CHAPTER VII: Exercise of faith in prayer
4. The word παῤῥησία hath a promise from God, that follows it, annexed to it, and entailed upon it; and that is, that God will grant whatever of heavenly and spiritual things you ask. This you have, 1
John 3:21, 'Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence towards God.' And it follows, ver. 22, 'Whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandment, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.' The word in the 21st verse,
'confidence,' is our word here in the text. And he mentions it there for this end and purpose, to encourage: that if with confidence and boldness we use and exercise the fore-mentioned freedom of speech in praying (for the word imports boldness, and freedom of speech both), then whatever we ask we shall receive of him, sooner or later.
If you take it an universal promise (as it is whatsoever), then understand it whatever blessings, spiritual, heavenly, as Eph. 1:3, they are styled. We are to make our prayers as placed in heaven (as was said); and our prayers shall be answerable thereto; and the liberty that our desires take in asking should run after things heavenly, as our affections are called upon to be: Col. 3:1, 2, 'If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth.' Look what commodities that country affords; there you may be free, and as free in asking them, as you have hearts raised up to desire them. Yea, and you have in effect the things you ask given you; if your hearts so ask them, and from your souls ask them. Those are the commodities of that place, and of its own growth; only take in what follows in the same ver. 22,
'Because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.'
CHAPTER VII
The exercise of faith in prayer, which aptly present themselves under the notion of coming to God, and Christ as our high priest, so far as the type of the high priest, when he went into the holy of holies, doth represent.
I limit myself unto that converse with Christ, and God through him, by faith exercised in prayer. And therein I intend but only such exercises in prayer as aptly present themselves under the notion of coming to God, and Christ as our high priest; so far as the type of the high priest in the times of the Old Testament, when he went into the holy of holies, doth represent. And yet therein I shall instance in some more principal ones that are obvious in that day's rites, leaving your own thoughts to search and find out more of the like (that are to be found therein, not insisted on by me), for your own help and advantage.
1. Acknowledge thine infinite unworthiness to enter and to draw near; as being so high a privilege. You read, Lev. 16:17, that the very priests in the old law that entered daily into the first tabernacle, Heb.
9:6, 'accomplishing the service of God,' that yet when the high priest went unto the holy of holies, they were all turned out: 'And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation, when he goeth in to make an atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have made an atonement for himself and for his household, and for all the congregation of Israel;' as to shew, that as it is Christ alone that makes our atonement, so withal our utter unworthiness to come thither to him.
2. Acknowledge that it is purely by the blood of Christ thou hast the right and boldness to draw near; so my text, ver. 19, 'By the blood of Jesus.' Shall I tell you, Christ himself having been made sin for you, and undertaken for sin, should not himself have entered into the holy of holies, but by and through his own blood, first shed; and therefore it is express in the 12th verse of the 9th chapter, that 'by his own blood he entered into that holy place.' He had not come thither else.
And the reason is, that although in his original, personal right, it was his inheritance, and ordained for him, yet having appeared with sin for us in this world, that is, with the guilt of our sins taken on him, a demurrer stood to hinder him the possession of it. And compare for this Heb. 9:26 and 28. In ver. 26 it is said, 'He once, in the end of the world, appeared, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.' And
observe how this is plainly called an appearing with sin, and was his first appearance in this world; for in ver. 28 he says, 'Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin, unto salvation.' This second appearance without sin, shews his first to have been with sin, which is also expressly said, ver. 26, 'bearing' (as the word is in that verse) 'the sins of many;' which his bearing of them, and then his offering of himself for them, was that which did put them away from himself, as well as from us; and was the reason why that, after he had done this, that he is said to appear the second time without sin.
Yet let no man here apprehend, as if I meant that Christ offered one sacrifice for himself, and then for the people, as his type the high priest is observed to have done, with difference from Christ our high priest is by our apostle, chap. 7:27, 'Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's.' And the reason is, because the high priest was a sinner himself, by inherency; and therefore they are there called his own sins; and so he needed to atone for himself apart by one sort of sacrifice; as in Lev. 16, you read how on that day he did; and so he might be capacitated to offer another for the people's, each of which he did at two successive turns and vices, as you find by comparing the 6th and 11th verses with ver. 15. But it was infinitely otherwise with our high priest; as it follows in that Heb. 7:27, 'This he did once, when he offered up himself.' He made but one work of it, in one entire sacrifice of himself; and the reason of that was, because they were really and indeed our sins alone which he was to suffer for; but made his only by imputation, he barely taking on the guilt of them.
