hath purchased him for his by his death, and sent him into the hearts of his by his authority and commission.

Thus you see there are sundry great Benefits and Privileges, which we receive by the life and intercession of Christ in heaven.

But you may say, "Doth Christ's Intercession always prevail? Is he never denied? And may we be certain to obtain all these benefits by him?"

I answer, we may: and this certainty is grounded upon Three things.

First. In that the Father always hears and grants him all his desires: John xi. 41, 42. I know that thou hearest me always. He is the well-beloved Son of God: and, therefore, as we are bid by that heavenly voice, Mat. xvii. 5. to hear him, in all his commands; so will his Father hear him, in all his requests.

Secondly. The Father himself loves us; and is willing and ready to give forth those good things to us, that we stand in need of. So we have it, John xvi. 26, 27. I say not.....that I will intercede for you: you may be fully assured I will; and, therefore, whatsoever I ask shall be granted: for my Father..... loveth you, and will deny me no request that is for your good. Thirdly. That all these benefits are at the command and disposal of Christ himself: and, therefore, as he intercedes that these benefits may be bestowed upon us, so he himself will bestow them; for they are at his command, and under his authority: Mat. xxviii. 18. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth: and, therefore all these things shall certainly be conferred upon you in their due time and order, through the prevalency of the Intercession of Christ.

Thus I have cursorily run over these things, which might have been much dilated upon, because I will hasten to that, which is more practical.

Thus much for that Position, That Christ ever liveth to make Intercession for us.

II. The next thing, that remains to be treated of, is the Inference deduced and drawn from the 'Position: Therefore, he is able to save to the uttermost those that come unto God by him : from which I shall handle CHRIST'S ALL-SUFFICIENCY TO SAVE; and, therein, labour to set forth the freeness and fulness of divine grace in the salvation of sinners.

In order whereunto I have already shewed you, that Christ

was made thus an All-Sufficient Saviour, by the Father's desig nation, and his own voluntary susception; by the capacity of his human nature, fitting him to receive wrath; by the power of the divine nature, enabling him to reluctate it; and by an unmeasurable unction of the Holy Ghost, furnishing him with all endowments requisite to perfect our redemption.

Christ, being thus every way qualified for this great work, is made all-sufficient to save: and his all-sufficiency to save will appear in these following particulars.

i. IN THE GREATNESS OF THE NUMBER AND THE HEINOUSNESS OF THE NATURE OF THOSE SINS, FROM WHICH HE IS ABLE TO DELIVER.

Though your sins be as many as the sands, and as great as the mountains, swelled up with fearful aggravations that make them out of measure sinful; yet he can say to the mountains, "Be removed, and cast into the bottom of the sea" even the red sea of his own blood; and it shall be done. This was prefigured by the Scape-Goat, Lev. xvi. 21. upon which the iniquities of all the children of Israel were laid, that he might carry them into the Land of Forgetfulness. And, as the Scape-Goat, so the Paschal-Lamb represented Christ, and his all-sufficiency to save: and therefore we have that speech of John the Baptist, John i. 29. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Yea, this was alluded to by the imposition of his name: Mat. i. 21. Thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.

There are Two things in sin, which we stand in need to be saved from.

From its Pollution; which, of itself, is enough to exclude

us out of heaven, into which no unclean thing shall

ever enter.

From its Condemnation; by which we are excluded out of heaven, and adjudged to hell.

From both these, he is able to save to the very uttermost. 1. Christ is able to save you from the Pollution and Defilement of your foulest lusts and sins; and that, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Ghost: Tit. iii. 5.

Those spots of defilement, that have so polluted and stained your consciences, that no tears, though your eyes were turned into ever-running streams, would ever be able to wash out, yet the sprinkling of the blood of Christ can. It can purge heart and conscience from dead works: Heb. ix. 14, and change

the

the scarlet and crimson complexion of it into whiteness and purity. There is no sinner here this day, though his heart be as foul and black as hell, though his life swarm with abominable lusts of all sorts, yet, Christ, by his Almighty Spirit and efficacious grace, can in an instant transform and new mould him; and, of a desperate and outrageous sinner, make him an humble and broken-hearted saint. See that black catalogue, 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10, 11. Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers.....nor thieves.....nor drunkards.....shall inherit the kingdom of God. What saith the Apostle concerning such? Such were some of you: why, is it possible that grace should change, or mercy pardon, or the Devil lose such great sinners as these are? Yet such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified.....in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

Yea, and this all-sufficiency of Christ to save and sanctify the vilest and most flagitious sinner, is made more eminently glorious in these particulars.

(1) In that he is able to effect this mighty change in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, without waiting upon the methods of previous preparations or dispositions.

