-- CHAPTER VIII: What security the consideration of Christ's person affords to our faith that we sha
CHAPTER VIII
What security the consideration of Christ's person, his relation to us, and office for us, affords to our faith that we shall be strengthened to persevere unto the end.—As he is Christ our head, we are elected in him to all those benefits of grace which were above the dues of creation.—As those benefits had no dependence on the fall, Christ considered as our head was a sufficient ground for God's bestowing them upon us in election; viewed as we stood in that relation to him, as he is our head, God loves us in him, and with the same love he does him, and therefore he will love us unchangeably, and never cease so to do.—As Christ is Jesus, a Saviour, our first calling into grace, and our continuation and perseverance in it, is the purchase of his blood.—Supplies of grace and strength for him to give us ability to strengthen us against temptations and deliverance out of them, is the price of his sufferings.
II. The second head proposed was the consideration of Christ's person, relation to us, and office for us, by Jesus Christ, and see what they will afford for consolation and security herein.
1. Consider his person and relation to us as he is Christ. In his person, you know, he is the Son of God in our nature, God's Christ; and as considered such, constituted and made an head and husband unto us who are his fellows, chosen to be one with him, as God's
Christ or anointed over as, and to us, as an head, Ps. 45.
2. Consider him as Jesus, and as he undertook to be a Saviour and a Redeemer to us, and who hath by his merits purchased all for us.
I know that both these two titles of his are often mentioned, but with an intent only to design forth who it is that is spoken of when mentioned, namely, that individual person, Jesus Christ. But his mention here being with a 'by Jesus Christ,' as a note of influence
and accusation* unto the things here spoken of, give me leave, therefore, to inquire what each of these, and particularly what the consideration of Christ, so far as it may be from Scripture warrant, conceived distinct from Jesus, will afford to secure us the elect of God, of our perseverance, or being carried through temptation; both,
— 1. By his influence thereinto, and engagement thereupon, as he is Christ.
And 2dly, As he is Jesus. By Christ, and by Jesus each.
I undertook that every word in the text would contribute something to our main point, and truly these two will contribute a great deal, and indeed more than I am able to grasp or mean to fetch in. I shall but give you a small taste of these, and that will perhaps afford some light, comfort, and strength unto faith in this grand point.
You will first ask me, what my meaning should be to put this difference between his being, 1, Christ to us; and 2, Jesus, a Saviour, as you know it signifies: 'he shall save his people from their sins.' I shall open my heart in this particular, as God shall vouchsafe to enable me.
(1.) I find this distinct consideration of him as head or husband, and then of Saviour, made by the apostle: Eph. 5:23, 'Even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Saviour of the body.' And by head is meant his relation of husband unto his church, as to his body, as the words afore shew, 'For the husband is the head of the wife;' and it is exemplified and prosecuted by the instance of Adam and his wife, considered afore the fall in their marriage, as then typifying out
Christ and his church, ver. 31, 32.
And he is first said to be the head, and then the Saviour; and Saviour as an additional unto that relation of head, as those words carry it,
'And he is the Saviour,' &c. As if he should have said, Farther, or moreover, he is the Saviour of his body, besides that of his being an
head. Adam, his type, was not the saviour of his wife, though her head. And according unto this double relation there, I do take the boldness here, and warrant to make this distinction and apartment.
1. By Christ, as he is head to this body, which is in a reciprocal relation to him, again called his body, and both together, Christ. 2.
By Jesus, as Saviour, which title is proper to him alone. In 1 Cor.
12:12, both he and his body, if you observe, are called one Christ: 'For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.' But to be styled Saviour is proper to him alone, and therefore his relation to us as Christ, is distinct from that of Saviour.
There is a controversy among those that are orthodox in point of election, under and in what view in eternity the elect came up before God, whether in their fallen or unfallen estate, when they were the subject of his election. Those that are called Superlapsarians, they say, Man came up into God's mind first, without the consideration of the fall; and that the creation, and then the permission of the fall, were but as means to bring about the designs of election, which were ordained before the fall. Others, whom you call Sublapsarians, account the creation and the fall but a matter of common providence, not intended as means to accomplish election, but only as antecedents; and that God began his election, having first foreseen man would fall. These are two extreme opinions; but there is a third, and that is, that both man unfallen and fallen, and all things that did or could fall out concerning man, being in one entire view before God at once, whose infinite understanding grasps and comprehends all in one prospect, as he doth all time into an instant, being all present to God (though of the things themselves one succeed the other in execution), that God had respect to both estates in his election, and that some sort of his decrees respected man as unfallen, and some as fallen. Now it is certain that some respect man as fallen; for to appoint man to faith in Christ his Redeemer, to appoint man to repentance, such decrees must be upon the consideration of man as fallen.
