sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit, wherein is no water.' i Here God the Father speaks to Christ, with relation to some covenant be- tween them both ; and what covenant can that be but the covenant of redemption ? All the temporal, spiritual, and eternal deliverances which we enjoy, they swim to us through the blood of that covenant that is passed between the Father and the Son. By virtue of the same blood of the covenant, wherewith we are reconciled, justified, and saved, were the Jews delivered from their Babylonish captivity. The Babylonish captivity, thraldom, and dispersion, was that waterless pit, that dirty dungeon, that uncomfortable and forlorn condition, out of which they were delivered by virtue of the blood of the covenant ; that is, by virtue of the blood of Christ, figured by the blood that was sprinkled upon the people, and by virtue of the covenant confirmed thereby, Exod. xxiv. 8 ; Ps. Ixxiv. 20 ; Heb. xiii. 20. Look, as all the choice mercies, the high favours, the noble blessings that the saints enjoy, are purchased by the blood of Christ ; so they are made sure to the saints by the same blood ; by the blood of thy covenant ' I have sent forth thy prisoners.' Whatever desperate distresses, and deadly dangers, the people of God may fall into, yet they are ' prisoners of hope,' and may look for deliverance by the blood of the covenant.
By these ten scriptures it is most clear and evident that there was a covenant, a compact, and agreement between God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, concerning the work of our redemption. Christ's being called 'the surety of the better covenant,' Heb. vii. 21, shews that there was a covenant between God the Father and him, as there is between a creditor and a surety. Christ gave bonds, as it were, to God the Father, and paid down the debt upon the nail, that breaches might be made up between God and us, and we restored to divine favour for ever. But for the further clearing up of the cove- nant of redemption, I shall, in the second place, lay down these pro- positions. And,
(1.) The first is this, Tlmt the covenant of redemption differs from the covenant of gnxce. It is true, the covenant of redemption is a covenant of grace, but it is not properly that covenant of grace which the Scripture holds out in opposition to the covenant of works ; which I shall thus evidence : —
[1.] The covenant of redemption differs from the covenant of grace in regard of the federates. In the covenant of redemption, it is God the Father and Jesus Christ that mutually covenant ; but in the covenant of grace the confederates are God and believers.
[2.] In the covenant of redemption, God the Father requires of Jesus Christ that he should suffer, shed his blood, die, and make him- self an offering for our sins. In the covenant of grace, God requires of us that we should believe and embrace the Lord Jesus.
[3.] In the covenant of redemption, God the Father has made many great, precious, and glorious promises to Jesus Christ. As, ' Sit on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool,' Heb. i. 13 ; and, ' He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands,' Isa. liii. 10 ; and, ' Ask of me, and I
1 And thou also died with the blood of thy covenant, when I have sent out thy prisoners out of the cistern in which there are no waters. — Tremellius.
VERY CLEARLY AND LARGELY OPENED. 351
will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession,' Ps. ii. 8 ; and, ' I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son,' Heb. i. 5. But in the covenant of grace, God promises to us grace and glory, holiness and happiness, both the upper and the lower springs, Ps. Ixxxiv. 11 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27.
[4.] The covenant of redemption betwixt God and Christ secures the covenant of grace betwixt God and believers ; for what God pro- mises to us, he did, before the foundation of the world, promise to Jesus Christ, Titus i. 2 ; and therefore, if God the Father should not make good his promises to his saints, he would not make good his promises to his dearest Son, which for any to imagine would be high blasphemy. God will be sure to keep touch with Jesus Christ ; and therefore we may rest fully assured that he will not fail to keep touch with us.
[5.] The covenant of redemption is the very basis or bottom of the covenant of grace. God made a covenant with Christ, the spiritual David, that he might make a covenant with all his elect in him, Ps. Ixxxix. 3, 4 ; Eom. xi. 26, 27. He made this agreement with Christ, as the head, and on this is reared up the whole frame of precious pro- mises comprised in the covenant of grace, as a goodly building upon a sui'e foundation. But,
(2.) The second proposition is this, God (lie F,ather, in order to mans redemption and salvation, stands stiffly and peremptorily upon complete satisfaxition. Without full satisfaction, no remission, no sal- vation. Satisfaction God will have to the utmost, though it cost Christ his life and blood. Man is fallen from his primitive purity, glory, and excellency, and by his fall he hath provoked divine justice, transgressed God's righteous law, and cast a deep dishonour upon his name, Rom. viii. 32. The case standing thus, God is resolved to have ample satisfaction in the reparation of his honour, in the manifesta- tion of his truth, and in the vindication of his holiness and justice. All the attributes of God are alike dear to him, and he stands as much upon the advance of his justice as he does upon the glory of his grace ; and therefore he will not remit one sin, yea, not the least sin, without entire satisfaction. In this God the Father is fixed, that he will have ' an offering for sin,' in an expiatory and propitiatory way ; ' a price and a ransom' he will have paid down upon the nail, or else the captive sinner shall never be released, pardoned, saved, Isa. liii. 10; 1 Tim. ii. 6. Now lost man being wholly incapable of giving such a satisfaction to divine justice, Christ must give it, or fallen man must perish for ever. Sin and sorrow, iniquity and misery, always go hand in hand. ' The wages of sin is death,' Eom. vi. 23. Every sinner is worthy of death. ' They w^hich commit such things are worthy of death,' Rom. i. 32. If God be a just and righteous God, then sin cannot absolutely escape unpunished ; for it is but ' a just and righteous thing with God' to punish the sinner, who is worthy of punishment. ' It is a righteous thing with God,' saith the apostle, ' to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you,' 2 Tlies. i. 6. And as God cannot but be just, so he cannot but be true ; and if he cannot but be true, then he cannot but make good his threatenings against sin and sinners. The word is
352 ' THE COVENANT OF REDEMPTION