Office before God in the order of his course according to the cusiome of the Priests office his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord and the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense So that the incense was at a time when they were sweetly mingling their prayers and the incense together But now although that there was a sacrifice every day yet once in the yeer th◠High-Priest came and he took the blood of the Sacrifice and carried it into the Holy of Holiest and sprinkled the Mercy-Seat therewith And although there was incense too from the Golden Altar every day yet once in the yeer the High-Priest came and he took the golden Censer and putting incense into it from off the golden Altar went into the Holy of Holiest and caused a cloud of perfume to arise upon the Mercy-Seat All which was a great Type of Jesus Christ our High-Priest who though he offered up himself a sacrifice once for sin without yet when he died and ascended he carried the vertue of that his blood into the Holy of Holiest into Heaven and sprinkled the Mercy-Seat therewith Although he began to make Intercession while he lived as we reade in the 17. of John yet when he ascended up into Heaven the Holy of Holiest then he did take his golden Censer and carried his Intercession into Heaven causing a cloud of sweet perfumes to arise upon the Mercy-Seat which stil he does whilst we are praying here without he mingling all our Duties with his Intercessions and
all this for us as our great High-Priest that is the meaning of it So that this is plain what he doth when as our great High-Priest he offers up our Gifts unto God the Father But in the Second place Suppose he doth so What Favour Quest 2 or Acceptance hath this our great High-Priest in Heaven He hath very much Answ Father saies he I thank thee that thou hearest me alwaies He never spake a word unto God the Father but the father heard him alwaies We reade as I remember but of Two places in the new Testament where the Lord by an audible voice gives testimony of Jesus Christ his Son And in both those places we have the same words uttered This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And again This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased We may know what favour a man hath with another by the Trust that he doth commit to and repose upon him Joseph had great favour in the eyes of Pharaoh and how did it appear It appear'd by this Because Pharaoh trusted him with so much Now God the Father hath trusted Jesus Christ this our great High-Priest very much This I shall evidence in Four Particulars viz. What a great Trust God the Father hath put upon him First It was an agreement between God the Father and Christ the Second Person before the world was That in due time he should come into the world take flesh upon him and die for sinners and he did so But before Christ came into the world there were thousands of souls saved How came they to be saved They came to be saved by the blood of Christ and before Christ had died So then God the Father saved them upon Christs bare word That he would come into the world and die for them What a mighty Trust was here That so many hundred thousand souls should be saved upon a bare word of Christ That he would come into the world and die for them afterward Again The Trust appears in this That he was made when he did come into the world the great Lord-Treasurer of all the Grace and Comfort that should be given out unto the children of men When Pharaoh trusted Joseph all the whole kingdom was put into his hand with the Corn thereof and not a grain was to be given out to any but as Joseph gave it out which argued a mighty Trust So now That not any Grace or Comfort given out to the children of men but only by the hand of Christ it argues a mighty Trust that the Father put upon him But yet further When our Lord and Saviour Christ died and ascended unto God the Father to Heaven as soon as ever he came into Heaven saith the Father to him Thou hast now suffered Aske of me and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession all the world at one word Aske of me saith he and at the first word I will give thee the whole world It was a mighty and a great Trust that the Father did put upon him Yea as if all this were not enough The Father did put the keyes of Heaven and of Hell into his hand the keyes of Heaven and Hell into the hand of Christ So we reade in the 1. of Revel 18. ver I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and of death There 's no man that goes to Hell but he is lok't in by Jesus Christ And there 's no man goes to Heaven but Christ hath the keyes of Heaven and he locks him in there unto all Eternity The Lord Jesus Christ he hath the keyes of Hell and of Heaven he hath the keyes of all mens Eternities hanging at his girdle Oh! what an infinite Trust is here that God the Father hath put upon him Then let us conclude if that Trust do argue favour and the Lord Jesus Christ our High-Priest hath such a great trust as this put into his hands by the Father what infinite Acceptance must he needs have with God the Father In the Third place Suppose that he have all this favour Quest 3 and Acceptance in Heaven Doth he Improve this his Favour and Acceptance for our Acceptance and for our Favour Yes He Improves all this his favour and acceptance Answ for our acceptance and does plant all our Prayers and Duties upon his own acceptance Lord saith he unto his Father concerning beleevers I will that where I am they may be also I will O Lord that they may be One even as thou Father and I am one He doth not count himself full and happy but in the happiness and fulness of the Church And therefore as Christ is called The fulness of God the Father So the Church is called The fulness of Jesus Christ in the 1. of the Ephesians and the last verse Which is his body the fulness of him that filleth all in all When our Lord and Saviour Christ came to die and the heart and love of God the Father was let out unto him Ye shall find if ye look upon that 17. of John and reade it all over That he spends his time not so much in praying for himself The time was but short and his prayer short Father if it be possible let this cup passe if not yet not my will but thine be done But he spends most of the time in praying and interceding for those that did beleeve or should afterward beleeve The favour and acceptance which the High-Priest had in the times of Moses was not for himself he had a Mitre upon his head and a golden girdle upon his loynes Priestly garments and he had great acceptance when he went into the Holy of Holiest but it was not for himself he did improve it all for the people he was to lay it out all for the people and not for himself Our High-Priest goes beyond all other High-Priests in this particular also for now as for other High-Priests though they went in with their incense and covered the Mercy-seat with a cloud yet it was but once in the yeer But our High-Priest is alwaies in the Holy of Holiest and never goes out of it ever covering the Mercy-Seat with his Intercessions Take their High-Priest and though he were very Holy as Aaron was yet sometimes he made the people naked unacceptable But our great High-Priest never makes his people naked but alwaies clothes them with his own righteousness Take their High-Priest and though he did go into the Holy of Holiest for the people yet he never led the people into the Holy of Holiest they stood without But our great High-priest is not only gone into the Holy of Holiest himself but doth also lead every poor beleever into the Holy of Holiest as we reade in the 10. of the Hebrews and the 19. verse Having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the Holiest
by the blood of Jesus Christ The people might not enter into the Holiest in the time of the Jewes But our great High-Priest hath improved his favour for us thus far that every man may come into the Holy of Holiest Now If our great High-Priest in this respect go beyond all the High-Priests that ever were before him and they did improve their interest and their favour and their acceptance for the people much more doth the Lord Jesus Christ our High-Priest improve the favour interest and acceptance that he hath in heaven for our acceptance and and the acceptance of all our Duties And that is a Third Particular But Quest 4 If that it be so then surely we have great acceptance in all our Duties but have we so Yes Answ very great in and through the Lord Jesus Christ our High-Priest And therefore if we look into the 14. of John our Lord and Saviour saith Whatsoever ye aske in my Name at the 13. verse that will I do I but may we be sure of this He repeats it again in the 14. verse If ye shall ask any thing in my name I will do it Yea that ye may see what great acceptance we have now through him in all those Duties that we offer up to God the Father saith he in the 16. Chap. and the 26. vers At that day ye shall aske in my name and I say not unto ye that I will pray the father for you for the father himself loves you It is a mighty high speech I don't say That I will pray for you Ye shall have so much favour and love in Heaven from the Father imediately that he will hear you presently I but is not all upon Christs account Yes and therefore saith he at the 13. verse of the 14. chapter Whatsoever ye shall aske in my name that will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son So that all is upon Christs account Great was the testimony of Christs acceptance which he had from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Now if we look into the Scripture we shall find that the same words are given unto the Saints Is the Lord Jesus Christ called the Son of God My beloved Son So are Beleevers too As many as receive him have power to be called the Sons of God Is he called The Beloved Son of God This is my beloved Son So are the Saints also In the 31. chapter of Jeremy at the 20. verse Ephraim my deer Son a pleasant child Ephraim that is Israel my deer Son a pleasant child Well Is it said In whom I am well pleased my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased The same word also is given to men When our Lord and Saviour Christ was born into the world the Angels they came and sung at his birth and they sung Good will towards men So we reade it but it is the same word that is used concerning Christ himself My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased So that whatsoever word there is in all this speech This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased whatsoever word there is in that sentence concerning Christ 't is given also unto the Saints unto Beleevers so greatly does he improve his own favour acceptance for our acceptance and so great acceptance have we through Christ Yea As the Lord Jesus Christ is said to be made sin for us in the Abstract So are we said to be made Righteousnesses by him in the Abstract too As we have it in the 1. of the Canticles the 3. vers Therefore do the Virgins love thee so we reade it in our english translation But in the Hebrew it is Therefore do the Righteousnesses love thee The Saints and Beleevers through Christ are called Righteousnesses in the Abstract So that here is the great acceptance that the Saints and Beleevers do find through this acceptation of Jesus Christ our High-Priest But Quest Suppose a man be very poor and lives in some mean cottage which hath but one room to lie dine and sup in and that a smoky dark room too and this poor creature comes and prayes unto God Will the Great and Glorious God of Heaven and Earth take notice of such a prayer from such a worme as this and shall he find acceptance with God the Father For answer to that Answ look into the 2. of the Canticles and the 14. verse O my dove that art in the clefts of the rock in the secret places of the stairs let me see thy countenance they are the words of Christ let me hear thy voice Why for sweet is thy voice and thy countenance is comely But I pray where now is the Church In the clefts of the rock and in the secret places of the staires in a hole under the staires as it were in a poor distressed place an hidden place now saies he here thy voice is sweet and thy tountenance comely Well Quest But suppose that a Duty or service be performed by one that is weak weak in Grace or weak in parts and Gifts for this is my case will some say I am one of very weak parts and Gifts and I have little Memory or Ability of speech there are some men indeed that are of great Parts and Graces and when they pray I make no question but their prayers do find acceptance but as for me I am one of very mean Abilities Oh! can there be any acceptance of such prayers as mine are through Jesus Christ Will God answer such stammerings lispings halfe-words broken imperfect petitions Yes Answ We know that the paire of Turtles were accepted in the time of the Law by those that could offer no more Surely much more now will a poor Turtle be accepted in the time of the Gospel those that could but bring Goats-haire towards the making of the Tabernacle they were welcome and shall it not be so now much more in the times of the Gospel That which is little in regard of Quantity it may be great in regard of Proportion as the widdows mite was The Sun fals we know with a common influence upon all the Herbs and Plants but there is a several sweetness and flowers that are of a several and different growth There is the Rose and there is the Violet The Violet is not so Tall as the Rose the Violet lies on the ground but though the Violet be not so tall as the Rose the Violet hath its sweetnesse and it may say to the Rose Though I be not so tall yet I have my sweetness as well as thou hast So now there is a common influence from Jesus Christ upon all the Saints and they have their several sweetness one as the Rose and the other as the Violet It may be here lies a poor Christian upon the ground like the Violet and is not so tall in Gifts and Parts as the other is but yet notwithstanding he hath his sweetness Christ
