BOOK I: God the Father's eternal counsel and transaction with Christ, to undertake the work of rede
entered CHAPTER VI: Particular invitements unto communion with God and Christ CHAPTER VII: Exercise of faith in prayer
CHAPTER VIII: Another exercise of faith in prayer. The scapegoat CHAPTER IX: Occasional sacrifices for particular sins
CHAPTER X: The general atonement made for all sins once a year:
BOOK I God the Father's eternal counsel and transactions with Christ, to undertake the work of redemption for man, considered as fallen.
CHAPTER I
The exposition of the words of the text.—What is the great design of the gospel.—The excellency of the knowledge of it.—The highest attainment is to see the gospel in its original, those eternal transactions between God the Father and God the Son for the salvation of man.
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation.—2 COR. 5:18, 19.
THESE words do summarily tell us what is the argument of that great mystery of the gospel, as it concerneth sinners, viz., reconciliation. Therefore he styles it the 'ministry of reconciliation:' that is the title he gives the doctrine of it; and withal further explains this, 'To wit,' says he, 'that God was in Christ, reconciling the world;' and so the foot of the angels' evangelical song, wherein they sung forth the main end of Christ's nativity, was reconciliation: Luke 2:14,
'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.' This reconciliation consists of two parts, peace and good will.
The full scope of the words you may conceive, as I have cast them into this frame; and withal, what also is the sum of all the discourse upon them.
First, The word reconcile imports the whole of mankind to have been once created in an estate of amity and friendship with God. For to reconcile, is to make friends again, and argues former friendship.
And this sets and limits the subject of these eternal transactions between God the Father and the Son, to have been man considered as fallen.
And secondly, the whole lump of man being fallen off from God into a deep rebellion, and become of the devil's side and faction, God, who is infinite in love and rich in mercy, bearing everlasting and secret good will to some of these now become rebels, in all ages hath maintained certain lieger ambassadors in the world, to treat with this rebellious rout, and to conclude a peace betwixt them and him: 2
Cor. 5:20, 'Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God;' and hath furnished them (as all other ambassadors use to
be) with a large and gracious commission, the title of which is, 'The ministry of reconciliation;' 'And hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation,' ver. 18. The sum of which commission hath these two principal parts.
1. On the part of him, to publish and proclaim his royal and gracious intentions towards them. For when two are at variance, there can be no hope of peace and reconciliation, unless the party wronged and injured shew an inclination (at least) to listen to an agreement. Now as to that, he hath empowered and commanded them with all confidence and credence to declare; First, That whereas they might conceive him most unjustly to be averse to the very motion of it, that yet he, for his part, is not only contented and inclined to listen to an agreement, but is and hath been ever so fully willing and desirous of it, that he hath made it as it were his chief business, and as that which he hath plotted to bring about; and that he for his part hath been reconciling the world to himself by Christ. 'God was in Christ reconciling,' yea, and from everlasting hath been. And though all things else are of him, as ver.
18 he prefaceth unto this, yet this mainly above all other things. Take the whole of them, 'All things are of God, who hath reconciled us.' He hath been (as it were) totus in illo, wholly bent upon this of all things else. And whereas it might yet be thought, that he being so just, and having declared himself so jealous a God, sensible of the least injury, so tender of his glory, and jealous of the least violation or wrong done thereto, that he therefore would require and propound to have full satisfaction from them first, as the condition of his and their accord and agreement; which that they, or any other creature for them, either were able or willing to perform, was utterly out of all hope. Therefore, Secondly, He bids his ambassadors declare, that as to that point men need not trouble themselves, nor take care about it; for he himself hath further been so zealously affected in this business, that he himself hath made full provision, and took order for that aforehand,
and done it to their hand; 'He hath been in Christ, reconciling the world;' that is, in him and by him, as a mediator, and umpire, and surety between them and him, this great matter hath been taken up and accorded. For he and Jesus Christ his only Son have from all eternity laid their counsels together (as I may so speak with reverence), to end this great difference; and they both contrived and agreed, that Christ should undertake to satisfy his Father, for all the wrong was done to him, all which he should take upon himself, as if he were guilty of it; 'he was made sin,' 2 Cor. 5:21, that is, a surety and a satisfaction for it. And God the Fattier, upon it, is so fully satisfied, as he is ready not only not to impute their sins to them, ver.
19, but to impute all Christ's righteousness to them, and to receive them into favour more fully than ever they were. 'He was made sin, that they might be made the righteousness of God in him.'
2. The second part of our commission is what concerns men, the parties to be reconciled; and God hath given us, his ambassadors, full power and authority to deal with men about it, and to strike up the compact and perfect this agreement into a full and final issue and end, with charge to tell this message indefinitely to all and every man in the world; and that founded upon this ground, that reconciliation is to be obtained from God for some in the world: and thereupon to exhort all and every one that hears it to be reconciled. And men accordingly are to seek it as thus revealed to them by us; and these exhortations are to be entertained by them, as if God had exhorted and persuaded them thereunto. So ver. 20, 'Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.'
