Jeremiah Burroughs On The Excellency Of Christ The Mediator

By Jim Davison

The importance Jeremiah Burroughs (c. 1600-1646) places upon the sufficiency of Jesus Christ as God’s chosen Mediator to bring about reconciliation between Himself and mankind should not be underestimated. It was a subject that Burroughs preached upon on many occasions and in great detail, and in each of these sermons he goes to very great lengths to show that “Christ is all and in all” (Col. 3:11).

As with his sermons on the excellency of God, Burroughs does not handle his subject in a purely theoretical manner, but rather as a means of leading his hearers to a position of exalting Christ by their practical godliness. Furthermore, in making Christ the object of their faith, delight, and adoration, they will give a true testimony to their love for Christ. Indeed, for Burroughs, practical godliness is the privilege of all believers and a testimony to the legitimacy and validity of true faith.

In a sermon on the above text published in The Saints’ Treasury (1654), Burroughs is emphatic that the covenant relationship between God the Father and God the Son, whereby God the Son became the Mediator between a holy, offended Majesty and sinful man, resulted in God the Father being infinitely content with Christ’s willingness to undertake the work of reconciliation and infinitely satisfied with the reconciliation accomplished by Christ.

On this basis, Burroughs proposes that the satisfaction of God the Father is such that “Christ is the only means of conveyance of good that God the Father intends to communicate unto the children of men in order to eternal life.” This proposition for Burroughs is the very heart of the gospel: “the most supernatural truth revealed in all the book of God— God “communicates His mercy through a mediator, through His Son.” Furthermore, for Burroughs, this is “the great point of divinity that is absolutely necessary to be known to eternal life.” [1]

Burroughs accepts that, based on the light of nature, many can see their great need of God’s mercy, yet they “miscarry and perish eternally with cries to God for mercy because they come to God, but not through a mediator.” Burroughs also notes that by the light of nature it can be perceived that all “good consists in communion with God,” but he insists that “not one drop of mercy that leads to eternal life can be communicated from God but through Christ the Mediator.” [2]

A natural knowledge of God may enable a man or woman “to set upon duties because God requires it of them,” but this is to honor God “in a natural way,” and such honor “God does not accept.” True, God would have great honor in the world, but this must be done in a “spiritual evangelical” manner. It must be done in the way that God has ordained, and that is by way of Christ the Mediator. Through Him we come to be “filled with all the goodness of God” and “grow up in godliness abundantly.” [3]

So important is the concept of a mediator in the thinking of Burroughs that he argues that so far as “God sees Christ in any, He accepts them,” but “if Christ be not there, whatever they have He regards them not.” All this draws from Burroughs the following decisive comment: “Surely, if Christ be an object sufficient for the satisfaction of the Father, much more, then, is He an object sufficient for the satisfaction of any soul.” [4]

Continuing with this line of argument Burroughs makes two significant points. The first is that “Adam knew nothing of this in his perfect state,” and it is that which “the angels themselves desire to pry into…that they may know what it is.” But such is the mystery of the gospel that it “requires a work of the Spirit, beyond the ordinary work of the Spirit of God, to reveal it unto the souls of men.” For Burroughs, the Holy Spirit not only “searcheth the deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:10), but He is “the discovering Spirit of this truth unto us.” [5]

In expounding his proposition, Burroughs states that God is in Himself “the Fountain of all goodness and infinite mercy;” evidenced by His first covenant with man and by which He intended “to convey and communicate His goodness” to man. However, because this first covenant was broken by man, there is “a stoppage, as it were, so that not one drop of…[God’s] mercy can be communicated to the children of men.” [6]

This is not, argues Burroughs, due so much to “God’s excellency in Himself and our meanness…[being] such poor low creatures” as it is to “the infiniteness of His holiness and our uncleanness and sinfulness; this makes the difference.” The curse that came upon mankind because of his failure to keep the first covenant resulted in the “cries of infinite justice against men, which must have satisfaction.” Indeed, such cries for justice that “will never be quiet until it has received satisfaction.” [7]

Burroughs endeavors to prove his argument regarding the need for a mediator by citing the case of the fallen angels: “We know according to God’s dealing with the fallen angels that there is no way of conveying mercy to them…. Because there is no mediator between God and them, and it would have been our case with them, had there not been a mediator between God and us.” [8]

Burroughs paints a very dark picture of man’s plight, but the hearts of his hearers would have been lifted as he went on to identify how Christ became the Mediator of a new covenant: Christ “actually comes to be the way of conveyance by taking our nature upon Him[self] and so makes us reconcilable to God by taking human nature into such a near union to the divine nature, to the second person of the Trinity.” [9]

