right to ask the reward ;* Ask of me, and I shall give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possesssion. Thus far the proposal of the covenant on the part of the Father; the acceptance on the part of the Son consists in this; that he willingly submitted himself to the law of the coveǹant;t Mine ear hast thou (bored) opened; that is, thou hast engaged me as a willing servant to thyself, having agreed about the reward. Then said I, Lo! I come, I delight to do thy will, yea, thy law is within my heart. See also John xiv. 31. Nor did the Son only take this upon himself, but actually performed it, being made of a woman, made under the law. I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love: and John viii. 29. I do always those things that please him. Nor did he part with his life, till he had truly said, TETELESTAI, It is finished.§ In the course of this obedience, the Son comforted himself in the faithfulness of the Father, to accomplish his promises, I said, Surely my judgment (reward) is with the Lord, and (the recompense of) my work with my God. And when he drew near the end of his course, he claimed, with great confidence of mind, the reward promised him ;¶ I have glorified thee on earth, I have finished the work, which thou gavest me to do. And now O Father, glorify me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. What, pray, can be supposed wanting to complete the form of a covenant, which we have not here? XI. In fine, all these things may be confirmed from this, that Christ likewise made use of the sacraments; not only as to the matter of these institutions, as they were commands divinely enjoined, the observance of which had a respect to virtue ; but as to the form, as they were signs and seals of the covenant; God the Father, by the use of them, sealing to the Son the federal promise concerning justification from sins, not his *Psal. ii. 8. † Psal. xl. 7-9. John xix. 30. Is. xlix. 4. Gal. iv. 4. John xv. 10. proper and personal sins, either of commission or omis sion (for such he had none*) but from those, which, by a voluntary engagement, he took upon himself as his own and from which, as Surety he was justified in the spirit, and also concerning life eternal, to be bestowed on him and his; and God the Son, in the use of them, acknowledging himself a debtor to fulfil all righteousness as these things have been learnedly observed and explained by these celebrated gentlemen Voetius and Essenius.§ But let us illustrate this by an example. In the baptism of Christ, there was an evident sealing of the covenant on both sides. Christ declared, that it was his province to fulfil all righteousness. To that he bound himself by baptism; telling John upon his refusing to baptize him, Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. The Father declared, that he accepted the suretiship; In thee I am well pleased: and put him in mind of the inheritance, Thou art my Son. All these things he sealed by the symbol of the Holy Ghost descending upon him XII. As these things are evident, and contain a demonstration of the truth to the conscience, I would not have Ps. xvi. 2. strained to this purpose: Thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord TоBATHI BAL NGALECHA, my goodness (is not upon thee) extendeth not to thee: as if these words there was an address of God the Father to the Son, to this purpose: I require nothing more of thee, as a satisfaction to me, in order to display my grace. For thus a learned author paraphrases these words. Thou hast said to the Lord, &c. Thou Son of man, hast acknowledged, that Jehovah is the Lord, and, as a servant, hast engaged obedience to him. Thou, by loving and obeying even unto death (to which thou offerest thyself) hast declared me to be Lord, and honored me with a perfect obedience. As to any advantage to be obtained, my goodness, 2 Cor. v. 21. 1 Pet. ii. 16. † 1 Tim. iii. 16. ‡ Disput. de fide Christi. ejusque sacramentorum usu, disput. ii. p. 160. § De subjectione Christi. ad legem divinam, c. 10. § 11. || Mat. iii. 16. ¶ Luke iii. 22. that is, my grace, and the benefits depending thereon, extendeth not to thee, [is not upon thee; ] that is, thou art, TETELEIOMENOS, an absolute and perfect Saviour. What was laid upon thee, or what thou wast bound by suretiship to perform, that my goodness might extend to mankind, that thou hast performed. I accept of it. Thus NGAL generally denotes some thing due, both among the Hebrews, and in the sacred writings. XIII. But I think, these things are strained, and do not run with proper smoothness. For, 1. There is nothing which obliges us to imagine, unless we incline to do so, that there is contained in these words an address of God the Father to the Son; since the whole of this psalm has not the least appearance of a dialogue, but only represents a single person, speaking in one continued discourse, whom Piscator, by weighty ar guments, proves to be the Lord Jesus. The learned person himself speaks thus: "This discourse may certainly be ascribed to the Son, as addressing himself." And therefore I say, it is certainly possible, that this discourse cannot contain the approbation of the Father acquiescing in the obedience of the Son. For if the Son addresses his own soul, which said to Jehovah, Thou art my Lord, and my goodness extendeth not to [is not upon thee; doubtless the Son said this to the Father, and not the Father to the Son. 2. I own, that these words, which the Son says to the Father, or the Father to the Son, are so emphatical, that they cannot, in their full signification; be supposed to be spoken by either of them to the other, on account of the peculiar excellence which is in the Son.