(3.) Just thus the matter stands in the point of our justification and salvation between Christ and elect believers; for Adam was herein his type. Christ was considered and appointed of God as a common person, both in what he did and in what was done to him. So as by the same law, what he did for us is reckoned or imputed to us, as if we ourselves had done it; and what was done to him, tending to our justification and salvation, is reckoned as done to us. Thus when Christ died, he died as a common person, and God reckoneth that we died also. When Christ arose, he rose as our head, and as a common person, and so then God accounts that we rose also with him. And by virtue of that communion which we had with him in all those actions of his, it is, that now when we are born again, we do all rise both from the guilt of sin and from the power of it: even as by virtue of the like communion we had with (or being one in) Adam, we come to be made sinful, when we begin first to exist as men, and to be first born. Thus in his death he was considered as a common person, and God reckoned us dying then, and would have us reckon so also. So, Rom..vi. 10, the apostle, speaking of Christ, saith, 'In that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.' Then, ver. 11, speaking

of us, he says, 'Likewise reckon you yourselves to be dead unto sin, but

alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.' The meaning whereof is plainly this, that whereas regenerate men are for the present in the reality but imperfectly mortified and dead to sin, as considered in themselves, and in respect of the work of it, as wrought in them; yet that being considered in Christ as their head, and a common person representing them, they may λoyilem, they may truly, by a way of faith, reason or reckon' themselves wholly dead, in and through Jesus Christ our Lord, in that once he died perfectly unto sin, as a common person representing them. So as what yet is wanting in the work of mortification, in their sense and experience of it, they may supply by faith, from the consideration of Christ their head, even themselves to have died when he died. The apostle, I say, would have them by reason conclude or infer (for so the word λoyíode signifies, as chap. iii. 28, 'Therefore we conclude,' &c., it is the same word) from Christ's death, that they are dead; which conclusion cannot be made unless this be one of the propositions in this argument, that we died in Christ when he died; and so though in ourselves we are not yet wholly dead to sin,' nor perfectly alive to God,' yet through Jesus Christ your Lord and Head' (says he), reckon yourselves so,' in that (as ver. 10) he died and now lives,' and you were included in him. And, indeed, this consideration the apostle suggests unto our faith, both as the greatest encouragement against imperfect mortification begun; that yet we may comfort ourselves by faith, as reckoning ourselves wholly dead in Christ's death, and so may assure ourselves we shall one day be perfectly dead in ourselves by virtue of it; and withal, as the strongest argument also and motive unto mortification, to endeavour to attain to the highest degree of it; which, therefore, he carries along in his discourse throughout that whole chapter. He would have them by faith or spiritual reasoning take in, and apprehend themselves long since dead to sin in Christ, when he died; and so should think it the greatest absurdity in the world to sin, even the least sin, we being dead long since, and that wholly, when Christ our head died: ver. 2, and how shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?' and, ver. 7, 'he that is dead is free from sin;' and how then shall we do the least service to it? Now all this he puts upon Christ's dying, and our dying then with him :ver. 6, Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him,' even

VOL. IV.

when he was crucified, that it might be destroyed' one day in us, fully and perfectly; Christ's body representing therein, as a public person, the elect, and their body of sin conjunct with them. So as thus by faith they are to reason themselves wholly dead to sin in Christ, and to use it as a reason and motive to stir up themselves not to yield to the least sin. I use this expression of being wholly dead, because if he had spoken merely of that imperfect mortification begun in us, the argument would not have been a perfect motive against the least sins. 'We who are dead, how shall we live in sin,' or yield unto the least sin? For it might be said, alas! we are but imperfectly dead; and from an imperfect death could but an imperfect argument have been drawn. But the Scripture elsewhere tells us, that Christ by his death hath perfected for ever all that are sanctified;' so Heb. x. 14; so as in his death they may reckon themselves perfectly dead by faith, and perfectly sanctified, though yet the work be not actually and fully perfected.

And all this communion with Christ as a common person, representing them in his death, he there instructs them to be represented and sealed up to them by their baptism; so ver. 3, 4. How, I shall shew afterwards.

