the stranger, were defiled by any dead thing, they were to wash before
they partook of the holy things, or else to abstain: but if they did
not, their sin should remain upon them (Lev 17:15,16). So again, ‘the
soul that hath touched any such’ uncleanness ‘shall be unclean until
even, and shall not eat of the holy things,’ much less come within the
inner veil, ‘unless he wash his flesh with water’ (Lev 22:4-6). Now, I
would ask, what all this should signify, if a sinner, as a sinner,
before he washes, or is washed, may immediately go unto the throne of
grace? Yea, I ask again, why the apostle supposes washing as a
preparation to the Hebrews entering into the holiest, if men may go
immediately from under convictions to a throne of grace? For thus, he
says, ‘let us draw near’ ‘the holiest’ (Heb 12:19), ‘with a true heart,
in full assurance of faith; having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water’ (Heb 12:22). Let us
draw near; he saith not that we may have; but having FIRST been washed
and sprinkled.
The laver then must first be washed in; and he that washed not first
there, has not right to come to the throne of grace; wherefore you have
here also a sea of glass standing before the throne of grace, to
signify this thing (Rev 4:6). It stands before the throne, for them to
wash in that would indeed approach the throne of grace. For this sea of
glass is the same that is shadowed forth by the laver made mention of
before, and with the brazen sea that stood in Solomon’s temple, whereat
they were to wash before they went into the holiest. But you may ask
me, What the laver or molten sea should signify to us in the New
Testament? I answer, It signifieth the word of the New Testament, which
containeth the cleansing doctrine of remission of sins, by the precious
blood of Jesus Christ (John 15:3).[15] Wherefore we are said to be
clean through the Word, through the washing of water by the Word (Titus
3:5). The meaning then is, A man must first come to Christ, as set
forth in the Word, which is this sea of glass, before he can come to
Christ in heaven, as he is the throne of grace. For the Word, I say, is
this sea of glass that stands before the throne, for the sinner to wash
in first. Know therefore, whoever thou art, that art minded to be
saved, thou must first begin with Christ crucified, and with the
promise of remission of sins through his blood; which crucified Christ
thou shalt not find in heaven as such; for there he is alive; but thou
shalt find him in the Word; for there he is to this day set forth in
all the circumstances of his death, as crucified before our eyes (Gal
3:1,2). There thou shalt find that he died, when he died, what death he
died, why he died, and the Word open to thee to come and wash in his
blood. The word therefore of Christ’s Testament is the laver for all
New Testament priests, and every Christian is a priest to God, to wash
in.
Here therefore thou must receive thy justification, and that before
thou goest one step further; for if thou art not justified by his
blood, thou wilt not be saved by his life. And the justifying efficacy
of his blood is left behind, and is here contained in the molten sea,
or laver, or word of grace, for thee to wash in. Indeed, there is an
interceding voice in his blood for us before the throne of grace, or
mercy-seat; but that is still to bring us to wash, or for them that
have washed therein, as it was shed upon the cross. We have boldness
therefore to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, that is, by
faith in his blood, as shed without the gate; for as his blood was shed
without the gate, so it sanctifies the believer, and makes him capable
to approach the holy of holies. Wherefore, after he had said, ‘That he
might sanctify the people with his own blood,’ he ‘suffered without the
gate’ (Heb 13:11-15). Let us by him therefore, that is, because we are
first sanctified by faith in his blood, offer to God the sacrifice of
praise continually, that is, the fruits of our lips, giving thanks in
his name. Wherefore the laver of regeneration, or Christ set forth by
the Word as crucified, is for all coming sinners to wash in unto
justification; and the throne of grace is to be approached by saints,
or as sinners justified by faith in a crucified Christ; and so, as
washed from sin in the sea of his blood, to come to the mercy-seat.
