[3.] In the third place, I shall shew you that the manner or quality of tJie transaction between God the Father and Jesus Christ, ivas hy mutual engagements and stipulations; each person undertaking to perform his part in order to our recovery and eternal felicity. We find each person undertaking for himself by solemn promise. The Father promiseth that he will hold Christ's hand and keep him, Isa. xlii. 6. God the Father engages himself to direct and assist Christ, and to keep him from miscarrying ; and that he will give him all necessary strength and ability for the execution of his mediatory office, and work wonders by him and with him, according to that word, ' My Father hitherto worketh, and I work,' John v. 17. And the Son engages himself that he will obey the Father's call, and not be rebellious : Isa. 1. 5, ' I was not rebellious, neither turned away back ; ' that is, I did not hang back, as Moses once and again did, Exod. iii. 11, 13, and iv. 1, 10, 13 ; nor refuse to go when God sent me, as once Jonah did, chap. i. 3 ; but I offered myself freely and readily to my Father's call. There was no affliction, no opposition, no persecution, no evil usage that I met with in carrying on the work of redemption that did ever startle me or discourage me, or make me flinch or shrink back from that great and blessed work that I had undertaken. I was dutiful and obedient to the calls and commands of my Father, in all things that he required of me or set me about. Now the Father and the Son being thus mutually engaged by promise one to another in honour and faithfulness, it highly concerned them to keep one another close to the terms of the covenant that was made between them, and ac- cordingly they did; for God the Father peremptorily stands upon that complete and full satisfaction that Christ had promised to give to his justice ; and therefore, when the day of payment came, he would not abate Jesus Christ one penny, one farthing of the many ten thou- sand talents that he was to pay down upon the nail for us. Mat. xviii. 24: Kom. viii. 32, ' God spared not his own Son ;' that is, he abated nothing of that full price that, by agreement with his Father, he was to lay down for us. Other fathers give their all to spare and redeem their childi-en ; but the heart of God the Father is so fully and strongly set upon satisfaction that he will not spare his Son, his own Son, his only Son, but give him up to death, yea, to an accursed death, that we might be spared and saved for ever. I have read of a Roman emperor — Mauritius, who died most miserably i — who chose rather to spare his money than to redeem his soldiers being taken prisoners. But to redeem us God would not spare, no, not his own Son ; because
^ Rather Mauricius, [Maw/jiKtoy.] He 'vras murdered in the church of St Autonomus, Chalcedon, a.d. 602 — a commonphice of history. — G.
VERY CLEARLY AND LARGELY OPENED. 371
no money nor treasure would serve the turn, but only the blood, yea, the heart-blood of his dear Son, 1 Pet. i. 18, 19.
And as God the Father keeps Christ close to the terms of the cove- nant, so Jesus Christ keeps his Father close to the terms of the covenant also : John xvii. 4, 5, ' I have glorified thee on the earth,' saith Christ to his Father, ' I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, 0 Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.' 0 my Father, I have finished the work of redemption ; but where is the wages, where is the glory, where is the reward that thou hast pro- mised me ? There was nothing committed to Christ by the Father, to be done on earth for the purchasing of our redemption, but he did finish it ; so that the debt is paid, justice satisfied, and sin, Satan, and death spoiled ; so that nothing remains but that Christ be glorified, according to the promise of the Father to him. The sum of Christ's petition is this, that since he had finished the work of redemption, that therefore the Father, according to his engagement, would advance him to the possession of that glory that he enjoyed from all eternity. Now for the clearing of this we must consider, that as Christ was from eternity the glorious God, so we are not to conceive of any real change in this glory of his godhead ; as if by his estate of humiliation he had suffered any diminution ; or by his state of exaltation any real acces- sion were made to his glory as God. But the true meaning is this, that Christ having, according to the paction passed betwixt the Father and him, obscured the glory of his godhead for a time, under the veil of the form of a servant, and our sinless infirmities, Phil. ii. 5-8, doth now expect, according to the tenor of the same paction, after he had done his work, to be exalted and glorified, and ' openly declared to be the Son of God,' Rom. i. 4 ; the veil of his estate of humiliation, though not of our nature, being taken away. It is further to be con- sidered that however this eternal glory be proj)er to him as God, yet he prays to be glorified in his whole person, ' Glorify me,' because not only his human nature was to be exalted to what glory finite nature was capable of, but the glory of his godhead was to shine in the person of Christ, God-man, and in the man Christ, though with- out confusion of his natures and properties. Christ did so faithfully discharge his trust, and perfect the work of redemption, as that the Father was engaged by paction to glorify him ; and accordingly Christ, God incarnate, is exalted with the Father in glory and majesty ; so that believers may be as sure that all things necessary for their re- demption are done, as it is sure that Christ is glorified. But,
[4.] In the fourth place, let us seriously consider of the articles agreed on between the Father and the Son, — let us weigh well the pro- mises that God the Father makes to Jesus Christ, and the promises that Jesus Christ makes to the Father, for the bringing about our re- conciliation and redemption, that so we may the more cleai'ly see how greatly both the heart of the Father and the heart of the Son is engaged in the salvation of poor sinners' souls. Now there are seven things which God the Father promiseth to do for Jesus Christ, upon his undertaking the work of our redemption.
First, That he luill give him the Spirit in an abundant measure
372 THE COVENANT OF REDEMPTION