punish you for all your iniquities.’ (Amos 3:2) God keeps a very strict
house among his children. David found it so, Haman found it so, Job
found it so, and the church of God found it so; and I know not that his
mind is ever the less against sin, notwithstanding we have an
Intercessor. True, our Intercessor saves us from damning evils, from
damning judgments; but he neither doth nor will secure us from temporal
punishment, from spiritual punishment, unless we watch, deny ourselves,
and walk in his fear. I would to God that those who are otherwise
minded did but feel, for three or four months, something of what I have
felt for several years together for base sinful thoughts! I wish it, I
say, if it might be for their good, and for the better regulating of
their understandings. But whether they obtain my wish or no, sure I am
that God is no countenancer of sin; no, not in his own people; nay, he
will bear it least of all in them. And as for others, however he may
for a while have patience towards them, if, perhaps, his goodness may
lead them to repentance; yet the day is coming when he will pay the
carnal and hypocrites’ home with devouring fire for their offences.
But if our holy God will not let us go altogether unpunished, though we
have so able and blessed an Intercessor, that has always to present God
with, on our behalf, so valuable a price of his own blood, now before
the throne of grace, what should we have done if there had been no
day’s-man, none to plead for us, or to make intercession on our behalf?
Read that text, ‘For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee;
though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee,
yet will I not make a full end of thee; but I will correct thee in
measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.’ (Jer 30:11) If
it be so, I say, what had become of us, if we had had no Intercessor?
And what will become of them concerning whom the Lord has said already,
‘I will not take up their names into my lips’? (Psa 16:4) ‘I pray not
for the world.’ (John 17:9)
5. Are those that are already justified by the blood of Christ yet such
as have need of being saved by his intercession? Then, hence, I infer
that Christ is not only the beginner, but the completer of our
salvation; or, as the Holy Ghost calls him, ‘the author and finisher of
our faith,’ (Heb 12:2); or, as it calls him again, ‘the author of
eternal salvation.’ (Heb 5:9) Of salvation throughout, from the
beginning to the end, from first to last. His hands have laid the
foundation of it in his own blood, and his hands shall finish it by his
intercession. (Zech 4:9) As he has laid the beginning fastly, so he
shall bring forth the headstones with shoutings, and we shall cry,
Grace, grace, at the last, salvation only belongeth to the Lord. (Zech
4:7, Psa 3:8, Isa 43:11)
Many there be that begin with grace, and end with works, and think THAT
is the only way. Indeed works will save from temporal punishments, when
their imperfections are purged from them by the intercession of Christ;
but to be saved and brought to glory, to be carried through this
dangerous world, from my first moving after Christ till I set my foot
within the gates of paradise, this is the work of my Mediator, of my
high priest and intercessor; it is he that fetches us again when we are
run away; it is he that lifteth us up when the devil and sin has thrown
us down; it is he that quickeneth us when we grow cold; it is he that
comforteth us when we despair; it is he that obtains fresh pardon when
we have contracted sin; and he that purges our consciences when they
are loaden with guilt. (Eze 34:16, Psa 145:14)
I know also, that rewards do wait for them in heaven that do believe in
Christ, and shall do well on earth; but this is not a reward of merit,
but of grace. We are saved by Christ; brought to glory by Christ; and
all our works are no otherwise made acceptable to God but by the person
and personal excellencies and works of Christ; therefore, whatever the
jewels are, and the bracelets, and the pearls, that thou shalt be
adorned with as a reward of service done to God in the world, for them
thou must thank Christ, and, before all, confess that he was the
meritorious cause thereof. (1 Peter 2:5, Heb 13:15) He saves us, and
saves our services too. (Rev 5:9-14) They would be all cast back as
dung in our faces, were they not rinsed and washed in the blood, were
they not sweetened and perfumed in the incense, and conveyed to God
himself through the white hand of Jesus Christ; for that is his
golden-censer; from thence ascends the smoke that is in the nostrils of
God of such a sweet savour. (Rev 7:12-14, 8:3,4)
6. Are those that are already justified by the blood of Christ, such as
do still stand in need of being saved by his intercession? Then hence I
infer again, that we that have been saved hitherto, and preserved from
the dangers that we have met with since our first conversion to this