Give me leave to be of the latter's opinion, and I explain myself thus in it: that there is an election to the end, which is to the utmost glory which I have spoken of, and there is an election to the means, as Christ's redemption on his part, faith and repentance on ours, which are in the way to that glory. This notion I have elsewhere enlarged upon, but as to my present purpose, as God's election had these two respects, so suitably Christ bears a twofold relation to us through God's ordination, the one of being Christ and an head to us, which suits his decrees of election as to the end, and which considered man as unfallen; the other of Jesus a Saviour, which wholly respects man fallen into sin, and to be restored out of it.
I shall take my first rise from this distinction given you, from what is in the text, that God is a God of all grace to us men, in and by Christ, taking the word grace in the utmost latitude of it; and so that all kind of grace is in and by Christ, as hath been handled. This is a sure maxim, that there is no sort nor kind of grace that is in the heart of God to any of his creatures, that he did not bear to the elect sons of men. The reason is, because he is a God of all grace to us: now consider this, that grace doth not (take it in the latitude of it) only respect creatures as fallen, but had respect to creatures as unfallen, for grace was extended to the elect angels.
And an evidence of it is, that if grace in God towards us after the fall, were only said to be grace in respect of what man is, or can do after the fall, then grace in God were only such a grace as must have the advantage of man's sin, and became grace only in a respect to man's unworthiness, by reason of sin first laid, as the foundation for it, and that this consideration must come in to make it grace, that what he gave was therefore grace, because man had deserved the contrary; but that were to lower grace, as it is in God, and to make it to need, and to be beholding to man's sin to make it esteemed grace. That which is, and we call, grace in a king, a mortal, scorns to be so lowered. He is not said to be gracious only to traitors, and those that have incurred the penalties of the law: no; but he hath favours to bestow on his best subjects over and above their deserts; and he is
said to be gracious in that respect also. So then, grace in God is not only to be esteemed as grace in respect towards his elect, considered as fallen, but it is super-creation grace that is above what is due to the creature by the law of creation. Super-creation grace also, as of a God so great as he, hath power in his hands to bestow gifts of grace on man considered as not fallen; and this appears evidently in the example of the angels. They were kept by election, and therefore are styled 'the elect angels' in Timothy, and that they never sinned; what kept them? A grace above their creation-grace; for election is an order of decrees above creation. Election prevented their sinning, and that was an infinite grace bestowed above the due of their works, or of their creation; and it was a grace that flowed from, and accompanied election, and all election hath a grace above the law of creation for the foundation of it: Rom. 11:5, 7, it is styled 'the election of grace;' and again there it is opposed to works, according to which creation only proceeds, for it is a covenant of works. Whatsoever is of grace, goes by election; and whatsoever goes by election is by grace, and therefore is not to be narrowed unto grace shewn after the creature hath sinned, but may as well be bestowed and terminated on the creature afore. And although this grace broke no way forth upon man afore the fall, but was a reserve left to be discovered afterwards; for grace had a second design, an ampliation of itself unto man as sinful, and so God forbore to discover that first design until the other was accomplished. Now if God be a God of grace to man elect, then we must not think that man, God's darling, did partake only of that grace which was discovered upon his having sinned, but had a share and allotment in super-creation grace also; and that man, considered as unfallen, as well as the angels, and being
God's darling, God's Benjamin, in point of grace, had a double mess of grace designed him, had the lower springs and upper springs too, superlapsarian and sublapsarian grace; for all God's springs are on and towards him; all that the angels had designed them was intended to man afore sinning, except only that of being kept from falling; and all that grace that after sinning was requisite to restore him, to the end that God might be a God of all grace every way unto man, as hath
been explained, and that he might come behind hand in no sort of grace (as the apostle says of us) that was in his heart.
Now you will ask me what benefits of grace are there (for we measure grace by what good God had to design) to man considered as unfallen, and whereby to magnify that sort of grace to him as well as to angels, that were not due by creation or works, nor never should have gone that way?
I answer, in general, all benefits that answer the design of election.
(1.) Immutable holiness, which is above creation-dues, was, as you know, bestowed on the angels by election.
(2.) Adoption of sons, which was above creation-dues; for it consists in a relation unto Christ. Adam was but a son by creation, as having
God's image; but adoption is an higher thing, and depends upon a relation to the natural Son.
(3.) That glory, as I shewed, or immediate communion with God himself.
