* a faithful High-priest, in things pertaining to God,"" Heb. ii. 17. He assures us we may safely trust our concerns with him, John xiv. 9. " In my Father s house are many mansions ; if it " were not so, I would have told you ;" q. d, Do you think I could deceive you ? men may cheat you, but I will not ; your own hearts may and daily do deceive you, but so will not I. And for tender-heartedness, and sensible feelings for your conditions, there is none like him : Heb. iv. 15. " For we have not an High-
* priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmi- " ties ; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without " sin.'" We have not one that cannot sympathize, so it is in the Greek * : and on purpose that he might the better sympathize with us, he came as near to our conditions, as the holiness of his nature could permit. He suffered himself to be in all points tempted like • as we are, sin only excepted.
And then for his concernment and interest in the success of his suit ; he not only reckons, but hath really made it his own interest, yea, more his own than it is ours : For now by reason of the mys- tical union, all our wants and troubles are his, Eph. i. 93. yea, his
* MTj&A'a/xsvov ffu/£z;a6riva.i. Though he cannot weep or grieve now as he did on earth, yet he can love now as much as ever he loved ; and therefore he looks down from heaven upon every particular member ; he seeth that this man wants this grace, and that man wants that; and the other is in danger of this corruption, or that tempta- tion, and be is daily carrying on the cure. You see not your Physician, he stands out of your sight; but he seeth you, and it is he that doth all for you that is done. Baxter s Treatise of conversion.
fcERM. XIII. THE FOUNTAIN OT LIFE. 171
own glory and completeness, as Mediator, is deeply interested in it ; and therefore we need not doubt but he will use all care and di- ligence in that work. If you say, so he may, and yet not speed for all that, for it depends upon the Father's grant : True, but then,
% Consider the great interest he hath in the Father, with whom he intercedes. Christ is his dear Son, Col. i. 13. the beloved of his soul, Eph. i. 6. Betwixt him and the Father, with whom, when he intercedes, there is an unity, not only of nature, but will; and so he always hears him, John xi. 42. Yea, and he said to his dear Son, when he came first to heaven, " Ask of me, and I f will give thee," Psal. ii. 8. Moreover,
He must needs speed in his suit, if you consider the nature of his intercession, which is just and reasonable for the matter, urgent and continual, for the manner of it. The matter of his request is most equal : what he desires is not desired gratis, or upon terms unbecoming the holiness and righteousness of God to grant ; he desires no more but what he has deserved, and given a valuable consideration to the Father for. And so the justice of God doth, not only not oppose, but furthers and pleads for the granting and fulfilling his requests.
Here you must remember, that the Father is under a covenant tie and bond to do what he asks ; for Christ having fully perform- ed the work on his part, the mercies he intercedes for, are as due as the hire of the labourer is, when the work is faithfully dona And as the matter is just, so the manner of his intercession is ur- gent and continual. How importunate a suiter he is, may be ga- thered from that specimen given of it in John xvii. and for the constancy of it, my text tells us, " he ever lives to make interces- " sion:" It is his great business in heaven, and he follows it close. And to close all,
4. Consider who they are for whom he makes intercession: The friends of God, the children of God ; those that the Father himself loves, and his heart is propense and ready enough to grant the best and greatest of mercies to : which is the meaning of John xv. 26, 27. " The Father himself loveth you." And it must needs be so, for the first corner stone of all these mercies was laid by the Father himself in his most free election. He also delivered his Son for us ; and " how shall he not with him freely' give us all " things ?" Rom. viii. 32. So then there can remain no doubt upon a considering heart, but that Christ is a prevalent and suc- cessful intercessor in heaven. There only remains one thing more to be satisfied, and that is,
Fourthly, In what sense he is to live for ever to make intercession. Shall he then be always at his work ? employed in begging new favours for us to eternity ? How then shall the people of God be
172 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SERM. XIH.
perfect in heaven, if there be need of Christ's intercession to eter- nity for them ?
I answer, by distinguishing the essence and substance of Christ's offices, from the way and manner of administration. In the first sense it is eternal : for his mediatory kingdom, as to the essence of it, is to abide for ever ; Christ shall never cease to be a Mediator ; the church shall never want a head ; for " of his kingdom, there " shall be no end,11 Luke i. 33. however, Christ, as a Mediator, being employed in a kind of subordinate way, 1 Cor. iii. 23. when he shall have accomplished that design for which he became a Mediator, " Then shall he deliver up the kingdom (in the sense u we spake before) to the Father, and so God shall be all in all," 1 Cor. xv. 24. Then shall the divinity of Christ, which was so emptied and obscured in his undertaking this temporary dispensa- tory kingdom, be more gloriously manifested, by the full posses- sion, use, and enjoyment of that natural, divine, eternal kingdom, which belongs to all the three co-essential and co-equal persons, reigning with the same power, majesty, and glory, in the unity of the Divine Essence, and common acts, in all, and over all, infi- nitely and immutably for ever.
And so Christ continues to be our Mediator ; and yet that af- fords no argument that our happiness shall be incomplete, but ra- ther argues the perfection of the church, which thenceforth shall be governed no more as it now is, nor have any farther use of ordi- nances, but shall be ruled more immediately, gloriously, tri- umphantly, and ineffably in the world to come. The substance of his Mediatorship is not changed, but the manner of the admi- nistration only.