BOOK 3. THE PROMISE.
CHAPTER 1.
3.1.1. Of Christ promised by Decrees.
Of Christ promised by Decrees.
The LORD will give thee for a Covenant of the People,
Hear, ye deaf, and look, ye blind, that ye may see.
Isa. xlii. 6, 18.
In this period, as in the former, we shall first lay down the object and then direct you how to look upon it.
The object is Jesus, carrying on the work of man's salvation; in that dark time before his coming in the flesh.
No sooner was the world made and the things therein, but man was created, that a way might be made for God to show his grace in the salvation of his elect. And now was it that God's eternal project, and counsel, and foreknowledge, and purpose, and decree, and covenant with Christ began to come into execution.
Indeed at the first moment there was no need of Christ; for man at first was made in holiness to the image of God, and to bear rule over the rest of the visible creatures; but, alas! this his state was but of little standing: it was the received opinion in former ages, that our first parents fell the very same day they were created. Augustine, amongst the rest, writes that they stood but six hours: but though we cannot determine the certain time, very probable it is, that it was but short: this we find, that after Moses had set down the creation of man, without the interposition of anything else, he comes immediately to the fall; and the devil, no doubt, took the first occasion he possibly could to bring man to the same damnation with himself. Well then, long it was not, but Adam by his sin deprived himself, and all his posterity to the image of God: as all mankind was in his loins: so, by the order and appointment of God, all mankind partakes with him in the guilt of his sins: hence is the daily and continual cry, not only of Adam, Abraham, David, Paul, but of every saint, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Rom. vii. 24. But, sweet souls! stay your complaints, here is gospel news, --
In this sad hour of temptation God stepped in: he will not leave man without hope; he tells the devil who began this mischief, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" Gen. iii. 15. At the very instant, when God was pronouncing judgments upon the several delinquents in the fall; nay, before judgment was pronounced on the persons tempted, a Jesus is hinted, the covenant of grace is proclaimed. O the infinite riches of the mercy of God in Christ!
But you will say, how comes Jesus in? how carried he on the great work of our salvation in this dark time?
I answer,
1. By assuming and taking upon him the form and shape of a man, and so discharging some special offices in that respect: we read often of Christ's separations, before his incarnation, and then especially when he had to do with this great negotiation of man's eternal happiness. Some think it not improbable that Christ assumed the form of man when he first created man, and so he made man, not only in his own image, which he had as God, in holiness, and true righteousness, but in respect of that form which he had assumed. Howsoever, this we find, that after man had sinned, Christ then appeared, first to Adam, then to Abraham, then to Isaac, then to Jacob, then to Moses, etc. -- First, he appeared to Adam in the garden, "And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden, in the cool of the day," Gen. iii. 8. God, as he is God, hath neither voice to speak, nor feet to walk, but assuming the form and shape of a man, he exercised both: and so he was the first that published that first promise to the world, "It shall bruise thy head."
He appeared to Abraham "in the plain of Mamre," where "the Lord talked with Abraham," and Abraham calls him "the judge of the earth," which can be ascribed to none but Christ tc the judge of quick and dead," Gen. xviii. 1, 13, 25. Some from that saying of Christ, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad," John viii. 56., do gather that Abraham saw Christ, not only with the eyes of faith (as all the rest of the patriarchs and prophets did) but also in a visible shape which he assumed, like unto that whereunto he was afterwards to be united; and so it was Christ that renewed the covenant with Abraham, saying, "I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee," Gen. xvii. 3-7. He appeared to Isaac, Gen. xxvi. 2, and to Jacob, Gen. xxxii. 24, 30. And to Moses, Exod. xx. 1, 2, 3. and to many others, of which I shall comment in order. And these apparitions of Christ were as praeludiums of his incarnation. But this is not the way I shall insist upon.
2. Christ carried on the great work of our salvation in that dark time, not by himself exhibited, (as when he was incarnate) but only promised. The great King would first have his harbingers to lead the way, before he himself would come in person. As the Lord had observed this method in creating the world, that first he would have darkness, and then light; and as still he observes this method in upholding the world, that first he will have dawning, and then clear day; so in the framing and upholding of his church, he will first have Christ held forth in ceremonies, rites, figures, types, promises, covenants, and then like a glorious sun, or like "the day spring from on high, he would visit the world, to give light to them that sit in darkness," Luke i. 78. To this purpose we read, that as Christ, so the covenant of grace (which applies Christ to us) was first promised, and then promulgated, the covenant of promise was that covenant, which God made with Adam, and Abraham, and Moses, and David, and all Israel in Jesus Christ; to be incarnate, crucified, and raised from the dead; the covenant promulgated, or new covenant (as the scriptures calls it by way of excellency) is that covenant which God makes with all believers since the coming of Christ, believing in him that is incarnate, crucified, and risen from the dead: and it was meet that the promise should go before the gospel, and be fulfilled in the gospel, that so great a good might earnestly be desired before it was bestowed. In a time of darkness men desire light; as the morning-watch watcheth and longeth for the morning, so the obscure revelation of Christ in a promise, raised the hearts of the patriarchs to an earnest desire of Christ's coming in the flesh. But in this obscurity we may observe some degrees: before the law given by Moses, the promise was more obscure; the law being given even to the time of the prophets, the promise was a little more clear; in the time of the prophets even to John the Baptist, it was clearer yet, as the coming of the Messias did approach nearer and nearer, so was the promise clearer and clearer still: just as the approach of the sun is near or further off, so is the light that goes before it greater or lesser; in like manner was the revelation that went before Christ more dim or clear as the rising of the Sun of righteousness was more remote, or nigh at hand. It was the good pleasure of God to manifest the riches of his grace by degrees, and not all at once; we see to this very day, that God in his several approaches of mercy and goodness draws nearer and nearer to his church; even now in this marvellous light of the gospel we have our divine ceremonies and sacraments, we see him afar off, we know him but in part; but time shall come (even before his second coming) that we, or our children shall see him more clearly, perfectly, immediately. My present business is to hold forth Jesus in the covenant of grace as promised, and because the promise receives distinction of degrees according to the several breakings out of it to the dark world, we will consider it as it was manifested,
- From Adam till Abraham.
- From Abraham till Moses.
- From Moses till David.
- From David till the Babylonish captivity, or thereabout.
- From the captivity, or thereabout till Christ.
In every of these periods will appear some further and further discoveries of God's mercy in Christ, of the covenant of grace, of our Jesus carrying on the great work of man's eternal salvation in that dark time.
You heard before of the covenant betwixt God and Christ concerning our salvation: but that was not the covenant of grace, which God immediately made with man as fallen; but a particular covenant with Christ to be the Mediator: or so far as it was a covenant of grace, it was then made betwixt God and Christ, and after to be made betwixt God and us: for a time we were hid in the womb of God's election, and not being then capable to enter into covenant with God, Christ undertook for us; but yet so that when we come to be regenerate, we are then to strike covenant ourselves. And hence we read expressly of God's covenanting with sundry particular persons, as with. Adam, and Abraham, and Moses, and David, etc. Of which in the next sections.