Book I
God the Father s eternal counsel and transactions with Christ, to undertaJce 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 COB. Y.
18, 19.
THESE words do summarily tell us what is the argument of that great mys
tery of the gospel, as it concerneth sinners, viz., reconciliation. There
fore 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 ii. 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 recon
cile, 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
4 OF CHKIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK I.
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 ambas
sadors in the world, to treat with this rebellious rout, and to conclude a
peace betwixt them and him : 2 Cor. v. 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 am bassadors 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 clone 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. v. 21, that is, a surety and a satisfaction for it. And God the Father, 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
CHAP. I.J OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 5
authority to deal with men about it, and to strike up the compact and per fect 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
* And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and say
to earth to bring the news of it : Luke ii. 13, 14,
ing, 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. x. 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
! This makes our calling envied (if possible it were envy should befall those blessed spirits), envied of the angels them
glad tidings of good things
selves, to whom God hath not betrusted this glorious embassy, the most honourable employment that ever creature dealt in: Heb. ii., 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. i.
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. i. 15, This is a faith
ful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners ; of whom I am chief. Tit. iii. 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. i. 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 xvi. 16,
* The law and
6 OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. [BOOK I.
the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is
preached, (that is, the gospel), and every man presseth into it. Inti
mating 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, as
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
* For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified : and this chiefly, Christ
the Corinthians, 1 Cor. ii. 2,
as crucified to reconcile you, crucified before your eyes in the gospel. Gal. iii. 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, rb sgyov, is to believe ;
* This is the work of
hGod (says Christ, John vi. 29), to believe in him whom God hath sent. So our TO sgyov, 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. Ixi. 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. iii. 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. Ixi. 1, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me ; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings uuto 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 call
ing 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
CHAP. II.J OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR. 7
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 eter
nity ; 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 great
est aifair, 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 ii. 14, I have
written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the
beginning, I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. The apostle speaks with some allusion to what is the glory of old men, and
so suitably of old men in Christ. They use to boast of knowing things that are of antiquity and of elder years, as having fallen under their obser
vation, as it is the property of young men to boast of their strength and
* The glory of young men is their strength, and the
: Prov. xx. 29,
vigour
beauty of old men is the grey head, i. e., their wisdom ; which lies in their
grey heads, and which ariseth from their having the prospect of former
times. John, therefore, correspondently commends strong men, grown up
in Christianity, for their strength, as the peculiar excellency of that age in
Christ. You are strong (says he), and have overcome the wicked one. But he commends fathers in Christ for their knowledge in things most
ancient ; and because the story of him that was from the beginning is the
ancientest of all other that ever was, it is therefore made their excellency to know it, and is commended to their study ; and the knowledge of the
eternal transactions of God the Father for man s salvation is the highest of
their attainments.