of Christ; God' made him to be sin for us;' 2 Cor. v. 21. a 'curse;' Gal. iii. 13. On this account we have our absolution, our acquitment from the guilt of sin, the sentence of the law, the wrath of God; Rom. viii. 33. 38. We are justified, acquitted, freed from condemnation, because it was Christ that died; he bare our sins in his body on the tree;' 1 Pet. ii. 24.

2dly. That the righteousness of the law be fulfilled, and the obedience performed that is required at our hands; and this is done by the life of Christ; Rom. v. 18, 19. So that answerably hereunto, according to our state and condition, of our acceptation with God, there are two parts.

(1st.) Our absolution from the guilt of sin; that our disobedience be not charged upon us. This we have by the death of Christ, our sins being imputed to him, shall not be imputed to us; 2 Cor. v. 21. Rom. iv. 25. Isa. v. 12.

(2dly.) Imputation of righteousness, that we may be accounted perfectly righteous before God; and this we have by the life of Christ. His righteousness in yielding obedience to the law, is imputed to us. And thus is our acceptation with God completed. Being discharged from the guilt of our disobedience by the death of Christ, and having the righteousness of the life of Christ imputed to us, we have friendship and peace with God. And this is that which I call our grace of acceptation with God, wherein we have communion with Jesus Christ.

That which remains for me to do, is, to shew how believers hold distinct communion with Christ, in this grace of acceptation, and how thereby they keep alive a sense of it, the comfort and life of it being to be renewed every day. Without this, life is a hell; no peace, no joy can we be made partakers of, but what hath its rise from hence. Look what grounded persuasion we have of our acceptation with God, that he is at peace with us, thereunto is the revenue of our peace, comfort, joy, yea, and holiness itself. proportioned.

But yet, before I come in particular to handle our practical communion with the Lord Jesus, in this thing, I must remove two considerable objections; the one of them lying against the first part of our acceptation with God, the other against the latter.

Ob. 1. For our absolution, by and upon the death of

Christ, it may be said, that if the elect have their absolution, reconciliation, and freedom, by the death, blood, and cross of Christ; whence is it then, that they are not all actually absolved, at the death of Christ, or at least so soon as they are born, but that many of them live a long while under the wrath of God in this world, as being unbelievers, under the sentence and condemning power of the law. Why are they not immediately freed, upon the payment of the price, and making reconciliation for them?

Ob. 2. If the obedience of the life of Christ be imputed unto us, and that is our righteousness before God, then what need we yield any obedience ourselves? Is not all our praying, labouring, watching, fasting, giving alms; are not all fruits of holiness, in purity of heart, and usefulness of conversation all in vain, and to no purpose? And who then will or need take care to be holy, humble, righteous, meek, temperate, patient, good, peaceable, or to abound in good works in the world?

I shall, God assisting, briefly remove these two objections, and then proceed to carry on the design in hand, about our communion with Christ.

(1.) Jesus Christ, in his undertaking of the work of our reconciliation with God, for which cause he came into the world, and the accomplishment of it by his death, was constituted and considered as a common public person, in the stead of them for whose reconciliation to God he suffered. Hence he is the Mediator between God and man;' 1 Tim. ii. 5. that is, one who undertook to God for us, as the next words manifest, ver. 6. and gave himself a ransom for all. And the surety of the new covenant,' Heb. vii. 22. undertaking for, and on the behalf of them, with whom that covenant was made; hence he is said to be given for a covenant to the people; Isa. xlii. 6. and a leader, xlix. 8. He was the second Adam; 1 Cor. xv. 45. 47. to all ends and purposes of righteousness to his spiritual seed; as the first 'Adam was of sin to his natural seed; Rom. v. 15—19.

(2.) His being thus a common person, arose chiefly from these things.

[1.] In general, from the covenant entered into by himself with his Father to this purpose. The terms of this co

r John iii. 36.

venant are at large insisted on, Isa. liii. summed up, Psal. xl. 7, 8. Heb. x. 8-10. Hence the Father became to be his God which is a covenant expression; Psal. lxxxix. 26. Heb. i. 5. Psal. xxii. 1. Psal. xl. 8. Psal. xlv. 7. Rev. iii. 12. Mich. v. 4. So was he by his Father, on this account, designed to this work; Isa. xlii. 1. vi. 1. xlix. 9. Mal. iii. 1. Zech. xiii. 7 John iii. 16. 1 Tim. i. 15. Thus the counsel of peace became to be between them both;' Zech. vi. 13. that is, the Father, and Son. And the Son rejoices from eternity in the thought of this undertaking; Prov. viii. 21-30. The command given him to this purpose, the promises made to him thereon, the assistance afforded to him, I have elsewhere handled.