moment, should ascribe the glory to Jesus Christ, to God by Jesus
Christ. ‘I have prayed that thy faith fail not: I pray that thou
wouldest keep them from the evil,’ is the true cause of our standing,
and of our continuing in the faith and holy profession of the gospel to
this very day. Wherefore we must give the glory of all to God by
Christ: ‘I will not trust in my bow,’ said David, ‘neither shall my
sword save me. But thou hast saved us from our enemies, and hast put
them to shame that hated us. In God we boast all the day long, and
praise thy name for ever. Selah’! ‘He always causeth us to triumph in
Christ.’ ‘We rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the
flesh.’ (Psa 44:6-8, 2 Cor 2:14, Phil 3:3) Thus you see that, both in
the Old and New Testament, all the glory is given to the Lord, as well
for preservation to heaven as for justification of life. And he that is
well acquainted with himself will do this readily; though light heads,
and such as are not acquainted with the desperate evil that is in their
natures, will sacrifice to their own net. But such will so sacrifice
but a while. Sir Death is coming, and he will put them into the view of
what they see not now, and will feed sweetly upon them, because they
made not the Lord their trust. And therefore, ascribe thou the glory of
the preservation of thy soul in the faith hitherto, to that salvation
which Christ Jesus our Lord obtaineth for thee by his intercession.
7. Are those that are already justified by the blood of Christ such as
do still stand in need of being saved by his intercession? Then is this
also to be inferred from hence, that saints should look to him for that
saving that they shall yet have need of betwixt this and the day of
their dissolution; yea, from henceforward, even to the day of judgment.
I say, they should still look to him for the remaining part of their
salvation, or for that of their salvation which is yet behind; and let
them look for it with confidence, for that it is in a faithful hand;
and for thy encouragement to look and hope for the completing of thy
salvation in glory, let me present thee with a few things—
(1.) The hardest or worst part of the work of thy Saviour is over; his
bloody work, his bearing of thy sin and curse, his loss of the light of
his Father’s face for a time; his dying upon the cursed tree, that was
the worst, the sorest, the hardest, and most difficult part of the work
of redemption; and yet this he did willingly, cheerfully, and without
thy desires; yea, this he did, as considering those for whom he did it
in a state of rebellion and enmity to him.
(2.) Consider, also, that he has made a beginning with thy soul to
reconcile thee to God, and to that end has bestowed his justice upon
thee, put his Spirit within thee, and began to make the unweldable
mountain and rock,10 thy heart, to turn towards him, and desire after
him; to believe in him, and rejoice in him.
(3.) Consider, also, that some comfortable pledges of his love thou
hast already received, namely, as to feel the sweetness of his love, as
to see the light of his countenance, as to be made to know his power in
raising of thee when thou wast down, and how he has made thee stand,
while hell has been pushing at thee, utterly to overthrow thee.
(4.) Thou mayest consider, also, that what remains behind of the work
of thy salvation in his hands, as it is the most easy part, so the most
comfortable, and that part which will more immediately issue in his
glory, and therefore he will mind it.
(5.) That which is behind is also more safe in his hand than if it were
in thine own; he is wise, he is powerful, he is faithful, and therefore
will manage that part that is lacking to our salvation well, until he
has completed it. It is his love to thee that has made him that ‘he
putteth no trust in thee’; he knows that he can himself bring thee to
his kingdom most surely; and therefore has not left that work to thee,
no, not any part thereof. (Job 5:18, 15:15)
Live in hope, then, in a lively hope, that since Christ is risen from
the dead, he lives to make intercession for thee, and that thou shalt
reap the blessed benefit of this twofold salvation that is wrought, and
that is working out for thee, by Jesus Christ our Lord. And thus have
we treated of the benefit of his intercession, in that he is able to
save to the uttermost. And this leads me to the third particular.
[III. THE PERSONS INTERESTED IN THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST.]
THIRD, The third particular is to show WHO ARE THE PERSONS INTERESTED
IN THIS INTERCESSION OF CHRIST; and they are those that come to God by
him. The words are very concise, and distinctly laid down; they are
they that come, that come to God, that come to God by him. ‘Wherefore
he is able also to save them, to save to the uttermost them that come
to God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.’
