ed men, think, that these words of the apostle, whose genuine sense we have been enquiring into, rather contain an argument for the incarnation of Christ, than assert the incarnation itself. V. Moreover, it may be proved by invincible arguments, that it was necessary our Surety should be man. Let us pause a little here, and see, whether we may not possibly search this truth to the bottom. The legal covenant, entered into with the first man, is founded on the very nature of God; at least with respect to the commands of the covenant, and the freatenings annexed to them so that it would be a contradiction, if these precepts of the law of nature should not be proposed to man, or if 'man, after the violation of them, should be saved without a satisfaction; which I now presuppose, as having proved it before, and shall further confirm it in the sequel. I therefore proceed : This satisfaction can be nothing else, but the performing the same precepts, and the undergoing the same penalty, with which God had threatened the sinner. Because from our hypothesis it appears, that it is unworthy of God to grant life to man, but on condition of his obeying those precepts; nor possible for the truth and justice of God to be satisfied, unless the punishment, which the sinner deserved, should be inflicted. I add, No creature but man can perform those precepts, which where given to man. This appears, 1. Because the law, which is suitable to the nature of man, requires, that he love God with all his soul, and serve him with his whole body; seeing both are God's. None can do this but he who consists of soul and body, that is, man. 2. The same law requires the love of our neighbour; now, none is our neighbour but man, who is of the same blood with us. this purpose is that emphatical saying of God to Israel, Hide not thyself from thine own flesh. And thus our Surety ought to cherish us, as one does his own flesh ; and consequently we ought to be of his flesh and of his * Is. Iviii. 7. Το bones. 3. It requires also, that we lay down our lives for our brethren, which, we have shewn above, was eminently contained in the royal law of love. None but man again can do this. For who else is our brother ?† or who besidses could lay down his life for us? No other creature but man could undergo the same sufferings, as hunger, thirst, weariness, death. It became God to threaten sinning man with these things; that even the body, which was the instrument of sin, might also undergo its share of the punishment. And after the threatening, the truth of God could not but inflict these things, either on the sinner, or the Surety. The dignity of the sufferer might indeed sufficiently compensate for the duration of the punishment. But the truth of God admits of no commutation of the species of punishment. Wherefore our Surety was partaker of flesh and blood, that, through death, he might destroy him that had the power of death. All these things put together, incontestibly prove, that our Surety ought to be man, that he might satisfy the law for us. VI. This is what the apostle means, when he joins these two together by an inseparable connection, made of a woman, and made under the law. For he intimates, that the principal and immediate scope and end of Christ's incarnation was, that, in the human nature, he might be subject to the law, to which it is under obligation: and so that God, according to the same right might renew with him the same covenant, which he had before entered into with the first man; which he could not have done with any other nature whatever, without a contradiction. VII. There is this further consideration: Our Surety ought to have such a nature, in order to our being united to him in one body. For it is necessary, that the satisfaction of one be as it were the satisfaction of all, and the Spirit who fits for a holy and a happy life, should flow from him, as the head, to us as his members; and * Eph. v. 30. † Heb. ii. 11. Heb. ii. 14. Gal. iv. 4. so that he become the Saviour of the body.* The scripture frequently calls this mystical union a marriage. Now, it is the inviolable law of marriage, that the persons married be of the same nature: These two shall be one flesh. In which words Paul hath taught us, that the mystery of the spiritual marriage of the church with Christ lies concealed.