(4.) A gracious acception, and loving them simply, their persons, without a respect to works, this also was above the due of creation: for 'if thou do well, shalt not thou be accepted?' was the language of creation-due, and of the covenant of works; but to have my person itself loved, and irrespectively to works, simply and absolutely, this was super-creation grace.
Now, of all those kinds of benefits, man considered as unfallen was capable of; yea, and grace will be more illustrated and magnified to have had them designed to man considered as not fallen, more than that simply after the fall, as you may discern and might be shewed.
And that the bestowing of those depended not at all upon the consideration of the fall is evident, the thing itself speaks it; and as Bishop Davenant and others have acknowledged, sin was
impertinent to the bestowing of those, they no way depended upon it.
God could love with an absolute love, and graciously accept our persons out of that love, without the supposition of sin.
Lo, all these four benefits we find to have been designed unto man by election of grace, and that as distinct from and antecedaneous to those that necessarily suppose the fall: Eph. 1:4–6, 'According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.'
(1.) Here is immutable, unchangeable holiness: he hath 'chosen us that we should be holy and blameless before him in love.' What doth he mean? the holiness we have in this world imperfect? No; it is that holiness that is faultless, and a holiness that is faultless before God; and afterwards it is he speaks of that imperfect holiness in ver. 8, which in calling is given us again.
(2.) He tells us of adoption: 'He hath predestinated us to the adoption of children;' a sonship beyond creation, and such as did not depend upon our having sinned. God could make and therefore decree us thus sons without our sinning; he could design for us an adoption in our relation to Christ, which gives us right to utmost glory.
(3.) A third benefit that he hath predestinated us 'to himself,' yea, and to Christ, for the words bear both respects; the meaning is, to immediate communion with himself and Christ. He hath predestinated us to enjoying himself, even God, his being all in all: this depends not on the fall. God could have taken creatures immediately unto himself, and communicated himself, as he will do, after the day of judgment to them.
Again, (4.) 'Wherein he bath made us accepted in the beloved.' This is still a super-creation grace, not supposing man fallen, and another thing than to be accepted by creation holiness, which was to be accepted by works.
And, secondly, all these are distinct from those benefits which come upon the consideration of the fall. In verse 7 he begins, as in a new edition, 'In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.' Then he comes to calling, ver. 8, 9, 'Wherein he hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence: having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself;' which are bestowed on us also, as by the decree and the means, afore the fall, in bringing us to glory; and for the bestowing of these 'the good pleasure of his will, which he had purposed in himself,' again comes in, as a farther decree to bestow them; and then 'to the praise of the glory of his grace,' is brought in at the close of his enumeration of the first sort of benefits that depend not on the fall, for grace is seen in them as well as in those other of redemption, unto which also apart the riches of his grace are ascribed, as the fountain of them.
Our election, &c., unto both sorts are in Christ, so expressly of the first superlapsarian benefits: ver. 4, 'We are chosen in Christ,' &c.
And indeed if of grace, then in Christ; Christ is as large and extensive in his instrumentality as grace is in ordaining. Now, then, here I clap in this, that Christ, as head, is considered as the foundation of those first sort of benefits bestowed upon man considered as unfallen; and Christ, as Jesus, or Redeemer, is the author of the benefits of redemption.
I shall only end in this, that as all those first benefits do not depend upon man's having sinned first, so that this foundation of Christ, considered as an head to us, might be, and was a sufficient ground to bestow them upon us in election, upon our relation to him, as given of God, as he is Christ, and as he is an head and husband to us.
For, first, to make us holy and immutable before God in love, our relation to Christ, as an head, was a sufficient, though not the whole, ground for it, as I have elsewhere shewn. If Christ takes the pure creature to relation to himself, he being the holy of holies, anointed of God, we shall be made unchangeably holy in and through Christ; for by that relation we are called his, 1 Cor. 15:23. It was Christ fixed the angels, and made them unchangeable.
Secondly, Our being adopted sons to God will in a dueness follow upon our being given to Christ as head; for as he is the natural Son of God, therefore by virtue of our relation to him simply as such, we may well become adopted children by marriage with him, as a spouse becomes the daughter of the father to whose son she is married, there needed not the fall nor his redemption.
Likewise, thirdly, to see God face to face, which by the right of adoption we have, it is but being made members of Christ, of him as of an head, to be brought to that utmost glory, to have it designed for us; it did not depend upon Christ's being a redeemer only, because it was natural to Jesus Christ to see God face to face; and we having relation to him, come to the same interest.