Here Burroughs explains that there are “two great mysteries in the Gospel.” The first is that there are many “persons in the one nature” (“the mystery of the Trinity”) and the second is that “there should be divers natures in the one person” (“the mystery of the hypostatical union of our nature with Christ”). By this union of Christ and man, Burroughs sees a “mighty preparative” by God “to have thoughts of peace towards human nature, rather than to the angels” and “one part of Christ’s humility” in His work of “reconciling God to man.” [10]

Furthermore, and most importantly for Burroughs,

Christ was content now to come into the world and be made the head of a second covenant between God and mankind to perform whatever God the Father should require for the satisfaction of divine justice…. By His subjecting to this we come to receive all grace and mercy from God. And it could not have been otherwise, for though God would have thought of a second covenant, yet if He had left it to us to perform the terms of it, we would have broken that one as soon as we did the first. But Christ undertaking to be head of a second covenant and performing whatever the Father required in it by His perfect obedience to the law and satisfaction of divine justice, divine justice had nothing to lay to the charge of those for whom Christ undertook satisfaction. [11]

In bringing about the pardon of sin and the satisfaction of infinite justice by way of a mediator, Burroughs concludes that God is not only seen to be a God of mercy, but also a God of righteousness. It is, however, not only what Christ has done as our Mediator; it is what Christ is doing by interceding on our behalf: “He is now and shall forever be at the right hand of the Father in glory making intercession for His people.” This Christ the Mediator does by “continually presenting before the Father His infinite merits, to plead with Him… for [the] supply of all grace and mercy to us.” [12]

Evidence of the grace and mercy that flow from God through Christ the Mediator is the justification of sinners, which results in their reconciliation and peace with God. It is also to be seen in the adoption of justified and pardoned sinners into the family of God. In regard to our justification and the pardon of our sins, Burroughs notes that none can have such righteousness in themselves that will enable God to forgive them: “It is not all we have done, no, nor all that we can possibly do.” Neither is it what God “enables you to do that can be the formality of your justification.” [13]

These are two important points for Burroughs as he insists that the purpose of God’s mercy in justifying a soul is “to take him off from himself…to make him see and be sensible of his own unrighteousness and uncleanness.” Nothing less than perfect righteousness can satisfy God and only Christ has perfect righteousness. Therefore, “Christ is all and in all in point of justification.” [14]

Burroughs next turns to the doctrine of adoption and first notes that “[e]veryone will challenge a part in sonship, that they are the children of God; but only those that are in Christ have authority to challenge it as their due.” The basis of this authority, for Burroughs, is Galatians 3:26, 4:4-5, and John 1:12. These texts help Burroughs make the point that when “we come to be in Christ then we have authority to claim this privilege to be the sons of God.” In other words, we are sons of God by our union with Christ: “We are married to Christ and by union with His person are made one with Him; and so are sons by virtue of His Sonship.” [15]

On the practical level, Burroughs understands that in the blessing of sanctification “the fullness of Christ is conveyed to the soul.” Importantly, notes Burroughs, this is not only from Christ “meritoriously, but efficiently and…materially too.” And Christ “does not only merit it and work it by His Spirit; but through our union with Him there is a flowing of sanctification from Him into us as a principle of life.” It is because of our union with Christ that Burroughs can see “so much beauty and glory in the sanctification of the saints.” What more can a believer need that has “that skill and art and mystery of godliness that they can make Christ to be all in all in the want of all.” [16]

According to Burroughs the reason why a believer can do this is because, unlike the unbeliever, he can see Christ in all things: “The sun, when it shines through the air it is not as warm as when it shines through a magnifying glass.” Expanding on this illustration, Burroughs notes that “the goodness of God that comes to people through the general bounty and patience of God has not such an efficacy to warm and heat their hearts and draw them to God” as when “Christ is, as it were, the magnifying glass that is held between God and the soul.” [17]

But it is not only that the believer sees all things coming to him in Christ; he also accepts that his acts of service “though spiritual, yet they must find acceptance with the Father through Christ.” For Burroughs, this means that the believer must not “rest only in the duty, no, nor in the spirituality of the duty”; you must “tender them to God in the hands of Jesus Christ and expect acceptance through Him.” If we presume to offer them ourselves to God, they will not be accepted. Therefore, “be sure you do not omit the work of faith in laying hold of Christ and carrying Him along with you” to ensure your sacrifice is accepted. [18]

One reason Burroughs suggests why God chose this “peculiar way of communicating Himself to man” was that God “might manifest to all the children of men what a dreadful breach their sins have made between God and them.” But a second and more important reason was because God sees in this way “the most advantageous way for the manifestation of His glory”—“the glory of His mercy,” “the glory of His justice,” and “the glory of His wisdom.” Furthermore, the “infiniteness of God’s holiness is hereby manifested.” Then, too, “in the suffering of Christ there is a greater manifestation of God’s hatred for sin than in all the torments of Hell.” [19]

In seeking to apply this doctrine (“Christ is the only means of conveyance of good that God the Father intends to communicate unto the children of men in order to eternal life”), Burroughs reminds his hearers that “this is the masterpiece of all the works of God, which He has already done or ever will do to all eternity: therefore He is to be admired and adored.” [20]

In these last two comments alone we can see the emphasis Burroughs placed on admiring and adoring God for what He has done for sinful man. And what better way of doing this than for man to make Christ the object of his thoughts and conversation: to find his contentment and his enjoyment in Christ? It will also bring glory to Christ, for He will be seen to have accomplished what He set out to do, namely, to glorify God and bring eternal blessing to man.

