CHAPTER II: Evinced from Christ's design in his work of reconciliation
to let regeneration or reconciliation pass off without effect in saving any of you, God would not.
2. A second attribute he intended the glory of in the matter of reconciliation between him and us, was principally the glory of his grace. He designed to set forth his love so as to attain the ends of loving. It is not to give forth peace only, but to manifest good will and kindness, as that speech of the angel shews, Luke 2:14. Yea, the ground of his shewing mercy is his love: Eph. 2:4, 'God who is rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith he loved us.' And although on our part our love and friendship to God is not the ground of his, yet it is the end or aim of his. Though he did not love us because we loved him first, yet he loved us that we might love him again, for 'He chose us that we should be holy in love,' Eph. 1:4. Therefore in those he saves, if there were not wrought an inward principle of love and friendship, and good will mutual again to him, that might answer this his love, his love would not have its end; and would be finally cast away. For so we reckon love to be given away in loss when it is not answered in its kind; that is, with a true love again. God would have his love valued and esteemed by those he saves; for love is the dearest thing that any one hath to bestow, because whosoever hath a man's love hath all he hath, for it commands all. And therefore God, who is love (1 John 4:8), will not cast away his love, especially not such a love as this. And yet this love were lost if not esteemed by us, and if esteemed by us it will work holiness in us, and we shall be 'holy before him in love,' Eph. 1:4. These arguments, to prove the necessity of our being reconciled to God, have been drawn from the part which God the Father hath in our reconciliation.
CHAPTER II
The necessity of our being reconciled to God evinced from Christ's design in his work of reconciliation.
The next argument shall be fetched from Christ and his part in reconciliation, of whom it is here said, 'God was in Christ reconciling,' &c. Christ's interest was considered by God, and Christ's concernment is such in this matter that I may without any scruple of diffidence pronounce, that Christ would rather lose all he hath on his part done or suffered for us, than that we should be saved without being reconciled to God by a true work of regeneration.
In the foresaid transaction of God with Christ about the reconcilement of us, I shewed there was a covenant made between God and Christ in our behalf. And therein God the Father meant not to put such upon Christ as should continue wholly averse in disposition towards him; for Christ by covenant was to be a husband as well as a redeemer from sin, and the agreement between him and his Father was (as Jacob's with Laban), to purchase his wife to himself: Eph. 5:25–27, 'Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.' It is but reason then, and what he deserved, that he should have such for his spouse as should love him again. This covenant between God the Father and the Son is rehearsed in Ps. 110, 'The Lord said to my
Lord,' &c. And he took an oath to it, that 'he should be a priest,' ver.
4, which was a great word; God the Father therein expressing the call he gave him. But then withal his Father engageth and promiseth that 'his people should be willing in the day of his power.' Thus the Father acts in his part of the covenant with Christ. And then Christ on his part resolved and agreed to see those he would save, to become 'his seed,' and to be born of him, or he would never have been satisfied:
Isa. 53, 'He shall see his seed, and be satisfied.' He resolved that they should come to him, as his Father promised they should, as that speech of his shews: John 6, 'All that the Father hath given me shall come to me.' The Father not simply gave them to Christ to save them, but promised withal that they should come to Christ; and coming be subject to him in all things, Eph. 5, as the law of the marriage
covenant requires. And there is a promise on Christ's part, to 'raise them up at the last day.' And to that end he ceaseth not till he presents them to himself, 'a glorious church, without spot or wrinkle,' Eph. 5:26, 27. Yea, I may not stick to say, that Christ otherwise would be content to lose all he now hath done, rather than that any one should be saved and not reconciled to God his Father.
