Book III
The necessity of regeneration demonstrated by this argument, that all that God
and Christ have done towards their reconciliation to us will profit us nothing, unless we be reconciled to God. And how conversion is set forth under the notion of reconciliation as on our part.
And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,
and hath given unto 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 unto us the word of reconciliation. 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. 2 COR. V. 18-20.
CHAPTER I.
That notwithstanding what God and Christ have done for their reconciliation
to us, it is, by God s ordination, necessary that we be reconciled to God, if ever we be saved. This proved from God s design in his reconciliation to us, to glorify his holiness, Sc.
OUR apostle professeth to declare in these, and the foregoing words, the whole substance of the ministry of the gospel, which he and his fellow
* God hath committed to us the ministry of reconciliation; which message or ministry consists of two
apostles were entrusted to deliver to us : ver. 18,
parts.
1. A reconciliation wrought on God s part towards us, in the effecting of which Christ was concurrent with him ; for God was, in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.
2. The other business is a reconciliation on our parts, enforced from what God and Christ had done ; and this is equally necessary unto man s
salvation, as that reconciliation on God s and Christ s part is : 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. Now as these are the two parts of the ministry of reconciliation, that is, of the
gospel, so they must be understood to be two essential requisites, to make our salvation complete, and both alike essentially necessary thereunto, and without which we shall never be saved, as those obliging words of God and
Christ, beseeching us, ver. 20, shew. Now under the notion of our being reconciled to God, he intends, and involveth both, the whole of what is
requisite on our parts from first to last, both that work of reconciliation
effected in our regeneration, whereby we enter into that estate, and which
is required of those to whom this gospel comes, to estate them into salva-
118 THE WOKK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BOOK III.
tion, and also a daily proceeding to perfect that reconciliation (after it hath been begun) by faith and repentance towards God and Christ.
For he applies this doctrine to the Corinthians, that had been reconciled
already. And yet (says he), be ye reconciled.
Obs. Notwithstanding what God and Christ have done towards our recon
ciliation on their part (which is the first of the message), there is a neces
sity, by God s ordination, of our being reconciled to God, if we be partakers of salvation. For the apostle, having distinctly declared both God s care
in it and Christ s, he from thence presseth this on our part, as that without which the other would be in vain, to the attainment of God s intention and aim in both, which is our effectual salvation. And to impress this the more effectually upon the spirits of men, the apostle tells them that himself and other apostles and ministers to whom this ministry is committed, are ordained ambassadors of God, not only to proclaim and declare to us this
fore part of the message, That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, and that Christ
* was made sin for us ; but that himself and
the other apostles were ambassadors of God and Christ, to beseech us to be reconciled : 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. Which beseechment denotes not only their gracious condescension, or mere desire to us, but loudly speaks the absolute neces
sity of our being reconciled by God s appointment ; as without which, if not performed by us, God should lose what he had wrought towards it, and
Christ should lose his labour and reward ; and the design of his having been made sin for us. And that this is God s resolved ordination, he fur
ther enforceth from the end of God s having set up and established such a
ministry of his apostles and their successors in the world, whose office is an
embassage from the great God by preaching, and then by writing their
epistles, to reduce and bring in the elect fallen into a rebellion against him. Which reconciliation of them, if it had not been necessary, this great insti
tution of God had been in vain and to no purpose. I might say of this matter what the same apostle on behalf of the resurrection argues
: 1 Cor.
xv. 14, If Christ be not risen, then our preaching is in vain. Thus I
might say concerning your reconciliation, If what God and Christ have done had alone perfected it, and no more had been to be clone in us, then is our
* For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then
preaching the Scriptures of the New Testament vain: Rom. x. 13-17,
shall they call on him in whom they have not believed ? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard ? and how shall they hear with out a preacher ? 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
! So then faith cometh by
peace, and bring glad tidings of good things
hearing, and hearing by the word of God. The word of God is God s ordination and appointment, without which none of us of years shall be
saved. Here the necessity lies, it was God s pleasure so to order it ; if
therefore our apostle makes a necessity of his preaching the gospel to men
( A necessity, says he, 1 Cor. ix. 16, is laid upon me to preach the
gospel), then there is a greater necessity that those that hear the message of it should obey it, if ever they be saved. For the necessity of his preach ing the gospel was the foundation of the necessity that is laid upon all other ambassadors like to him. All this is farther illustrated by Eom. x., verses 13 and 17 compared. Let us now consider how God hath threatened (2 Thess.
