but that it is all understood by every one that is saved I do not
believe is true. I mean, so understood as that they could all reconcile
the seeming contradictions that are in these texts. There are therefore
three lessons that God has set us as to the perfecting of our
understanding in the mysteries of God. 1. Letters. 2. Words. 3.
Meanings.
1. Letters. I call the ceremonial law so; for there all is set forth
distinctly, everything by itself; as letters are to children: there you
have a priest, a sacrifice, an altar, a holy place a mercy-seat: and
all distinct.
2. Words. Now in the gospel these letters are put all in a word, and
Christ is that word, that word of God’s mind; and therefore the gospel
makes Christ that priest, Christ that sacrifice, Christ that altar,
Christ that holy place, Christ that throne of grace, and all; for
Christ is all: all these meet in him as several letters meet in one
word.
3. Meanings. Next to the word you have the meaning, and the meaning is
more difficult to be learned than either the letters or the word; and
therefore the perfect understanding of that is reserved till we arrive
to a higher form, till we arrive to a perfect man; ‘But when that which
is perfect is come, then that’ knowledge ‘which is in part, shall be
done away’ (1 Cor 13:10). Meantime our business is to learn to bring
the letters into a word, to bring the ceremonies to Christ, and to make
them terminate in him; I mean, to find the priesthood in Christ, the
sacrifice in Christ, the altar in Christ, the throne of grace in
Christ, and also God in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself by
him. And if we can learn this well, while here, we shall not at all be
blamed! for this is the utmost lesson set us, to wit, to learn Christ
as we find him revealed in the gospel: ‘I determined,’ saith Paul, ‘not
to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified’ (1
Cor 2:2). And Christians, after some time, I mean those that pray and
pry into the Word well, do attain to some good measure of knowledge of
him. It is life eternal to know him, as he is to be known here, as he
is to be known by the Holy Scriptures (James 17:3). Keep then close to
the Scriptures, and let thy faith obey the authority of them, and thou
wilt be sure to increase in faith; ‘for therein is the righteousness of
God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live
by faith’ (Rom 1:17, 16:25-27).[28]
Believe then that Christ died, was buried, rose again, ascended, and
ever liveth to make intercession for thee: and take heed of prying too
far, for in mysteries men soon lose their way. It is good therefore
that thou rest in this, to wit, that he doth so, though thou canst not
tell how he doth it. A man at court gets by his intercession a pardon
for a man in the country; and the party concerned, after he had
intelligence of it, knows that such an one hath obtained his pardon,
and that by his interceding, but for all that he may be ignorant of his
methods of intercession, and so are we, at least in part, of Christ.
The meaning then is that I should believe, that for Christ’s sake God
will save me since he has justified me with his blood; ‘being now
justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him’ (Rom
5:9). Through his intercession, or through his coming between the God
whom I have offended and me, a poor sinner: through his coming between
with the voice of his blood and merits, which speaketh on my behalf to
God, because that blood was shed for me, and because those merits, in
the benefit of them, are made over to me by an act of the grace of God,
according to his eternal covenant made with Christ. This is what I know
of his intercession; I mean with reference to the act itself; to wit,
HOW he makes intercession. And since all the fulness of the Godhead
dwells in him bodily, and since he also, as to his humanity, is the
throne of grace; yea, and since he also is the holiest of all, and the
rest of God for ever, it has been some scruple to me, whether it be not
too carnal to imagine as if Christ stood distinct in his humanity;
distinct, I say, as to space, from the Father as sitting upon a throne,
and as so presenting his merits, and making vocal prayers for the life
and salvation of his people. The more true meaning in my apprehension
is, that the presence and worth of the human nature, being with the
divine, yea, taken into union with God for ever, for the service that
was done by God for it, in the world, in reconciling his elect unto
him, is still, and ever will be, so deserving in his sight as to
prevail—I know not how else to express it—with the divine nature, in
whom alone is a power to subdue all impossibilities to itself, to
preserve those so reconciled to eternal life.
