CHAPTER X: Greatness and supereminent worth of this satisfaction as performed by such a person
1. Voluntary, 'He humbled himself;' which I know is included in what hath been even now said in that second head fore-mentioned; yet something there is, that the distinct notion of it addeth to all the former, and it is a necessary requisite in satisfaction, which cannot be without it. Wherefore all that Christ did was voluntarily done by him; 'he humbled himself.' For submission and obedience forced, or to give honour to another out of constraint, can never satisfy, but rather prejudiceth it. And as honour sought for by the person himself who is to be honoured is not honour (as Solomon saith), so constrained submission in the person honouring another, redounds not to the honour of him who is to be honoured, and so not to satisfaction. And therefore among other defects in the satisfaction to arise from the punishment of men in hell, this is justly to be reckoned one, that all that submission and punishment of men and devils is not voluntary, but forced. But now, this of Christ's was voluntary; 'he became obedient.'
Yea, and 2, it was voluntary in a further consideration than can be attributed to the obedience of any creature, in that it was arbitrary in Christ as well as voluntary. He might have stood upon it by reason of his prerogative and equality with his Father, and was at liberty whether he would do that which he did, or not do it. And this the text intimates, when it premiseth unto this his obedience, that he was existing 'in the form of God,' and 'equal with God;' that is, he might have stood upon his terms not to have subjected himself in any such way of humiliation; yet 'he humbled himself, and became obedient.'
The creature's obedience, though never so voluntary, cannot thus be said to be arbitrary; 'A necessity lies upon me to preach' (says Paul),
'and woe is unto me if I do it not;' and yet he preached willingly. It is a due from them, but not so from Christ. And this added unto it, makes it fully and properly satisfaction. And thus much for this second head, the matter of this satisfaction.
CHAPTER X
The greatness and super-eminent worth of this satisfaction, as performed by such a person.—That hence the acts of his obedience exceed in goodness all the evil that is in sin, and that therefore they make full reparation, since they honour God more than ever sin had dishonoured him.
Now having thus seen the excellencies of the person who was to satisfy, Christ God-man, which excellencies have an influence into the worth and merit of this satisfaction made, and having also viewed the ingredients into the matter of this satisfaction for the dishonour done unto God, I will now come to rear upon these as foundations, demonstrations of the super-eminency that must needs be in the materials of such a satisfaction performed by such a person; which makes the third and last head propounded. And whereas there were presented many insuperable mountains of difficulty, that lay in the way of all the creatures to satisfy for sin, which they could never pass over or remove; and such vast gulfs of disproportions between God's dishonour and debasement by sin, and all the creatures' abilities to repair and restore it, by reason of the distance between God himself and them, such that nothing in or from them could ever make up or fill; you shall now see all and every one of those mountains overtopped and levelled, and before this our mediator, Christ Godman, become a plain, all those chasms and chinks being filled up, and the way of satisfaction made so even and plain, that our faith may pass over it, and walk in it, assisted and supported even with reasons deduced from principles of justice and equity; and so all the principles of understanding in us may come to see and receive full satisfaction in this satisfaction of his.
In making of this reddition, I shall not be able exactly to keep unto the same method I held in the beginning of this discourse, viz., to bring in the mention of every particular of this satisfaction, in the same order that I marshalled each of those particulars of the creatures' non-satisfaction, so as to set the one against the other in a parallel rank. For the disposing of such materials as do follow in the way of a natural consequence one from the other, must be suited
unto the matter itself, not in an artificial, but according to the natural dependence wherein one thing may appear to arise from another.
Hence, therefore, when I was to shew the creatures' inabilities, I so ranged and placed those things that should demonstrate, and in such an order, as might, by the consequence that one thing held upon another, best set forth the creatures' insufficiencies, which therefore was most suitable to that subject. And accordingly, now that I am to speak of the abilities that are in Christ, I must present the fulness of them in each of those particulars so as will best suit with this subject, by setting forth one particular after another, as they arise from or depend each on other: arguing in an orderly way from what is to be considered in him that makes this satisfaction, to make it by degrees rise up to its height and fulness; yet so as there shall be no particular ground of difficulty that made it impossible for the creatures to satisfy, that shall be left out unsatisfied in these demonstrations of the fulness of Christ's satisfaction, although not in the same method that in the former part was observed.