(4.) Now as this place holds forth Christ as a common person in his death representing us, so other places hold forth the like of his resurrection. In 1 Cor. xv. 20, the apostle argues, that elect believers must and shall rise, because now Christ is risen from the dead, and is become the first-fruits of them that sleep.' See the force of this argument founded upon this notion and consideration, that Christ was a common person representing all the rest; and this strongly presented in that expression of his being the first-fruits,' in allusion to the rite in the Levitical law. All the sheaves in a field being unholy of themselves, there was some one sheaf in the name and room of all the rest (which was called the first-fruit), which was lift up, and waved before the Lord; and so all the sheaves abroad in the field, by that act done to this one sheaf, were consecrated unto God, Lev. xxiii. 10, &c., by virtue of that law. The meaning of which rite, the apostle expounding, allegeth, Rom. xi. 16, If the first-fruits be holy, all the lump is holy also.' Thus, when we were all dead, Christ as the firstfruits riseth, and this in our name and stead, and so we all rise with him and in him. And although the saints departed are not, in their own persons, as yet risen (as we all who are now alive are not in our own persons yet dead), yet, in the mean time, because thus they are risen in Christ, as their first-fruits, hence, in the very words following, he saith, they are but asleep, 'He is become the first-fruits of them that sleep,' because they remain alive in Christ their head, and shall rise one day, because in him they virtually are already risen; and this in God's account in as true and just a sense as we, though personally alive, are yet all reckoned dead in Adam, because he, as a common person, had the sentence of death pronounced on him, by virtue of which we must die; and this by the force of the same law, even of that which we have inculcated, of being a common person representing us. And indeed, so it follows (which argues this to be the apostle's meaning), ver. 21, For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.' His argument lies thus: Adam was the first-fruits of them that died; Christ, of them that rise. Hence, therefore, we are elsewhere said (though in respect to another life) to be risen with Christ,' Ephes. ii. 5, 6, and, which is yet more, 'to sit together with him in heaven;' because he, as a common person representing us, sits there in our name and stead, as you shall hear when I come to it in the text in the next section.

CHAPTER V.

The second branch: How Christ's representing us as a common person in his resurrection, hath an influence into our justification, made forth by two things: (1.) How Christ at his resurrection was justified from our sin; (2.) That we were all then justified in him as a common person.

2. Now, then, to come to the other branch of the demonstration, namely, how this relation to us as a common person representing us in his resurrection, hath a real influence into our justification. And this is the point I drive at; and for the clearing of which that large and general discourse by way of digression in the former chapter was but to make way for. I shall absolve and despatch this branch by shewing two things: (1.) That Christ himself was justified, and that at his resurrection. (2.) That he was justified then as a common person, representing us therein, as well as that he rose as a common person; and so that we were then justified in him and with him; and by this means it is that by that act then done to him, our justification is made irrepealable for ever.

(1.) For the explicating of the first: As Christ was in his death made sin for us, and so sustained our persons in his satisfying for sin by his death (which is the matter of our righteousness), so in and upon his resurrection he was justified and acquitted from our sins by God, as having now fully in his death satisfied for them, which I make forth by these three things put together:

[1.] First, in reason, if that Christ were made sin for us, and satisfied for it, there must then some act pass, whereby Christ should be pronounced acquit of our sins, and fully clear of them, and so be himself formally justified in respect of those sins, for which he undertook to satisfy. For, according to the course of all proceedings, if a charge of guilt be formally laid, there must be as formal an act of acquitting, and of giving a quietus est. There is no man but for his own discharge and security would desire it; nor is there any wise man that pays a debt for which he is legally sued, that will not have, upon the payment of it, as legal an acquittance. Paul, when he was cast into prison by a public act of authority, he stood upon it to have a public act of release from the same magistrates, and would not go forth of prison privily, though themselves sent to him so to go out, Acts xvi. 37. Now God himself did lay the iniquities of us all' upon Christ, Isa. liii. 6, and had him to prison and judgment' for them, ver. 3. There must, therefore, some act pass from God, legally to take them off from him, and declaring him discharged, to deliver him from prison and judgment.

And, de facto, it is evident that there was some such act passed from God; for, as we read, that Christ, while he lived, and also in his death, was made sin,' and 'did bear the sin of many,' as the phrase is, Heb. ix. 28. So we read in the very next words, that he shall appear the second time without sin,' which must needs be spoken in a direct opposition to his having borne our sins, and appearing then with all our sins laid to his charge. He appeared charged with them then, but now he shall appear, as apparently and manifestly to be without those sins, for of our sins it must needs be meant, and so to be discharged of them as fully as ever he appeared charged with them. For it is said, he shall appear without sin;' and therefore to the judgments of all it shall be made manifest, that that

God that once charged him with them, hath now fully discharged him of them. The apostle speaks of it as of a great alteration made in this respect between Christ whilst on earth, and Christ as he is to appear the second time, and is now in heaven. And this alteration or discharge must necessarily be made by God; for he is the creditor who followed the suit, and therefore he alone can give the acquittance.

[2.] Now, secondly, from hence it will follow, that there must be some time when this alteration was first made, and discharge given, when Christ, from being sin, as he was made, should become without sin, through God's acquitting of him; and this, say I, was at his resurrection. It is not deferred as then to be first done, when he is to appear the second time, though then it appears indeed, but it is really done before; for he comes then to judge others for sin. Now in reason when should this acquittance or justification from our sins be first given to Christ, and legally pronounced on him, but when he had paid the last farthing of the debt, and made his satisfaction complete? which was then done when he began to rise; for his lying in the grave was a part of his humiliation, and so of his satisfaction, as generally orthodox divines hold. Now, therefore, when he began to rise, then ended his humiliation; and that was the first moment of his exaltation. His acquittance, therefore, bears date from thence, even from that very hour.

