us Aaron and his Successors in the Office of High Priest were appointed to offer the great Sacrifice of yearly Attonement at the Altar and with the Blood thereof to enter into the Holy of Holies and to sprinkle the Mercy-Seat their Throne of Grace with that Blood Lev. 16.14 Our Lord Jesus the Anti-type offered the Sacrifice of himself in his death and in and with the virtue of that Sacrifice he entred Heaven to sprinkle the highest Altar therewith It is but a fond Popish fancy to think that there do remain visible Marks and Signatures of his humbled State on the glorified body of our Lord Jesus that is indeed to know Christ after the Flesh in a bad sense 2 Cor. 5.16 But his entring with his own blood is spiritually to be understood that Christ's Appearance in Heaven is to bring up a Memorial continually before God of the virtue and savour of that Sacrifice he offered without the Gates of Jerusalem Eph. 5.2 Christ loved us and hath given himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour This savour never spends or wears out The Blood of Jesus in the Virtue of it in the Merit of it and in the Power of it is as fresh this day as in the day it was shed on the Cross He is still the â—ew-slain way to the holiest of all Heb. 10.20 â—s fresh and fragrant as ever If Men by their â—nbelief count it old or stale and to have lost â—ts savour and virtue to themselves and if they will seek for somewhat else to procure them â—cceptance in Heaven let them try and peâ—ish for none can help them that reject Christ â—ut our Lord presents nothing for the Salvation of his Body the Church but his own Blood and nothing else is accepted in Heaven for this End but that precious Blood And all they to whose Consciences this Blood is applyed and who come unto it and feel its virtue and power will abhor all vain and dangerous mixtures of any thing with this Sovereign Balsom It is always savoury in Heaven and it is always savoury to all them that are in the right way to Heaven Our Lord in his Intercession fills Heaven with the Almighty and Eternal savour of his Blood and Heaven is filled with the Praises of it and of the shedder of it Rev. 5.9,12 If its savour do not fill the parts of the Earth where it is preached it is because Men have lost or rather never had the spiritual sense that only can take in this savour and not because this Blood is impaired in its virtue But this is the sin and misery of this condemned World that what is most savoury in Heaven is least savoured on Earth and what is most sought after prized and doted on in Earth is vanity and abomination in Heaven Luke 16.15 3. In Christ's Intercession there is his knowledge of and sympathy with the Ails and Distresses of his people This the Apostle takes notice of in ver 15. His knowledge of their Distresses we can more easily account for than for his Sympathy His Omniscience as God we believe Peter sweetly owned it John 21.15,16,17 O that Christ would with power ask the same Question at all of you and that you could give the same Answer Christ's Question is lovest thou me more than these Not long since thou said'st so what saist thou now Peter's Answer is Yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee And on the repeating of the Question Peter gives the same Answer ver 16. When Christ a third time ask'd the same Question Peter was grieved ver 17. and answers thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee As if he said I dare not compare my Love to thee with that of others to thee thou hast reason to question my love to thee because of my late woful denyal of thee but yet I dare call thee to Witness who knowest all things that I do love thee Though all my Brethren love thee better than I do or can though I be more unworthy than any to be loved by thee yet I am sure I love thee If the love of Christ were as a hot Fire within and its Coals were casting out a vehement Flame as Song 8.6 Believers would more often call Christ by that sweet Name sweet to us to speak and sweet to him to hear O thou whom my Soul loveth Song 1.7 Miserable Souls are they who love not Christ And dull unobservant people are they that know not what or whom their Souls love Is the love of Christ a meer Notion Is it not a most sensible holy and spiritual Passion or rather a heavenly Grace Can Men love Christ and not feel it Should they feel it and not avow it Is there any thing we should be ashamed of in the love of Christ but the shameful smalness of it That our highest and hottest love is so unsutable a Return to his incomparable Loveliness and his Wonderful Love to us and the dear Demonstrations of it All ye that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity look on him and love him more love him with all your Souls and blush with shame that you love him no better Blow the coals of Love by Faith and let the Flame mount up to Heaven and ascend ye in the Flame of the Altar as Manoah's Angel did Judg. 13.20 You that doubt of your Love to Christ go to him fall down before him answer Peter's Question according to the true sense