When I speak of the human nature, I mean the man Christ, not bereft of
sense and reasons, nor of the power of willing and affecting;[29] but
thus I mean, that the human nature so terminates in the will of the
divine; and again, the will of the divine so terminates, as to saving
of sinners, in the merit and will of the human, that what the Father
would the Son wills, and what the Son wills the Father acquiesces in
for ever. And this the Son wills, and his will is backed with infinite
merit, in which also the Father rests, that those, all those whom the
Father hath given him, be with him where he is, that they may behold
his glory (John 17:24). And now I am come to the will and affections of
the high-priest.
II. NATURAL. [The natural qualifications of Jesus Christ to be our high
priest.]
This leads me to the second head, namely, to the natural qualifications
of him. And,
First. This is one thing that I would urge, he is not of a nature
foreign to that of man; the angels love us well, but they are not so
capable of sympathising with us in our distresses, because they are not
partakers of our nature. Nature hath a peculiar sympathy in it; now he
is naturally one with us, sin only excepted, and that is our advantage
too. He is man as we are, flesh and blood as we are: born of a woman,
and in all points made like unto us, that excepted which the Holy Ghost
excepteth. ‘Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and
blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. For verily he
took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of
Abraham’ (Heb 2:14,16). This doth qualify him much; for, as I said
before, there is a sympathy in nature. A man will not be so affected
with the hurt that comes to a beast, as he naturally will with the hurt
that comes to a man: a beast will be more affected with those attempts
that are made upon its own kind to hurt it, than it will be with those
that are made upon man. Wherefore? Why, there is a sympathy in nature.
Now that Christ, the high priest of the house of God, is naturally one
with us, you see the Scriptures plainly affirm. ‘God sent forth his
Son, made of a woman’ (Gal 4:4); he was ‘made of the seed of David,
according to the flesh’ (Rom 1:3); from the fathers of whom, ‘as
concerning the flesh Christ came,’ &c. (Rom 9:5; 2 Tim 2:8). And this
must needs then to make him a well-qualified high priest (Heb 2:14,15).
We will not now speak of the necessity of his taking upon him the human
nature, to wit, that he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is, the devil, and deliver his people; for that would be here too
much beside our matter, and be a diversion to the reader. We are now
upon his High Priest’s office, and of those natural qualifications that
attend him, as to that; and I say, nature is a great qualification,
because in nature there is sympathy; and where there is sympathy, there
will be a provocation to help, a provocation to help with jealousy and
indignation against those that afflict. A bear robbed of her whelps is
not more provoked than is the Lord Jesus when there are means used to
make them miss of life eternal, for whom he hath died, and for whom he
ever lives to make intercession. But,
Second. As there is natural sympathy in Christ to those for whom he is
an High Priest, so there is relative sympathy; he has not only taken to
or upon him our nature, but he is become one brotherhood with us; now
you know brotherhood will carry a man further than nature; so then,
when nature and relation meet, there is a double obligation. ‘For both
he that sanctifieth,’ which is Christ, ‘and they who are sanctified,’
his saints, ‘are all of one,’ which is God; and they are all of God, as
children of a Father; ‘for which cause he is not ashamed to call them
brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the
midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee’ (Heb 2:11,12). Now a
relation is much, and a natural relation most of all. Why, here is a
natural relation betwixt Christ the High Priest, and those for whom ‘he
ever liveth to make intercession’; a natural relation, I say, and that
with respect to the humanity which is the nature subject to affliction
and distress; ‘Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh
and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same’ (Heb 2:14).
So then it is for a brother that he is engaged, for a brother that he
doth make intercession. When Gideon knew by the confession of Zeba and
Zalmunna, that the men that they slew at Tabor were his brethren, his
fury came into his face, and he sware they should therefore die (Judg
8:18-21). Relation is a great matter. And therefore it is said again,
‘In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that
he might be a merciful High Priest’ (Heb 2:17). A brother is born for
adversity; and a brother will go far. This therefore is a second thing
or another qualification, with which Christ Jesus is furnished to be an
High Priest; he is a brother, there is a brotherly relation betwixt him
and us; therefore by virtue of this relation he maketh intercession for
us more affectionately.