[3.] Hence, thirdly, we read, as that Christ was 'condemned,' so that he was justified.' Thus, 1 Tim. iii. 16, God is said to be manifest in the flesh,' and then that this God-man was 'justified in the Spirit.' That is, whereas God was manifest or appeared in flesh to condemn sin in the flesh, as Rom. viii., that same God-man was also justified in the Spirit from all those sins, and so received up to glory,' as it follows there. And not to go far, the very words of this my text, it is God that justifies,' are taken out of Isa. 1. 8, 9, and as there they are first spoken by Christ of himself, then, when he gave his back to the smiters,' in his death (as in the verses before), and was put to death as a condemned' man, he comforts himself with this, He is near that justifies me; who shall condemn?' And when was that done, or to be done, but at his resurrection? So the phrase in Timothy imports, if you compare it with another in Peter, 1 Pet. iii. 18. Being put to death in the flesh, and quickened in (or by) the Spirit.' Paul, he says, 'justified in the Spirit;' Peter, he says,quickened in the Spirit: both mean one and the same thing. By Spirit is meant the power of his Godhead and divine nature, whereby he was at once both raised from the grave, and from under the guilt of sin together. He was at once both quickened, or raised, and justified also. And that by Spirit they mean his divine nature, the opposition in both places evidently implies; for it is opposed to his flesh, or human nature. Now, because he was quickened, or raised, by the power of the Godhead, and at that raising him he was justified also by God, and declared justified by that resurrection, as he had been declared condemned by his death; hence, to be justified is put for his resurrection; for that was his justification, to declaration of all the world, that he was justified from all the sins laid to his charge. And that other place I cited out of Isaiah hath the same meaning also; for Christ there comforts himself against the Jews condemning him, and putting him to death, with the hopes of God's justifying of him, when he should have gone through that work. And Christ's meaning there is this, 'God will raise me up and acquit me,' though you condemn and kill me. In the other prophets you shall find Christ still comforting himself against his condemnation at his death, with the thoughts of his resurrection, which

he foresaw as shortly to follow after it; as here, in Isaiah, he comforts himself with these hopes of his being justified after their condemnation of him. For instance, Ps. xvi. 9, 'My flesh shall rest in hope: thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, nor suffer thy Holy One to see corruption.' Which words, you know, Peter, in the Acts, doth twice interpret of Christ's resurrection. In like manner here, in Isaiah, against his death and condemnation, he comforts himself with the hopes of God's justification of him at his resurrection, He is near who justifies me (and he shall help me); who shall

condemn ?'

And further, to confirm and strengthen this notion, because his resurrection was the first moment of this his justification from our sins, therefore it is that God calls it his first begetting of Christ,This day have I begotten thee,' speaking manifestly of his resurrection, Acts xiii. 33. And the reason of his so calling it, is, because all the while before he was covered with sin, and the likeness of sinful flesh;' but now, having flung it off, he appears like God's Son indeed, as if newly begotten. And thus also he* cometh to be the fuller conformity between Christ's justification and ours. For as our justification is at our first being born again, so was Christ's also at this his first glorious begetting. He was under an attainder before; here was the act of restitution first passed. And as at our conversion (which is to us a resurrection) we 'pass from death to life,' that is, from an estate of death and condemnation, unto justification of life, so did Christ also at his resurrection, which to him was a re-begetting, pass from an estate of death and guilt laid on him, to an estate of life and glory, and justification from guilt; and so shall appear,' as the word is, Heb. ix. 28 (as he doth now in heaven), without sin;' for he became to be without sin from that very moment. Thus I have shewn how Christ was justified at his resurrection.

(2.) Now then, in the second place, I am to shew that this his justification, and pronouncing him without sin, thus done at his resurrection, was done to him as the first-fruits,' and as to a common person bearing our persons, and so in our names. From whence will necessarily follow, as the conclusion of all, that the persons of all the elect believers have been justified before God in Christ, as their head, at or from the time of his resurrection; and so that act of justification to have been so firmly passed as it cannot be revoked for ever. Now this is proved,

First, by the very same reason or respect that he was said to be the 'first-fruits of them that sleep,' as representing the rest in his resurrection, which I shewed at large in the former chapter; upon the same ground he is to be so looked at also in this his justification pronounced upon him at his resurrection, even as the first-fruits also of them that are justified. And so in the same sense, and by the same reason that we are said to be 'risen with Christ,' in his resurrection; we must also be said to be 'justified with him,' in this his justification, at his resurrection.

And indeed (to enlarge this a little), as there is the same reason and ground for the one that there is for the other, he being a public person in both, so the rule will hold in all other things which God ever doth to us, or for us, which are common with Christ, and were done to him; that in them all Christ was the first-fruits, and they may be said to have been done in us, or to us, yea, by us, in him, and with him. Yea, whatever God meant to do for us and in us, whatever privilege or benefit he meant to bestow upon us, he did that thing first to Christ, and (some way) bestowed the * Qu. 'there?'-ED.