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ture, as if the apostle had said, one time and for a long time; but, at last, Christ laid hold of me. He remembered time,

and place, and day, as long as he lived. Believing is sometimes denoted by the name of coming, so it be by him. Would you be acquainted with Christ Jesus, and be in him as the way? Resolve to say thus much, Though I cannot climb to Christ Jesus, and though I cannot find him; yet, by God's grace, I will not run away further from him, I will stay and long for his laying hold on me. The misery of people is this, they are constantly striving against Christ's saving of them. Whenever a poor sinner is broke as to this resolved resisting of the grace of God, grace does overpower him immediately. Be therefore willing to be taken by him.

2dly, Is it a hard matter to look on Christ Jesus and be saved? A man may look on one that he cannot come to. Look upon him as the way. If people do but get a view of Jesus Christ as the way to heaven, their hearts will follow their eyes immediately; but this eye to see him is of his own giving; and he has an eye-salve to give to make us see, as he promises, Rev. iii. 18.

3dly, Love Christ as the way to heaven, and you shall be in him; nay, you are in him, when you love him. It is impossible, that a man that loves Christ Jesus, should ever go to hell; it is impossible, that ever a man can love Christ Jesus, but one that is beloved of him. But now the love of Jesus Christ, though it be the most sensible of all graces, it is very hard to own it, because believers would fain love him more and better; they cannot tell how to own they love him at all. I would ask you but one question, Can you read, and seal, and subscribe your name, and put your amen to two verses in the Bible? I dare warrant you your eternal salvation, if you can do so. The first is a dreadful word. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be an Anathema Maranatha. Amen, says the poor believer: if God curse him, it is no wonder. What! not love the Lord Jesus? The other is, Rev. v. 12. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Amen, says the believer. That heart, I say,

that is taken up with the love of Christ Jesus as the way to heaven, that is bent to his praise, is one that is in him.

4thly, If you can trust Christ Jesus as the way to heaven, you are in him. Do you know what trusting is? You know what it is in matters of money and trade; it is just the same thing in matters of your salvation. Do you know in whom you have laid your great stress, of bringing you to heaven? Say to yourselves, I do not know a better hand in heaven or earth, to lodge my immortal soul in, than in Christ Jesus the Son of God. We come to him by faith, and we go on in him by trusting: I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded, that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. I know my friend, would the apostle say, and I am sure he will give a good account of all I have trusted him with, 2 Tim. i. 12.

SERMON XVIII.

HEBREWS X. 21, 22.

And having an high-priest over the house of God: let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

APPROACHING to God is a very awful and dangerous thing. Many are undone thereby, as truly, as readily, as the poor curious priers into the ark were. There is nothing more common in people's practice, especially amongst us, than forms of approaching to God; little fear upon men's hearts in the work, and little profit by it. There is need of great encouragement unto a serious and sensible person to support his heart in drawing near to God. The prophet brings in men in distress, saying, Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? Mic. vi. 6. Where the majesty of God is seen, and our own vileness seen also, it must be a great thing that can encourage such a creature as a VOL. III.

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sinner is, to approach to such a God as our God is. All the encouragements for approaching to God are in Christ Jesus, and from him; every thing that is in him is encouraging, and every thing that is revealed of him is encouraging, and there is no encouragement elsewhere to be had. Our apostle is here taking several views of Jesus Christ, with an eye to this scope, to encourage us to draw nigh to God. We have spoke to two of them already.

1. As his blood makes the entrance to the holiest. 2. As his slain body is the vail we must pass through.

We now come to the third encouragement, which is taken from Jesus Christ, with respect to his grand office of being a Priest: Having an high-priest, says the apostle, over the house of God. He doth not name who this high-priest is, neither needed he, for he had spoken so much of him before, that none that read this could doubt that this high-priest, though unnamed, is Jesus Christ our Lord.

In these words are three things I would take notice of, and speak to in order.