takes that lovingly that comes from love whatever it be though it be never so weak Well But suppose that a mans Duty Quest or Service be performed with many failings infirmities Hardness of heart Straightness of spirit distracting thoughts this is my case Oh! is there any acceptance for such a Duty as this is will the Lord Jesus Christ the great High-Priest take such a Duty as this is and carry it in unto God the Father and is there any acceptance for such a Duty as this We know how it was with Nicodemus Answ and the woman that came trembling and touched the hem of Christs garment And we must know that in every duty that we do performe there are Two things There is the Sacrifice and there is the Obedience in offering the Sacrifice Though the Sacrifice may be imperfect yet your Obedience in offering the Sacrifice may be perfect with Gospel-perction 'T is in regard of our Duties as in regard of our Persons never think that God will deal otherwise with our Duties than he deals with our Persons The Lord came and justified the ungodly when he justified you He comes and he finds a poor soul in a sinful condition he imputes his righteousness unto that soul and justifies an ungodly one not justifying him so as to go on in sin it is the word of the Apostle He justifies the ungodly So the Lord comes and finds a great deal of ungodliness in your Duty and he imputes his righteousness unto that Duty and he justifies the Duty which in your eye is an ungodly duty This indeed is the wonder of all that he should deal thus by us For did we ever hear of any garment that would make the crooked straight If a man have a crooked back come and put velvet upon him silk scarlet upon him it may make him handsomer but it will not change his back and make him strait But when the Lord Christ comes he finds all our souls crook-back't as it were and he puts on his righteousness and this garment makes that that was crooked to become straite it makes the very crook-back't Duty to become a strait Duty Did we ever hear or reade of any Seal that when it was set upon the wax would change the wax into gold or into silver like the seal it may leave it's impression but it does not change the wax into it's own mettall If there be a stamp set upon silver or gold the mettal remains as it was before But if a stamp be set upon brasse it don't make it silver or if it be set upon silver it don't make it gold I but when the Lord Jesus Christ comes unto a Duty and sets his own stamp and his own righteousness upon a Duty that which was brasse before full of failings and much unrighteousness before changes it into gold into silver He only hath the Philosophers stone as I may so speak all that Christ touches turns into gold turns all our Duties into gold and when he hath done so he presents them unto God the Father This our great High-Priest doth And this is the Fourth thing But how doth all this make for our Comfort Quest 5 or for our Grace Surely Ans we cannot but see already how it doth make for our Comfort Is it not a comfortable thing for a man to know that his Duties are not lost that his Prayer is not lost that his Hearing the word is not lost that his Searching the Scriptures is not lost that his Conference and Communion is not lost A man is unwilling to lose any thing and the more precious it is the more unwilling to lose it If we have a venture at Sea we are unwilling to lose our venture and the greater our venture is the more unwilling to lose it If a man have but a quarter of his Estate in a vessel he is unwilling to lose it more unwilling if he have half his Estate most if he have all and his children there in the vessel too Now as men are unwilling to lose their worldly venture So a man that is sensible of his soul is very unwilling to lose his souls venture to lose his Prayers and to lose all his Duties Friends here 's an Insuring-Office The Lord Jesus Christ is our great Insurer in this respect and he doth as he is our High-Priest offering up our Gifts unto God the Father assure us that none is lost not any lost Indeed if we had such an High-Priest as were not able to take notice of the Circumstances of our Duties much might be lost but this our Lord Christ our great High-Priest doth not only take notice of our Duty what ever it be but of all the Circumstances of our Duties and so presents them unto God the Father in the full latitude in all the gracious Circumstances of them Therefore saith he unto the Angel of the Church of Pergamos in the 2. of the Revelation and the 13. verse I know thy works Why but Lord though thou doest know our works yet it may be thou doest not take notice where our work is done Lord it may be thou doest take notice of my Prayer but Lord thou doest not take notice where I dwell and live and in what family I do pray unto thee Lord I am in a wicked and a wretched family that does oppose Prayer Lord may be thou doest take notice of my Prayer but thou doest not take notice of this Circumstance Yes saies he I know thy works and where thou dwellest even where Satans seat is Well and thou holdest fast my Name and hast not denied my faith even in those daies wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth It 's remarkable The Lord Jesus Christ takes notice not only of our Duty but of every Circumstance of the Duty and so he presents it unto God the Father not only the Duty but the Circumstance of the Duty and therefore there is not a haire of your Duty lost not one graine of your Duty lost is not this an unspeakable Comfort unto a poor soul that it knows that nothing is lost of all the Prayers it hath made unto God that there is no losse at all The very pantings of our hearts at the Throne of grace are received into the bosom of our Heavenly Father Further Is it not a Comfort for a man to have liberty to go unto the Mercy-Seat and there for to meet with God 'T is said of wicked men That they sit in the seat of the scornful There is it seems then the seat of the scornful and there is a Mercy-Seat A Drunkard when he is with his drunken company and sits upon the Ale-bench it may be scorning and jeering at some of the godly making songs on them he is set upon the seat of the scornful that is a cursed seat I but there is another seat there is a Mercy-Seat and there is never a poor Saint and Child of God
but he may go in to the Mercy-Seat of the Lord Jesus Christ that hath all the favour and acceptance in Heaven he carries him into the Mercy-Seat and God the Father will never put him by what Comfort is here Besides Is it not a great Comfort to a man for to know how it shall go with him at the great day of Judgment When there shall be hundred thousands at the right hand of Christ hundred-thousands at the left hand of Christ when all faces shall gather palenesse Oh! saies one that I did but know how it shall go with me at that day This Doctrine tels us The Lord Jesus Christ shall be our Judge at that day and he that shall judge us then he takes our Prayers and all our Duties now and carries them in unto the presence of God the Father by him we have acceptance and according to these we shall be judged Surely then if he takes our Duties and carries them in for acceptance unto God the Father he will never judge you for them and condemn you for them at that day Here is Comfort Once more Is it not a Comfort for a poor begger to be relieved at a rich-mans door We are al beggers in regard of Heaven and the Lord Jesus Christ he does not only come forth and serve us but he takes us poor beggers by the hand and leads us in to his Father Oh! what Comfort is here what Comfort is here Indeed if I were able to say That the Lord did accept my Duty Cbj. this were Comfort indeed if I were able to conclude That the Lord Jesus Christ did take my Prayers and my Duties and carry them in unto God the Father this were sweet consolation but how shall I know that If the Lord Jesus Christ be our High-Priest Ans then we may say also that he takes our duties and carries them in for acceptance unto God the Father if we may say that Jesus Christ hath satisfied for us and doth intercede for us then we may say also that he takes our duties and carries them for acceptance unto God the Father But yet a little further to bring this Comfort nearer to your hearts give me leave to appeal to you First Whosoever thou art that makes this Objection Didst thou never find a spiritual fire come down from Heaven as it were upon thy heart in Duty or after Duty In the times of the old-Testament if they offered up a sacrifice and a material fire came down from Heaven and burnt up the sacrifice to ashes it was a certain testimony that the sacrifice was accepted Now in the times of the Gospel we must not expect material fire to come down upon our Duties But hath the Lord at any time caused an inward and spiritual fire to fall down upon thy heart warming thy spirit in Dutie there the Lord speaks thus much to thee Thy sacrifice is turn'd into ashes and it is accepted by Jesus Christ Again Did you never find in your heart you that make this Objection to Pray and Cry and Intercede for others for the godly especially Look what disposition there is in your heart towards the members of Christ there is the same disposition in Christ's heart towards you Ah! do you think that there is love in your bosome towards the Saints and that there is none in Christ's heart towards you Do you think that your bowels are more large than Christ's Canst thou find in thine heart to go unto God when thou seest a Saint in misery to go to God and pray and cry and intercede for him and don 't you think that the Lord Jesus hath as much bowels towards you to go and intercede for you and present your prayers unto God the Father Further Don't you look upon your own Duties as coming from your selves most unworthy Beloved 't is in regard of Duties as it is in regard of Persons When a man does judge himself to be most unworthy then Christ counts him worthy God counts him worthy in Christ As you reade in the 1. of the Canticles saies the Spouse there ver 5. I am black O ye daughters of Jerusalem as the tents of Kedar Look not upon me because I am black ver 6. Now would you see Christs opinion of her that counts her self black saith she Black and Black again but Christ saith concerning her verse 8. O thou fairest among women She calls her self Black and Christ cals her Fair and the Fairest among women Now when a man doth count himself most unworthy God counts him most worthy and when a man looks upon his own Duties and Sacrifices as most unworthy they are look't upon by Jesus Christ as most worthy poor prayers in our eyes are precious in Gods eye A word more Don't ye think that grace is larger now in the times of the Gospel than it was in the times of the Law If ye doubt it as unto this particular Look upon the 30. Chapter of Exodus compared with the 41. of Ezekiel In the 30. Chapter of Exodus The Lord commands an Altar to be made to burn incense upon Of Shittim wood shalt thou make it verse the 1. A cubit shall be the length thereof verse the 2. The Altar is for Incense 't is the matter that now we are upon A cubit shall be the length thereof and a cubit the breadth thereof and two cubits shall be the highth therof Now in the 41. Chapter of Ezekiel he speaks of the Altar in the times of the Gospel and saith he at the 22. verse 't is the Altar of incense that there is prescribed to be made the Altar of wood of Shettem wood The Altar of wood was three cubits high and the length thereof two cubits And yet again this altar of incense in the times of the Gospel is to be as large again as that in the times of the Law as high and as long and as large again In the times of the Law times of the old-Testament a poor soul might go unto the High-Priest and might challenge a right in him and might say That his Service and his Duty and his Sacrifice was accepted by the High-Priest If in the times of the Old-Testament a man might say so much more may a poor soul now go unto Jesus Christ our great High-Priest and say That his Service and his Duty and Sacrifice is accepted through him Here is abundance of Comfort unto the Saints be of good comfort all you that do beleeve But How doth this make unto our Holiness Quest unto Holiness of life We confess indeed that there is abundance of Comfort in this That the Lord Jesus Christ our great High-Priest takes all our Gifts and al our Prayers and presents them to God the Father and that in his acceptance we have acceptance but I pray how doth all this conduce to our Holiness of life Much every way Answ First In case I be Ungodly a Wicked man Here is that that may