of your Souls and it will be Lord thou knowest that I love thee Love Christ and ye will quickly feel ye love him A sight of Christ will beget Love and Love will quickly speak for it self 2 Cor. 5.14,15 But for Christ's Sympathy with his people this is harder to conceave than his knowledge of their Distresses It is a Sympathy different from what he had in the days of his own Infirmity it is as tender but not disturbing as real but not afflicting It is inconsistent with his glorifieâ— State to have any trouble His Sympathy it self is to be believed the manner how it acts is unsearchable Heb. 2.17 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 pertaining to God Heb. 4.15 He is touched with the feeling of our Infirmities and was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin About this deep point of Christ's Sympathy we may soberly conceave 1. Our Lord's Remembrance of his own Infirmities Temptations and Afflictions in the days of his Flesh This is plain and certain 2. His sure and distinct particular Knowledge and Remembrance of his people and of all that concerns them within and without 3. His Interest in them and Care of them and Concern for them as his Members 4. His Power and Wisdom as their Head to send down vital Influences upon them as their Case requires Eph. 4.16 Col. 2.19 Lastly Christ's
Are you worse than some he hath commanded Jer. 3.1,4,5 Thou hast plaid the harlot with many lovers yet return again to me saith the Lord. Such a practice in your Land would greatly defile it saith the Lord but such acts of Grace become the Throne of Grace Rev. 3.17,18 Are you worse than poor and blind and miserable and wretched and naked yet the King of this Throne commands them to come to him though he sweetly calls it Counsel and in it we may joyn his two Names Wonderfull Counselor Is 9.6 Object 2. But Christ calls and invites them that are weary and heavy laden Matth. 11.28 the thirsty Is 55.1 And I am not such and therefore he commands not me to come Answ 1. Do you expect any Grace but at this Throne of Grace Think you to work it out in your selves and come to him for more Or to get the beginning some where else and then come to Christ for the rest This bewrays your Pride and Ignorance of the intire corruption of your Nature and of your Impotency to any good This frame discovers your Ignorance of the Nature of the Grace of God that consists in its freedom as its Glory is in its being the original cause of all Good done for us and wrought in us or by us 2. Christ never bid any man be or do any thing without him and then come to him and he would do more for him Christ calls men as he finds them and then makes them what he would have them He begins the good work in them and performs it Phil. 1.6 3. These and many such like Calls and Invitations do not limit and restrain the universality of the Gospel command but do graciously apply it to such cases wherein they that are are apt to think that they are specially excepted What is more common than such arguings of Unbelief I have a vast load of sin lying on me I have spent my time and strength and money on Sin and Vanity I have been wearied in the greatness of my way of departing from the Lord and therefore the Lord will not recieve me Therefore such are named particularly by the Lord and specially called Therefore let no man whatsoever he hath been or is think that he is not commanded to come to this Throne of Grace Take the command lay it on your Conscience give Obedience to it take the command for your Warrant and never fear but ye shall be welcome Can your soul say Lord no man out of Hell is more needy of thy saving Grace than I no sinner more unworthy of it than I yet because thou commandest me to come I come to beg and to recieve He will sweetly recieve you Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out John 6.37 A Text that hath been an Anchor-hold to many a sinking sinner 4. All should come to the Throne of Grace because of the universality vast extent and indefiniteness of the promise of welcome to all that come The Command of God is a warrant and ground for our Obedience and the Promise is a ground for confidence The promise is Gods great mean for working faith Faith is the impression God makes on the soul of a man by the Promise When God takes the promise of the Gospel and applies it with the power of his grace upon the soul it leaves an abiding Mark and Signature and that is Faith The promise comes as the promise of a faithful God who cannot lie of a great salvation to a great sinner When the sinner seeth and feels the truth and goodness of this promise he believes This promise of God is to be preached to all that hear the Gospel or rather this promise is the Gospel the Lord will make it effectual as he seeth good The Apostle Peter encouraged such men to come to the throne of grace who if ever any in the world should have been kept back it should have been they a crew of the bloody Murtherers of the Son of God But the word preached by Peter takes hold of their souls and they cry out What shall we do