And it is yet far more evident; for that those that approach this
throne of grace, they must do it through believing; for, saith the
apostle, ‘How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed,’
of whom they have not heard, and in whom they have not believed? for to
that purpose runs the text (Rom 10:14). ‘How then shall they call on
him in whom they have not believed,’ antecedent to their calling on
him, ‘and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard’
first? So then hearing goes before believing, and believing before
calling upon God, as he sits on the throne of grace. Now, believing is
to be according to the sound of the beginning of the gospel, which
presenteth us, not first with Christ as ascended, but as Christ dying,
buried, and risen.[16] ‘For I delivered unto you first of all, that
which I also received; how that Christ died for our sins according to
the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the
third day, according to the scriptures’ (1 Cor 15:3,4).
I conclude then, as to this, that the order of heaven is, that men wash
in the laver of regeneration, to wit, in the blood of Christ, as held
forth in the word of the truth of the gospel, which is the ordinance of
God; for there sinners, as sinners, or men as unclean, may wash, in
order to their approach to God as he sits upon the throne of grace.
And besides, Is it possible that a man that passeth by the doctrine of
Christ as dead, should be admitted with acceptance to a just and holy
God for life; or that he that slighteth and trampleth under foot the
blood of Christ, as shed upon the cross, should be admitted to an
interest in Christ, as he is the throne of grace? It cannot be. He must
then wash there first, or die—let his profession, or pretended faith,
or holiness, be what it will. For God sees iniquity in all men; nor can
all the nitre or soap in the world cause that our iniquity should not
be marked before God (Jer 2:22). ‘For without shedding of blood is NO
remission’ (Heb 9:22). Nothing that polluteth, that defileth, or that
is unclean, must enter into God’s sanctuary; much less into the most
holy part thereof, but by their sacrifice, by which they are purged,
and for the sake of the perfection thereof, they believing are
accepted. We have ‘therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the
holiest by the blood of Jesus,’ and no way else (Heb 10:19).
[HOW WE ARE TO APPROACH THE THRONE OF GRACE.]
FOURTH. But this will yet be further manifest by what we have yet to
say of the manner of our approach unto the throne of grace.
FIRST, then, we must approach the throne of grace by the second veil;
for the throne of grace is after the second veil. So, then, though a
man cometh into the tabernacle or temple, which was a figure of the
church, yet if he entered but within the first veil, he only came where
there was no mercy-seat or throne of grace (Heb 9:3). And what is this
second veil, in, at, or through which, as the phrase is, we must, by
blood, enter into the holiest? why, as to the law, the second veil did
hang up between the holy and the most holy place, and it did hide what
was within the holiest from the eyes or sight of those that went no
further than into the first tabernacle. Now this second veil in the
tabernacle or temple was a figure of the second veil that all those
must go through that will approach the throne of grace; and that veil
is the flesh of Christ.
This is that which the holy apostle testifies in his exhortation, where
he saith, We have ‘boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of
Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say, his flesh’ (Heb 10:19,20). The second veil
then is the flesh of Christ, the which until a man can enter or go
through by his faith, it is impossible that he should come to the
holiest where the throne of grace is, that is, to the heart and soul of
Jesus, which is the throne. The body of Christ is the tabernacle of
God, and so that in which God dwells; for the fulness of the Godhead
dwells in him bodily (Col 2:9). Therefore, as also has been hinted
before, Christ Jesus is the throne of grace. Now, since his flesh is
called the veil, it is evident that the glory that dwells within him,
to wit, God resting in him, cannot be understood but by them that by
faith can look through, or enter through, his flesh to that glory. For
the glory is within the veil; there is the mercy-seat, or throne of
grace; there sitteth God as delighted, as at rest, in and with sinners,
that come to him by and through that flesh, and the offering of it for
sin without the gate. ‘I am the way,’ saith Christ; but to what? and
how? (John 14:6). Why, to the Father, through my flesh. ‘And having
made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all
things to himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or
things in heaven. And you that were sometime alienated, and enemies in
your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled [but how?] in the
body of his flesh, [that then must be first: to what?] to present you
holy and unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight’ (Col 1:20-22).
That is, when you enter into his presence, or approach by this flesh,
the mercy-seat, or the throne of grace.
