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 doth not offer for them, or not inter- cede 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 ii. 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 ex- ceedingly clears and evidently proves in the Epistle to the Hebrews, describing the priesthood of Christ, in the execution thereof, to con- sist 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 per- formance 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," chap. ix. 1], 12. His bloody oblation gave him entrance into the holy place not made with hands, there to accom- plish 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, verses 12, 13 (which, doubtless, was to pray for them in whose behalf he had offered, verse 7) ; so presenting himself before his Father that his former oblation might have its efficacy. And hence he is said to have a-TrapaQaroii '/spuauvriv, because he continueth forever, chap. vii. 24; so being " able to save to the uttermost them that come unto God by him, verse 25 : wherefore we have "boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus," chap. x. 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 he 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
184 THE DEATH OF DEATH. [BOOK I.
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 tliose who oppose us about the death of Cln-ist, ■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, Rom. viii. 27, 1 John v. 14. Besides that, of our Saviour it is expressly said that the Father always heareth him, John xi. 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 he was sent about, how much more then noiu, 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 be- tween it and its oblation : for as it is now perfected in heaven, it is not a humble dejection of himself, with cries, tears, and supplica- tions; 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," Heb. ix. 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, verses 12, 13; our Saviour's being with his own blood, so presenting him- self 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 obla- tion continued. He was a " Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," Rev. xiii. 8. Now, his intercession before his actual oblation in tlie fulness of time being nothing but a presenting of the engage- ment that Avas upon him for the work in due time to be accom- plished, certainly that which follows it is nothing but a presenting of what according to that engagement is fulfilled ; so that it is nothing