Part 2 — Chapter 9: The Argument from the Necessity of God's Call and the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant

An Argument 13 is taken from the necessity of this Covenant of Redemption. 1. From the call of God: Christ took not on him to be a Priest, nor did he glorify himself to be made a High Priest, but that he said to him (Hebrews 5), "You are my Son, today I have begotten you" — that is, I have ordained you to have the honorable calling of the High Priest. The Apostle also (Hebrews 1) applies this in part to the eternal generation of the Son; and (Acts 13:33) the Apostle applies this to Christ's rising from the dead, because in these two latter, manifestly appears the Godhead of the Son, in that he is true High Priest, who, by offering himself has taken away our sins, which only God can do. In the other (Romans 1:4), he is declared to be the Son of God with power — by the resurrection from the dead. He who took not upon him to be High Priest while God called him, and neither took upon him to be King, while God called him, and said (Psalm 2:6), "I have Anointed him my King, upon my holy hill of Zion," and willingly consented to the call of God, to be King and Priest — he must be made Priest and King by Covenant between him and God: for Priests and Kings were called by Covenant (Malachi 2:5; 2 Kings 11:17; 2 Samuel 5:3).

2. It is necessary that the promises that are our writs and charters of heaven be in a surer hand than in our own, to wit, in the keeping of Christ: for this is an absolute promise made to us (Ezekiel 36:26), "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh." This promise is not formally made to Christ, yet it is a special Covenant-promise (Jeremiah 31; Ezekiel 11; Hebrews 8); for there is no stony heart in Christ, yet the promise is laid down in him, and made to him, eminenter; for by the merit of his blood (for he sanctified the people with his own blood, Hebrews 13:12) he sprinkles many nations (Isaiah 52:15). Some say, as Calvin, Luther, Musculus, by the preached Gospel: but it is clear, he alludes to the law of sprinkling (Exodus 24:8), "And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the Covenant which the Lord has made with you, concerning all these words." Now of that blood it is said (Exodus 24:6), "And Moses took half of the blood (of the oxen that the young men of the children of Israel offered, verse 5) and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar." 1. The half of the blood was divided between the altar and the people, to note (say the English Divines) the mutual stipulation of God (of Christ God the true Altar) to his people, and his people to him, who were atoned and made one by the blood of Christ (verse 7). (2.) Moses took the book of the Covenant, and read it in the audience of the people: not the book of the Covenant of the ten Commandments — for Moses had not as yet brought the two Tables of Stone containing the ten Commandments down from the mountain. Then it was the book of the judicial laws and promises (Hebrews 9:19): "For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law: he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water (lest the blood should thicken and congeal, nor being mixed with water, noting also some other mysteries, 1 John 5:6, 8) and scarlet, wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people." It's true there is no mention of wool and hyssop and scarlet (Exodus 24), but the author to the Hebrews adds nothing of his own to Moses: for there is a ground for these (Numbers 19:6), and Moses speaks not of the sprinkling of the book, but the book lying upon the sprinkled altar was also sprinkled with blood; for says the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 9:22), "Almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." There was no guiltiness in the book, but these written laws and ceremonies were the handwriting of ordinances which was against us, which was contrary to us: which Christ by his bloody death had to blot out, take out of the way, and nail to his cross (Colossians 2:14).

But another question arises (Exodus 24:6): what needed the sprinkling of the people with one half of the blood, and the sprinkling of the altar, that is Christ the Mediator, with the other? For, 1. neither the work of dying to redeem man can be divided between Christ and the people: nor needed Christ, our true altar, forgiveness of sins. Answer: The typical sprinkling of the people is expounded (Hebrews 9:14) as the purging of the conscience from dead works to serve the living God, and to obey the Gospel (1 Peter 1:3). But the sprinkling of the altar Christ with the blood, is a far other thing: so the Holy Ghost (Hebrews 9) — he who is constituted the Mediator of a Testament, his death must intervene to ratify and make valid, in law, the Testament (verses 16, 17), that the friends of the Testator may have right to the goods that are bequeathed to them in the Testament.

But Christ is the Mediator of the New Testament (verse 15). Ergo, etc. Now we are to know that Christ's dying is considered: 1. as a paying of ransom for captives, by which, in law and by way of merit, the ransom of the blood of God exceeds the worth of the bought captives, or the crime committed by the captives; and so Christ's death merits to his friends ransomed: righteousness, life, pardon.

His dying is considered as a testament of a dying friend. Now the living friends, by virtue of a testament as a testament, have not [reconstructed: jus] and right by buying and selling to the goods tested. The essence and nature of a testament is saved, whether the goods that are bequeathed in legacy be the free gift of the Testator, not bought with a price by him, or goods of the father of the friend, to which the friend being a German-brother has as good right or the same right, by birth, that the Testator has. However: the comparison holds in this. Christ 1. has bequeathed to believers these goods. 2. The testament is no testament, nor valid in Law, except the Testator be dead. No man can sue by Law tested goods, if the Testator himself be living; nor can we have right to a new heart, forgiveness, perseverance, eternal life, to grace and glory, except Christ our Testator had died. But because the tested goods are more than goods left to us in testament; they are left to us by such a testament as is both a testament and a death perfectly meritorious (this is superadded to the nature of a testament and beyond all testaments) — indeed a death which is a price to ransom us from the wrath to come; therefore Christ so dying in our stead, of justice merits that the friends should have these goods, though they belong by mere grace and free promise, to the friends. Now this is a most clear ground: Christ has a well purchased right by giving a condign price for the goods and blessings promised in the Covenant of Grace to us: this right he has by paying a price, laying down his life for us. This buying is not by necessity of nature, of justice, but by a voluntary, free and uncompelled agreement and Covenant (John 10:18, Isaiah 53:6). No man can exact upon him (Psalm 89:22). If the Old Testament was confirmed by the blood of beasts, then must the New Testament be confirmed by the blood of Christ prefigured in these. But the Old Testament was so confirmed (Hebrews 9:18-23). Ergo, now neither testament nor covenant was confirmed by blood simply, but by the blood of a living creature slain.