The first and lowest consideration, from whence I shall begin to argue this satisfaction of his, is that which was in the former head given, viz., that himself, or his person, is to be considered as the subject of all his graces and obedience. And let us first see how much even this will contribute towards the satisfactoriness of his obedience, and equalise the evil and dishonour by sin, and how far it will carry this on.
You may remember how, in the first part of this discourse, viz., the demonstration of the creatures' inability to satisfy, I shewed both how far short the graces of a mere creature, never so pure and innocent, do fall, as not having any worth in them, more than to justify themselves, and that by God's appointment too; and likewise how much sin exceeded in evil the goodness and worth of all mere creatures' graces, and that they did no way so much honour God as sin dishonoured him. Now let us from this first consideration, that so infinite a person is the subject of grace and obedience, shew both,
1. How much their graces are exceeded; and, 2. Also the evil of sin thereby.
1. These his humbling graces (as I call them), for such only are matter of satisfaction, and his actions of obedience springing therefrom, infinitely excel those of mere creatures, conceive them never so vast and large. That which makes grace more excellent than any other creature, and so is the true measure of the greater or lesser worth in grace or holiness, is that it is the participation of the divine nature. Now take but an estimate in your thoughts of the vast difference between the participation of the divine nature in Christ, which makes his graces and obedience accepted, and that in mere creatures. The participation of the divine nature in the grace of creatures, is but by way of a mere shadow, likeness, or similitude, something resembling; and so the worth thereof is but such as you would have of the picture of a king, that is somewhat like him. But the grace of union (as divines call it, and that in way of distinction from Christ's own graces habitually considered, as well as from those in mere creatures) which derives worth into Christ's graces and obedience, is a kind of communication of the Godhead itself personally united, and so diffusing answerable worth and acceptation afore God into the actions of human nature thus united.
The difference herein is such, that whereas in mere creatures, standing afore God under a covenant of works, and the covenant by mere right of creation is no other, it is merely their graces and actions that make their persons accepted in such a covenant, and they have no worth from the person at all whose graces they are, but the person from them. Now, contrarily, the graces and actions of Christ do not dignify the person so much, as the person them. So that look in a proportion how much his person exceeds all the creatures, so much in their capacity, and measure, and in a moral value, must his graces and actions of obedience excel all theirs. It is true, that for kind his grace and ours are and would be the same, for 'of his fulness we receive grace for grace,' John 1:16. But look, as what a transcendent distance there is between the worth and excellency that
is put upon the body and the actions thereof in a man (by reason of that eternal soul that dwells in it, and is substantially united to it), and the actions of a beast, so that one and the same kind of earth is made capable of, and is to be a partner of eternal life, and of heavenly glory, by reason of the soul in a man, whereas that in a beast is ordained but to a life of sense. Look in like manner how those actions are ennobled (comparatively to those of beasts), wherein the members of man's body are employed as weapons of righteousness, so that they are actions of eternal consequence, and acceptation with God. Now an infinitely greater transcendent distance is there between the worth which the person of Christ doth communicate to the human nature, and the actions thereof, or of his person therein
(it being thereunto substantially united), and the worth which the person of mere creatures, though supposed to be as full of habitual grace as Christ himself, can communicate to their actions. Though for metal they had been the same that Christ's were, yet wanting this royal stamp of the Deity upon them, they had not been coin that would have passed for payment and satisfaction. His glory is substantial, and communicates its worth to the utmost to all and every action, so far as the act is capable, even as the whole king's image is stamped upon threepence as well as sixpence; yet sixpence is of more value, because the matter is capable of more; and so one action of Christ was capable of more worth than other, yet so as in them all there was an infinite moral dignity from the person. And again, as all the Godhead in all his fulness is said to dwell in him and his person, so all the whole worth that the substantial excellency of the person can translate is in like manner stamped upon all his actions. And though the human nature, which in itself is finite, be the principium quo, the instrument of all, by whom and in whom the second person doth all he doth, and therefore answerably the physical being of those actions is but finite, in genere entis, take them as created productions; yet all Christ's actions being attributed to the person who is principium quod (for actiones sunt suppositorum, actions are attributed to and said to be of the persons that perform them, because that is said only to subsist), therefore the moral estimation of them is infinite. And though the immediate
principle, the human nature, be finite, yet the radical principle, the person, is infinite, and they being one in person, what the one is said to do, the other is said to do also; and therefore Christ's obedience is called 'the righteousness of God,' and the obedience of God.