And it was himself was the sole sacrifice (as there). And thereby it came to pass, that in offering up himself for our sins, he, by that one act of but one sacrifice, discharged himself of the imputation of them; even as a surety that is bound for another, by paying the full sum of the debt for that other at one single payment, acquits himself of the debt, and the principal debtors too; until which be done (in case he whom he is bound for be utterly insolvent and unable) he stands bound for himself, as well as the debtor.
But still so as until he had performed this, and brought his blood shed for our sins, and himself came in the virtue of his having been offered up for them, there had been no appearing for him in heaven
(as not for the high priest into the holiest without blood). There was no room for Christ himself there, not according to God's ordination and compact with him, until that were performed. God would have shut heaven gates against him without his offering made; and Christ himself, in the 16th of John, insinuates as much: 'The Spirit shall convince the world' (the Gentile world that was to be converted) 'of (my) righteousness,' by the apostles' ministry of righteousness; that is, that his righteousness was the true righteousness, ordained to justify men, when they had first convinced them of sin, as in the verse afore he directs them. And he gives them this invincible evidence that it was, as he had formerly taught, the true righteousness, 'Because I go to my Father, and you shall see me no more.' Was that such a sign and wonder, may some say, that he who was the Lord from heaven, and whose right and due therefore it was to go thither at any time he would, without more ado, could there be the least supposition made, that they might see him sent down again? You must know that he speaks of himself as having undertaken, with his Father, to perform a righteousness for sinners here on earth, to take sins away, ere he should come to him in person; without the exact fulfilling of all which righteousness first, there had been no coming for him thither, so as to keep his standing there; but they should have seen him again. My Father would not have admitted me; I must have come back again to have completed what had been wanting, if anything had been. Take it therefore, says he, as an invincible evidence, that all will be finished according to agreement with my Father, that 'I go to my Father, and you shall see me no more.' And therefore it is called, 'the blood of the covenant, by which he' (Christ himself) is said to be 'sanctified,' Heb. 10:29, where, setting out the sin and punishment of a deserter of Christ, he says, 'Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God; and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing?' the word he, &c., not so fully referring to the apostate, as if he
had been ever truly sanctified by that blood, as it doth unto Christ's having sanctified himself thereby, in offering up himself a sacrifice unto God. And that clause is added to aggravate the sin of apostates, in counting that blood to be but as 'a common thing,' whenas Christ himself, whose blood it is, was consecrated thereby, to be the mediator of the New Testament. In the same sense that chap. 13 of this Epistle, ver. 20, Christ himself is said to be 'brought again from the dead, by the blood of the everlasting covenant;' his very resurrection was from the merit of his own blood.
Yea, heaven itself was to be purified with his blood; for though we sinners never had been there to defile it, yet because sinners were to come thither, it was to be purified. And so in the type, Rev. 16:16, when the high priest was entered into the holy of holies, he was to 'make an atonement for that holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel.' And it was not for their ceremonial uncleanness only, but because of 'their transgressions in all their sins.' Brethren, this is strange, that the place called 'the most holy,' whereinto the people never entered, no, not by one room off (for they went not into that first tabernacle that was afore it), that their ordinary sins should reach and defile that holy place, so as that an atonement, or expiation for sin, must be made for the place. How was it then defiled? Persons only, not places or things, are capable of having sins imputed to them, whether they be their own sins or another's. For persons only are capable of the guilt of sin. Yet 1, By a relation that places may or do bear unto persons, they are defiled,
Titus 1:15. And it was ceremonially seen in the defilement of the leper's house and walls. And so, although the people, during that dispensation, were not to come thither, yet the high priest came in their stead, into the most holy place, on purpose to make an atonement for all their sins, as being the place appointed and ordained by God to have an atonement made therein for their sins.
And in relation unto the making that atonement for them as sinners, the very place wherein it was to be done was itself first to be sanctified, and atoned, which the high priest was to do, with the blood he brought thither with him, distinctly and apart for the place,
and then to make the atonement for them. Their sins were of so great a guilt, as the very holiness of the place forbade any atonement to be made in it for the sinners, until itself were purified with the same blood.