And this, my brethren, is the gospel, which is the best news that ever ear heard, or tongue was employed to utter, which took up God's thoughts from all eternity, and lay hid in his breast, and which none knew but his Son and Spirit; a news so blessed and worthy of all acceptation, which as soon as it brake out, heaven and earth rang with joy again: the angels could not hold, but, as ambitious to be the first relaters of it, posted down to earth to bring the news of it: Luke
2:13, 14, 'And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.'
And this being committed unto us to be the dispensers of it, this makes our very feet beautiful in the eyes of broken-hearted sinners:
Rom. 10:15, 'And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!' This makes our calling envied (if possible it were envy should befall those blessed spirits), envied of the angels themselves, to whom God hath not betrusted this glorious embassy, the most honourable employment that ever creature dealt in: Heb. 2, 'The law was given by angels,' ver. 2; 'but God hath not put into subjection to the angels the world to come, whereof we speak' (speaking of the gospel, ver. 5), for which Paul brings in that long and famous thanksgiving, 1 Tim. 1:11, 12,
'According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. And I thank Jesus Christ our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.' He accounted that the greatest mercy which Jesus Christ
(next his own salvation) had shewn him, and wherein he made him a pattern of his super-excelling grace, that he committed the gospel to his trust, which of all other doctrines tend the most to the good of men: 1 Tim. 1:15, 'This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.' Tit. 3:7, 8, 'That, being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.' What things? See ver. 4, even this doctrine of salvation; 'and these things,' saith he, 'I would that thou affirm constantly,' ver. 8. For this is the power of God unto salvation; as Rom. 1:16, 'For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek,' i. e., it is the most powerful and prevailing means to subdue the rebellious
hearts of men, and overcome them; and whereas the preaching of the law makes men often sturdy, this proclamation of pardon and reconciliation brings men in as voluntaries, and that by troops; Luke
16:16, 'The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached,' (that is, the gospel), 'and every man presseth into it.' Intimating that before, when the law was most preached, and the gospel but sparingly (and but as a parenthesis, as it were), there were few brought in; but the gospel brought them in by heaps and multitudes (for so the opposition there stands), with which men were so taken and affected, that glad was he that could get in with pressure and crowding.
And therefore we likewise freely profess to you, that these things we would affirm constantly (were men fitted, broken, and humbled), and preach in a manner nothing else, for it is the sum and upshot of our ministry, an the title is given it in the text, 'the ministry of reconciliation.' And we would desire to know nothing among you but Christ; as Paul speaks to the Corinthians, 1 Cor. 2:2, 'For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified:' and this chiefly, Christ as crucified to reconcile you, crucified before your eyes in the gospel. Gal. 3:5, 'He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?' And as for you, your work, τὸ ἔργον, is to believe; 'This is the work of God'
(says Christ, John 6:29), 'to believe in him whom God hath sent.' So our τὸ ἔργον, our work, is to preach him to you whom God hath sent, that you may believe in him; and therefore we account it our misery that we are fain to spend the most of our time in making ourselves work, as in preaching the law we do; and are fain to come with the great hammer of the law, and break all your bones in pieces, that we may then, as it is in Isa. 61:1, 'preach the gospel, and bind up the broken-hearted.' It is tiresome to us that we must take men by the throats, and arrest them by the law (as we do), in the name of the great God, and haul them to prison, and there shut them up 'under the law,' as the apostle's phrase is, Gal. 3:23, that then we may bring them Christ's bail, and by preaching the gospel, proclaim 'liberty to
the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;' as the allusion is, Isa. 61:1, 'The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek: he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.'
And we do withal protest before God and men this day, that when we come to preach it, we yet tremble to do it more than any doctrine else; for we are afraid that men should lie still in their sins: those that are drunkards should be drunkards still, and unclean still, and lest those who withhold the truth in unrighteousness (their consciences telling them that they live and lie in known sins), lest they should go on to do so still after the delivery of it; which if they shall do, they had better have been in hell than in the assembly of saints to hear the gospel. We tremble therefore at it, as knowing that men cannot hear it and disobey it, but under an extraordinary curse, oftentimes a final one, and such a one as Christ cursed the fig-tree with when he said,
'Never fruit grow on thee more.'
But to come unto that which is my main and principal intendment, and scope of this text, and which is the first and original part of the gospel, viz., the everlasting transaction which the Father had with his
Son, in calling him to the work of redemption of us men, considered as sinners. Other pieces of the gospel, as those on Christ's part, his fitness for the work, his ability and performance, in being made sin and a curse, do in their due place follow upon other texts. But attend at present unto the fountain and original of them all, unto that which sets all the wheels going from eternity; the story of which, were it but for the antiquity thereof, is well worth the hearing, being withal the greatest intercourse and treaty, about the greatest affair, between persons of the highest sovereignty and majesty, that ever was transacted either in heaven or earth, or ever will be. And accordingly, the highest form or rank of Christians, termed 'fathers,' have for their attainments this mark and character set upon them, 'to know him that was from the beginning,' as the highest pitch of all: 1 John 2:14,