XXXI. The whole person of the Mediator obtains this.reward. 1. That God hath HUPERUPSOSE, Over raised, highly exalted him, and given him a name, which is above every name.* Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come.† 2. That the whole church is given him as his peculiar possession, and he himself is given as head over all things to the church, and all power is given him in heaven and in earth, that he may govern all things, for the benefit of the church. 3.

on account of the most intimate union of the church, as his mystical body, with himself, he receives all those gifts, which on account of his merit are bestowed on the elect. For the church united to Christ, the body together with the head, is called Christ.¶ And thus literally run the words, Psal. lxviii. 18. LAKACHTA MATTANOTH BAADAM, Thou hast received gifts in men, as the Septuagint also renders them, ELABES DOMATA EN ANTHROPOIS. Instead of which the apostle, Eph. iv. 8. not translating literally, but giving the sense of the words, says, EDOKE DOMATA TOIS ANTHROPOIS, he gave gifts to men. For as Christ is supposed to receive them, when they were given to his members, so he gives his members what he received from the Father. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear.**

XXXII. The obedience of Christ bears to these blessings, not only the relation of antecedent to consequent, but of merit to reward: so that the obedience of Christ is the cause and the condition now fulfilled, by the virtue of which he has a right to the reward. This several express passages of scripture declare. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness,†† † Eph. i. 21. ‡ Psal. ii. 8. Mat. xxvii. 18.

*Phil. ii. 9. Eph. i. 22.

Is. lii. 10. ¶ 1 Cor. xii. 19.

** Acts ii. 33. tt Psal. xlv. 7.

(in these words the obedience of Christ is described) NGAL KEN therefore, God thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. These words contain the reward, intimating the most joyful entrance of Christ into the kingdom of his glorious delight. The relation of obedience to the reward is set forth by the word, therefore, which denotes the cause, and not a mere antecedent. In like manner,* LACHEN, therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, TACHATH ASHER because he hath poured out his soul unto death. Where the relative paticles, ASHER TACHATH, and LACHEN, expressly indicate that commutative justice, whereby the reward due bears a reciprocal relation to the obedience performed. He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross: DIO KAI HO THEOS AUTON UPERUPSOSE,

wherefore God also hath highly exalted him.† ANTI

TES PROKEIMENES AUTO CHARAS HUPEMEINE

STAURON, who, for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. Where there is an express interchange of obedience and reward.

XXXIII. And the thing speaks for itself. For as this covenant between the Father, and the Son is, When thou shaltmake his soul[if the soul of the Son shall devote himself] an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, Isa. liii. 10. upon performing the condition, the Son acquired a right to the reward, and so has a merit by compact. Nay, as this obedience is not that of a mere man, but of Christ God-man, infinite person, it is also of an infinite vulue, consequently bears the justest proportion to the greatest corresponding glory; and thus far it is a merit of condignity, as it is called; such as falls to no mere creature.

XXXIV. The passages of scripture, which represent the humiliation of Christ, as the antecedent to the subsequent glory, are not contrary to this doctrine. For every cause is an antecedent, though every ante. + Phil. i. 8, 9.

* Is. liii. 12.

Heb. xii. 2.