So that in the fourth place, that we are 'graciously accepted in the beloved;' this depended not upon the supposal of the fall, nor upon Christ considered as Jesus only, but the very relation of our persons to him as an husband: 'Thine they were, and thou gavest them me,' will do all this.
These things to clear my meaning being premised, I come to that which is proper to the point in hand, which is,
What doth this our relation to Christ, as Christ and an head, and God's love to us in Christ as such, contribute unto our security, that we shall invincibly be carried on to glory, maugre all oppositions?
For answer, I lay this for an unquestionable maxim, that that in Christ which fixeth God's heart most firmly unto us, that that must
needs be the strongest and firmest motive to God to carry us on unto salvation; for in the text he professeth himself engaged to do it, as he is a God of all grace or of love to us, through Christ. That thing, therefore, which in Christ fixeth him most firmly, must needs be supposed to move him most to perform this. Now, consider when in that Eph. 1:6 he is said to have 'graciously accepted us in this his beloved;' whether of the two, his being a Redeemer unto us, Jesus, or his being his beloved Son and Christ, which of these two must be the principal motive to love and accept us, and which of them is intended in that place? It being put upon Christ his being his beloved, and our relation to him as such, I would put the question, For which of the two it is that God loves Christ most, whether as he is Christ and our head, or whether as he is our Jesus, undertaking to redeem us? It is true he loves him because he died for us at his command—'Therefore the Father loves me, because I lay down my life'—but let me tell you, he loves him more because he is Christ; that he is his Son dwelling in our nature, that it is that makes him the eminently beloved of God.
Now, if God's love to us be in and through Christ, and our relation to him, then that in Christ, for which God loves him most, will prove a foundation upon which he loves us most.
We find that this was it which Christ twice useth in the 17th of John, to move his Father to love and save his elect; first in verse 23, 'That they may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me;' and verse 24, 'Father, I will that they also that thou hast given me be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.' I ask the question, What do you think of God's loving Christ here? Did he love him from the foundation of the world chiefly because he foresaw he would die for us, and be Jesus, a Saviour? No; it was because he was his Son in our nature. Then say I, if he loved us in his beloved, then he loved us most in and for that wherein and for what he had loved him most from the foundation of the world, and us with that kind of love he had loved him withal, and for the relation we had to him upon that his love to him; and he contents not himself to have said this once, but at the conclusion of
his prayer he speaks thus, and it is as if he had said, These are my last words, 'That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.' Whereof I take the meaning to be, that as in the thing itself God's love to us was founded upon his love to him, it was but the overflow of God's love to the person of Christ that flows on to us; so therefore he prays that we might understand so much. And upon what it is that the love of God towards us, through him, is especially founded, that the love in God, wherewith he had loved him, may be in us; this he prays for as a matter of the highest moment and concernment for us to know. And then add we this, that if he loves us as he loves his Son, who is his beloved, that then he loves us unchangeably, ver. 23. Yea, and this unchangeableness and fixedness is grounded on a due and equitable ground, for the relation we have to his Son is it that makes us sons; and so God loving him so naturally, so strongly as he doth, it becomes him so to love them that are his, as they are called—1 Cor. 15:23, 'Those that are Christ's'—and so are in a near and strong relation to him.
That as Christ said of his Father's love to him, that it is greater than all, that nothing can fall out to remove it, so it is here, his love being fixed in Christ, he may as well cease to love his Christ as cease to love us. And hence it comes to pass that sin doth not, nor cannot, work his heart off from us, but it provokes him to destroy it in us. And there is this equitable ground for it; it is certain he hates not sin so much, which yet he only hates, or so intensely, as he doth love his
Son for himself; for then some contrary affection about what is in the creature should be as great and as intense as his love to his Son is.
And therefore he can never be brought finally to hate our persons for sin, or because that sin is in us, for what is in us distinct from our persons, as sin is, more than to continue to love our persons, because we are in his Son. Observe but the proportion between the one and the other, and it will invincibly hold; for else he should value his love to his Son at a lower rate than he doth the evil of sin, which cannot be. I will not deny, but that to forgive our sins by Christ was necessary; yet this I will say, that sin could never have wrought his heart off from us; but love to his Son, that caused him to work sin out
of us; and yet what a valuable consideration there is for all this, even in the thing itself, of loving us in Christ.
2. By Jesus, a Saviour of us, as sinners, through redemption, and purchase, which falls in with what the most interpreters give the account of, as to what purpose by Jesus Christ should come in here, ascribing it to what he meritoriously wrought for us, and purchased for us at God's hand. As when we are said to be called, we are said to he called by Jesus Christ, because his merits bought or purchased our calling, and that God by the virtue and intuition of his merits called us; so likewise, that we are called into glory, that he intendeth, it is by Jesus Christ, who purchased all the glory which God estates us into.
