Sermon 7

Son of David, O Lord, you son of David:] In this form of address, consider why Christ is called the son of David, never the son of Adam — never the son of Abraham? It's true, he is called frequently the Son of man, but never when any prays to him: and he is reckoned in his genealogy, David's son, Abraham's son, the son of Adam; but the son of David is his ordinary style when prayers are directed to him in the days of his flesh. The reasons are, 1. Christ had a special relation to Abraham being his seed, but more special to David, because the covenant was in a special manner established with David as a king, and the first king in whose hand the church, the feeding thereof as God's own flock, was as God's depositum and pawn laid down; the Lord established the covenant of grace with David, and his son Solomon, who was to build him a house, and promised to him an eternal kingdom, and grace, and perseverance in grace, and that by a sure covenant, the sure mercies of David (Isaiah 55:3; 2 Samuel 7:8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16; 1 Chronicles 22:9, 10; 2 Samuel 23:5). Yet has he made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure, for (this is) all my salvation, and all my desire (Psalm 89:3). I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn to David my servant. 4. Your seed will I establish forever, and build up your throne to all generations (verses 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37). Gabriel the angel speaks the same to Zacharias (Luke 1:32, 33; so also verses 68, 69; Acts 13:34, 35, 36, 37; Acts 2:30). Now it was necessary that Christ the Messiah should lineally descend of a king: Abraham was not a king, Adam was not formally a king by covenant as David was. 2. Christ changes names with David, as he never did with any man: Christ is never called Abraham, but (Ezekiel 34:23, 24) David my servant shall be a prince among them (Hosea 3:5). They shall seek the Lord their God, and David their king. 3. David entered to a typical throne against the heart of Jew and Gentile (Psalm 2:1, 2). And so did Christ (Acts 4:25, 26). And did feed the people of God in the midst of many enemies (Psalm 110:1, 2). And so did Christ (Acts 2:34, 35, 36). Not so Abraham, he was a befriended man in a strange land.

That which I aim at is this, by the received divinity of the Jews, and of the Gentiles who knew God, Christ was a king by the covenant of grace, and the special party of the new covenant, as was David. This may be made more evident, if we inquire a little in the covenant: 1. What it is: 2. Who the parties are. 3. What promises. 4. What condition. 5. What properties. 6. Some uses, with all brevity. The covenant is here a joint and mutual bargain between two, according to which they promise freely such and such things each to other; hence God and man made up a solemn bargain in Christ. 2. They both consent: Christ forced not his spouse to marry against her will, nor was God forced to make a covenant. Love and grace was that which led Christ's hand at the pen, in signing the covenant with his blood. 3. As a cluster of stars makes a constellation, a body of branches a tree, so a mass of promises concurs in this covenant. Wherever Christ is, clusters of divine promises grow out of him, as the motes, rays, and beams from the sun, and a family (as it were) and a society of branches out of a tree. 4. There is here giving and receiving; Christ offers and gives such and such favors, we receive all by believing, except the grace of faith, which cannot be received by faith, but by free favor and grace without us in God. Grace first and last was all our happiness; if there had not been a Savior (to borrow that expression) made all of grace, grace itself, we could never have had dealing with God.

2. The parties of the covenant are, God and man; oh how sweet! that such a potter, and such a former of all things should come in terms of bargaining with such clay, as is guilty before him! Now the parties here, on the one part, is GOD; on the other, the Mediator Christ, and the children that the Lord gave him. Observe, 1. In the covenant of nature and works: God and his friend Adam were parties contracting: and in the second covenant, God and his fellow Christ, and all his are parties. A covenant of peace cannot be between an enemy and an enemy as they are such; those who were enemies, must lay down wrath before they enter into covenant; contraries as contraries cannot be united. God being the sole author of this covenant, did lay aside enmity first; love must first send out love, as fire must cast out heat. It's true, this covenant is made with sinners (as God made the covenant of nature with Adam — yet righteous) but a union covenant-wise could never have been, except God had in a manner bowed to us, and grace proved out of measure gracious.

Christ is the party here; so Christ has a sevenfold relation. 1. As he is more than a creature, he is the covenant itself. 2. As he deals between the parties, he is the Messenger of the covenant. 3. As he saw and heard, and testifies all, he is the Witness of the covenant. 4. As he undertakes for the parties at variance, he is the Surety of the covenant. 5. As he stands between the contrary parties, he is the Mediator of the covenant. 6. As he signs the covenant, and closes all the articles; he is the Testator of the covenant. 7. As he is a side or the half of the covenant; he is the party contracting in the covenant.

For the first, Isaiah 42:6: I gave you for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; Isaiah 49:8: I will preserve you, and give you for a covenant of the people. Christ, God and man, is all the covenant. 1. Because he is given to fulfill the covenant on both sides. 2. He is the covenant, in abstracto, he is very peace and reconciliation itself (Micah 5:5). And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come to our land. As fire is hot for itself, and all things hot for it, and by participation: so you are in so far in covenant with Christ, as you have anything of Christ — lack Christ and lack peace and the covenant.

