I. OF THE INTERCESSION OF CHRIST

FIRST, WE WILL BEGIN WITH HIS INTERCESSION, and will show you, First, What that is; Second, For what he intercedes; and, Third, What is also to be inferred from Christ’s making intercession for us.

First, I begin, then, with the first; that is, to show you what intercession is. Intercession is prayer; but all prayer is not intercession. Intercession, then, is that prayer that is made by a third person about the concerns that are between two. And it may be made either to set them at further difference, or to make them friends; for intercession may be made against, as well as for, a person or people. ‘Wot ye not what the Scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel.’ (Rom 11:2) But the intercession that we are now to speak of is not an intercession of this kind, not an intercession against, but an intercession for a people. ‘He ever liveth to make intercession for them.’ The high priest is ordained for, but not to be against the people. ‘Every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God,’ to make reconciliation for the sins of the people; or ‘that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.’ (Heb 5:1) This, then, is intercession; and the intercession of Christ is to be between two, between God and man, for man’s good. And it extendeth itself unto these: 1. To pray that the elect may be brought all home to him; that is, to God. 2. To pray that their sins committ