Third. There are other things in Christ Jesus that makes him naturally
of an excellent qualification with reference to his priesthood for us,
and they are the temptations and infirmities wherewith he was exercised
in the days of his humiliation. It is true, temptations and
infirmities, strictly considered, are none of our nature, no more are
they of his; but yet, if it be proper to say temptations and
afflictions have a nature, his and ours were naturally the same; and
that in all points too; for so says the text, ‘He was tempted in all
points, like as we are, yet without sin’ (Heb 4:15). Are we tempted to
distrust God? so was he: are we tempted to murder ourselves? so was he:
are we tempted with the bewitching vanities of this world? so was he:
are we tempted to commit idolatry, and to worship the devil? so was he
(Matt 4:3-10; Luke 4:1-13). So that herein we also were alike; yea,
from his cradle to his cross he was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with griefs, a man of affliction throughout the whole course of his
life.
And observe it, He was made so, or subjected thereto by the ordinance
of God; nay, further, it behoved him to be made so, that is, to be made
like unto us in all things, the better to capacitate him to the work of
his priesthood, with the more bowels and compassion. We will read to
you the text; ‘Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like
unto his brethren, that he might be,’ qualified to be, ‘a merciful and
faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make
reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath
suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted’
(Heb 2:17,18). See here how he is qualified, and to what end; he was
tempted as we are, suffered by temptations as we do, in all points and
things as we are; that he might be bowels, that he might be a merciful
and faithful High Priest, in things pertaining to God, to make up the
difference that is made by sin between God and his people, to make
reconciliation for the sins of the people. Yea, he by being tempted,
and by suffering as he did, he is prepared and enabled so to do; ‘for
in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour
them that are tempted.’ Wherefore, I also call this qualification both
natural and necessary; natural, because in kind the same with ours;
that is, his temptations were the same with ours; the same in nature,
the same in design, the same as to their own natural tendency; for
their natural tendency was to have ruined both him and us, but God
prevented. They also were necessary, though not of themselves, yet made
so by him that can bring good out of evil, and light out of darkness;
made so, I say, to us, for whose sakes they were suffered to assault
and afflict him, namely, that he might be able to be merciful,
faithful, and succouring to us.
Fourth. Another qualification with which our High Priest is furnished,
for the better fitting of him to make intercession for us, is, that we
are his members; to be a member is more than to be of the same nature,
or the nearest of relations, that excepted. So, then, now he makes
intercession for his own self, for his own body, and for the several
members of his body. The High Priest under the law did use to offer up
sacrifice for himself; first ‘for himself,’ for his own sins, and then
‘for the errors of the people.’ I will not say that Christ had any sin
that was personally, or by his act, his own; for that would be to
blaspheme the name of that Holy One; but yet I will say, he made the
sins of the people his own (Psa 69:5). Yea, God the Father made them
his; those also for whom he ever liveth to make intercession, are
united to him, made members of his body, of his flesh, and of his
bones; and so are any part of himself (2 Cor 5:21).