i. 8, 9) finally to destroy them who obeyed not the gospel, who came not in
CHAP. I.J IN OUR SALVATION. 119
to him, and entertained not this infinite love and grace with all acceptation,
in humbling themselves, believing on him and his Son, and turning unto
him. And it will be manifest that God is more engaged to punish those
his enemies for their refusal of his entreaty, by his ambassadors, who are in
his stead, than the greatest kings on earth are, or can be thought, obliged
to avenge an affront offered to their ambassadors. Read the parable of the
vineyard, Luke xx.
Let us next consider the interest which God the Father and Christ his
Son have, and the part which they act in this our reconciliation. God the
Father s part was to contrive the whole of our salvation, Christ s part was
to purchase it. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, &c.
I have elsewhere discoursed of God the Father s original transaction with
Christ about this,* which I will not repeat, only I cast in the single con
sideration of it in the text to enforce the thing in hand. In the 28th verse,
< All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to
his preface to all this is,
himself by Jesus Christ : the spirit of which connection I extract into
this, that the great God, of whom all things else are, hath made this his
masterpiece, and his heart was in it above all other things (and therefore
he sets it against all things else), and his wisdom and all his other attri
butes were especially at work about this, who works all things according
to the counsel of his own will. As the same apostle says upon the same
occasion, Eph. i. He therefore hath been most consultive about the effect
ing of this, and for the bringing it to its performance according to his own
desire. And therefore he who hath contrived to effect all things else in
such a manner wherein they shall be most for his own glory ( All things
are of him and for him, Rom. xi. 36), hath above all others contrived this
business of man s salvation. And therefore we may be sure he was most
regardful and heedful that it should be effected upon such terms as should
be for his own high honour and glory, as well as our salvation ; that he
might have glory by it, as well as we have peace. When that great pro
clamation of peace and goodwill to men was made by the angels at the birth
of our Lord (which contains the whole of reconciliation on God s part), it
< Glory be to God on high, that is first ; and then it follows,
runs thus :
Peace on earth ; good will towards men. This was to shew that he had
so ordered it, that our peace and his glory should run along together. Now if we should have peace and pardon from him on account of what
Christ hath done, and we should remain unreconciled to him both in heart
and life, then here were dishonour to God the Most High, and a violation
of peace on earth too. But surely he hath disposed matters so, that as he
would shew himself a friend to you, and manifest good will to men, so withal
he would appear a friend to himself, and true to his own interest, which is his
glory. This is indeed but a general, and yet it comprehends all his attri
butes ; all and each of which are his glory. I shall instance particularly in
the glory but of one or two of them.
1. As to his holiness, when I discoursed of those transactions of the
Father with Christ, I shewed that God, merely to give satisfaction to justice,
ordained the sacrificing his Son. And it was (as we have it, Rom. iii. 26),
that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus. Now if, to be true to that attribute, he spared not his own Son, so then
here he having another attribute as near and dear unto him, viz., holiness,
that must be complied withal to vindicate its honour. And therefore, as
* In the Discourse of Christ the Mediator, Vol. III. of his Works. [Vol. V. of
this Edition. ED.]
120 THE WOKK OF THE HOLY GHOST [BoOl
God will be just in saving, which cost Christ his blood, so he will be holy in saving us too. Therefore, as he that called you is holy, so you must be
holy, and called with an holy calling, 2 Tim. i. 9. It is not his purpose of grace towards you in Christ Jesus will serve the turn. Because it is
written, Be ye holy, for I am holy, 1 Pet. i. 15, 16. He is resolved on
it, and therefore without holiness no man shall see God, Heb. xii. Cer
tainly he abated not his Son the least point that justice demanded. If he would not that the cup should pass at his then so earnest entreaty, then
if it were possible to suppose Christ would supplicate him now, to let re generation 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 reconci liation 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 ii. 14. Yea, the ground of his shewing mercy is his love : Eph. ii. 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. i. 4. Therefore in those he saves, if there were not wrought an in ward 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 iv. 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. i. 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.