This therefore is the manner of our coming, if we come aright to the
throne of grace for mercy, we must come by blood through his flesh, as
through the veil; by which, until you have entered through it, the
glory of God, and that he is resolved that grace shall reign, will be
utterly hid from your eyes. I will not say, but by the notion of these
things, men may have their whirling fancies,[17] and may create to
themselves wild notions and flattering imaginations of Christ, the
throne of grace, and of glory; but the gospel knowledge of this is of
absolute necessity to my right coming to the throne of grace for mercy.
I must come by his blood, through his flesh, or I cannot come at all,
for here is no back door. This then is the sum, Christ’s body is the
tabernacle, the holiest; ‘thy law,’ saith he, ‘is within my heart,’ or
in the midst of my bowels (Psa 40:7,8). In this tabernacle then God
sitteth, to wit, on the heart of Christ, for that is the throne of
grace. Through this tabernacle men must enter, that is, by a godly
understanding of what by this tabernacle or flesh of Christ has been
done to reconcile us to God that dwells in him. This is the way, all
the way, for there is no way but this to come to the throne of grace.
This is the new way into the heavenly paradise, for the old way is
hedged and ditched up by the flaming sword of cherubims (Gen 3:24). The
NEW and LIVING way, for to go the other is present death; so then, this
‘new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil,
that is to say, his flesh,’ is the only way into the holiest, where the
throne of grace is (Heb 10:20).
SECOND. We must approach this throne of grace, as having our hearts,
first, sprinkled from an evil conscience. The priest that was the
representator of all Israel, when he went into the holiest, was not to
go in, but as sprinkled with blood first (Exo 29). Thus it is written
in t he law; ‘not without blood’; and thus it is written in the gospel
(Heb 9:7). And now since by the gospel we have all admittance to enter
in through the veil, by faith, we must take heed that we enter not in
without blood; for if the blood, virtually, be not seen upon us, we
die, instead of obtaining mercy, and finding the help of grace. This I
press the oftener, because there is nothing to which we are more
naturally inclined, than to forget this. Who, that understands himself,
is not sensible how apt he is to forget to act faith in the blood of
Jesus, and to get his conscience sprinkled with the virtue of that,
that attempteth to approach the throne of grace? Yet the scripture
calls upon us to take heed that we neglect not THUS to prepare
ourselves. ‘Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of
faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience,’ to wit,
with the blood of Christ, lest we die (Heb 10:22, 9:14). In the law all
the people were to be sprinkled with blood, and it was necessary that
the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these,
that is, with the blood of bulls, but the heavenly things themselves
with better sacrifices than these, that is, with the offering of the
body, and shedding of the blood of Christ. By this then must thou be
purified and sprinkled, who by Christ wouldst approach the throne of
grace.
THIRD. Therefore it is added, ‘And our bodies washed with pure water.’
This the apostle taketh also out of the law; where it was appointed, as
was showed before. Christ also, just before he went to the Father, gave
his disciples a signification of this, saying to Peter, and by him to
all the rest, ‘If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me’ (John
13:8). This pure water is nothing but the wholesome doctrine of the
word mixed with Spirit, by which, as the conscience was before
sprinkled with blood, the body and outward conversation is now
sanctified and made clean. ‘Now ye are clean through the word,’ saith
Christ, ‘which I have spoken unto you’ (John 15:3). Hence, washing, and
sanctifying, and justifying, are put together, and are said to come by
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God (1 Cor
6:11). Thou must then be washed with water, and sprinkled with blood,
if thou wouldst orderly approach the throne of grace: if thou wouldst
orderly approach it with a true heart, in full assurance of faith; or
if thou wouldst, as the text biddeth thee here, to wit, ‘come boldly
unto the throne of grace, to obtain mercy, and find grace to help in
time of need.’
To tell you what it is to come boldly, is one thing; and to tell you
how you should come boldly, is another. Here you are bid to come
boldly, and are also showed how that may be done. It may be done
through the blood of sprinkling, and through the sanctifying operations
of the Spirit which are here by faith to be received. And when what can
be said shall be said to the utmost, there is no boldness, godly
boldness, but by blood. The more the conscience is a stranger to the
sprinkling of blood, the further off it is of being rightly bold with
God, at the throne of grace; for it is the blood that makes the
atonement, and that gives boldness to the soul (Lev 17:11; Heb 10:19).
