his humane Nature and in our stead at his Resurrection He conquers and subdues that death the first Adam brought in and reigns over it by his Grace Rom. 5.21 Christians would you aspire after the Resurrection of the dead as Paul did Phil. 3.11 direct all your Aims build all your Hopes on Christ's Resurrection Because I live ye shall live also John 14.19 This living Head will in a little time have no dead Members with his dead body shall they arise Isa 26.19 6. Christ's Ascension to Heaven is a ground of Boldness in coming to the Throne of Grace So in the Context ver 14. He is passed into the Heavens This is great ground of Faith that Christ is in Heaven and for us hath entred within the vail Heb. 6.20 How dare a sinful Man adventure into God's Presence Because there is a sinless Man there that went thither on purpose to mind our business who are on Earth No Man ever went thus into Heaven and on this Errand but our High-priest John 3.13 All others go thither to get for themselves Christ ascended to get and to give Psal 68.18 Eph. 4.8 How kindly did our Lord deal with his Disciples about this and how hardly were they peswaded to submit to his going away He told them whither he was going and for what he told them of his returning again and receaving them to himself never to part more John 14.2,3,4 And yet sorrow filled their Hearts John 16.6 He again saith ver 7. Nevertheless it is expedient for you that I go away If you will not be content because it is necessary and fit for me I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away How hard was it to believe this What was to all Reason is more expedient yea necessary than that such weak Schollars should have their blessed Master's Company it was so far from seeming expedient to them that they thought they would be ruined thereby and were very near it Luke 24.21 Although the Matter be not so obvious to our Conceptions and liking yet really it is a greater Mercy and advantage to us that we have our glorified Mediator at the Father's Right Hand than if we had him present with us upon the Earth It is more expedient for us that he is where he is than it would be to have him where we are Poor distressed Believers they cry for Ministers and Christians to pray with them and for them O but if they had one hour of Christ's bodily presence with them and had him to pray for them as he did for some when he was on Earth what heavenly Consolation would it be to them Take in by Faith the comfort of his being in Heaven and his being as knowing and mindful of you and as able to help and that as speedily as he was on Earth or could be if he were now on Earth with you Lastly Our Lord's Intercession in Heaven is a great and strong ground of Confidence in coming to the Throne of Grace This is in the Context This is the last ground of Paul's Triumph of Faith Rom. 8.33.34 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect it is God that justifieth Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh Intercession for us His Faith begins at Christ's death and riseth out of his Grave with him ascends up with him to the Right Hand of God and concerns it self in his Intercession there Not unlike this Rising and Climbing of Faith is his account of the Rising of Grace on the Vessels of Grace Eph. 2.4,5 They are dead in sins when Grace finds them first The first thing Grace doth to them is to quicken them with Christ then raising them up together then setting them in heavenly places in Christ All our Life springs out of Christ's Grave John 12.24 Verily verily I say unto you except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit This heavenly Grain Jesus Christ must be sown in the Earth and die and from the virtue of that death all the Life of Grace and Glory grows up in all his Branches He is indeed the Tree of Life that now groweth in the midst of the Paradise of God Rev. 2.7 And he is the Glory of the Place and the eternal Food of all the happy Inhabitants thereof But he was once dead in his Grave and grew out of that Grave up to all that Glory and Dignity that we shall one day be blessed with the beholding of John 17.24 In this his Glory in Heaven he interceeds for us Intercession is a sort of Praying 1 Tim. 2.1 Supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks are commanded to be made for all men We have one fad Intercession Rom. 11.2 Elias made intercession to God against Israel He was a severe Prophet and had severe Service put in his Hand But our great Prophet and High Priest makes no Intercession against his Israel but all for them This Intercession of Christ ' which is so great a ground of boldness to us at the Throne of Grace stands in these 1. In his Appearing in Heaven in our Nature and in our Name before God Heb. 9.24 For Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true and those were the places the High Priests of old entred into but into Heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us He is there not only for himself to reap the glorious Fruit of his hard Work on Earth but for his People as their Head and