And the reason is manifest; for otherwise he should be the minister of sin, which he abhors. Thus the apostle argues, Gal. 2:17. And it is the full and direct scope of the apostle there. For, treating of the doctrine of free justification or salvation in that epistle, which the adversaries thereof branded for a doctrine of licentiousness, the apostle abhors it with the greatest indignation, in saying that this were indeed to make Christ the minister of sin, if he should have died to procure the justification of any that are not sanctified. And from heaven Christ himself declared to Saul, that 'He sent him to open the eyes of the Gentiles, to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me,' Acts 26:18; that is, to be a means of their regeneration. And otherwise he should but have tied God's hands from hurting us or destroying us, whilst we should have a licence left us to provoke him and continue in sin. No; Christ is more tender of his Father's glory than so; and though he is a 'Saviour perfect,' yet he becomes the 'Author of eternal salvation,' but 'unto those who obey him,' Heb.
5:8, 9, which none will do until born again.
Lastly, The demonstration is drawn both from God the Father and Son jointly. This great design of their reconciling sinners, as agreed on by them, became matter of the greatest delight to them; and which, when concluded, their hearts were infinitely taken up with; as in Prov. 8. Wisdom, that is, Christ, exults in the remembrance of it, as it was in his own and Father's heart afore the world. Yea, and God's end in loving us, and Christ's end in dying, was to delight in our persons; as Zeph. 3:17, 'He will rejoice over those he saves, and will rest in his love towards them,' as thinking his love well bestowed, and being abundantly satisfied and contented in it. And he promiseth
Christ that he should greatly delight in the beauty of his queen, Ps.
45. And Christ accordingly in that love-song declares his infinite delight in his spouse, and Cant. 7:6, 'How fair and pleasant art thou,
O love, for delights!' It is Christ's speech. Now if to delight in those he saves were one great end of both in their counsels about us; then of necessity there must be wrought a reconciliation in us unto them, as well as a reconciliation for us by them: there is no way for them to attain delights in us, unless our hearts were won to them, to love and delight in them again. It is true, God loved us when we were enemies,
Rom. 5; yet delight in us he could not, unless we be made friends to him. All the sweetness of love lies in the reciprocation. There is nothing more grievous, more hateful, than to love and not to be beloved. As out of his own heart and experience he expresseth it, 2
Cor. 12:15. Dulce est amare et amari. At least otherwise there is no rest in one's love, no contentedness or satisfaction in it. If God's end in saving us, indeed, were principally to pardon us, then ho need do no more than kings do when they pardon traitors: pass such an act upon the party, and there is an end. But God is also to make friends and favourites of them whom he pardons, and so to delight in them, and to have communion with them, graciously to accept of them, as well as pardon them: Eph. 1:6, 7, 'To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved;' over and above that 'in him we have also redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.' And therefore he changeth the in ward frame of men's hearts, and makes of enemies friends of them to himself. Otherwise he could not rejoice in them. For can a man delight in a toad or a serpent (between which creatures and us God hath put an enmity)? What fellowship and communion can light and darkness have?
The conclusion of this matter discoursed is, that although God the Father hath transacted all these things from eternity, and that Jesus
Christ hath long since performed all that which might pacify and reconcile his Father, and procure our atonement with his Father, according to the command and request of his Father; yet it was withal agreed mutually then by them, that not a man, no, not an elect
man, should have benefit by either, until they come in to be reconciled. And that state of this affair I explain by this instance or similitude grounded upon Scripture, that suppose one oweth a great sum, and the creditor to whom he oweth it is willing to forgive it unto this debtor, upon payment made by another whom the creditor doth underhand himself procure to pay it, at his request; yet withal unknown as yet unto the debtor; but with this compact of the surety and creditor, that when this transaction shall come to be made known by them to the debtor of what they have secretly done, he, upon effectual notice thereof, shall come in and acknowledge the debt, seeking the remitting of it unto him, and acquitment of him, with professed subjection to them both for ever. Until this be performed by him, the bond, though by agreement cancelled, as in respect of any other payment, yet is still to lie and be kept in the creditor's hands, who obligeth himself not to give a discharge or release to the debtor, or deliver in his bond as cancelled, until he makes his address, and humbly acknowledged the debt; seeks for an acquittance, yea, and gets the party who paid it to go along with him to the creditor, to mediate and plead for him his satisfaction given him; and sue forth the acceptation of that payment of his for him in particular, undertaking the party's heartiest and sincerest engagement of future love and service to both for ever. And thus does Christ's righteousness and our debt lie both in God the Father's hands, the creditor, until the sinner for whom the payment was made shall thus come in. And if we could suppose that Christ had died ten thousand deaths (which was but one sacrifice once offered) for one man, yet both Father and Son have and are resolved that this man should never be the better for it till he comes in.