Now as to that main point and drift afore us, there are two eminent particulars I shall insist on, as the purchase of the merits of Jesus, the consideration whereof may inseparably secure our hearts for his preserving, and carrying us through all temptations.
(1.) That Christ hath bought and purchased our first calling into grace; and together therewith our continuance and perseverance in that grace.
(2.) That he hath meritoriously also bought off all our temptations, and purchased withal an ability to himself to succour us, and strengthen us through all temptations, and stablish us in the end.
This I add here, not only because our greatest hazards and dangers are from our temptations, but because the scope of the text, as hath been shewn, is to relieve us against temptations in a more special manner.
(1.) For the first, there are three particulars which make up the conclusion I aim at.
[1.] That Christ's merits have purchased our first calling into grace.
[2.] That together therewith he purchased our continuance and preservation in grace.
[3.] What an obligation there is lying upon Christ that ariseth from both, that when once he hath called us, as that which is the first payment, and purchase of his death, he should then be engaged to see it, that we be strengthened and preserved in grace to the end, as being the second payment or latter part of that purchase, without which the first of calling would be ineffectual. These, all three of them, are proper and pertinent to the apostle's scope.
[1.] He hath purchased our calling, by which we are first estated into grace, and that is our conversion, which hath the name of calling given to it; it being a calling of us out of the world, and a dedication of us as first fruits unto God. Now, Gal. 1:4, this is expressly attributed to that merit of the purchase made by Christ, 'Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from the present evil world,' which, ver. 6, is interpreted, our being 'called into the grace of Christ,' or 'in the grace of Christ,' ἐν χάριτι, as being that which cost
Christ dear, and wherein he shewed his love and grace towards us, whom he bought (his soul found an hard pennyworth of it); for as unto God he gave himself for our sins, to call us, ver. 4, but as unto us indeed that are called, it was merely out of his grace. Thus also, 1
Peter 1, God's calling of us, ver. 15, is made the price of his blood; in ver. 18, 19, 'For as much as ye know, ye were redeemed from your vain conversation with the precious blood of Christ.' Their vain conversation was that course of life and state they had been in all that time afore calling; the delivering them out of which, by calling them and making them holy, was by redemption, and that redemption was by the charge and price of the precious blood of Christ.
[2.] Our continuance in grace was cast into his bargain, together with our calling, and inseparably annexed thereunto; for it imports he bought out the whole of our time in the world. The manner of speech there used is such as if it were said of a father, he had bought out the
remainder of his son's time at a valuable consideration, who is an apprentice to a vain, ungodly master, and who had a claim and interest in him for such a term of years; for when he says, 'He redeemed you from a vain conversation,' the meaning is, that it had a power over you, and an interest in you, so as otherwise you would have continued therein to the end of your days, such an hold had it of you. So, then, Christ bought out of God's hands, with your first conversion, your whole time to come, and thereby your preservation and continuation in that grace, in as sure a way of bargain as your first calling (which by experience you are sure hath been wrought in you), and this against all claims and recoveries your old vain conversation or your old temptations should ever be able to make unto you, so as never to endanger his losing of you again. Thus, also,
Titus 2:14, 'Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.' He speaks of redeeming us from the power of sin (as the opposition shews), to purchase to himself an addicted people to him,
'zealous of good works.' So, then, all those sins which we should have been carried out into in the whole of our lives after, in the dominion of them over us, which they afore calling had; from this and these he redeemed us, and so bought out our whole time at one lump, at one entire and whole bargain.
You have all this fully in that song, Luke 1:68, 'Blessed be God, that hath redeemed his people;' ver. 69, 'And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us,' namely, Christ; ver. 70, 'That we should be saved from our enemies (specially spiritual), and from the hand of all that hate us;' to perform and remember the mercy, oath, and covenant which he sware, ver. 72, 73. He sent Christ to redeem, and lay a price down that God might be able to perform his oath; and what was that oath? ver. 74, 'That he would grant us, that being (once) delivered out of the hands of our enemies, we might serve him without fear (of our coming in our enemies' power, and conquest of us again) all the days of our lives, in holiness and righteousness.'
I observe there, first, how he bought our calling; for then and at calling it is that we are delivered from the hand or power of all our enemies; from all as well as any one. We heard out of Gal. 1:4, that our calling was a deliverance 'out of this present world,' as here,
'from all,' &c.