2. (Malachi 3:1) The Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his Temple, even the Messenger or Angel of the Covenant whom you delight in: Christ travels with tidings between the parties. 1. He reports of God to us, that it is his Father's will that we be saved (John 6:39). 2. Christ reports of himself, for it befits Christ to be a broker for Christ; and wisdom to cry in the streets — who will have me? (Proverbs 1:21-22; Proverbs 9:1-5). It became the Lord Jesus to praise himself (John 6:48; John 8:12): I am that bread of life, I am the light of the world (John 10:9); I am the door (verse 11); I am the good Shepherd. 3. He praises his Father (John 15): My Father is the good husbandman. 4. He suits us in marriage, and commends his Father, and our father-in-law: You marry me, dear souls — O but my Father is a great person (John 14:2); In my Father's house are many dwelling places. 2. He commends us to the Father; a Messenger making peace will do all this (John 17:8): They have received your words, and have known surely, that I came out from you, and they have believed that you did send me. 25. O Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me. Ministers cannot speak of Christ and his Father as he can do himself. O come hear Christ speak of Christ, and of his Father, and of heaven, for he saw all. O sweet believer, Christ gives you a good report in heaven; the Father and the Son are speaking of you behind their backs. A good report in heaven is of much esteem. Christ spoke more good of you than you are all worth. He tells over again Ephraim's prayers behind his back (Jeremiah 30:18). O woe to you, Christ is telling black tidings of you in heaven: Such a man will not believe in me, he hates me, and my cause, and my people. Christ cannot lie of any man.

3. Christ is an eyewitness of the Covenant, and heard and saw all; the whole Covenant was a bloody act, acted upon his person (Isaiah 55:4): Behold I have given him for a witness to the people (Revelation 1:5); The faithful witness (Revelation 3:14); The Amen, the faithful and true witness. The Covenant says, 1. The Son of man came to seek, and to save the lost (Luke 19:10); Amen, says Christ, I can witness that to be true. 2. Christ died and rose again for sinners; Amen, says the witness (John 1:18): I was dead, and behold I live for evermore, Amen. Christ puts his seal to that: This is a true and faithful saying, that Christ Jesus came into the world to die for sinners. I can swear that is true, says Christ. 3. The world shall have an end (says the Covenant) and time shall be no more. By him that lives for ever and ever, who created heaven and earth (says this Angel-witness, Revelation 10:6), that is most true. Time shall be no more. It is a controversy to the world, if eternity is coming: Christ ends the controversy with an oath. 4. Christ shall judge the world, and all shall bow to me. This Amen of God says that is true (Romans 14:11): For as it is written, as I live says the Lord every knee shall bow to me. The Covenant of Works had a promise; but because it was 1. conditional, 2. to be broken and done away, it had no oath of God as this has. O doubting soul, you say that your salvation is not sure. Why? And it is a sworn article of the Covenant; you have Christ's great oath on it. Alas, God loves not me: do you have the Son? You have a true testimony, it is not so; and (Proverbs 14:5) a faithful witness will not lie. Christ has cause to remember that you are saved; he bears the marks of it in his body. Atheist! you say who knows there is a heaven and hell? Why, the Witness of the Covenant says, I was in both, and saw both.

4. (Hebrews 7:22) Christ is the surety of the better Covenant: and in this the Father is surety for Christ, if he undertakes for David, and Hezekiah (Psalm 119:122; Isaiah 38:14). Far more for his own Son; God has given his word for Christ, he shall do the work (Isaiah 52:13): Behold my righteous servant shall deal prudently (Isaiah 50:9); Behold the Lord God will help me. And again, the Son is surety to the Father; and the great undertaker, that God shall fulfill his part of the Covenant, that the Father shall give a kingdom to his flock (Luke 12:32; John 6:37-39). 1. Christ as a surety for us has paid a ransom for us. 2. He gives a new heart to his fellow confederates. 3. And is engaged to lose none of them (John 17:12), but raise them up at the last day (John 6:39). If we could surrender [reconstructed: our]selves to Christ's undertaking, and get once [reconstructed: a] word that he has become good to the Father for us, all were well. Woe to him who is that loose man, as he has not Christ under an act, and bond of surety, that he shall keep him to the day of God: we make loose bargains in the behalf of our souls.

