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but likewise from that passage in the first chapter of the Gospel by John; where the world is declared to be his "He came unto his own (his own property)," to wit the world, "but his own (persons) received him not." The thing called his own property is the same with that universe (ver. 3) which was made by him. This heirship of all things belongs to him, not in his Divine nature, in which sense they are as much the property of the Father, and of the Holy Ghost, as of him; but they belong to him, specially in his official character of the Christ, which he assumed unto himself with a view to creation, and for the gracious end of blessing creation with the knowledge and enjoyment and blessedness of God. It is, I say again, a great want of discernment in "the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ," to make Christ possessor of all, in right of his Divinity. For the Godhead never changing, can never abandon any of its rights; whereas Christ did give up the glory which he had with the Father before the world was: though rich, he did for our sakes become poor; he emptied himself, and made himself of no reputation. All this is not an appearance, fiction, or make-believe, but a truth. But if this be spoken of him in his Godhead, how can it be? for God cannot change. It is absolutely necessary, therefore, to believe that he must hold what he relinquishes, by another holding than the unchangeable holding of Godhead. And what is that holding? There is no other, than that which he possesseth in the character of Christ, assumed before the worlds, in order to create and bless the worlds in that limited subsistence which is not creation, but creation's source; which is not creature, but creature's prototype; which is not the purpose in the absolute Godhead, nor yet the purpose realized in creation, but the purpose embodied in the person of the Son, the Word, in whom is life and light and all information of creaturebeing. This glory of being the fulness of the Father's purpose, and the fountain-head of all creation, he could resign ; because it pertained to him as the Christ (his rights as God he cannot resign); and he did resign it, when he became frail man, mortal and corruptible man. He resigned it for an end far nobler than to possess it; the end, to wit, of shewing the love, grace, and goodness. which is in God, towards man, his master-work; and

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towards creation, man's inheritance. To shew the existence of a moral principle in God, the principle of grace, Christ deemed it nothing beneath his dignity, to let go the heirship and lordship of all creation, and to become. a houseless homeless wanderer, who had not where to lay his head. Yea more-the Christ, life's Fountain, life's Preserver, was content to become mortal and dead, in order to shew the faithfulness, the trueness of God's word, that Adamhood should die for one transgression; and at the same time to shew the faithfulness and trueness of another word of God, that Adamhood should rise again from death, by one man's righteousness.-These things are not for me; they should be sung in loftiest strains, by every breathing thing, with every instrument of music. They are too lofty to be given forth in languid prose: but I am a weak man, and have not attained unto the measure of my fathers; yet I have good assurance that there will arise some one, perhaps many, who have in them the poetry of youth, and are blessed with leisure and retirement to give worthy form to these ideas, which I am roughly hewing, and hastily casting forth from an overwrought and sometimes troubled mind. For as reproach broke the heart of the Son of God, no good man should desire or claim exemption from the like sinless infirmity of feeling the reproaches of brethren and kinsmen dear. But truth cannot be wounded unto death the truth cannot die. The banner which I have displayed for the truth, against a violent and heady and heartless generation will not, cannot sink in the agitation which may overwhelm me, and all who do battle around it. This truth of the Son of God, the Second Person of the adorable Trinity, taking the form of the Christ and really subsisting in that limited form, and therein creating all things; and, when all things had fallen into sin, being content to forego his right for a season, and to come into destitute mortal flesh, in order to shew what He who is God can do, out of love and grace ;— this truth, I say, is the root of truth. It is an idea which defendeth Godhead's unchangeableness, which exhibiteth Godhead's graciousness, which explains creation's true standing, as not in God, nor yet holding of God by necessary connection, so as that he should be incomplete without it, and it makes Christ's humiliation a real, not

a fictitious thing; and it preserves his Godhead-person, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, while it leaves room for his real, veritable humiliation of himself into mortal corruptible flesh, that he might take creation out of the hands of the destroyer, and rise again with creation in himself, of himself an imperishable part. I say this truth is a pearl, a pearl of inestimable price, which he who knoweth of it straightway selleth all, that he may possess it. I gave the pearl forth, for the enriching of the church: nor wonder I, nor should men wonder, in these schismatical and cruel-hearted times, in these ignoble inglorious dishonourable and dishonest times, that many should have trampled the pearl under their feet and turned again and rent me. It is a truth which, since the days of the Council of Nice, hath been obscured and eclipsed by its own blessed productions, as the stem and trunk of the tree, is observed by the exuberance of its fruits, and flowers, and foliage. But in these days when all the precious productions of this fruitful idea, which took form from the time of the Nicene Council, and were confirmed at the Reformation, are withered and fallen off, we are fain to address our care to the root and trunk of the tree once more. We, whom the Father hath appointed to keep the vineyard, must not heed the opposition, but address ourselves during the winter to the work of digging about the roots and clearing the trunk, and opening avenues to the light, and access to the refreshing air of heaven, assured that there is life in it, and that another spring is coming when these wintry nipping winds shall be past, and "the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad, and the desert shall blossom like the rose.'