Hence the making of a covenant was by cutting a calf or a beast in two, and passing between the parts thereof (Jeremiah 34:18), and so they entered into a curse (Nehemiah 10:29), devoted themselves to destruction, wishing they might be cut [illegible] (which is a strange kind of death (Matthew 24:51)) if they should break the covenant. Hence the phrase of striking a covenant. So the Romans slew a sow: so the Romans and Albani made a covenant, as Livius. A Herald or Officer at Arms slew the beast and prayed a curse on the people of Rome, that they might be the same way stricken, if they should break the covenant. It is likely they had it from the Jews. So Christ died to ratify and confirm the covenant (Exodus 24:6). This is the blood of the covenant. Now the covenant has no blood. This blood of slain beasts (for it is a figurative speech) is a sign confirming the covenant that believers shall have remission of sins in that blood of Christ which is shadowed forth by the blood of these beasts. So Christ the great Shepherd of the flock (Hebrews 13:20) is said to be brought from the dead, [in non-Latin alphabet], by the blood of the everlasting Covenant. [reconstructed: Junius], the Article is understood: or as the Hebrew phrase, [in non-Latin alphabet] is put for [in non-Latin alphabet], as Calvin and Piscator. The question may be, how did God bring Christ again from the dead by the blood of the everlasting Covenant, had the blood of Christ any influence to bring himself back from the dead? Or did he, by dying, merit his own resurrection?

Ans. Some read the word thus, and shun the question, The God of peace who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep: Understanding, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, being the great shepherd or feeder, by the blood of the everlasting Covenant. So Beza, who makes these words, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to be referred to 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: So as Christ's right to be Pastor is in, and by his blood and suffering. And the words, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, so is not to be constructed with the particle, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉: But Beza confesses, that he changed the situation of the words. But if Christ be made a Pastor and feeder of the sheep by the blood of the eternal Covenant: then is he called to be a Pastor by Covenant. And what influence has his death in his pastoral office? Is it by way of merit? Or did Christ merit to himself? Hardly, if not curiously, can we say that, though I nothing doubt but Christ gave perfect obedience as man to the Covenant of Works, and he did merit as man, jure operum, life eternal, the way that Adam should have merited life eternal, so he had never fallen. But the words naturally bear this sense, as Deodati expounds them, that Christ is risen by virtue of his death: As it is well said, the just surety has right and law to come out of prison, by paying the sum, and neither Justice nor Creditor can keep him in prison: solutus aere est solutus carcere. Christ having satisfied our debt, and paid the ransom of his blood to the death, and being dead, and under the dominion of death by justice, is freed from either remaining in death, or dying any more; he is now justified, not in his person, for Christ in person was habitually righteous, and from the womb (Luke 1:35), 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, That holy thing Jesus was sinless, and so never condemned, but justified in his cause and in his condition by law for us, and so appears, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the second time without sin to salvation; the second time without sin, has relation to the first time, without sin, that is, he shall appear the second time no less without sin, and so justified in regard of his condition in law, than he was, when he was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and so that eminently holy thing born of the Virgin Mary (Luke 1:35), that is, as justified as if he had never been made sin, and never had been under the law-burden of our sins, as (Isaiah 53:6). And (1 Timothy 3:16), 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, He was justified in the Spirit, declared to be just, and the innocent Son of God, by his resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:4), so that in the Spirit, is, in the eternal Spirit (Hebrews 9:14), the Godhead: For he came from under that act and bond of cautionry and suretyship without sin, that is, acquit from sin, which he was made, and was laid upon him (2 Corinthians 5:21) (Isaiah 53:6).

4. We know (Hebrews 7:22), Jesus, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, He was made the Surety of a better Covenant, as the LXX ever translate it, of a better Testament.

