BECAUSE CHRIST LIVES, WE SHALL LIVE.

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"to the uttermost."

"He is able to save them to the ut

termost."

But if he were not satisfied, why did the King send, yea, come and loose him, and let him go free?

Yea, admit him into his presence; yea, make him Lord over all his people, and deliver all things into his hand?

But he liveth! he ever liveth, and is admitted to make intercession; yea, is ordained of God so to do! Therefore, he is "able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him."

This therefore, that he liveth (seeing he liveth to God and his judgment, and in justice is made so to do), is chiefly with reference to his life as mediator, for their sakes for whom he makes intercession. "He liveth to make intercession." And in that it is said he liveth ever, what is it but that he must live, and outlive all his enemies? For he must live, yea, reign, till all his enemies are put under his feet! Yea, his very intercessions must live till they are all as good as dead and gone: for the devil and sin must not live for ever, I mean not for ever to accuse. Time is coming when due course of law will have an end, and all cavillers will be cast over the bar; but then, and after that, Christ our highpriest shall live, and so shall his intercessions; yea, and also all them for whom he makes intercession, seeing they come unto God by him.

Now, if he lives, and outlives all, and if his intercession has the casting voice; since also he pleadeth in his prayers a sufficient merit before a just God, against a lying, malicious, clamorous, and envious adversary, he must needs carry the cause, the cause for himself and his people, to the glory of God and their salvation. So then, his life and intercession must prevail; there can be no withstanding it. Is not this then, a demonstration, clear as the sun, that they that come to God by him shall be saved, "seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them ?"

4. The duration of Christ's intercession, as it is grounded upon a covenant betwixt God and him, upon an oath also, and upon his life; so it is grounded upon the validity of his merits. This has been promiscuously touched before, but since it is an essential to the lastingness of his intercession, it will be to the purpose to lay it down by itself.

Intercession then, I mean Christ's intercession, is, that those for whom he died with full intention to save them, might be brought into that inheritance which he hath purchased for them. Now then, his intercession must, as to length and breadth, reach no further than his merits. For he may not pray for those for whom he died not. Indeed if we take in the utmost extent of his death, then we must beware. For his death is sufficient to save the whole world; but his intercessions are kept within a narrower compass. The altar of burnt-offerings was a great deal bigger than the altar of incense, which was a figure of Christ's intercession. But this, I say, his intercession is for those for whom he died, with full intention to save them: wherefore it must be grounded upon the validity of his sufferings. And indeed, his intercession is nothing else that I know of, but a presenting of what he did in the world for us unto God, and pressing the value of it for our salvation. The blood of sprinkling is that which speaketh meritoriously; it is by the value of that, that God measureth out, and giveth unto us grace and life eternal; wherefore Christ's intercessions also must be ordered and governed by merit. "By his own blood he entered into the holy place, having (before by it) obtained eternal redemption for us," for our souls.

Now, if by blood he entered in thither, by blood he must also make intercession there. His blood made way for his entrance thither, his blood must make way for our entrance thither. Though here again we must beware; for his blood did make way for him as priest to intercede, his blood

INEXHAUSTIBLE VALUE OF CHRIST'S BLOOD. 387

makes way for us, as for those redeemed by it, that we might be saved.

This then, shows sufficiently the worth of the blood of Christ, even his ever living to make intercession for us; for the merit of his blood lasts all the while that he doth, and for all them for whom he ever liveth to make intercession. O precious blood! O lasting merit!

Blood must be pleaded in Christ's intercession, because of justice and to stop the mouth of the enemy-and also to encourage us to come to God by him. Justice, since that is of the essence of God, must concur in the salvation of the sinner. But how can that be, since it is said at first, "In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die;" unless a plenary satisfaction be made for sin, to the pleasing of the mighty God?-The enemy also would else never let go his objecting against our salvation.-But now God has declared, that our salvation is grounded on justice, because merited by blood. And though God needed not to have given his Son to die for us, that he might save us, and stop the mouth of the devil in so doing; yet this way of salvation has done both, and so it is declared. "We are justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." So then, here is also a ground of intercession, even the blood shed for us before.

And that you may see it yet the more for your comfort, God did at Christ's resurrection, to show what a price he set upon his blood, bid him ask of him the heathen, and he would give him the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. His blood then has value enough in it to ground intercession upon; yea, there is more worth in it than

Christ will plead or improve for men by way of intercession. I do not at all doubt but there is virtue enough in the blood of Christ, would God Almighty so apply it, to save the souls of the whole world. But it is the blood of Christ, his own blood, and he may do what he will with his own. It is also the blood of God, and he also may restrain its merits, or apply it as he sees good. But the coming soul shall find and feel the virtue thereof, even the soul that comes to God by Christ; for he is the man concerned in its worth; and Christ ever liveth to make intercession for him.

Now, seeing the intercession of Christ is grounded upon a covenant, an oath, a life, and also upon the validity of his merits, it must of necessity be prevalent, and so drive down all opposition before it. This therefore is the last part of the text, and that which demonstrateth that he that comes to God by Christ shall be saved, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for him.

CHAPTER VII.

LESSONS TAUGHT BY THIS PART.

I HAVE now done what I intend upon this part of the subject, when I have drawn a few inferences from this also.

First, then, hence I infer, that the souls saved by Christ, are in themselves in a most deplorable condition. Oh! what ado, as I may say, is there, before one sinner can be eternally saved! Christ must die; but this is not all. The Spirit of grace must be given unto us; but that is not all. Christ must also ever live to make intercession for us; and as he doth this for all, so he doth it for each one. He interceded for me before I was born, that I might in time, at the set time, come into being: after that he also made intercession for me, that I might be kept from hell in the time of my unregenerate state, until the time of my call and conversion; yet again he then intercedes, that the work now begun in my soul may be perfected, not only to the day of my dissolution, but unto the day of Christ, that is, until he comes to judgment. So that as he began to save me before I had being, so he will go on to save me when I am dead and gone, and will never leave off to save me, until he has set me before his face for ever.

But, I say, what a deplorable condition has our sin put us into, that there must be all this ado to save us! Oh! how hardly is sin got out of the soul, when once it is in! Blood takes away the guilt; inherent grace weakens the force; but the grave is the place, at the mouth of which, sin and the saved must have a perfect and final parting. Not that the grave of itself is of a sin-purging quality, but God will follow Satan home to his own door (for the grave is the door