Now, to open this great point, we will here consider, (1.) The persons transacting one with another. (2.) The business transact- ed. (3.) The quality and manner of the transaction, which is federal. (4.) The articles to which they agree. (5.) How each person performs his engagement to the other. And, Lastly, The antiquity or eternity of this covenant transaction.
(1.) The persons transacting and dealing with each other in this covenant ; and indeed they are great persons, God the Father, and God the Son ; the former as a Creditor, and the latter as a Surety. The Father stands uDon satisfaction, the Son engages to give it. If it be demanded, why the Father and the Spirit might not as well have treated upon our redemption, as the Father and Son ! It is answered, Christ is the natural Son of God, and there- fore fittest to make us the adopted sons of God. Christ also is the middle person in the Trinity, and therefore fittest to be the me- diator and middle person betwixt us and God. * The Spirit hath another office assigned him, even to apply, as Chrisf s vice- gerent, the redemption designed by the Father, and purchased by the Son for us.
(2.) The business transacted betwixt them ; and that was the redemption and recovery of all God's elect : our eternal happiness lay now before them, our dearest and everlasting concerns were now in their hands : the elect (though not yet in being) are here
* Vide Robert's Medulla Bib. p. 1577, et Lys. Test. p. 83, 84.
SERM. III. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 55
considered as existent, yea, and as fallen, miserable, forlorn creatures : * How these may again be restored to happiness (salva justitia Dei) without prejudice to the honour, justice and truth of God ; this, this is the business that lay before them.
(3.) For the manner, or quality of the transaction, it wasjede- ral, or of the nature of a covenant ; it was by mutual engagements and stipulations, each person undertaking to perform his part in order to our recovery.
We find each person undertaking for himself by solemn pro- mise; the Father promiseth that he will " hold his hand, and " keep him," Isa. xlii. 6. The Son promiseth, he will obey his Fa- ther's call to suffering, and not " be rebellious,1' Isa. 1. 5. And, having promised, each holds the other to his engagement. The Father stands upon the satisfaction promised him ; and, when the payment was making, he will not abate him one farthing, Rom. viii. 32. " God spared not his own Son," i. e. he abated nothing of the full price he was to have at his hands for us.
And as the Father stood strictly upon the terms of the cove- nant, so did Christ also ; John xvii. 45. " I have glorified thee " on earth, (saith he to the Father) I have finished the work " thou gavest me to do ; and now, Father, glorify me with thine " own self." As if he had said, Father, the work is done, now where is the wages I was promised ? I call for glory as my due, as much my due as the hire of the labourer is his due, when his work is done.
4. More particularly ; we will next consider the articles to which they do both agree ; or, what it is that each person doth for him- self promise to the other. And, to let us see how much the Father's heart is engaged in the salvation of poor sinners, there are five things which he promiseth to do for Christ, if he will undertake that work.
First, He promiseth to invest him, and anoint him to a three- fold office, answerable to the misery that lay upon the elect as so many bars to all communion with, and enjoyment of God ; for, if ever man be restored to that happiness, the blindness of his mind must be cured, the guilt of sin expiated, and his captivity to sin led captive : answerably, Christ must, " of God, be made unto " us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption," 1 Cor. i. 30. And he is made so to us as our Prophet, Priest, and
* The external cause of that satisfaction, which the Father decreed, and the Son made, was the miserable state we were in, upon the account of our sins, which justly- deserved eternal punishment, and bound us over unto it : we being in this forlorn condition, the God of mercy had compassion on us, and for our sakes, the Son of God underwent all that punishment which we deserved to suffer ; in order that we might be restored to our first happiness. Synap. purior. Theol. p. 350.
56 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SERM. III.
King ; but he could not put himself into either of these ; for if so, he had acted without commission, and consequently all he did had been invalid ; Heb. v. 5. " Christ glorified not himself to be made an " High-Priest, but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son." A commission therefore to act authoritatively, in these offices, being necessary to our recovery, the Father engages to him to seal him such a threefold commission.
He promiseth to invest him with an eternal and royal Priesthood, Psal. ex. 4. " The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent ; Thou u art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedec." This Melchisedec being King of Righteousness, and king of Salem, that is, Peace, had a royal priesthood ; and his descent not being reck- oned, it had an adumbration of eternity in it, and so was more apt to type and shadow forth the priesthood of Christ than Aaron's was, Heb. vii. 16, 17, 24, 25. as the apostle accommodates them there.
He promiseth moreover to make him a Prophet, and that an extraordinary one, even the Prince of prophets ; the chief Shepherd, as much superior to all others, as the sun is to the lesser stars ; so you have it, Isa. xlii. 6, 7. "I will give thee for a *' light to the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes,11 #c.
And not only so, but to make him king also, and that of the whole empire of the world ; so Psal. ii. 6, 7, 8. " Ask of me, and " I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance, and the ut- " most ends of the earth for thy possession.11 Thus he promiseth to qualify and furnish him completely for the work, by his investi- ture with this threefold office.
Secondly, And forasmuch as he knew it was a hard and difficult work his Son was to undertake, a work that would have broken the backs of all the angels in heaven, and men on earth, had they engaged in it ; therefore he promiseth to stand by him, and assist and strengthen him for it : so, Isa, xlii. 5, 6, 7. *' I will hold thy " hand," or take hold of thee with my hands, for so it may be ren- dered, * i. e. I will underprop and support thy humanity, when it is even overweighted with the burden that is to come upon it, and ready to sink down under it ; for so you know the case stood with him, Mark xiv. 34. and so it was foretold of him, Isa. liii. 7. " He was oppressed,11 Sfc. and indeed the humanity needed a prop of no less strength than the infinite power of the Godhead : the same promise you have in the first verse also, " Behold my ser- " vant whom I uphold."
Thirdly, He promiseth to crown his work with success, and