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of God are sinners; they were so in Adam; they have been and are so in themselves. What doth become the justice of God to do thereon? Shall it dismiss them all unpunished? Where then is that justice which spared not the angels who sinned, nor Adam at the first? Would this procedure have any consonancy thereunto, be reconcilable unto it? Wherefore, the establishment of the righteousness of God on the one hand, and the forgiveness of sin on the other, seem so contradictory, as that many stumble and fall at it eternally. See Rom. x. 3, 4.

But in this interposition of Christ, in this translation of punishment from the church unto him, by virtue of his conjunction therewith, there is a blessed harmony between the righteousness of God, and the forgiveness of sins; the exemplification whereof, is his eternal glory. O blessed change! O sweet permutation!' as Justin Martyr speaks.

By virtue of his union with the church, which of his own accord he entered into, and his undertaking therein to answer for it in the sight of God, it was a righteous thing with God, to lay the punishment of all our sins upon him, so as that he might freely and graciously pardon them all, to the honour and exaltation of his justice, as well as of his grace and mercy; Rom. iii. 24-26.

Herein is he glorious in the sight of God, angels, and men. In him there is at the same time, in the same divine actings, a glorious resplendency of justice and mercy; of the one in punishing, of the other in pardoning. The appearing inconsistency between the righteousness of God and the salvation of sinners, wherewith the consciences of convinced persons are exercised and terrified, and which is the rock at which most of them split themselves into eternal ruin, is herein removed and taken away. In his cross were divine holiness and vindictive justice exercised and manifested; and through his triumph, grace and mercy, are exerted to the utmost. This is that glory which ravisheth the hearts, and satiates the souls of them that believe. For what can they desire more, what is farther needful unto the rest and composure of their souls, than at one view to behold God eternally well pleased in the declaration of his righteousness, and the exercise of his mercy, in order unto their salvation? In due apprehensions hereof, let my soul live;

in the faith hereof let me die, and let present admiration of this glory make way for the eternal enjoyment of it in its beauty and fulness.

He is glorious in that the law of God in its preceptive part, or as unto the obedience which it required, was perfectly fulfilled and accomplished. That it should be so, was absolutely necessary from the wisdom, holiness, and righteousness of him, by whom it was given. For what could be more remote from those divine perfections, than to give a law, which never was to be fulfilled in them unto whom it was given, and who were to have the advantages of it? This could not be done by us; but through the obedience of Christ, by virtue of this his mystical conjunction with the church, the law was so fulfilled in us by being fulfilled for us, as that the glory of God in the giving of it, and annexing eternal rewards unto it, is exceedingly exalted. See Rom. viii. 3, 4,

This is that glory of Christ whereof one view by faith, will scatter all the fears, answer all the objections, and give relief against all the despondencies of poor, tempted, doubting souls; and an anchor it will be unto all believers, which they may cast within the veil, to hold them firm and steadfast, in all trials, storms, and temptations in life and death.

CHAP. X.

The glory of Christ in the communication of himself unto believers.

ANOTHER instance of the glory of Christ, which we are to behold here by faith, and hope that we shall do so by sight hereafter, consists in the mysterious communication of himself and all the benefits of his mediation, unto the souls of them that do believe, to their present happiness and future eternal blessedness.

Hereby he becomes theirs as they are his; which is the life, the glory, and consolation of the church; Cant. vi. 3. ii. 16. iii. 10. He and all that he is being appropriated unto them

by virtue of their mystical union. There is, there must be, some ground, formal reason, and cause of this relation between Christ and the church, whereby he is theirs, and they are his; he is in them, and they in him; so as it is not between him and other men in the world.

The apostle, speaking of this communication of Christ unto the church, and the union between them, which doth ensue thereon, affirms that it is a great mystery; for 'I speak,' saith he, concerning Christ and the church;' Eph. v. 32.

I shall very briefly inquire into the causes, ways, and means of this mysterious communication, whereby he is made to be ours, to be in us, to dwell with us, and all the benefits of his mediation to belong unto us. For, as was said, it is evident that he doth not thus communicate himself unto all by natural necessity, as the sun gives light equally unto the whole world; nor is he present with all by a ubiquity of his human nature; nor, as some dream, by a diffusion of his rational soul into all; nor doth he become ours by a carnal eating of him in the sacrament; but this mystery proceeds from, and depends on, other reasons and causes, as we shall briefly declare.