‡ VIII. We observed, that the second condition required in the Surety was, that he be a righetous and holy man ; in all things like unto his brethren yet without sin. This holiness consisted in this, that, from the first moment of his conception, he should be free from any guilt and stain of sin of his own; an on the contrary, be furnished with the original rectitude of the image of God: that, moreover, through the whole course of his life, he should keep himself from all sin, and perfectly fulfil all righteousness and in fine, that he should constantly persevere in that purity to the end, without yielding to any tempta tion. IX. And this also is clear from what has been already said. For seeing our Surety ought to save us, according to the first treaty of the covenant, whereby perfect holiness was required of man, it also behoved him to be perfectly holy. And as the gate of heaven was shut by sin, it could not be opened again but by holiness. This the apostle urges, For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Now, that obedience excludes all sin. And how, pray, could a sinner satisfy for others, who cannot satisfy for himself, when, by one sin he forfeits his own soul? For who is this (from among sinful men) that can engage his heart to approach unto me? saith the Lord. Or who can be our Priest, familiarly to approach for us to God, and offer an acceptable sacrifice and prevalent intercession to him, but one who is himself pure from Eph. v. 31. 32. Heb. iv. 15. 1 Jer. xxx. 21. * Eph. v. 23. every sin? Such a high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.* He then can offer himself, as a lamb without blemish and without spot,† whose offering may be to God for a sweet smelling savour. For none other, who cannot offer himself to God without spot, can purge the conscience from dead works.§ This was formerly signified by the legal purity of the high priest, without which it was such a crime for any to intermeddle in holy things, that he was to be punished by death; and by the purity of the beasts, which were to be without any blemish. And seeing it is well known, that God heareth not sinners, whose prayers are an abomination to him ;¶ who else can be the general Intercessor and Advocate of all with the Father, but he who is eminently righteous ?** In fine, how could he, who is himself impure, sanctify the church, and present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish ?†† There cannot be more in the effect, than there is in the cause. Since all these things ought to be done by the Surety, it appears necessary, that he be a holy man. X. But here the adorable wisdom of our God shines forth Our Surety ought not only to be man, but also taken from among men, the Son of man. For if his human nature was created out of nothing, or out of the earth, he would certainly be true man, yet not our kinsman; not our brother. In order to this, therefore, it became him, like other children to be a partaker of flesh and blood,‡‡ and to be born of a woman.§§ But it seemed inconsistent with the unspotted holiness of the Surety, that he should be descended of the posterity of Adam, who are all infected with hereditary pollution from him: for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Here let us adore *Heb. vii. 26. † Pet. i. 19. John ix. 31. Prov. xxvii. 9. ** ¶ # Heb. ii. 14. §§ Gal. iv. 4. Eph. v. 2. Heb. ix. 14. John ii. 1. tt Eph. v. 26, 27. Job xiv. 4. the unsearchable wisdom of God. He would have a Surety to be born of a woman, but of her as a virgin. For this, if nothing else was intended, was at least an evidence of these two things: 1. That the Surety was not from Adam's covenant, as not being born according to the law of nature, and consequently not under the imputation of Adam's sin. 2. Nay, that he could not be so much as considered as existing in Adam, when Adam sinned. Seeing he was not born in virtue of that word, whereby God blessed marriage before the fall, Increase and multiply; but in virtue of the promise concerning the seed of the woman, which followed on the fall. And thus he was created a new Adam, in opposition to the first. For the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, NEKEBA TESOBEB GABÆR, a woman shall compass a man.* We are, it seems, to take this in the utmost signification the words can admit of. That a woman, who is only such, and hath nothing of a woman but the sex, should compass, not by embrace, but by conception. (For such a compassing is meant, as the work of God alone, and not the voluntary operation of man.) A male; denoting the more excellent sex : as Rev. xii. 5. And she brought forth a male child. This then is a new thing, and a creation altogether divine. On this depend the blessing of the earth, and the satiating the weary soul, which are promised in the following verses. J XI. It may here be inquired, whether the miraculous nativity from a virgin does, of itself, secure to the human nature of Christ immunity from sin, and this ought to be fetched from the nature of the thing; or whether, indeed, it has only a respect to a symbol appointed by God? I shall here present the reader, for his more accurate meditation, with the words of two great men, who conceive differently of this matter. There is a learned man who speaks thus: "That miraculous nativity from the virgin, really bears no other relation to the holiness of the conception and nativity * Ter v«-i 22. |