S4 Chrifl the Surety , in~ptalfeals, Rom. iv. I I. y~a, and the rolemn oath too, in the matter, ' To fuew unto the heirs of pro· mife the immutability of his counfel,' Heb. vi. li· And ifJefus Chrifl: is furety for God to us, it is np 9ot1P~ for the f~me end. But I 'doubt, if th.~ holy Scripture calls Chrifi ·a fnrety iq. that (enfe at al}. In the foreeited paiTage, Heb. vii. 22. t~e .only. text wherein.Chrifi. is .exprefly called a furety, 1t ts ev1dent, . that h1s furettflup there– in meq.tioqed, refpetts his priefily 'office, wherein he deals with God, for us; ·ver. 20. ' And hi as much as not w~thout an oath he Wf!S mac]e prieft, 2 I. (– by hii1l tha~ faid unto him, the Lord fware and will not repent, thou art a priefi for ever, after the order of ' Melchifedec) v~r. 22. By fo much ·was Jefgs mad_e a furety of a bet~er teil:ament.' Bqt his furetifhip for God to qs, cannot relate to his priefily office, but to })is kingly office, in refpecr of which all power is gi· :Ven to him in heaven <}nd in earth; apd confequent• ' ly, a pow~r to fee fhat ~11 the promifes be performe~ 10 his people_, · And therefore his furetilhip mentioned in that text; is for us to God, and not for God to us-. It is. but in other two texts only, as far as I have ob– ferved, that w'e read of fur{!tilhip,. _ relativ<; to the cafe between God ~nd ~ finner ; ~nd in both of them, the furetilhip is no~ ro the {inner, but for him : they ar~, -Pfalm cxix. I 2z. 'Be furety for thy fervant for good;'– and Job xvii. 3· ' Put me in a furety w~th. thee.' The origii1al phrafeology or expreffiop. is th~ fame in the latter-te~t as !iQ the fqrmer ; and the fame ih them both, fl.S in the cafe qf ]udah's fur_etHhip for Benj~mi,, to his father, Jtliii. 9· and xliv. 32. NO\y, uplefs the facred oracles go before us, in propofing Chrift as furety for G(:)q to us, I fee no reaH:m, why the being of fuch a thing at all thould be yie1ded to the a,dver– faries, who make fuch a pernicious u(e of it. As for the comfort; that might arife from it, , to us, the fame j,~ fully fecured, in that the whofe adminifiration of the covenan't
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=