as to take a man from his seat of ease, and make him to come to God by
Christ as afore, then, is it not truly inferred from hence that they
that come not to God by Christ have no faith. What! is man such a fool
as to believe things, and yet not look after them? to believe great
things, and yet not to concern himself with them? Who would knowingly
go over a pearl, and yet not count it worth stooping for? Believe thou
art what thou art; believe hell is what it is; believe death and
judgment are coming, as they are; and believe that the Father and the
Son are, as by the Holy Ghost in the Word they are described, and sit
still in thy sins if thou canst. Thou canst not sit still; faith is
forcible. Faith is grounded upon the voice of God in the Word, upon the
teaching of God in the Word. And it pleases God by the foolishness of
preaching to save them that believe; for believing makes them heartily
close in with, and embrace what by the Word is set before them, because
it seeth the reality of them.
Shall God speak to man’s soul, and shall not man believe? Shall man
believe what God says, and nothing at all regard it? It cannot be.
‘Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.’ And we know
that when faith is come, it purifies the heart of what is opposite to
God, and the salvation of the soul.
So, then, those men that are at ease in a sinful course, or that come
not to God by Christ, they are such as have no faith, and must
therefore perish with the vile and unbelievers. (Rev 21:8)
The whole world is divided into two sorts of men—believers and
unbelievers. The godly are called believers; and why believers, but
because they are they that have given credit to the great things of the
gospel of God? These believers are here in the text called also comers,
or they that come to God by Christ, because whoso believes will come;
for coming is a fruit of faith in the habit, or, if you will, it is
faith in exercise; yet faith must have a being in the soul before the
soul can put it into act.
This therefore further evidences that they that come not, have no
faith, are not believers, belong not to the household of faith, and
must perish—‘For he that believes not, shall be damned.’
Nor will it be to any boot14 to say, I believe there is a God and a
Christ, for still thy sitting still doth demonstrate that either thou
liest in what thou sayest, or that thou believest with a worse than a
false faith. But the object of my faith is true. I answer, so is the
object of the faith of devils; for they believe that there is one God
and one Christ, yet their faith, as to the root and exercise of it, is
notwithstanding no such faith as is that faith that saves, or that is
intended in the text, and that by which men come to God through Christ.
Wherefore still, oh, thou slothful one, thou deceivest thyself! Thy not
coming to God by Christ declareth to thy face that thy faith is not
good, consequently, that thou feedest on ashes, and thy deceived heart
has turned thee aside, that thou canst not deliver thy soul, nor say,
‘Is there not a lie in my right hand?’ (Isa 44:20)
Third. Is there a man that comes to God by Christ? Thence I infer that
the world to come is better than this; yea, so much better as to quit
cost and bear charges of coming to God, from this, by Christ, to that.
Though there is a world to come, yet if it were no better than this,
one had as good stay here as seek that, or if it were better than this,
and would bear charges if a man left this for that, and that was all,
still the one would be as good as the other. But the man that comes to
God by Christ, has chosen the world that is infinitely good; a world,
betwixt which and this there can be no comparison. This must be
granted, because he that comes to God by Christ is said to have made
the best choice, even chose a city that has foundations. (Heb 11:10)
There are several things that make it manifest enough that he that
comes to God by Christ has made the best market, or chose the best
world.
1. That is the world which God commendeth, but this that that he
slighteth and contemneth. (2 Thess 1:5,6) Hence that is called the
kingdom of God, but this an ‘evil world.’ (Gal 1:4) Now let us
conclude, that since God made both, he is able to judge which of the
two are best; yea, best able so to judge thereof. I choose the rather
to refer you to the judgment of God in this matter, for should I put
you upon asking of him as to this, that is, coming to God by Christ,
perhaps you would say, he is as little able to give an account of this
matter as yourselves. But I hope you think God knows, and therefore I
refer you to the judgment of God, which you have in the Scriptures of
truth—‘Heaven is his throne, and the earth is his footstool.’ I hope
you will say here is some difference. The Lord is the God of that, the
devil the god and prince of this. Thus also it appears there is some
difference between them.