In the sermon just considered, the main purpose was to show how the Mediator was able to bring glory to God the Father by His work of reconciliation. This was seen to be done by Christ bridging the infinite distance between God and man, caused by man’s rebellion and failure to keep the first covenant. In this sermon there is very little detail on the person of Christ Himself.

This is not the case, however, in a series of six sermons preached by Burroughs and later published with the title “The Excellency of Christ” in Gospel Revelation. In these sermons, based on the words “His name shall be called Wonderful” (Isa. 9:6), Burroughs’s emphasis is to reveal Christ in all His glory and thereby show what understanding should be had of Christ.

The starting point for Burroughs is to note a number of reasons why the prophecy was given to the people of God when they were in a sad condition. One is “that [it] might lighten all their darkness, that [it] might sweeten their sorrows and troubles.” Another reason is that by “the propounding of so great a mercy as Jesus Christ should be to the world, they might hereby have a help to their faith.” Still another reason was to teach God’s people that “the way of deliverance from outward affliction…was to exercise their faith upon Christ the Messiah that was to come.” [21]

In opening up his text, Burroughs endeavors, with great understanding and ability, to demonstrate why “Jesus Christ is the great wonder of the world.” In doing so, he handles his subject under thirteen heads: Christ is wonderful 1) “in His Natures”; 2) “in His Person”; 3) “in the manner of His incarnation”; 4) “in the work He came to do”; 5) “in His offices”; 6) “in His admirable endowments”; 7) “in His glorious miracles”; 8) “in the great glory of the Father that appears in Him”; 9) “in His humiliation”; 10) “in His conquest”; 11) “in His exaltation”; 12) “in His saints”; and 13) “in the Church triumphant.” [22]

It is the contention of Burroughs that a low perception of God and a wrong understanding of Jesus Christ are the reasons why God’s name is little sanctified and why there is a lack of contentment and blessing. This drives the sermons—to heighten his hearers’ conception of God and Christ by showing Christ in all His glorious excellency, especially when times of affliction come. Nothing, for Burroughs, is of such importance than that his hearers would know God as He is manifested in His Son whom He has sent into the world.

Burroughs begins his exaltation of Christ by highlighting the wonder of the two natures of Christ in the one Person and also the plural Persons in the one nature (mentioned also in the first sermon considered above). At this point, Burroughs becomes somewhat technical as he endeavors to show the mystery of these two very difficult concepts, but it also moves him to make the point that such a mystery “is one great argument that the Scriptures are divine: for it is too high a thing to have entered into the thought of a creature” and one that unless “the Spirit of God that searches the deep things of God… reveal it unto a man, it were impossible for man ever to have such a thought as this.” [23]

Developing the concept of the God-Man (Gk. Theanthropos), who is but one Person with two natures, Burroughs argues that what Christ suffered in His humanity “was of infinite value and efficacy” because of the hypostatic union of the two natures. But to search into how “the same person that is God, is man, and how human nature subsists in the Deity and has no subsistence at all in itself…is too deep a sea for any creature to wade into, we must stand and admire it and adore God in it.” [24]

Burroughs sees two amazing things flow from this: the first is that “the Creator of all the world was a creature.” For God to “unite two such creatures that seemed to be such distant natures, as the body of man and the soul of man in one person” is recognized by Burroughs as “one of the most wonderful works that ever God did in the world,” but “to unite the second Person of the Trinity to the nature of man” is “the great wonder of the Christian religion.” [25]

The second is likewise amazing; it is that “[t]he same Person that is eternal and immortal…that was the Lord of glory, whose name alone is glorious, that Person was crucified.” Knowledge of this union “is of marvellous use onto you for the helping of your faith,” says Burroughs to his hearers. Expanding on this, he says, “Hereby you may see that whatsoever Christ did, or suffered, though but in His human nature, it was of infinite value and efficacy, and the infinite value and efficacy of what Christ did and suffered does arise from the union of the two natures, because it was that Person that is God who did such things and suffered such things.” [26]