Now here is a judicial and a law-act of suretyship put upon Christ. 1. He was made Surety, then he was not Surety by nature, but so made by a free transaction and Covenant. For in Christ's coming under that act, when he was made Surety, there be two things: 1. His eternal condescending to take on him our nature, and to empty himself and be a servant. 2. His agreeing and plighting of his faith and truth to take on our condition in law, that God should lay upon him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6), and that God should make him who knew no sin, to be sin for us, [in non-Latin alphabet], in our law, place and room (2 Corinthians 5:21), not against his Father's will, nor yet without his own free consent. That is against all reason: for that which God made Christ, that he was not by nature, but that God willingly made him, and that he was willingly and by free Covenant made. But God gave him a body (Hebrews 7:5), and God made him sin, [in non-Latin alphabet] (2 Corinthians 5:11). So a Surety is one that promises to satisfy for another, and comes from a verb which signifies to promise by striking of hands (Proverbs 22:26): Be not you among them that strike hands, or, of them that are surety for debts. The Seventy: give not yourself, [in non-Latin alphabet], as a Surety. Aries Montan: Inter percutientes fide jubendo. The verb in the Hebrew is from a root that signifies to mix together: as the owl light, when light and darkness after the sun-set are mixed together. And by a metaphor it notes suretyship and mixture of persons, as Mr. Legh: when one is tied for another, and mixed with him in his place. As Christ put himself in the bond and writ of blood that we were in: we were in the law-writ (Deuteronomy 27), under a curse, and Christ shifted the believers out, and was made a curse by his own consent for us (Galatians 3:10), and was written and acted in the law-book the sinner, and answered all the demands of law and justice, and put in our names in the gospel-writ. And that from everlasting, God was in Christ, [in non-Latin alphabet], reconciling the world (of the elect), not imputing their sins to them (2 Corinthians 5:19). And in time we believing, are written blessed and righteous in him (Galatians 3:13-14; 2 Corinthians 5:21). And what could more be done by Christ, who substituted himself by Covenant in our place, and put us in his place? Nor is this suretyship only in debts, but also — whatever Socinus, Crellius, and others say on the contrary — in capital punishments. For Mr. Thomas Goodwin, page 50: Eoritus did [in non-Latin alphabet] willingly become a surety for Suephenus. Indeed, and in hostages and pledges in war, Plutarch says that the Thessalians slew two hundred and fifty hostages. The Romans (says Livy) did the like to three hundred of the Volsci, and cast the Tarantines over rocks, [reconstructed: from the Tarpeian Rock]; and these were humane people. The children of tyrants were killed with the tyrants, by some cities of Greece, as Cicero and Halicarnassus say. Curtius says that the Macedonians put to death such as were near of blood to traitors: Marcellinus says so much also of the Persians. The just Lord punishing the sins of the fathers upon the children, to the third and fourth generation, teaches that conjunction of blood (such as was between Christ our Kinsman, [in non-Latin alphabet] (Job 19:25), and us) may well make it most just, that Christ be punished for us, the Surety for the sinner, though the sinner be under the hand of the Judge; for he is unable to satisfy justice, and mercy says that there is no essential reason in law-justice why the same head which sinned and no other should suffer. But grace may intervene, so that though God needs no surety, yet tender mercy, or God decreeing to show mercy, in some good sense, needs such a Surety as Christ.

Neither is it much that justice says that the Surety ought to have satisfaction made to him and restitution by the broken debtor, because justice gives his due to every man. For 1. if the surety be more than a man, and have absolute sovereignty over what he expends, as Christ has over his own life, to lay it down, and take it up again (John 10:18), as of free grace he paid for us, so of free grace he pleads not in law that the broken man pay him back, and make restitution of his losses: and this says demonstratively that God does neither punish, nor show mercy, by necessity of justice. 2. When the surety has a bond of relief, and as it were, a back-bond, that his soul shall not be left in the grave (Psalm 16:10), but that he shall be victorious and more, he may give out, and look for nothing in return.

And the necessity of a surety to say, remove the scaffold, the guilty man shall not die, pleads, that if the Lord shall be merciful to sinners, as he decreed, then must Christ transact so with God, as the everlasting out-goings of mercy, may be with the free consent (as it were) of truth and righteousness.

But it may be said, if Christ's dying for sinners removes, as a satisfactory punishment, the guilt and obligation to eternal wrath, what way is the real, and as it were, the physical inherency and essence of sin removed? The obligation to wrath is removed only in a legal way by suffering of punishment due to sin, which Christ has done; but the real essence of sin is only removed, as every other contrary is removed, by the expelling of sin out of its subject, and by introducing the contrary form, to wit, inherent righteousness, and the perfect habit of sanctification and holiness. Now for this, Christ's dying and suffering wrath due to us — suppose Christ should die a thousand thousand times for us — his dying cannot, as a satisfying cause, or as a punishment, remove this. For, first, a punishment suffered by our Surety can but exhaust and remove the punishment due to the sinner for whom the suretyship is undertaken. But, second, Christ's dying cannot as a punishment remove sin as sin, and as contrary to the holy Law, and make us defiled wretches and servants of sin holy, as the paying of ten thousand crowns for a forlorn waster cannot make him to be no waster, and a man that has obeyed the Law; only it makes that in law the payment cannot be charged upon him. Third, Christ's transacting with God as our Surety is not only then merely to remove eternal punishment, but to purchase by the merit of his death the healing and sanctifying of our nature (Hebrews 10:10). By the which will we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Then our sanctification is procured to us by the will of God, not simply as his commanding will: for then should all and every one whom the Lord commands to be holy (1 Peter 1:16) be sanctified, which we see is not done: but by the will of the Father, commanding Christ to die (John 10:18; John 14:31), and the will of Christ offering himself once for a sacrifice for sin, is the will which sanctifies us. So Pareus well says, it is the will with its correlate, for in the willing passive obedience of Christ are we sanctified really by the merit of his death, though this be wrought by degrees. Second, since the Father consents and wills that Christ die, and the Son willingly offers himself a sacrifice, the number (as judicious and godly Mr. Dickson has well observed on the place) and these all, for whom Christ offered himself, were condescended upon between the Father and the Mediator. God knew those whom he gave to the Son, to be ransomed: and Christ knew those whom he bought. And the necessity of this Covenant appears in this, that the comfort cannot be solid, if a child of God never has any assurance of his being gifted of the Father to the Son in particular. For two things are clear here. First, that the Lord knows who are his (2 Timothy 2:19), and that, if God gave some to the Son, as in John 17, then the Son received them in a certain number. And if Christ bought them by Covenant, he must know how many: as one who buys a flock, but he knows the quality and number of the flock. Second, the knowledge sometimes shall be this distinct, that I was by name among them, who loved me, and gave himself for me. And as the offering of every priest is by way of Covenant and promise, so, if a sacrifice, in the faith of the great sacrifice, be offered to God, then will God accept it (here is a Covenant) so is the body of Christ offered by the covenanting will (Hebrews 10:10). And any doubt that may, or does arise concerning yourself by name: first, it may as well be moved, in some respect, against the whole number, and no wise man will say that the bargain between the Father and the Son was so blind, as the number was not agreed upon. For since all the bought are sinners, and so inclined to sinful doubting of the bargain, that, which as a doubt is moved by one, may be moved by all severally, and all severally denying themselves to be the men for whom Christ bargained: by this sinful questioning of the transaction, none at all were agreed upon.