[Of coming to God by Christ.]—A little, first, to comment upon the
order of the words, ‘that come unto God by him.’
There are that come unto God, but not ‘by him’; and these are not
included in this text, have not a share in this privilege. Thus the
Jews came to God, the unbelieving Jews, ‘who had a zeal of God, but not
according to knowledge.’ (Rom 9:30-34, 10:1-4) These submitted not to
Christ, the righteousness of God, but thought to come to him by works
of their own, or at least, as it were, by them, and so came short of
salvation by grace, for that reigns to salvation only in Christ. To
these Christ’s person and undertaking were a stumbling stone; for at
him they stumbled, and did split themselves to pieces, though they
indeed were such as came to God for life.
As there are that come to God, but not by Christ, so there are that
come to Christ, but not to God by him:11 of this sort are they, who
hearing that Christ is Saviour, therefore come to him for pardon, but
cannot abide to come to God by him, for that he is holy, and so will
snub their lusts, and will change their hearts and natures. Mind me
what I say. There are a great many that would be saved by Christ, but
love not to be sanctified by God through him. These make a stop at
Christ, and will go no further. Might such have pardon, they care not
whether ever they went to heaven or no. Of this kind of coming to
Christ I think it is, of which he warneth his disciples when he saith,
‘In that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.’
(John 16:23) As who should say, when you ask for anything, make not a
stop at me, but come to my Father by me; for they that come to me, and
not to my Father, through me, will have nothing of what they come for.
Righteousness shall be imputed to us, ‘if we believe on him that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead.’ (Rom 4:24,25) To come to Christ for a
benefit, and stop there, and not come to God by him, prevaileth
nothing. Here the mother of Zebedee’s children erred; and about this it
was that the Lord Jesus cautioned her. Lord, saith she, ‘Grant that
these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on
the left, in thy kingdom.’ But what is the answer of Christ? ‘To sit on
my right hand and on my left, is not mine to give, but for whom it is
prepared of my Father.’ (Matt 20:21-23) As who should say, Woman, of
myself I do nothing, my Father worketh with me. Go therefore to him by
me, for I am the way to him; what thou canst obtain of him by me thou
shalt have; that is to say, what of the things that pertain to eternal
life, whether pardon or glory.
It is true, the Son has power to give pardon and glory, but he gives it
not by himself, but by and according to the will of his Father. (Matt
9:6, John 17:22) They, therefore, that come to him for an eternal good,
and look not to the Father by him, come short thereof; I mean, now,
pardon and glory. And hence, though it be said the Son of man hath
power on earth to forgive sins—to wit, to show the certainty of his
Godhead, and of the excellency of his mediation; yet forgiveness of sin
is said to lie more particularly in the hand of the Father, and that
God for Christ’s sake forgiveth us. (Eph 4:32)
The Father, as we see, will not forgive unless we come to him by the
Son. Why, then, should we conceit that the Son will forgive these that
come not to the Father by him?
So then, justifying righteousness is in the Son, and with him also is
intercession; but forgiveness is with the Father; yea, the gift of the
Holy Ghost, yea, and the power of imputing of the righteousness of
Christ is yet in the hand of the Father. Hence Christ prays to the
Father to forgive, prays to the Father to send the Spirit, and it is
God that imputeth righteousness to justification to us. (Luke 23:34,
John 14:16, Rom 4:6) The Father, then, doth nothing but for the sake of
and through the Son; the Son also doth nothing derogating from the
glory of the Father. But it would be a derogation to the glory of the
Father if the Son should grant to save them that come not to the Father
by him; wherefore you that cry Christ, Christ, delighting yourselves in
the thoughts of forgiveness, but care not to come by Christ to the
Father for it, you are not at all concerned in this blessed text, for
he only saves by his intercession them that come to God by him.
There are three sorts of people that may be said to come to Christ, but
not to God by him.