Regarding the incarnation of Christ, we first note this apt comment from Burroughs: “Christ was man and came from man, but not by man.” Here Burroughs insists that being conceived by the Holy Ghost means that Christ was neither “under original guilt, [nor] under original corruption.” At this point, Burroughs makes an unambiguous statement regarding original sin: “children coming into the world after the ordinary way of generation, coming from man, by man, the first minute that their souls and bodies are together, that the child is alive in the womb, it comes under the guilt of Adam’s transgression.” But, says Burroughs, “it was not so with Christ,” and therefore He “may well be called Wonderful from the wonderful manner of his Incarnation.” [27]

Burroughs now turns to the reconciling work of Christ, which he describes as “the greatest and most wonderful work that ever was undertaken since the world began or can possibly be undertaken.” Continuing in his high praise of Christ, Burroughs informs his hearers that setting forth “Christ in His glory and excellency in what He is and what He came into the world for…has a mighty power to draw forth faith.” Indeed, argues Burroughs, “not only to draw forth faith where faith was before, but it [setting forth ‘Christ in His glory and excellency’] has a power to cause faith in the soul;…a quickening power to work life in the soul…. [And] cause the heart to make after Him, though it was never so dead before.” [28]

The excellency of Christ for Burroughs is such that he urges his hearers to go home and meditate on what has been said and “never leave meditating until you find your heart come to this, to admire the glory of God in Jesus Christ.” As he closes this sermon, Burroughs gives the following warning, which we need take heed of: “Be taken up with the admiration of Jesus Christ” for “the soul that never found itself taken with admiring the glory of God in Christ, did never know what Christ meant.” [29]

This exaltation of Christ continues throughout the remaining five sermons as Burroughs expounds his theme with meticulous dedication. In sermon two, Burroughs handles the subject of Christ’s offices: King, Priest, and Prophet. These are three offices that only Christ holds, for “never any man in the world had them all…never a man in the world was anointed to these three together, but only Christ.” [30]

The first of these offices is considered under no fewer than eighteen heads, the second under fourteen heads, and the third under eight heads. And yet, after all this, Burroughs, in setting forth “every particular of these offices of Christ” and “the beauty and excellency of Christ in His three offices,” acknowledges that he sets forth the excellency of Christ but “briefly.” [31]

In respect to the office of King, Burroughs shows that Christ is not only universally sovereign, but that He is absolute in His sovereignty. Christ is “Lord of lords and King of kings” (Rev. 17:14) and therefore “has all the kings and lords, and all authority in the world under His feet.” Christ’s absolute authority is also shown in that He “rules over the hearts of men as well as their consciences” and is able to “subdue the wills of men and bring their hearts to obedience to Him,” which “all the power there is in the world cannot do.” [32]

Regarding Christ’s power to bind the consciences of men, Burroughs is insistent that only Christ has this power: “There is no obligation upon a man’s conscience, merely because it is the will of man. No, not even the angels in heaven could lay bonds upon conscience.” In advancing this argument, Burroughs shows that “all the laws that men can make must receive their power and authority especially from the end of them.” That is, they must “conduce unto that end for which God sets up magistracy over men”—“for the good of the place.” [33]

Christ’s kingly power is also wonderful in regard to His righteousness, for Christ “is King of righteousness” and “it is a happy thing when people live under righteous governors” for then they will “be sure never to have oppression, [or] any wrong at all done by [sic to] them, but they shall enjoy all in a righteous and just way.” This in itself would be a cause for joy among Burroughs’s hearers, considering the day in which they lived, but Burroughs adds something of more importance, namely, that Christ the King “clothes His people with everlasting righteousness; to make them all stand righteous before His Father.” And in this Christ, surely, “brings peace to the conscience [and] peace to the soul.” [34]

Quoting Zechariah 2:10 (“Rejoice therefore, O daughter of Zion, for thy King cometh”), Burroughs exclaims, “Oh, did we but apprehend these things by faith, that we have to do with Christ as such a King, certainly our hearts could not be troubled whatsoever stirs there are in the world, whatsoever kings and princes do in this world; yet when we look up to this King and by faith make all this real to our souls, oh what manner of infinite joy it is!” [35]

Turning to the priestly office of Christ, Burroughs notes that it is a royal priesthood, “for it is joined with kingly power.” In this office, Christ was “not after the order of Aaron” but “after the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. 7:17), who is said to be without father or mother. The meaning of this, for Burroughs, is that “Christ, as He was man, He had no father, and as He was God, He had no mother.” He had no beginning in His priestly office. It was from everlasting and shall endure to everlasting. But while Christ was not of the order of Aaron’s priesthood, it is nevertheless true that “all the priests in the Law did typify Christ,” says Burroughs. Yet Burroughs does insist that “when Jesus came and took that office to Himself, in His human nature” that which functioned under the law “ceased and vanished.” [36]