It is the blood, the power of it by faith upon the conscience, that
drives away guilt, and so fear, and consequently that begetteth
boldness. Wherefore, he that will be bold with God at the throne of
grace, must first be well acquainted with the doctrine of the blood of
Christ; namely, that it was shed, and why, and that it has made peace
with God, and for whom. Yea, thou must be able by faith to bring
thyself within the number of those that are made partakers of this
reconciliation, before thou canst come boldly to the throne of grace.
But,
[What it is to come to the throne of grace without boldness.]
First. There is a coming to the throne of grace before or without this
boldness; but that is not the coming to which by these texts we are
exhorted; yet that coming, be it never so deficient, if it is right, it
is through some measure an inlet into the death and blood of Christ,
and through some management, though but very little, or perhaps scarce
at all discerned of the soul, to hope for grace from the throne; I say,
it must arise, the encouragement must, from the cross, and from Christ
as dying there. Christ himself went that way to God, and it is not
possible but we must go the same way too. So, then, the encouragement,
be it little, be it much—and it is little or much, even as the faith is
in strength or weakness, which apprehendeth Christ—it is according to
the proportion of faith; strong faith gives great boldness, weak faith
doth not so, nor can it.
Second. There is a sincere coming to the throne of grace without this
boldness, even a coming in the uprightness of one’s heart without it.
Hence a true heart and full assurance are distinguished. ‘Let us draw
near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith’ (Heb 10:22).
Sincerity may be attended with a great deal of weakness, even as
boldness may be attended with pride; but be it what kind of coming to
the throne of grace it will, either a coming with boldness, or with
that doubting which is incident to saints, still the cause of that
coming, or ground thereof, is some knowledge of redemption by blood,
redemption which the soul seeth it has faith in, or would see it has
faith in. For Christ is precious, sometimes in the sight of the worth,
sometimes in the sight of the want, and sometimes in the sight of the
enjoyment of him.[18]
Third. There is an earnest coming to the throne of grace even with all
the desire of one’s soul. When David had guilt and trouble, and that so
heavy that he knew not what to do, yet he could say, ‘Lord, all my
desire is before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee’ (Psa
38:1-9). He could come earnestly to the throne of grace; he could come
thither with all the desire of his soul: but still this must be from
that knowledge that he had of the way of remission of sins by the blood
of the Son of God.
Fourth. There is also a constant coming to the throne of grace. ‘Lord,’
said Heman, ‘I have cried day and night before thee, let my prayer come
before thee, incline thine ear unto my cry, for my soul is full of
troubles: and my life draweth nigh unto the grave’ (Psa 88:1-3). Here
you see is constant crying before the throne of grace, crying night and
day; and yet the man that cries seems to be in a very black cloud, and
to find hard work to bear up in his soul; yet this he had, namely, the
knowledge of how God was the God of salvation; yea, he called him his
God as such, though with pretty much difficulty of spirit, to be sure.
Wherefore it must not be concluded, that they come not at all to the
throne of grace, that come not with a full assurance; or that men must
forbear to come, till they come with assurance; but this I say, they
come not at all aright, that take not the ground of their coming from
the death and blood of Christ; and that they that come to the throne of
grace, with but little knowledge of redemption by blood, will come with
but little hope of obtaining grace and mercy to help in time of need.
I conclude then, that it is the privilege, the duty and glory of a man,
to approach the throne of grace as a prince, as Job said, could he but
find it, he would be sure to do. ‘O that I knew where I might find
him!’ saith he, ‘that I might come even to his seat: I would order my
cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments: I would know the
words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto
me. Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put
strength in me. There the righteous might dispute with him: so should I
be delivered for ever from my judge’ (23:3-7). Indeed, God sometimes
tries us. ‘He holdeth back,’ sometimes, ‘the face of his throne, and
spreadeth his cloud upon it’ (Job 26:9). And this seems to be Job’s
case here, which made him to confess he was at a loss, and to cry out,
‘O that I knew where I might find him!’ And this he doth for trial, and
to prove our honesty and constancy; for the hypocrite will not pray
always. Will he always call upon God? No, verily; especially not when
thou bindest them, afflictest them, and makest praying hard work to
them (Job 36:13).
