Fourthly, For that “concourse of people, consultations, and noise and preparation for war,” which though, as he says, “ mentioned in the text, he cannot find in the actings of men against the Lord Christ,” it is all an imagination of the same folly; for there is no mention of any such preparation for war in the text as he dreameth of. Rage and consultation, with a resolution to oppose the spiritual rule of the Son of God, are indeed described, and were all actually made use of, originally against the person of Christ immediately, and afterwards against him in his gospel, with the professors and publishers of it.
76 ORIGINAL OF THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST, ETC. [ EXERC. XXVIL
Fifthly, He adds hereunto that “ Christ ruled neither Jews nor Gentiles; that he made no laws, nor put any bonds upon them, that they might be said to break.” So answers Kimchi the testimony from Mic. v. 2, where Christ is called the ruler of Israel. “Answer them,” saith he, 12 wn on das Syne Sy xdb,—“ that Jesus ruled not over Israel, but they ruled over him, and crucified him.” But notwithstanding all this petulancy, his enemies shall all of them one day know that God hath made him both Lord and Christ; that he is a king and a lawgiver for ever; that he came to put the holy bands and chains of his laws on the world, which they ‘in vain strive to re- ject and cast out of the earth, for he must reign until all his ene- mies are made his footstool. It is granted that in some of these words spiritual things are figuratively expressed, but their literal sense is that which the figure intends; so that no mystic or allego- rical sense is here to be inquired after, it being the Lord Christ the Son of God, with respect unto his kingly office, who is here treated of primarily and directly, however any of the concernments of his kingdom might be typed out in David; and he it is who says, “I will declare the decree: the Lorp hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.”
18. The foundation of this expression is laid in the divine and eternal filiation of the Son of God, as I have elsewhere evinced; but the thing directly expressed is spoken in reference unto the manifes- tation thereof in and after his incarnation. He that speaks the words is the Son himself; and he is the person spoken unto, as Ps. ex. ], “The Lorp said unto my Lord,’ wherein the same eternal transaction between the Father and Son is declared. So here, “The Lorp,” that is the Father, “hath said unto me.” How? By the way of an eternal statute, law, or decree. As he was the Son of God, so God declares unto him that in the work he had to do he should be his Son, and he would be his Father, and make him his first-born, higher than the kings of the earth. And therefore are these words applied several ways unto the manifestation of his divine filiation. For instance, he was “ declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead,” Rom. i. 4. And this very decree, “ Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee,” is used by our apostle to prove the priesthood of Christ, which was con- firmed unto him therein, Heb. v. 5; and this could no otherwise be but that God declared therein unto him, that in the discharge of that office, as also of his kingdom and rule, he would manifest and declare him so to be. It appears, therefore, that there were eternal transactions between the Father and Son concerning the redemp- tion of mankind by his interposition or mediation.
SECT, 1.] FEDERAL TRANSACTIONS, ETC. 77
EXERCITATION XXVIII.
FEDERAL TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN THE FATHER AND THE SON,
1, Personal transactions between the Father and Son about the redemption of mankind, federal. 2. The covenants between God and man explained. 3. “ Fcedus,” a coyenant, whence so called. 4. Svvd4xn, why not used by the LXX. 5. The various use of "2 in the Scriptures—The tables of stone, how called the covenant; and the ark—The same use of cuvdyxn—The cer- tain nature of a covenant not precisely signified by this word. 6. Covenants how ratified of old. 7. Things required to a complete and proper covenant. 8. Of covenants with respect unto personal services. 9, The covenant be- tween Father and Son express—How therein the Father is a God unto him, and the Son less than the Father. 10. Joint counsel of the Father and Son in this covenant, as the foundation of it. 11. The will of the Father in this covenant absolutely free. 12. The will of the Son engaged in this covenant —The Son of God undertakes for himself when clothed with our nature. 13. The will of God how the same in Father and Son, yet acting distinctly in their distinct persons. 14. Things disposed of in a covenant to be in the power of them that make it—This they may be two ways: first, absolutely ; secondly, by virtue of the compact itself. 15. The salvation of sinners the matter of this covenant, or the thing disposed of, to the mutual complacency of Father and Son. 16. The general end of this covenant the manifesta- tion of the glory of God—Wherein that consists—What divine properties are peculiarly glorified thereby. 17. The especial glory of the Son the end of this covenant; what itis. 18. Means and way of entering into this cove- nant—Promises made to the Son, as incarnate, of assistance, acceptance and glory—The true nature of the merit of Christ. 19. Things prescribed to the Lord Christ in this covenant reduced to three heads—The sacred spring of his priesthood discovered. 20. The original reason and nature of the priesthood of Christ—Occasion and use of priesthood and sacrifices under the law. 21. The sum of the whole—Necessity of Christ’s priesthood.