Second, every doubting of God's love to me once justified, and who have once fled to Christ for refuge, is grounded upon sin and unworthiness; now none were given by the Father to the Son from eternity upon respect of either faith, or unbelief, or holiness, or bad deserving. It's true, it is not known to me but by believing, that I was given covenant ways to the Son. But the question is, if sin be any ground why one justified should cashier himself out of the number of the gifted ones to Christ, and committed to the Mediator. It's true, it should be mourned for as a thing that does not a little hinder sanctification in its progress, but should not disturb justification, nor the faith of our interest in Christ. Fourth, the necessity of this Covenant appears, in that salvation is taken off free-will, and the slippery yes, and no, of free-will in the Covenant of Works, and laid upon one that is mighty, upon David, to govern Israel as their king; but (Psalm 89:19) upon Christ (as excellently Mr. Dickson) in all respects more eminently than David, a stronger help, mighty to save, appointed of the Father in all cases — he is one of our kind, taken out of the people, acquainted with our condition, etc. The less of the creature's will, and the more of God's will, if gracious, as here, be in a Covenant, the better: because the more grace and stability, even the sure mercies of David, that is, of Christ (Isaiah 55:3; Ezekiel 34:23; Ezekiel 37:24), must be here.

5. The well-head of salvation (for mere free-will and good pleasure in God, instituted this dispensation) must be here: And most eminent freedom of grace made the bargain; so that the Magna Charta, the great Charter of the Gospel, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, is here eminently, for mercy and free-love began at the head man. For the Covenant of Grace (as notably M. Dickson) is consolidated in Christ our head, and he has the first right as man to say to the Father, that which is here said, as Intercessor and Mediator for the Elect; he shall cry to me, you are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation. As a father binds for his heirs and children: A King subscribes articles of peace and seals them for the land and subjects: The Ambassador for the Prince and State that sent him, makes answer. So Christ acts in the Covenant of Redemption for his heirs, seed, subjects, people; and if the comparison might be made, Gospel-free-grace, as Covenant-mercy is more in the Covenant of Redemption, than in the Covenant of Reconciliation, for principally they are here as waters in the fountain. Hence, in this Covenant, is fountain-love, fountain-grace, all the satisfaction that the Lord craves of sinners, begins at this spring, the old and eternal design of love in the heart of God toward his Son, his everlasting delight, the bosom darling and beloved of the Father, is the designed Prince upon whose shoulder is the Government: Here was mutual love-delight acted by the Father and Son (Proverbs 8:31). My delights were with the sons of men, even before the fountains of waters were created (verse 24). O what everlasting outgoings and issuings of eternal love came from the heart of the Father and the Son in their eternal Covenant-delights toward the sons of men; here was the eternal marriage of the Lamb the King's eternal Son, and of the not as yet created bride first written and sealed by the King and his Son, and our not knowing of this, and God's delighting in us, when we little knew or dreamed of his eternal love, highness, his grace. Should the heart of God be taken, and (to speak so) be sick of love for so many nothings, whom he was to make heirs? Far more being reconciled and justified we need not fear we shall be saved.

Here in this Covenant were first drawn the lineaments and drafts of the free and gracious interest of Jesus Christ to the sons of men: And who should not wonder here at the purest fountain-grace that is in Jesus Christ, which did set on work eternal wisdom to frame such an eternal peace of God covenanting with the Son of God, and love eternal hiring love eternal with the reward (to speak so) of the certain hope of enjoying a soul-satisfying seed, and a numerous offspring of redeemed ones, if love should die and triumph over justice, which was done by love.

6. There is here much of the eternal interest of JEHOVAH to the Son, and of the essential love of God to his only begotten Son (Proverbs 8:24). When there was no depths, I was brought forth. Then I was by him as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him (verse 30). And they may that have been verified (Jeremiah 30:21). And their noble one shall be of themselves, and their Governor shall proceed from the midst of them, and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach to me: for who is this that engaged his heart to approach to me, says the Lord? The love eternal here in JEHOVAH loves and wonders that Christ his Son lays hands upon his own heart to take upon him the office of Redeemer and Priest: and the Lord's saying, Who is this? is a note of love and wonder, as (Psalm 24:8, 10), (Isaiah 63:1), (Song of Solomon 6:10), and that his heart closes with the Covenant-design.

Obj. But Arminius himself also teaches, that there was a Covenant between the Lord and Christ. God required of Christ our Priest, that he would lay down his life for sin, give his flesh for the life of the world, — and he promised, if he should so do, he should see his seed, and be an eternal high Priest after the order of Melchizedek, and by the exercise of his priestly office, he should be exalted to a royal dignity. Christ our Priest closed with the condition, and said, Behold, here am I to do your will, etc. And Socinians, who hold him to be a divine Man only, will agree that Christ was under an obediential Covenant to God.

Ans. Arminians and others may yield to a Covenant between the Father and the Son, but it is a far other thing than such as we hold: for Christ did close with the condition of laying down his life for sinners.

