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Containing
reasons to prove the oblation and intercession of Christ to be
one entire means respecting the accomplishment of the same
proposed end, and to have the same personal object.
I.
Our first reason is taken from that perpetual union which the
Scripture maketh of both these, almost always joining them
together, and so manifesting those things to be most inseparable
which are looked upon as the distinct fruits and effects of them:
“By
his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many, for he
shall bear their iniquities,” Isaiah 53:11.
The
actual justification of sinners, the immediate fruit of his
intercession, certainly follows his bearing of their iniquities.
And in the next verse they are of God so put together that surely
none ought to presume to put them asunder: “He bare the sin
of many” (behold his oblation!), “and made intercession
for the transgressors;” even for those many transgressors
whose sin he bears. And there is one expression in that chapter,
Isaiah 53:5, which makes it evident that the utmost application
of all good things for which he intercedes is the immediate
effect of his passion: “With his stripes we are
healed.” Our total hearing is the fruit and procurement of
his stripes, or the oblation consummated thereby. So also, Romans
4:25,
“He
was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our
justification.”
For
whose offenses he died, for their justification he rose; —
and therefore, if he died for all, all must also be justified, or
the Lord failed in his aim and design, both in the death and
resurrection of his Son; which though some have boldly affirmed,
yet for my part I cannot but abhor the owning of so blasphemous a
fancy. Rather let us close with that of the apostle, grounding
the assurance of our eternal glory and freedom from all
accusations upon the death of Christ, and that because his
intercession also for us does inseparably and necessarily follow
it. “Who,” saith he, “shall lay any thing to the
charge of God’s elect?” (It seems also, that it is only
they for whom Christ died.) “It is God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died,” (shall none,
then, be condemned for whom Christ died? what, then, becomes of
the general ransom?)
“yea
rather, who is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God,
who also maketh intercession for us,” Romans 8:33, 34.
Here
is an equal extent of the one and the other; those persons who
are concerned in the one are all of them concerned in the other.
That he died for all and intercedes only for some will scarcely
be squared to this text, especially considering the foundation of
all this, which is ( Romans 8:32) that love of God which moved
him to give up Christ to death for us all; upon which the apostle
infers a kind of impossibility in not giving us all good things
in him; which how it can be reconciled with their opinion who
affirm that he gave his Son for millions to whom lie will give
neither grace nor glory, I cannot see. But we rest in that of the
same apostle: “When we were yet without strength, in due
time. Christ died for the ungodly;” so that, “being now
justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through
him,” Romans 5:6, 9; — the same between the oblation
and intercession of Christ, with their fruits and effects, being
intimated in very many other places.
II.
To offer and to intercede, to sacrifice and to pray, are both
acts of the same sacerdotal office, and both required in him who
is a priest; so that if he omit either of these, he cannot be a
faithful priest for them: if either he does not offer for them,
or not intercede for the success of his oblation on their behalf,
he is wanting in the discharge of his office by him undertaken.
Both these we find conjoined (as before) in Jesus Christ: 1 John
2:1, 2, “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation
for our sins.” He must be an advocate to intercede, as well
as offer a propitiatory sacrifice, if he will be such a merciful
high priest over the house of God as that the children should be
encouraged to go to God by him. This the apostle exceedingly
clears and evidently proves in the Epistle to the Hebrews,
describing the priesthood of Christ, in the execution thereof, to
consist in these two acts, of offering up himself in and by the
shedding of his blood, and interceding for us to the utmost; upon
the performance of both which he presseth an exhortation to draw
near with confidence to the throne of grace, for he is
“come
an high priest of good things to come, not by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood he entered into the holy place,
having obtained eternal redemption for us,” Hebrews 9:11,
12.
His
bloody oblation gave him entrance into the holy place not made
with hands, there to accomplish the remaining part of his office,
the apostle comparing his entrance into heaven for us with the
entrance of the high priest into the holy place, with the blood
of bulls and goats upon him, Hebrews 9:12, 13 (which, doubtless,
was to pray for them in whose behalf he had offered, Hebrews
9:7); so presenting himself before his Father that his former
oblation might have its efficacy. And hence he is said to have ajpara>baton
iJerwsu>nhn, because he continueth for ever, Hebrews 7:24; so
being “able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God
by him, Hebrews 7:25: wherefore we have “boldness to enter
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,” Hebrews 10:19-22.