And in expression similar unto this management and ordering of this matter, you shall find the Scriptures speaking in both the Old and New Testament, compared. There is to this purpose a passage in Job
33:22–26, 'His soul draweth near to the grave, and his life to the destroyers. If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one
among a thousand, to shew unto man his uprightness: then he is gracious, and saith, Deliver him from going down into the pit: I have found a ransom. His flesh shall be fresher than a child's: he shall return to the days of his youth: he shall pray unto God, and he will be favourable to him: and he shall see his face with joy: for he will render unto man his righteousness.' They are the words of Elihu, which, taken together with the foregoing, from ver. 15, and then with those which follow after, do set out a fair pattern or draught of the workings of saving conversion, at the rate they went in those ancient times, collected by the observations of Elihu upon divers persons in his view, and set afore Job, to provoke him to conform himself unto them (as his only course to take), with encouragements of mercy from God, that in like manner God will be gracious to him, to restore him to his favour, and that he shall come to 'see his face with joy,' ver. 26. And together with the works or operations, he sets forth the means, which God then often did use to work upon men's hearts. As first, visions and dreams, ver. 15–17 (for there this his discourse of conversion begins), 'In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumbering upon the bed; then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, that he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.' And this dispensation was the more ordinary means in those times (although to us now extraordinary). Then secondly, another means were great sicknesses, even unto death: ver. 19, 'He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain.' And thirdly, the awakenings thereby are followed by the 'seasonable instruction' and 'directions of a teacher,' one skilled in soul-saving work; 'an interpreter' of God's mind, to shew what that is for which God saves man, as also what a sinner is to do, ver. 23, &c.
And that such a saving work of true conversion is intended, the whole sense of his discourse, from the aforesaid ver. 15, doth plainly manifest. And first, this his discourse at the entrance shews, at the 16th and 17th verses: 'Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, that he may withdraw man from his purpose,' his resolved course of sinning, 'and hide pride from man;' that is, truly to
humble him, and break the staff of the pride of his heart. 2. His more full and special instance he gives in the middle of his narration; the sick man's case, in the verses afore: taken together with this inference he draws from it for instruction unto all men, ver. 27, 28,
'He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; he will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.' And 3. The conclusion of all, in the 29th and 30th verses, as much doth declare, where Elihu sets a remark upon it: 'Lo, al l these things God worketh oftentimes' (twice or thrice) 'with man: to bring back his soul from the pit, and to enlighten him with the light of the living:' that is, with the saving light of life; as John 8:12 speaks of them that 'live by faith.'
And this speech is the general close unto these instances foregone, and gathers in all he had said, from the 15th verse downwards; and signifies all the outward ways and means, with many other the like, which God had then a-foot, to work savingly upon men; as also all those particular inward operations which had been instanced in, and which might be drawn forth out of one or the other of these passages.