But when Christ has ended his work, and paid the price of redemption, laid down his life for Pharaoh, Cain, for Egyptians, Syrians, Persians, Chaldeans, and all in whom ever was the breath of life; yet cannot the Lord promise to Christ that he shall have any seed, or one redeemed one, nor can the Lord either promise or pay wages to Christ: for a promise, if sincere, is of things that are in our power to do, even among men. Can a King promise that tomorrow he shall cause the wind for seventy days to come, blow out of the North-West? It's not in his power. Now Arminians, Socinians, and all of that family teach, that God has no forceful antecedent dominion to bow and determine the free-will of any one man: the Lord then no more can promise, nor give the reward of a seed to Christ, for his work of laying down his life for man, than he can engage that the Serpent (with reverence to our blessed Lord) shall see his seed. For when Christ has wrought the same work, paid the same ransom (as these sophists teach) for millions that perish, through their own free-will, eternally: what seed has he of them? Where is his wage? Were not all and every one of mankind promised in the Arminian covenant, to be the gifted seed of Christ, upon condition that they should repent and believe? But Arminians deny that God does promise faith, or that he is so Lord and master of the free-will of any, as inescapably and insuperably he can make good his promise, and cause them believe and persevere therein to the end, and that is it by which they are his seed. It's but said in vain that God promises they shall be Christ's gifted seed, provided they be willing to believe: that is but to say, the Lord promises all shall be his seed, provided they shall be his seed: for willing believing makes them his seed. 2. By this also the Lord promises what is in men's power to perform, and it might fall out that all and every one should do the like that multitudes do, who perish eternally, and so shall Christ do his work, and enjoy no seed at all.

But the Covenant of suretyship which we teach, makes not the truth of God to depend upon our faith, or our unbelief; indeed the Lord promises that Christ without all fail, shall undeclinably see his seed, indeed, and shall be the restorer of the Tribes of Jacob, and a light to the Gentiles, and the salvation of God to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 49:6; Isaiah 54). He shall be King and Lord of the Isles (Isaiah 42:6-7; Isaiah 60:9; Psalm 2:8-9). A Prince and a shepherd over his people (Ezekiel 34; Ezekiel 37:24-25; Psalm 89:25), not upon condition they be willing, over whom he is set, but to meet with the temptation. Ah! my iron and rocky will shall still resist the Lord; and he shall be King of the Nations, if the Nations shall determine their own will to submit to him, and vote that he be Crowned King: in fact, the Covenant-promise says, he shall be King of your will. This is a part of his reign (Psalm 110:2): The Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion: rule in the midst of your enemies. 3. Your people shall be willing in the day of your power (Deuteronomy 30:6; Ezekiel 11:19-20; Ezekiel 36:26-27; Jeremiah 31:31-35; Jeremiah 32:39-40). Neither can there be confidence and faith in God through the sure mercies of David, nor peace, nor solid consolation, nor warrant to pray for the Lord's gracious bowing of the will to be his seed, except it be believed, Covenanted, that God shall be the God of his people, and their King, not over the element of the sea only to rule it, and over the mountains, and the stones, and rocks, but also over the particular wills, and the willing and refusing, choosing of good, and refusing of evil in the men of the Isles. And how could the Son pray, Father, give the inheritance of the Heathen to me, according to promise? Ask of me, and I will give you, etc. (Psalm 2). If the Father could answer nothing, but what Arminians and Socinians say he answers, as also, the believer out of the flesh's weakness must dictate this return of prayer: Son, with good will, I grant the Heathen, and the ends of the earth to you in heritage and possession, so they be willing to submit to you: But, what if they refuse to obey either me or you? I did never Covenant with you, Son, to do more than I can, try your strength, and force their free-will, if you can; if they be willing, well, and good it is, there is a bargain: My approving and commanding will is that they be your seed, and your willing people; but my decree is not to Lord it over their will, that is a fundamental act of Government, that all my subjects have liberty of conscience, to will or refuse, as they please. In fact, the Covenant of Suretyship includes the sure mercies of David, and the Lord gives bond, word, and writ, and seal of blood, and the Oath of God to the Son (Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 7:21) for the will (Isaiah 53:4): Behold I have given him for a witness of the people, a leader and commander to the people. But what if they will neither lead nor drive? Indeed the Lord promises they shall not need to be driven — they shall be willing, and run. 5. Behold you shall call a Nation that you know not, and Nations that knew not you, shall run to you, because of the Lord your God, and of the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. And a strong reason of this is given, the Gentiles run; from where comes this forwardness of the Gentiles who knew not God? Because (says Isaiah) of Jehovah your God (of Christ Mediator) in Covenant with you (Psalm 22:1; John 20:[illegible]), because of your God the Holy One of Israel: the running (says Calvin) notes the efficacy of the calling, and they run to Christ, because of Jehovah, and the mighty power of God in the Man-Christ. Notes because (says Piscator.) And another reason, because he has glorified you, O Christ, he has declared you to be the Son of God by your rising from the dead, ascension to heaven, given you a Name above all names (Romans 1:4; Philippians 2:7-10). So Musculus, Piscator, Marlorat, Gualther, Diodati: So the running of the Gentiles to Christ is the glorifying of Christ, and a part of the reward; it is Christ's glory that he has a seed that runs after him. Then: And M. Dickson upon these words (Psalm 2): Ask of me, after Christ's resurrection and declaration of his formerly overclouded Godhead, he should continue in the Office of his Mediation and Intercession, and by virtue of his paid ransom of Redemption call for the enlargement of his purchased Redemption among the Gentiles, for this is the Father's compact with the Son, saying, ask of me, and I will give you, the Heathen; so that both by free Covenant, and by merit, Christ challenges a seed: and it were injustice in the Lord (with reverence and glory to his Holiness) to deny to Christ that for which he has given a condign ransom and price: But he has paid a condign Covenant-ransom of his own precious self, and offered blood for his seed. Hence 1. though a weak believer cannot by merit suit a bowed will and a circumcised heart from the Lord: Yet 1. may suit it by the bond of the Covenant of Redemption between Jehovah and the Son: and a Redeemed one may say, it was an Article of the Covenant of Redemption, that my stony heart should be taken away, and a heart of flesh given to me, and faith has influence to be supported that God articled Covenant-ways such a wretch as I am, to Christ: and look, as the book of life, called, the Lamb's Book of Life; contains so many by name, head, and in all their individual properties, Jacob, Paul, etc. that are written and enrolled for glory, so are all (and I by name) in a Covenant-relation given of the Father to the Son (John 17:3,9,11; John 6:39) and that is surer than heaven or the fixed ordinances of nature (Jeremiah 31:35-36; Psalm 89:37-38). Happy such as can ride at this anchor: Though I mean not that the decree of election and the roll of the Mediator to me, or the gracious Surety-Covenant between Jehovah and the Son, as relating to me by name, must be the nearest object of faith, or that always a believer does read this roll; but his faith often is, and ought, and may be supported thereby.