[2.] In the sovereign grant, appointment, and design of the Father, giving and delivering the elect to Jesus Christ in this covenant, to be redeemed and reconciled to himself. John xvii. 6. Thine they were, and thou gavest them to me." They were God's by eternal designation and election, and he gave them to Christ to be redeemed; hence, before their calling or believing, he calls them his sheep; John x. 15. 16. laying down his life for them as such; and hence are we said to be chosen in Christ; Eph. i. 4. or designed to obtain all the fruits of the love of God by Christ, and committed into his hand, for that end and purpose.

[3.] In his undertaking to suffer what was due to them, and to do what was to be done by them, that they might be delivered, reconciled, and accepted, with God. And he undertakes to give in to the Father, without loss or miscarriage, what he had so received of the Father as above; John xvii. 2. 12. vi. 37. 39. As Jacob did the cattle he received of Laban; Gen. xxxi. 39, 40. Of both these I have treated somewhat at large elsewhere, in handling the covenant between the Father and the Son, so that I shall not need to take it up here again.

[4.] They being given unto him, he undertaking for them, to do and suffer what was on their part required, he received, on their behalf and for them, all the promises of all the mercies, grace, good things, and privileges, which they were to receive, upon the account of his undertaking for them. On this account, eternal life is said to be promised of God before the world began; Tit. i. 2. That is to the Son of God

for us on his undertaking on our behalf. And grace also is said to be given unto us before the world was; 2 Tim. i. 9. that is, in Christ our appointed head, mediator, and representative.

[5.] Christ being thus a common person, a mediator, surety, and representative, of his church, upon his undertaking, as to efficacy and merit, and upon his actual performance as to solemn declaration, was as such acquitted, absolved, justified, and freed, from all and every thing, that on the behalf of the elect, as due to them, was charged upon him, or could so be; I say as to all the efficacy and merit of his undertakings, he was immediately absolved upon his faithfulness, in his first engagement; and thereby all the saints of the Old Testament were saved by his blood no less than we. As to solemn declaration, he was so absolved, when the pains of death being loosed, he was declared to be the Son of God with power,' Rom. i. 4. by the resurrection from the dead; God saying to him, 'Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee;' Psal. xv. 33. And this his absolution doth Christ express his confidence of; Isa. 1. 5-9. And he was justified; 1 Tim. iii. 16. That which I intend by this absolution of Christ as a public person, is this; God having made him under the law for them who were so; Gal. iv. 4. in their stead, obnoxious to the punishment due to sin, made him sin; 2 Cor. v. 21. and so gave justice, and law, and all the consequents of the curse thereof, power against him, Isa. liii. 6. upon his undergoing of that which was required of him; ver. 12. God looses the pains and power of death, accepts him, and is well pleased with him, as to the performance and discharge of his work; John xvii. 3—6. pronounceth him free from the obligation that was on him; Acts xiii. and gave him a promise of all good things he aimed at, and which his soul desired. Hereon are all the promises of God made to Christ, and their accomplishment; all the encouragements given him, to ask and make demand of the things originally engaged for to him; Psal. ii. 8. which he did accordingly; John xvii. founded, and built. And here lies the certain, stable foundation of our absolution, and acceptation with God. Christ in our stead, acting for us as our surety, being acquitted, absolved, solemnly declared to have answered the whole debt that

was incumbent on him to pay, and made satisfaction for all the injury we had done, a general pardon is sealed for us all, to be sued out particularly in the way to be appointed. For,

[6.] Christ as a public person being thus absolved, it became righteous with God, a righteous thing, from the covenant, compact, and convention, that was between him and the Mediator, that those in whose stead he was, should obtain, and have bestowed on them, all the fruits of his death, in reconciliation with God; Rom. v. 8-11. That as Christ received the general acquittance for them all, so that they should every one of them enjoy it respectively. This is every where manifested in those expressions, which express a commutation designed by God in this matter; as 2 Cor. v. 21. Gal. iii. 13. 1 Pet. ii. 21. 24. of which afterward.

[7.] Being thus acquitted in the covenant of the Mediator (whence they are said to be circumcised with him, to die with him, to be buried with him, to rise with him, to sit with him in heavenly places, namely, in the covenant of the Mediator), and it being righteous, that they should be acquitted personally in the covenant of grace, it was determined by Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that the way of their actual personal deliverance from the sentence and curse of the law, should be in and by such a way and dispensation, as might lead to the 'praise of the glorious grace of God;' Eph. i. 5-7. The appointment of God is, that we shall have the adoption of children. The means of it is by Jesus Christ; the peculiar way of bringing it about, is by the redemption that is in his blood; the end is the praise of his glorious grace. And thence it is,

[8.] That until the full time of their actual deliverance, determined and appointed to them in their several generations, be accomplished, they are personally under the curse of the law, and on that account are legally obnoxious to the wrath of God, from which they shall certainly be delivered; I say, they are thus personally obnoxious to the law and the curse thereof, but not at all with its primitive intention of execution upon them, but as it is a means appointed to help forward their acquaintance with Christ, and acceptance with God, on his account; when this is accomplished, that whole obligation ceases; being continued on them in a design of