CHAPTER XI: Upon the conclusion of this covenant of redemption, the greatest joy in heaven.
relation that they had to this covenant made with Christ which gave acceptation to them for us.
And the reason is, because to satisfy for another, especially in corporal punishments, requires the compact and willingness of the party to be satisfied, to accept it for him that should else undergo it.
Let the satisfaction be never so equivalent to the wrong, yet without a covenant of the party to be satisfied it may be refused. Therefore umpires use to bind the parties in bond to stand to their word;
Quando aliud offertur quam est in obligatione, satisfactio est recusabilis, say the schoolmen. So Ahab offered Naboth as good a vineyard as his own, yet he might refuse it, as he did. This covenant therefore which God made with Christ, to bestow all the merits of his obedience on us, which he called him unto, is the main foundation of all our happiness. As it obliged and engaged God firmly to us in Christ, so it makes all that Christ purchased to be of grace. Though he paid an equivalent price to what we should have done, and much more, yet it is accepted for us out of a covenant of grace. And therefore in Rom. 5:17, though the apostle shews and proves that there is more merit in Christ's obedience to justify than in Adam's sin to condemn, yet the imputing of it to us he calls 'abundance of grace, and the gift of righteousness.' Though it was an abounding righteousness, yet there was an abounding of grace to accept it for us, and it is derived by way of gift.
And the ground of all is because of this covenant made by God with Christ for us, upon which the acceptation of all depends.
CHAPTER XI
That upon the conclusion of this agreement or covenant of redemption, there was the greatest joy in heaven; the divine persons exulting in the delightful thoughts, that so many wretched, lost creatures should be effectually saved.
And now our reconciliation being brought to this blessed issue by God the Father and his Son, their greatest delights have been taken up with it ever since, so as never in like manner with anything else.
There was never such joy in heaven as upon this happy conclusion and agreement. The whole Trinity rejoiced in it (which is the last thing, and the coronis of this discourse), they not only never repented of what they had resolved upon; 'he swore, and would not repent,' Heb. 7:21; but further, their chiefest delights were taken up with this more than in all their works ad extra. God's heart was never taken so much with anything he was able to effect; so as the thoughts of this business, ever since it was resolved on, became matter of greatest delight unto them.
This you may see, Prov. 8:30, 31, 'Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him; rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth; and my delights were with the sons of men.' Where you have that curious question in part resolved, what God did before the world was made? How that eternity was run out, and what the thoughts and delights of the great
God most ran on? You have it resolved by one that knew his mind, and was of his council, the 'mighty Councillor,' as being the Wisdom of his Father, as he is there styled that was before God made the world, Prov. 8:22, 23, 'The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was.' 'Then was I' (says he, ver 30) 'all the while by him,' that came out of his bosom, John 1:18, and who therefore compares himself in this Prov. 8 to a child brought up with the parent: 'so was I' (says he) 'brought up with him.' And what did they together? Two things.
1. They delighted one with and in another, the Father that he was able to beget such a Son like him, and of equal substance with himself: 'I was daily his delight,' and he mine, 'rejoicing always before him.' And this was and would have been delight enough to them, though no creature had ever been made.
2. But, secondly, next to that, what did they delight in most? It follows, 'rejoicing in the habitable parts of his earth; and my delight was with the sons of men.' And observe it, that next to those internal, essential, and personal delights each in other, the greatest and dearest unto those two divine persons were their delights in 'the sons of men;' of all God's works ad extra, in these they most took pleasure.
Now, what is it concerning them should afford God and Christ such thoughts so long aforehand, but this plot concerning them of reconciling them again? For to look and foresee them all at one clap turned rebels against him, and view them mustering together in troops against him, this could minister none but sad and disconsolate thoughts, and it pained him at the heart to think of it:
Gen. 6:5, 6, 'And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.' What was it delighted him then? Men delight only in their friends, not enemies. Was it in them then, as they were at first created in a state of friendship, that God was pleased? No. Then there were but a couple to delight in; but this delight is said to be 'in the sons of men,' all the earth over, 'in the habitable parts of the earth,' which implies he had some in all parts inhabited who were the desire and delight of his eyes. And besides, that first friendship was not worth the thinking of, it lasted so little while, and ended in so great and general a breach. These delights then were most in this, to think that he should win to him and gain the love of these accursed rebels whom he himself loved so dearly, and that he should shew that his love, by an unheard of way, that should amaze angels and men, to take away their sins, and reconcile them to himself again by the incarnation and death of his Son; and tie them to him by an everlasting knot, which their sins should not untie again, nor separate from that his love. This took up his delights
(in the plural); he delighted to think of it again and again; his double delights (as some paraphrase it) were in this, insomuch as he glads himself with the continual thoughts of it again and again. Which may appear by another scripture added unto this, which tells us how his
thoughts did run upon this so dear a design to him (speaking after the manner of men), above all else, and that they were taken up with it; as it useth to be with us, when we are deeply affected with anything. So Ps. 40:5, 'Many,' says he, 'are the wonderful works that thou hast done, and thy thoughts to us-ward cannot be reckoned.'
His mind hath ran on them from everlasting, that his thoughts cannot be numbered. There are many works of wonder which he hath done for us, which hath exercised these his thoughts towards us, but above all in this we have been speaking of; therefore he passeth by all other works, and mentions this very transaction, and calling of, and covenant with, his Son, which we have all this while been speaking of, as that wherein these his thoughts have been most spent and exercised with delight. So ver. 6–8, 'Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.'
And by all this you see that our salvation was in sure hands, even afore the world was; for God and Christ had engaged themselves by covenant each to other for us, the one to die, the other to accept it for us.
And though Christ was yet to come and die, yea, and though there were not one word of promise written that was made to us expressing
God's mind, yet this everlasting obligation made all sure that it should be done.
So as had I no other news to tell you, and could not secretly assure you of these passages from everlasting, they might be enough to persuade and over-persuade you to come in for mercy and grace with him; but much more when it shall be further told you, what Christ hath done to the accomplishment of all this, and what fulness was in him for it, which makes up the second part of this glorious story.