cedent is not a cause. And the merit of Christ for himself is so far from being prejudicial to his merit for us, that, on the contrary, they are inseparably conjoined. For if he merited for himself, in order to be the head of the elect in glory, and to receive gifts for them, he certainly, at the same time, merited for the elect, in order to their being glorified, and enriched with gifts, becoming the mystical body of Christ. Neither by this doctrine is the excellency of the love of Christ towards us diminished, though in his state of humiliation he had likewise an eye to his own exaltation. For he might have been glorious as to himself, without going to it by this way of death, and the pains of hell. Besides he looked upon his own glory, own glory, as the beginning and cause of ours, and whose fruit was all to redound to us. And it was the highest pitch of love, that he would not be glorious without us. Nor should the word CHARIZESTHAI, given, which the apostle uses, Phil. ii. 9. be urged too closely, as if the rewards there mentioned were of mere grace, freely given to Christ, without any regard to his obedience, as the cause of his right or title to them. For Paul there expressly asserts, that they were given to Christ on account of his obedience. Nor does that term always denote mere grace. Hesychius, that very excellent master of Greek, explains it by DRAN TA KECHARISMENA, to do what is acceptable. But those things also are called acceptable, which are due: the Greeks say, THEOIS KECHARISMENA POIEIN, to do what is acceptable to the gods. Whence the same thing, which here, in respect to Christ, is called UPHENGULLATHI, the price of his labour, the reward of his work, adjudged to him by the just judgment of God. For my judgment is with the Lord, and the reward of my work with my God. So that the plain meaning of this passage in Paul is this, because Christ submitted himself to the Father by so free or voluntary an obedience, the Father therfore also hath done acceptable things in him, by giving him a name above every name. VOL. I.

G g

CHAP. IV.

Of the Person of the Surety.

HAVING,

AVING, not without some degree of care, explained the nature of the covenant between the Father and the Son, it is fit we treat a little more distinctly of the Surety himself, concerning whom these are the principal particulars; and first, let us consider the PERSON of the SURETY, and what is requisite to constitute such : and then that SATISFACTION, which he undertook to make by his suretiship; the TRUTH, NECESSITY, EFFECTS, and EXTENT of which we shall distinctly deduce from the sacred writings.

II. These four things are required, as necessary to the PERSON of a SURETY, that he might be capable to engage for us. 1. That he be true man, consisting of a human soul and body. 2. That he be a righteous and holy man without any spot of sin. 3. That he be true and eternal GOD. 4. That he be all this in the unity of person. Of each severally and in order.

III. That our Surety ought to be true man, is what Paul declares more than once.* EPREPE, it became him, it behoved him, it was becoming God, that he who sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, be all of one, of one human seed, so that they might call each other brethren. In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, in order to be their Goel or Kinsman-Redeemer for verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham, [did not take upon him to deliver angels, but to deliver the seed of Abraham.]

IV. This assumption does not seem to me to denote the assuming human nature into personal union, but the assuming of the elect in order to their deliverance. For, 1. The casual conjunction for indicates, that the Apostle uses this middle term to prove, what he had * Heb. ii. 10, 11, 16, 17.

said, verse 14. about the partaking of flesh and blood, and which, ver. 17. he deduces by the illative particle wherefore. But the middle term must be distinguished from the conclusion: and so there is no tautology is the apostles very just inference. 2. Since the assumption of the human nature was long before the apostle wrote those things, he would not speak of it in the present tense, as he does here, but in the preterite, as he did ver. 14. 3. As it would be an uncouth expression to say, The Son of God assumed or took man, if we suppose he only meant, that the Son of God assumed human nature; and in like manner this other expression would appear harsh, The Son of God did not assume angels, to denote that he did not assume the nature of angels. 4. In the scripture style EPILAMBANESTHAI signifies to deliver, by laying hold of one; thus Matth. xiv. 31. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and EPELABETO AUTOU, caught him: and this signification is most opposite to the context, For, in the preceding verse, the apostle had said, that Christ delivered them, who through fear of death, were all their life-time subject to bondage, alluding, it seems, to the bondage of Egypt. But God is represented to us in scripture, as, with a stretched-out hand, laying hold on and bringing his people out of Egypt; In the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.* Which the apostle thus expresses in Greek, EPILABOMENOU TES CHEIROS AUTON, EXAGAGEIN AUTOUS EK GES AIGUPTOU,in the day when I took them by the hand, to lead them out of the land of Egypt; where we have the same word EPLLAMBANESTHAI. And in profane authors, it denotes to claim something as one's property, and say according to Virgil, These are mine. Thus Plato,† HOTI

AN TIS KEKTEMENOS E KAI MEDEIS EPILABE

TAI, "if one is in possession of any thing, and none claims it as his own." To this answers the Hebrew GAAL. These things make me, with many very learn* Jer. xxxi. 32. + xii. de legibus.