Chapter II
That Christ rented his consent as soon as he came into the world. That his human nature from his first conception agreed to it. That this is apparent from the scope and intent of the twenty-second Psalm.
But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away
sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and
offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me. HEB. X. 3-5.
The other two parts of his willingness come now to he handled.
I. His willingness and consent renewed, when he came into the world, to perform what he had undertaken and covenanted for from everlasting.
II. The constant and fixed posture of his will, and heartiness in the work
all along, during his lifetime, and in his death, till he had finished it, John
xiii. 1. I shall not need to pursue this any further than unto his death,
for the rest of his work in heaven was pleasant work, and but as the reaping the joyful harvest of his seed sown in tears.
The first I call the will of dedication, or consecration of himself by a vow
to this great work, then solemnly made and given when he came into the world ; the latter, the will of execution or performance. The first is like
the dedication of the temple, which was his type, and was a most glorious
action, and fundamental to all that followed ; and calls for an answerable
regard and observation from us. The dedications of the outward temple, the type of his body, the tabernacle made without hands, were the most solemn actions recorded in the Old Testament. And the first dedication had to accompany it the greatest hecatombs and sacrifices that ever were
afore or after, joined with a large, set, and powerful prayer, composed by Solomon, and upon record. The other by Zerubbabel had a yearly feast, called the feast of the dedication, to celebrate the memorial of it. But
a greater than Solomon is here, and a more glorious dedication of that
temple, which was the glory of that second, as Haggai had foretold, Hag.
ii. 9. What sacrifices of prayers should we then offer up to God upon the news thereof?
I. For the first, Christ s willingness and renewed consent when he came
into the world. These words hold forth eminently two things concern
ing it.
1. The time of Christ s dedicating himself.
2. The dedication itself.
1. The time you see is at the very instant of his coming into the world, to undergo this great work and service. When he comes into the world, he says, &c. This must needs be observed (as it is) a great and mighty
secret, that the very words that God the Son then used to God the Father, at the moment of his incarnation (when he was to take our nature, to be come flesh, and appear in this world as a part thereof), should be recorded, which words were before known alone to the three persons ; which yet the Holy Ghost, the great secretary of heaven, hath vouchsafed to reveal unto us ; for the great concernment of them, as to our salvation, so to our know
ledge thereof. The words were first uttered by David, prophetically of
Christ, Ps. xl. 6, 7, and the apostle not only interprets them of Christ, but adds that which David mentioned not. David speaks not a word of the
142 OF CHEIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK IV.
time that the date of this speech should he at, viz., when he should come
into the world. No ; this is one of Paul s secrets, revealed to him by the
Holy Ghost, and could have been known from no other hand. You have
the like speech recorded of the Father s to Christ, when he came first to
heaven, by the same David, though the time thereof is more clearly hinted
there, in the words themselves, Ps. ex. 1, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. The great inquiry next will be, who this I was, in Heb. x. 7, that should
then utter it ? Whether the second person only, as now being to take
up our nature, or withal, the human nature concurring with him in that
consent.
1. That it was the speech of the second person, then existing, is evident. For it was spoken when the Holy Ghost was framing the body or human
* A body hast thou fitted me : lo, I come. For he
nature in the womb ;
is the person, the me, and the I, that took up that body into one person with himself. He was more concerned than that human nature, and gave more away by his incarnation and the sufferings that followed ; and there
fore his willingness was the more requisite and eminent, and to that end
recorded for our comfort. Thus at the instant when the human nature was
a-making, and so was not capable as yet to give consent, yet had the great and total sum of glory due to it upon its union with that person, given away for thirty-three years to come, by him that was indeed the person that assumes it. Then did the second person (that is the person to whom all
actions are attributed) express his readiness and willingness, Lo, I come. And to shew he did it the most deliberately, and consultd, as we say, it is
prefaced how he had taken aforehand consideration of all ways else ; and now that his Father had took a summary of all other means, that might be
in pretence to redeem mankind, and how all would prove invalid, giving one instance for all the rest, as of which the experiment fully has been
made, namely, sacrifices and burntofferings ; and so by that one instance
for all other, at once declaring that all creature sacrifices would be too light, and of no value :
* Sacrifices and burntofferings thou wouldst not. And he speaks withal as one who had consulted his Father s decrees, the volume
of that book written in heaven, wherein all our names are written, Heb.
