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if grace be but yet in its weak beginnings, and infancy in thy foul, this may incourage, that by reafon of Chrift's intercefsion, it shall live, grow, and expaciate itself in thy heart. He is not only the author, but the finisher of it, Heb. xii. 2. He is ever begging new and fresh mercies for you in heaven; and will never ceafe till all your wants be fupplied. He faves εις το

avrshes, to the uttermoft, i. e. as I told you before, to the' laft, pertective, compleating act of falvation. So that this is a fountain of relief againft all your fears.

Ufe 3. Doth Chrift live for ever to make interceffion? Then let those who reap on earth the fruits of that his work in heàven, draw inftruction thence about the following duties, to which it leads them as by the hand.

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1. Do not forget Chrift in an exalted state *. You fee though he be in all the glory above, at God's right hand, and enthroned king, he doth not forget you: he, like Jofeph, remembers his brethren in all his glory. But, alas, how oft doth advancement make us forget him? As the Lord complains in Hosea xiii. 5, 6. "I did know thee in the wildernefs, in the land of great "drought but when they came into Canaan, according to "their pastures, fo were they filled; they were filled, and their "heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me." As if he had faid, O my people, you and I were better acquainted in the wildernefs, when you were in a low condition, left to my immediate care, living by daily faith; O then you gave me many a fweet vifit; but now you are filled, I hear no more of you. Good had it been for fome faints, if they had never known prosperity.

2. Let the interceffion of Christ in heaven for you, encourage you to conftancy in the good ways of God. To this duty it fweetly encourages alfo, Heb. iv. 14. " Seeing then that we "have a great high priest that is paffed into the heavens, Jesus "the fon of God, let us hold faft our profeffion." Here is encouragement to perfeverance on a double account. One is that Jefus, our head, is already in heaven; and if the head be above water, the body cannot drown. The other is from the bufi

*He doth not forget us though he be exalted to his glory; for he is not like the poor filly creatures that cannot bear exaltation without being puffed up, and forgetting both themselves, their friends, and their God. No, his exaltation is fpiritual and heavenly, perfecting his human nature to the greatest height it is capable of,--he never was more tender of Jerufalem when he wept over it, or of his people when he wept, bled, and died for them, than he is now tender over his in glory. Mr. Baxter's Treatife of converfion, p. 184.

nefs he is there employed about, which is his priesthood; he is paffed into the heavens, as our great high priest, to intercede, and therefore we cannot miscarry.

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3. Let it encourage you to conftancy and prayer: O do not neglect that excellent duty, feeing Chrift is there to prefent all your petitions to God; yea, to perfume as well as prefent them. So the apostle, Heb. iv. 16. infers from Chrift's interceffion; "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." 4. Hence be encouraged to plead for Chrift on earth, who continually pleads for you in heaven. If any accufe you, he is there to plead for you and if any difhonour him on earth, fee that you plead his intereft, and defend his honour. Thus you have heard what his interceffion is, and what benefits we re ceive by it.

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Afferts and Vindicates the Satisfaction of Chrift, being the first principal Effect or Fruit of his Priesthood.

GAL. ii. 13. Chrift hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curfe for us.

γου OU have feen the general nature, neceffity, and parts of Christ's priesthood, viz. oblation and interceffion. Before you part from this office, it is neceffary you fhould farther take into confideration the principal fruits and effects of his priesthood; which are, compleat fatisfaction and the acquifition or purchase of an eternal inheritance. The former, viz. The fatisfaction made by his blood, is manifeftly contained in this excellent fcripture before us, wherein the apostle (having fhewn before, at verfe 10. that whofoever "continues not in all "things written in the law, to do them, are curfcd)" declares how, notwithstanding the threats of the law, a believer comes to be freed from the curfe of it, namely, by Chrift's bearing that curfe for him, and fo fatisfying God's justice, and difcharging the believer from all obligations to punish

ment.

More particularly, in thefe words you have the believer's

discharge from the curfe of the law, and the

thereof opened.

way and manner

1. The believer's difcharge; Chrift hath redeemed us from the curfe of the law. The law of God hath three parts, commands, promifes, and threatnings or curfes. The curfe of the Jaw is its condemning fentence, whereby a finner is bound over to death, even the death of foul and body. The chain, by which it binds him, is the guilt of fin; and from which none can loose the foul but Chrift. This curfe of the law is the moft dreadful thing imaginable; it ftrikes at the life of a finner, yea, his best life, the eternal life of the foul; and when it hath condemned, it is inexorable, no cries nor tears, no reformations or repentance can loofe the guilty finner; for it requires for its reparation that which no mere creature can give, even an infinite fatisfaction. Now from this curfe Chrift frees the believer; that is, he diffolves the obligation to punishment, cancels the hand-writing, loofes all the bonds and chains of guilt, fo that the curfe of the law hath nothing to do with him for ever.

2. We have here the way and manner in and by which this is done; and that is by a full price paid down, and that price paid in the room of the finner*, both making up a compleat and full fatisfaction. He pays a full price, every way adequate and proportionable to the wrong. So much this word,

yupa, which we tranflate redeemed, imports; he hath bought as out, or fully bought us; that is, by a full price. This price with which he fo fully bought or purchased our freedom from the curfe, is not only called alpov, Mat. xx. 28. or ransom, but more emphatically analpar, in 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6. which might be tranflated an adequate or fully anfwerable ransom. And fo his freeing us by this price, is not only expreffed by ηγορούσας τω Θεω ημας, "Thou haft bought us to God by thy blood," Rev. v. 9. but mopaσev nuas, he hath fully, perfectly, bought us out.

