3 The whole business of our salvation was first transacted between the Father and Christ before it was revealed to us, John vi. 27. The Apostle Peter, speaking of our redemp- tion by the precious blood of Christ, saith that ' Christ was foreordained, thereunto, be- fore the foundation of the world,' 1 Pet. i. 20.
362 THE COVENANT OF REDEMPTION
before the Father ; therefore, saith he, I bring them, and ' I must brino* them ;' the matter not being left arbitrary, even in respect of liis obligation to .God the Father, Col. i. 22. Certainly the decree, cove- nant, and agreement between God the Father and Jesus Christ about the whole way of redemjjtion, about all things belonging to the salva- tion of the elect, to be brought about in due time, was fixed and settled before the world began, i Ponder seriously on this, it may be a loadstone to draw out your hearts more than ever, to love the Father and the Son, and to delight in the Father and the Son, and to act faith upon the Father and the Son, and to long to be with the Father and the Son, and all your days to admire at the love of the Father and the Son, who have from eternity, by compact and agreement, secured your souls and your everlasting concern- ments. But,
(6.) The sixth proposition is this. That God the Father had the first and chief hand in this great ivork of saving sinners, hy virtue of this covenant of redemption, wherein he and his Son had agreed to bring ' many sons to glory,' Heb. ii. 10. Weak Christians many times have their thoughts and apprehensions more busied and taken up with the love of the Son, than with the love of the Father ; but they must remember, that in the great and glorious work of redemption, God the Father had a great hand, an eminent hand, yea, the first and chief hand. God the Father first laid the foundation-stone of all our happi- ness and blessedness. His head and heart was first taken up about that heaven-born project, the salvation of sinners : Isa. xxviii. 16, ' Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation ;' Heb., * 1 am he that foundeth a stone in Zion.' It is God the Father that hath long since laid Christ as a sure foundation, for all his people to build their hopes of happiness upon ; it is he that first laid Christ, the true corner-stone, whereby Zion is for ever secured against death, hell, and wrath. Hence it is said, ' The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand,' that is, God's eternal decree about the work of our redemption and salvation, shall be powerfully, faithfully, and completely executed by Jesus Christ ; who, by his word and Spirit, shall communicate unto all his elect the fruit of his death, to life and salvation, Eom. ix. 33 ; 1 Pet. ii. 6 ; Isa. liii. 10. Again : Job xxxiii. 24,2 ' Deliver him from going down into the pit, for I have found a ransom.' The Hebrew word signifies a price 'paid to redeem a man's life or liberty, ' I have found a ransom,' or an atonement, a cover for man's sin. Angels and men could never have found a ran- som, but by my deep, infinite, and unsearchable wisdom, saith God the Father, ' I have ft)und a ransom,' I have found out a way, a means for the redeeming of mankind, from going down to the infernal pit, viz., the death and passion of my dearest Son. But where, 0 blessed God, didst thou find a ransom ? Not in angels, not in men, not in
1 Ps. ii. 7 ; Acts xv. 18, and ii. 23 ; Eph. i. 9 ; Prov. viii. 22-32.
' This is a full place against all Socinians, who lioldly assert that God removes the curse of the law, by a free and absolute pardon, without satisfaction. Grotius's exposi- tion on the place is but flat and dull. When God saith, ' I have found a ransom,' we are to understand it of a real ransom, of full pay or satisfaction, and not of a ransom by favour and acceptation.
VERY CLEARLY AND LARGELY OPENED. 363