2. Christ may suit, by virtue of both the Surety Covenant and by the justice of God, his condign merit to me, a fixed will to run the way of his Commandments. Christ's appearing with blood (Hebrews 9) and his prayer as high Priest (John 17) prove that, in Christ's bill for us, there is justice, the merit of blood, and that his advocacy is (1 John 2:1) grounded upon justice, and he stands there as Jesus Christ, [illegible], the righteous without sin now imputed, not now made sin, nor made a curse, but by order of strict justice justified and righteous, and the act of Suretyship taken off, and as the handwriting against us is cancelled upon the cross (Colossians 2), so the handwriting of obliged punishment due to Christ as our Surety is removed, and he now justified in the Spirit, without sin (Hebrews 9:28), such a one as cannot die (Romans 6:9, Revelation 1:18) and cannot die a death satisfactory for sin, because as believers cannot die the second death, Christ having died for them, neither can Christ suffer the second death again, or be twice a curse, for once he died for all. But our faith is so supported not a little in this, I dare not put merit or justice in my suits to God, but I believe it is, and must be in Christ's bill, and that bill is for me: mercy, and only mercy is in the sinner's bill, but the justice of a condign ransomer is in Christ's suits, and so faith looks to Christ: As 1. having the first covenant-right to heaven, as the great Lord receiver of the promises. And then we have a second right in him. 2. Faith looks to Christ as having more right to us, because he has the right of justice, than we have to ourselves; for it is free grace's title which we have to ourselves, for we gave no ransom for ourselves, and we gave no ransom for eternal life: and therefore all the doubtings and acts of unbelief in order to the Surety of the Covenant, do resolve upon some apprehended breach between the Father and the Son, that either the one or the other, or both have failed to each other, and have broken the Articles of the Covenant, which is a reproaching of both the Father and the Son: so that nothing is more necessary than to believe firmly the covenant-faithfulness of God. 3. What strong bonds of believing and holy living have we from this Surety Covenant? When 1. goodwill and free grace is become the engager of the faithfulness of God as he is true God, and with a covenant-tie to keep sure our salvation, as he will be true to his Son, and so to himself and to his own Holy Nature, that we shall be saved, indeed, and not that only, but by office, as King and High Priest, he has laid bonds upon himself, and made it the duty of his office to save us: so that any good man thinks his office of a King, and a Prophet, or a Priest, lays bonds upon him to acquit himself faithfully in the charge; so that Christ's sworn office of High Priest lays bonds upon him to compassionate as a feeling head, all his own, and to be touched with their infirmities: then must unbelief in these particulars say, we judge that Christ will not do his duty in his office, and that he shall break his faith of Suretyship, and fail under his bond of Suretyship. How needful then must the firm persuasion of complete qualifications and fullness of anointing of Christ for the complete discharge of his duty be? O! believe him to be the faithful High Priest, who expiates and heals you in all the measure, kinds, degrees, circumstances of time, place, of the particular transgressions you are guilty of (Psalm 103:3), 'Who forgiveth all your iniquities: who healeth all your diseases.' And if a man judge himself engaged to go about such duties as his surety and ransom-payer in his name has promised, far more are we to walk as the redeemed of the Lord, since there was an eternal Covenant-undertaking between Jehovah and the Son of God, that we should fulfill the undertaking. And sure it is, Law-faith or believing of Law-threatenings cannot have such influence upon our spirits to cause us obey the Law, as the motives of a concluded act of suretyship and closed compact between the Father and the Son, that we shall obey him: and indeed it is a meditation that morally and spiritually should obtain from us that we be holy as he is holy, and strongly melt the rocky heart. When we remembered that JEHOVAH, as a designed Surety, gave bond for the heart of a sinner from eternity, and enters himself Cautioner for our rebellious will, it should put us to believe so much, and morally lay bonds on our will.

Q. How are we to conceive of the act of Suretyship?

A. Jehovah from eternity decrees that the Son be the designed person who shall take on our nature, and lay down his life for sinners: The Lord promises he shall have a redeemed seed for a reward.

In this offer Jehovah engages that we shall be Christ's seed, and so shall be, by the immortal seed, born again, and shall believe and be gifted to Christ as saved; here Jehovah undertakes that we shall believe.

2. Christ agrees to the designed person: It is written of me, and so decreed of God from eternity, I delight to do your will, I shall lay down my life for these given to me: And here the other party, Jesus Christ coming by his own consent to die, does also undertake, 1. In dying to ransom us from hell, and merit life to us, and make us his purchase. So 2. he being a Savior by merit, he by his death purchases the Spirit, and merits the new heart, and so undertakes for us: in this regard, both parties undertake for us. And the Spirit being the same very God with the Father and the Son, also is by his own consent designed comforter and actor in his way by the anointing without measure, that he puts on the Man Christ, and the grace given to his members: But the only formal parties in the compact are the Lord Jehovah and the Son party consenting before time, and his Manhood in time becoming one who embraces the Covenant of Suretyship, and calls the Lord his God (Psalm 22:1, John 20:17, Revelation 3:12, Isaiah 55:5).