1. They whose utmost design in coming is only that guilt and fear of
damning may be removed from them. And there are three signs of such an
one—(1.) He that takes up in a belief of pardon, and so goes on in his
course of carnality as he did before. (2.) He whose comfort in the
belief of pardon standeth alone, without other fruits of the Holy
Ghost. (3.) He that, having been washed, can be content to tumble in
the mire, as the sow again, or as the dog that did spue to lick up his
vomit again.
2. They may be said to come to Christ, but not to God by him, who do
pick and choose doctrines, itching only after that which sounds of
grace,12 but secretly abhorring of that which presseth to moral
goodness. These did never see God, what notions soever they may have of
the Lord Jesus, and of forgiveness from him. (Matt 5:8)
3. They surely did never come to God by Christ, however they may boast
of the grace of Christ, that will from the freeness of gospel grace
plead an indulgence for sin.
[Manner of coming to God.]—And now to speak a few words of coming to
God, or coming as the text intends. And in speaking to this, I must
touch upon two things—1. Concerning God. 2. Concerning the frame of the
heart of him that comes to him.
1. Of God. God is the chief good. Good so as nothing is but himself. He
is in himself most happy; yea, all good; and all true happiness is only
to be found in God, as that which is essential to his nature; nor is
there any good or any happiness in or with any creature or thing but
what is communicated to it by God. God is the only desirable good,
nothing without him is worthy of our hearts. Right thoughts of God are
able to ravish the heart; how much more happy is the man that has
interest in God. God alone is able by himself to put the soul into a
more blessed, comfortable, and happy condition than can the whole
world; yea, and more than if all the created happiness of all the
angels of heaven did dwell in one man’s bosom. God is the upholder of
all creatures, and whatever they have that is a suitable good to their
kind, it is from God; by God all things have their subsistence, and all
the good that they enjoy. I cannot tell what to say; I am drowned! The
life, the glory, the blessedness, the soul-satisfying goodness that is
in God is beyond all expression.
2. Now there must be in us something of a suitableness of spirit to
this God before we can be willing to come to him.
Before, therefore, God has been with a man, and has left some
impression of his glory upon him, that man cannot be willing to come to
him aright. Hence it is said concerning Abraham, that, in order to his
coming to God, and following of him aright, the Lord himself did show
himself unto him—‘Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory
appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he
dwelt in Charran, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and
from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.’
(Acts 7:2,3, Gen 12:1)
It was this God of glory, the sight and visions of this God of glory,
that provoked Abraham to leave his country and kindred to come after
God. The reason why men are so careless of, and so indifferent about,
their coming to God, is because they have their eyes blinded, because
they do not perceive his glory. God is so blessed a one, that did he
not hide himself and his glory, the whole world would be ravished with
him. But he has, I will not say reasons of state, but reasons of glory,
glorious reasons why he hideth himself from the world, and appeareth
but to particular ones. Now by his thus appearing to Abraham, down fell
Abraham’s vanity, and his idolatrous fancies and affections, and his
heart began to turn unto God, for that there was in this appearance an
alluring and soul-instructing voice. Hence that which Moses calls here
an appearing, Christ calls a hearing, and a teaching, and a
learning—‘It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught
of God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the
Father, cometh unto me,’ that is, to God by me. But, I say, what must
they hear and learn of the Father but that Christ is the way to glory,
the way to the God of glory. This is a drawing doctrine; wherefore that
which in this verse is called teaching and learning, is called, in the
verse before, the drawing of the Father—‘No man can come to me except
the Father which hath sent me draw him’; that is, with powerful
proposals, and alluring conclusions, and heart-subduing influences.
(John 6:44,45)
Having thus touched upon this, we will now proceed to show you what
kind of people they are that come to God by Christ; and then shall draw
some inferences from this also.
[Who are the people that come to Christ.]
There are, therefore, three sorts of people that come to God by Christ.
First, Men newly awakened. Second, Men turned from backsliding. Third,
The sincere and upright man.
[Of the newly awakened coming to Christ.]
First, Men newly awakened. By awakened, I mean awakened thoroughly. So
awakened as to be made to see themselves, what they are; the world,
what it is; the law, what it is; hell, what it is; death, what it is;
Christ, what he is; and God, what he is; and also what judgment is.