for ever keep me from opposition to the good wayes of God I have said sometimes may a wicked man say concerning godly mens duties That it was their Hypocrisie And I have said concerning such and such Professors This is your Pride and this is your Singularity and I have opposed with all bitterness and earnestness the prayings and wrestlings of some of Gods people But is this true That the Lord Jesus Christ takes every Prayer of the meanest of Gods Children and carries it into the bosom of God the Father and shall I spit upon that that Christ owns shall I dare to oppose that that the Lord Jesus Christ presents unto his Father The Lord in mercy pardon me I have sinned and done foolishly and for ought I know I may have spoken evill of that Duty that Christ hath carried into the presence of God the Father Oh! through the Lords grace then for ever will I leave to make any opposition against any of the good waies of God again and I will never speake one word against the persons meetings or supplications of the godly again Again In case a man be Ungodly a wicked man Here is mighty incouragement for to come unto Jesus Christ I and to come presently For is Jesus Christ the ladder that Jacob saw by whom we go up to Heaven doth he take all our Duties and Prayers and present them to God the Father for acceptance Then till I do come to Christ all is nothing all is lost if I be a Drunkard and will not come to Christ Prayer is all lost if I be a Swearer and will not come to Christ an Unclean wretch and will not come to Christ all my Prayers and all my Duties are lost Oh! the Lord pity me may many a poor soul say I have lost too many Prayers already through the Lords grace now I will lose no more Oh! I come to Christ Lord I come I come This is a mighty incouragement to make every man now for to come unto Jesus Christ because the Lord Jesus our High-Priest takes every Duty and carries it into the bosom of God the Father for acceptance Thus for Ungodly Secondly In case a man be Godly this truth doth conduce to our further Holiness and growth in grace If I be Codly Then here I see infinite reason why I should be much in Duty not only pray but be much in prayer Why for the Lord Christ taketh all and carries all into the bosom of the Father mingles his own odours intercessions with it although it be but a sigh and a groane The Apostle upon this account makes this use of it having spoken of Christ our High-Priest Therefore saith he let us come with boldness vnto the Throne of grace Heb. 4.16 The word signifies to speak all ones mind let us come speaking all Having such an High-Priest indeed as will carry all into the presence of God the Father for acceptance every sigh and every groan then who would not be much in prayer speak all to Christ be free with Christ come with boldness There 's many a poor soul that is much discouraged and he dares not go to prayer many times afraid to go to the Throne of grace The reason is because he looks upon his Prayer or Duty as it lies upon his own heart or as it comes from himself Whereas my beloved 't is with your Prayers and Duties as it is with fire Your kitchin fire is troubled with abundance of smoake and there is filth about it fire upon the hearth hath much smoake but fire above in the Element of fire there 's no smoke So your Prayer when it lies upon your own hearth as I may say there 's a great deal of smoke but when it gets once into the hands of Jesus Christ there 's it's Element and it is freed from all it's smoke Or as it is with a mans Body so long as he lives here upon the earth he is feeble and weak and many times sickly assoon as he is come into Heaven all his weakness is taken away and his body being in Heaven 't is presently glorified and strength put upon it and all his diseases are gone So 't is with our Prayers So long as they are here below in our own bosoms they are full of weakness but assoon as our Prayer is out of our mouth 't is in the hand of Christ 't is in Heaven 't is glorified the weakness is now done away Oh! 't is a glorified Prayer when once 't is gone from you 't is in the hand of Christ And therefore this is a mighty incouragement unto all those that are godly to be not only in Prayer but to be much in Prayer come with boldness unto the Throne of grace Again If ye be Godly yea if ye be Ungodly Here I see infinite reason why I should receive every Truth that comes from Christ though accompanied with many failings in him that speaks it The Lord Jesus Christ he accepts of every prayer and duty that comes from me though it have many weaknesses yea he takes my Prayer and carries it into the presence of God the Father for acceptance my poor Prayer labouring with many weaknesses Then when a Truth comes from Christ shall not I accept of it what though the Minister or Preacher that speaks it labour with this or that weakness There is Pride or there is some miscarriage in the delivery or the like Shall the Lord Christ take my Prayer labouring under infirmity and accept thereof and carry it into the presence of God the Father for acceptance notwithstanding all the failings of my Duty and shall not I accept of Truth that comes from Christ notwithstanding all the failings of the poor messenger that brings it Further The more Evangelical you are in your Obedience the more Holy ye are in your lives This truth that is now before ye well studied and considered will make you more Obedient in an Evangelical way And ye shall find therefore that the Lord himself from Heaven does make this use of it pray consult with the 17. of Matthew and the 5. verse This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him Those words follow Hear him Hearing notes Faith and Obedience not a bare Hearing with the ear Compare this and the same speech together which ye have in the 3. of Matthew and the 17. verse Loe a voyce from Heaven saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Heare ye him is not there in the 3. of Matthew but here in the 17. of Matthew these words are added Heare ye him What should the reason be that Hear ye him should be added here in the 17. of Matthew and not in the 3. of Mat. thew Give me leave to give you some reason for it so far as may make to our present purpose Not to say any thing of that which Moses said In his daies a Prophet will the Lord your God raise up
unto ye like unto me hear ye him And now here in this 17. of Matthew at the transfiguration Moses and Elias appeared which they did not in the 3. of Matthew First Consider that the Emphasis may lie upon the word Hear and not upon the word Him only This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Hear ye him His face did shine as the Sun and his rayment was white as the light And Christ appeared in great glory and they stood looking upon him Nay saies the Lord from Heaven do not make it a gazing matter but Hear him don't stand looking upon him but Hear him He don't appear in such a glory in the 3. of Matthew when he was baptized and therefore those words are not added there But again Here now in the 17. Chapter of Matthew at the Transfiguration appears Moses and Elias Behold at the 3. verse There appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him Moses that gave the Law Elias that restored it Then answered Peter and said unto Jesus Lord 't is good for us to be here if thou wilt let us make here Three Tabernacles one for Thee and one for Moses and one for Elias Peter and so the rest of the Disciples began for to equallize Moses to Jesus Christ One for Moses and one for Elias and one for Jesus Christ no more for Christ than for Moses Now the Lord takes Peter off from all his mistakings Your eye is upon Moses saith he but I saith the Lord God Almighty am wel pleased in my Son This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased I am well pleased with you and with your Duties through this my Son and not through Moses and therefore Hear Christ and not Moses He laies this in upon it that therefore they should be Evangelical and hear Jesus Christ because the Lord Christ gives acceptance unto all and by him God is well pleased with them Again further The more glory Christ does appear in the greater reason there is why we should hear him Now here the Lord Jesus Christ appeared in glory his face did shine as the Sun and his raiment was white as the light In the 3. of Matthew he was there baptized and he did not appear in glory but now here he appears in glory and therefore saies the Lord now Hear him this is your glorious Saviour Hear him Beloved what greater glory can Jesus Christ appear to your souls in than this the glory of his love he takes every one of your Duties and your Prayers and he carries them in to the bosome of God the Father and by him you have acceptance Oh! what a glorious Saviour have ye therefore Hear him This is that if any thing will make ye very Obedient to Christ more than to Moses to be Evangelical in all your Duties Yet further The more a man can rejoyce in spiritual priviledges with humility and the more humble a man is and yet can rejoyce in his spiritual priviledges the more holy he is there goes a great deal of Holiness to it to joyn these two together for a man to rejoyce in his spiritual priviledges and yet to be humble and to walk very humbly Some there are that look upon ther spiritual priviledges and rejoyce much but they don't walk humbly Some labour to walk humbly and are much troubled in the consideration of their own evil but they don't rejoyce in their spiritual priviledges Give me a Christian that doth both and he is a blessed man The study of this Truth that is now before you will teach you to do both to do both together For what a great priviledge is this not a figh not a groane not a duty but the Lord Christ takes it and carries it in and presents it to God the Father for me whereby I have acceptance Considering this here is matter of much joy and rejoycing I but It is Christ that does it there is no such worthiness in mine own duty it were lost and cast away if Jesus Christ did not take it in his hand and carry it into the bosome of God the Father and therefore why should I not walk humbly I conclude all with this If that the Lord Jesus Christ our great High-Priest offers up all our Gifts unto God the Father whereby we have acceptance What infinite cause have we all to be Thankful to God for Christ and to love Jesus Christ for ever Suppose one of you had been among the Disciples when the Lord Christ wash't his Disciples feet and he should have come and wash't your feet and have done it would not your heart have glowed with love to Jesus Christ Yet when the Lord Jesus Christ wash't his Disciples feet it was in the daies of his flesh when he was here on the earth but now he is in glory and yet for all this he takes your dirty prayers and does as it were wash the feet of your prayers that he may present them to God the Father he washes your tears over again in his bloud and presents them to God the Father he takes all your Duties and perfumes them with his intercessions and so presents them unto God the Father Oh! what cause have we to love Jesus Christ Oh! you that never loved Christ love him now and you that have loved him before love him much more you that fear the lord love the Lord and let us all even go away with our hearts warmed with this love blessing and praising the Name of the Lord. And thus I have led you into a Third work of our great Hight Priest which is this To offer up the Gifts of the people unto God the Father A Fourth follows c. SERMON IV. HEBREWES 2.17 18. Wherefore in all thing it behoved him Preached at Stepney May. 16. 1647. to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people For in that He himselfe hath suffered being tempted he is able to succou them that are tempted IT hath been opened and applied that the work of the High-Priest was and is To satisfie for the sins of the people to make Intercession for them and to offer up their Gifts unto God the Father all which Christ doth for us I shall speak of one work more of our great High-Priest and that is To bless the people We reade in the Old-Testament of two sorts of High-Priests One according to the order of Aaron the Levitical High-Priest as I may so speak and his work was for to Bless the People as we may reade in the 6. Chapter of Numbers the 23. verse Speak unto Aaron and unto his Sons saying On this wise ye shall bless the Children of Israel saying unto them c. There was another High-Priest not according to this order of Aaron and that was Melchisedec and he also did Blesse Abraham And the Apostle speaking of him