2. Yea, secondly, his graces do for this respect so far exceed any that are in creatures, that their goodness (as, Ps. 16:2, it is called) equals the utmost evil can be supposed in sin. For as the offence is against an infinite glorious God, so the holy works are wrought by one as infinite. And as the highest accent of the essence of sin lies over this head, that it was against an infinite majesty, so the greatness of the satisfaction herein lies, that it was performed by the mighty God.
Which proportion could never have been filled up by any creature who was not God; satisfaction in point of honour depended upon the equal worth of the person honouring and disgraced.
Yet it is not so to be understood, nor was it necessary, that the worth of the actions should be as infinite as the person, essentially and substantially. For Christ's merits could not be infinite as God's attributes are, nor so loved by God as his attributes are, but that they are so in a moral estimation was enough. For look, as though sin was infinite, yet not so essentially, so justice required not an obedience essentially and naturally infinite, but personally infinite, which Christ's is, it being the righteousness of him that is God.
The second thing propounded to be proved was, that his graces and actions of obedience did exceed in goodness the utmost evil that was in sin, which we saw no creature's graces did, or can be valued to do.
1. In the general, the evil of sin lies in this, that it is committed against the great God, and that God is the object of it: so as the utmost aggravation of the evil of sin is taken at the highest but from the worth of the object, God and his glory, against whom it is committed; but the worth of all his graces and actions being taken from the person, the subject, the efficient, from whom they do proceed, look how much more reason there is that the person, who is
the author and subject of his actions, should convey more worth to his own actions than a person who is but an object of another's action can do to the action of that other, so much doth his graces, having a person that is God for the subject of them, exceed the evil of sin that is against God, the mere object thereof. For the subject conveys worth to his own actions, as the father conveys nobleness to his child; his child inherits it from him, and so an action doth worth from the person from whom it is natively derived; but that worth, and so that evil too, which it hath from the object is but extrinsecal and borrowed, and therefore the denomination of actions is taken rather from the subject than the object. As when a man understands an angel never so perfectly as the object of his understanding, it is called human knowledge, because man is the subject of it, and it is his knowledge; though the object it is conversant about be an angel, it is not called angelical knowledge. So by the same reason actions derive more proper worth and merit (for both worth and denomination arise from the same root) from the person from whom they come, and in whom they are, than from the person unto which they tend. And therefore though sin be done against God as the object, and so is heinous, yet because this satisfaction was made by God as the subject of it, therefore it is more meritorious than sin can be demeritorious. This satisfaction sucks more nobleness from the subject of it, which is the root it grows upon, than sin can take evil and blackness from the external shadow the Father of lights casts upon it by the sinner's eclipse of him. And the reason is, because all participation is founded upon union, mutual relation, and conjunction, and the more remote and further off the union and relation is, the less a thing participates from it. Now the relation and conjunction between the act and the object is but extrinsecal, it is an external conjunction that is between them, such as is between a man's eye and the sun, they remain strangers still; but the relation, conjunction, and kindred, that is between a person and his actions, is nearer, it is intrinsecal, such as is between the sun and the beams that flow from it, which is yet nearer when the person himself is included in the matter of the very action, as in this of Christ it is, whose person is intrinsecally included as the necessary part of the
satisfaction itself. Now if this, that God is but the object of sin, doth cast such a heinousness upon the acts of it which come from us, if such a remote far off extrinsecal relation and conjunction brings forth so much demerit, and makes sin to abound in sinfulness, what will the satisfaction which comes from so great a person as Christ,
God-man, and includes that person as a part of the satisfaction itself, how will this nearer union and relation between this person and his actions beget worth and dignity in them?