Representative All the Church the Body is now in Heaven it self because its Head is there Eph. 2.5,6 Christians you are now lying among the Pots and defiled with the Smoak and Sutt of this sinful World you are sometimes plunged in the Ditch till your own Cloaths abhor you as Job speaks chap. 9.31 You cry out Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesech that I dwell in the Tents of Kedar Psal 120.5 Let Faith say But where is my Lord and Head Is he not in Heaven in that Glory that I am not able now to bear a view of and he is appearing there as my nearest and dearest Friend I am ashamed to look on my self and my loathsom Deformity I am afraid that so foul and spotted a Face as mine should be seen in Heaven But Christ is there and my Christ is there and there he is to appear for me who must dread my personal Appearance there if it were not for this Appearance of my Head for me 2. Christ's Intercession stands in this That he in our Nature and in our Name presents continually the Savor of his Sacrifice Heb. 9.12 He went into the holy place not with the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood having obtained eternal Redemption for
unless the power of Sin had blinded Men in the right knowledge of God and of themselves and unless it had pussed up their Hearts in this darkness there had never been any pretence made by fallen Men to Self-Righteousness but now nothing is more common more groundless and yet more rooted in Mens Hearts than that a Sinner can and may if he will bring or do somewhat that may have some interest in and influence on his Acceptance with God A Sinner is needy of a Right to eternal life and this must be bought by another for he can never purchase it for himself He is needy of Safety from the Wrath to come which is so wofully well deserved by him and the Man can do nothing of himself but what deserves it more and further 4. We are needy of the help of Grace as Christians as new Creatures A Christian is a Creature by nature a humane Creature a sinful Creature but made a new Creature by grace Yet there are some springs of constant need of Grace in this new Creature the Christian 1. The necessary and constant dependance of the new Creature on its Fountain and Author makes a Christian to be a very needy Creature The dependance of the Beams on the Sun is not more necessary than the dependance of a Christian on Christ Without me or separate from me ye can do nothing John 15.5 The Christians life is by a continual Eflux from Christ and is to be sought and maintained by a constant dependance on him as Light is from the Sun Never was there nor can there be a Room so full of Light from the Sun-beams but if either the Sun withdraw his Light or if you exclude its light by closing Doors and Windows it immediately becomes dark and that necessarily It is so with all Christians If it were not that the new Covenant hath assured us that there shall be no final and total separating of the Fountain from the Stream there would soon be an expiring of all that Good that is in the best of Saints 2. A Christian is always a needy Creature because he hath much work to do and most necessary Work and all above his strength He that bath most Work and least Strength is most needy of help Phil. 2.12,13 Work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling For it is God which worketh in you both â—o will and to do of his good pleasure If the Exhortation or Command had been without the Argument it had been discouraging What can a Man do about his own Salvation It is God that begun a good work in them and will perform it till the day of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.6 Put hand to your Work for help is near As the Exhortation Work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling hath the height of Duty in it So the Argument for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure doth deeply debase Man's Sufficiency and highly advance both the Sovereignty and Efficacy of his assisting Grace And happy is that Christian who can lay the weight of the Command on his Conscience and can at the same time improve the Encouragement for believing obeying Whoever is void of a sense of his need of God's assisting Grace looks not rightly on the great Work lying before him and seeth not the great weakness that is in him 2 Cor. 3.5 Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God 3. In this great work above his strength the Christian meets with much Opposition both from within and from without Not always in the same measure but some always Special measures of opposition make times of special need of which I shall speak But there is somewhat of opposition that is constant Gal 5.17 For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would This Flesh and this Spirit is in all Christians if a Man were all Flesh he were no Christian if he were all Spirit he would be perfect as the Saints glorified be This Flesh and Spirit lust and strive on against the other And so they must do for they are contrary one to the other The effect of this lusting