2. That world, and those that are counted worthy of it, shall all be
everlasting; but so shall not this, nor the inhabiters of it. The earth
with the works thereof shall be burned up, and the men that are of it
shall die in like manner. (2 Peter 3) ‘But Israel shall be saved in the
Lord with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor
confounded world without end.’ (Isa 45:17) This world, with the lovers
of it, will end in a burning hell; but the world to come fadeth not
away. (1 Peter 1:3,4)
3. The world that we are now in, has its best comforts mixed either
with crosses or curses; but that to come with neither. There shall be
no more curse: and as for crosses, all tears shall be wiped from the
eyes of them that dwell there. There will be nothing but ravishing
pleasures, and holy; there will be no cessation of joys, nor any speck
of pollution. ‘In thy presence is fullness of joy, at thy right hand
there are pleasures for evermore.’ (Psa 16:11)
4. There men shall be made like angels, ‘neither can they die any
more.’ (Luke 20:35,36) There shall they behold the face of God and his
Son, and swim in the enjoyment of them for ever.
5. There men shall see themselves beyond all misery, and shall know
that it will be utterly impossible that either anything like sorrow, or
grief, or sickness, or discontent, should touch them more.
6. There men shall be rewarded of God for what they have done and
suffered according to his will for his sake; there they shall eat and
drink their comforts, and wear them to their everlasting consolation.
7. They are all kings that go to that world, and so shall be proclaimed
there. They shall also be crowned with crowns, and they shall wear
crowns of life and glory, crowns of everlasting joy, crowns of
lovingkindness; yea, ‘In that day the Lord of hosts himself shall be
for a crown of glory to those that are his people.’ (Heb 2:7, Isa 28:5,
35:10, Psa 103:4) Now, if this world, though no more could be said of
it than is said in these few lines, is not infinitely far better than
what the present world is, I have missed it in my thoughts. But the
coming man, the man that comes to God by Christ, is satisfied, knows
what he does; and if his way, all his way thither, were strewed with
burning coals, he would choose, God helping him, to tread that path
rather than to have his portion with them that perish.
Fourth, If there be a world to come, and such a way to it so safe and
good, and if God is there to be enjoyed by them that come to him by
Christ; then this shows the great madness of the most of men, madness,
I say, of the highest degree, for that they come not to God by Christ
that they may be inheritors of the world to come. It is a right
character which Solomon gives of them, ‘The heart,’ saith he, ‘of the
sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they
live, and after that they go to the dead.’ (Eccl 9:3) A madman is
intent upon his toys, upon anything but that about which he should be
intent; and so are they that come not to God by Jesus Christ. A madman
has neither ears to hear, nor a heart to do, what they that are in
their right wits advise him for the best, no more have they that come
not to God by Christ. A madman sets more by the straws and cock’s
feathers by which he decks himself, than he does by all the pearls and
jewels in the world. And they that come not to God by Christ set more
by the vanishing bubbles of this life than they do by that glory that
the wise man shall inherit; ‘The wise shall inherit glory, but shame,’
says Solomon, ‘shall be the promotion of fools.’ What a shame it is to
see God’s jewels lie unregarded of them that yet think none are wiser
than themselves.
I know the wise men of this world will scorn one should think of them
that they are mad; but verily it is so, the more wise for this world,
the more fool in God’s matters; and the more obstinately they stand in
their way, the more mad. When Solomon gave himself to backsliding, he
saith he gave himself to folly and madness. (Eccl 1:17, 2:12) And when
he went about to search out what man is since the fall, he went about
to search out foolishness and madness. (Eccl 7:25-29) And is it not
said, that when the Jews were angry with Jesus for that he did good on
the Sabbath, that that anger did flow from their being filled with
madness? Doth not Paul also, while he opposed himself against Christ,
the gospel, and professors thereof, plainly tell us that he did it even
from the highest pitch of madness? ‘And being exceedingly mad against
them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.’ (Acts 26:11) Now if
it is exceeding madness to do thus, how many at this day must be
counted exceeding mad, who yet count themselves the only sober men?