Hence, if we employ faith, and hold out to the Lord the undertaking for us in the Covenant, there is an answer framed to all our temptations from our own frailty: as Adam and the Angels fell, and how can we stand? But God said never of them, as Psalm 89:19, I have laid strength upon one that is mighty: and Christ was no designed undertaker for Adam, nor was Adam to believe such a thing. Therefore it is fit to observe, that not only the Head Christ and the body changes names, as the body is called Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12), and Christ called David (Isaiah 53:3), Ezekiel 34, Ezekiel 37:14, David my servant shall be King over them. So also many things in one Psalm are spoken of David, both in a historical and typical truth, as Psalm 22. But there are some things, Psalm 16, so spoken of David, that they are true only typically of Christ, and spoken prophetically, as David says, Psalm 16:10, you will not leave my soul in the grave, neither will suffer your Holy One to see corruption. And the Apostle Peter denies that this can be expounded of David, for Acts 2:26-30, and Paul, Acts 13:34-35. And as concerning that God raised him from the dead, now no more to return to corruption: he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. Therefore he says also in another place, you shall not suffer your Holy One to see corruption. But David after he had served his own generation, by the will of God, fell asleep, and was laid to his fathers, and saw corruption. And it is not to be doubted that the prophecy, Psalm 22, they divided my garments, they pierced my hands and my feet, is only a prophecy of Christ's being crucified: nor was ever David crucified. To say in another case David was crucified, will not help: for it might be said in another case David saw no corruption, for all believers are delivered from the dominion, curse, and sting of death. Hence, it may well be said, that same Psalm 89 must prove both the Covenant of Suretyship, and the Covenant of Grace: verse 3, I have made a Covenant with my chosen, I have sworn to David my servant; your seed will I establish forever, and build up your Throne to all generations. Though it be called David's Throne here (Luke 1:32), yet we may freely speak of David's Throne as of David's body, both saw corruption: there is an end of David's temporal Throne. But sure the Scripture calls it the Throne of Christ (Hebrews 1:8): But to the Son he says, your Throne, O God, is forever and ever. Luke 1:33, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob, and of his Kingdom there shall be no end. Daniel 7:14, and there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all nations and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. Isaiah 9:7, of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end: upon the Throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth, even forever.

Objection: But this Covenant is made to, and with David, that Solomon, and one of David's line, shall sit upon David's Throne, until the Messiah, the true beloved shall be born (2 Samuel 7:12-13).

Answer: It is true, and although these of David's line sinned, yet by virtue of this Covenant, for David's sake, God gave a temporal Throne to him (1 Kings 11:32, 34; 2 Kings 8:19; 2 Kings 19:34). But it is as true that this also, to wit, Christ's everlasting Throne is here meant: I will build up your Throne to all generations, for David's Throne is not built to all generations, nor can it be said of David's Throne, which is said of this Throne (Hebrews 1:8): But to the Son, he says, your Throne, O God, is forever and ever. Therefore this oath and promise is made to Christ as well as to David: except we say that an everlasting Throne is [reconstructed: more] properly the Throne of David, than the Throne of Christ.

Second point: verse 19, I have laid help upon one that is mighty, I have exalted one chosen out of the people; verse 18, I have found David my servant. Most grave divines (and it may be they gathered it from verses 38-39, etc.) think that the Psalm was composed upon the occasion of the ten Tribes' division from David's house, as composed by Ethan (1 Kings 4:31). Others think that Ethan lived in the captivity of Babylon after David's death: but the calamity seems greater than the division of the ten Tribes. Philo refers it to the time of Jehoiakim. Ambrose makes the mighty to be Christ: so Eusebius and Hieronimus expound the whole Psalm. And our divines say that the verity must be in Christ, for the help and deliverance of the newly afflicted and captive people (for the like of this [reconstructed: public] desolation, as verses 38-40, etc., never befell David after he was King) cannot be laid on a dead man: and though he were now alive, the help of David's fallen glory, verses 42-44, etc., must be the Messiah. Hence, the Covenant must be with him whose Throne is built forever, and shall not fall (verses 3-4), and upon whom as upon a mighty one is laid the help of his fallen Church: this is not David only (though he be not excluded) but Christ principally.

Third point: with him the Covenant must be made, in his way, as with Surety, Head, and Redeemer: upon whom the enemy shall not exact; whose enemies shall be plagued (verses 22-23), and whose enemies shall be made his footstool (Psalm 110:1-2); and that is Christ, as well as David.

4. With him must the Covenant of Redemption be made in his way; of whom God says, verse 25: I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. The Chaldean Paraphrase expounds his hand to be his power and command, which extends to the Euphrates, as is promised (Exodus 23:31; Numbers 34:3), but fulfilled in David and Solomon (1 Kings 4:8). Solomon reigned from the Sea of Sodom, the Red Sea, to the Mediterranean Sea, and west, and from the Euphrates to the utmost of Canaan, north and south — but specially in Christ, who has all nations, Gentiles and Jews, for his own (Psalm 2:8-9; Psalm 22:27; Psalm 72:8-11; Isaiah 2:1-2; Revelation 11:15). Christ Jesus, not David (Zechariah 9:10), shall speak peace to the heathen, and his dominion shall be even from sea to sea, and from the river, even to the ends of the earth. The Angel and Creator of angels, who set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth (Revelation 10:2), is this great Conqueror.