No wonder they said so when the cry of Christs Blood was in their Consciences The Apostle saith to them Act. 2.38 Repent and be baptised every one of you in the name of the Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost c. their sin was very great peculiar to them only none before nor after them were guilty of this The cry of innocent blood is a dreadful cry but this was more than all the Murthers ever committed in the World It was the murthering of the Son of God it was slaying the Prince of Life it was all that the Devil and wicked World could do to cut the Throat of the Gospel and of all the Elect of God and this wicked Act was done against Christ because he taught that he was the Son of God and that he came from the Father to be the Saviour of the World Yet saith the Apostle to them Repent and be baptized in his name for the remission of that sin you that have been dipt in his blood and so dreadfully guilty by the shedding of it be baptized in his name for the remission of that guilt and of all others This calling for repenting of their guilt of Christ's blood was plainly a requiring of Faith in him not only that he was the Lord Christ they had slain in their unblief but that pardon in the vertue of that Blood might be had by them on their betaking themselves to him by Faith So did the same Apostle preach to the Council Acts 5.28,31 when he and his Brethren were charged by the High-priest for filling Jerusalem with the Doctrine of Christ and intending to bring his blood upon them Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of Sins He directs them to look to Christ as the giver of repentance for and of forgiveness of all their sins not excluding but by v. 30. plainly including the greatest of all their sins their slaying of Christ and hanging him on a tree and this they did with wicked hands Acts 2.23 and with hearts as wicked as their hands Yet thus did Peter preach Christ So well did he remember his Lords command Luke 24.47 That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem His argument is Acts 2.39 For the promise is to you and your children Had they not slain the Heir and foundation of all the promises had they not done as much as men could do to forfeit all interest in the promise Yes but Peter still invites them to the throne of grace by an interest yet in the promise The promise of grace and salvation by Jesus Christ is the Rope and Cord that God casts out to sinking sinners it s equally in the offer of
over them at sometimes more than at other times When it is well with the new Creation within Christians can keep the Devil at a Bay and Stand when it is otherwise he prevails immediately we are disarmed and his Darts pierce and enter There is some ground to suspect that David's Heart was not in so good a frame as usually sometime before his foul Fall 2 Sam. 11. As to Peter it is plain his vain-self-confidence gave Satan an opportunity to sift him as he did 3. How doth the Grace of God help in a decayed state 1. Grace helps in preserving Life at the Root There is some witness for God kept up I sleep but my heart waketh saith the Bride Song 5.2 It is well all was not asleep The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak saith meek Jesus in his Agony in the Garden to the three distempered Disciples Matth. 26.41 These same three sleep in the Mount of Transfiguration Luke 9.32 and in the Garden of Agony Paul found this Witness preserv'd in his Captivity to the Law in his Members Rom. 7.23 2. Grace helps under a decayed State by making a secret growth downward A growth that the Believer cannot feel in himself and that others cannot quickly perceave yet it is a real growth and will in God's due time appear We commonly value most that growth in Grace that hath fair Blossoms and Fruit appearing to our comfort and to the Lord's Praise before others And it is indeed desirable and to be studied Matth. 5.16 John 15.8 But there is a growth that may be carried on in the Root only in the rooting Grace of a Christian As in clearer Discoveries of in-dwelling sin in the Heart and in more self-diffidence and self-distrust Paul had this Fruit. 2 Cor. 1.8,9 It is a sad thing that many Christians are so fond of themselves of the good that is in them that the Lord seeth that nothing is so fit to cure them of this as leaving them to themselves And when this leaving of them to themselves hath brought them to a discovery of themselves and that discovery hath wrought a distrust of themselves and that distrust hath taught them Faith in God then the Lord hath reached his end on them and will change his way with them 3. Grace can revive the decayed state of a Believer Psal 23.3 He restoreth my Soul He reneweth their strength Isa 40.31 Psal 103.5 Thy youth is renewed like the Eagles This is impossible in Nature and as to our Bodies but as to our Souls and the work of God in them it is what is promised and often done Old people may and do often in their Folly and Vanity counterfeit Youth but all their Arts cannot make themselves one hour younger But the