But yet, before I proceed to declare the way and manner whereby Christ communicateth himself unto the church, I must premise something of divine communications in general, and their glory. And I shall do this by touching a little on the harmony and correspondency that is between the old creation and the new.

1. All being, power, goodness, and wisdom, were originally, essentially, infinitely in God. And in them, with the other perfections of his nature, consisted his essential glory.

2. The old creation was a communication of being and goodness by almighty power, directed by infinite wisdom, unto all things that were created for the manifestation of that glory. This was the first communication of God unto any thing without himself, and it was exceeding glorious. See Psal. xix. 1. Rom. i. 21. And it was a curious machine, `framed in the subordination and dependency of one thing on another; without which they could not subsist, nor have a continuance of their beings. All creatures below live on the earth, and the products of it; the earth for its whole

production depends on the sun, and other heavenly bodies, as God declares, Hos. ii. 21, 22. I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth, and the earth shall hear the corn and the wine, and the oil, and they shall hear Jezreel.' God hath given a subordination of things in a concatenation of causes, whereon their subsistence doth depend. Yet,

4. In this mutual dependency on, and supplies unto, one another, they all depend on, and are influenced from, God himself, the eternal fountain of being, power, and good'He hears the heavens;' and in the continuation of this order, by constant divine communication of being, goodness and power, unto all things, God is no less glorified than in the first creation of them; Acts xiv. 15—17. xvii. 24-29.

ness.

5. This glory of God is visible in the matter of it, and is obviated unto the reason of mankind; for from his works of creation and providence they may learn his eternal power and Godhead, wherein he is essentially glorious.

6. But by this divine communication God did not intend only to glorify himself in the essential properties of his nature, but his existence also in three persons of Father, Son, and Spirit. For although the whole creation in its first framing, and in its perfection, was and is by an emanation of power and goodness from the divine nature, in the person of the Father, as he is the fountain of the Trinity, whence he is said peculiarly to be the Creator of all things; yet the immediate operation in the creation was from the Son, the power and wisdom of the Father; John i. 1-3. Col. i. 16. Heb. i. 3. And as upon the first production of the mass of. the creation, it was under the especial care of the Spirit of God to preserve and cherish it, unto the production of all distinct sorts of creatures; Gen. i. 2. so in the continuance of the whole there is an especial operation of the same Spirit in all things. Nothing can subsist one moment by virtue of the dependance which all things have on one another, without a continual emanation of power from him. See Psal. civ. 29, 30.

By these divine communications in the production and preservation of the creature, doth God manifest his glory, and by them alone in the way of nature he doth so; and without them, although he would have been for ever essen

tially glorious, yet was it impossible that his glory should be known unto any but himself. Wherefore, on these divine communications doth depend the whole manifestation of the glory of God. But this is far more eminent, though not in the outward effects of it so visible in the new creation, as we shall see.

1. All goodness, grace, life, light, mercy, and power, which are the springs and causes of the new creation, are all originally in God, in the divine nature, and that infinitely and essentially. In them is God eternally or essentially glorious, and the whole design of the new creation was to manifest his glory in them, by external communications of them and from them.

2. The first communication of, and from these things, is made unto Christ, as the head of the church. For in the first place, it pleased God that in him should all the fulness of these things dwell, so as that the whole new creation might consist in him; Col. i. 17-19. And this was the first egress of divine wisdom for the manifestation of the glory of God in these holy properties of his nature. For,

3. This communication was made unto him as a repository and treasury of all that goodness, grace, life, light, power, and mercy, which were necessary for the constitution and preservation of the new creation. They were to be laid up in him, to be hid in him, to dwell in him; and from him to be communicated unto the whole mystical body designed unto him, that is, the church. And this is the first emanation of divine power and wisdom for the manifestation of his glory in the new creation. This constitution of Christ as the head of it, and the treasuring up in him, all that was necessary for its production and preservation, wherein the church is chosen and preordained in him unto grace and glory, is the spring and fountain of divine glory, in the communications that ensue thereon.

4. This communication unto Christ is, 1. Unto his person; and then, 2. With respect unto his office. It is in the person of Christ that all fulness doth originally dwell. On the assumption of human nature into personal union with the Son of God, all fulness dwells in him bodily; Col. ii. 9. And thereon receiving the Spirit in all fulness, and

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