OF COMiMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST. 179
xvii.), — founded and built. And here lies the certain, stable founda- tion of our absolution, and acceptation with God. Christ in our stead, acting for us as our surety, being acquitted, absolved, solemnly de- clared to have answered the whole debt that was incumbent on him to pay, and made satisfaction for all the injury we had done, a gene- ral pardon is sealed for us all, to be sued out particularly in the way to be appointed. For, —
[6.] Christ as a public person being thus absolved, it became right- eous with God, a righteous thing, from the covenant, compact, and convention, that was between him and the Mediator, that those in whose stead he was, should obtain, and have bestowed on them, all the fruits of his death, in reconciliation with God, Rom. v. 8-1 1 ; that as Christ received the general acquittance for them all, so they should every one of them enjoy it respectively. This is everywhere rnanifested in those expressions which express a commutation de- sigTied by God in this matter; as 2 Cor. v. 21; Gal. iii. 13; 1 Pet. ii, 21, 24; — of which afterward.
[7.] Being thus acquitted in the covenant of the Mediator (whence they are said to be circumcised with him, to die with him, to be buried with him, to rise with him, to sit with him in heavenly places, — namely, in the covenant of the Mediator), and it being righteous that they should be acquitted personally in the covenant of grace, it was determmed by Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that the way of their actual personal deliverance from the sentence and curse of the law should be in and by such a way and dispensation as might lead to the i^rawe of the glorious grace of God, Eph. i. 5-7. The appoint- ment of God is, that we shall have the adoption of children. The means of it, is by Jesus Christ; the peculiar way of bringing it about, is by the redemption that is in his blood ; the end, is the praise of his glorious grace. And thence it is,^ —
[8.] That until the full time of their actual deliverance, determined and appointed to them in their several generations, be accomplished, they are 2^€7'sonally under the curse of the law; and, on that account, are legally obnoxious to the wrath of God, from which they shall cer- tainly be delivered ; — I say, they are thus personally obnoxious to the law, and the curse thereof ; but not at all with its primitive intention of execution upon them, but as it is a means appointed to help for- ward their acquaintance with Christ, and acceptance with God, on his account. When this is accomplished, that whole obligation ceases, being contmued on them in a design of love; their last condition being such as that they cannot without it be brought to a participation of Christ, to the praise of the glorious grace of God.
[9.] The end of the dispensation of grace being to glorify the whole Trinity, the order fixed on and appointed wherein this is to be done.
180 or COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST.
is, by ascending to the Father's love through the ivork of the Spirit and blood of the Son. The emanation of divine love to us begins with the Father, is carried on by the Son, and then communicated by the Spuit ; the Father designing, the Son purcha.sing, the Spirit effectually working: which is their order. Our participation is first by the work of the Spirit, to an actual interest in the blood of the Son ; whence Ave have acceptation with the Father.
This, then, is the order whereby we are brought to acceptation with the Father, for the glory of God through Christ: —
\st. That the Spii-it may he glorified, he is given unto us, to quicken us, convert us, work faith in us, Rom. viii. 11; Eph. i. 19, 20; according to all the promises of the covenant, Isa. iv. 4, 5; Ezek. xi. 19, XXX vi. 26.
2dly. This being wrought in us, ybr the glory of the Son, we are actually interested, according to the tenor of the covenant, at the same instant of time, in the blood of Christ, as to the benefits which he hath procured for us thereby; yea, this very work of the Spirit itself is a fruit and part of the purchase of Christ. But we speak of our sense of this thing, whereunto the communication of the Spirit is antecedent. And, —
^dly. To the glory of the Father, we are accepted with him, justi- fied, freed from guilt, pardoned, and have " peace with God," Rom. V. 1. Thus, " through Christ we have access by one Spirit unto the Father," Eph. ii. 1 7. And thus are both Father and Son and the Holy Spirit glorified in our justification and acceptation with God ; the Father in his free love, the Son in his full purchase, and the Holy Spirit in his effectual working.
[10.] All this, in all the parts of it, is no less fully procured for us, nor less freely bestowed on us, for Christ's sake, on his account, as part of his purchase and merits, than if all of us immediately upon his death, had been translated into heaven ; only this way of our deliverance and freedom is fixed on, that the whole Trinity may be glorified thereby. And this may suffice in answer to the first objec- tion. Though our reconciliation with God be fully and completely procured by the death of Christ, and all the ways and means whereby it is accomplished; yet we are brought unto an actual enjoyment thereof, by the way and in the order mentioned, for the praise of the glorious gi'ace of God.