224 SERMONS uroN JonN xvir. [Ser. X.
[2.] The Father is the highest judge. AH the persons of the God- head arc co-essential, and co-equal in glory and honour; only in economy or dispensation of salvation, the Father is to be looked upon as judge and chief. Man is the debtor, Christ the surety, and the Father the judge before wliose tribunal the satisfaction is to be made ; therefore Christ saith, ' My Father is greater than I.' And in the whole work of our redemption he is to be considered as a superior ; therefore all the addresses, not only of the creatures, but of the Son of God himself, are to his Father for pardon, as if it were not in his own single power : Luke xxiii. 34, ' Father, forgive them ; they know not what they do,' If it })asseth with God the Father, then the business is ended. So 1 John ii. 1, Christ is said to be ' an advocate with the Father,' as supreme in court, as the advocate is beneath the judge. So John xiv. 16, * I will pray the Father, and he shall give you the Comforter:' pardon, comfort, and grace cometh from the Father. It is true, it is said, Mat. ix, 6, ' that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins;' but it is by commission from the Father, as we shall see anon. Well, then, the Father is the supreme judge : whatever passeth in his name is valid and authoritative: Now it is he that committed the work of redemption to Christ ; he is the supreme judge. Eli saith, 1 Sam. ii. 25, ' If one man sinneth against another, the judge shall judge him ; but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him ? ' The meaning is, if one man hath tres- passed against another, the magistrate may take up the controversy, by executing j ustice, and causing the delinquent to make satisfaction to the party offended ; but who shall state the offence, and compose the difference between God and us ? The sin is committed against the judge himself, the highest judge, from whom there is no appeal ; no satisfaction can be made by mortal men, and no person is fit to arbitrate the difference. Therefore God himself is pleased to find out a remedy ; and in all that the Son did, he hath a great hand and stroke in it. The Father's act is authoritative and above contradiction. If he had not given us a mediator out of his own bosom, we had for ever lain under the guilt and burden of our sins. This had its rise from the grace and mercy of the Father.
But let us see what the Father doth in the business of our redemp- tion, that we may with comfort look upon Christ as a constituted authorised mediator by the decree and counsel of heaven.
(1.) As the supreme author, it was the Father's contrivance and motion to Christ to regard the case of sinners : I look, and there is no intercessor ; I see there is none fit to go between fallen man and me. Son, you shall take their case in hand. And therefore he is said to give Christ : John iii. 16, ' God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son.' In the purpose of his thoughts to send Christ : Gal. iv. 4, ' When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman.' I shall open it in the next verse. To sanctify him : John x. 36, ' Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world ? ' &c. To consecrate him for the great work of redemption ; as when a thing is set apart for divine uses and purposes, it is said to be sanctified ; so was Christ sanctified when he was set apart for the work of redemption. Nay, to seal him :
TeR. 7.] SERMONS UPON" JOHN XVII. 225
■Jolm vi, 37, ' Him hath God the Father sealed ; ' a metaphor taken from those wlio give commissions under hand and seal. Christ is a mediator confirmed and allowed under the hroad seal of heaven. So Heb. X. 5, 'A body hast thou prepared for me ; ' and ver. 7, ' Lo, I -come ; in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, 0 God ; ' as if God had set down in a book a draft and model of his designs, and then showed it to Christ.
(2.) As the supreme cause, in whom divine power was eternally resident, he assisteth Christ in the accomplishment of this work, and qualifieth him for his office, with power and mercy. Christ in his own })erson would show us the fountain from whence all mercies do arise ; Ps. xlv. 7, ' He was anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows.' The Father is not only said to beget him, but to anoint him. His compassionate spirit he received from the Holy Ghost : Luke iv. 18, * The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach the gospel,' &c. God gave him tenderness and bowels to jioor broken-hearted sinners. So for power and strength : John v. 19, ^ The Son of man can do nothing of himself,' as separate and distinct from the Father ; not out of any Aveakness, but because of the unity of the essence, as God, and on the federal agreement, as mediator.