But then add to this further that other consideration mentioned, which will make a second head of this demonstration, that himself was not only the subject of his graces and actions of obedience, but that himself and his personal worth were included and involved therein as the matter also of the satisfaction (as I shewed at large); hereby it comes to pass that the evil of sin is again afresh exceeded to a flowing over. For as the relation between the act and the subject from whom, and in whom, is more near (as is said) than between the act and the object, so the subject matter, the materiale of the action circa quam hath a nearer affinity than the subject in quo, for it includes it, enwraps it into itself. And so did all Christ's obedience enwrap his glory in it and robbed him of it, and so he sacrificed it to God; and hereby God comes to have honour paid him double, over and over, not only honour returned him from a person as honourable and glorious as himself, which makes it infinite, and more than ever sin took from him, for honor est in honorante, actions of honour take value from the person; and as one king may render honour to another when as yet he keeps his state, so might Christ have honoured God, manifesting himself in a glorified condition. But God hath not this single but a double subsidy and tribute of honour; he will have Christ lay down his glory to glorify him, he will have the forfeiture, and not the principal debt only. And as Christ's obedience reduplicates upon his person, he humbled himself, so the honour due to God is reduplicated also, so that as the apostle says, there is superfluity in his satisfaction, 1 Tim. 1:14. For as if when he who was the Lord of so many worlds became poor for us, it must needs purchase infinite riches, as the apostle speaks, so if he who was equal
in glory to God will debase himself at God's command, to glorify and give honour to him, and give up his own glory to add as it were to his
Father's, what honour must needs redound to God thereby? John 17:3, 4, 'Father' (says he), 'give me the glory which I had ere the world was; I have glorified thee on earth;' as if he had said, I have laid aside the glory which I had afore the world was, all this while, and which was all this while my due, have left heaven and come to earth, and all to glorify thee on earth, 'Now glorify me,' &c. Christ reflects upon, and draws and includes all his glory to contribute and impute this double worth and satisfaction to his obedience.
And to make this demonstration the more full and satisfactory, let us more particularly consider what was that special damage and injury sin did unto God. It was (as I shewed) the obscuring of the glory of God, and reflecting dishonour to him. Now then let us but weigh together, as it were, in two scales, that exceeding weight of the glory of Christ, who was debased, with the glory of God the Father, which was obscured by sin, satisfaction being a reducing things to an equality, and a making of amends in what is lost or endamaged; and if it be in point of honour, it is requisite that as much and as great an honour be debased to make restitution, as was reflected upon or taken away. And here you may remember that satisfaction in point of honour doth depend upon the worth and reputation, of the person that satisfies for it; and what was the worth of Christ in his personal dignity I have spoken to, what is meet for the point in hand. And from thence it is evident that such worth of the party honouring, equally balances all the dishonour which sin had thrown upon God.
But, 2dly, as was also shewed, this satisfaction of Christ is not simply a giving honour to God, but a giving away his honour to make God's glory the more illustrious. Now, therefore, Christ made all his honour a sacrifice to God (I shewed how himself was the matter of the sacrifice), and therein indeed might especially be said to sacrifice himself, and to humble himself, and it is the principal meaning of those expressions, for his glory is himself. As a king, consider him as a king, and his glory is himself, for his being a king is wholly matter
of honour, and consists in nothing else; and therefore we use the word 'His Majesty,' for the king; so God is called 'the God of glory,'
Acts 7:2; and 'the Father of glory,' Eph. 1:17; and Christ, 'the Lord of glory,' 1 Cor. 2:8; and the Jews paraphrastically use to say, 'the glory of God,' to express God himself; and we also in ordinary speech, speaking of a man of worth doing anything dishonourable or unworthy of him, we say, 'he doth below himself,' for his honour is himself; and to any spirit that is noble, it is a nearer thing than wives, children, goods, or whatever. Now all this in men is but a spark of that image in God and Christ; and in Scripture phrase it is said of God, that 'he made all things for himself,' that is, for his honour. And though the honour that he hath by it is but a manifestative honour and extrinsecal, yet because himself is interested in it, and it is his, therefore it is called himself, and he is as tender of it as of himself,
'My glory I will not give to another,' Isa. 42:8.
