Use 1. Doth Christ live for ever in heaven to present his blood to God in the way of intercession for believers ? How sad then is their case ', that have no interest in Chrisfs blood; but instead of pleading for them, it cries to God against them, as the despisers and abusers of it ! Every unbeliever despises it : The apostate treads it under foot. He that is an intercessor for some, will be an ac- cuser of others. To be guilty of a man's blood is sad ; but to have the blood of Jesus accusing and crying to God against a soul, is un- speakably terrible. Surely when he shall make inquisition for blood, when the day of his vengeance is come, he will make it appear by the judgments he will execute, that this is a sin never to be ex- piated, but vengeance shall pursue the sinner to the bottom of hell. Ah ! what do men and women do, in rejecting the gracious offer of Christ ! what, tread upon a Saviour ! and cast contempt, by unbelief and hardness of heart, upon their only remedy ! I remember I have read of a harlot that killed her child, and said that it smiled upon her when she went to stab it. Sinner; doth not Christ smile upon
SERM. XIII. THE FOUNTAIN OF IIF«. 173
thee in the gospel ? And wilt thou, as it were, stab him to the heart by thine infidelity ? Wo, and alas for that man, against whom this blood cries in heaven !
Use 2. Doth Christ live for ever to make intercession ? Hence let believers fetch relief, and draw encouragement against all the causes and grounds of their fears and troubles ; for surely this answers them all.
1. Hence let them be encouraged against all their sinful infirmi- ties, and lamented weaknesses. It is confessed these are sad things ; they grieve the Spirit of God, sadden your own hearts, cloud your evidences; but having such a High-priest in heaven, can never be your ruin. 1 John ii. 1, 2. " My little children, these " things write I unto you, that you sin not : and if any man sin, " we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righte- " ous." [My little children.] Children, especially little chil- dren, when first beginning to take the foot, are apt to stumble at every straw ; so are raw, young and unexperienced Christians : but what if they do ? Why though it must be far from them to take encouragement so to do from Christ and his intercession, yet if by surprizal they do sin, let them not be utterly discouraged : for we have an Advocate, he stops whatever plea may be brought in against us by the Devil, or the law, and answers all by his sa- tisfaction : he gets out fresh pardons for new sins. And this Ad- vocate is with [the Father :] he doth not say with his Father, though that had been a singular support in itself, nor yet with our Father, which is a sweet encouragement singly considered, but with [the Father] which takes in both, to make the encourage- ment full. Remember, you that are cast down, under the sense of sin, that Jesus, your friend, in the court above, " is able to " save to the uttermost.'1 Which is, as * one calls it, a reaching word, and extends itself so far, that thou canst not look beyond it. " Let thy soul be set on the highest mount that any creature " was ever set on, and enlarged to take in view the most spacious " prospect both of sin and misery, and difficulties of being saved, " that ever yet any poor humble soul did cast within itself; yea, " join to these all the hindrances and objections that the heart of " man can invent against itself and salvation : lift up thine eyes, " and look to the utmost thou canst see ; and Christ, by his inter- " cession, is able to save thee beyond the horizon and utmost com- " pass of thy thoughts, even to the utmost''''
2. Hence draw abundant encouragement against all heart-straiU enings, and deadness of Spirit in prayer. Thou complainest thy heart is dead, wandering, and contracted in duty : O, but remem- ber Christ's blood speaks, when thou canst not ; it can plead for thee,
* Goodwin's Triumph, p. 263.
ITi THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. *ERM. XIII.
and that powerfully, when thou art not able to speak a word for thyself : to this sense that scripture speaks, Cant. iii. 6. " Who is " this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, per- " fumed with myrrh, and frankincense, with all powders of the ** merchant F" The duties of Christians go up many times, as pil- lars or clouds of smoke from them, more smoke than fire, prayers smoked and sullied with their offensive corruptions ; but, remem- ber, Christ perfumes them with myrrh, <$•<?. He, by his inter- cession, gives them a sweet perfume.
3. Christ's intercession is a singular relief to all that come unto God by him, against all sinful damps and slavish fears from the jus- tice of God *. Nothing more promotes the fear of reverence ; nothing more suppresseth unbelieving despondencies, and destroys the spirit of bondage. So you find it, Heb. x. 19, 20, 21. " Having " therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest, by the u blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath conse* *c crated for us through the vail, that is to say, his flesh ; and " having a High-priest over the house of God, let us draw near " with a true heart, si/ «rX«jgopo©/a w&aHf, in full assurance of faith :" or let us come unto God, as a ship comes with full sail into the harbour. O what a direct and full gale of encouragement doth this intercession of Christ give to the poor soul that lay a-ground, or was wind-bound before ?
4. The intercession of Christ gives admirable satisfaction and encouragement to all that come to God, against the fears of de- serting him again by apostasy. This, my friends, this is your principal security against these matters of fear. With this he re- lieved Peter, Luke xxii. 31, %% " Simon, (saith Christ) Satan " hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat ; but I " have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not," q. d. Satan will fan thee, not to get out thy chaff, but bolt out thy flour : his temptations are levelled against thy faith ; but fear not, my prayer shall break his designs, and secure thy faith against all his at- tempts upon it. Upon this powerful intercession of Christ, the apostle builds his triumph against all that threatens to bring him, or any of the saints, again into a state of condemnation. And see how he drives on that triumph, from the resurrection, and session of Christ at the Father's right hand ; and especially from the work
* If Jesus be the Mediator of the new covenant, believers may go with bold- ness, and look the justice of God in the face ; for your debt is satisfied. So long as a man is in debt, he steals by the prison door in the dark : but if his surety have paid the debt, he dares come (as you say) and whet his knife at the compter door. Christ, your surety, hath paid the debt ; you may go with boldness, and look justice in the face, the Devil and all the Serjeants of hell in the face. Mr. W. M. in his treatise of Christ and the covenant, p. 9€,