III. And not only so, hut all the prerof/atives and good things that come by Christ are ' yea.' They are undoubted in Christ, and they were ' yea' be- fore he was. He profited before he was. He was ' yea' to Adam. Be- cause, however he that was the seed of the woman came not till the latter end of the world, till four thousand years after the beginning or there- abouts, yet the faith of Adam and of Abraham made him present. Abraham ' saw Christ's day, and rejoiced,' John viii. 56. There was a virtue from Christ to all former ages. They all had benefit by Christ, as it is proved at large, Heb. xi. And in Acts xv. 11, ' We hope to be saved by Christ, as well as they,' insinuating that they hoped to be saved by Christ as well as we. So he was 'yea' for comfort to all that were before him, as well as now. All the promises were ' yea,' even to the patriarchs and prophets.
Even as if a man should undertake three or four yeai-s hence to pay a debt that is due by one that is subject to be cai-ried to prison, and on that condition that this man shall be freed. I undertake at such a time to pay such a debt. So though the debt be paid three or four years hence, he is let go free that was obnoxious to go to prison for the debt, though it be to be paid after. So it was with Christ. He, the second person in the Trinity, un- dertook, being so appointed by God the Father. The blessed Trinity stab-
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lished this, that Christ should pay the debt by death ; the debt to divine justice slionld be satisfied Ity the cursed death of the cross, that those that before should have }:;onc to hell else for the debt, should be all freed that had any part and interest by faith in Christ, who should pay the debt after- wards. Christ undertook at such a time to be incarnate, and to pay it for us. God the Father to whom we were obnoxious, that was the creditor for the payment of that, four thousand years after, let them go. So Christ was yea to them, they had benefit l)y Christ's death.
Hereupon the prophets spake of liim as a thing present, ' To us a Son is born, to us a child is given,' Isa. ix. (5. Faith mounts over many years, six hundred years before Christ in the prophet it mounted, and made the time of Christ's coming and his death to be present ; because they had benefit by him as if he had been present. Only with this difference, in the time present when Christ came in the flesh they had some comfortable en- largement of grace. "When he came in the flesh, I say, there was a new world as it were, thei'e was grace poured out in abundance.
So you see that all the promises concerning Christ, they were perfoiTned ; they were ' yea and amen,' and the good things by Christ. St Paul saith excellently, Heb. xiii. 8, ' Christ yesterday, to-day, and the same for ever.' Yesterday to the patriarchs, to-day for the present time he is ' yea,' and for the time to come he is ' yea,' the same alway.
He is yea to all ages. He is yea to us as well as to those that were in Christ's time. Christ is then crucified to thee, when thou believest in Christ crucified. If we now by faith look to Christ, crucified and sent from his Father to take our nature on him, we have as much benefit by Christ as those that beheld him crucified. As they before looked for- wards by the eye of faith, so we look backward. We have benefits by Clirist. He is ' yesterday, to-day, and the same for ever.' ' All the pro- mises are yea in him,' that is, they are constantly 'yea' for all ages. The promises of Christ, as the spirits in the body, they run through all ages of the church. Without him there is no love, nor mercy, nor comfort from God. As I said before, God cannot look on our cursed nature out of Christ ; therefore whosoever will apprehend anything merciful in God, must apprehend it in Christ the promised seed. ' All the promises in him are yea.'
He is called Logos, the word. Wliy is he so ? Both actively and pas- sively. Actively, 'the word,' because how should we ever have Imown the mind in the breast of God, hidden and sealed there, unless Christ had been the Logos, the word ? For a word is expressed from reason, and there is a word that is essential, that is reason, Locios ; and so the word coming from it, speech, the issue of reason. So Christ is the essential word, by nature and by otfice the word, to discover the inward will and purpose of God to us. All the promises of God are discovered by Christ, as the Angel of the covenant. And passively he is the word. Logos, of whom all the prophets spake, as Peter saith. Acts iii. 18, who was fore-signified by all the types, as I shewed. Christ he is truly all in all.