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PART III. Our conversion he wrought partly then in his own person, and partly worketh now by his ministers, and will continue to work till his coming again. And after his coming again, shall begin that his glorious reign over his elect, which is to last eternally.

His office as a Redeemer.

To the office of a Redeemer, that is, of one that payeth the ransom of sin, which ransom is death, it appertaineth, that he was sacrificed, and thereby bare upon his own head and carried away from us our iniquities, in such sort as God had required. Not that the death of one man, though without sin, can satisfy for the offences of all men, in the rigour of justice, but in the mercy of God, that ordained such sacrifices for sin, as he was pleased in his mercy to accept. In the old law (as we may read, Levit. xvi.) the Lord required that there should, every year once, be made an atonement for the sins of all Israel, both priests and others; for the doing whereof, Aaron alone was to sacrifice for himself and the priests a young bullock; and for the rest of the people, he was to receive from them two young goats, of which he was to sacrifice one; but as for the other, which was the scape-goat, he was to lay his hands on the head thereof, and by a confession of the iniquities of the people, to lay them all on that head, and then by some opportune man, to cause the goat to be led into the wilderness, and there to escape, and carry away with him the iniquities of the people. As the sacrifice of the one goat was a sufficient, because an acceptable, price for the ransom of all Israel; so the death of the Messiah, is a sufficient price for the sins of all mankind, because there was no more required.

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Our Saviour Christ's sufferings seem to be here PART III figured, as clearly as in the oblation of Isaac, or in any other type of him in the Old Testament. He was both the sacrificed goat, and the scapegoat; he was oppressed, and he was afflicted (Isaiah liii. 7); he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep is dumb before the shearer, so he opened not his mouth: here he is the sacrificed goat. He hath borne our griefs (verse 4), and carried our sorrows: and again, (verse 6), the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all: and so he is the scape-goat. He was cut off from the land of the living (ver. 8) for the transgression of my people: there again he is the sacrificed goat. And again, (verse 11) he shall bear their sins: he is the scape goat. Thus is the lamb of God equivalent to both those goats; sacrificed, in that he died; and escaping, in his resurrection; being raised opportunely by his Father, and removed from the habitation of men in his ascension.

kingdom not

For as much therefore, as he that redeemeth Christ's hath no title to the thing redeemed, before the of this world. redemption, and ransom paid; and this ransom was the death of the Redeemer; it is manifest, that our Saviour, as man, was not king of those that he redeemed, before he suffered death; that is, during that time he conversed bodily on the earth. I say, he was not then king in present, by virtue of the pact, which the faithful make with him in baptism. Nevertheless, by the renewing of their pact with God in baptism, they were obliged to obey him for king, under his Father, whensoever he should be pleased to take the kingdom upon

PART III. him. According whereunto, our Saviour himself 41. expressly saith, (John xviii. 36) My kingdom is Christ's king- not of this world. Now seeing the Scripture

dom not of

this world.

maketh mention but of two worlds; this that is now, and shall remain unto the day of judgment, which is therefore also called the last day; and that which shall be after the day of judgment, when there shall be a new heaven, and a new earth: the kingdom of Christ is not to begin till the general resurrection. And that is it which our Saviour saith, (Matth. xvi. 27) The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. To reward every man according to his works, is to execute the office of a king; and this is not to be till he come in the glory of his Father, with his angels. When our Saviour saith, (Matth. xxiii. 2, 3) The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat; all therefore whatsoever they bid you do, that observe and do; he declared plainly, that he ascribed kingly power, for that time, not to himself, but to them. And so he doth also, where he saith (Luke xii. 14) Who made me a judge or divider over you? And (John xii. 47) I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. And yet our Saviour came into this world that he might be a king and a judge in the world to come for he was the Messiah, that is, the Christ, that is, the anointed priest, and the sovereign prophet of God; that is to say, he was to have all the power that was in Moses the prophet, in the high-priests that succeeded Moses, and in the kings that succeeded the priests. And St. John says expressly (chap. v. verse 22) the Father judgeth no

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man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son. PART III. And this is not repugnant to that other place, I came not to judge the world: for this is spoken of the world present, the other of the world to come; as also where it is said, that at the second coming of Christ, (Matth. xix. 28) Ye that have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye shall also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Christ's coming

new the kingdom of old God, and to per

the covenant of

suade the elect

which was the

second part of

his office.

If then Christ, whilst he was on earth, had no The end of kingdom in this world, to what end was his first was to renew coming? It was to restore unto God, by a covenant, the kingdom, which being his by the covenant, had been cut off by the rebellion of the to embrace it, Israelites in the election of Saul. Which to do, he was to preach unto them, that he was the Messiah, that is, the king promised to them by the prophets; and to offer himself in sacrifice for the sins of them that should by faith submit themselves thereto; and in case the nation generally should refuse him, to call to his obedience such as should believe in him amongst the Gentiles. So that there are two parts of our Saviour's office during his abode upon the earth one to proclaim himself the Christ; and another by teaching, and by working of miracles, to persuade and prepare men to live so, as to be worthy of the immortality believers were to enjoy, at such time as he should come in majesty to take possession of his Father's kingdom. And therefore it is, that the time of his preaching is often by himself called the regeneration; which is not properly a kingdom, and thereby a warrant to deny obedience to the magistrates that then

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PART III. were; for he commanded to obey those that sat then in Moses' chair, and to pay tribute to Cæsar; but only an earnest of the kingdom of God that was to come, to those to whom God had given the grace to be his disciples, and to believe in him; for which cause the godly are said to be already in the kingdom of grace, as naturalized in that heavenly kingdom.

The preaching

of Christ not

Hitherto, therefore, there is nothing done or contrary to the taught by Christ, that tendeth to the diminution then law of the of the civil right of the Jews or of Cæsar. For Cæsar. as touching the commonwealth which then was

Jews, nor of

amongst the Jews, both they that bare rule amongst them, and they that were governed, did all expect the Messiah and kingdom of God; which they could not have done, if their laws had forbidden him, when he came, to manifest and declare himself. Seeing therefore he did nothing, but by preaching and miracles go about to prove himself to be that Messiah, he did therein nothing against their laws. The kingdom he claimed was to be in another world: he taught all men to obey in the mean time them that sat in Moses' seat: he allowed them to give Cæsar his tribute, and refused to take upon himself to be a judge. How then could his words or actions be seditious, or tend to the overthrow of their then civil government? But God having determined his sacrifice for the reduction of his elect to their former covenanted obedience, for the means, whereby he would bring the same to effect, made use of their malice and ingratitude. Nor was it contrary to the laws of Cæsar. For though Pilate himself, to gratify the Jews, delivered him to be crucified; yet before he did so, he pro