So, then, it is evident that both these are acts of the same
priestly office in Christ: and if he perform either of them for
any, he must of necessity perform the other for them also; for be
will not exercise any act or duty of his priestly function in
their behalf for whom he is not a priest: and for whom he is a
priest he must perform both, seeing he is faithful in the
discharge of his function to the utmost in the behalf of the
sinners for whom he undertakes. These two, then, oblation and
intercession, must in respect of their objects be of equal
extent, and can by, no means be separated. And here, by the way
(the thing being by this argument, in my apprehension, made so
clear), I cannot but demand of those who oppose us about the
death of Christ, whether they will sustain that he intercedeth
for all or no; — if not, then they make him but half a
priest; if they will, they must be necessitated either to defend
this error, that all shall be saved, or own this blasphemy, that
Christ is not heard of his Father, nor can prevail in his
intercession, which yet the saints on earth are sure to do when
they make their supplications according to the will of God,
Romans 8:27; 1 John 5:14. Besides that, of our Savior it is
expressly said that the Father always heareth him, John 11:42;
and if that were true when he was yet in the way, in the days of
his flesh, and had not finished the great work be was sent about,
how much more then now, when, having done the will and finished
the work of God, he is set down on the right hand of the Majesty
on high, desiring and requesting the accomplishing of the
promises that were made unto him upon his undertaking this work!
of which before.
III.
The nature of the intercession of Christ will also prove no
less than what we assert, requiring an inseparable conjunction
between it and its oblation; for as it is now perfected in
heaven, it is not a humble dejection of himself, with cries,
tears, and supplications; nay, it cannot be conceived to be
vocal, by the way of entreaty, but merely real, by the
presentation of himself, sprinkled with the blood of the
covenant, before the throne of grace in our behalf.
“For
Christ,” saith the apostle, “is not entered into the
holy places made with hands, but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God for us,” Hebrews 9:24.
His
intercession there is an appearing for us in heaven in the
presence of God, a demonstration of his sacred body, wherein for
us he suffered: for (as we said before) the apostle, in the ninth
to the Hebrews, compares his entrance into heaven for us unto the
entrance of the high priest into the holy place, which was with
the blood of bulls and goats upon him, Hebrews 9:12, 13; our
Savior’s being with his own blood, so presenting himself
that his former oblation might have its perpetual efficacy, until
the many sons given unto him are brought to glory. And herein his
intercession consisteth, being nothing, as it were, but his
oblation continued. He was a “Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world,” Revelation 13:8. Now, his intercession before
his actual oblation in the fullness of time being nothing but a
presenting of the engagement that was upon him for the work in
due time to be accomplished, certainly that which follows it is
nothing but a presenting of what according to that engagement is
fulfilled; so that it is nothing but a continuation of his
oblation in postulating, by remembrance and declaration of it,
those things which by it were procured. How, then is it possible
that the one of these should be of larger compass and extent than
the other? Can he be said to offer for them for whom he doth not
intercede, when his intercession is nothing but a presenting of
his oblation in the behalf of them for whom he suffered, and for
the bestowing of those good things which by that were purchased.
IV.
Again: if the oblation and death of Christ procured and
obtained that every good thing should be bestowed which is
actually conferred by the intervening of his intercession, then
they have both of them the same aim, and are both means tending
to one and the same end. Now, for the proof of this supposal, we
must remember that which we delivered before concerning the
compact and agreement that was between the Father and the Son,
upon his voluntary engaging of himself unto this great work of
redemption; for upon that engagement, the Lord proposed unto him
as the end of his sufferings, and promised unto him as the reward
of his labors, the fruit of his deservings, every thing which be
afterward intercedeth for.