A man that will come to God by Christ aright must needs, precedent to
his so coming, have a competent knowledge of things of this kind.
1. He must know himself, what a wretched and miserable sinner he is,
before he will take one step forward in order to his coming to God by
Christ. This is plain from a great many scriptures; as that of the
parable of the prodigal, (Luke 15); that of the three thousand, (Acts
2); that of the jailer, (Acts 16), and those of many more besides. The
whole have no need of the physician. They were not the sound and whole,
but the lame and diseased that came to him to be cured of their
infirmities; and it is not the righteous, but the sinners that do well
know themselves to be such, that come to God by Christ.
It is not in the power of all the men on earth to make one man come to
God by Christ, because it is not in their power to make men see their
state by nature. And what should a man come to God for, that can live
in the world without him? Reason says so, experience says so, the
Scripture beareth witness that so it is of a truth. It is a sight of
what I am that must unroost me, that must shake my soul, and make me
leave my present rest. No man comes to God by Christ but he that knows
himself, and what sin hath done to him; that is the first. (Job
21:7-15)
2. As he must know himself, and what a wretch he is, so he must know
the world, and what an empty thing it is. Cain did see himself, but saw
not the emptiness of this world; and therefore instead of going to God
by Christ, he went to the world, and there did take up to his dying
day. (Gen 4:16) The world is a great snare to the soul, even to the
souls of awakened sinners, by reason of its big looks, and the fair
promises that it makes to those that will please to entertain it. It
will also make as though it could do as much to the quieting of the
spirit as either sermon, Bible, or preacher. Yea, and it has its
followers ready at its heels continually to blow its applause abroad,
saying, ‘Who will show us any [other] good?’ (Psa 4:6) and though ‘this
their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings.’
(Psa 49:13) So that unless a man, under some awakenings, sees the
emptiness of the world, he will take up in the good things thereof, and
not come to God by Christ. Many there be now in hell that can seal to
this for truth. It was the world that took awakened Cain, awakened
Judas, awakened Demas. Yea, Balaam, though he had some kind of visions
of God, yet was kept by the world from coming to him aright. See with
what earnestness the young man in the gospel came to Jesus Christ, and
that for eternal life. He ran to him, he kneeled down to him, and
asked, and that before a multitude, ‘Good master, what shall I do that
I may inherit eternal life?’ (Mark 10:17-24) And yet when he was told
he could not come, the world soon stepped betwixt that life and him,
and persuaded him to take up in itself; and so, for aught we know, he
never looked after life more.
There are four things in the world that have a tendency to lull an
awakened man asleep, if God also makes him not afraid of the world.
(1.) There is the bustle and cumber of the world, that will call a man
off from looking after the salvation of his soul. This is intimated by
the parable of the thorny ground. (Luke 8:14) Worldly cumber is a
devilish thing; it will hurry a man from his bed without prayer; to a
sermon, and from it again, without prayer; it will choke prayer, it
will choke the Word, it will choke convictions, it will choke the soul,
and cause that awakening shall be to no saving purpose.
(2.) There is the friendship of this world, to which, if a man is not
mortified, there is no coming for him to God by Christ. And a man can
never be mortified to it unless he shall see the emptiness and vanity
of it. Whosoever makes himself a friend of this world is the enemy of
God. And how, then, can he come to him by Christ? (James 4:4)
(3.) There are the terrors of the world, if a man stands in fear of
them, he also will not come to God by Christ. The fear of man brings a
snare. How many have, in all ages, been kept from coming to God aright
by the terrors of the world? Yea, how many are there to one’s thinking
have almost got to the gates of heaven, and have been scared and driven
quite back again by nothing but the terrors of this world? This is that
which Christ so cautioneth his disciples about, for he knew it was a
deadly thing. Peter also bids the saints beware of this as of a thing
very destructive. (Luke 12:4-6, 1 Peter 3:14,15)
(4.) There is also the glory of the world, an absolute hindrance to
convictions and awakenings, to wit, honours, and greatness, and
preferments: ‘How can ye believe,’ said Christ, ‘which receive honour
one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only.’
(John 5:44) If therefore a man is not in his affections crucified to
these, it will keep him from coming to God aright.