1. The name of the office of our Lord; he is an High Priest, and expressed in a singular manner. An high-priest we read it; but the word in the original is not an high-priest but a great priest. It is not the usual Greek word that the apostle uses in this epistle frequently, when he speaks of Christ the High Priest after the order of Melchisedec, chap. vi. 20. and several times in chap. vii, viii, and ix. It is a special phrase here: he is a great Priest; there is something very singular in it, something above all that we can conceive. 2. Where his charge lies. Says the apostle, He is an High Priest over the house of God. The house of God, in the New Testament phrase, has two proper significations. (1.) The things that pertain to God, as the apostle expresses it, Heb. ii. 17. That he might be a merciful and faithful high-priest, in things pertaining to God. Every high-priest, taken from among men, says he, is ordained for men, in things pertaining to God, chap. v. 1. (2.) God's house in the New Testament, and in this epistle, is God's church and people, that is, believers. So the apostle explains it, chap. iii. 6.-Whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence, and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the

end. He is a Son and Lord over his own house; whose house are we, says he. So the church is called the house of God, 1 Tim. iii. 15. Hereabout then lies the charge of our Lord as Priest; it is in things pertaining to God, for his people: this is a matter that is to be frequently and seriously minded, for it is of great use for the directing the exercise of our faith. Ye all know that our Lord Jesus, in his great work of Mediator and Redeemer, is clothed with three offices, Prophet, Priest, and King; and in two of them he deals with us from God, and in one of them he deals with God for us. As a Prophet he reveals God's mind from God to us; as a King he puts forth God's divine authority upon us, and over us, and all things else; but as a Priest our Lord's business is only with God for us. In all the exercise of our faith, the faith of a poor creature that flies to Christ for righteousness and eternal salvation, minds him mainly, in that office wherein Christ deals with God for us.

3. The third thing that we have in the words, is the interest that the church hath in this High Priest: Having an High Priest, says the apostle: the word having is not in the original, but it is necessarily supplied, to make our language run intelligible; and it relates to the former having, ver. 19. Having therefore boldness; and here again, Having therefore an High Priest. He is not an high-priest to be provided, nor to be got, nor to be sought, but he is already: every one has him not; but, says the apostle, we have him already; he says he is in his office, he has done the greatest part of it, and is ready to complete it quite. So much for the heads of what I would discourse upon from this verse.

The first shall be to discourse to you something of the priesthood of Christ; then afterwards of the singularit of it, and charge of it, and of the interest the church hath in it.

The truth that I am to speak to is this, That our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Saviour of the body, is a true and proper Priest. So the apostle calls him, and so the apostle proves him to be at more length, and with more words in this epistle, than is any where else in all the Bible. Though this office of his be touched upon both by the prophets and

by our Lord himself, and by the other apostles in other epistles, yet this epistle is principally written to shew forth the priesthood of our Lord Jesus. Concerning this I would give you a few things to be considered.

1. We must consider Christ's instalment, when and how it was that he was installed the great Priest over the house of God. He did not take this honour to himself, but was called of God as was Aaron; He glorified not himself to be made an High Priest, but he that said to him, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee, Heb. v. 4, 5. Christ's instalment into the office is by oath: and this oath was a declaration, not only of the authority that was derived upon him, but of his continuance in it, and that he should have none to succeed him therein: Those priests, says the apostle, chap. vii. 21. were made without an oath, but this with an oath: therefore is he surety of a better testament. The words of the oath consecrated and made the Son Priest, who is so for evermore. The great charge as Priest over the house of God was derived upon the Son of God in the eternal counsels of the Trinity, that in time, as soon as sin entered into the world, he should enter upon his office.

2. We are to consider the types of it; and when the truth is come, the shadows may be the better known; we may understand better by the antitype, what the types did signify. The greatest part of God's worship of old, until Christ came, did consist in a great many shadows of Christ's coming; they are called shadows of good things to come, but the body is of Christ; they are the shadows, but not the very image of the things, chap. x. 1. Of priesthoods we find three in the word; they do all shadow forth the priesthood of our Lord Jesus.

The first was the patriarchal priesthood, the priesthood of the fathers; for the first word you read in all the Bible of worship to God is expressed by sacrifice; the first word of God's good-will towards men, is in the promise of Christ, Gen. iii. 15. The first expression of worship to God is in offering sacrifice, by Cain and Abel; and it is not unlike but Adam was the priest. Adam, and Noah, and Abraham, these fathers that were acquainted with God, were all priests by office, neither of the one order, nor of the other; yet

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