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And as the price or ransom paid was full, perfect, and suf. ficient in itself; fo it was paid in our room, and upon our account: fo faith the text, †" By his being made a curse for us,'

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* As he who is free, redeems a captive by fubftituting himself in his room, and by putting on the chains, the other puts them off: fo Chrift was willing to be obnoxious to the fulfilling of the law that he might acquire immunity to us. Calv. on Gal, iv.

+He is faid to be made a curfe and to be made fin: but he is not made the curfe itself, to wit, formally, but our curfe was imputed to him. Cyrif.

the meaning is not, that Chrift was made the very curse itself, changed into a curle; no more than when the word is faid to be made flesh, the divine nature was converted into flesh, but it affumed or took flesh; and fo Christ he took the curfe upon himself; therefore it is faid, 2 Cor. v. 21. "He was made fin for "us who knew no fin;" that is, our fin was imputed to our furety, and laid upon him for fatisfaction. And fo this word [for] implies a fubftitution of one, in the place and ftead of a nother. Now the price being full, and paid in lieu of our uns, and thereupon we fully redeemed or delivered from the cuife, it follows, as a fair and just deduction, that,

Doct. The death of Chrift hath made a full fatisfaction to God for all the fins of his elect.

"He (to wit our furety, Chrift) was oppreffed, and he was "afflicted," faith the prophet, Ifa. lii. 7. it may be fitly rendred, (and the words will bear it without the least force) it was exacted, and anfwered. But how, being either way tranflated, it eftablifheth the fatisfaction of Chrift, may be feen in our learned Annotations on that place. So Col. i. 14. "In whom we have

σε απολύτρωσιν δια το αίματος redemption through his blood, even "the forgivenefs of fin." Here we have the benefit, viz. redemption interpreted by way of oppofition, "even the remiffion "of fins ;" and the matchlefs price that was laid down to purchafe it, the blood of Chrift. So again, Heb. ix. 12. "By "his own blood he entered once into the holy place, having "obtained away Two, eternal redemption for us." Here is eternal redemption, the mercy purchased; his own blood, the price that procured it.

Now forafmuch as this doctrine of Chrift's fatisfaction is fo neceffary, weighty, and comfortable in itself, and yet so much oppoled and intricated by feveral enemies to it; the method I fhall take for the clearing, eftablishing, and preparing it for ufe, fhall be,

Firft, To open the nature of Chrift's fatisfaction, and fhew

what it is.

Secondly, To eftablish the truth of it, and prove that he made full fatisfaction to God for all the fins of the elect.

Thirdly, To answer the moft confiderable objections made aagainst it.

And Laftly, To apply it.

First, What is the fatisfaction of Chrift, and what doth it

What divine imply? I anfwer, fatisfaction is the act of Chrift, fatisfaction is. God man, prefenting himself as our furety in obedience to God, and love to us; to do and to fuffer all that the law required of us; thereby freeing us from the wrath and curfe due to us for fins.

1. It is the act of God man ; no other was capable of giv ing fatisfaction for an infinite wrong done to God. But by reafon of the union of the two natures in his wonderful perfon, he could do it, and hath done it for us. The human nature did what was necessary in its kind; it gave the matter of the sacrifice the divine nature ftampt the dignity and value upon it, which made it an adequate compenfation: fo that it was opus Devopov, the act of God-man; yet so, that each nature retained its own properties, notwithstanding their joint influence into the effect. If the angels in heaven had laid down their lives, or if the blood of all the men in the world had been poured out by juftice, this could never have fatisfied; because that aws, worth and value which this facrifice hath, would have still been wanting. "It was God that redeemed the church with his own blood," Acts xx. 18. If God redeem with his own blood, he redeems as God-man, without any difpute.

2. If he fatisfy God for us, he must present himself before God, as our furety, in our stead, as well as for our good; else his obedience had fignified nothing to us; to this end he was

made under the law," Gal. iv. 4. comes under the fame obligation with us, and that as a furety, for fo he is called, Heb. vii. 22. Indeed his obedience and fufferings could be exacted from him upon no other account. It was not for any thing he had done, that he became a curfe. It was prophefied of him Dan. ix. 26." The Meffiah fhall be cut off, but not for himself :” and being dead, the fcriptures plainly affert it was for our fins, and upon our account: fo 1 Cor. xv. 3. "Chrift died for our fins, according to the fcriptures."

And it is well obferved by our divines, who affert the vicegerency and fubftitution of Chrift in his fufferings, that all thofe Greek particles which we tranflate [for] when applied to the fufferings of Chrift, do note the meritorious, deferving, procur

2. In

* This fatisfaction had in it fufficient and in some respect infinite value. 1. In refpect of the perfon offering it who was God. refpect of what he offered; for he offered himself, God and man. 3. In refpect of the manner of offering, in which there was a certain divine perfection in regard of the hypoftatical (or perfonal union). Amef. medul. p. 98.

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