Many
particulars I before instanced in, and therefore now, to avoid
repetition, will wholly omit them, referring the reader to
chapter III for satisfaction: only, I shall demand what is the
ground and foundation of our Savior’s intercession,
understanding it to be by the way of entreaty, either virtual or
formal, as it may be conceived to be either real or oral, for the
obtaining of any thing. Must it not rest upon some promise made
unto him? or is there any good bestowed that is not promised? Is
it not apparent that the intercession of Christ doth rest on such
a promise as Psalm 2:8, “Ask of me, and I will give thee the
heathen for thine inheritance,” etc? Now, upon what
consideration was this promise and engagement made unto our
savior? Was it not for his undergoing of that about which
“the
kings set themselves, and the rulers took counsel together
against him,” Psalm 2:27
which
the apostles interpret of Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the
people of the Jews, persecuting him to death, and doing to him
“whatsoever
the hand and counsel of God had before determined to be
done,” Acts 4:27, 28.
The
intercession of Christ, then, being founded on promises made unto
him, and these promises being nothing but an engagement to bestow
and actually collate upon them for whom he suffered all those
good things which his death and oblation did merit and purchase,
it cannot be but that he intercedeth for all for whom he died,
that his death procured all and every thing which upon his
intercession is bestowed; and until they are bestowed, it hath
not its full fruits and effects. For that which some say, namely,
that the death of Christ doth procure that which is never
granted, we shall see afterward whether it do not contradict
Scripture, yea, and common sense.
V.
Further: what Christ hath put together let no man presume to
put asunder; distinguish between them they may, but separate them
they may not. Now, these things concerning which we treat (the
oblation and intercession of Christ) are by himself conjoined,
yea united, John 17; for there and then he did both offer and
intercede. He did then as perfectly offer himself, in respect of
his own will and intention, John 17:4, as on the cross; and as
perfectly intercede as now in heaven: who, then, can divide these
things, or put them asunder? especially considering that the
Scripture affirmeth that the one of them without the other would
have been unprofitable, 1 Corinthians 15:17; for complete
remission and redemption could not be obtained for us without the
entering of our high priest into the most holy place, Hebrews
9:12.
VI.
Lastly, A separating and dividing of the death and
intercession of Christ, in respect to the objects of them, cuts
off all that consolation which any soul might hope to attain by
an assurance that Christ died for him. That the doctrine of the
general ransom is an uncomfortable doctrine, cutting all the
nerves and sinews of that strong consolation which God is so
abundantly willing that we should receive, shall be afterward
declared. For the present, I will only show how it trencheth upon
our comfort in this particular. The main foundation of all the
confidence and assurance whereof in this life we may be made
partakers (which amounts to “joy unspeakable, and full of
glory”) ariseth from this strict connection of the oblation
and intercession of Jesus Christ; — that by the one he hath
procured all good things for us, and by the other he will procure
them to be actually bestowed, whereby be doth never leave our
sins, but follows them into every court, until they be fully
pardoned and clearly expiated, Hebrews 9:26. He will never leave
us until he hath saved to the uttermost them that come unto God
by him. His death without his resurrection would have profited us
nothing; all our faith in him had been in vain, 1 Corinthians
15:17. So that separated from it, with the intercession
following, either in his own intention or in the several
procurements of the one or the other, it will yield us but little
consolation; but in this connection it is a sure bottom for a
soul to build upon, Hebrews 7:25.
“What
good will it do me to be persuaded that Christ died for my sins,
if, notwithstanding that, my sins may appear against me for my
condemnation, where and when Christ will not appear for my
justification?”
If
you will ask, with the apostle, “Who is he that
condemneth?” “It is Christ that died,” it may
easily be answered, Romans 8:34. “Why, God by his law may
condemn me, notwithstanding Christ died for me!” Yea, but
saith the apostle, “He is risen again, and sitteth at the
right hand of God, making intercession for us” He rests not
in his death, but he will certainly make intercession for them
for whom he died: and this alone gives firm consolation. Our sins
dare not appear, nor any of our accusers against us, where he
appeareth for us. Cavilling objections against this text shall be
afterward considered; and so I hope I have sufficiently confirmed
and proved what in the beginning of this chapter I did propose
about the identity of the object of the oblation and intercession
of Jesus Christ.