as a great Type of and in relation to Jesus Christ our great High-Priest in the 7. Chapter of this book of the Hebrews and the 6. verse saith That he blessed Abrabam But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham and Blessed him that had the Promises So then this Blessing of the people being the work of both the High-Priests and both Aaron and Melchisedec being great types of Jesus Christ our High-Priest Surely it must needs be one of the great works of our High-Priest for to blesse the people For the opening and cleering up of this Truth I shall endeavour to discover First What the Blessing of Christ our High-Priest is wherein consists and what Christ doth when he doth Bless the people Secondly That it belongs unto Jesus Christ especially for to Bless the people Thirdly That our Lord and Saviour Christ our great High-Priest is exceeding willing for to Bless poor sinners and that this Blessing of the people is a work whereunto he is much inclined and wherein he is much delighted Fourthly That he doth this and doth it fully Fifthly according to our method How all this doth conduce unto our Comfort and unto our Holiness First If ye aske me What the Blessing of Christ Quest 1 and of the Gospel is and wherein it consists I answer First in the General That the Blessing of the Gospel Answ and of Christ consisteth in Spiritual things especially and not in Temporal And therefore saith the Apostle in that 1. of the Ephesians and the 3. verse Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all Spiritual blessings in Heavenly places in Christ The Curse and Judgments of God that do befal men now under the Gospel are not in outward afflictions and bodily troubles so much as in Spiritual miseries Blindness of mind and Hardness of heart And so also on the contrary the blessing of the Gospel doth not consist much in Outward things as in Spiritual Who hath blessed us with Spiritual blessings Indeed if we look into the old Testament we shall find That when Moses did bless the people he blest them much in Temporal blessings in the 28. of Deuteronomy and the 2. verse All these things shall come upon thee and overtake thee if thou shalt hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God What blessings are those Blessed shalt thou be in the city and blessed shalt thou be in the field blessed shall be the fruit of thy body and the fruit of thy ground and the fruit of thy cattel the increase of thy kine and the flocks of thy sheep blessed shall be thy basket and thy store Thus he goes on in outward blessings But now if we look into the Gospel and consider the blessings of Jesus Christ and lay them together with Moses we shall find them to be Spiritual blessings In the 5. of Matthew and the 3. verse c. Blessed are the poor in spirit for their's is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are those that mourn for they sall be comforted Indeed the promise of the earth comes is at the 5. vers but he returns again to Spiritual blessings Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after rightousness for they shall be filled Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Here are Spiritual blessings this is the stream of the Gospel it runs this way When the Lord blesseth a man he gives him that which is sutable to him In the times of the Gospel men are more Spiritual than they were in the times of the Law therefore Gospel-blessings they are Spiritual blessings Every thing gives and communicates to another according to what it hath it self The Sun communicates light unto the world because it hath light it self And man communicates the nature of man unto his child because he hath the nature of man himself So our Lord Christ when he Blesses he communicates according unto what he hath himself and his blessings especially consisting in spiritual things so he doth blesse Indeed as in the times of the Old Testament there were Spiritual blessings that were mixt with Temporal by vertue of the Covenant that was made with Abraham So now Outward blessings are thrown in as an overplus but yet notwithstanding though they be not spiritual in their nature they are spiritual in their end and so it is true to say That the blessing of the Gospel and of Christ is a spiritual blessing But more particularly if yet ask me wherein this consisteth I shall name but Two things First This Blessing of the Gospel or of Christ it consists in a supernatural and spiritual injoyment of God in Christ the love and favour of God in Christ When the Priests blest in the time of the old Testament in that 6. of Numbers they said The Lord cause his face for to shine upon you The Lord make his face for to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee the Lord blesse thee and keepe thee Verse 24 25 26. Which the Spostle Paul expounding in the 2 Cor. the 13. Chapter and the 14. verse renders it thus The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the holy Ghost be with you all Amen The Lord blesse thee the Lord cause his face to shine upon you the Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you Three times the Lord the Lord the Lord noting the Trinity which the Apostle here explains by the Father the Son and the holy Spirit Blessed are the pure in heart Mat. 5.8 for they shall see God Seeing of God is a blessing out of the mouth of Christ a Gospel-blessign And what is it for a man to see God In the phrase of the old Testament the Hebrew to See it is ordinarily used for to Injoy In the 4. Psalme Who will shew us any good The word in the Hebrew is Who will make us to See any good that is t Injoy good So then to see God it is to injoy him When Jacob injoyed God he saw him and the place it was called Peniel for he had seen the Lord and there the Lord blest him There 's no seeing of God but in Christ And therefore I say that herein confists the blessing of the Gospel in a supernatural and spiritual in joyment of God in Christ the favour and love of God in Christ Again It consists also in the Inhabitation of the holy Ghost in our hearts the giving out of the holy Ghost unto the hearts of men And therefore it is added in that place of the Corinthians And the Communion of the holy Ghost be with you all Amen That must needs be the great blessing of the Gospel and so of Christ that is the thing promised in the Gospel What is that If we look into the 1. Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles and the 4. verse It is said
there of the Disciples That they should wait for the promise of the Father Christ commaded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father What is that We know what it was and is that which befel afterward it was the giving out of the holy Ghost the holy Ghost fell upon them this is called THE promise of the Father That as in the times of the Old Testament the promise was the giving of the Son and coming of the Second Person So after Christ came the great promise was the coming of the Third Person and the giving of the holy Ghost When I am gone saith Christ I 'le send ye another Comforter He that beleeveth out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water This he spake concerning the Spirit which was not yet given in those extraordinary emanations of gists and graces because he was not yet glorisied So then the great Blessing that was to be given unto the children of men the great Gospel-blessing was the giving out of the holy Ghost this is a Gospel-blessing indeed Well Ques But what doth Christ do when he doth Bless It 's observable Answ 1 that when any Superiour did Blesse a father did blesse his child or the like he did observe what was the choice mercy and good in those times and he did wish that unto his child or unto his inferiour And so in Isaac and Jacobs time the choice good it was The dew of Heaven and when they did blesse their children they wish't unto them the dew of Heaven So now when our Iord Jesus our great High-Priest doth blesse any man observing that the choice mercy of the Gospel is the injoyment of God in Christ the favour and love of God and the giving out of the holy Ghost into a mans heart he doth wis all this good unto him and he saies unto God the Father Lord let this poor soul have thy favour Oh! cause thy face to shine upon this poor soul and give out the holy Ghost unto it that it may walk after the spirit In the Second place It 's observable That when the Priests did Blesse the people they did not barely wish good unto them but they did Authoratatively pronounce them blessed Numb 6.27 They shall put my name upon them saith the Lord when they bless So when the Lord Christ our great High-Priest doth Blesse a man he does not barely wish him good The Lord cause his face for to shine upon that soul in a way of wishing but the Lord Christ being a High-Priest when he blesseth he doth authoratatively pronounce such a soul to be Blessed Thirdly When the Priest Blessed he did not only pronounce the people Blessed but in the Blessing of the Priest there was a kind of Binding-power it had the power force and efficacy of an Absolution And therefore as Christ saies unto his Disciples Go and whosoever sins ye remit they shall be remitted I 'le stand by you in it So saith the Lord in that same place the 6. of Numbers On this wise shall ye bless the children of Israel saying unto them The Lord blesse thee and keep thee and at the 27. verse They shall put my Name upon the children of Israel and I will blessethem I 'le stand by them in this So when the Lord Jesus Christ our great High-Priest doth Blesse he doth not only pronounce a man to be Blessed but he doth Absolve him from all his sins saith he by authority that is given to me from my father the Keyes that are put into my hand I do Bind this blessing upon this poor soul Further The Priest when he blessed indeed he could wish well and he could pronounce a man blessed and he might Absolve but he could go no further he could not confer the Blessing he could not bestow the Blessing But our Lord Christ being an High-Priest beyond all the High-Priests that ever were before him in this respect too where he doth Blesse he bestoweth the Blessing being God and man he bestoweth the Blessing In the Fifth place This our great High-Priest being God and Man look how God Blesseth so doth he Blesse In the Scripture ye shall find That when God the Father Blessed he said unto those things that he blest Increase and Multiply still when he blest Increase and Multiply So the Lord Jesus Christ our High-Preist when he comes to blesse he doth not barely wish good unto a poor soul or pronounce him blessed or beslow a good thing upon him but saith he O soul Multiply in this good the Lord increase thy Graces and thy Gifts and thy Comforts poor soul Increase and Multiply herein This the Lord Christ our great High-Priest doth Thus it 's cleer what the Blssing of the Gospel is wherein it consists and what our High-Priest doth when he doth blesse the people But Secondly Quest 2 Does this Blessing properly or specially belong unto Jesus Christ Yes Answ For he was made a curse for sin he and none else made a curse for sin and therefore it belongs unto him above all the world for to blesse For look what evil Jesus Christ endured the contrary good he merited for the children of men a power to bestow that good Now he above all was cursed hung upon the Crosse and died a cursed death he was made a curse therefore it belongs unto him above all for to give the blessing for to blesse poor sinners Primum in quolibet genere c. The first in every kind is the cause of the rest The Sun is the cause of all the light we have here below and 't is the first light body And the Lord Jesus Christ he is the first blessing Therefore hath they God blest thee for ever There are Three that we reade of in Scripture especially that did blesse The Father the King and the Priest The Father did blesse his Children the King blest his Subjects and the Priest blest the People Now the Lord Jesus Christ He is our Father The Everlasting Father He is our King I will set my King upon my holy hill And he is our great High-Priest and therefore all these relations meeting in him it belongs unto him above all for to blesse the people But is the Lord Jesus Christ Willing for to Blesse poor sinners Quest 3 and inclin'd unto it Yes Answ He is very Willing this blessing of the people it is a work whereunto he is much inclin'd and wherein he is most delighted Ye shall observe therefore what abundance of blessings Christ scattered among the people when he was here upon the earth Ye don't reade that ever he cursed any man formally cursed him Once indeed he pronounced a Curse but it fell upon a barren fig-tree not upon a man But take your Bibles and turne over from leaf to leaf and see how frequent he was in blessing and consider whether you do reade in al the Bible of any Preacher or Prophet
