X

previous to the day of judgment. Compare 1 Cor. xv. the whole of which chapter throws no small light on this passage. The same sense is to be ascribed to 2 Pet. i. 13-15; as long as I am in this tabernacle," &c. that is, in this life. It is however unnecessary to prolong this discussion, as there is scarcely one of the remaining passages of Scripture which has not been already explained by anticipation.

The fourth and last degree of death, is DEATH ETERNAL, THE PUNISHMENT OF THE DAMNED; which will be considered in the twenty-seventh chapter."

CHAP. XIV.-OF MAN'S RESTORATION AND OF CHRIST
AS REDEEMER.

WE have hitherto considered the Providence of God in relation
to the fall of man; we are now to consider it as operating in
his restoration.

THE RESTORATION OF MAN is the act whereby man, being delivered from sin and death by God the Father through Jesus Christ, is raised to a far more excellent state of grace and glory than that from which he had fallen. Rom. v. 15. "but not as the offence, so also is the free gift; for if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many." v. 17. "for if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." See also v. 21. Eph. i. 9, 10. "according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself.... that he might gather together in one all things in Christ." 1 John iii. 8. "he that committeth sin is of the devil.... for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil."

In this restoration are comprised the REDEMPTION and RE

NOVATION OF MAN.

REDEMPTION is that act whereby CHRIST, BEING SENT IN

THE FULNESS OF TIME, REDEEMED ALL BELIEVERS AT THE

9 There is a mistake in this reference, arising probably fron a subse. quent alteration in the arrangement of the chapters. The subject is cousidered in the thirty-third chapter.

PRICE OF HIS OWN BLOOD, BY HIS OWN VOLUNTARY ACT, CONFORMABLY TO THE ETERNAL COUNSEL AND GRACE OF GOD THE FATHER.

CONFORMABLY TO THE ETERNAL COUNSEL OF GOD THE FATHER. 1 Pet. i. 20. "The Lamb.... preordained before the foundation of the world." See other passages to the same effect in the fourth chapter, on Predestination.

GRACE. Even before man had, properly speaking, confessed his guilt, that is, before he had avowed it ingenuously and in the spirit of repentance, God nevertheless, in pronouncing the punishment of the serpent, previously to passing sentence on man, promised that he would raise up from the seed of the woman one who should bruise the serpent's head, Gen. iii. 15. and thus anticipated the condemnation of mankind by a gratuitous redemption. John iii. 16. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son-." Rom. iii. 25. “whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith." V. 8. "God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." Heb. ii. 9. "that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man.' 1 John iv. 9, 10. "in this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son...... not that we loved God, but that he loved us." Hence the Father is often called our Saviour, inasmuch as it is by his eternal counsel and grace alone that we are saved. Luke i. 47. "my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.' be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David." 1 Tim. i. 1. " by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope." ii. 3. "for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour." iv. 10. "we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men." Tit. i. 3. "according to the commandment of God our Saviour." ii. 10. "that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things." iii. 46. "but after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared, . . . . according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." Jude 25. "to the only wise God our Saviour be glory;" where the Vetus Interpres and some of

v. 68, 69. "blessed

the Greek manuscripts add, " through Jesus Christ our Lord."

CHRIST BEING SENT IN THE FULNESS OF TIME. Gal. iv. 4. "but when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son." Eph. i. 10. "in the dispensation of the fulness of times."

us."

AT THE PRICE OF HIS OWN BLOOD. Isai. liii. 1, &c. Acts xx. 28. "the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." Rom. iii. 25. "a propitiation through faith in his blood.' 1 Cor. vi. 20. " ye are bought with a price." See also vii. 23. Gal. iii. 13. "being made a curse for Eph. v. 2. "he hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God." Heb. ii. 9. "that he should taste death for every man." xiii. 20. "through the blood of the everlasting covenant. 1 Pet. i. 19. "with the precious blood of Christ." iii. 18. "Christ also hath once suffered for sins." Rev. i. 5. "that washed us from our sins in his own blood." 7. 9. "thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood." xiii. 8. 66 the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."

BY HIS OWN VOLUNTARY ACT. Isai. liii. 10. "upon condition that his soul make a trespass offering," Horsley's Translation. Matt. xx. 28. "to give his life a ransom for many." John x. 15, 18. "I lay down my life for the sheep no man taketh from me, but I lay it down myself; I have power to take it again." Eph. v. 2. "he hath given himself for us." Philipp. ii. 8. " became obedient unto death." 1 Tim. ii. 6. "who gave himself a ransom for all."