The Spirit doth not always stand knocking by common motions, persuasions, and convictions, and legal terrors: but, sometimes, forceth and breaketh open the heart; and, by his irresistible efficacy, suddenly surpriseth the soul, and seizeth on it, and captivateth it to the obedience of the Lord Christ. As, at mid-day, when we remove the shuts of our windows, light doth not enter in by degrees, first dawning and darting in some weak beams of light, and then some further degrees; but it springs in at once, and at one moment irradiates and enlightens the room with a perfect and full-grown brightness: so, sometimes, the Sun of Righteousness doth arise upon the heart, without the circumstances of a dawning; though this is not, indeed, God's usual method in converting sinners. Nay, sometimes, it darts both light and warmth, at once, through the whole heart; by which our Almighty Saviour can, in a moment, work a greater change by far, than God wrought in all the Six-Days' Creation : he can, at once, melt down the hard heart and subdue the stubborn will, tame headstrong passions and violent affections, and demolish the strong-holds of iniquity that have many years been fortifying against him: he can both wound and heal, kill and make alive, destroy sin and plant grace; and that, with such

dispatch, as can prevent, not only the endeavours, but the observation of a sinner.

(2) The all-sufficiency of Christ to save and sanctify appears in this also, that sometimes he works this mighty change at such an unlikely season; when the sinner is the hottest and the most eager in the prosecution of his lust.

It is easy to shew, by some remarkable instances, what he is able to do, by converting a sinner to himself, not only without preparations to assist him, but against the strongest preparations that the sinner and the devil have made to resist him. Some have been surprised by grace in the very act of sin, that might have provoked justice to have damned them: mercy hath made it an opportunity for their salvation: some circumstances in their sin have proved to be the beginning of their conversion. Thus St. Paul, in the midst of his threatening, in the height and heat of his persecutions, when he was going to Damascus, to hale and imprison those that made profession of the name of Christ, was, by the almighty grace of Christ, turned to be an Apostle. And so, in Isaiah lvii. 18. Notwithstanding that he goes on to add sin to sin and iniquity to iniquity I have seen his ways, saith God, and I will heal him; by my efficacious and almighty grace breaking in upon him in a moment.

(3) Christ's all-sufficiency to sanctify and save a sinner appears to be eminently glorious, in that he is able to work this great and mighty change by such contemptible means, as, to the eye of human reason, is altogether insufficient to achieve it; and that is, by the preaching of the word.

Should God himself speak out of heaven in thunder; should we hear the voice of his terrible majesty in the clouds, "Repent, Repent, or eternally perish;" should some angel, that is now ministering among us, make himself visible, and from this place denounce wrath and vengeance against impenitent sinners, and promise peace and pardon to all that shall believe, repent, and reform their lives; should some damned wretch be released out of hell, and sent hither on purpose to warn you to repent, or for ever to be swallowed up in fiery wrath, if you should see him speaking flames at every word, this were a likely course to move you for who would be so senseless and obdurate, as not to be convinced at such a sermon as this? But know, that God hath committed the word of reconciliation not unto them, but unto us, earthen vessels as we are. And yet, alas! what can we do? we can but stammer out a few words, that are soon last,

that are soon scattered: we can but reprove men for their sins, threaten them with wrath, admonish them to fly to Jesus Christ for his righteousness, and beseech them through him to be reconciled to God. Now, that this should be of such force as to persuade conscience,'to break the heart, to ransack the bowels, even of those very sinners, who perhaps came with prejudices, contempt, and scorn; what is this, but a plain and evident demonstration of the almighty power of God, who, by the foolishness of preaching, saveth those that do believe; thereby convincing the world that there is nothing so weak and contemptible, but God can by it bring to pass things wonderful and miraculous.

That is the First thing, whereby it doth appear, that Christ is all-sufficient to save sinners: the greatness of the Number, the heinousness of the Nature, and the Pollution of those sins, from which he is able to deliver; as I have shewed in these Three particulars.

2. Christ is able to save, not only from the pollution of the foulest, but from the Guilt and Condemnation of the greatest sins; and that, by a free pardon and remission of them.

What greater sins than blasphemy and persecution? yet, saith St. Paul concerning himself, 1 Tim. i. 13. I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor.....but I obtained mercy. Therefore, we cannot say with Cain, as the marginal note renders it, "My iniquity is greater than can be forgiven: I have out-sinned mercy; and there is nothing remains for me, but the fearful expectation of the fiery indignation, which will certainly devour, me." Is not that blood of infinite value, which God shed for thee? Hath not this all-sufficient Saviour borne the whole wrath which thou shouldst have borne? Hath he not brought life and immortality to light; and wilt thou be so injurious as to think thy sins more vile, than his blood is precious? or, that there is more venom in them to destroy thee, than there is virtue in his blood to save thee? Let not the Devil persuade thee, before the commission of thy sins, that they are so little, that they need no pardon; nor, after the commission of them, that they are so heinous, that they cannot be pardoned. Man is in nothing more provoking to God, than when he believes that his sins cannot be pardoned.

There are but two sins which are unpardonable. The one, is the dreadful Sin against the Holy Ghost; and the other, is Final Unbelief. Final Unbelief cannot be pardoned, because the