that ever in the way of their preaching pronounced so many Blessings as Christ did He begins blessing Blessed are the poor and Blessed are those that mourn and Blessed are those that hunger and thirst and Blessed are those that are persecuted for my Names sake Blessed are those that hear the Word of God and keep it He took little children into his arms and Blest them Do but mark in all the Gospel how frequent Christ was in Blessing never in Cursing more frequent in blessing than ever any Preacher was in all his Sermons What 's the reason of this Because this work of Blessing the people is a work wherein the Lord Jesus Christ our High-Priest is much delighted a work whereunto he is most in clined Well But doth he do it Quest 4 Yes He doth do it and doth it fully Answ The same place that I named will prove it the 1. of the Ephesians and the 3. verse Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in beavenly places IN Christ Nor only meritoriously but by the hand of Christ And saith he He hath done it with all spiritual blessings and he hath done it by Jesus Christ You will say We don't see that men are thus blest by Christ Oject for where Christ blesseth he doth not only wish well and good unto a wan but he bestoweth it yea he doth not only bestow good but he doth increase and multiply But upon this account how few are there in the world that are blest by Christ For Answer Answ 1 It is a hard thing sometimes unto a Christian for to discern-this Blessing of Christ Ye can see the Boughs Fruit Body Bark of the Tree but if ye will see the Root ye must dig and take pains for to see it it 's an easie thing to see the Leaves c. but if you would see the Root ye must dig and take pains for it This Blessing of Jesus Christ it is the Root of all and if you will see this you must dig and take pains to see it it does not lie open to every ones view The Lord Jesus Christ our High-Priest does not Blesse as man blesses and so his Blessing is very much hidden from our eyes he does not blesse as we do he does not bless as the world does if the world sees a Rich man it pronounces him blessed Oh! there 's a blessed man and there 's a happy man what an excellent Dwelling hath he how healthful his Table is spread c. The world blesses Rich men pronounces them Happy and blessed But our Lord Jesus Christ he does as Jacob did when Joseph brought his two Sons to Jacob to be blest by him he set Ephraim the younger at the left hand of Jacob and he set Manasses the elder at the right hand of Jacob that Jacob might give the right-hand blessing to the Elder and the left-hand blessing to the Younger but when Joseph had set them thus before Jacob Jacob crosses hands and he turns the right-hand blessing to the Younger So two men are brought before Christ a Rich man it may be and a Poor man and in the eye of the world the Rich man must carry the blessing Oh! but our Lord Christ he crosses hands and he laies the blessing upon the younger brother many times And so in regard of Ordinances Two sorts of Ordinances are brought before Christ Gods Ordinance and Mans Ordinance and Mans Ordinance in the eye of the world is the Elder brother and Gods Ordinance the Younger brother and both these are brought before Christ for a blessing and the Ordinance of Man is set at the right hand of Christ by the world but the Lord Christ he crosses hands and he laies the blessing upon the younger brother in this respect And so two men are brought before him a proud Pharisee and a poor broken-hearted sinner the Pharisee comes unto the right-hand of Christ thinks for to carry the blessing but the Lord Christ crosses hands laies the right-hand blessing upon the poor broken-hearted sinner and passes by the proud Pharisee The Lord Christ doth not blesse as the world blesseth Again As he doth not Bless as the World Blesseth Answ 2 so he doth not Bless alwaies as Professors Bless Professors they do ordinarily Blesse men according unto their outward Priviledges Gospel and Church-Priviledges Oh! saies the woman unto Christ Blessed is the womb that bare thee and blessed are the paps that gave thee suck Christ crosses hands Nay but saies Christ Blessed are those that hear the word of God and keep it and do my Commandements You blesse according to Outward Priviledges I don't go that way of blessing saies Christ He does not blesse as Professors blesse alwaies Thirdly He does not blesse as Godly men do blesse alwaies Answ 3 as Gracious men blesse not alwaies For you that are Godly you pronounce such a man blessed as hath much Grace and hath Assurance of the love of God in Christ and one that hath strong and great Parts and able to carry away whole Sermons word for word and of strong Memory and large Gifts that are head and shoulders above their fellows But the Lord Jesus Christ does not alwaies blesse thus Blessed are the poor in spirit saies he Blessed are those that mourn He don't say Blessed are those that rejoyce or Blessed are those that have the Assurance of Gods love or Blessed are those that are strong in grace No but doest thou know a poor weak Christian a mourning soul like a dove of the vallies saies the Lord I blesse him Thus I say the Lord Jesus Christ our great High-Priest he does not Blesse as We blesse he does not blesse as the World blesses he does not blesse alwaies as Professors blesse he does not blesse alwaies as Godly men Blesse and therefore no wonder that his Blessing is hidden Children when they are very young are often blest by their Parents and they don't mind it or take notice of it children of two or three year old And so it is with many a gracious soul blessed by Jesus Christ and don 't take notice of their fathers blessing But the Lord Christ doth alwaies blesse his people only there are several times speciall seasons that he gives out his blessing let me tell ye of those times a little that so ye may come for his blessing while his hand is in as it were so that you may be crowned with spiritual blessings in and from Jesus Christ First When Christ our High-Priest doth see that a man is weak in Grace or weak in Gifts and hath some work or service for him to do some imployment to call him forth unto then the Lord Christ doth Blesse him There are Two times especially as I remember that the Lord speaks those words concerning man Increase and Multiply Once in the beginning when he had made man and woman And once in the 9.
of Genesis when he had brought Noah out of the Ark Why does he rather choose for to speak those words Increase and Multiply at these Two times especially rather than at any other time In the beginning there was but a little stook of man-kind and the Lord had a design upon man to make use of him in the world and therefore in the beginning saies he Increase and Multiply but afterward that the floud had swept away man Noah and his family being preserved when he came out of the Ark the Lord having yet a further design upon man to use him he reneweth those words again Increase and Multiply So when the Lord Christ sees that a mans heart is upright and sincere with him and he hath some work and service for him to do then the Lord comes forth and blesses him O soul Increase and Multiply increase in thy Gifts and Graces and Multiply That is one Again As the Lord doth blesse weak Gifts and Graces when he intends to use them so also when as he hath made use of a man when a man hath done the work of God and done it to purpose then the Lord blesses that man Melchisedec a great Type of Christ here when Abraham had been upon a great service slaying Kings and resoued Lot then Melchisedec the High-Priest comes forth and blesses him So when the Lord Jesus Christ our great High-Priest sees that a poor soul hath been upon his work upon his service and hath done his work faithfully then he comes forth and blesses that soul O soul live for ever Again As he does blesse at this time when a man hath done his work so also when a man is willing for to leave all his Relations and natural ingagements for to follow him to cleave close unto him and to his waies and ordinances The Lord blessed Abraham Thou shalt be blessed In Blessing I will Blesse thee and thou shalt be blessed Upon what occasion Abraham saies he get thee out of thy Country and go to a land and place that I will shew thee and Abraham did so Abraham puld up his Tent and went after the Lord and left his own Relations and thereupon the Lord fell upon him and blest him So when the Lord Christ our High-Priest sees a soul willing even to trample upon his Relations for to follow him willing to leave all natural ingagements for to be his servant then the Lord Christ comes out and saies he This soul do I blesse In blessing I will blesse thee and I will blesse thee exceedingly That is a Third time Fourthly The Lord Christ our High-Priest does blesse when the world Curses a speciall time of Christs blessing is when the world Curses When Rabshekah reviled blasphemed and Cursed then God blest When Balak hired Balaam for to Curse the people of Israel then the Lord blest them by the mouth of Balaam himself And ye see what Christ saies to this purpose in that same 5. chapter of Matthew at the 10. verse Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousnesse sake But when are they blessed Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsly for my sake Blessed are ye when men shall persecute you I but suppose it don't come to a bodily persecution men may not be thrown in prison or brought to the stake Saies he Blessed are ye when men shall Revile persecute you with the tongue and say all manner of evil against you for my sake When the world saies of such a poor soul That he is an Hypocrite a dissembler and speaks all manner of evil that can be divised against a poore soule for the Name of Christ that is the very time that Christ comes for to bless that soule then doth Christ blesse it 's a blessed season In the Fift place The Lord Christ does also Bless when as People do graciously injoy the Ordinances purely and Evangelically administred It is said concerning Zion There commanded he his blessing for ever Psa 89.15 Blessed are the people that hear the joyful sound they shall walk in the light of his countenance It is written of the Priests in the times of the Old-Testament that when the people the Congregation were come together they blest them when the People were come together for the injoyment of Ordinances according to Gods own appointment then the Priests blest them And did their High-Priest blesse them then and shall not our High Priest do it now Did their High-Priest blesse them when they sate under Mosaical Ordinances and shall not our High-Priest blesse the people that sit under Evangelical and Gospel-Ordinances purely Evangelically administred The people then might make account of the greatest blessing and so may you do also of the blessing of Jesus Christ when thus you do enjoy Ordinances Only there is this difference other differences there are but this only I shall speak of Then the Priest did blesse the people when the Congregation was dismist but now the Lord Jesus Christ our great High-Priest he is blessing of the Congregation all the while he is going up and down in the Congregation all the while that the Word is preached and Ordinances administred and he is blessing poor souls as they sit longing after him and sighing towards him he is blessing of them all the while Thus he does blesse and though you don 't alwaies perceive it yet he doth blesse his people Quest 5 And that 's the Fourth thing But yet you will say How does all this conduce unto our Comfort Answ and unto our Holiness Much every way First for Comfort Beloved Is it not a Comfortable thing to be blessed by Jesus Christ Children counted it a great matter to be blest by their parents when as Jacob had gotten the Blessing from Esau Esau goes and fits down and mourns he could not be comforted because the blessing was gone and Jacob though he were thrust out of doors yet because he had gotten the Blessing he went away cheerfull and it was but an Isaac's Blessing But behold a greater then Isaac is here Oh! was it such a matter to have an Isaac's Blessing what is it then to be Blessed by Jesus Christ Beloved when as Christ doth bless he turns all our Curses into Blessings and our Miseries into Mercies When God Curses he turns our Table into a Snare and when Christ Blesseth he turnes our snare into a Table quite contrary Jacob pronounced a Curse upon his two sons Simeon and Levi you know upon what occasion They should be divided and scattered in Israel afterward the Tribe of Levi stands up at the cōmandement of God to execute Justice Judgment the Lord blest them And how did he bless them They were to be the Preachers unto all the Tribes and so that they might be Preachers unto all the Tribes they were to be scattered into all the tribes so Jacobs curse was turned into a