Now, therefore, let us come to weighing, and put these two glories in the scales, God's obscured by sin, and Christ's debased for sin.
A double glory God hath.
1. The one essential, the glory of the Godhead in itself.
2. A manifestated glory unto us. And the first is reflected upon by sin, the other detracted from.
And Jesus Christ, the second person, God-man, hath answerably a double glory, as was shewn, the one essential and equal to that of his
Father; the other due to be manifested in and upon his assumption of our nature. Now look, whatever can be said of the proportion of dishonour done to either of these glories by sin as concerning God, the like may be said of the debasement done to and performed by Christ, in respect of both those his glories also.
And first compare we the reflection and shadow cast upon their essential glory on either side, and at least the scales will be even. The essential glory of God, although it cannot really be impaired by sin,
yet it is reflected on by sin, and so that that glory which is impaired (as his manifestative is), being a peculiar belonging to his person, and indeed is himself (as was said), hence all the essential greatness that is in God is taken in to aggravate the guilt of sin, and hence there is a denomination given to our acts of sinning, as if they were destroying and dishonouring the Godhead; as Rom. 1:23, speaking of the sin of idolatry, 'They changed,' says he, 'the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of a corruptible man, and creeping things.' He speaks as if they had utterly destroyed the Godhead, and turned him into a creature; thus a denomination is given to sin, as reflecting on the eternal Godhead and essence of it.
Now, then, to answer this evil in sin, and make all even, it must be remembered what was afore said, that Christ that was debased was
God, and his glory essentially equal to his Father; and that though that his essential glory was not impaired, yet all the debasement of his person in the human nature reflected as much upon that, as that of sin doth any way upon God's. When he appeared in our flesh, I may say, he changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the image, yea, the reality, of a crucified man, a malefactor, the scum and dung of the earth, yea, a worm and no man. And as sin hath a denomination, as if it did thus and thus to the essential Deity itself, so hath Christ's sufferings a denomination of reflecting on his
Godhead in all its sufferings; it is called 'the blood of God,' Acts 20:28, and God may be said to have died, and to have been crucified; and so it is said, 'They killed the Prince of life,' Acts 3:15, and 'crucified the Lord of glory,' 1 Cor. 2:8. Now then all that substantial glory of his comes in (as was said) as the foundation, to give worth to all he did or suffered, as reflected upon hereby. For as no creature could have satisfied, because they have no radical internal worth to fill up this disproportion, theirs is but a borrowed and extrinsecal glory; so if Christ had had no other, if indeed his glory had been but a borrowed glory, extrinsecal and but by representation, and but as called God, as kings are in name, not really and substantially (as the Arians and Socinians teach), then his being himself made 'of no reputation,' when his glory lay but in reputation, would have had no
satisfaction in it. God, who had a substantial glory reflected on by sin, would never have regarded or accounted of receiving any honour from the humbling of such a one. What is it to have a king-at-arms, or one that doth but personate a king, crouch unto a king? What glory is it to the sun to have the stars to pull in their glory, and be put out, and not to shine, whenas all their glory is borrowed from itself?
The creatures, although they may rob God of glory, and reflect dishonour upon God, and seem to eclipse him by sin, yet they can add no glory to him, as the moon, which receives light from the sun, may interpose between it and the earth, but she can noway add to the sun's brightness, or make it more illustrious, no, not although she disappears in the presence of him, and looks pale. And no more would all the debasements of the creature, though directed and intended to give glory unto God. But if there were another sun as glorious as this, and you should see it hide its brightness in this sun's presence, as if not worthy to shine together with it, that the sun might alone appear; or if you should see a king as great in majesty as ours come and leave his kingdom and royalty, and debase himself to honour our king, what an honour adds this to the king, whenas it would not be so much for a subject to do this. (And this makes the pope's glory so extravagant and transcendent, that kings give their glory and power to him, and kiss his feet.) Now so did Christ lower his glory to God's, when he was equal in substantial glory to him. All the glory of the creatures is but accidental, put upon them as garments are, they shine alienis radiis, as stars with another's beams.