and contrariety is that the Christian cannot do the things that he would He cannot do all the Flesh lusts to because of the Spirit 's opposition he cannot do all the Spirit lusts after because of the opposition of the Flesh Of this Combate the Apostle speaks largely from his own Experience Rom. 7. And the more opposition a Christian meets with and I have named but one Head of it the more needy is he of helping Grace 4. The Christians State of absence from the Lord renders him a needy Creature He is made for the Lord fram'd so that as a Christian nothing short of being for ever and immediately with the Lord reigns in his Heart as his Prize and Mark. 2. Cor. 5.2,4 In this we groan earnestly desining to be cloathed with our House which is from Heaven We that are in this tabernacle do groan being burdened not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life What ails a Believer to groan so oft and so deeply It is to be in Heaven with the Lord. And the more heavenly and holy a Christian be the more frequent and earnest are these groanings He hath the most healthy Soul who is sick of Love whose Heart is sick with desires of being present with the Lord. The Believer that is most assured of Heaven groans deepest Unbelievers run on in Sin and sing to Hell while Hell groans for them and sad will the meeting be We find Paul groaning for himself only for two things The body of sin and death its dwelling in him Rom. 7.24 and his dwelling in the body We do not nor can we know the vast difference that is betwixt the happy State of the Saints in Heaven and the best State of Believers on Earth We do but guess in the dark and our guesses are but Negative that they are removed from all the Evils we find here No Sin no Clouds no Death no Crying or any thing to complain of But these Negatives taken in by Faith and Experience with the foretaste and first fruits of that good Land make Believers groan to be possessed of it though they go as Abraham did Heb. 11.8 not knowing whither Heaven will be a blessed surprize to all the Possessors of it They will find it a far better State than their highest thoughts and largest desires could point forth But besides these Spirings of constant need there are special Seasons of Christians need of God's Grace And they are easily known by this general Rule That time that comes on a Believer wherein he is in great and special danger from which only
the Wilderness and in the Temple of Solomon in Canaan But both Aron and his Successors and the Tabernacle and Temple were but Types and Shadows of Jesus Christ in his Person and Office There was the Holiest of all into which the High-Priest went alone and only once a year in this was the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat and Cherubims covering it whence these common expressions in the Old Testament of Gods dwelling between the Cherubims and of believers trusting in the shadow of his wings Now the holiest of all was their Type of Heaven and the Ark Cherubims Mercy-Seat were but all shadows as the Apostle calls them heb 10.1 of our Lord Jesus Christ and of that peace with God and access to God that he hath wrought out for men More particularly that most sacred of all things in the Jewish Old Testament-worship that was called the Mercy-Seat the Apostle calls a Throne of Grace thereby teaching us that whatever of Divine Grace was revealed and tendred to or perceived and received by the faith of the Old Testament Believers in their right use of these sacred old Institutions of God to his Church the same with great advantage Believers under the New Testament have in Jesus Christ the Body Antitype and substance of them We find 3 most solemn Things in the Old Testament in which the Mercy-Seat the Type of the Throne of Grace in the New Testament was applyed unto 1. The most solemn approach was made unto God in the High-priests going in once a year to the holiest of all where the Mercy-Seat was This was made not by the people in their own persons nor by any ordinary Levite who were priviledged with a greater nearness to God then the people Numb 16.9 Nor by any of the inferior Priests of the House of Aaron to which family the Office of Priesthood was by divine appointment confined nor by the High-priest himself but only once a year at a determinate time and with many appointed Ceremonies of preparation and performance Some tell us of a custom in their Worship that Musick by Singing and Instruments was used by the people to express their Joy and Praise when the High-priest returned safe out from that Sacred and Awful place the Holy of Holies 2. The most solemn attonment for the sins of Israel was made at the Mercy-Seat This was done in that yearly entrance of the High-priests into the Holiest of all Lev. 16.12,13 especially ver 14. And he Aaron the first of that Order of Priests shall take of the blood of the Bullock and sprinkle it with his finger on the Mercy-seat castward and before the Mercy-seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times ver 30. On that day shall the Priest make an attonement