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shall tell you my thoughts anon; meanwhile I will show you, what it is to be saved in the first sense; and also how that is brought to pass.

To be saved is to be delivered from the guilt of sin, which is by the law, as it is the ministration of death and condemnation; or to be set free therefrom before God. This is to be saved; for he that is not set free therefrom, whatever he may think of himself, or whatever others may think concerning him, he is a condemned man. It saith not he shall be, but, he "is condemned already." The reason is; that he has deserved the sentence of "the ministration of condemnation" which is the law; yea, that law has already arraigned, accused, and condemned him before God, for it hath found him guilty of sin. Now he that is set free from this, (or, as the phrase is, 'being made free from sin,' that is, from the imputation of guilt,) there can to him be no condemnation, no condemnation to hell-fire; but the person thus made free, may properly be said to be saved. Wherefore, as sometimes it saith, we shall be saved, respecting saving in the second sense, or the utmost completing of salvation; so sometimes it saith we are saved, as respecting our being already secured from guilt, and so from condemnation to hell for sin, and so set safe, and quit from the second death before God.

Now, saving thus comes to us by what Christ did for us in this world; by what Christ did for us, as suffering for us. I say, it comes to us thus; that is, it comes to us by grace, through the redemption that is in Christ. And thus to be saved is called justification, justification to life; because one thus saved is, as I said, acquitted from guilt, and that everlasting damnation, to which, for sin, he had made himself obnoxious by the law.

Hence we are said to be saved by his death, justified by his blood, and reconciled to God by the death of his Son; all which must respect his offering of himself on the day he

died, and not his improving of his so dying in a way of intercession; because in the same place the apostle reserveth a second, or an additional salvation, and applieth that to his intercession; "much more then being now, (or already) justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath, through him," that is through what he will further do for us: "for if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled (that is, by his death), we shall be saved by his life," his intercession which he ever liveth to complete.

See here, we are said to be justified, reconciled already, and therefore shall be saved, justified by his blood and death, and saved through him by his life.

Now the saving intended in the text, is saving in this second sense; that is, a saving of us by preserving us, by delivering us from all those hazards that we run betwixt our state of justification and our state of glorification. Yea, such a saving as we that are justified need, to bring us into glory. Therefore,

2. When he saith "he is able to save, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession," he addeth saving to saving; saving by his life, to saving by his death; saving by his improving his blood, to saving by his spilling his blood. He gave himself a ransom for us, and now improves that gift in the presence of God, by way of intercession.

For, as I have hinted already, the high priests, under the law, took the blood of the sacrifices that were offered for sin, and brought it within the vail, and there sprinkled it before, and upon the mercy-seat, and by it made intercession for the people-an additional way of saving them: the sum of which, Paul thus applies to Christ, when he saith he can save, "seeing he ever liveth to make intercession.”

"Who

That also in the Romans is clear to this purpose is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died;" that is, Who is he that shall lay any thing to the charge of God's

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elect to condemnation to hell, since Christ, by his death, has taken away the curse, from before God? Then he adds that there is nothing that shall yet happen to us, shall destroy us, since Christ also liveth to make intercession for us: "Who shall condemn? 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."

Christ then by his death saved us as we are sinners, enemies, and in a state of condemnation by sin; and Christ by his life saveth us as considered justified, and reconciled to God by his blood. So then, we have salvation from that condemnation that sin had brought us into, and salvation from those ruins that all the enemies of our souls would yet bring us unto, but cannot; for the intercession of Christ preventeth.

Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law; whatever the law can take hold of to curse us for, that Christ has redeemed us from, by being made a curse for us. But this curse that Christ was made for us, must be confined to his sufferings, not to his exaltation; and consequently, not to his intercession, for Christ is made no curse but when he suffered not in his intercession. So then, as he died, he took away the curse, and sin that was the cause thereof, by the sacrifice of himself, and by his life, his intercession, he saveth us from all those things that attempt to bring us into that condemnation again.

The salvation then that we have by the intercession of Christ as we said (I speak now of them that are capable of receiving comfort and relief by this doctrine), is salvation that follows upon, or that comes after justification. We that are saved as to justification of life, need yet to be saved with that which preserveth to glory. For though by the death of Christ we are saved from the curse of the law, yet attempts are made by many, that we may be kept from the glory that jus

tified persons are designed for; and from these we are saved by his intercession.

A man then that must be eternally saved, is to be considered, 1. As an heir of wrath; 2. As an heir of God. An heir of wrath he is in himself by sin: an heir of God he is by grace through Christ. Now, as an heir of wrath, he is redeemed, and as an heir of God he is preserved: as an heir of wrath he is redeemed by blood, and as an heir of God he is preserved by this intercession.

Christ by death, then, puts me (I being reconciled to God thereby) into a justified state, and God accepts me to grace and favor through him. Yet this doth not hinder, but that (all this notwithstanding) there are enemies, that would frustrate me of the end to which I am designed by this reconciliation to God, by redemption through grace; and from the malice of these enemies, I am saved by the blessed intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Object. 1. Perhaps some may say, we are not saved from all punishment of sin by the death of Christ; and if so, then not from all danger of damnation, by the intercession of Christ.

Answ. We are saved from all punishment in hell-fire, by the death of Christ. Jesus has delivered us from the wrath to come. So that, as to this great punishment, God for his sake has forgiven us all trespasses. But we being translated from being slaves to Satan, to be sons of God, God reserveth yet this liberty in his hand to chastise us, if we offend, as a father chastiseth his son. This chastisement is not in legal wrath, but in fatherly affection; not to destroy us, but that we might be made still to get advantage thereby, even be made partakers of his holiness. This is done, "that we might not be condemned with the world." 1 Cor. xi.

As to the second part of the objection, there do (as we say, many things happen between the cup and the lip) many things attempt to overthrow the work of God, and to

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cause that we should perish through our weakness, notwithstanding the price that hath by Christ been paid for us. But what saith the scripture? "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.) Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Thus the Apostle reckoneth up all the disadvantages that a justified person is incident to in this life, and by way of challenge declares, that not any of them, nor all together, shall be able to separate us from the love of God that is towards us by Christ, by his death and his intercession.

Object. 2. It may be further objected, that the apostle doth here leave out sin, unto which we know the saints are subject, after justification. And sin of itself (we need no other enemies) is of that nature, as to destroy the whole world.

Answ. Sin is sin, in the nature of sin, wherever it is found. But sin, as to the damning effects thereof, is taken away from them, unto whom righteousness is imputed for justification. Nor shall any or all the things afore mentioned (though there is a tendency in every one of them to drive us into sin) drown us through sin, in perdition and destruction. I am persuaded, says Paul, they shall never be able to do that. The apostle therefore doth implicitly, though not expressly, challenge sin, yea, sin by all its advantages; and then glorieth in the love of God in Christ Jesus, from which he concludeth it shall never separate the justified. Besides, it would now have been needless to have