Thirdly, That the oblation of Christ is, as it were, the foundation of his intercession, inasmuch as by the oblation was procured every thing that, by virtue of his intercession, is bestowed ; and that because the sole end why Christ procured any thing by his death was that it might be applied to them for whom it was so procured. The sum is, that the oblation and intercession of Jesus Christ are one entire means for the producing of the same effect, the very end of the obla- tion being that all those things which are bestowed by the interces- sion of Christ, and without whose application it should certainly fail of the end proposed in it, be effected accordingly ; so that it cannot be affirmed that the death or offering of Christ concerned any one person or thing more, in respect of procuring any good, than his in- tercession doth for the collating of it : for, interceding there for all good purchased, and prevailing in all his intercessions (for the Fa- ther always hears his Son), it is evident that every one for whom Christ died must actually have applied unto him all the good things purchased by his death ; which, because it is evidently destructive to the adverse cause, we must a little stay to confirm it, only telling you the main proof of it lies in our following proposal of assigning the proper end intended and effected by the death of Christ, so that the chief proof must be deferred until then. I shall now only pro- pose those reasons which may be handled apart, not merely depend- ing upon that.
J 82 THE DEATH OF DEATH. [BOOK I.
CHAPTER VII.
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 pei^oetual union \Yhieli 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," Isa. liii. 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 to- gether 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, verse 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 healing is the fruit and procure- ment of his stripes, or the oblation consummated thereby. So also, Rom. iv. 25, " He was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." For whose offences he died, for their justification he rose ; — and therefore, if he died for all, all must also be justified, or the Lord faileth in his aim and design, both in the death and resurrection of his Son; which though some have boldly afiirmed, yet for my part I cannot but abhor the owning of so blasphemous a fancy. Rather let us close with that of the apostle, gTOunding the assurance of our eternal glory and freedom from all accusations upon the death of Christ, and that because his intercession also for us doth 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 con- demned 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," Rom. viii. 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 intircedeth only for some Avill scarcely be squared to this text, especially considering the foundation of all this, which is (verse 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 ; Avhich how it
END OF CHRIST'S DEATH AS ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED. 183
can be reconciled with their opinion who affirm that he gave his Son for millions to whom he will give neither gi'ace 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," Rom. v. 6, 9; — the same between the oblation and intercession of Christ, with their fruits and effects, being intimated in very many other places.