for you to cleanse you that ye may be clean from all your sins before the Lord. 3. The most solemn answers were given by God to their High-priest Exod. 25.17,22 where we have the Institution of the Mercy-seat and the form of it And there saith the Lord will I meet with thee and will I commune with thee And again Exod. 30.6 What the Old Testament Vrim and Thummim was and what their Shechinah was neither Jew now nor Christian know though they guess Only that they were special manifestations of the grace and favour and mind of God which expired with and some of them its thought before the end of that ministration But all these three Glories and Dignities and advantages of their Mercy-seat are all to be found in Christ Jesus who represents his people before God and presents them to him who hath made the perfect attonment for all his Israel and who declares to his Church all the saving will of God which he heard and received of his Father The Apostle here in this Epistle and in this Text would have all Belivers in Christ to know that the New Testament Throne of Grace is the same in substance with and with great advantage above the Old Testament Mercy-seat See Heb. 9.4 8. The Truth I would speak to is this That God in the Gospel sits on a Throne of Grace and from it calls and invites sinners to come unto him Let us come to the Throne of Grace certainly means Let us now come to God sitting on a Throne of Grace Let us take both direction and encouragement to come to God because he is on a Throne of Grace In handling of this point of Doctrine I would shew Three things 1. What this Throne of Grace is and how distinguished from other Thrones of God spoke of in the word 2. Why it is so called a Throne and a Throne of Grace 3. What coming to this Throne is 1. What is this Throne of Grace and how distinguished from other Thrones of God spoke of in the Word These other I would first name to prevent mistakes 1. We find a Throne of Glory much spoke of a Throne of the Essential Incomprehesible Glory of God This no man can approach to Of this the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 6.16 He dwelleth in light that no man can approach to whom no man hath seen nor can see Marvellous is this Light We find the more light there be in or about a person or thing the more easily and clearly it is perceived As the Sun is such a glorious Body that though it be at a vast distance from the earth we dwell on we yet can take it up with our eyes immediately assoon as it shines we can see it because of its light It is its own light and nothing else that doth or can discover it If the Sun did withdraw its own light all the eyes of men and all the artificial Fire and Light men can make would never help us to find it out But such is the Majesty of God that he is clothed with it Psal 93.1 Men are dazled and confounded by a little Ray of his Glory With God is terrible Majesty Job 37.22 This is not the Throne we are called to come unto They are but triflers in Religion that know not in their Experience how overwhelming the Views and Thoughts of Gods Majesty and Glory are when he is not seen as on a Throne of Grace I remembred God and was troubled saith one Saint Psal 77.3 I am troubled at his presence when I consider I am afraid of him saith another Job 23.15 No wonder Manoah said unto his Wife we shall surely die because we have seen God Judg. 13.22 When a view of the Heavenly Glory of Jesus Christ makes John who was wont to lean on his bosom in his humbled State to fall down at his feet as dead Rev. 1.17 2. There is a Throne of Gods Government of the World oft spoke of Psal 9.4,7 On this Throne God fits and rules all things at his pleasure and in Infinite Wisdom This Throne is to be believingly regarded by us but it is not the Throne of Grace that sinners are called to come unto for
glorified Saints from Heaven in his Company then it s good to be here say they not minding that which was more needful for them and all the Church and if they heard as is most likely the Discourse of Moses and Elias concerning the Decease of our Lord which he should accomplish at Jerusalem Luke 9 30,31 they were the more faulty It is very hard to be truly desirous of Heaven when we have much of Heaven on Earth yet it may be attained and Grace can help to it Of which in the last place 5. The Grace of God as it is needed so is it useful and helpful to Believers under special Enjoyments 1. Grace can humble the Soul under them and by them Though Satan make them Temptations to Pride the Lord can sanctifie them to be means of humbling Great Comforts do not natively tend to humble us but all discoveries of the Glory of God are humbling Isaiah found it so Isa 6.5 Wo is me for I am undone for mine Eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts The Vision was great and glorious it was a sight of God in Christ as John 12.41 These things said Esaias when he saw his glory and spake of him We would be apt to think the Prophet should rather have said Happy am I that I have seen now what I never saw before what few if any besides