xii. 23, and had there seen all the whole work set down, and every tittle of God s will he was to perform or suffer. And now when it was come to the
very moment of time set down, the fulness of time, Christ the Son offers himself to perform every jot of it ; and doth not so much as stay expecting his Father s answer in return, or that he should speak anew to him about
it, or move him in it, but prevents him. He says , Lo, I come ; as car
rying all this in his heart written there, and precisely remembering the
time, the moment ; for you see himself is only here to speak to his Father. So then you have the speech which at that instant not only the angel spake to his mother on earth, Luke i. 28-38, but here also that which the Son spake in heaven. And it speaks all willingness, yea, heart and
zeal not to fail a moment, Lo, I come to do thy will, God. And it is with an Ecce, Lo and behold how ready I am to do it.
2. It is worth our next inquiry what consent, and when it was, that the human nature, that body which he assumed, actually did first give.
(1.) It was necessary that this human nature should likewise consent and be willing ; for as it was a distinct nature from the divine, so it had a
distinct will, and also it was concerned, being to be made the subject of all the sufferings, the sacrifice to be given away and offered up, as the 10th
CHAP. II.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 148
verse hath it. It is necessary that it consent too, when it is able to put forth an act of consent, and of a deliberate will. The fundamental consent was the divine person s, and the act of assuming our nature, and coming into the world, and writing his name among creatures, was solely and singly the act of the divine person. But yet there is to be an accessory consent
of the human nature, now married into one person with the divine, con
cerning this.
(2.) The question will be about the time, whether at his first coming into
the world this consent was actually given ; or, that the consent of the human nature was included, as of one under age, in the consent of the
divine person, the Son of God.
For answerj; how soon, and when first, the human nature gave his con
sent, is hard to say. 1. This may safely be affirmed, that as soon as, or when first he began to put forth any acts of reason, that then his will was guided to direct its
aim^and intentions to God as his Father, from himself as the mediator. And
look, as in infants hearts, if they had been born in innocency, there would have been sown the notion of God, whom they should first have known in and by whatever they knew else ; and the moral law being written in their
hearts, they should have directed their actions to God and his glory, through a natural instinct and tendency of spirit ; the principal law written in their
hearts then, and wherein holiness consists, being to direct all to God and
his glory. Thus it was in Christ when an infant, and such holy principles guided him to that, which was that will of God as to him, and to be per formed by him ; and which was to sway and direct all his actions and
thoughts, that were to be the matter of our salvation and justification, which were to be exerted according to the capacity of reason, as it should grow up more and more. Hence therefore this law, from the very first of his
acting intelligently, must move and predominantly carry all along with the motion of it, as the primum mobile doth all the rest of the spheres. And
look, as it would have been necessary that the law of love to God, and
aiming at his glory, should have acted all thoughts and imaginations rational
in infants in innocency, or they had not acted holily, as parts and pieces of mankind ought to do, when they acted, so Christ, being not only a man
that had the law of holiness in him, but also the Messiah or mediator
by special office and calling, and accordingly had that special law of
his office written in his heart, it was as necessary to the performance of that office, that all thoughts and acts of understanding, &c., should be directed to God by him from the first, as works and parts of mediation, as it was for him, as a man, to address them all unto God s glory, as parts of holiness or righteousness. For else he had not discharged his office and
calling from the first, nor had those first dawnings and actings of his will,
thoughts, and affections, been involved and included as parts and pieces of
his mediation, as the other parts of his obedience afterwards were. But now what Christ did when a child, hath a meritoriousness in it, as well as what he did when he was a man grown ; and also what he suffered, his very circumcision is made influential into our sanctification, through the merits and
virtue of it, as well as his after being baptized when thirty years old. And
therefore for certain his actions, which proceeded from will and understand
ing from the first, had in their proportion the same meritorious influence.
The Twenty-second Psalm, which was peculiarly made for, and in the name of Christ, doth expressly and directly tells us not only that God took him out of the womb, and that he was cast upon God from the womb,
144 OF CHEIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK IV.
ver. 9, 10, the latter of which may be passively understood of God s care
of him ; but further, Thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother s breasts, ver. 9.
* And thou art my God from my mother s belly ;
* The maker of me to trust at my mother s
or, as Ainsworth reads the words,
breasts. Which words cannot be understood only in a passive sense, but do import acts of faith miraculously drawn forth .from him to God as his God. As also those words, Thou art my God, may well be taken to import how he had owned and relied upon him as his God from his mother s womb,
shewing how that then he had owned him as his God, with an act of faith,
* My God, my God, &c., when on
as truly as in ver. 1, when he cried out,
the cross.