Thus in kings, all their glory is accidental to their persons, therefore Christ says, the glory of the lilies exceeded that of Solomon, Mat.
6:29, because it was native and inbred in comparison of his. But Christ's is glory substantial, residing in his person, as light in the body of the sun. Accidental glory, such as in kings, doth not give a worth to all their actions; they sleep, eat, drink, &c., as other men, and these actions are no more royal in them than in other men; they do not all they do as kings; but where substantial glory dwells, it transfuseth a value into every thing that is done; and therefore
Christ's glory, being his essence (as he is God), it diffuseth a royalty on all his actions, and so the least debasement of him to give glory to
God, how infinite a value must it put upon it! He having (as I shewed out of the text) an equal glory to his Father, and so his condescension makes at least the scales even.
But then there are even in this respect some considerations that make the reflection of dishonour on Christ's substantial glory, greater than that by sin on God's, and so to outweigh it.
1. Because the creatures' act is but a tendency, or at most an attempt to eclipse this glory of God, and therein falls short in comparison; for it is but as if a mote should go about to eclipse the sun, when the sun shines round about it still. But these debasements of the Son of God, equal with God, are real, and they being arbitrary and done by himself, and from himself, are therefore greater and deeper than what the creature could any way effect, for he himself, that is God, debaseth himself.
2. Yea, and secondly, there is a personal glory proper to the second person as such, which was lessened and reflected on, besides his essential glory, as I may so distinguish it. For there is an essential glory common to all three persons, the glory of the Godhead, which is properly the object of sin; and few or no sins are peculiarly against that proper personal glory of any of the persons apart. When we sin, we sin no more against the Father, than against the Son and Holy
Ghost; and even that sin against the Holy Ghost is rather against the effects of the Holy Ghost than against his person distinctly considered of by the sinner. Now then, in this debasement of Christ, there was not only a reflection on his Godhead, as it is common to him with the other two persons, but that personal glory proper to him, as he was the second person, was in a further peculiar manner reflected on; and this in every debasement of his. Yea, that personal glory was in some respect lessened. For besides that his Father was greater than he in a true sense, upon the assuming of man's nature, he was also made less than other men, and the terminus or subject of this lessening or diminution was truly the Son of God. For although it cannot be said that the Godhead suffered, yet of the second person
it may now truly be said, he suffered as well in, as that he was made, flesh. Now the personal glory of the other persons is not debased or lessened by sin, because they do not personally manifest themselves; but the second person did personally manifest himself, and present himself to men; and his person was made the sole butt, mark, subject, terminus of all the dishonour done the Godhead in him. His person was singled out to bear it, and be the sole receptacle thereof; so as he being thus debased, this dishonour reflected on his person and the glory thereof, besides what in common fell upon his essential glory, his Godhead, and so he came to have a further and more special debasement than the Godhead had by sin.
But then, in the second place, let us make the comparison between the obscuring the manifested glory of God detracted from by sin, and the dishonour done to Christ's manifested glory, which is the second thing, and you will find his losses in that manifestative glory that was due to him to exceed God's losses in the dishonour done to his. For as was said, the manifestative glory due to Christ at his appearing in the flesh personally, must needs be more than what the Godhead any other ways could have ever manifested in effects, be they never so transcendent. As more honour is due unto a king if he appears in person than if his arms only be set up, or proclamation be made in his name, or than unto his picture or coin, so by the like reason unto
'God manifested in the flesh' (as it is said of Christ, 1 Tim. 3:16) a greater manifestation of glory is due than unto God, but manifest in his works, as Rom. 1:19, 20; and so more was to have shone in Christ, the express image of the invisible God (as Col. 1:15, and Heb. 1:3), than in God's works, which are but the footsteps of the invisible things of God; or in his law, which is but the shadow of his glory:
Heb. 10:1, 'For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offer year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.' Now that manifested glory of God's (of which alone properly and really sin is the obscurer and the detracter from) is but that which shineth in his law, which we sin against, or as he is manifested to us in his works; and this glory due to shine in Christ's person