And this is the third thing in this compact, he who prescribes the hard conditions of incarnation, obedience, and death, doth also make the glorious promises of preservation, protection, and success. And to make these promises the more eminent, God confirms them solemnly by an oath; he is consecrated an high-priest for evermore, by the 'word of the oath; Heb. vii. 28. The Lord sware and will not repent, thou art a priest for ever,' &c.

4. The Lord Jesus Christ accepts of the condition and the promise, and voluntarily undertakes the work. Psal. iv. 7, 8. Then said I, lo, I come to do thy will, yea, I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart.' He freely, willingly, cheerfully, undertakes to do and suffer whatever it was the will of his Father that he should do, or suffer, for the bringing about the common end aimed at. He undertakes to be the Father's servant in this work. And says to the Lord, 'thou art my Lord;' Psal. xvi. 2. thou art he, to whom I am to yield obedience, to submit to thee in this work. Mine ear hast thou bored, and I am thy servant.' I am not rebellious, I do not withdraw from it; Isa. 1. 8. Hence the apostle tells us that this mind was in him; that whereas he was in the form of God, he humbled himself to the death of the cross;' Phil. ii. 8. and so by his own voluntary consent he came under the law of the Mediator, which afterward as he would not, so he could not decline. He made himself surety of the covenant, and so was to pay what he never took. He voluntarily engaged himself into this sponsion; but when he had so done, he was legally subject to all that attended it; when he had put his name into the obligation, he became responsible for the whole debt, and all that he did or suffered, comes to be called obedience which relates to the law that he was subject to having engaged himself to his Father, and said to the Lord, 'Thou art my Lord, lo, I come to do thy will.'

5. The fifth and last thing is, that on the one side, the promiser do approve and accept of the performance of the condition prescribed, and the undertaker demand, and lay claim to the promises made, and thereupon the common end designed be accomplished and fulfilled. All this also is fully manifest in this compact or convention. God the Father he accepts of the performance of what was to the

Son prescribed. This God fully declares Isa. xlix. 5, 6. 'And now saith the Lord that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. And he said, it is light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation to the ends of the earth.' And eminently ver. 8, 9. Thus saith the Lord, in an acceptable time have I heard thee and in a day of salvation have I helped thee and I will preserve thee and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth to cause to inherit the desolate heritages. That thou mayest say to the prisoners go forth; to them that are in darkness shew yourselves,' &c. Now I have been with thee and helped thee in thy work and thou hast performed it, now thou shalt do all that thy heart, desires according to my promise. Hence that which was originally spoken of the eternal generation of the Son; Psal. ii. 7. 'Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee, is applied by the apostle to his resurrection from the dead. Acts xiii. 33. God hath fulfilled his word unto us, in that he hath raised up Jesus from the dead,' as it is also written in Psal. ii. 'Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.' That is, God by the resurrection from the dead, gloriously manifested him to be his Son, whom he loved, in whom he was well pleased, and who did all his pleasure. So Rom. i. 4. He was declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead.' Then was he declared to be the Son of God. God approving and accepting the work he had done, loosed the pains of death, and raised him again, manifesting to all the world his approbation and acceptation of him and his work. Whence he immediately says to him, Psal. ii. 8. 'Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance;' now ask what thou wilt, whatever I have promised, whatever thou didst, or couldest expect upon thy undertaking this work, it shall be done, it shall be granted thee. And,

2. Christ accordingly makes his demand solemnly on earth, and in heaven; on earth John xvii. throughout the whole chapter is the demand of Christ, for the accomplish

ment of the whole compact, and all the promises that were made to him, when he undertook to be a Saviour, both which concerned himself and his church; see ver. 1.4-6. 9. 12-16, &c. and in heaven also; he is gone into the presence of God, there to appear for us, Heb. ix. 24. and is able to save to the uttermost them that came to God by him, seeing he liveth for ever, to make intercession for them;' Heb. vii. 25. not as in the days of his flesh, with strong cries and supplications, but by virtue of his oblation, laying claim to the promised inheritance in our behalf. And,