They oppose themselves, they stand in their own light, they are against
their own happiness, they cherish and nourish cockatrices in their own
bosoms; they choose to themselves those paths which have written upon
them in large characters, These are the ways of death and damnation.
They are offended with them that endeavour to pull them out of their
ditch, and choose rather to lie and die there than to go to God by
Christ that they may be saved from wrath through him; yea, so mad are
they, that they count the most sober, the most godly, the most holy
man, the mad one; the more earnest for life, the more mad; the more in
the Spirit, the more mad; the more desirous to promote the salvation of
others, the more mad. But is not this a sign of madness, of madness
unto perfection? And yet thus mad are many, and mad are all they that
while it is called to-day, while their door is open, and while the
golden sceptre of the golden grace of the blessed God is held forth,
stand in their own light, and come not to God by Christ. (John 10:20,
Acts 26:24) That is the fourth inference.
Fifth, A fifth inference that I gather from this text is, that the end
that God will make with men will be according as they come or come not
to God by Christ. They that come to God by Christ have taken shelter
and have hid themselves; but they that come not to God by Christ lay
themselves open to the windy storm and tempest that will be in that
day. And the wind then will be high, and the tempest strong, that will
blow upon them that shall be found in themselves; ‘Our God shall come,
and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it
shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens
from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people.’ (Psa
50:3,4) And now, what will be found in that day to be the portion of
them that in this day do not come to God by Christ? None knows but God,
with whom the reward of unbelievers is.
But writing and preaching is in vain as to such; let men say what they
will, what they can, to persuade to come, to dissuade from neglecting
to come, they are resolved not to stir. They will try if God will be so
faithful to himself and to his Word, as to dare to condemn them to hell
fire that have refused to hear and comply with the voice of him that
speaketh from heaven.
But this is but a desperate venture. Several things declare that He is
determined to be at a point in this matter—
1. The gallows are built—hell is prepared for the wicked. 2. There are
those already in chains, and stand bound over to the judgment of that
day, that are, as to creation, higher and greater than men, to wit, the
angels that sinned. (2 Peter 2:4) Let sinners, then, look to
themselves. 3. The Judge is prepared and appointed, and it hath fallen
out to be HE that thou hast refused to come to God by; and that
predicts no good to thee; for then will he say of all such, ‘Those mine
enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither,
and slay them before me.’ (Luke 19:27)
But what a surprise will it be to them that now have come to God by
Christ to see themselves in heaven indeed, saved indeed, and possessed
of everlasting life indeed. For alas! what is faith to possession?
Faith that is mixed with many fears, that is opposed with many
assaults, and that seems sometimes to be quite extinguished; I say,
what is that to a seeing of myself in heaven? Hence it is said, that he
shall then come to be admired in them that now believe, because they
did here believe the testimony; then they shall admire that it was
their lot to believe when they were in the world. (2 Thess 1:10) They
shall also admire to think, to see, and behold, what believing has
brought them to, while the rest, for refusing to come to God by Christ,
drink their tears mixed with burning brimstone.
Repentance will not be found in heaven among them that come to God by
Christ; no, hell is the place of untimely repentance; it is there where
the tears will be mixed with gnashing of teeth, while they consider how
mad, and worse, they were in not coming to God by Jesus Christ.
Then will their hearts and mouths be full of, ‘Lord, Lord, open unto
us.’ But the answer will be, Ye shut me out of doors; ‘I was a
stranger, and ye took me not in’; besides, you refused to come to my
Father by me, wherefore now you must go from my Father by me. (Matt 25)
They that will not be saved by Christ, must be damned by Christ; no man
can escape one of the two. Refuse the first they may, but shun the
second they cannot. And now they that would not come unto God by Christ
will have leisure and time enough, if I may call it time, to consider
what they have done in refusing to come to God by Christ. Now they will
meditate warmly on this thing, now their thoughts will be burning hot
about it, and it is too late, will be, in each thought, such a sting,
that, like a bow of steel, it will continually strike him through.