But we are now about his natural qualifications, and this is one; that
they for whom he ever liveth to make intercession are his members, the
members of his body; ‘we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of
his bones,’ so saith the Word (Eph 5:30). Wherefore here is a near
concern, for that his church is part of himself; it is his own concern,
it is for our own flesh. ‘No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but
nourisheth and cherisheth it’ (Eph 5:29).—Things are thus spoken,
because of the infirmity of our flesh.—So that had Christ no love to us
as we are sinners, yet because we are part of himself, he cannot but
care for us, nature puts him upon it; yea, and the more infirm and weak
we are, the more he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, the
more he is afflicted for us: ‘For we have not an High Priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities’ (Heb 4:15). He
at no time loseth this his fellow-feeling, because he always is our
head, and we the members of his. I will add, the infirm member is most
cared for, most pitied, most watched over to be kept from harms, and
most consulted for.[30]
I love to play the child with little children, and have learned
something by so doing; I have met with a child that has had a sore
finger; yea, so sore as to be altogether at present useless; and not
only so, but by reason of its infirmity, has been a let or hindrance to
the use of all the fingers that have been upon that hand, then have I
began to bemoan the child, and said, Alas! my poor boy, or girl, hast
got a sore finger! Ah! quoth the child, with water in its eyes, and
hath come to me to be bemoaned. Then I have begun to offer to touch the
sore finger. O! saith the child, pray do not hurt me: I then have
replied, Canst thou do nothing with this finger? No, saith the child,
nor with this hand either; then have I said, Shall we cut off this
finger, and buy my child a better, a brave golden finger? At this the
child has started, stared in my face, gone back from me, and
entertained a kind of indignation against me, and has no more cared to
be intimate with me. Then have I begun to make some use of that good
sermon which this little child has preached unto me; and thus have I
gone on. If membership be so dear, if this child has such tenderness to
the most infirm, the most useless of its members; if it counts me its
friend no longer than when I have a mouth to bemoan and carriages that
show tenderness to this useless finger; what an interest doth
membership give on in the body, and what compassions hath the soul for
such an useless thing, because it is a member! and turning all this
over to Jesus Christ, then instead of matter and corruption, there
presently comes honey to me out of this child’s sore finger; I take
leave to tell you now how I use to play. And though I have told this
tale upon so grave a truth, as is the membership of Christians with
their head, yet bear with me; no child can be so tender of its sore
finger as is the Son of God of his afflicted members; he cannot but be
touched with the feeling of our infirmities.[31]
Ah! who would not make many supplications, prayers, and intercessions,
for a leg, for an eye, for a foot, for a hand, for a finger, rather
than they will lose it? And can it be imagined that Christ alone shall
be like the foolish ostrich, hardened against his young, yea, against
his members? It cannot be.
Should he lose a member, he would be disfigured, maimed, dismembered,
imperfect, next to monstrous. For his body is called his fulness, yea,
the fulness of him that fills all in all. This has naturally a respect
for those for whom he ever liveth to make intercession; yea, an
unfathomable respect for them, because they are his members.
Fifth. But again, when nature, relation, and membership is urged to
show the fit qualifications wherewith Christ is endued, I intend not to
intimate, as if the bottom of all lay here; for then it might be urged
that one imperfect has all these; for who knows not that sinful man has
all these qualifications in him towards his nature, relations, and
members? I have therefore, as I said, thus discoursed, only for
demonstration-sake, and to suit myself with the infirmity of your
flesh. I might come, also, in the next place, to tell you, that Jesus
Christ our High Priest is thus, with reference to other designs. We are
his purchase and he counts us so; his jewels, and he counts us so; his
estate real, and he counts us so (Psa 16:5,6). And you know a man will
do much, speak much, intercede much and long, for that which he thus is
interested in. But we will come to speak more particularly of the
exceeding excellency of his natural qualifications, and show you that
he hath such as are peculiar to himself alone, and that we are
concerned in them.
[The peculiar natural qualifications of Christ as our High Priest.]
1. He is holy, and so a suitable High Priest. There is a holiness that
sets further from, and a holiness that brings one nearer to, and to be
concerned the more with the condition of those in affliction; and that
holiness is that which is entailed unto office. When a man is put into
an office, the more unholy he is, the worse he performs his office; and
the more holy, the better he performs his office. For his holiness
obliges him to be faithful unto men, wherein he is concerned by his
office. Hence you read, that he is ‘a faithful High Priest,’ because he
is a holy one, and ‘such an High Priest became us, who is holy,’ &c.
