have it in the 9th and 10th verses. As the public acts of the parent are interpretively the acts of a child, so likewise Abraham's paying tithes to Melchisedec is recorded by God, as Levi's paying tithes in Abraham's loins; and, thereupon, they were professedly inferior to him.

ii. That this comparison may be the more clear and evident, we must consider, that MELCHISEDEC WAS A TYPE OF CHRIST UNDER A TWOFOLD RESPECT:

As he was in his own Personal Capacity.

As described to us in the Scripture.

For there is a great difference, as we shall see anon.

1. If we consider his Personal Capacity, so he was King and Priest; he was really, in himself, so: he met Abraham, received tithes from him, and conferred a blessing upon him. But there are other things. spoken of this Melchisedec in the sixth chapter, which to understand as really agreeing to the person of Melchisedec were utterly impossible : as, that he was raithout father or mother, or without descent, or beginning or end of life ; as we have it in the third and eighth verses and therefore some, considering that this description could not agree to any man, have fondly fancied that this Melchisedec was not true man; but was either Christ or the Holy Ghost, or some angel, mod ai

2. Therefore, we must note, that these things were spoken of Melchisedec, not as really he was in himself, but as he is repre sented to us in the Stripture. Therefore he is said to be without father or mother, because the Scripture mentions nothing of them; records nothing of his parentage or pedigree, nothing of his birth or death, but is purposely silent in these things: v. 3. that he might be made like unto the Son of God. The Scripture is purposely silent concerning the pedigree of Melchisedec, and the beginning and ending of his days, that he might be a more lively type of the Son of God, who himself, in his divine nature, was without beginning or end of days. So that, though, truly and really Melchisedec was a man, born of parents by a long descent from Adam, whose life had a date both when it begun and when it ended; yet it is truly said that he was without these, because they are not mentioned and recorded in the Scripture, Now among these high privileges and prerogatives, Melchisedec, doth typify the Priesthood of Christ better thay the Aaronical Priests could typify him; for he is one, that abideth and continueth a priest: v. 3: and he

liveth, as in the eighth verse. The Scripture speaks nothing,

either of his laying down his office or his life.

Now, in this, he is an eminent and conspicuous type of Christ, our High Priest. For, tota med mode

(1) He hath not laid down his Life, so as to lose it for he was made after the power of the endless life; as v. 16.

(2) Nor hath he laid down his Priesthood, so as not to exercise it for he is a priest for ever; and, because he continueth for ever, therefore he hath an unchangeable priesthood; as in v. 24.

The words of the Text are a most comfortable inference, drawn from all this discourse concerning the eternity of Melchisedec's Priesthood: the eternity of it, I say; because the Scripture speaks nothing of the cessation of it. So that my Text is a comfortable inference: Christ is able to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Doth Christ for ever live, and for ever sit at the right-hand of God? doth he continually lay open his wounds, repeat over his sufferings, plead his death and mérits, claim a right to a sure purchase? is he continually perfuming heaven with the odour of that sweet incense, which he daily offers up with prayers for all the saints? Believe it, such a Sacrifice must needs be acceptable: such an Advocate must needs be prevalent: such a Saviour must needs be all-sufficient. Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them!" of Lice at 90 5. node

II. In these WORDS we have,

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titor Position couched under a Supposition. The Supposition is this: If so be Christ shall ever live to make intercession for the saints. The Position is: That Christ doth live for ever to make intercession, &c. which the Apostle before proves: He is a HighPriest for ever.

62

1

There is an Inference or Corollary drawn from it: mod Therefore he is able to save them to the uttermost, &c. FIRST. In the Position observe these two things his First. The Eternity of the Life of Christ in the highest heaven.

1

nd

1

The latter is, And he

Secondly. The Eternity of his Priestly Office.
The former is this: He liveth for ever.
liveth for this very end, to make intercession for us."
SECONDLY. In the Inference we may observe,"

First. The Truth inferred and asserted: He is able to save. Secondly. The Measure and Degree of this salvation: and that is, to the uttermost, to all ends and perfections: he is able to save to all perfections; that is, altogether,

Thirdly. The Persons, whom he is able thus perfectly to save: and they are those only, that come unto God by him. And these are described, ole.

First. By their Obedience: They come unto God; that is, they perform service, obedience, and duty to God.

Secondly. By their Faith: They come unto God BY HIM; that is, by Christ.#

All the duties and services which they perform, they tender up by faith in Christ, and, by Christ to God: They come unto God by him.

THIRDLY. And, besides all these, here is a Connexion of the Inference and the Position together, by the word wherefore: WHEREFORE he is able to save, &c. In the connexion we have also the number of those, for whom Christ makes intercession: not for all men, but for those, that come unto God through him.