Now they will bless those whom formerly they have despised, and commend
those they once contemned. Now would the rich man willingly change
places with poor Lazarus, though he preferred his own condition before
his in the world. The day of judgment will bring the worst to rights in
their opinions; they will not be capable of misapprehending any more.
They will never after that day put bitter for sweet, or darkness for
light, or evil for good any more. Their madness will now be gone. Hell
will be the unbeliever’s bedlam house, and there God will tame them as
to all those bedlam tricks and pranks which they played in this world,
but not at all to their profit nor advantage; the gulf that God has
placed and fixed betwixt heaven and hell will spoil all as to that.
(Luke 16:23-26)
But what a joy will it be to the truly godly to think now that they are
come to God by Christ! It was their mercy to begin to come, it was
their happiness that they continued coming; but it is their glory that
they are come, that they are come to God by Christ. To God! why, he is
all! all that is good, essentially good, and eternally good. To God!
the infinite ocean of good. To God, in friendly-wise, by the means of
reconciliation; for the other now will be come to him to receive his
anger, because they come not to him by Jesus Christ. Oh! that I could
imagine; oh! that I could think, that I might write more effectually to
thee of the happy estate of them that come to God by Christ.
But thus have I passed through the three former things, namely, 1. That
of the intercession of Christ. 2. That of the benefit of intercession.
3. That of the persons that are interested in this intercession.
[IV. EVERY SINCERE COMER CERTAIN OF SALVATION.]
Wherefore now I come to the fourth and last head, and that is, TO SHOW
YOU THE CERTAINTY OF THEIR REAPING THE BENEFIT OF HIS INTERCESSION.
‘Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.’
[Christ ever living is the safety of comers.]
The certainty of their reaping the benefit of being saved that come
unto God by Christ is thus expressed: ‘Seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for them.’ The intercession of Christ, and the lastingness
of it, is a sure token of the salvation of them that come unto God by
him.
Of his intercession, what it is, and for whom, we have spoken already;
of the success and prevalency of it, we have also spoken before; but
the reason of its successfulness of that we are to speak now. And that
reason, as the apostle suggesteth, lies in the continuance of it,
‘Seeing he ever liveth to make intercession.’ The apostle also makes
very much of the continuation of the priesthood of Christ in other
places of this epistle: he abides a priest continually, ‘Thou art a
priest for ever.’ He ‘hath an unchangeable priesthood.’ (Heb
7:3,17,21,24) And here he ‘ever liveth to make intercession.’
Now, by the text is showed the reason why he so continually harpeth
upon the durableness of it, namely, for that by the unchangeableness of
this priesthood we are saved; nay, saved demonstratively, apparently;
it is evident we are. ‘He is also able to save them to the uttermost
that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them.’ For,
First, The durableness of his intercession proves that the covenant in
which those who come to God by him are concerned and wrapt up is not
shaken, broken, or made invalid by all their weaknesses and
infirmities.
Christ is a priest according to covenant, and in all his acts of
mediation he has regard to that covenant; so long as that covenant
abides in its strength, so long Christ’s intercession is of worth.