In consequence of this right to all, which Christ possesseth, not as pertaining to his Godhead, but as pertaining to his Christhood, to his assumed, but not to his necessary form of being; (for, as hath been said, his Godhead right he cannot, but his Christhead right, he can and doth resign;) he hath title and claim to be the Redeemer. It is his in right; but the right hath gone from him, and he cometh to redeem it. Now how went the right from him? It went from him in consequence of his having invested therewith another, even Adam, and given it to him ́ to keep and to maintain: not indeed in fee-simple stood'

Adam invested, but in direct holding from Christ, as his created representative image and vicegerent, with only one sign of creature inferiority, which was abstinence from the fruit of the forbidden tree. This most honoured of all lieutenants suffered himself to be seduced from his allegiance, and allowed an usurper, the enemy of Christ, to take possession of his faith and confidence, instead of the Word of God. The inheritance was forfeited; life was forfeited; the creation's existence was forfeited; and the body, which had been created out of dust, into an image of God, went back into mouldering dust again. Now I say, if creation had been a thing necessary unto God, as having union with God in any way, this could not have happened. The death of life is the proof that the life stood, not in God as God, but in God as Christ. Therefore this breaking of the cord, this untwisting of the triple cord, this breaking of the pitcher at the fountain, this spilling of the sweet waters, could all have place; and having place, is the proof of what sin is, is the proof of what sinners are, of what the devil is, of what death is, and a faint foreshewing of the second death. Yea, moreover, and it gives the occasion for shewing the counterpart of all these calamities, the medicine of all these poisons, the physician of all these evils, in the goodness, grace, and love of God himself, who in the person of his Son doth strip himself of all the glory of the Christ, and descend naked into the field of controversy, to cast this usurper out, and save with an everlasting salvation. And how now doth he attain unto himself the power of Redeemer? I answer, by becoming one of the family whom he would redeem; by becoming flesh of their flesh, and bone of their bone; for by the ordinance of God for shewing us what a Redeemer is, he must be a kinsman, yea and nearest kinsman, to those whom he would redeem. He must come, therefore, into their likeness, he must be born of the same mother, and made of the same substance, and placed under the same law, and made liable to the same temptations and death. He is to redeem mankind, and the inheritance of mankind. It is not manhood unfallen that he comes to redeem ; for, besides that this needed no redemption, if he had come in the likeness of the unfallen man, he must have come not by generation, but by creation; he must have

been made out of dust, and not made out of a woman. Generation had not place till our first parents fell, according as it is written Gen. iv. 1, 2: “ And Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground."-It is a foolish, vain, and wicked invention of Satan to assert that Christ came in the nature of Adam before he fell. Adam was not made of a woman, he was not made under the law; but it is expressly said of Christ, that "he was made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons." If he came in the likeness of Adam unfallen, how should it be said that he came in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin (concerning or about sin); to redeem flesh from weakness and bondage, and to bring it into holiness and freedom? If he came in the likeness of Adam before he fell, how should it be said, that in order to redeem us from the devil's power, and the prison-house of death, he, kinsmanlike, shared flesh and blood with the children. The solecisms, the untenable positions, the glaring heresies, into which those are betrayed who maintain this doctrine arise altogether from their ignorance of the ordinances of the redeemer, which a few hours' study of the Old Testament would remove. But interpretation of types and prophecies is a thing which they set little store by, when compared with their own argumentations, and declamations, and polemical exploits, for the nourishment of their own self-esteem, and the gratification of a vain contentious worldly-minded generation.

Our Lord's third primogeniture, from the grave, is likewise necessary in order to constitute him Redeemer; for this reason, that thereby he was proved to have satisfied the conditions of the redemption. That which fell in upon man's estate, in consequence of the mastery of the devil, is the bondage from which he is to be redeemed. Christ by becoming co-partner of this bondage, by taking to himself mortal and corruptible flesh, was joined to us in our condition, and doth prove himself Redeemer by answering the stipulations of God, and overcoming the enemy of man. The stipulations of God have never changed. They are

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