blessing to them Is it not a Comfortable thing for a man to have all his Cursers to be Blessers It 's a Comfortable thing for all a mans Curses to become Blessings But now I say it 's a Comfortable thing for al a mans Cursers to be Blesters to him Whē the Lord Christ Blesses he will make mens Cursers whether they wil or no in the day of their visitation at least for to Bless Ye know that Balaam would have Cursed Israel but the Lord had blest them Balaam got upō a high mountain and from thence he would have Cursed Israel but it would not be Then he gets upon another high Mountain from thence he would have Cursed Israel but it would not be Then he gets upon another high Mountain thinking that would have done it and from thence he would have Cursed Israel but that would not do it Oh! saies he The Lord hath seene no iniquity in Israel and therefore he Blesses them the Curse is turned into a Blessing So there are many that deale thus by the people of God in these daies They get upon such a high Mountain such a great and high means and they think to Curse the people of God from thence but it won't be Then they get upon another Mountain another means thinking from thence to Curse the people of God but it will not be Then they get upon another high Mountain or hill and think then to Curse the people of God and do them mischief but it will not do it Why for the Lord Christ sees no iniquity the Lord Christ hath blest them and so at last in the day of wicked mens visitation they are forced to say These are the people of God and these are Blessed and shall be blessed We know what is said in the Scripture The blessing of the Lord maketh rich and he addeth no sorrow therewithal Is it not a good thing then to be blest by Christ If a man be blessed by Jesus Christ he may blesse himself in the Lord and he may comfort himself in every Condition and he may say thus Well though I be a Poor man yet I am blest by Christ And though my Estate be sunk and decaied yet I am blest by Christ And though I be reproached and hated by men yet I am blessed by Jesus Christ a man may comfort himself in every condition But you will say Object Indeed if a man be assured that Christ hath blest him he may do thus but I am afraid that Christ hath not blest me or that he is not willing to bless me if I could be assured that this great High-Priest had once laid his hand his blessinghand upon me I should have comfort in all conditions Give me leave to lay Two or Three things before you concerning this Answ First When the Lord blest Abraham he said unto him In thee and thy seed shall all Nations be Blest It 's a sign unto Abraham that he was blest because others were blessed by him So now when a mans Parts Gifts Graces and Comforts are blessings to others it is an argument that that man is blest himself Further When a man is blessed by God or Christ he is drawn nearer to God by all outward things by all things Come ye Blessed Go ye Cursed Blessing hath an attractive Nature Come ye Blessed when the Lord Christ does bless a man he does draw him Come ye Blessed When a man is brought nearer to God by Affliction he is blessed when a man is brought nearer to God by his Estate by any Comfort by any Sorrow here is blessing Come ye Blessed Blessing draws one nearer to God with a cord of love Thirdly Where the Lord does Bless he does cause a man to Increase and Multiply in that thing wherein he is Blest Increasing and Multiplying is so natural unto Blessing that in the Original tongues of the old and new Testament Plenty is put for Blessing I will give you but one clear place for it in the new Testament the 2 Cor. 9. Chapter 5. verse Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren that they would go before unto ye and make up before hand your Bounty The word is your Blessing Whereof you had notice before that the same might be ready as a matter of Bounty The word is as a matter of Blessing But especially in the next verse But this I say he which soweth sparingly shal reap sparingly and he which soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully And he which soweth with Blessing as it is in the Original shall reap with Blessing And here 't is opposed to Sparingly and translated Bountifully Where the Lord does blesse he does alwaies cause a man to Increase and Multiply Now beloved in the Lord I appeal unto all your souls you that make this Objection that are afraid the Lord Christ hath not blest you as your High-Priest hath not laid his hand upon you and blest you yet don 't ye know more of Christ than ye have known before hath not the hidden truths of the Gospel been increased and multiplied upon your hearts hath not your hearts been brought neerer to God by Affliction hath not your souls been drawn neerer to God by his outward dealings with you And as Abraham was therefore blest because he was made a blessing to others So I appeal to ye have not your Parts Gifts and Graces in some measure been blessings unto others even unto your poor Family and unto others also Then be of good Comfort man or woman where ever thou stand'st the Lord Christ hath blest thee and thou shalt be blessed hold up thy head poor blessed soul the Lord Jesus hath blest thee when the Lord did lay this blessing upon thee I cannot till thee but I find thee a blessed man stay thy self upon the Lord cheer up thy drooping heart thou art a blessed soul But you will say Quest How does this make unto our Holiness I confess this is a very Comfortable Cordial That the Lord Jesus Christ is in office to bless poor sinners but how does this conduce unto our Holinesse Very much Answ This holds forth great incouragement unto all poor sinners for to come to Christ and to come without delay Why Once come to Christ and blessed but without Christ and Cursed an enemy to Jesus Christ and a Cursed man Cursed in thy store-house Cursed in thy basket and Cursed in all things that thou puttest thine hand unto Oh! then will you not come to Christ that you may be Blessed That day that a poor soul comes unto Christ whatever he hath been he is blessed that day may be called Gilgal for then the Curse is rouled away from him Blessed is the man whose iniquity is forgiven and whose sin is pardoned The first day the first minute that he comes to Christ his sin is pardoned and he is blessed Who would not then come unto Christ presently that he may be blest for ever When as Esan had
sold his Birth-right for a mess of pottage the Lord look't upon him as a Prophane man and he stands upon record in Scripture for a Prophane man unto this day because he sold his Birth-right And saies the text Though he sought the Blessing it was a blessing with tears he never recovered it The Lord Jesus Christ he is now among us and offering to bless us and if I will rather keep my sins than come unto Jesus Christ the Lord will look upon me as a Prophane man and I may go and seek the blessing with tears and never recover it again Oh! here 's that me thinks that should make every wicked man if there be ever a Drunkard Swearer or Unclean wanton that reades this book mind what is said for your Everlasting peace I say here 's that me thinks that should make every wicked man to look upon the Godly as David did upon the sparrows and upon the swallows Saies David These birds full nigh thine Altar may have place to sit and sing as ye have it in your singing Psalms These birds can come and make their nests but as for me I am kept at a distance He was provoked by the sparrows and swallows making their nests neer the Altar So may a wicked man say There 's a godly man indeed he may go to Jesus Christ he may go to Prayer and he may offer up his Gift to God the Father by the hands of Christ he can come neer to God by Christ But as for me I am yet without Christ I am not yet gone to Jesus Christ I am such a cursed Swearer I am such a prophane Drunkard I am such a vile wretched Wanton such a Notorious Scandelous sinner Oh! these people are blessed but I am Cursed but now through the Lords grace I will go unto the Lord Christ that I may be blessed Yea My beloved here is me thinks a strong Invitation unto all those that are young people for to come unto Jesus Christ even those that are very young Hear the word of the Lord ye Children The Lord Jesus Christ received Children into his armes and he blest them You that are nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen or fifteen years old you can be solicitous for your fathers blessing and have gone down upon your knees often unto your father and you have said Pray father pray to God to bless me Oh! will ye go to your outward father for his blessing and will ye not go unto Jesus Christ He is an Everlasting Father this your earthly father will be dead erelong He is an Everlasting father children and he is able to bless ye and willing to bless ye Have ye gone down upon your knees to your outward father Oh! children down down upon your knees before the Lord Jesus Chrit and go to him for his blssing Some of you it may be never went yet to Christ for his blessing ye have lived so many yeers ten eleven or twelve yeers and never went to Christ as a High-Priest for his blessing all this while Oh! what a mighty incouragement is here unto all men to come to Christ that they may be blessed by him But yet further As there is an incouragement for to come unto Christ So this argument does also incourage us to go on in the good waies of Christ notwithstanding all opposition that we meet withall I say it does speak incouragement to go on in the face of all opposition For when Abraham had been at battel then came Melchisedec the High-Priest to bless him And when a poor soul goes out to battel for Christ then comes our great Melchisedec our High-Priest and blesses that soul The time of opposition it is the time of Christs blessing Therefore why should I be dilcouraged or beaten out of the way of Christ by reason of any opposition though it be never so great Times of opposition are Christs blessing-time Again This argument does not only speak incouragement against all oppsition But it does also incourage us to go on in the good waies of God when we are called unto it though we have but little strength and weak parts Though there be but little oyle in the Cruse though there be but little meal in the barrel if Christ call to the work he will bless a man in it and when Christ blesses he does multiply and increase a mans parts in the using of them As when he commanded them to sit down and eat he did multiply and increase the bread in their eating So now does Christ call me to any work or service well then though I am weak though I have not oyle enough though I have not meal enough though I have not strenght enough yet the Lord Christ will bless and when he blesses he does increase and multiply and therefore why should I not go on upon his work if he do call mee thereunto though I have never so little strength And yet further If all this be true Why should not a man be contented with his condition though it be never so mean Beloved in the Lord is there not enough in Christs blessing Truly He is too covetous whom the blessing of Christ will not satisfie Well what ever my condition be yet I may be blessed by Jesus Christ and hath the Lord blest me then will I be contented with my Condition though it be never so mean I have All as Jacob oncesaid I have All. Yea in the Fift and last place Here is that which if wel studied and considered will provoke us all for to bless the Lord and continually to blesse the Lord What is the life of a Christian here but a continuall blessing of God 't is Heaven begun and in Heaven they do nothing else but blesse and praise the Lord and I say our life here is Heaven begun and therefore a Christian should be alwaies blessing and praising the Lord. Well But what will make a man to be alwaies Blessing Quest and Praising of God in Christ The knowledge that a man is blessed by Christ Answ wil make a man blesse God for Christ And therefore consider how the Apostle reasons in the 1. of the Ephesians the 3. vers Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Why Who hath blessed VS When once a man can come to this for to say That the Lord Christ hath blest him then he will break forth into blessing and praising of the Lord Oh! Blessed be the Lord Blesse the Lord O my soul blesse the Lord all that is within me For the Lord hath blessed me with spiritual blessings Do you therefore desire to be alwaies in this work of blessing the Lord think much of this To conclude al give me leave to cal upon you to remember what ye have read Ye have read That it is the work of our great High-Priest To Satisfie for the sins of the people To answer unto all Accusations that are brought against them To offer up all