Now this type was to be fulfilled, and it is certain that the holy of holies that was then was the type, or (as the 24th verse of Heb. 9 styles it) the demonstration, or scheme, or pattern of the highest heavens, unto which place in the end (though it was not manifest as then to the old Jew), yet they and we even all the saints of both testaments, were ordained unto, are at last to come. Thence and therefore it came to be necessary, that the holy place of the heavens was to be purified by Christ's blood, as Aaron's most holy place was instituted to be purged by the blood of those his sacrifices; so as it was not only, or so much to fulfil the type; which yet, they being given out afore as types, was necessary; for though they be but shadows, yet they are prophetic, and must have an answerable performance in the truth and substance signified thereby. But the original reason, and for which the type itself was appointed, was, that the holy of holies in the heavens was itself fore-ordained to be the place for us sinners to come unto, and did bear in God's fore-decrees the relation of being their eternal house they are to dwell in for ever.
And God's holiness and purity is such (having made that place the seat of his presence-glory, and placed his throne there), as to shew how deeply he resenteth sin; he would have the place of his children's residence (having once been sinners), it being so near to him, and afore his face, first purified, as well as the sinners themselves. Not that it was defiled in itself, for the presence of God makes it most holy; but even that was it made it to be too holy for sinners. And therefore, in relation to its becoming their actual abode there, it was now to be atoned for their sakes. And upon both these reasons, especially the latter, it was, that this, which was the truth and substance of the type, was not so much to be conformed to the type, as the type was framed and formed by this fore-ordination of God's, which was the original prototype of all. And upon this it is that the apostle pronounceth in the 23d verse of the said Heb. 9, 'It was
necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.'
But besides these general grounds of analogy of the type and antitype, the words of the next verse do expressly determine, that the heavens, considered as the place, were purified by Christ's person and blood. For it follows, ver. 24, 'For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.' They are those places in the heavens (heavenly places as they are elsewhere rendered) answerable to those on earth, that were to be purified. And he here speaks of them as of the place or places, as the word 'entering into' imports. Even as when in Eph. 2 we are said to 'sit in heavenlies,' it is aptly and necessarily to be understood, 'to sit in heavenly places;' for so the word sitting doth require. Thus likewise here, the word 'entering into heavenlies' argues those heavenlies spoken of to be the places of heavens; whereof the tabernacle, or tabernacles of Moses, which were also called the tabernacle, in the singular; of these, as the place or places, the apostle says, ver. 21, 'Moreover, he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacles, and all the vessels of the ministry.' So that not only the vessels, the furniture, the suppellex, the utensils in the tabernacles
(and accordingly the saints that are to be brought in thither, that is, into heaven), but the place itself that contained them, was purified also by Christ's blood, that it might receive sinners, and be their domicilium, their habitation for ever. And of all these, both tabernacle and vessels, he says that they were figures and patterns of the true in the heavens, in their several kinds of analogy. The tabernacle itself, the utensils of the things in that place, and all to be purified with better blood than these; and especially the place of holy of holies in the heavens; for in ver. 24 it is peculiarly specified and said of it, 'For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.' And in that place, the mercy-seat, we read, was sprinkled with blood; and the pavements of
the place that were afore the mercy-seat were sprinkled seven times.
Lev. 16:14, 'And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy-seat eastward: and before the mercy-seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times.'
I cast this in further, to shew the necessity of Christ's blood for our entering into the holy of holies in heaven; either now by faith, or hereafter by possession and enjoyment, that even the mercy-seat itself, the throne of grace, that is, of God himself, whereon 'God, merciful, gracious, long-suffering, pardoning iniquity, transgression, and sin,' sitteth, that that also was sprinkled with blood, Lev. 16:14.
But you will say, Did God's mercy-seat need sprinkling with blood, or a being purified?
No, surely, not in itself. The mercies of God are pure and holy mercies, Acts 13:34; τὰ ὅσια, 'the holy things,' they are called (see the marginal note). But yet if sinners shall come to have mercies from God, his mercies must be mingled with Christ's blood to purchase them, that God may be just in having received the atonement, and 'the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.' So as still in respect of us that are sinners, the mercy-seat must have blood, that we may be justified, even as the heavens were to be purified with blood, because sinners were to enter there.
The conclusion of this is, that if the heavens were to be purified with Christ's blood because of us sinners who were to come thither, yea, if Christ himself having undertaken for sins could not have entered thereunto unless he had brought the virtue, efficacy, spirits of his own blood with him, and that in and by the merit thereof it was that he entered thereinto, and that his very human nature was through the imputation of our sins to him, when he 'tabernacled among us,'
John 1, was to have an atonement made for it by his blood, and by the rending it in two, in the separation of soul from his body, that so ho (as representing us) and we as one mystical person with him, might enter into heaven, and else not; then whenever thou comest to