3. The whole work is accomplished, and the end intended brought about; for in the death of Christ he 'finished the transgression and made an end of sin, and made reconciliation for iniquity, and brought in everlasting righteousness;' Dan. ix. 24. and of sinful man, God says, deliver him, for I have found a ransom ;' Job xxxiii. 24. Hence our reconciliation, justification, yea, our salvation, are in the Scripture spoken of, as things actually done and accomplished, in the death and bloodshedding of Jesus Christ, not as though we were all then actually justified and saved, but upon the account of the certainty of the performance, and accomplishment of those things in their due time towards us, and upon us, are these things so delivered; for in reference to the undertaking of Christ in this covenant, is he called the second Adam, becoming a common head to his people, with this difference; that Adam was a common head to all that came of him, necessarily, and as I may so say, naturally, and whether he would or no; Christ is so to his, voluntarily, and by his own consent and undertaking, as hath been demonstrated; now as we all die in Adam federally and meritoriously, yet the several individuals are not in their persons actually dead in sin, and obnoxious to eternal death, before they are by natural generation united to Adam, their first head; so, though all the elect be made alive, and saved federally and meritoriously, in the death of Christ, wherein also a certain foundation is laid of that efficacy, which works all these things in us, and for us, yet we are not viritim made partakers of the good things mentioned, before we are united to Christ, by the communication of his Spirit to us.

And this, I say, is the covenant and compact, that was

between Father and Son, which is the great foundation of what hath been said, and shall farther be spoken, about the merit and satisfaction of Christ; here lies the ground of the righteousness of the dispensation treated of; that Christ should undergo the punishment due to us, it was done voluntarily of himself; and he did nothing but what he had power to do, and command from his Father to do; 'I have power,' saith he, ' to lay down my life, and power to take it again; this command have I received of my Father;' whereby the glory both of the love, and justice of God is exceedingly exalted. And,

1. This stops the mouth of the Socinian clamour, concerning the unrighteousness of one man's suffering personally, for another man's sin. It is true, it is so; if these men be not in such relation to one another, that what one doth or suffereth, the other may be accounted to do or suffer; but it is no unrighteousness, if the hand offend, that the head be smitten; but Christ is our head, we are his members. It is true, if he that suffereth hath not power over that wherein he suffers; but Christ had power to lay down his life, and take it again. It is true, if he that is to suffer, or he that is to punish, be not willing, or agreed to the commutation; but here Father and Son as hath been manifested, were fully agreed upon the whole matter. It may be true, if he who suffers cannot possibly be made partaker of any good afterward, that shall balance, and overweigh all his suffering; not, where the cross is endured, and the shame despised, for the glory proposed, or set before him, that suffers; not where he is made law for a season, that he may be crowned with dignity and honour. And,

The

2. This is the foundation of the merit of Christ. apostle tells us, Rom. iv. 4. what merit is; it is such an adjunct of obedience, as whereby the reward is reckoned, not of grace, but of debt. God having proposed a law for obedience unto Christ, with promises of such and such rewards, upon condition of fulfilling the obedience required; he performing that obedience, the reward is reckoned to him of debt, or he righteously merited whatever was so promised to him. Though the compact was of grace, yet the reward is of debt. Look then whatever God promised Christ, upon his undertaking to be a Saviour, that, upon

the fulfilling of his will, he merited; that himself should be exalted, that he should be the head of his church, that he should see his seed, that he should justify and save them, sanctify and glorify them, was all promised to him; all merited by him. But of this more afterward.

Having thus fully considered the threefold notion of the death of Christ, as it was a price, a sacrifice, and a punishment, and discovered the foundation of righteousness in all this; proceed we now to manifest, what are the proper effects of the death of Christ, under this threefold notion; now these also answerably are three.

1. Redemption as it is a price.

2. Reconciliation as it is a sacrifice.

3. Satisfaction as it is a punishment. Upon which foundation, union with Christ, vocation, justification, sanctification, and glory are built.

CHAP. XXVIII.

Of redemption by the death of Christ, as it was a price or ransom.

HAVING given before the general notions of the death of Christ, as it is in Scripture proposed, all tending to manifest the way and manner of the expiation of our sins, and our delivery from the guilt and punishment due to them, it remains, that an accommodation of those several notions of it, be made particularly, and respectively, to the business in

hand.

The first consideration proposed of the death of Christ, was of it, as a price; and the issue and effect thereof, is redemption. Hence Christ is spoken of in the Old Testament as a redeemer, Job xix. 25. I know that my Redeemer lives; the word there used is 5 whose rise and use is commonly known.

is 'vindicare redimere,' ¿πiλaμßávɛoda in Greek which is commonly used for 'suum vindicare;' ört av tɩg kekλnμéνος ᾖ, καὶ μηδεὶς ἐπιλάβηται, ἐὰν οὕτω τὶς ἐνιαυτὸν ὁτιοῦν κεκλημένοις - - - - - μὴ ἐξεστω τοιούτου κτήματος ἐπιλάβεσθαι μηδὲν ¿TEλJÓVTOS VIAvrov. Plato de Legib. 12. And that may be