* But I question, whether any can be easily persuaded, that the approbation of the most perfect obedience of the Son, and the acquiescence of the Father therein, are expressed in such slender terms, Thou hast said, Thou art my Lord. As I appeal to any, who teaches [understands] the good knowledge of the Lord, as it is said of the Levites,t * Heb. i. 4. † 2 Chron. xxx. 22. whether those words of scripture be such, as" that no one can devise any thing more proper to illustrate that sense," which the very learned person elsewhere requires, before he acquiesces in the meaning assigned.* 3. It is very true, that NGAL sometimes, among the Hebrews, signified something due. The very learned de Dieut has long ago observed this, from the writings of the Hebrews, and also of the Arabs. But that signification does not seem proper to this place. For Christ was neither indebted to God for his goodness, or grace, and the blessings depending upon it;. nor did he properly owe the grace of God to believers. But, by virtue of a compact he owed obedience to God; which being performed, God owed to Christ and to them who are Christ's, the reward promised by the compact, which is given to Christ as a due debt. The signification of being due might be insisted upon, had it been said, My law, or satisfaction to my justice, or something to that purpose, is no more upon thee [no longer extendeth to thee.] But we must fetch a strange compass to make these words, My goodness extendeth not to [is not upon] thee, to signify, Thou art no longer indebted to my goodness; and again, that the meaning of them should be, "Thou hast done every thing, to which thou wast bound, that my goodness might be extended to men." And I verily doubt, whether it could ever come into any one's mind, that "such an explication is the fullest, the most simple, and most suited to the connection; in fine, that it is such, that none who compares it with the words of scripture, can devise a more happy manner of expressing the thing; and that therein an inexpressible degree of light, truth, and wisdom, may be discovered," For these are laws of interpretation, which the very learned person himself has laid down.‡ XIV. 4. Another sense may be fairly brought from the words of the psalm, which has nothing either harsh or strained, and contains what is becoming the • Sum. theol. c. iii. § 30. † In Gen. xvi, 5. Sum. theol. c. vi. § 38. VOL. I. D d wisdom of God, in this manner: The Lord Jesus, being deeply engaged in holy meditations, addresses his soul, that is, himself; and declares, that, while in his meditation, he said to JEHOVAH the Father, Thou art the Lord, all-sufficient to and by thyself for all happiness. Wherefore by this whole work of my meditation, and consequently by all my obedience, no accession of new or greater happiness is made to thee, nor canst thou be enriched by my satisfaction. My goodness extendeth not to thee: thou receivest no benefit thereby. All the fruit of my satisfaction redounds to thy pious and chosen people. See Job xxii. 2. & xxv. 7. The comment of Ben Nachman on the former place is elegant, agreeing very much with the phraseology in our text. "He declares, that no addition of good is made to God, when any good is done." All these words contain a salutary truth, instructing us concerning the all-sufficiency of God, to whom no new good can accrue from any quarter, and concerning the fruit of Christ's satisfaction, as redounding to the godly; and are most adapted to the words and analogy of the whole psalm. For NGAL many times in scripture signifies the same as ÆL, to. I shall produce a place or two, which occurred to me, when meditating on these things in reading the scriptures. What Micah says,* VENAHARU NGALAV NGAMMIM and people shall flow un'o it; this Isaiah expresses as follows,† VENAHARU ELAV CAL HAGGOIM and all nations shall flow unto it. Where AL and NGAL are taken in the same signification. In like manner, wrote letters NGAL EPHRAIM, that is, to the Ephraimites. 'Tis still more to the purpose, what we have 1 Sam. i. 10. VATTITHPALLEL NGAL JEHOVAH, prayed unto the Lord; and Psal. xviii. 41. They cried NGAL JEHOVAH, unto the Lord but he answered them not. Sometimes it signifies the same thing, as TZAD up to, or quite to ; as 2 Chron. xxxii. 5. VAJANGAL NGAL HAMIGHDALOTH, and raised (the wall) up to the towers: not that it *Sum. theol. c. iv. s. † Chap. ii. 2. ( 2 Chron. xxx. I. |