ALL BELIEVERS. Rom. iii. 25. "a propitiation through faith in his blood."

There is no other Redeemer or Mediator besides Christ. Acts iv. 12. "neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby

1 These words are found in fifteen manuscripts, according to Wetstein, and in the Vulgate, two Syriac, Coptic, and Arabic versions. See also Mill on this verse.

2 That his soul should make the trespass offering, expresses that it was with the full consent of his own mind that he made the painful atonement. See Vitringa upon the place.' Horsley's Bibl. Crit. in loc. Quandoquidem semetipsum exposuit, Tremellius. If his soul shall make a propitiatory sacrifice. Lowth's Translation. A different sense is given to the passage in our authorised version: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.

we must be saved." 1 Tim. ii. 5. "there is one mediator 66 the man Chris: Jesus." John xiv. 6. no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

....

There was a promise made to all mankind, and an expectation of the Redeemer, more or less distinct, even from the time of the fall. Gen. iii. 15. "I will put enmity." xxii. 18. "in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." See also xxvi. 4. xxviii. 14. xlix. 10. "until Shiloh, or the peacemaker come. Deut. xviii. 15. "Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken: according to all that thou desiredst of Jehovah thy God in Horeb saying, Let me not hear again the voice of Jehovah my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not.' Job xix. 25, 26. "I know that my redeemer liveth." In the Psalms and prophetical writings the advent of the Redeemer is intimated with less obscurity. Psal. lxxxix. 35, 36. once have I sworn by my holiness, that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever." Isai. xi. 1, &c. "there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse." Jer. xxx. 9. "they shall serve Jehovah their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them." xxxii. 15. “at that time will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David."

At the appointed time he was sent into the world. Gal. iv. 4. as above.

Matt. xvi. Gen. iii. 15,

Two points are to be considered in relation to Christ's character as Redeemer; his NATURE and OFFICE. His NATURE is twofold; divine and human. 16. "the Christ, the Son of the living God." "the seed of the woman.' John i. 1, 14. "the Word was God.... and the Word was made flesh." iii. 13. "he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man that is in heaven." v. 31. 'he that cometh from above.... he that cometh from heaven." Acts ii. 30. " of the fruit of the loins of David, according to the flesh." See also Rom. i. 3. viii. 3. "God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh." ix. 5. "of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God." 1 Cor. xv. 47. "the second man is the Lord from heaven.' Gal. iv. 4. “Gɔd sent forth his Son, made of Philipp. ii. 7, 8. "but made himself of no repu

a woman.'

tation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was inade in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man-. Heb. ii. 14, 16. " he also himself took part of flesh and blood.... he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham." x. 5, &c. "wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me then said I, Lo, I come." 1 John i. 7. "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son." iv. 2. "every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God." Col. ii. 9. "in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily;" which passage I understand, not in the divine nature of Christ, but of the entire virtue of the Father, and the full completion of his promises, (for so I would interpret the word, rather than fulness,) dwelling in, not hypostatically united with, Christ's human nature; and this bodily, that is, not in ceremonies and the rudiments of the world, but really and substantially ;3 according to Isai. xi. 2. &c. "the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom." John iii. 34. "God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him." i. 17. grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." 1 Tim. iii. 16. "God was manifest in the flesh," that is, in the incarnate Son, his own image. With regard to Christ's divine nature, the reader is referred to what was proved in a former chapter concerning the Son of God; from whence it follows, that he by whom all things were made both in heaven and earth, even the angels themselves, he who in the beginning was the Word, and God with God, and although not supreme, yet the first born of every creature, must necessarily have existed previous to his incarnation, whatever subtleties may have been invented to evade this conclusion by those who contend for the merely human nature of Christ.4

This incarnation of Christ, whereby he, being God, took upon him the human nature, and was made flesh, without thereby ceasing to be numerically the same as before, is gene

3 Clarke (Scripture Doctrine) agrees with Milton in his interpretation of this text, but is fully refuted by Waterland in his 7th sermon on Christ's Divinity proved from his Attributes, to which the reader is referred for a masterly criticism on the passage. Works, II. 156.

4 Alluding to the sophistries of Socinus, Cellius, and other writers of the same school.