Lord can renew the youth of the new Creature and make it better with him than ever it was David prays for it Psal 51.10 Create in me a clean Heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me Peter got a new Conversion Luke 22.32 They both had been converted and renewed before but they fell under a sad decay and needed this restoring Grace and got it So much of the second time of need I proceed to a third not so common 3. A time of special Enjoyments is a time of special need of God's helping Grace You may think it strange but it is true that they that receave most of the Lord 's gracious bounty stand in most need of Grace to guide it well Concerning this season I would speak in five Particulars 1. Mast Christians know what those Enjoyments are by experience although it various measures It is very suspicious that that Person is an Hypocrite that is always in the same frame let them pretend it to be never so good The true Christians Sky is never long clear and without Clouds change of weather and ways is usually found by Travellers to Heaven It is to be suspected that he is not right who hath no changes Psal 55.19 These special Enjoyments are of several sorts 1. There is some special nearness to God enjoyed by Christians at some times We are not at all to be offended at but rather confirmed by the Reproaches of the Ungodly that are utter strangers to such Enjoyments and cannot endure nor understand the Scripture Names of such Blessings that they themselves are unacquainted with What is more frequent in the Word than this nearness to God What is better known in the Experience of Saints than this nearness He makes gracious Approaches to Mens Spirits and causeth them to approach to him Psal 65.4 they find it good for them Psal 73.28 The first gracious change wrought in a Soul is by bringing a distant sinner near to God Eph. 2.13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ Whenever the Virtue of that Blood came upon you by the Spirit of Christ God came near to you and you were brought near to God But besides this nearness that is begun in the first Application of Grace and changeth their State there is more nearness given by the Lord and enjoyed by his people for the cheering of their Hearts and bettering of their Frame Exercised Christians are able to give a distinct account of their having of this nearness at some times and of their want of it at othe times How much of both are in the Psalm of David And such as can understand the nearness to and distance from God so frequently mentioned there as only the Psalmists sense of God's favourable or cross Providence towards him in outward things are to be pitied for their ungodly lgnorance and despised for their expounding the Words of a man after God's heart according to the carnal Sentiments of their own 2. There are Effusions of the Spirit spoke of in the Word and found by Christians which are special Enjoyments Sometimes they are found in the performance of spiritual Duties of Worship sometimes in the exercise of grace Grace should be acted in all Duties of Worship but it may be and should be acted out of any formal Duty You should never pray but there should be acting of Faith and Love on Christ But God be thanked you may act Faith and Love when ye do not pray when you are about no setled spiritual Duty of Worship there is a being in the 〈◊〉 of the Lord all the day long Prov. 23.17 A walking up and down in the name of the Lord. Zech. 10.12 A doing of every thing in the name of the Lord Jesus Col. 3.17 Every Believer hath the Spirit of Christ If any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his Rom. 8.9 But there are some singular Powrings out of this Spirit promised and bestowed and well known by Believers and they are precious Enjoyments This spirit the world cannot receave because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you as
his humane Nature and in our stead at his Resurrection He conquers and subdues that death the first Adam brought in and reigns over it by his Grace Rom. 5.21 Christians would you aspire after the Resurrection of the dead as Paul did Phil. 3.11 direct all your Aims build all your Hopes on Christ's Resurrection Because I live ye shall live also John 14.19 This living Head will in a little time have no dead Members with his dead body shall they arise Isa 26.19 6. Christ's Ascension to Heaven is a ground of Boldness in coming to the Throne of Grace So in the Context ver 14. He is passed into the Heavens This is great ground of Faith that Christ is in Heaven and for us hath entred within the vail Heb. 6.20 How dare a sinful Man adventure into God's Presence Because there is a sinless Man there that went thither on purpose to mind our business who are on Earth No Man ever went thus into Heaven and on this Errand but our High-priest John 3.13 All others go thither to get for themselves Christ ascended to get and to give Psal 68.18 Eph. 4.8 How kindly did our Lord deal with his Disciples about this and how hardly were they peswaded to submit to his going away He told them