(Heb 2:17, 7:26). ‘Good and upright is the Lord’ Jehovah, Christ Jesus,
‘therefore will he teach sinners in the way’ (Psa 25:8). ‘He that
ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God’ (2 Sam 23:3).
I mention these texts to show you, that holiness, when entailed to
office, makes a man do that office the better. Now then, Christ is
holy, and he is made, called, and made of God an High Priest, after the
order of Melchisedec, and is to manage that his office for thee with
God; that is to say, to continue to make reconciliation for iniquity;
for that iniquity that cleaveth unto thee, and that spuriously
breaketh, or issueth from thy flesh after thou art called and
converted. For we are now upon the second part of the execution of the
priesthood of Christ; that which he executeth, I say; and by executing
takes away the iniquity of our holy things and of our life, after our
turning to God by him. Now he that is to do this is holy, and so one
that will make conscience of performing that office for us, with which
he is intrusted of God. Hence he is set in opposition to those high
priests that had infirmities, that were not holy, and upon this very
account preferred above them. ‘For the law maketh men high priests
which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the
law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated,’ perfected, or holy ‘for
evermore’ (Heb 7:28). This therefore is a great thing, to wit, that we
have an High Priest that is holy, and so one that will not fail to
perform to the utmost the trust committed to him in our behalf, to wit,
‘to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins’ (Heb 5:1). This is one
thing.
2. There is added to this of his holiness another; and that is
harmless. ‘For such an High Priest became us who is holy, harmless’
(Heb 7:26). A harmful man, when he is in office, O how much mischief
may he do! Such an one is partial in doing his office, such an one will
put the poor by his right, such an one will buy and sell a cause, a
man, an interest, will do or not do, as his harmfulness prompts him to
it; ‘so is a wicked ruler over the poor people’ (Prov 28:15). But now
our Jesus, our High Priest, is holy, harmless; he will wrong no man, he
will deprive no man, he will contemn no man, he will deny to no man
that comes to God by him, the benefit and advantage of his blessed
intercession; he respecteth not persons, nor taketh reward. A harmful
man will stomach, and hate, and prejudice a man; will wait for an
opportunity to do him a mischief; will take the advantage, if he can,
to deny him his right, and keep from him his due, when yet it is in the
power of his hand to help him. O! but Christ is harmless, harmless as a
dove, he thinks no ill, intends no ill, doth no ill; but graciously,
innocently, harmlessly, makes intercession for thee; nor will he be
prevailed with to prejudice thy person, or to forbear to take up thy
name into his lips, be thy infirmities, and weaknesses, and
provocations never so many, if thou indeed comest to God by him. He is
holy, and harmless, and so the more fit to become our High Priest and
to make intercession for us.
3. But again, this is not all, he also is undefiled; ‘For such an High
Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled.’ This term is put
in to show, that he neither is, nor can be found, neither now, nor at
any time, faulty in his office. A man that is holy may yet be defiled;
a man that is harmless may yet be defiled. We are bid to be holy and
harmless; and in a gospel sense so every Christian is. O! but Christ is
so in a legal sense; in the eye of the law, perfectly so. This is a
great matter, for it shows, that as nothing done by us can tempt him to
be hurtful to us; so there is nothing in himself that can tempt him so
to be. A man that is defiled has that within him that will put him upon
using of his office unfaithfully, though he should have no provocation
from those for whose good he is to execute his office; but he that is
undefiled—undefiled in a law sense—as our Lord Jesus is, is such an one
as doth not only not do hurt, and not act falsely in his office, but
one that cannot, one that knoweth not, how to be unfaithful to his
trust. He is holy, harmless, undefiled, this therefore is a great
thing. He has not the original of hurtfulness in him, there is no such
root there; there is a root of bitterness, springing up in us, by which
not only ourselves, but ofttimes others are defiled (Heb 12:15). O! but
our High Priest is undefiled, he is not corrupt, nor corrupteth; he
doth his office fairly, faithfully, holily, justly, according to, or
answering, our necessities, and the trust reposed in him, and committed
to him. But,