our Prayers and Gifts vnto God the Father And to Bless poor souls Now then beloved according to all your Wants and according to all your Temptations I do beseech you in the Lord Go to Jesus Christ unto this High-Priest try and see if you don't find it true That the Lord does make good all this unto you In case that you be under any spiritual Want or Temptation put your souls unto this Disjunction Come O my soule Either the Lord Jesus Christ is our great High-Friest or else he is not If he be not what means this and that Scripture And if the Lord Jesus Christ be our great High-Priest then surely he being faithful will do all the work of the High-Priest for my soul Indeed I have sinned and sinned greatly but O Lord it is the work of our High-Priest to Satisfie Now Lord Jesus I come to thee as mine High-Priest Oh! Satisfie for me Indeed I confesse mine own Conscience does Accuse me Satan does Accuse me Moses does Accuse me but it is the work of our great High-Priest to take off all Accusations brought against poor beleevers Now Lord I do come unto thee as to my great High-Priest Oh! take off this Accusation that any poor soul does labour under Indeed when I look upon mine own Duties there is so much deadness so much hardness of heart and so many distractions that do accompany them that I am afraid they will never be accepted but O Lord it is the work of our great High-Priest to take away the weeds of the Duty and to present the Duty now O Lord I come unto thee as mine High-Priest Oh! carry my Prayers into the bosom of God the Father Yea when I look upon my former life Lord I cannot but conclude my self a poor cursed finner but yet notwithstanding it is the work of our great High-Priest for to blesse the people O Lord I do therefore now come unto thee as mine High-Priest Oh! blesse me and say unto all my graces Increase and Multiply FINIS SATANS Power to tempt AND CHRISTS love to and care of his people under temptation HEBREWES 2.18 For in that He himself hath suffered being tempted Preached at Margrets New-fish street Octob. 5. 1646. he is able to succour them that are tempted THE Scope and Drift of this Epistle is to raise and strengthen the faith of the Hebrewes and so the faith of those that are weak in grace Our Apostle Paul therefore whom I take to be the Pen-man labours to discover the transcendent Excellency of Jesus Christ with his love and good-will to the Children of men And because his Excellencies were either such as relate his Person or such as relate his Offices of King Priest Prophet He tels us in the first Chapter that for the Personal Excellencies of Jesus Christ He is the Son of God Heire of all things by whom were the World 's made being the brightness of his Fathers glory and the express Image of his Person in the 2 3. verses of that Chapters That he is far above the Angels at the 4. verse That he is God himself at the 6. verse And as for those excellencies that relate his Offices He tels us at the 1. verse That he is the Prophet of Prophets That he is the great King at the 8. verse That he is an High-Priest in the 2. Chap. and the 17. verse and therefore who would not trust unto him and take heed unto such things are he shall speak unto them And as for the love and good-will that he bears unto the Children of men the Apostle speaks it out in all this Second Chapter The greater Condeseention in the person loving to the person loved the greater is the love Now though Jesus Christ be Heir of all things and had all things put under his feet far above all Angels yet notwithstanding at the 7. verse He is made a little lower than the Angels takes our nature upon him c. The more Profitable any love is to the person loved the greater is the love Such is the love of Christ for his love is such That by him many sons are brought to glory at the 10. verse Sanctified while they live at the 11. verse Satan their deadly enemy subdued for them at the 14 15 verses The more Distinguishing any love is the greater is that love Now Jesus Christ as the great Load-stone passes by the golden mettel of Angels and draws unto himself the Iron-mettal of man kind at the 16. verse For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham Again The more the person loving does Suffer for the person loved the more and the greater is the love Christ suffered death and he was while he lived subject to our infirmities and unto our temptations He was in all thing made like unto us at the 17. verse And he was tempted as we are tempted that he might succour those that are tempted at the 18. verse And would you have an Account or a Reason of all this it is that he might shew mercy unto the children of men verse the 17. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest in things partaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people If he were not made like unto us in regard of our infirmities he could not so experimentally pity us under our infirmities If he were not tempted like unto us he could not so feelingly succour us under our temptation and so he had not been so fit to have benn our High-Priest but our High-Priest he is gone into the holy of holiest to make reconciliation for the sins of the people Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto us that he might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted be is able to succour them that are tempted I will not hold you longer in the Coherence or Division of the words or further Explication I shall open the words God willing more particularly and distinctly as I shall come to the Observations that shall be raised from them And I begin with the last being made the reason of the former For in that he him self hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted Tempted twice He tempted and They tempted This word Tempted or Tempt it is given in Scripture phrase sometimes to God sometimes to Man and sometimes to the Devil and accordingly it is used Three waies Sometimes it is used for to Prove and so God is said for to Tempt in the 13. of Deuteronomy Sometimes it is used for to Try to make experiment of a Thing or a Person whom or which we did not know before and so it is given to Man as I take it in the 6. of Judges Sometimes it is used for a Solicitation and Drawing unto
was but thought him a Prophet yet he would do it So willing as that though they did not desire it themselves but were brought by others yet he would do it So willing as that though they were unmannerly in their coming to him withness the pulling the tyles off the house yet he would do it And that so willing though much unbeleef express by those that were brought unto him yet he would do it I beseech you consider it this was a work that Christ came into the world to do this is The work the work that Christ came to do it was to bind up broken hearts The work that Christ came to do was to open the prison doors to poor captives The Spirit of the Lord is upon me you know the place To administer a word in due season to those that are weak He hath given me the tongue of the learned to administer a word in due season to those that are weak Now then if Jesus Christ was so willing to do the other work which was but his work by the bye which was not The-work that he did come about how infinitely willing must he needs be to do The-work that he did come about but I say to succour poor tempted ones this was The-work that he came upon Heaven hath not alter'd him he hath lost none of his love by going thither Surely therefore the Lord Jesus Christ is infinitely willing to succour poor tempted souls Well But though he be able and willing yet it may be he is not faithfull Yes saith the former verse Faithful merciful and faithful High-Priest Faithful in all his house as Moses was What honest man will break his word go contrary to his oath He is sworne into this office of the High-Priest Yea we have not only his Promise and his Oath but the fathers Bond for the Sons performance The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head it shall bruise his heel she shall break his head The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand This is the work that is in his hand to succour tempted ones it shall prosper in his hand In the 8. Chapter of Matthew We reade there at the 16. verse That he cast out spirits with his Word and healed all that were sick That is might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the Prophet saying Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses Because he took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses he took himself to be engaged for to heal the sicknesses and diseases among the people Beloved he hath taken our infirmities He hath borne our sins and therefore he takes himself engaged also for to heal our soul-diseases to heal those temptations He is very faithfull Well But suppose he is faithful How doth he succour those that are tempted in the day and time of their temptation that is the Fourth thing He succours Before temptation He succours In temptation He succours After temptation Christ succours tempted souls Before the temptation comes sometimes By a special manifestation of himself ihs love and fulness to them When Christ himself was to be tempted immediately before the Father said from Heaven This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And so when Christ sees that a soul is to go into temptation he speaks out from Heaven and saies This is my beloved servant in whom I am well pleased Sometimes he succours Before temptation By laying in of Gospel-principles and Gospel-dispositions in the heart The Law is weak saies the Apostle As it is weak unto the point of Justification the matter of Justification so a legal disposition is weak as to the matter of resisting temptation a Gospel-disposition is able to bear it off Christ fore-seeing a temptation laies in such a disposition then when it comes Oh! saies the soul How shall I be able to close with all this love of the world having received so many love-tokens from my dear Saviour Again He succours Before the temptation By filling the heart with the holy Ghost When the vessel is fild with one liquor it keeps out another I will return to my house saith Satan and I came and found it empty and so he entered The Lord therfore fils the house the soul with the holy Ghost and so keeps Satan from entering He succours also Vnder temptation By opening the eyes of him that is tempted to see that 't is but a temptation A temptation is half cured when a man knows that 't is but a temptation when a mans eyes is open to see the tempter and the temptation Therefore men are so hardly cured because they are hardly perswaded that 't is a temptation when they see that then they say Get thee behinde me Satan Christ opens their eyes Again He succours Vnder temptation By letting fal some glimpse of his love some love-look upon a tempted soul And so when Peter was in the High-Priests hall Christ looks upon him and he went out and wept bitterly It was the sweet look of Christ that made Peter weep bitterly Peters tears came from Christs eyes first and though he were much engag'd yet having a love-look from Christ I 'le stay no longer and away he goes And so when a soul sees but the gracious eye of Christ looking on him he breaks off from his temptation thus he succours Again He succours Vnder temptation by temptation even from temptation Beloved the Devil seldom tempts with one single temptation As we seldom commit single sins or receive single mercies so the Devil seldom tempts with a single temptation One may be laid in our Natures and the other laid in our Callings Christ sees now that one is given to Uncleannesse or to Pride and so he lets out Satan upon him to trouble him with blasphemous thoughts and by the afflictions of those blasphemous thoughts they are kept from Pride and from Wantonnesse and delighting in other sins He does succour From temptation I say from temptation by temptation sometimes by causing a word in the temptation to standout so as thereby to give the tempted man an hint to Jesus Christ So when Christ tempted and tryed the woman of Canaan 'T is not lawful to cast childrens bread before dogs There stood out a word that word Dog she laies hold on it True Lord yet the dogs eate of the crums Christ does so order the very temptations of Satan that some word or other in the very temptation does so stand forth as to hint the soule again unto Jesus Christ Sometimes he succours Vnder temptation By throwing in a Promise lotting the soul upon some Promise which as a Cable keeps the heart fast in the time of a storm And sometimes he succours Vnder temptation again By weakending the temptation and by keeping the heart and the temptation asunder may be by raising up some Affliction Woe to that soul when the heart and temptation meet corruption and temptation meet The Lord Christ therefore sometimes is pleased to raise