5. As Christ stands between the two parties, he is the great Lord Mediator of the new covenant (Hebrews 12:24). 1. Substantially, our text calls him Lord the Son of David, by condition of nature, he has something of God, as being true God, and something of man as sharing with us, hence is he mediator by office, and lays his hands on both parties; as a daysman does (Job 9:33). In which he has a threefold relation: 1. Of a friend to both, he has God's heart for man to be gracious, and satisfy mercy, and a man's heart for God to satisfy justice: 2. Of a reconciler to make two one, to bring down God to a treaty of peace, to take him off law, and high demands of law, which sought personal satisfaction of us, and in his body to bring us up to God, by a ransom paid, and by giving us faith to draw near to his Father; so he may say Sister and spouse, come up now to my Father, and your Father, to my God, and your God; and Father come down to my brothers, my kindred and flesh: 3. He is a common servant to both: God's servant, in a hard piece of service as ever was (Isaiah 52:13; Isaiah 42:1). Behold my servant (Isaiah 53:11), my righteous servant; yes and our servant (Matthew 20:28), he came not to be served, but to serve, and give his life a ransom for many. Alas, both parties did smite him (Isaiah 53:10), it pleased the Lord to bruise him (Romans 8:32), God spared not his own Son, and the other party his own, smote him (Matthew 21:38). This is the heir come, let us kill him (say they) and seize on the inheritance. This was cold encouragement to sweet Jesus: if it had been referred to us, for shame we could not have asked God to be a suffering mediator for us, there's more love in Christ than angels and men could fathom in their conceptions.

6. The covenant is the testament of our dead friend Jesus, he died to confirm the testament (Hebrews 9:16-17). Every blood could not seal the covenant, Christ's blood as dying sealed the everlasting covenant (Hebrews 13:20). It both expiated the sins of the covenanters, and also brought back the great Shepherd of the sheep from death; for Christ having once paid blood and died, it was free to the surety to come out of prison, when he had paid the sum.

7. The seventh relation of Christ makes way to the parties, and here Christ comes under a double consideration, one as God; so he is one with the Father and Spirit, and the Lord and the Author of the covenant. 2. As mediator, and so he is on our side of the covenant; then is the covenant made with Christ and all his heirs, and assigns principally with Christ, and with Abraham's nature in him, but personally with believers. 1. The Scripture says so (Galatians 3:16): The promise (or covenant) is made to Abraham and to his seed, he says not, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to your seed, which is Christ. I grant, Beza, Piscator, and many expound Christ, for mystical Christ; for (say they) it cannot be meant of Christ personally, for so it should conflict with the scope of Paul, who proves the promise of life eternal to be made to all believers. 2. It should follow that life eternal is given to Christ only, but with leave this is not sure, for the truth is, the promise is neither made to Christ's person singly considered, nor to Christ Mystical. For 1. The promise is made to Christ in whom the covenant was confirmed (verse 17). 2. In whom the nations were blessed (verse 14). 3. In whom we receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (verse 14), who was made a curse for us (verse 13). Now not any of these can agree to Christ Mystical, Christ Mystical did not confirm the covenant, nor give the Spirit, nor was he made a curse, but Christ the mediator is he, to whom the promises are made, and in him to all his heirs and kindred; not simply in his person, but as a public person and mediator.

1. Because the Scripture says to Abraham, and to his seed; that is, Christ was the Covenant made; and these words of the Covenant (Psalm 89:26), He shall cry to me, you are my Father, my God, etc. are expounded (Hebrews 1:5), And again I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a son, and (John 20:17), Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God, and to your God: So Christ the heir of all things, and the second heirs under him, are all but one confederate family. 2. The covenant made with David and his seed, and the Fathers, is fulfilled to Christ and his seed (Acts 13:34-35), As concerning that, he raised him up from the dead, no more to see corruption, he said on this wise, I will give you the sure mercies of David. 3. As the covenant of nature and works was made with Adam, and all his, and there were not two covenants; so here, the better covenant coming in the place of the former, is made with the second Adam and his children (Romans 5:18-19; 1 Corinthians 15:20, etc.). 4. All that serves to make a covenant are here: 1. God demands of his son, that he lay down his life; and for his labor he promises, that he shall see his seed, and God shall give him many children (Isaiah 53:10). 2. The son consents to lay down his life, and says, Here am I to do your will, you have given me a body: This is the formality of a covenant, when Christ consents to the condition. Now this covenant was manifested in time between the Father and the Son, but it was transacted from eternity. This is comfortable, that the Father and Christ transacted a bargain from eternity, concerning you by name. There was communing between the Father and Son concerning your heaven, Father, what shall be given to your justice to ransom such a one, John, Anna, etc. And Christ from eternity did bind for such a person, he shall believe in time. The redemption of sinners, is not a work of yesterday, or a business of chance, it was well advised, and in infinite wisdom contrived, therefore put not Christ to be challenged of his engagement, by refusing the Gospel, when you believe you make Christ's word good; he that believes not, makes God a liar, though in another sense; and for what he knows, even in this, that he frustrates Christ's undertaking in the covenant. Men believe the Gospel to be a cunningly devised fable (2 Peter 1:16). The Father and Christ are both in this business; heaven, hell, justice, mercy, souls, and deep wisdom, are all in this rare piece, and yet men think more of a farm, and an ox (Luke 14:18-19), and of a pin in the state, or a straw, or of the bones of a crazy livelihood, or a house.