whither he was going and for what he told them of his returning again and receaving them to himself never to part more John 14.2,3,4 And yet sorrow filled their Hearts John 16.6 He again saith ver 7. Nevertheless it is expedient for you that I go away If you will not be content because it is necessary and fit for me I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away How hard was it to believe this What was to all Reason is more expedient yea necessary than that such weak Schollars should have their blessed Master's Company it was so far from seeming expedient to them that they thought they would be ruined thereby and were very near it Luke 24.21 Although the Matter be not so obvious to our Conceptions and liking yet really it is a greater Mercy and advantage to us that we have our glorified Mediator at the Father's Right Hand than if we had him present with us upon the Earth It is more expedient for us that he is where he is than it would be to have him where we are Poor distressed Believers they cry for Ministers and Christians to pray with them and for them O but if they had one hour of Christ's bodily presence with them and had him to pray for them as he did for some when he was on Earth what heavenly Consolation would it be to them Take in by Faith the comfort of his being in Heaven and his being as knowing and mindful of you and as able to help and that as speedily as he was on Earth or could be if he were now on Earth with you Lastly Our Lord's Intercession in Heaven is a great and strong ground of Confidence in coming to the Throne of Grace This is in the Context This is the last ground of Paul's Triumph of Faith Rom. 8.33.34 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect it is God that justifieth Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh Intercession for us His Faith begins at Christ's death and riseth out of his Grave with him ascends up with him to the Right Hand of God and concerns it self in his Intercession there Not unlike this Rising and Climbing of Faith is his account of the Rising of Grace on the Vessels of Grace Eph. 2.4,5 They are dead in sins when Grace finds them first The first thing Grace doth to them is to quicken them with Christ then raising them up together then setting them in heavenly places in Christ All our Life springs out of Christ's Grave John 12.24 Verily verily I say unto you except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit This heavenly Grain Jesus Christ must be sown in the Earth and die and from the virtue of that death all the Life of Grace and Glory grows up in all his Branches He is indeed the Tree of Life that now groweth in the midst of the Paradise of God Rev. 2.7 And he is the Glory of the Place and the eternal Food of all the happy Inhabitants thereof But he was once dead in his Grave and grew out of that Grave up to all that Glory and Dignity that we shall one day be blessed with the beholding of John 17.24 In this his Glory in Heaven he interceeds for us Intercession is a sort of Praying 1 Tim. 2.1 Supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks are commanded to be made for all men We have one fad Intercession Rom. 11.2 Elias made intercession to God against Israel He was a severe Prophet and had severe Service put in his Hand But our great Prophet and High Priest makes no Intercession against his Israel but all for them This Intercession of Christ ' which is so great a ground of boldness to us at the Throne of Grace stands in these 1. In his Appearing in Heaven in our Nature and in our Name before God Heb. 9.24 For Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true and those were the places the High Priests of old entred into but into Heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us He is there not only for himself to reap the glorious Fruit of his hard Work on Earth but for his People as their Head and Representative All the Church the Body is now in Heaven it self because its Head is there Eph. 2.5,6 Christians you are now lying among the Pots and defiled with the Smoak and Sutt of this sinful World you are sometimes plunged in the Ditch till your own Cloaths abhor you as Job speaks chap. 9.31 You cry out Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesech that I dwell in the Tents of Kedar Psal 120.5 Let Faith say But where is my Lord and Head Is he not in Heaven in that Glory that I am not able now to bear a view of and he is appearing there as my nearest and dearest Friend I am ashamed to look on my self and my loathsom Deformity I am afraid that so foul and spotted a Face as mine should be seen in Heaven But Christ is there and my Christ is there and there he is to appear for me who must dread my personal Appearance there if it were not for this Appearance of my Head for me 2. Christ's Intercession stands in this That he in our Nature and in our Name presents continually the Savor of his Sacrifice Heb. 9.12 He went into the holy place not with the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood having obtained eternal Redemption for