Secondly, That he withal bought out all the rest of our time, after our calling, or first deliverance, or enfranchisement from our enemies, even 'all the days of our lives' to come.
And, thirdly, he purchased not only for us, that we should have power in ourselves to be able to preserve ourselves, if we will look to it, as we should do to ourselves. No; he fixed it more certainly, he bought this of God, that he would grant us it, the very effectual bestowing the thing upon us.
In so much, fourthly, as God, in the foresight and contemplation of the invincible efficacy thereof, took an oath to grant it to every son of Abraham; and God never breaks an oath, it is irrevocable.
So as, fifthly, we may in this point be perfectly secure, as the words, without fear, assure us; and so turn all our care and solicitude (which tears and wears the hearts of many, viz., that few shall he able to hold out) upon this, how to serve him the more acceptably.
[3.] The third thing proposed was the force and strength of the obligation that lieth on Christ, and riseth from hence, that he, having thus bought both our calling and preservation in grace, that therefore he should be more careful and heedful to keep us, and accordingly to strengthen, settle, stablish us in wisdom. It is his concernment.
Christ is a wise purchaser, as well as a wise builder. Now for one to make sure of one part of a purchase (which is but the first payment, as we say), and to make all the rest as certain, how great a folly and oversight would it be accounted in any bargainer or contractor, especially when the condition of the bargain is such as if the latter part faileth and cometh not in, that then also the first is null and
void, and so as he must lose all benefits and use of the first part, after it is paid in, and so lose the whole? To be sure in this case a wise man will look more narrowly (of the two) to the latter part of his bargain than to the first. I exemplify it thus: if in the 8th verse of the second epistle of John, he exhorts his Christian converts, wrought upon by his ministry, to look to themselves, 'that we' (ministers and apostles, as well as Christians) 'lose not those things which we' and you 'have wrought, but that we receive a full reward.' You find also how vehemently solicitous, to a jealousy, the apostle Paul was over those he had converted, lest they should in any degree have fallen. Do but read the first epistle to the Thessalonians, chap. 2, &c. The like you have in his epistles to the Corinthians and Galatians. Yet his concernment was, but his having been a poor instrument in the hand of Christ to work on them. Without doubt, then, Jesus Christ will be sure to look to this; he will look to this himself, for it is his own interest and concernment, which is infinitely greater than what was the apostle's; he being both the owner and master-workman, he will look narrowly to us, and to the thing he hath wrought in us, to succour, stablish, strengthen, &c., that he have his full bargain out, especially seeing he hath obtained one great part belonging to it, hath called us already, and so hath received the first payment, and so is in possession in part, both of what he hath bought, and what he hath wrought in us. Above all, when the condition or rate is such as he must forfeit that too, and so both his whole work and his whole purchase become frustrate, as if he had never laid out a penny upon either. It is certain Christ will not lose one farthing, not an iota of what he paid; 'heaven and earth shall pass away' rather. God held him hard to it, and would not abate a farthing, and he will hold God as hard to it, and will look to it, not only to have every individual soul he purchased, but to have also every degree of grace which he purchased for every soul.
(2.) As he bought thy first calling and continuance in grace thy whole time, so he hath paid for and bought off from thee all thy temptations that should any way befall thee, or that should any way endanger thy
continuance in grace; and hath procured succour, strength, settlement, and establishment for thee.
This is certainly the full scope and direct meaning of that passage, Heb. 2:18, 'In that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.' He had said he was 'a merciful
High Priest,' to pity us, in the verse afore, and so hath an heart and willingness to pity us; but in this verse he adds, that he was able; now mark it, he doth not term him able in respect of his personal abilities, as he is God, but he intends a further acquired ability, and acquired by this, that he being made a frail man, subjected to temptations, as in chap. 4, he was subjected to all temptations; yea, and in the 17th verse of this 4th chapter, he gives this reason why he was made a frail man, even to make him the more tenderly merciful to us: 'It behoved him,' &c.
So that besides his mercies, as he was God (as if that they fitted him not enough), he also became a man, a tempted man, to engage his heart to faithfulness, and to soften his heart to pity us with such a kind of pity with which one man useth to pity another of his nature in distress; this was an additional acquired mercy in his heart unto that which he had as he was God. Now in a like sense this speech here is to be understood, that he was made able thereby to succour us.
You may ask of me concerning this (as of the others also), Was not our Saviour able to succour us, being God-man, though he had never been tempted?
I answer, it is true he had that radical or fundamental power, both of that and of all things else, as God, but it was this, of his having been himself tempted, which gave him the immediate next power, the potentia proxima, as we say.