3. Touching the promises, 1. There is no good thing, but it is ours by free promise, and not by simple donation only; this covenant turns over heaven, earth, sea, land, bread, garments, sleep, the world, life, death, into free grace; indeed it makes sin and crosses, golden sins and crosses by accident, through the acts of supernatural providence toward us (1 Corinthians 3:21; Romans 8:28), working on and about our sins. 2. All good comes to us now, not immediately, but through the hands of a free Redeemer; and though he be a man who redeemed us, yet because he is God, there is more of God, and heaven, and free love, in all our good things, than if we received them immediately from God, as ravens have their food from God, without a Mediator, and devils have their being only by creature-right, not by covenant-right.

Now for the promises, they flow from God to us, but all along they fall first on Christ; they are of two sorts: 1. Some only given to Christ, not to us; as the name above all names to be adored, and set at the right hand of God, is properly promised to Christ, angels share not with him in this chair (Philippians 2:9-10; Hebrews 1:5, 13). There is promised to Christ a seed a willing people, the ends of the earth for his inheritance (Isaiah 53:10; Psalm 110:2; Psalm 2:8-9). Christ's locks and his hair are bushy and thick (Song of Solomon 5:11). He is not bald, nor gray haired, but he has a seed like the stars for multitude that no man can number (Revelation 7:9), but all those hairs grow out of a head of gold; and his offspring of children is as numerous as the dew of the morning dawning (Psalm 110:3; Micah 5:7), though the devil's locks be more numerous; but it is woeful, that Christ and his children standing upon Mount Zion, being a huge army, and a pleasant sight, yet you are none of that numerous house, all round about you, are graced of him, and you live and die in the house, but lay not in the womb of the morning, and shall not abide in the house with the sons.

But there be other promises which go along with Christ and his seed, and these of two sorts, general, special: general, the Mother Promise, I will be your God, is made both to Christ (Psalm 89:26), He shall cry to me you are my Father, my God (John 20:17; Psalm 22:1), And to us (I will be your God). How sweet is it, that Christ having God to his Father by eternal birth-right, would take a new covenant-right to God for our cause? Oh what an honor it is to be within the Covenant with the first heir?

Question: But why are all the promises enclosed in this one, I'll be your God? Answer: 1. Because as Christ has covenant-right to the promises, by this Mother right, that God is his God by covenant, so we first must have God under the relation of a God made ours in a Covenant, a Father, a Husband, and then by law, all his are ours.

2. Christ God is more than grace, pardon, holiness, than created glory, as the husband is more excellent than his marriage robe, bracelets, rings; and we are to lay our love and faith principally upon the Father and the Son, more than all created graces; the well and fountain of life is of more excellence than the streams, and the tree of life than the apples of the tree of life: Christ himself, the objective happiness, is far above a created and formal beatitude, which issues from him, as the whole is more excellent than the part, the cause than the effect.

Special promises are made first to Christ, and then by proportion to us; and they are these. 1. God promises to grace his Son above his fellows, that he may die and suffer, and merit to us grace answerable to this: a new heart, and a new spirit (Jeremiah 32:39; Ezekiel 36:26-27). For out of his fullness we receive, and grace for grace (John 1:16). 2. Justification is promised to Christ, not personal, as if he needed a pardon for sin, but of his cause, there is a cautionary or surety-righteousness due to the surety when he has paid the debt of the broken man, and comes out of prison free by law, so he came out of the grave for our righteousness, but having first the righteousness of his cause, in his own person (Isaiah 50:8). He is near that justifies me (says Christ), who shall contend with me? (1 Timothy 3:16). Justified in the Spirit. So have we justification of our persons, and remission in his blood (Ephesians 1:7), and that by covenant (Jeremiah 31:32-33). 3. Victory and dominion is promised to Christ (Psalm 110:1-2; Psalm 89:21, etc.; 1 Corinthians 15:25). He must reign till he puts all his enemies under his feet, and victory over all our enemies is promised to us (John 16:33; John 14:30; Romans 6:14-15; Galatians 3:13; Colossians 2:14-15). 4. The kingdom and glory is sought by Christ (John 17:5) from his Father; then he had a word of promise from his Father for it (Philippians 2:9-10), and we have that also (Luke 12:32; John 17:24; John 14:1-3). 5. Christ had a word of promise, when he went down to the grave, as some favorite by law goes to prison, but has in his bosom from his Prince, a bill of grace, that within three days he shall come out to enjoy all his wonted honors and court (Psalm 16:10-11), so have we the like (John 11:26; John 6:38-39).