In handling the function of a priest, Burroughs draws attention to the value of the sacrifice Christ offered to God when he states that “[It] was sufficient to satisfy God in all the wrong that ever was done Him by man’s sin.” It was such a sacrifice that “did fully satisfy the justice of God the Father for the sins of mankind.” At this point Burroughs becomes more specific as he qualifies what the sacrifice accomplished: “It was a sacrifice that did satisfy God’s infinite justice, did make up all the wrong that all the sins of the elect had ever done to God.” [37]

That Burroughs understood the sacrifice offered by Christ was of “infinite merit and worth” is clearly evidenced by two other comments. The first is that “the offering that Christ offered was the blood of God.” This is an interesting comment which Burroughs supports by referring to the union of the two natures of Christ and Acts 20:28, which speaks of God purchasing the church “with his own blood.” The second is that Christ “offered Himself—not only His blood, but Himself, soul and body.” [38] Here again Burroughs offers Scripture support by referencing Isaiah 53:10 (“Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin”) and Hebrews 10:5 (“Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me.”)

Both these comments are made on the basis that “[e]ither Christ must offer Himself, soul and body to be a sacrifice” for man’s sin, or else man’s own “soul and body [must] be offered as a sacrifice to God’s justice.” Anything less would not satisfy God’s justice, and therefore sinners “must eternally be under the stroke to God’s justice.” Furthermore, “as there is nothing but God can be a satisfying portion to an immortal soul, so no sacrifice but Christ Himself could be a sacrifice to pacify God’s wrath.” [39]

On the immense subject of Christ’s intercessory role, Burroughs notes that, unlike the “priests of the Law,” who constantly offered sacrifices, Christ “offered but one sacrifice, and at one time.” Burroughs emphasizes the importance of this one sacrifice which Christ offered “to the justice of His Father” by noting that the merits of it are “available for ever” and that it is “able to save to the uttermost,” as we read in Hebrews. [40]

Furthermore, Christ, having offered Himself, exercises His priestly office in the Holy of Holies—in heaven itself. There, having “the names of all believers upon His breast, upon His heart…[He] presents them all before His Father.” Christ our High Priest presents them in such a way as that of an Advocate who “makes intercession for them.” This fact, in itself, must surely bring great comfort to all believers, and yet they too have the immense privilege of entering into the Holy of Holies themselves. [41]

Yes, though the believer “has never so many sins of his own,” says Burroughs, “he may come with boldness into the Holy of Holies”— into “the holy, immediate, and glorious presence of God”— on the basis that Christ has made all believers “priests onto God, so as they may offer acceptable sacrifices to God.” But, as Burroughs noted in The Saints’ Treasury, we must always tender our sacrifices “to God in the hands of Jesus Christ.” [42] All this moves Burroughs to exclaim: “Oh, what wonderful things are these, if they were made real to us by faith? How wonderful would be the comfort and joy of the saints of God in the exercising of their faith” on these matters. [43]

Burroughs now turns to the prophetic office of Christ and declares that Christ is also wonderful in this office because “He is the one that knows all the mind of God the Father perfectly, which certainly all the creatures in the world do not,” knows “high things, supernatural things, things that are so infinitely above the reach of reason.” Irrespective of the ability a man might have, even if he is “elevated unto the greatest height of reason, he is not able to reach into the mysteries of godliness.” [44]

Such comments as these could, surely, be very discouraging, and this is recognized by Burroughs as he immediately exhorts his hearers, when they hear such “great and wonderful things,” that they must not be discouraged because Christ has been “anointed by God” to teach these things “to all the elect ones, [those] who belong to Christ.” Christ has willingly “undertaken the charge of your soul to instruct it in all the mind of His Father…so far as is necessary for your salvation.” But not only this, Christ as the “Prophet of His Church” will “reveal to your soul, if you are a believer…all those treasures of wisdom and counsels of His Father concerning your eternal estate.” [45]

Such a wonderful teacher is Christ that even “those men that have the dullest capacity to understand the reason of things in the world” will be taught, and in such a way that they have “the clear understanding of the chief mysteries in the Gospel.” Indeed, they will be taught “the deepest mysteries of godliness” and “the great mysteries of salvation.” Burroughs is convinced that these mysteries will “exercise the understanding of angels…exercise them to all eternity.” One can understand why such revelations moved Burroughs to exhort his hearers to let their “thoughts be carried to admire…the wonderful dispensation of the prophetical office of Jesus Christ.” [46]

In the flow of his exposition, it is clear that Burroughs is seeking to focus his hearers’ thoughts on the central issue of the gospel, namely, the glory of God. It is accepted by Burroughs that we “might know of the invisible things of God by His great works of creation and providence” (Rom. 1:20). However, as we have sought to show, it is not the “glory of God that shines in all His works of creation and providence” that Burroughs is seeking to enlarge upon; it is, rather, “the glory of God that shines in the face of Christ.” For Burroughs, the great difference between these two understandings of God’s glory is like “the glittering of a glow-worm in a dark night and the glory of the sun in the full strength of it.” Putting it another way, “God expects that those who do see His glory in Christ should glorify Him in another manner than those who see His glory shinning in the works of creation.” [47]

