or gate of hell) and will there, where the devil thought to have swallowed us up, even there by the power of his mercy, make us, at our coming thence, shine like the sun, and look like angels! Christ all this while ever liveth to make intercession for us.

Secondly, Hence also I infer, that as Satan thought he struck home at first, (when he polluted our nature, and brought our souls to death); so he is marvellously loath to lose us, and to suffer his lawful captives now to escape his hands.

He is full of fire against us—full of the fire of malice—as is manifest, not only by his first attempt upon our first parents, but, behold, when the Deliverer came into the world, how he roared! He sought his death while he was an infant; he hated him in his cradle; he persecuted him while he was but a bud and blossom.

When he was come to riper years, and began to manifest his glory, yet, lest the world should be taken with him, how politicly did this old serpent, called the devil and Satan, work? He possessed people to think that Christ had a devil, and was mad, and a deceiver; that he wrought his miracles by magic art, and by Beelzebub; that the prophets spake nothing of him, and that he sought to overthrow the government, which was God's ordinance. And not being contented with all this, he pursued him to the death, and could never rest until he had spilt his blood upon the ground like water. Yea, so insatiable was his malice, that he set the soldiers to forge lies about him to the denial of his resurrection, and so managed that matter, that what they said has become a stumbling-block to the Jews to this very day.

When Jesus was ascended to God, and so was out of his reach, yet how busily went Satan about to make war with his people! Yea, what horrors and terrors, what troubles and temptations, has God's church met with from that day till now! Nor is he content with persecutions, and general dis

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tress; but, oh! how he doth haunt the spirits of Christians with blasphemies and troubles, with darkness and frightful fears; sometimes to their distraction, and often to the filling the church with outcries.

Satan's malice is yet in the pursuit; and now his boldness will try what it can do with God, either to tempt him to reject his Son's mediation, or to reject them that come to God

by him for mercy. And this is one cause among many,

why Christ ever liveth to make intercession for them that come to God by him. For if Satan cannot overthrow; if he knows he cannot overthrow them, yet, he cannot forbear but vex and perplex them, even as he did their Lord, from the day of their conversion to the day of their ascension to glory.

Thirdly, Hence I infer, that the love of Christ to his, is an unwearied love (and it must needs be so), an undaunted love, and it must needs be so. Who but Jesus Christ would have undertaken such a task as the salvation of the sinner is, if Jesus Christ had passed us by? It is true which is written of him, "He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he has set judgment in the earth, and the isles shall wait for his law." If he had not set his face like a flint, the greatness of this work would surely have daunted his mind.

For do but consider what sin is, from which they must be saved. Do but consider what the devil and the curse are from which they must be saved. And it will then easily be concluded by you, that it is he that full rightly deserveth to have his name called "Wonderful," and his love such as verily "passeth knowledge."

Consider again, by what means these souls are saved, even with the loss of his life, and together with it, the loss of the light of his Father's face. I pass by here, and forbear to speak of the matchless contradiction of sinners which he endured against himself, which could not but be a great grief,

or as himself doth word it, a breaking of heart unto him; but all this did not, could not hinder.

Join to all this, his everlasting intercession for us, and the effectual management thereof with God for us; and withal, the infinite number of times that we, by sin, provoke him to spue us out of his mouth, instead of interceding for us; and the many times also that his intercession is repeated by the repeating of our faults-and this love still passes knowledge, and is by us to be wondered at.

in us to be

What did, or what doth, the Lord Jesus see at all this care, and pains, and cost to save us? What will he get from us by the bargain, but a small pittance of thanks and love? For so it is, and ever will be, when compared with his matchless and unspeakable love and kindness toward us.

Oh! how unworthy are we of this love! How little do we think of it! But most of all, the angels may be astonished to see how little we are affected with that of it which we pretend to know. But neither can this prevail with him, to put us out of the scroll in which all the names of them are written, for whom he doth make intercession to God. Let us cry, 'Grace, grace, unto it!'

Fourthly, Hence again I infer, that they shall be saved that come to God by Christ, when the devil and sin have done what they can to hinder it.

This is clear, for the strife is now, who shall be Lord of all; whether Satan, the prince of this world, or Christ Jesus the Son of God,—or, which can lay the best claim to God's elect; he that produceth their sins against them, or he that laid down his heart's blood a price of redemption for them. Who then shall condemn when Christ has died, and doth also make intercession? Stand still, angels! and behold how the Father divideth the Son a portion with the great, and how he divideth the spoil with the strong: "because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and was num

bered with the transgressors, and did bear the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors."

The grace of God, and blood of Christ, will, before the end of the world, make brave work among the sons of men. They shall come even to a wonderment, to God by Christ, and be saved by a wonderment for Christ's sake. "Behold (says the prophet) these shall come from afar; and, lo, these from the north, and from the west, and these from the land of Sinim."* Behold these, and these, and these shall come; and lo, these, and these, and these from the land of Sinim. This is to denote the abundance that shall come in to God, by Christ, towards the latter end of the world, that is, when Antichrist is gone to bed in the side of the pit's mouth. Then shall the nations come in and be saved, and shall walk in the light of the Lord.

But, I say, what encouragement would there be for sinners thus to do, if the Lord Jesus, by his intercession, were not able to save, even to the uttermost, them that came unto God by him?

Fifthly, Hence again, I infer, that here is ground for confidence to them that come to God by Christ. Confidence to the end becomes us who have such a high priest, such an intercessor as Jesus Christ. Who, by doubting, would dishonor such a Jesus, that all the devils in hell cannot discourage by all their wiles? He is a tried stone, he is a sure foundation. A man may confidently venture his soul in his hand, and not fear but he will bring him safe home. Ability, love to the person, and faithfulness to trust committed to him, will do all; and all these are with infinite fulness in him. He has been a Saviour near six thousand years already; two thousand before the law, two thousand in time

*The "land of Sinim" is now generally understood to be China. It contains one third of the population of the globe, and is now just opened to the gospel of Christ. How would Bunyan have rejoiced to see our day, and take part in the Missionary Enterprise! But his published works shall help the good cause on.-J. N. B.

of the law, besides the many hundred years that he has in his flesh above continued to make intercession for them that come unto God by him. Yet the day is yet to come, yea, will never come, that he can be charged with any fault or neglect of the salvation of any of them that at any time have come unto God by him. What ground then is here for confidence that Christ will make a good end with me, since I come unto God by him, and since he ever liveth to make intercession for me! Let me then honor him, I say, by setting on his head the crown of his undertakings for me; by believing that he is able to save me, even to the uttermost, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for me.

Sixthly, Hence also I infer, that Christ ought to bear and wear the glory of our salvation for ever. He has done it, he has wrought it out. "Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength." Do not sacrifice to your own inventions; do not give glory to the work of your own hands. Your reformations, your works, your good deeds, and all the glory of your doing, cast them at the feet of this high priest and confess the glory belongs unto him. "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." "And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his Father's house; the offspring and the issue; all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels of flagons." Oh the work of our redemption by Christ is such, as wanteth not provocation to us, to bless and praise him. Glorify him, then, in your bought you with a price,

body and in your souls, who has

and glorify God and the Father by him.