Oh, what a rich vein of Scripture is before our eyes, which lies as an inestimable and unsearchable treasure in golden mines! Though I may seem to have but broken and crumbled, the words, yet there is abundance of preciousness in every part and parcel of them. I shall not now stand to raise and insist upon all those observations, that might pertinently and properly be made from the words thus divided; but shall briefly speak to some few.

i. From the TRUTH inferred, He is able to save to the uttermost, observe,

Doct. I. That JESUS CHRIST IS AN ALMIGHTY AND AN ALL-
SUFFICIENT SAVIOUR.

He is a High-Priest and a Saviour all-sufficient:

1. By his Father's eternal designation: Ps. lxxxix. 19. I have laid help upon one that is mighty, &c.

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2. By his own voluntary susception and undertaking for us: Ps. xl. 7, 8. Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of thy book it is written of me.....to do thy will, O my God. And the Apostle quotes it in Heb. x. 7.

3. By the infinite glory and excellency of the divine nature:

which hath a double influence to make him an All-Sufficient Saviour.

(1) It puts an infinite worth and value upon his sacrifice; and so hath made his offering acceptable, and a full price and ransom for sinners. It is called the blood of God: Acts xx. 28. Feed the flock of God....which he hath purchased with his own blood. And, certainly, the blood of God must needs be an all-sufficient expiation for the sin of man.

(2) It gave Christ a power and an ability, to appease and satisfy infinite justice and wrath; and to break the chains of death, and the bars of the grave, under which he had been detained, else our salvation had been a thing desperate and deplorable: but, herein, is he manifested to be the Son of God and Saviour of the World, even with power, in that he died and rose again.

4. He is an All-Sufficient Saviour by his human capacity. As he would not have been able to save us, unless he had been God; so he would not have been capable to save us, unless he had been Man.

Now Christ's Humanity hath a Twofold influence into the work of our redemption.

(1) In that, thereby, that person, who is God, became passive; and a fit subject to receive and bear the wrath of God.

(2) Hereby satisfaction is made to offended justice, in the same nature, which transgressed and offended. By man came death; and by the man Jesus Christ came the resurrection from the dead: 1 Cor. xv. 21. And therefore Christ saith, a body hast thou prepared me: Heb. x. 5. To what end? The Apostle tells us, that, through death, he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil. Both natures are here required his Human Nature, without which he could not suffer death; and the Divine Nature, without which he could not destroy him who had power of death.

5. He became an All-Sufficient Saviour, by the overflowing and unmeasurable unction of the Holy Ghost.

Thus, Isa. lxi. 1. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings, &c. John iii. 34. God gave not his Spirit in measure unto him; yea, the fulness of the godhead dwelt bodily in him: Col. ii. 9. and all this was on purpose to furnish him with gifts and graces, suitable to the discharge of the great work of his mediatorship. Now, certainly, since he was by God the Father designed, and of his.

own self ready and willing, by his Humanity capacitated, by his Divinity fortified, and by the unction of the Holy Spirit furnished to the work of our salvation, he must needs be an All-Sufficient Saviour; able to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by him.

ii. In the next place, for the PERSONS whom Christ is thus enabled to save, they are described by their Faith and Obedience: They come to God by Christ. Observe,

Doct. II. That CHRIST HIMSELF, ALTHOUGH HE IS AN ALL

SUFFICIENT SAVIOUR, ABLE TO SAVE TO THE UTTER-
MOST, YET HE IS NOT ABLE TO SAVE THE DISOBEDIENT
AND UNBELIEVERS.

He only saves those, that come unto God by him.
Now this,

1. Is not for want of merit or virtue in that sacrifice, which our High-Priest hath once offered up: not for want of any value or preciousness in his blood, or sufficiency in his price; for there is intrinsic virtue enough in the blood of Christ to save the whole world.

2. Nor is it from any natural dependance, that salvation hath upon faith and obedience; for God was free, and might have disposed of the eternal inheritance upon other terms. But,

3. It was only upon the ordination and appointment of God, who hath instituted the way of salvation to be by the death of Christ, who hath appointed the virtue of his death to be applied to us only by the grace of faith; which faith, without obedience and good works, is in itself dead, and can neither justify nor save us. So, then, without faith and obedience Christ cannot save us because that virtue, whereby he should save us, cannot without these reach us; faith being the conveyance of the virtue of Christ's merits to the soul.

That is the Second Proposition.

iii. The Third and last shall be raised from the CONNEXION of both parts of the Text put together. Therefore he is able to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by him; because he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

Observe from hence.