But difficulty as to finding of God’s presence, and the sweet shining
of the face of his throne, doth not always lie in the weakness of
faith. Strong faith may be in this perplexity, and may be hard put to
it to stand at times. It is said here, that God did hold back the face
of his throne, and did spread a cloud upon it; not to weaken Job’s
faith, but to try Job’s strength, and to show to men of after ages how
valiant a man Job was. Faith, if it be strong, will play the man in the
dark; will, like a mettled horse, flounce in bad way, will not be
discouraged at trials, at many or strong trials: ‘Though he slay me,
yet will I trust in him,’ is the language of that invincible grace of
God (Job 13:15). There is also an aptness in those that come to the
throne of grace, to cast all degrees of faith away, that carrieth not
in its bowels self-evidence of its own being and nature, thinking that
if it be faith, it must be known to the soul; yea, if it be faith, it
will do so and so: even so as the highest degrees of faith will do.
When, alas! faith is sometimes in a calm, sometimes up, and sometimes
down, and sometimes at it with sin, death, and the devil, as we say,
blood up to the ears.[19] Faith now has but little time to speak peace
to the conscience; it is now struggling for life, it is now fighting
with angels, with infernals; all it can do now, is to cry, groan,
sweat, fear, fight, and gasp for life.[20]
Indeed the soul should now run to the cross, for there is the water, or
rather the blood and water, that is provided for faith, as to the
maintaining of the comfort of justification; but the soul whose faith
is thus attacked will find hard work to do this, though much of the
well-managing of faith, in the good fight of faith, will lie in the
soul’s hearty and constant adhering to the death and blood of Christ;
but a man must do as he can. Thus now have I showed you the manner of
right coming to the throne of grace, for mercy and grace to help in
time of need.
[None but the godly know the throne of grace.]
The next thing that I am to handle, is, first, To show you, that it is
the privilege of the godly to distinguish from all thrones whatsoever
this throne of grace. This, as I told you, I gathered from the apostle
in the text, for that he only maketh mention thereof, but gives no sign
to distinguish it by; no sign, I say, though he knew that there were
more thrones than it. ‘Let us come boldly,’ saith he, ‘to the throne of
grace,’ and so leaves it, knowing full well that they had a good
understanding of his meaning, being Hebrews (Heb 9:1-8). They being now
also enlightened from what they were taught by the placing of the ark
of the testimony, and the mercy-seat in the most holy place; of which
particular the apostle did then count it, not of absolute necessity
distinctly to discourse. Indeed the Gentiles, as I have showed, have
this throne of grace described and set forth before them, by those
tokens which I have touched upon in the sheets that go before—for with
the book of Revelation the Gentiles are particularly concerned—for that
it was writ to churches of the Gentiles; also the great things
prophesied of there relate unto Gentile-believers, and to the downfall
of Antichrist, as he standeth among them.
But yet, I think that John’s discourse of the things attending the
throne of grace were not by him so much propounded, because the
Gentiles were incapable of finding of it without such description, as
to show the answerableness of the antitype with the type; and also to
strengthen their faith, and illustrate the thing; for they that know,
may know more, and better of what they know; yea, may be greatly
comforted with another’s dilating on what they know. Besides, the Holy
Ghost by the word doth always give the most perfect description of
things; wherefore to that we should have recourse for the completing of
our knowledge. I mean not, by what I say, in the least to intimate, as
if this throne of grace was to be known without the text, for it is
that that giveth revelation of Jesus Christ: but my meaning is, that a
saint, as such, has such a working of things upon his heart, as makes
him able by the Word to find out this throne of grace, and to
distinguish it to himself from others. For,