But that I insist on is to observe to this purpose the coherence of his words all along afore, as also in this passage. Christ had pleaded
* their
fathers trusted in thee, and were delivered, ver. 4, 5 ; and ver. 8, he
alleged how that that his faith upon God as his God, and as a Father to
him, as his only begotten Son, and the Messiah and Saviour of the world, was the thing he was reproached and upbraided with now when on the cross :
ver. 7 and 8, All they that see me laugh me to scorn : they shoot out the
lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would de
liver him : let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. I say, this was the reproach cast on him in particular, viz., how that he had with con
fidence given out and taken upon him, as being the Son of God and Messiah, and for his trusting on God under that special relation to him, was the
thing they jeered. Thus it is expressly, in the citing of that place by Matthew, Mat. xxvii. 43,
* He trusted in God ; let him deliver him now, if he will have him : for he said, I am the Son of God. Now then, in the
* Thou
next verses of the psalm, he allegeth in answer to his reproach,
didst make me hope at my mother s breasts. Which in its coherence is
as if he had said, did the fathers trust thee with that faith, as men thine
elect use to trust thee withal ? Why, lo, Lord, I began to trust thee
sooner than ordinarily any of them do, or ever did, even at the breast when an infant ; and, Lord, thou hearest them mock me, that I trusted I was
thy only begotten Son ; and now, Lord, this was the very thing thou causedst me to trust and have assurance of, when at my mother s breasts. Yea, and I did it then in that sense, and with that faith I now on the cross do
call thee my God withal, as being that beloved Son of thine, my Father and my God, in whom thou delightest. And with this faith it hath been that I have owned thee as my God all along, even from the very womb.
Now then, if Christ had an actual faith then on God as his God, answer
able to his personal interest in and relation unto God as his God, and so
in his proportion such as holy men have in their measure, and from their
interest in God as adopted sons, suitably to their condition and estate when they come first to believe ; then that faith in him must needs in time
rise up to faith and apprehension of him, as a Father to him, as the only
begotten, the Messiah. For else his faith had fallen short of that object of
it which was proper and peculiar to him and his state and condition. And
if this be at all wondered at, that Christ s human nature should do it so
soon, Christ himself tells it here as a wonderful work of God towards him
in that human soul of his, in that he celebrates God as the maker of him
* thou causedst me to trust then, and thou that drewest me out of the womb, and didst miraculously form me there, didst draw my souHhen
to trust, or
to believe in thee as my Father.
t Neither are these mine apprehensions alone upon this place, but the
CHAP. II.] OF CHEIST THE MEDIATOE. 145
same I have found to be in one late learned commentator* on the words, who says, Nos hunc verswn de Christo interpretamur, in quo cum ab instanti
conceptionis fuerunt omnes thesauri sapwntia et scientia absconditi, potuit ab
instanti conceptionis omnem suam curam et spem, ut homo, in uno Deo figere
et locare. Christ having in him, from the instant of his conception, all the
treasures of his wisdom and knowledge hidden in him, it might be so, that, from the instant of his conception, he as a man might fix and place all his
care and hope in God alone. And to that end he quoteth also this place, Heb. x. 7, my text, When he came into the world, he says, &c. Now there are two speeches in the 40th Psalm more proper to apply to
the soul of that human nature assumed.
1. My ear hast thou bored through, is appliable more properly to the human nature than to the divine ; and so to be understood to be the voice of the human nature rather than of the divine.