And then you will next inquire, How came it that his having been tempted should give him power and ability to help us, such as he else
had not had?
That Scripture resolves you clearly, 'In that himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able,' &c. So then it lay in that all his temptations were in him all pure and mere sufferings to him. In conformity unto which, here in this text of Peter's, even our temptations are termed sufferings, 'After you have suffered a while,'
&c. All Christ's temptations were grievous afflictions and vexations to his spirit, he suffered in them; and not only his hanging on the cross, but all his temptations from Satan in the wilderness were his sufferings. All the oppositions, reproaches, and contradictions that sinners and this wicked world made against him, they were part of his sufferings: Heb. 12:3, 'Consider him that endured' (mark it) 'such contradictions of sinners,' such as never no man else; they were part of his endurings. Now this is a certain rule, that whatever you can reckon and account to have been his sufferings, they acquired and merited, in every tittle of them, a redeeming power, a purchasing power of something of like nature for us; and the emphasis, force, or reason of that lies in those words in Heb. 12:3, 'against himself, &c., which is as if he had said, That he, so great a person, should submit to bear it, expose himself, and suffer himself to suffer, to be tempted by Satan and the world, who could have flung them backward and destroyed them, as in the entrance to his last sufferings he gave evidence. So then, as elsewhere it is termed, 'the blood of God,' so these were the temptations of God; not objectively only, as we are said to tempt God, but subjectively, so as he suffered in them all personally, as we poor men do when we are tempted. So Heb. 4:15,
'Was in all points tempted like as we are;' he in his person as we in ours.
Now all these sufferings being for us, and as the Scripture speaks, he therein giving up himself for us, and a piece of himself was concerned and touched upon in every temptation; they therefore aim to have a redeeming, purchasing power and ability in them for us; as Titus 3:14, 'Who gave himself for us to redeem us.' And according to
that maxim of his, he uttered, when he came to suffer, 'Here I am, take me, let these go free,' John 18:8.
And again, add this, which is as certain a rule, that whatever Christ did particularly suffer in, that suffering hath a special virtue and ability of redeeming us from the like particular wherein we suffer, and he thereby did buy help and succour for us therein. So then, his being tempted bought off all our temptations, either not to befall us, or if they befell us, in the end to leave us. Have we a temptation of shame comes upon us, that is, a business that is matter of shame? Ps.
69:6, 7, 'Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake; let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel. Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.' It is a psalm of Christ, if ever any was made for him; for it is quoted four or five times of him in the New
Testament. Now observe from hence, with what intentions Christ transacted things with his Father. And what was the scope and intendment he directed his sufferings in any kind unto, you may learn it by this one instance farther, 'I suffer shame,' says Christ, 'I have borne reproach,' &c. For what end and fruit was it? 'Let not them that wait on thee be ashamed,' &c., and he adds twice, 'for my sake.' The meaning is not as to this sense, because they cleave to me, and adhere to me, and are of my party, and so that though I were foiled, yet let not them be shent or ashamed for my sake; no, but the clean contrary: as Eph. 4:32, 'As God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.' He there pitcheth it thus. Because I, for their sakes, do at thy command bear that shame which they should else have done, Lord, take it off from them, because thou hast laid it upon me; so it expressly follows, ver. 7, 'Because for thy sake I have borne reproach;' shame hath covered my face.' The clear resolve of it is this.
Now what is spoken of matter of shame there, the same holds true of any particular thing which Christ suffered, or which befalleth us. We may say of each of his sufferings, that it hath procured of his Father, that we, for his sake, should be relieved in it, and that because he
'suffered in being tempted,' therefore he is able meritoriously, and by way of merit and desert at his Father's hand, he comes to have power
to help and succour us in that particular, be it what it will be. I have elsewhere given other instances of like kind out of 1 Cor. 8:9, and Mat. 8:17, and 1 Peter 2:24, speaking to servants beaten and abused,
'By whose stripes ye are healed.' Now so it is in the point of temptations in any kind; he bore our temptations, he was tempted, that for his sake we might have either no such temptations, or have them moderated, and in the end struck off. He may be termed a man of temptations, as well as a man of sorrows.
Yea, and thou art but so far tempted, as therein to be conformed to him, and merely for that conformity; so as look upon thy temptations but only as his after-sufferings: Col. 1:24, 'Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his body's sake, which is his church.'