Hence, when God cast the old high priest out of doors, he renders this
reason for his so doing: ‘Because they continued not in my covenant’;
that is, neither priests nor people. Therefore were they cast out of
the priesthood, and the people pulled down as to a church state. (Heb
7:6-9) Now, the covenant by which Christ acteth, as a priest, so far as
we are concerned therein, he also himself acteth our part, being,
indeed, the Head and Mediator of the body; wherefore, God doth not
count that the covenant is broken, though we sin, if Christ Jesus our
Lord is found to do by it what by law is required of us. Therefore he
saith, ‘If his children break my law, and keep not my commandments, I
will visit their sins with a rod,’ &c. But their sins shall not shake
my covenant with my Beloved, nor cause that I for ever should reject
them. ‘My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone
out of my lips. His seed will I make to endure for ever, his seed shall
endure for ever.’ (Psa 89:30-36) Hence, it is clear that the covenant
stands good to us as long as Christ stands good to God, or before his
face; for he is not only our Mediator by covenant, but he himself is
our conditions to God-ward; therefore he is said to be ‘a covenant of
the people,’ or that which the holy God, by law, required of us. (Isa
42:6) Hence, again, he is said to be our justice or righteousness; to
wit, which answereth to what is required of us by the law. He is made
unto us of God so, and in our room and in our stead presenteth himself
to God. So, then, if any ask me by what Christ’s priesthood is
continued, I answer, by covenant; for that the covenant by which he is
made priest abideth of full force. If any ask whether the church is
concerned in that covenant, I answer, yea; yet so as that all points
and parts thereof, that concern life and death everlasting, is laid
upon his shoulders, and he alone is the doer of it. He is the Lord our
righteousness, and he is the Saviour of the body, so that my sins break
not the covenant; but them15 notwithstanding, God’s covenant stands
fast with him, with him for evermore. And good reason, if no fault can
be found with Christ, who is the person that did strike hands with his
Father upon our account and for us; to wit, to do what was meet should
be found upon us when we came to appear before God by him.
And that God himself doth so understand this matter is evident; because
he also, by his own act, giveth and imputeth to us that good that we
never did, that righteousness which we never wrought out; yea, and for
the sake of that transmitteth our sins unto Christ, as to one that had
not only well satisfied for them, but could carry them so far, both
from us and from God, that they should never again come to be charged
on the committers, to death and damnation. (Rom 4:1-5) The Scriptures
are so plentiful for this, that he must be a Turk, or a Jew, or an
atheist that denies it. Besides, God’s commanding that men should
believe in his Son unto righteousness well enough proveth this thing,
and the reason of this command doth prove it with an over and above; to
wit, ‘For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him.’ (2 Cor 5:19-21) Hence
comes out that proclamation from God, at the rising again of Christ
from the dead: ‘Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that
through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by
him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could
not be justified by the law of Moses.’ (Acts 13:38,39)
If this be so, as indeed it is, then here lieth a great deal of this
conclusion, ‘he ever liveth to make intercession,’ and of the
demonstration of the certain salvation of him that cometh to God by
him, ‘seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.’ For if
Christ Jesus is a priest by covenant, and so abides as the covenant
abides, and if, since the covenant is everlasting, his priesthood is
unchangeable, then the man that cometh to God by him must needs be
certainly saved; for if the covenant, the covenant of salvation, is not
broken, none can show a reason why he that comes to Christ should be
damned, or why the priesthood of Jesus Christ should cease. Hence,
after the apostle had spoken of the excellency of his person and
priesthood, he then shows that the benefit of the covenant of God
remaineth with us, namely, that grace should be communicated unto us
for his priesthood’s sake, and that our sins and iniquities God would
remember no more. (Heb 8:10-12; 10:16-22) Now, as I also have already
hinted, if this covenant, of which the Lord Jesus is Mediator and High
Priest, has in the bowels of it, not only grace and remission of sins,
but a promise that we shall be partakers thereof, through the blood of
his priesthood, for so it comes to us; then, why should not we have
boldness, not only to come to God by him, but to enter also ‘into the
holiest by the blood of Jesus, by that new and living way,’ &c.
Second, But, further, this priesthood, as to the unchangeableness of
it, is confirmed unto him ‘with an oath, by him that said unto him, the
Lord sware, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever.’ This oath
seems to me to be for the confirmation of the covenant, as it is worded
before by Paul to the Galatians, (Gal 3:15-17), when he speaks of it
with respect to that establishment that it also had on Christ’s part by
the sacrifice which he offered to God for us; yea, he then speaks of
the mutual confirmation of it both by the Father and the Son. Now, I
say, since, by this covenant he stands and abides a Priest, and since
‘the Lord sware, and will not repent, saying, Thou art a priest for
ever,’ we are still further confirmed in the certain salvation of him
that cometh to God by Christ.