By his oblation we do not design only the particular offering of himself upon the cross an offering to his Father, as the Lamb of God without spot or blemish, when he bare our sins or carried them up with him in his own body on the tree, which was the sum and com- plement of his oblation and that wherein it did chiefly consist; but also his whole humiliation, or state of emptying himself, whether by yielding voluntary obedience unto the law, as being made under it,
i 80 THE DEATH OF DEATH. [BOOK L
that he might be the end thereof to them that believe, Rom. x. 4, or by his subjection to the curse of the law, in the antecedent misery and suffering of life, as well as by submitting to death, the death of the cross: for no action of his as mediator is to be excluded from a concun-ence to make up the whole means in this work. Neither by his intercession do I understand only that heavenly appearance of his in tlie most holy place for the applying unto ns all good things purchased and procured by his oblation; but also every act of his ex- altation conducing thereunto, from his resurrection to his " sitting down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, angels, and principali- ties, and jDowers, being made subject unto him." Of all which his re- surrection, being the basis, as it were, and the foundation of the rest ("for if he is not risen, then is our faith in vain," 1 Cor. xv. 13, 14; and then are we " yet in our sins," verse 17; "of all men most miserable," verse 19), is especially to be considered, as that to which a great part of the effect is often ascribed; for " he was delivered for *our offences, and was raised again for our justification," Rom. iv. 25 ; — where, and in such other places, by his resun'ection the whole follow- ing dispensation and the perpetual intercession of Christ for us in heaven is intended ; for " God raised up his son Jesus to bless us, in turning every one of us from our iniquities," Acts iii. 26.
Now, this whole dispensation, with especial regard to the death and blood-shedding of Clirist, is the means we speak of, agreeably to what was said before of such in general ; for it is not a thing in itself desirable for its own sake. The death of Christ had nothing in it (we speak of his sufferings distinguished from his obedience) that was good, but only as it conduced to a farther end, even the end proposed for the manifestation of God's glorious grace. What good was it, that Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and people of Israel, should, with such horrid villany and«cruelty, gather themselves toge- ther against God's holy child, whom he had anointed? Acts iv. 27: or what good was it, that the Son of God should be made sin and a curse, to be bruised, afflicted, and to undergo such wrath as the whole frame of nature, as it were, trembled to behold? What good, what beauty and form is in all this, that it should be desired in itself and for itself? Doubtless none at all. It must, then, be looked upon as a means conducing to such an end ; the glory and lustre thereof must quite take away all the darkness and confusion that was about the thing itself. And even so it was intended by the ble.ssed agents in it, by " whose determinate counsel and foreknow- ledge he was delivered and slain," Acts ii. 23; there being done unto him "whatsoever his hand and counsel had determined," chap. iv. 28: which what it was mu.st be afterward declared. Now, concerning the whole some things are to be observed : —
That thouirh the oblation and intercession of Jesus Christ are
END OF Christ's death as eternally intended. 181
distinct acts in themselves, and have distinct immediate j^roducts and issues assigned ofttimes unto them (which I should now have laid down, but that I must take up this in another ]Aa.ce), yet they are not in any respect or regard to be divided or separated, as that the one should have any respect to any persons or any thing which the other also doth not in its kind equally respect. But there is this manifold union between them : —
First, In that they are both alike intended for the obtaining and accomplishing the same entire and complete end proposed,- — to wit, the effectual bringing of many sons to glory, for the praise of God's grace; of which afterward.
Secondly, That what persons soever the one respecteth, in the good things it obtaineth, the same, all, and none else, doth the other respect, in applying the good things so obtained ; for " he was deli- vered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification," Rom. iv. 25. That is, in brief, the object of the one is of no larger extent than the object of the other; or, for whom Christ offered him- self, for all those, and only those, doth he intercede, according to his own word, " For their sake I sanctify myself" (to be an obla- tion), " that they also might be sanctified through the truth," John xvii. 19.