Burroughs emphasizes this in a number of ways. First, he states that all the attributes of God “do shine more brightly in the face of Christ than [in] any other way.” Here Burroughs refers again to the “hypostatical union of the natures of Christ,” along with the wisdom, holiness, mercy, and justice of God. Regarding the wisdom of God, Burroughs notes the “glorious way of reconciliation” and says, “The glory of God’s wisdom in other things is darkened in comparison of His wisdom in this.” The same is also true of God’s holiness: “Certainly in Christ God’s wisdom has found out an argument to make us all to be convinced of the infinite holiness of God, that God hates sin more than hell itself, and that we should do so too.” [48]

The evil of sin in the eyes of God as evidenced by this last comment moves Burroughs to speak of God’s justice, which “appears not so much in all the torments of the damned as in God’s dealings with Christ.” Adding an additional thrust to this statement, he says, “There is no such way to set out the justice of God as to show the dealing of God with His Son in relation to the sin of man.” But having stated the importance of God’s justice, which none can escape themselves, Burroughs draws attention to God’s mercy and goodness. [49]

In drawing our attention to the mercy and goodness of God, Burroughs wants us to think beyond the general understanding of these attributes—what he calls “those outward comforts as a fruit of the bounty and goodness of God.” For Burroughs, such comforts are as “a few sparks that come out of a burning furnace and the heat of it within,” in comparison “to the love and mercy [of God] that appears in Christ.” Indeed, “all the good and mercy that is in order to eternal life that God communicates to the children of men, it is through Jesus Christ.” “Without the knowledge of Christ we could never come to know any of these things,” says Burroughs. [50]

The second way that Burroughs emphasizes the importance of glorifying God in Christ is by his reference to the “great counsels and works of God, especially in the governing of man unto his eternal estate.” Enlarging upon this statement, Burroughs deals with the doctrines of vocation, election, justification, reconciliation, adoption, sanctification, and glorification. Here we have a glorious array of works, and for Burroughs they are “all the works whereby God does order and guide mankind unto an eternal estate.” But they all take place in Christ, for “all the sins of all the elect ones from the beginning of the world, to the end of the world are laid upon Him.” [51]

The point is emphatically made by Burroughs that the glory of God as seen in His “great works of creation and providence is a blessing to believers, but “the sweetness and soul-satisfaction” in “beholding the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” is without measure. However, the truth is, as Burroughs notes, “we understand but little of it for the present,” while witnessing “all the dishonour that is done to Him in this wicked, corrupt world.” But we must take heart, for God will surely attain “unto His great design”; “He will fetch about His honour in His Son” and “glorify Himself in His elect ones to all eternity.” [52]

Another aspect of the wonderful work of Christ in accomplishing God’s great design is His humiliation. Here is set before us what Burroughs describes as perhaps “the greatest wonder of all,” Christ’s work of humiliation. This is handled in eight sections, which cover at least half of the fourth sermon. These eight sections are a veritable gold mine on the subject, but we can only summarize them. [53]

First, God the Son becomes man in order to “stand before God with all the sins of the elect charged upon Him”; second, the height from which God the Son stooped, “He who is Lord of life should die”; third, the manner of Christ’s suffering, though He “was the fountain of all consolation, yet Christ suffers in His soul”—“whose deaths have been as cruel as the death of Jesus Christ?”; fourth, the source of Christ’s suffering, “the chief sufferings of Jesus Christ were inflicted by the very hand of God the Father”; fifth, the extent of Christ’s suffering; the Father did not spare Him one whit, but lets out the fullness of justice upon Him”; sixth, His forsakenness, “In all these sufferings, God the Father leaves Him”; seventh, Christ’s willingness to suffer, “rather than He would see them [the elect ones] plunged into the bottomless gulf of eternal misery.” [54]

Burroughs’s scope in section eight is to “present as briefly as may be, as much of Christ” as he can to his hearers that they “may have some help” for clear “apprehensions of Christ and how to make Him the object” of their faith. Turning to those who have “gone on in a secure dead-hearted way,” Burroughs asks, “When was ever your heart taken up in admiring the way of God saving sinners?” Answering his own question, Burroughs makes two points: 1) “If you go on and have but low thoughts about salvation…the Gospel is hidden to you, certainly you yet do not understand the counsel of God about the way of salvation,” and 2) “If it has done so that is a good evidence that God is beginning to show Himself unto you in a saving way.” Therefore, “When ever you think of salvation, think wisely of this, it is a wonderful work of God to save a sinner…the most wonderful work that ever God did do.” [55]