5. With him this Covenant must stand, of whom the Lord, verse 26, says, He shall cry to me, You art my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation. Verse 27: I also will make him my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth. Now this cannot well agree to David — at least, most coldly (as Calvin says) should the apostle reason and conclude that Christ were above the angels when he cites this place (Hebrews 1:4-5): For to which of the angels said he at any time, You are my Son, this day have I begotten you? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son. In the literal sense, it is meant of Solomon (2 Samuel 7:14; 1 Chronicles 22:10) and is meant here of David. Athanasius proves him hence to be God, the first begotten of many brethren. Cyprian, Cyrillus, Augustine, and Hieronimus contend against the Jews that this is necessary to be understood of Christ, not of Solomon, not of David, who cannot bear the name of the Lord's first-born, but must be so named as the type of him who is the first-born of every creature, etc. (Colossians 1:15).

6. So my mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my Covenant shall stand fast with him. Verse 9: His seed also will I make to endure for ever, and his Throne as the days of Heaven. If the Covenant be made with him who has an eternal seed, then sure, principally with Christ — without whom (says Calvin, who otherwise much loves to follow the letter of the word) this prophecy has no effect, for eternity is only in Christ, not in David.

Verse 30: If his children forsake my law, etc. — a preoccupation: if an eternal seed be promised to Christ, then although Christ and his children sin, no matter, the hazard is not great? He answers: the danger is not to be despised; I will visit the sons of Solomon and others (2 Samuel 7:14) with the rod of men. Verse 15: But my mercy (of the Covenant of Redemption, and of Reconciliation) I will not take from him, as I took it from Saul. This is not spoken of Christ, for he cannot sin, but of Christ's seed, his spiritual seed, and the business is so contrived, as the seed of Christ and his children shall not sin unpunished — but yet there is a difference between the sins of the reprobate Saul, and such like, and of the spiritual seed of Christ. So he takes his mercy, Covenant-mercy (but offered conditionally) utterly away from reprobates when they sin, but takes not away Covenant-mercy from the seed of Christ. And the reason is, from the nature of the Covenant, verse 34: My Covenant I will not break, etc. If then the elect and chosen of Christ should fall away, God should break and alter his Covenant — but impossible is the latter. Hence, 1. the questioning of the stability of our state, being once internally in Covenant with God, is a reproaching of God, and to make him a liar. Verse 35: Once have I sworn (says he) by my holiness, that I will not lie to David. Though (1.) we seem to reproach ourselves in questioning our state, being once in Christ, yet the truth is, the plea is against God, and his truth and holiness. (2.) It is easier to believe general truths, than to believe particular truths, in which ourselves and our own actings are interested — so spiritual and wily a snare is unbelief, that when we think we are unbelievingly fearing our own treachery, we are indeed charging treachery and falsehood upon the Holy Lord. (3.) In our sinful pleas with our own state — Ah! I am cast out of his sight (Psalm 31:22; Jonah 2:4) — we are overturning the whole Gospel and Covenant of Suretyship and Reconciliation, and we say, God lied to David, and to his Son Christ — contrary to that (Psalm 89:35): Once have I sworn by my holiness, I will not lie to David. Verse 36: His seed shall endure for ever, for the Lord once justified you. (4.) We shall find ourselves so selfish in controverting with God in the matter of fact touching ourselves — am I in Christ? Or, am I an Apostate and fallen from Christ? — that we are more taken up with a hellish fretting for our falling in a state of condemnation, than we are grieved for the injury of unbelief in traducing the Holy Lord with a lie. There is a taste here of Judas's fiery unbelief, for he complains more (Matthew 27:4) — I have sinned, in betraying the innocent blood — than that God is dishonored, and Christ's love offended. The grief is more for the interest of I, of self, that is entered in the borders of hell, than that his glory who commands believing is overclouded. It were good in such a case to go about two things: 1. Be less moved that self is under these apprehensions, lost and cast away, than that the spotless glory of the Lord suffers — what matter of me, and of self, in comparison of the dishonor done to God? What though I, and millions like me, were tormented, if God were not offended. Now God, 1. who has bought me, 2. who has accepted a ransom for me, 3. has justified me, 4. has witnessed all these, is contradicted in all these — and yet we complain only, Ah I am fallen!

2. Leave the question concerning yourself, whether you be cast away or no, when you cannot come to a peaceable and quiet close about it, and dwell upon the duty of fiducial relying on God's general Covenant to David's Son, Christ his engaging with him, and Christ his gracious accepting of the condition.

(5.) God swore to the Son of David for the seed, that is, for the whole race, and gave them all to Christ, and gave you among them; and Christ closed with the condition, though you cannot come to application. It's good to feed the soul upon the solacing thoughts, I cannot apply, but Christ whose egressions, outgoings, have been from of old, from everlasting (Micah 5:2) did apply. For Christ's everlasting outgoings are not only his eternal generations from the Father, but the decrees, the sweet eternal flowings, emanations, and issuings of Christ's holy thoughts of me, of all the individuals, by name, of the seed given and received by Christ, his eternal acts of soul-delighting thoughts of every redeemed son of man (Proverbs 8:30-31; Romans 9:11; Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:2) the eternal acts of love, and love-thoughts to Jacob, David, Peter, Mary, etc. His acts of designing you (if ever you believed, and can rub and blow up experiences under ashes (Romans 5:4; Psalm 77:6)) and the thousands that stand before the Throne, from eternity, his actings of eternal love, appointing and setting Chairs, Thrones, Mansions, and dwelling places for [illegible] man, and this man, are so many applications of Christ to you. Feed and feast upon these, by believing the ancient Covenant, and you cannot but come to quietness of peace in your apprehended estate.