Now, what is it to have an ear bored through ? It is to be made will
ing and obedient to do God s will, as a servant is to do his master s. You know how that one that was purely a servant, and for ever such, he had his ear bored, Exod. xxi. 6. This was typical. He that had his ear bored
* And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go out free. If he would be free, he was to forsake his wife and children, which were a motive to many to live as a servant with them. The human nature now united might have stood upon it, not to enter into any service ; that is, as in respect of his own prerogative, being taken up into an equality with God. But, says Christ, I love my Father, and there fore I will serve him in the work of redemption
through gave his consent first, which is implied in those words,
: John xiv. 81, That the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me com mandment, even so I do. He also loved his wife, his spouse, his church, &c. He will have her live with him, he must serve for her company, and he loves his children particularly (as that speech imports, Lo, here am I, and the children thou hast given me ). This moved Christ to serve, as Jacob did Laban : Eph. v. 26, Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it. He should not have her society else, as himself speaks : John xii. 23, 24, Except the Son of man die, he must abide alone, or be in heaven alone, without his church s company. Neither is it the phrase only that complies with this sense, but you have another scripture doth manifestly apply this phrase to Christ, in this sense of willing obedience : Isa. 1. 5,
* The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. Do you know his voice that speaks it, and about what ? It is your Saviour s. I will give you a comfortable token you shall know it by
: ver. 4, The Lord God hath
given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. You know who afterwards said of himself, Come to me, all ye that are weary, and I will ease you, Mat. xi. 28, as you have it in the margin. And will you know what the work was for which God had opened his ear ? And I am not rebellious, says he. It was the hardest piece of it, to which of all other, if to any, he should have been unwilling. It follows, ver. 6, I gave my back to the smiters. and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair ; I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Read Matthew the 26th and 27th chapters. But is that all, that he was not rebellious or refractory to it, his ear was * Muis in Ps. xxii. 9. VOL. V. -K
146 OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK IV.
bored, lie drew not his back away? No : I give my back to the smiters,
&c. It was his own free act, as elsewhere it is said, Gal. ii. 20, He gave himself. And whereas the servant in the type had but one ear bored
* My ears (so it is in
through, of Christ the psalmist says in the plural,
* hast thou bored through, to note an abundance, an overplus of willingness ; as when we say, a man hears of a thing with both ears, it
the original)
notes he hears of it, and hears of it again. Christ was all ear, to shew he was all obedience. His ear bored is put for the whole : as the apostle in
terprets it, A body. 2. There is another speech argues this consent to have been the human
nature s also, when he says, speaking of his willingness, Thy law is in my bowels ; written there habitually from the womb, which cannot be meant
of the divine nature. And yet even when he assumed this human nature, the law of God, and this special law of the mediatorship, was written there. That phrase shews (as I said at first) that it was by instinct, such as natu
rally it would have been in infants in innocency. Now, this is more than
simply to have an ear bored, to give consent ; it is to have his law made
natural to him. And it is in the midst of the bowels, in the will, the affec
tions, that are the centre of the soul, and the middle of it. But the apostle
speaks this of him when coming into the world. And these speeches being
manifestly proper to the human soul and will, and being compared with
these passages of the 22d Psalm, they all together do strongly argue that, in a miraculous way, the human soul of Christ did then give up itself to
this whole work.
And so to conclude this, look as his mother consented to the angel s
* Thou
message before she conceived of him : Luke i. 31, says the angel,
shalt conceive, and shalt call his name Jesus. And in the middle of his
delivery of it, she had not as yet conceived him, for, ver. 35, he says still
in the future, The Holy Ghost shall come on thee, and shall overshadow
thee, &c. And when the angel had done his message, ver. 38, Mary
said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord (I give myself up to him) ; be it unto me according to thy word. And so thereupon she conceived of him;
for, Luke ii. 21, it is said, his name was called Jesus, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb. And therefore,
till the angel had done his message, she conceived not of him, and so not
till her own consent was given. And as God had hers that she might be
freely the mother of him, so in like manner God, it would seem, had the consent of that reasonable soul of Jesus presently after his coming, and
being made the Son of God. And so was fulfilled that which in the pro phecy was foretold he should utter: Isa. xlix. 1, God hath called me from the womb, as well as made mention of his name (Jesus) from his concep tion ; as it follows there, From the bowels of my mother he hath made mention of my name. Which, though spoken of others (as of Cyrus), it
imports but God s ordaining him from that time to that work; yet we may apply it to Christ, considering all that is said afore ; as also that this is not passively spoken of him, as that of Cyrus and others, but is recorded
as to be uttered by himself, The Lord hath called me from the womb, &c.
It may import more, even how Christ did then answer his call, and gave up himself to this work ; but of this more anon. And thus again, as his conception was at Nazareth, Luke i. 26, so he was every way Na^aga/bj, a Nazarite, given up to God (from the womb,
given up by the second person that assumed that nature, given up by the human nature, the soul of it assumed, by a miraculous work of God, as
CHAP. III.] OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 147
was his conception itself, given up by his mother also, who assents to all
that the angel said of him, to have such a child to be conceived in her : Be
it according to thy word, said she. Lastly, a Nazarite by God s own dedi
cation and separation of him then to it, in the message of the angel, which was sent by him.