But this is the gaged to do the will of his Father.* will of his Father, not that every man should be saved, but those that were given him, that is, the elect out of every nation, who are to receive the gift of faith. Those the Father gave him for an inheritance by an irrevocable testament. For thus Jehovah speaks.† It is a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayst be my salvation unto the end of the earth. And Christ himself still more clearly.‡ This is the Father's will, which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing.— But all are not given to Christ, only those that come to him.§ All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me. He therefore only engages for these, according to the will of the Father: he took their sins upon him, carried them on his heart, when he offered himself to the Father; claims them as his peculiar property, in virtue of his merit, according to agreement, challenges them for his own, and will, at length in due time, present them holy and glorious to his Father, saying, Behold I, and the children which God hath given me.|| All these things naturally flow from the very nature of the covenant which subsists between the Father and the Son, as formerly explained. XXXI. And these particulars may be further illustrated and confirmed from Aaron's typical priesthood. The high priest, on the solemn day of expiation, slew one of the goats, on which the sins of Israel were laid, and sent the other into the wilderness. All these things were typical. The high priest, the sacrifice, the scape-goat, all set forth Christ. But who were typically designed by Israel? Not indeed all men.For what is more absurd than that Israel should be a type of the Edomites and Egyptians, and of all that world, out of which they were chosen, and from John vi. 39. * Psal. xl. 9. t Isa. xlix. 6. Heb. ii. 13. which, on so many accounts, they were distinguished? We therefore conclude, that they were typical of the elect, who are the true Israelites, Jews inwardly, and in the spirit, and whom the apostle loves to distinguish by the name of the election.* For the nature of the type consisted in this, that the people of Israel was chosen by an external pomp of ceremonies, was redeemed, and in their measure was a holy priesthood. They therefore prefigured those, who were truly chosen, redeemed, and consecrated a royal priesthood to God; as Peter seems not obscurely to signify.† Ast therefore the high priest formerly offered an atoning sacrifice not for the Egyptians or Canaanites, but for the typical Israel only; so our High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, offered himself once, not for abandoned reprobates, but for mystical Israel, that is, the truly chosen. XXXII. This same truth will appear most clearly, if we attend to some of the inseparable effects of Christ's satisfaction. It would carry us too far to enumerate all: let us consider some of the principal. If they who were enemies to God were reconciled by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, they shall be saved by his life. For whom God, not sparing his own Son, gave him up unto death, with him freely he gives them all things. We may boldly say to them, for whom Christ died, Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? &c. They whom Christ redeemed from the curse of the law, are not under the curse, but the blessing of Abraham cometh upon them. But this is not true of all and every one, but of elect believers only, that they are saved by the life of Christ; that with Christ God freely gives them all things; that none can lay any thing to their charge, or bring an accusation against them; that upon them is come the blessing of Abraham. Therefore they alone are the * Rom. xi. 7. ↑ 1 Pet. ii. 5. VOL. I. | Ver. 33, 34 V v Rom. v. 10. § Rom. viii. 32. persons, of whom the foregoing things may affirmed. be truly XXXIII. Add, that that fictitious satisfaction for the reprobate, and those who perish, is altogether a vain and useless thing. For whom does it profit? Not certainly God, who by no act can be rendered happier than he is. Not Christ himself, who, as he never seeks them, so he never receives them for his peculiar property; and neither is he enriched by possessing them, though supposed to have purchased: them at a dear rate. Not believers, who, content with their portion in God and in Christ, and fully redeemed by Christ, enjoy a happiness in every respect complete. In fine, not those that perish, who are constrained to satisfy, in their own persons, for their sins to the utmost farthing. But to affirm the satisfaction of Christ to be a vain and useless thing, is absurd, and borders upon blasphemy. Remigius, formerly bishop of Lyons, said extremely well, when discoursing at large on this controverted point, "The blood of Christ is a great price; such a price can, in no respect, be in vain and ineffectual, but rather is filled with the superabundant advantage arising from those blessings, for which it was paid." See Forbes. instruct. hist. lib. 8. c. 16. XXXIV. Nor are we to say, that therefore the reprobate have no benefit by the satisfaction of Christ, because the condition of faith and perseverance, which the reprobate do not perform, is necessary to that purpose. For, first, it is not true that faith and perseverance are pre-requisite conditions, before a person can enjoy any of the fruits of Christ's satisfaction. For regeneration itself and effectual calling, which go before actual faith; justification, adoption, and sanctification, which precede final perseverance in the faith, are the fruits of Christ's most excellent satisfaction. And then, from the want of faith and perseverance in those that perish, we have a most effectual proof, that the blood of the new covenant was not shed for them; for by that Christ has merited for his people the continuance of the new life in faith and love. Seeing he is the Mediator of that better covenant, which was established upon better promises.* But these promises are, sanctification ;† I will put my lawṣ into their mind; and the continuance thereof, I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.For, in the new covenant, to be a God to any, is to be an everlasting Saviour, as we gather from Matth. xxii. 32. and which the opposition made between the new and the old covenant, in like manner, shews.‡ These promises, being graciously and actually conferred on the elect, in virtue of Christ's satisfaction, would have certainly been conferred on the rest of mankind, had Christ equally satisfied for them. XXXV. Nay, the satisfaction of Christ for the reprobate had not only been useless, but highly unwor thy both of God and of Christ. Unworthy of the wisdom, goodness, and justice of God, to exact and receive satisfaction from his most beloved Son for those, whom he neither gave, nor wanted to give to his Son, and whom he decreed to consign to everlasting confinement, that they might suffer in their own persons according to the demerit of their crimes. worthy of Christ, to give his blood a price of redemption for those, whom he had not in charge to redeem. And, if we may speak freely, this also, in some respect, would be for Christ to account the blood of the new covenant, or the new covenant itself, by which he was sanctified, a common, or unholy thing. Un XXXVI. It would now remain to refute the argu ments of those on the other side of the question: but this has been done at large, and with so much judg ment, by very learned men, that we can scarce make any addition. The very accurate dissertation of Gomarus on this head, may especially be consulted, which is inserted in his commentaries on the epistle to the Galatians. • Heb. vii. 6. † Ver. 10. Heb. viii. 8, 9. СНАР. Х. After what manner Christ used the Sacraments. THU HUS far we have at large treated of those things, that relate to the compact between Christ and the Father and we might seem to have completely finished that subject, was it not proper to add something concerning the sacraments, by which that compact was confirmed. The apostle has observed,* that, not without an oath, Christ was made Priest, and the Surety of a better testament. As this manifested the stability of the covenant, and the immutability of God's counsel so it likewise contributed to the full assurance of Christ the Mediator. It moreover pleased God, to confirm that covenant by certain external symbols, and indeed the very same, by which the covenant of grace was sealed to believers, under the different dispensations of it. We have above hinted something on this subject, which we are now to enlarge upon more distinctly. II. It is evident, that the Lord Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day from his birth,† that he kept the passover with his disciples, and was baptized by John. Though the evangelists do not indeed expressly assert, that he also partook of the holy supper; yet they relate what we think may make it more than probable he did. The very III. 1. It is certain, that our Lord, in the institution and use of the mystical supper, borrowed most of the rites from the Jewish passover. learned Joseph Scaliger, Ludovicus Capellus, and most particularly, Buxtorf in a peculiar dissertation, have made this as clear as noon day. Thus our Lord took the bread and cup distinctly, separately blessed them both, and gave them to his disciples, after the † Luke ii. 21. † Luke xxii. 8, 11. § Matth. iii. 13. * Heb. vii. 20, 21. |