Having considered Christ in all His humiliation and suffering, Burroughs turns and highlights how wonderful is the conquest of Christ. This Burroughs does by stating that “all other conquerors may conquer men and kill them, but they cannot conquer death itself,” which Christ did “by dying.” But, more particularly, Christ is wonderful in other things, such as His resurrection and ascension. In Christ’s resurrection, we have “a declaration to all the world that He had…paid fully what divine justice did require for the sin of man.” Burroughs also draws attention to the resurrection of the saints, “the elect ones,” for in Christ’s resurrection there was “a pledge of their resurrection,” in that “He was the first fruits from the dead.” [56]

The heavenly singers exclaim, “Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty” (Rev. 15:3) and Burroughs has certainly echoed this declaration in these sermons. The works of Christ are such that the saints “account all things as dung and dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.” Furthermore, “in heaven Christ shall be wondered at for all eternity.” But it is Burroughs’s lament that “Jesus Christ is little known in the world.” Christ is so little known that He “is but a mere notion and imagination to most people in the world.” The reason for this, suggests Burroughs, is that “many things are wondered at for the present,” but they are only of “nine days wonder.” [57]

These last comments are but echoes of Burroughs’s last comments respecting Christ in His priestly office: “Oh, what strangers are most unto the glory of Jesus Christ! What little glory has Christ from you, when you do not know Him in these things that are His glory?” Yes, even the saints who “do understand Him” are questioned: “How seldom has your faith acted upon Him” in regard to His three glorious offices? [58]

Following the comment regarding “Christ being little known in the world,” Burroughs appeals to his hearers’ consciences once again: “when were your hearts taken [up] with the administration of the glory of God shining in the face of Christ?… When did God dart light into your spirits to cause you to see so much of Jesus Christ, as made Him to be the wonder of all His works?” In answering these queries negatively, it is certain, argues Burroughs, that “that soul knows not God or Christ savingly.” [59]

Furthermore, if not knowing Christ in this excellent way is an indication that “everything is preferred before Him,” then “Oh how just must the condemnation of such be for ever.” This is especially true of those who come under the preaching of the gospel and hear “how Christ came into the world to save sinners” and yet “shall not be willing to forsake a base lust for all the good there is in Jesus Christ.” Such a soul, says Burroughs, “does indeed deserve to be cursed with a bitter, and an eternal curse.”60 But Burroughs, not willing to dwell on the negatives, reminds his hearers how they are to respond to the preaching of the gospel:

Now when you hear that the way of God to redeem man is so wonderful, you have cause to lay your hands upon your hearts and say, “Oh the depth of misery that my soul has fallen into! Oh the desperate disease of my soul that must have such a wonderful cure! Oh that ever the great and infinite God should work so wonderfully for the salvation of such a poor wretched creature as sinful man is!” [61]

Let me retrace my steps a moment and note that Christ is also the “infinite object of the delight of His Father,” an “object even adequate to the very heart of God.” Such is the delight and satisfaction that God has in His Son that He “did not only create that He might manifest that He was a mighty God”; it was also “to advance His Son,” and for Him “to be the heir of all things.” Burroughs exclaims: “Oh what infinite cause have we to honour Jesus Christ.” Indeed, if Christ is so excellent as to make God the Father satisfied and delighted in Him, what other cause is needed for man to find full satisfaction and delight in Christ? Burroughs’s response is one that all the children of God may echo: “Oh how happy are they who live to the honour of Jesus Christ, by whom God may have glory beyond a natural way.” [62]

More importantly, and so as to not finish this series of sermons on the excellency of Christ the Mediator on a negative note, Burroughs identifies more reasons why joy and comfort are to be derived from beholding the glory of God in Christ Jesus. One reason is the honor God has bestowed upon believers by working so wonderful a salvation for them in Christ. A second reason is that Christ is the perfect “object for their souls to rest upon, whatever their condition.” A third reason rests upon this premise: if “God Himself does glory so much in [Christ] and accounts Him so wonderful, then it needs follow that God does intend wonderful things for the saints,” for “no wise man that has abilities will build about himself a trifle.” The corollary of this is well said by Burroughs: “[As] nothing satisfies the heart so much as the knowledge of Christ”; therefore, “let us make it the chief of our study, to study the Lord Jesus.” [63]

A final reason given as to why believers should find comfort and joy in Christ is His coming again:

There is a time when Christ shall come and appear in all His glory in another manner than we are able to set Him out…. There is a time coming that you will see Christ to be more wonderful than you do now…. And you shall not only see Him, but so see Him, as He shall never go out of thy sight; you have but a little glimpse of Him now for the present, and your soul rejoices in that, the time is coming when you shall see Him and your eyes shall feed upon Him for ever…wondering at Him to all eternity…. The luster of the deity shall be shining through the humanity of Christ, and men and angels shall stand gazing and wondering at the glory of Jesus Christ to all eternity. [64]

