2 Cor. V. 10; Heb. ix. 27, and xiii. 17; 1 Pet. iv. 5.
330 THE COVENANT OF REDEMPTION
or redemption. We may present it to our understanding in this form : God the Father saith to Christ the mediator, I look upon Adam and his posterity as a degenerate seed, ' a generation of vipers,' of apostates andbacksHders, yea, traitors and rebels ; liable to all temporal, spiritual, and eternal judgments ; yet I cannot find in my heart to damn them all ; ' Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled to- gether ; I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger : for I am God, and not man,' Hosea xi. 8, 9: and therefore I have determined to shew mercy upon many millions of them, and save them from wrath to come, and to bring them to glory, Kev. vii. 9, 10 ; but this I must do with a salvo to my law, justice, and honour. If, therefore, thou wilt undertake for them, and become a curse for their sakes. Gal. iii. 10, 13, and so make satisfaction to my justice for their sins ; I will give them unto thee, John xvii. 2, 6, 11, to take care of them, and to bring them up to my kingdom, for the manifestation of the glory of my grace. Well, saith Christ, I am content, I will do all thou requirest with all my heart, and so the agreement is made between thee and me. This may be gathered from the scriptures in the margin.^ Christ the Son speaks in both places. In the first he publisheth the decree or ordinance of heaven, touching himself, and bringeth in the Father, installing him into the priesthood or ofiice of mediator ; for so the apostle applieth that text, Heb. v. 5, ' Thou art my son,' &c., and also avoucheth this covenant and agreement in the two main parts of it.
1. First, The condition lohich he will have performed on Christ's part, as mediator ; or ivhat Christ must do, as mediator, ' He must ask of God ;' that is, not only verbally, by prayers and supplications, beg mercy, pardon, righteousness, and salvation for poor lost sinners ; but also really, by fulfilling the righteousness of the law, both in doing and sufiering ; and so by satisfaction and merit, purchasing accepta- tion for them at his hands.^ The Father engaged so and so to Christ, and Christ reciprocally engaged so and so to the Father ; a consider- able part of the terms and matter of which covenant is set down: Isa. liii. 10, ' When thou shalt make his soul an ofiering for sin, he shall see his seed,' &c. The Father covenants to do thus and thus for fallen man ; but first in order thereunto the Son must covenant to take man's nature, therein to satisfy ofi'ended justice, to repair and vindicate his Father's honour, &c. Well, he submits, assents to these demands, indents and covenants to make all good ; and this was the substance of the covenant of redemption. But,
2. Secondly, Let us consider the promise ivhich the Father en- gageth to perform on his part ; the Son must ask, and the Father will give: ' He will give him the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession,' Ps. ii. 8. An allusion to great princes, when they would shew great affection to their favourites, they bid them ask what they will, as Ahasuerus did, and as Herod did ; that is, he shall both be the Lord's salvation to the ends of the earth, and ' have aU power given him in heaven and earth ;
1 Ps. ii. 7-9, and xl. 6-8.
' Consider Christ in the capacity of a mediator, for so only he covenanted with the Father, for the salvation of mankind.
VERY CLEARLY AND LARGELY OPENED. 331
80 that all knees shall bow to him, and every tongue shall confess him to be Lord/^ In the other text before mentioned, Ps. xl., Christ declares his compliance to the agreement, and his subscribing the covenant on his part, when he came into the world, as the apostle ex- plains it, Heb. X. 5, &c. ; ' Mine ears,' saith he, ' hast thou digged or pierced : Lo, I come to do thy will ;' as if he had said, 0 Father, thou dost engage me to be thy servant in this great work of saving sinners. Lo, I come to do the work, I here covenant and agree to yield up my- self to thy disposing, and to serve thee for ever. It seems to be an allusion to the master's ' boring through the servant's ear,' Exod. xxi. 6. Among the Jews only one ear was bored, but in this Ps, xl. 6, here are ears in the plural number, a token of that perfect and desir- able subjection, which Christ, as mediator, was in to his Father. But for a more clear, distinct, and full opening of the covenant of redemp- tion, or that blessed compact between God the Father and Jesus Christ, which is a matter of grand importance to all our souls ; and considering that it is a point that I have never yet treated of in pulpit or press, I shall therefore take the liberty at this time to open my- self as clearly and as fully as I can. And therefore thus : — Quest. If you ask me. What this covenant of redemption is ? Ans. 1. I answer, in the general, that a covenant is a mutual agree- ment between parties, upon articles or propositions on both sides, so that each party is tied and bound to perform his own conditions. This description holds the general nature of a covenant, and is common to all covenants, public and private, divine or human. But,
Ans. 2. Secondly, and more particularly, I answer, the covenant of redemption is that federal transaction or mutual stipulation that was betwixt God and Christ from everlasting, for the accomplishment of the work of our redemption, by the mediation of Jesus Christ, to the eternal honour, and unspeakable praise, of the glorious grace of God. Or, if you please, take it in another form of words, thus : —
It is a compact, bargain, and agreement between God the Father and God the Son, designed mediator, concerning the conversion, sanc- tification, and salvation of the elect, through the death, satisfaction, and obedience of Jesus Christ, which in due time was to be given to the Father. But for the making good the definition I have laid down, I must take leave to tell you that there are many choice scriptures which give clear intimation of such a federal transaction between God the Father and Jesus Christ, in order to the recovery, and everlasting happiness, and salvation of his elect. I shall instance in the most con- siderable of them : —
(1.) The first is this. Gen. iii. 15, 'And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.' Here begins the book of the Lord's wars, God's battles.^ This is spoken of that holy enmity that is between Christ and the devil, and of Christ's destroying the kingdom and power of Satan : ' Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same ; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that