And those particulars are, 1. Conviction and confession of sin, with brokenness of heart: ver. 27, 'If any man say I have sinned, and perverted that which was right,' &c. 2. A laying hold by faith on Christ's righteousness and ransom for his own righteousness and redemption, when he is affected with that sense of his sin, and own un-uprightness, which was and is the greatest point which that interpreter shewed or discovered to him; instructing him where and in whom the true and perfect righteousness of fallen man doth lie, which this humbled soul desires, prays, and seeks for, and to be made his; and God to be gracious to him, and accept him therein; which God accordingly delivers and renders to him. These are summarily in verses 23, 24, and 26. And this is accompanied with turning from sin, in uprightness of heart and holiness of life, for time to come; in a course utterly opposite to his former perverting that which was right, which, ver. 27, he confessed he had run into. And there is a most comfortable issue of all these upon this man; which begins at ver. 24, 'Then he is gracious, and says, Deliver him.' Then,
namely, when the interpreter's instructions (whereof some are implied, others expressed) have had their due course and effects, in all such gracious workings specified, in the man's heart, answerable to the matter of his message; which shewed this man what is man's uprightness; which in a summary contains directions unto all these; and which being impressed on his soul as the wax is with the seal; for it is with a sealing the instructions (as the word afore was, ver. 16) he must necessarily be supposed to have had these proper prints conformable thereunto. Now the issues or consequential privileges hereof are two.
1. That God doth then, or thereupon, out of his grace, absolve and pronounce the justification of him. 'The Lord is gracious, and says,
Deliver him.' The word deliver signifies redeem him, that is, from the guilt of his sin, and hell, or God's wrath. Thus forgiveness of sins is styled, Eph. 1:7, 'In whom you have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, through the riches of his grace.' The word deliver him, here signifies redeem him. And he, that is, God, says it within himself. For justification is an immanent act, in God's breast and heart, and that is that justification we call in foro cœli, in the court of heaven. He says it before and unto Christ the mediator. He pronounceth the sentence as in heaven, as the supreme Lawgiver,
'able to save and to destroy.' Yea, he often says it and applies it to the man's own conscience, and by a word of his messengers declares it.
And then he adds the ground for and through which he doth it; for (says he) 'I have found a ransom;' and thus he applies it to this particular sinner. And then, 2. God further causeth this justified soul to 'see his face with joy,' ver.
26; God lifting up the light of his countenance, and causing his favour to shine upon his soul, with joy greater than when corn and oil increase. Which dispensation, after great humblings, deep repentings, long and much seeking of his face, God is wont to gratify sincere new converts with; Rom. 4:5–7, and Rom. 5:1, 2, 3, 5, and 11.
And 2dly. That initial conversion wrought at first, which is called regeneration, is specially intended, and that the words are not meant only of men renewed or converted already, but declined—though they are indeed included—the words of those 27th and 28th verses evidence, 'He looketh upon men; and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not; he will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.' He lays two things together: 1. That they are a general invitation and encouragement given to all men who shall in like manner come in and apply themselves to him; that God will be likewise gracious, and pardon and receive any of them into grace and favour, and 'deliver his soul from going down into the pit,' as he had done this sick convert: and so general and indefinite a declaration, must necessarily respect and take in men unregenerate. The bulk of mankind shall hear this; who mostly lie in unregeneracy in all times, especially did in those. Thus John saith of his times, 1 John 5:19; hence therefore that exhortation and encouragement to repentance, 'If any man say I have sinned,' &c., must in a special manner intend the first work of regeneration, and initial repentance.
The second thing is, that this general proclamation is brought in as a corollary or inference from the example of this sick convert; and comes in upon it, as Elihu's deduction out of it. And therefore the ease of that sick man proposed, must involve and extend to a first conversion, which we call regeneration. And it is not to be limited only to such as had been converted already. And truly the tenor of those words, 'To shew to this man his uprightness,' doth argue him to have been one ignorant afore, of what course to take for him to be saved, till taught by this instructor.
But lastly, The final conclusion of all puts it out of exception: ver. 29, 'Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man;' and it is a general one too, comprehending these, and all the blessed operations or effects that God doth work upon any, to save any of the sons of men (who at any time are saved) from hell; and not to be limited to restoring of those patients that are sick, from bodily sickness, or of