Although Burroughs does not indicate when this will happen, he does suggest that it will be sooner rather than later: “Christ will come ere long in another manner to be admired at by His saints in all His glory.” [65] It is clear that Burroughs is referring to what he describes elsewhere as “Jerusalem’s glory breaking forth into the world” [66]—in other words, what he regards as the millennial reign of Christ when “there shall be a more glorious presence of Christ among His people.” [67]

Burroughs identifies those who will find real comfort and joy in Christ’s Second Coming: they are those who “long for the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ.” Furthermore, this longing shows “good evidence that they do belong to Jesus Christ,” and for his hearers to belong to Jesus Christ was clearly what Burroughs desired. This may be gleaned from his final word to them on the excellency of Christ, which, in a very succinct way, sums up all he has been trying to teach them: “Oh that He may be wonderful in your hearts and in your lives.” [68] Clearly, belonging to Christ was to be witnessed to by a life of godliness that would bring glory to God. A God-glorifying life would also bring satisfaction to the soul, for the soul would know what it meant to be the recipient of God’s gracious forgiveness of sin through the excellency of Jesus Christ the Mediator.

Notes

1. Jeremiah Burroughs, “Christ is all in all,” in The Saints Treasury (London, 1656), 32-33.
2. Burroughs, “Christ is all in all,” 33.
3. Burroughs, “Christ is all in all,” 34-35.
4. Burroughs, “Christ is all in all,” 33.
5. Burroughs, “Christ is all in all,” 33-34.
6. Burroughs, “Christ is all in all,” 37-38.
7. Burroughs, “Christ is all in all,” 38.
8. Burroughs, “Christ is all in all,” 38.
9. Burroughs, “Christ is all in all,” 38-39.
10. Burroughs, “Christ is all in all,” 39.
11. Burroughs, “Christ is all in all,” 40.
12. Burroughs, “Christ is all in all,” 42.
13. Burroughs, “Christ is all in all,” 43.
14. Burroughs, “Christ is all in all,” 44.
15. Burroughs, “Christ is all in all,” 45.
16. Burroughs, “Christ is all in all,” 46-47.
17. Burroughs, “Christ is all in all,” 47.
18. Burroughs, “Christ is all in all,” 48-49.
19. Burroughs, “Christ is all in all,” 50-52. Sin is a subject that Burroughs dealt with at length in a series of sermons published as The Evil of Evils or the Exceeding Sinfulness of Sin (London, 1654). Such is the evil of sin, says Burroughs, that “if a man…could save the whole world from eternal torments by the commission of one sin, he should suffer the whole world to perish rather than commit one sin.” In pressing this point home, Burroughs makes it more personal to his hearers: “You must not commit one sin though the soul of your father or mother or all the world rest upon it.” Neither must sin be committed “though it is for the glory of God,” for God “does not need the help of the devil to help his cause.” By these few comments on the evil of sin we can understand why Burroughs was so insistent on preaching on our present subject: Christ the Mediator.
20. Burroughs, “Christ is all in all,” 32, 56.
21. Jeremiah Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” in Gospel Revelation (London, 1660), 50-51.
22. The different topics are handled throughout the six sermons, but are set out in outline form on 55-56.
23. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 57-58.
24. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 59-61.
25. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 60-61.
26. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 61.
27. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 63-64.
28. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 65-67. By the last comment in this paragraph it is not difficult to grasp Burroughs’s Calvinist understanding of the doctrine of regeneration.
29. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 67.
30. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 68-69.
31. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 69.
32. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 71, 74-75.
33. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 74.
34. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 76-77.
35. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 81.
36. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 83.
37. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 84.
38. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 83-84.
39. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 85.
40. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 86.
41. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 86-87.
42. See note 18 above.
43. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 87, 89.
44. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 90-94.
45. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 91-92. Two phrases in this paragraph need a little further comment. The use of the terms “elect ones” and “a believer” would indicate that Burroughs held to the doctrine of particular redemption.
46. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 96, 97.
47. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 112-13.
48. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 114-15.
49. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 116.
50. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 116, 119.
51. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 118, 122.
52. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 118, 120.
53. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 122.
54. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 122-28.
55. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 129-30.
56. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 137, 139, 144.
57. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 146-47, 150.
58. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 90, 118, 150.
59. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 150-51.
60. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 150-52.
61. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 155.
62. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 107-8.
63. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 156, 158-59, 164.
64. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 168-69, 171.
65. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 170.
66. The phrase comes from the title page of Burroughs’s Jerusalem's Glory (London, 1684).
67. Jeremiah Burroughs, An Exposition of the Prophesie of Hosea, Chapters 1-3 (1643), 190. Chapters 4-10 were published in 1650 and chapters 11-13:11 in 1651.
68. Burroughs, “The Excellency of Christ,” 171.