a temptation but you are beleaguer'd by it and when your temptation is about you say O my soul be quiet yeeld not the Lord Christ is a succouring Christ and succour will come and therefore hold it out Shall the Lord Jesus Christ shall he succour me against my temptations with his bosom and shall I take my sins and temptations into mine own bosom Shall he come to succour me against my sins and shall I succour my sins that he comes against What a mighty argument is here to keep us from all our sins and from yeelding to our temptations Jesus Christ is a succouring Christ to tempted souls In the fift place If there be a truth in this Christ is a succouring Christ Let us all labour to answer Christ Beloved 't is the duty and the property of the people of God to observe what God is doing upon their hearts and to help on that work If Jesus Christ be succouring of any of your souls against your temptations Oh! help it on help on the work 't is your duty for to help it on and to answer him But you will say Quest Christ succours Before temptation and he succours Vnder temptation and he succours After temptation how shall I answer this how shall I help his work on Give me leave to give an answer unto this Question Answ and so I will winde up all Does the Lord Jesus Christ succour Before temptation Observe his succours and lay them up in your hearts against a rainy day Gird your sword upon your thigh it may not be to seek when the enemy comes have it in readinesse You don't lay the plaister on upon the wrist for the Ague when the Ague is on but before it comes Observe what those tokens of love are that Jesus Christ does throw into your bosom before a temptation comes and lay them up carfully there And beloved in the Lord Labour to keep the sence of his love warm upon your hearts Look as it is with water in winter so with your hearts in this respect So long as the fire is under the water and the water is hot it freezes not but when the heat goes off and the water is cold then ice comes upon it And so long as your heart is kept up in the sence of Christs love and warm with Christs love so long the ice comes not the temptation comes not The slumber of grace is a preparation to sin and a preparation to temptation When once our hearts grow cold and grow remisse then way is made to temptation and therefore if you would answer Jesus Christ Oh! labour to keep the sence of his love still upon your hearts And when the temptation is come Then look upon Jesus Christ No temptation so violent or fierce but a thought may steal out and get a look upon Jesus Christ The sight of Christ on the Cross is a Judge upon the Bench against all temptation The consideration of Three things keeps one from the power of temptation The worth of a soul The hainousness of sin And the love of Christ And you see all these in Christ upon the Crosse When temptation comes stand look upon him You know that when the Israelites were stung they were then to look upon the brasen serpent and by their very looking upon it they were cured thereby The Lord Jesus Christ is our brasen-serpent lift up upon Gospel poles having more excellency than any brasen-serpent That was but a piece of brasse he is the God of glory That for a time he is our High-Priest and lives for ever That for the Jewes only but he for Jew and Gentile That for those that could see and if any poor blind man was stung it was a case what should become of the blind man how should he look upon the brasen serpent how should he be cured but this our brasen serpent is able to give you an eye Beloved this Ordinance is still on foot spiritually And therefore Christ saies by the Prophet Esay Look unto me from all the ends of the earth and be saved Oh! when a temptation comes poor tempted soul addresse thy self to the Lord Jesus stand wishly looking upon him And then Give thy soul over into the hands of Christ all thou canst put thy self out of thine own hands So long as the planck or the board swims in the stream in the midst of the water you may draw it along with a little thred but if once it come towards the banck towards the shoare and touches upon the ground then you can hardly draw it So long as your temptation is in the stream of Christs love and of his blood you may draw it along the more easily but if once it come to touch upon your own shoare Oh! then you draw hard Whensoever therefore a temptation arises go unto Jesus Christ and say O Lord I have no strength to stand against this great Enemy I confesse it is my duty to resist this temptation but 't is thy promise to succour me under this temptation and therefore I put my self upon thee And then rest upon Christ As I use to say Your very resting on him makes him yours your resting on his strength makes it yours and your resting on his succour makes that yours And if the Lord command you to the use of any means Don't rest upon any because they are great Or despise any because they are small You do observe that the great Victories amongst the Jewes they were obtained by the weakest means and by the blowing of rams horns wals fell down Those were but Types of those spiritual Victories under the Gospel God seldom does wound the head of a temptation but first the heel the means is bruised whereby the head of the temptation is wounded As Christs heel is bruised in his wounding of Satans head So I say 't is in regard of means seldome that any means does wound the head of a temptation but the very heel of that means is first bruised and therefore don't despise it though it be small And if it please the Lord to cast in any Promise when you are under a temptation Oh! take heed that you don't live upon the letter of the Promise I mean don't live upon the Conveyance but upon the Land and yet how many do live upon the bare Promise bare letter of the Promise When a temptation comes passe from the temptation unto the Promise and through the Promise unto Jesus Christ and learn to live upon the thing Promised and not the letter of the Promise After temptation is over I can but touch on things Either you have the better of Satan Or else the worse If you have the worse Be for ever Humbled but never Discouraged And if you have the better of him Then rejoyce in the Lord and in all his goodness toward you and in all his succouring love and mercy Rejoyce in the Lord evermore and again I say rejoyce As one whom his mother comforteth
holy brethren consider the Apostle and High-Priest of our profession Christ Jesus who was faithful to him that appointed him as also Moses was faithful in all his house He steps over Aaron who was the the High-Priest and he compares him here to Moses in faithfulness Now Moses was faithful in all his house But our Lord and Saviour here he is preferred before Moses in point of faithfulness yet it is said Moses was faithful in all his house When that the Lord commanded Moses any thing as the Lord commanded so did he and rose up early in the morning to do the commandement of God He was faithful in all his house and yet our Lord and Saviour was more faithful than Moses in the matter of his Priesthood For so it is brought in here at the 3. verse For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses in as much as be who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house Verse the 5. Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after but Christ as a Son over his own house Look now as a Child or a son is more faithful in his fathers house than a servant will be so saies the Apostle Christ is more faithful than Moses And look as the builder of the house does go beyond and excel every beam and stone in the house or every part of the building So does the Lord Christ in faithfulness exceed Moses You will say there is a great difference between a stone in the building and the maker of the house Look what difference there is between a stone or a piece of wood the maker of the building so great a difference there is saies the Apostle between Jesus Christ in the matter of his Priesthood and Moses yet notwithstanding Moses is faithful in all his house Oh! then how faithful is Jesus Christ in the matter of his Priesthood He goes before all that ever went before him Again Take other High-Priests and though they were never so good they could not alwaies intercede they died the High-Priest died and another came in his room But this man liveth for ever to make Intercession Yea Take the High-priest in the times of the old-Testament and while he lived he did not alwaies intercede for the people Once in a year the High-priest came to enter into the Holy of Holiest to sprinkle the Mercy-seat with blood and caused a cloud to arise upon the Mercy-seat with his prayers and intercessions for their acceptance and then he went out of the Holy of Holiest and laid aside his garments But now our great High-priest is ascended into the Holy of Holiest never to put off his Priestly garments and he does not once a year sprinkle the Mercy-seat with his sacrifice but every day and therefore he goes beyond all the High-priests that ever went before him And yet further Take the High-priest in the old Law in the times of the old Testament and though they did offer sacrifice for some sinnes and intercede yet there was other sins again that no sacrifice was to be offered for If a man did kill another at un-awares there was a sacrifice If a man sinned ignorantly there was a sacrifice But saies the Text in the 15. of Numbers 30. vers If any man sin presumptuously he shall be cut off and there shall be no sacrifice for him No sacrifice no intercession by the High-priest then But we have such an High-priest that makes intercessions for All sins So he saies himself Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven except the blasphemy against the Holy-Ghost Every sin though it boyle up to blasphemy it shall be forgiven but without sacrifice there is no remission and therefore he hath made a sacrifice and so he presents the sacrifice and intercedes for every poor sinner and therefore he is such an High-priest that transcends all the high-priests that euer was before him In the Fourth place How doth all this conduce now to our Comfort or our Holiness to ur Grace or Peace First To our Comfort Very much to our Comfort And therefore in the 1. Chap. of Zach. good words comfortable are spoken upon this occasion ver 8. saies the Prophet I saw by night and behold a man riding upon a red horse and he stood among the myrile-trees that were in the bottome and behind him were there red horses speckled white Then said I O my Lord what are these And the Angel that talked with me said unto me I will shew thee what these be And the man that stood among the myrtle-trees answered and said These are they whom the Lord hath sent to walke to and fro through the earth And they answered the Angel of the Lord that stood among the myrtle-trees and said Wee have walked to and fro through the earth and behold all the earth sitteth still and is at rest And the Angel of the Lord answered and said O Lord of hosts how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the Cities of Judah against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years Here is Intercession And the Lord answered the Angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words Give me leave to open the words a little and we shall see how much it makes to our comfort this Intercession of Jesus Christ At the 8. verse I saw saies he a man riding upon a red horse This is the Lord Jesus Christ presented thus unto us And he stood among the myrtle-trees The Saints and people of God they are called myrtle-trees for their greenness sweetness and fruitfulness And these myrtle-trees were in the bottome That is in a dark in a low and a poor condition it is the condition of myrtle-trees and of the Saints and people of God to be oft in bottoms and in a dark and low condition Well Behind him were there red horses speckled and white And I said O my Lord what are these Now that this is Christ First of all he is called a Man and an Angel too Secondly As Christ walked between the golden Candlesticks in the book of the Revelation So here he stood among the mirtle-trees among the Saints And behind him attending upon him were red horses speckled and white That is Angels sent to and fro through the earth upon his message and upon his errand and unto him they come and give an account and to none but Christ Then we shall see this Angel that stood among the myrtle-trees comes and Intercedes all the Angels they come and bring in this report That the Church and people of God were in a low condition Then this Angel that stood among the Myrtle-trees answered and said at the 12. verse O Lord of hosts how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the Cities of Judah against which thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten yeers It