me have seen But such was the Impression the Spirit of God made on the Heart of this Man that this extraordinary Manifestation of God affects him with more deep self-abasement than ever he had before Happy is the Man that lies still the more low in himself and before God the more highly the Lord exalts him Job found this fruit of a clearer discovery of God chap. 42.5,6 Jacob in Gen. 32.30 Called the name of the place Penuel for I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved This place where he wrestled all night with the Lord where the Lord blessed him in the morning this place he calls Penuet to be the name of it to him and his Seed that whenever they saw the place or heard of it they might remember that there the great God and a poor Man met in great familiarity and the Man was not consumed Jacob wonders that his Life was preserved in such a meeting Near Approaches of God to his Children are sometimes too hard for them to bear This made one eminent Saint cry out under such a high Enjoyment O Lord destroy me not with thy Glory and another Hold thy hand O Lord thy servant is a clay Vessel and can bear no more And both these were Persons not oppressed by his Wrath but overcharged with his Love and Glory 2. Grace can help to record and remember special Enjoyment There are some spiritual Enjoyments of God that are like Lightening that dart from the one end of Heaven to the other that make a dark night to become like the Morning they come quickly and they are quickly gone they are of speedy Access and of as sudden a Recess But though they be but short in their continuance their fruit may remain And one way for making their fruit continue is to remember and record them I will remember the Years the Works the Wonders of the Lord. Psal 77.10,11,12 I will meditate I will talk of them saith the Saint Thus David prays for Israel 1 Chron. 29.18 Keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the Heart of thy people What was this he prayed for Israel's remembring of and for the Lord 's keeping in their minds It was that they might remember with what joy they made their willing Offerings for the Service of God We have a gracious Promise of Christ John 14.26 The Holy Ghost shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you And this Promise we should plead for bringing to our remembrance the things Christ hath done for us as well as for what he hath said to us And no Man can imagine but they that feel it how one of these Remembrances will fortifie the Soul in a day of distress Spiritual things are so unlike to carnal things that all comparisons betwixt them must needs halt greatly That a poor hungry starving Man should in a Dungeon or desolate Wilderness be refreshed and made strong by the bare remembrance of a Feast he had seven years ago this is impossible in nature But in spiritual things it is otherwise The savoury remembrance of a spiritual Enjoyment long since past can bring back the taste and power and virtue of it to the Soul that wants it Believers are usually upon their recovery from a sad disconsolate State when they are exercised in remembring with Savour their former Enjoyments Thus saith Returning Israel Hos 2.7 I will go and return to my first Husband for then it was better with me than now 3. Grace can help to improve Enjoyments to desires of and endeavours after Perfection We must not say when it is well with us it is good to be here but rather it is good to be there where it will be a great deal better Phil. 3.13 This one thing I do it must be a great thing doubtless that is Paul's one thing Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark c. There is a forgetting that is our Duty and a remembring that is our Duty also To remember so as to support our Faith and feed our praising of the Lord that is Duty but to forget Attainments so as to press after the mark that is another Duty Alas we are bad both at right remembring and right forgetting You and I think that if we had but a little of what Paul had in one day if we had but a little of what he had that night he lay in the Stocks when he prayed and sang praises unto God Acts 16.25 we could never have forgotten it as long as we had a day to live But Paul could forget all in his ardent desires of Perfection And so must you and this Grace can teach you These special Enjoyments of God are but rarely felt Dote not on them neither despise them mock not such as know them in their Experience though ye do not If you be sound Believers ye may live in your Souls and live to his Praise without enjoying any thing very extraordinary But if the Lord grant singular Communications of himself know that it is a season of special need of Grace to guide them well They would return more frequently and would rise and spring higher and last longer if they were better improved The greater the Blessing be the more provoking is the abuse of it The greater the Blessing be the greater is the difficulty of guiding it well And the more difficulty be in our Work the more is our need of the Grace of God and the more frequent and