Add to this, that as he bought off all our temptations at his death, so he is meritoriously able, and received ability to succour us when he first came to heaven, and so was habitually enabled. This is a certain rule, that look whatever thing he purchased here on earth by his suffering, the like he had ability to perform in heaven, and so meritoriously is enabled thereunto, as one that hath deserved it. The dispensatory power thereof, or power to give that forth, did he receive when he came to heaven; yea, it was his first entertainment there. God was honest to him, and faithful to him, as he had been to God; and gave him not only 'all power in heaven and earth,' by way of mere commission to manage all, as Mat. 28:18, as a king hath all sovereignty by law; but he supplied him with that which was completely able to effect whatsoever he pleased. The Holy Ghost is able to comfort thee in all thy temptations and tribulations: you know he is called 'the Comforter,' which is spoken properly in respect of discomfort and temptations. Christ knew what he did when he promised to send him to them, as need should require, as afore his death he did; for no sooner did Christ arrive, or set his foot in heaven, but he for us did receive the whole of the Spirit, and all his comforts, and whatsoever he was able to do. Thus Acts 2:33, 'And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the
Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.' He had bought all the cordial succours the Holy Ghost had by him ready prepared for every malady; he had the whole at once given him; for Christ, the head, was made at once complete. God anointed him, as in his own person, 'with the oil of gladness above his fellows.' So with the whole of that oil, which was for ever to be poured forth upon all his fellows, even upon the whole church; and what he then received by wholesale, he pours out and gives forth to every member of his church, as occasion is, and their need doth require.
Use. Had Christ an issue out of all his temptations? Then shalt thou, because he suffered, being tempted, for thee, and in thy stead. In the wilderness he was tempted, and 'the devil left him,' and the good
'angels came and ministered unto him.' In the garden he was tempted, and in agony; the issue was, 'an angel came and comforted him,' and God gave him counsel and support, Luke 22; and 'he was heard in what he feared,' Heb. 5:7. On the cross he was put to it: 'My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' And he was heard in what he feared, not knowing by what he felt, unto what height the wrath of God would rise. 'It is finished' (says he); that is, this great brunt is over, and here is an end of all. God delivered him out of all troubles, and he will deliver thee out of all: 'God delivers the righteous out of all their troubles,' says the psalmist, not leaving one which he is not delivered out of.
Yea, I say, thou shalt much more easily be heard and delivered than he was. It is a sad thing, and may affect any one's heart, to hear the great Saviour of the world complain, as in the next words to those just now mentioned, 'My God, my God,' &c., Ps. 22:1; in the next words, to hear him go on to complain, 'O my God, I cry in the day time, but thou hearest not: and in the night season I am not silent.'
And then, to aggravate his grief the more, adds, ver. 4, 'Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto thee, and were delivered.' Thou art more hard and difficult to me in my distresses, than unto them in theirs; but, above all, to have him then add, 'But I am a worm, and no man,' whom thou having
cast below the condition of other men and saints, as a worm is below a man, takest freedom to trample on me, so as never on any; yea, and that yet it was so, that for his very sake they all had been heard and delivered in their temptations. The truth of it is, we shall be sooner and more easily heard than he was; for he bore the stress, the brunt, for all the rest, to suffer being trampled, to procure audience and despatch for thee. Therefore be of good courage, for he hath overcome for thee, and thou shalt more easily get off than he that made way for thy succour.
And whether thy temptations be small or great, thou mayest, by viewing what Christ suffered, comfort thyself against either; for in that it is said, 'He was tempted in all things like as we are,' it comprehends all sorts and varieties. As he was a man of sorrows, so of temptations. Our spirits are oftener exposed to temptations and disquietments from things that are in themselves small, though great unto us. Gnats trouble us oftener than wild beasts. A mote on the eye frets it; an hair, lying upon the heart, eats into it; and when we look to Christ, we considering him as we do men of great spirits, think that small things made no impression upon his great heart. But oh, he had withal the softest and tenderest heart that ever was, more than of any man; for the same temper of softness that makes him merciful to us, also rendered him most sensible of all that befell himself, and he was left to the infirmity of his flesh in sufferings; he was affected with the meanness of his parents, disesteemed in his own country, Mat. 13:55–57; and at his death, when they 'cast lots upon his garments,' it was a trouble to him, and he passionately complains, and of the mouths they made at him, Ps. 22 ver. 13, 18. It is much, that a man dying on the cross, in his cruel pains and tortures, forsaken of God, and conflicting with his wrath, and so wholly swallowed up therewith, should have room in his heart and thoughts to mind parting his garments, and casting lots for his vesture, after he was divested of them; yet he lays to heart so small an occurrence; it was his tenderness. In tender flesh, as in that of children, fleas make a great knot and mark with the least of their bitings, which on others make no impression.