19. The conditions required of, or prescriptions made unto, the undertaker in this covenant, for the end mentioned, and under the promises directed unto, do complete it. And these may be reduced unto three heads:—
(1.) That he should asswme or take on him the nature of those whom, according unto the terms of this covenant, he was to bring unto God. This was prescribed unto him, Heb. ii. 9, x. 5; which, by an act of infinite grace and condescension, he complied withal, Phil. ii. 6-8, Heb. ii. 14. And therein, although he was with God, and was God, and made all things in the glory of the only-begotten Son of God, yet he was “made flesh,” John i. 14, And this con- descension, which was the foundation of all his obedience, gave the
SECT. 19, 20.] THE FATHER AND THE SON. 95
nature of merit and purchase unto what he did. This he did upon the prescription of the Father; who is therefore said to “send forth his Son, made of a woman,” Gal. iv. 4; and to “send forth his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh,’ Rom. viii. 3: in answer unto which act of the will of the Father he saith, “ Lo, I come to do thy will,” Heb. x. 7. And this assumption of our nature was indispensably necessary unto the work which he had to do. He could no otherwise have exalted the glory of God in the salvation of sinners, nor been himself in our nature exalted unto his mediatory kingdom, which are the principal ends of this covenant.
(2.) That in this nature so assumed he should be the servant of the Father, and yield universal obedience unto him, both according to the general law of God obliging all mankind, and according unto the especial law of the church under which he was born and made, and according unto the singular law of that compact or agreement which we have described, Isa. xlii, 1, xlix. 5; Phil. ii. 7. He came to do, to answer and fulfil, the whole will of God, all that on any account was required of him. This he calls the “ commandment” of his Father, the commands which he received of him, which extend themselves to all the prescriptions of this covenant.
(8.) That whereas God was highly incensed with and provoked against all and every one of those whom he was to save and bring unto glory, they having all by sin come short thereof, and rendered them- selves obnoxious to the law and its curse, he should, as the servant of the Father unto the ends of this covenant, make an atonement for sin in and by our nature assumed, and answer the justice of God by suffering and undergoing what was due unto them; without which it was not possible they should be delivered or saved, unto the glory of God, Isa. liii. 11, 12. ;
And as all the other terms of the covenant, so this in particular he undertook to make good, namely, that he would interpose him- self between the law and sinners, by undergoing the penalty thereof, and between divine justice itself and sinners, to make atonement for them. And so are we come to the well-head or the fountain of sal- vation. Here lieth the immediate sacred spring and fountain of the priesthood of Christ, and of the sacrifice of himself, which in the dis- charge of that office he offered unto God.
20, Man having sinned, the justice of God, as the supreme Lord, Ruler, and Governor over all, was violated thereby, and his law broken and disannulled. Every sin personally added to the first sin, which was the sin of our nature in Adam, doth so far partake of the nature thereof as to have the same consequents with respect
unto the justice and law of God. In one or both these ways all men had sinned and come short of the glory of God, or were apostatized
96 FEDERAL TRANSACTIONS, ETC. [EXERC. XXVIII.
from the end of their creation, without power, hope, or possibility in themselves for the retrieval thereof. Neither was there any way for our recovery, unless God were propitiated, his justice atoned, and his law repaired or fulfilled. This now was that which in this eternal covenant the Son of God, as he was to be incarnate, did undertake to perform. And this could no otherwise be done but by the obe- dience and suffering of the nature that had offended; whereby greater glory should redound unto God, in the exaltation of the glo- rious properties of his nature, through their eminent and peculiar exercise, than dishonour could be reflected on him or his rule by sin committed in that nature. This was done by the death and blood- shedding of the Son of God under the sentence and curse of the law. Hereunto, in this covenant, he voluntarily and of choice gave him- self up unto the will of God, to undergo the penalty due to sinners, according to the terms and for the ends of the law: for inasmuch as the sufferings of Christ were absolutely from his own will, the obe- dience of his will therein giving them virtue and efficacy; and seeing he did in them and by them interpose himself between God and sinners, to make atonement and reconciliation for them; and seeing that to this end he offered up himself unto the will of God, to do and suffer whatever he required in justice and grace for the accom- plishment of the ends of this compact and agreement; which having effected, he would persist to make effectual unto those for whom he so undertook all the benefits of his undertaking, by a continual glo- rious interposition with God on their behalf; he so became the high priest of his people, and offered himself a sacrifice for them.