THE DEATH OF DEATH, [BOOK I.
/then, are not all freed from the punishment of all their sins? / will say, " Because of their unbelief; they will not believe." But A unbelief, is it a sin. or not? If not, why should they be punished i^r it ? If it be, then Christ underwent the punishment due to it, or not. If so, then why must that hinder them more than their other sins for which he died from partaking of the fruit of his death? If he did not, then did he not die for all their sins. Let them choose which part they will.
CHAPTER IV.
Of tliose things wliicli in the work of redemption are pecuharly ascribed to the
porson of the Son.
Secondly, The Son was an agent in this great work, concurring by a voluntary susception, or willing undertaking of the office im- posed on him; for when the Lord said, "Sacrifice and offering he would not: in burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin he liad no pleasure," then said Christ, " Lo, I come, (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, 0 God," Heb. x. 6, 7. All other ways being rejected as insufficient, Christ undertaketh the task, " in whom alone the Father was well pleased," Matt. iii. 17. Hence he professeth that " he came not to do his own will, but the will of him that sent him," John vi. 38; yea, that it was his meat and drink to do his Father's will, and to finish his work, chap. iv. 34. The first words that Ave find recorded of him in the Scripture are to the same -\}\\r- pose, " Wist ye not that I must be aljout my Father's business?" Luke ii. 4.9. And at the close of all he saith, " I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do," John xvii. 4 ; calling it everywhere his Father's work that he did, or his Father's will which he came to accomplish, with reference to the imposition which we before treated of Now, this undertaking of the Son may be referred to three heads. The first being a common foundation for both the others, being as it were the means in respect of them as the end, and yet in some sort partaking of the nature of a distinct action, with a goodness in itself in reference to the main end proposed to all three, we shall consider it apart; and that is, —
First, His incarnation, as usually it is called, or his taking of flesh, and pitching his tent amongst us, John i. 14. His " being made of a woman," Gal. iv. 4, is usually called his svadf^xuKrig, or incarnation; for this was " the mystery of godliness, that God should be manifested in the flesh," 1 Tim. iii, 16, thereby assuming not any singular per- son, but our human nature, into personal union with himself For, "forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also
END OF Christ's death as eternally intended. 175
himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destro}^ him that had the power of death, that is, the devil/' Heb. ii. 14. It was the children that he considered, the " children whom the Lord gave him," verse 13. Their participation in flesh and blood moved him to partake of the same, — not because all the world, all the posterity of Adam, but because the children were in that condition; for their sakes he sanctified himself Now, this emptying of the Deity, this humbling of himself, this dwelling amongst us, was the sole act of the second person, or the divine nature in the second per- son, the Father and the Spirit having no concurrence in it but by liking, approbation, and eternal counsel.
Secondly, His oblation, or " offering himself up to God for us with- out spot, to purge our consciences from dead works," Heb. ix. 14; '' for he loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood," Rev. i. 5. " He loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it," Eph. v. 25, 26; taking the cup of wrath at his Father's hands due to us, and drinking it off, " but not for himself," Dan, ix. 26: for, " for our sakes he sanctified himself," John xvii. 19, that is, to be an offering, an oblation for sin; for "when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the un- godly," Rom. V. 6 ; — this being that which was typified out by all the institutions, ordinances, and sacrifices of old ; which wlien they were to have an end, then said Christ, " Lo, I come to do thy will." Now, though the perfecting or consummating of this oblation be set out in the Scripture chiefly in respect of what Christ suffered, and not so much in respect of what he did, because it is chiefly considered as the means used by these three blessed agents for the attaining of a farther end, yet in respect of his own voluntary giving up himself to be so an oblation and a sacrifice, without which it would not have been of any value (for if the will of Christ had not been in it, it could never have purged our sins), therefore, in that regard, I refer it to his actions. He was the "Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world," John i. 29 ; the Lamb of God, which himself had provided for a sacrifice. And how did this Lamb behave himself in it? with unwillingness and struggling? No; he opened not his mouth: " He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth," Isa. liii. 7. Whence he saith, " I lay down my life. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again," John x. 17, 18. He might have been cruciated on the part of God; but his death could not have been an oblation and offering had not his will concurred. " But he loved me," saith the ajDostle, " and gave himself for me," Gal. ii. 20. Now, that alone desei'ves the name of a gift which is from a free and a willing mind, as Christ's was when " he loved us, and gave himself for us an offering