And that God himself doth so understand this matter is evident; because he also, by his own act, giveth and imputes to us that good that we never did, that righteousness which we never wrought out; yea, and for the sake of that transmitted our sins unto Christ, as to one that had not only well satisfied for them, but could carry them so far, both from us and from God, that they should never again come to be charged on the committers, to death and damnation. (Rom 4:1-5) The Scriptures are so plentiful for this, that he must be a Turk, a Jew, or an atheist who denies it. Besides, God’s commanding that men should believe in his Son unto righteousness well enough proves things, and the reason for this command is to prove it with an over and above; to wit, ‘For he hath made him be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.’ (2 Cor 5:19-21) Hence comes out that proclamation from God, at the rising again of Christ from the dead: ‘Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.’ (Acts 13:38,39)
If this be so, as indeed it is, then here lieth a great deal of this conclusion, ‘he ever lived to make intercession,’ and of the demonstration of the certain salvation of him that cometh to God by him, ‘seeing he ever lived to make intercession for them.’ For if Christ Jesus is a priest by covenant, and so abides as the covenant abides, and if, since the covenant is everlasting, his priesthood is unchangeable, then the man that cometh to God by him must needs be certainly saved; for if the covenant, the covenant of salvation, is not broken, none can show a reason why he that comes to Christ should be damned, or why the priesthood of Jesus Christ should cease. Hence, after the apostle had spoken of the excellency of his person and priesthood, he then showed that the benefit of the covenant of God remained with us, namely, that grace should be communicated unto us for his priesthood’s sake and that our sins and iniquities God would remember no more. (Heb 8:10-12; 10:16-22) Now, as I also have already hinted, if this covenant, of which the Lord Jesus is Mediator and High Priest, has in the bowels of it, not only grace and remission of sins, but a promise that we shall be partakers thereof, through the blood of his priesthood, for so it comes to us; then, why should not we have boldness, not only to come to God by him but to enter also ‘into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by that new and living way,’ &c.
Second, But, further, this priesthood, as to the unchangeableness of it, is confirmed unto him ‘with an oath, by him that said unto him, the Lord swore, and will not repent, Thou art a priest forever.’ This oath seems to me to be for the confirmation of the covenant, as it is worded before by Paul to the Galatians, (Gal 3:15-17), when he speaks of it concerning that establishment that it also had on Christ’s part by the sacrifice which he offered to God for us; yea, he then speaks of the mutual confirmation of it both by the Father and the Son. Now, I say, since, by this covenant, he stands and abides a Priest, and since ‘the Lord swore, and will not repent, saying, Thou art a priest forever,’ we are still further confirmed in the certain salvation of him that cometh to God by Christ.
The Lord, by swearing, confirmed to Christ, and so to us in him, the immutability of his counsel, (Heb 6:16-18), and that he is utterly unchangeable in his resolutions ‘to save them to the uttermost that comes to God by Christ.’ And this also shows that this covenant, and so the promise of remission of sins, is steadfast and unmovable. And it is worth your noting the manner and nature of this oath, ‘The Lord swore, and will not repent.’ It is as much as to say, What I have now sworn I bind me forever to stand to, or, I determine never to revoke; and that is, ‘That thou art a priest forever.’ Now, as was said before, since his priesthood stands by covenant, and this covenant of his priesthood is confirmed by this oath, it cannot be but that he that comes by him to God must be accepted of him; for should such a one be rejected, it must be either for the greatness of his sins, or for want of merit in the sacrifice he presented and urged, as to the merit of it, before the mercy-seat. But let the reason specified be what it will, the consequence falls harder upon the sacrifice of Christ than it can do anywhere else, and so also upon the covenant, and at last upon God himself, who has sworn, and will not repent, that he is a Priest forever. I thus discourse, to show you what dangerous conclusions follow from a conceit that some that come to God by Christ shall not be saved, though ‘he ever lived to make intercession for them.’ And this I have further to say, that the Lord’s swearing since the manner of the oath is such as it is, and that it also tended to establish to Christ his priesthood to be unchangeable, it declared that, as to the excellency of his sacrifice, he is eternally satisfied in the goodness and merit of it; and that he will never deny him anything that he shall ask for at his hands for his sufferings’ sake. For this oath doth not only show God’s firm resolution to keep his part of the covenant, in giving to Christ that which was covenanted for by him, but it declared that, in the judgment of God, Christ’s blood can save any sinner, and that he will never put stop nor check to his intercession, how great soever the sinners be that at any time he shall intercede for; so that the demonstration is clearer and clearer, ‘He can save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lived to make intercession for them.’
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