\st. It is plainly affirmed that Christ, by his death, obtained " ever- lasting redemption," Heb. ix. 12. He obtained everlasting redemp- tion before his ascending into the most holy place, called elsewhere the "purging of our sins," Heb. i. 3. Now this redemption, as was said, the apostle informs us consists in "the forgiveness of sins :" Eph. i. 7, "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgive- ness of sins," or the intercision of that obligation unto punishment which attends sin in reference to the sinner, and his subjection to the law of God and the righteousness thereof. As the oblation of Christ rcspecteth God and his justice, to whom it is given as a price and ransom, and whereof it is an atonement, it is, and is called (or we are said to receive thereby), "redemption ; " as it respects them who receive the benefit of that redemption, it is " the forgiveness of sins."
> Eph V 25-27; Tit. ii. 14; Gal. iv. 4-6; John xvii. 17; Matt, xxviii. 18-20; Eph IV 11-14; Rom. vi. 2-G, etc. » Eph. iv. 22; 2 Cor. v. 15; Rom. xii. 1, 2; 2 Cor iii. 18. » Matt. xx. 6, 6. ♦ 2 Thess. i. 11; John iii. 8. » 2 Pet. i. 1.
VIL] the mediation of CHRIST. 299
Forgiveness of sins, as it is completed and terminated in the con- sciences of believers, requireth the interposition of faith,^ for the receiv- ing of Christ in the promise, " who of God is made unto us righteous- ness," 1 Cor, i. 80 ; but in respect of the procurement of it, and the removing all causes upon the account whereof sin should be imputed unto us, that is perfected in the oblation of Christ^ Hence he is said to "bear our sins in his own body on the tree," 1 Pet. ii. 24. And being once on him, either he w^as discharged of them, or he must for ever lie under the burden of them. They were on him on the tree; what, then, is become of them? If he were freed of them, and justified from them (as he was, Isa. 1. 8, 9), how should they ever be laid to our charge? And yet this freedom from condemna- tion for sin for all the elect, which God himself so clearly asserts, Rom. viii. 32, 83, etc., doth not in the least set them free from the necessity of obedience, nor acquit them from contracting the guilt of sin upon the least irregularity or disobedience.
2dly. We are said to do together with Christ those things which he doth for us in his own person, and that upon the account of that benefit which hy those his personal performances doth redound unto us, and which being done, the quarrel about sin, as to make an utter separation between God and our souls, is certainly removed. Thus we are said to die with him, to be raised again with him, and with him we enter into the holy place, this whole business about sin being passed through, for he that is dead is justified from sin.' Now, all this being done by us and for us, in and by our Head, can we henceforth die any more? shall death any more have dominion over us? This the apostle argues, 2 Cor. v. 14, 15: "We judge," saith he, " that if one died for all, then were all" (that is, all those for whom he died) " dead," or died likewise ; they were dead in and with him, their sponsor, as to the curse due for sin, that henceforth they might " live to him which died for them."
2dly. The compact or agreement that was between the Father and the Son as mediator, about the business of our redemption in his blood, manifests this truth. The Father required at his hands that he should do his will, fulfil his pleasure and counsel, make his soul an offering for sin, and do that which the sacrifices of bulla and goats shadowed out, but could never effect; upon the perform- ance whereof he was to " see his seed," and to " bring many sons to glory."* A covenanting and agreement into an uncertain issue and event (as that must be of God and the Mediator, if the salvation of the persons concerning which and whom it was be not infallibly certain) ought not, at any cheap rate or pretence, to be assigned to infinite wisdom. In the accomplishment of this undertaking, where-
> Rom. i. 5. 2 Rom. iv. 4. s Rom. vi. 5, 8 ; 2 Cor. v. 14, 15 ; Col. iii. 1; Rom. vi. 7. < Ps. xl. 8; Isa. liii. 10, 11 ; Ilcb. x. 1, 4, 7, u. 10.
300 DOCTRINE OF THE SAINTS' PERSEVERANCE. [CHAP.
unto Christ was designed, the Father dealt with him in strict and rigid justice;^ there was neither composition about the debt, nor commutation about the punishment that he had taken upon him- self. Now, doth not exact justice require that the ransom being given in, the prisoners be d^^livered? that the debt being paid, the bond be cancelled as to any power of imprisoning the original debtor? that punishment being undergone and the law fulfilled, the offender go free? Especially, all this being covenanted for in the first under- taking, doubtless wrath shall not arise a second time. The right knowledge, use, and improvement, of this grace being given, bounded, and directed, by the gospel, it is safeguarded from abuse by that which God calls his own wisdom.