(1st.) The Father actually
invests him with all the grace whereof, by compact and
agreement, he hath made a purchase (as he received the promise of the
Spirit); which is all that is of use for the bringing his many sons to
glory. “It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell,”
Col. i. 19, — that he should be
invested with a fulness of that grace which is needful for his people.
This himself calls the “power of giving eternal life to his elect,”
John xvii. 2; which power is not only
his ability to do it, but also his right to do it. Hence this delivering
of all things unto him by his Father, he lays as the bottom of his inviting
sinners unto him for refreshment: “All things are delivered unto me of my
Father,” Matt. xi. 27. “Come unto me, all
that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” verse 28. This being the covenant
of the Father with him, and his promise unto him, that upon the making “his
soul an offering for sin, he should see his seed, and the pleasure of the
Lord should prosper in his
hand,” Isa. liii. 10, in the verses
following, the “pouring out of his soul unto death, and bearing the sins of
many,” is laid as the bottom and procuring cause of these things:— 1. Of
justification: “By his knowledge he shall justify many.” 2. Of
sanctification; in “destroying the works of the devil,” verses 11, 12. Thus comes our
merciful high priest to be the great possessor of all grace, that he may
give out to us according to his own pleasure, quickening whom he will. He
hath it in him really as our head, in that he received not that Spirit by
measure (John iii. 34) which is the bond of
union between him and us, 1 Cor. vi.
17; whereby holding him, the head, we are filled with his
fulness, Eph. i.
22, 23; Col. i.
19. He hath it as a common person, intrusted with it in our
behalf, Rom. v.
14–17. “The last Adam is made” unto us “a quickening Spirit,”
1 Cor. xv. 45. He is also a
treasury of this grace in a moral and law sense: not only as “it pleased
the Father that in him should all fulness dwell,” Col. i.
19; but also because in his mediation, as hath been declared, is
founded the whole dispensation of grace.