^ 2 Cor, vi. 16, ' I will dwell in them.' The words are very significant in the original, lvoiK-fi<Tw h dvToit, ' I will indwell in them.' So the words are. There are two ins in the original, as if God could never have enough communion with them, 2 Thes. i. 10.
VERY CLEARLY AND LARGELY OPENED. 397
guilty, the accuser, the court, the judge, and the advocate ; so it is here. Heaven is the court, man is the guilty person,^Satan is the accuser, God is the judge, and Christ is the advocate. •*5f Now look, as the advocate appeareth in the court before the judge to plead for the guilty against the accuser, so doth Christ appear before God in heaven, to answer all Satan's objections and accusations that he may make in the court of heaven against us. ' He ever lives to make intercession for us,' Heb. vii. 25. The verb, ivTir/)(aveiv. translated * intercession,' is a compound, and signifies ' to call upon one.' It is a judicial word, and importeth a calling upon a judge to be heard in this or that, against another or for another ; so here Christ maketh intercession for them, Acts xxv. 24 ; Eom. xi. 2, and viii. 34. The metaphor is taken from attorneys or advocates who appear for men in courts of justice ; from counsellors, who plead their client's cause, answer the adversary, supplicate the judge, and procure sentence to pass on their client's side. This act of making intercession may also be taken from kings' favourites, who are much in the king's presence, and ever ready to make request for their friends. But remember, though this be thus attributed to Christ, yet we may not think that in heaven Christ prostrateth himself before him, or maketh actual prayers ; that was a part of his humiliation which he did in the days of his flesh ; but it implieth a presenting of himself a sacrifice, a surety, and one that hath made satisfaction for all our sins, together with manifesting of his will and desires, that such and such should partake of the virtue and benefit of his sacrifice, Heb. v. 7, so as Christ's intercession consisteth rather in the perpetual vigour of his sacrifice and continual application thereof, than in any actuarsuppli- cation. The intendment of this phrase applied to Christ, ' to make intercession,' is to shew that Christ, being God's favourite, and our advocate, continually appeareth before God, to make application of that sacrifice which once he off'ered up for our sins. Christ appears in the presence of God for us ; (1.) To present unto his Father him- self, who is the price of our redemption ; (2.) To make application of his sacrifice to his church time after time, according to the need of the several members thereof ; (3.) To make our persons, prayers, ser- vices, and all good things acceptable to God. But,
[7.] Seventhly and lastly, The ivhole compact and agreement between God the Father and our Lord Jesus Chi'ist, about the redemption of poor sinners souls, was really and solemnly transacted in open court; or, as I may say, in the high court of justice above, in the presence of the great public notary of heaven — viz., the Holy Ghost; who being a third person of the glorious Trinity, of the same divine essence, and of equal power and glory, makes up a third legal witness with the Father and the Son. They being, after the manner of kings,i their own wit- nesses also : 1 John v. 7, ' For there be three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.' Three, (1.) In the true and real distinction of their per-
^ So the king writes, Teste meipso. This, 1 John v. 7, is a very clear proof and testi- mony of the Trinity of persons; in the unity of the divine essence ; they are all one in essence and will. As if three lamps were lighted in one chamber, albeit the lamps be divers, yet the lights cannot be severed ; so in the Godhead, as there is a distinction of persons, so a simplicity of nature.
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sons ; (2.) In their inward properties, as to beget, to be begotten, and to proceed ; (3.) In their several offices one to another, as to send and to be sent : ' And these three are one,' one in nature and essence, one in power and will, one in the act of producing all such actions as, without themselves, any of them is said to act ; and one in their testi- mony concerning the covenant of redemption that was agreed on be- tween the Father and the Son. Consent of all parties, the allowance of the judge, and public record, is as much as can be desired to make all public contracts authentic in courts of justice ; and what can we desire more, to settle, satisfy, and assure our own souls that all the articles of the covenant of redemption shall, on all hands, be certainly made good, than this, that these three heavenly witnesses, God the Father, God the Son, and God the v Holy Ghost, do all agree to the articles of the covenant, and are all witnesses to the same covenant ? Thus you see that there. was a covenant of redemption made with Christ ; upon the terms whereof he is constituted to be a Kedeemer ; * to say to the prisoners, go forth, to bring deliverance to the captives, and to proclaim the year of release (or jubilee) the acceptable year of the Lord,' as it is, Isa. Ixi. 1, 2. I have been the longer in opening the covenant of redemption, partly because of its grand importance to all our souls, and partly because others have spoken so little to it, to the best of my observation, and partly because I have never before handled this subject, either in the pulpit or the press, &c.