refer to that very celebrated testimony of Isaiah, where he predicts, that he should be smitten of God for the transgressions of the people, that the chastisement of their peace might be upon him; and that he should be a priest to offer up himself as a victim; that by his stripes others should be healed; and that because all men had gone astray, and been dispersed like sheep, it would please the Lord to afflict him, and to lay on him the iniquities of all.(g) As we are informed that Christ is particularly appointed by God for the relief of miserable sinners, all who pass these bounds are guilty of indulging a foolish curiosity. When he himself appeared in the world, he declared the design of his advent to be, to appease God and restore us from death to life. The apostles testified the same. Thus John, before he informs us that the Word was made flesh, mentions the defection of men. (h) But our principal attention is due to Christ himself speaking of his own office. He says, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (i) Again: "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." (k) "I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." (1) Again: "The Son of man is come to save that which was lost." (m) Again: "They that be whole need not a physician." (n) There would be no end, if I meant to quote all the passages. The apostles with one consent call us back to this principle; for certainly, if he had not come to reconcile God, the honour of his priesthood would have been lost, for a priest is appointed as a Mediator to intercede between God and man:(0) he could not have been our righteousness, because he was made a sacrifice for us, that God might not impute sins to us. (p) Finally, he would have been spoiled of all the noble characters under which he is celebrated in the Scripture. This assertion of Paul would have no foundation: "What the law could not do, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin

(g) Isaiah liii. 4, &c.
(k) John v. 25.

(n) Matt. ix. 12.

(h) John i. 9, &c.
(1) John xi. 25.
(0) Heb. v. 1.

(i) John iii. 16.
(m) Matt. xviii. 11.
(p) 2 Cor. v. 19.

in the flesh." (9) Nor would there be any truth in what he teaches in another place, that "the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared" (r) in the gift of Christ as a Redeemer. To conclude, the Scripture no where assigns any other end, for which the Son of God should choose to become incarnate, and should also receive this command from the Father, than that he might be made a sacrifice to appease the Father on our account. "Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer; and that repentance should be preached in his name." (s) "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life. This commandment have I received of my Father." (t) "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up.” (v) Again: "Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour." (w) "Father, glorify thy Son." (x) Where he clearly assigns, as the end of his assumption of human nature, that it was to be an expiatory sacrifice for the abolition of sins. For the same reason, Zacharias pronounces that he is come, according to the promise given to the fathers, "to give light to them that sit in the shadow of death." (y) Let us remember that all these things are spoken of the Son of God, "in whom," according to the testimony of Paul, “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," (z) and beside whom he glories in knowing nothing. (a)

V. If any one object, that it is not evinced by any of these things, that the same Christ, who hath redeemed men from condemnation, could not have testified his love to them by assuming their nature, if they had remained in a state of integrity and safety; we briefly reply, that since the Spirit declares these two things, Christ's becoming our Redeemer, and his participation of the same nature, to have been connected by the eternal decree of God, it is not right to make any further inquiry. For he who feels an eager desire to know something more, not being content with the immutable appointment of God, shews himself also not to be contented with this

(9) Rom. viii. 3.
(t) John x. 17, 18.
(x) John xvii. 1.
(a) 1 Cor. ii. 2.

(†) Titus iii. 4.
(v) John iii. 14.

(y) Luke i. 72, 79.

(s) Luke xxiv. 46, 47.
(w) John xii. 27.
(z) Col. ii. S.

Christ, who has been given to us as the price of our redemption. Paul not only tells us the end of his mission, but ascending to the sublime mystery of predestination, very properly represses all the licentiousness and prurience of the human mind, by declaring, that "the Father hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, and predestinated us to the adoption of children according to the good pleasure of his will, and made us accepted in his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood." (b) Here the fall of Adam is certainly not presupposed, as of anterior date; but we have a discovery of what was decreed by God before all ages, when he determined to remedy the misery of mankind. If any adversary object again, that this design of God depended on the fall of man, which he foresaw: it is abundantly sufficient for me, that every man is proceeding with impious presumption to imagine to himself a new Christ, whoever he be that permits himself to inquire, or wishes to know, concerning Christ, any more than God hath predestinated in his secret decree. And justly does Paul, after having been thus treating of the peculiar office of Christ, implore on behalf of the Ephesians the spirit of understanding, "that they may be able to comprehend what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge:” (c) as though he would labour to surround our minds with barriers, that wherever mention is made of Christ, they may not decline in the smallest degree from the grace of reconciliation. Wherefore since "this is" testified by Paul to be "a faithful saying, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners," (d) I gladly acquiesce in it. And since the same apostle in another place informs us, that "the grace, which is now made manifest by the gospel, was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began:" (e) I conclude that I ought to persevere in the same doctrine with constancy to the end. This modesty is unreasonably censured by Osiander, who in the present age has unhappily agitated this question, which a few persons had slightly touched before. He alleges a charge of presumption against those who deny that the Son of God would have appeared in

the flesh, if Adam had never fallen; because this tenet is contradicted by no testimony of Scripture. As if Paul laid no restraint on such perverse curiosity, when, after having spoken of the accomplishment of our redemption by Christ, he immediately adds this injunction: "Avoid foolish questions." (ƒ) The frenzy of some, that have been desirous of appearing prodigiously acute, has proceeded to such a length as to question, whether the Son of God could assume the nature of an ass. This monstrous supposition, which all pious persons. justly abhor and detest, Osiander excuses under this pretext, that it is no where in Scripture expressly condemned. As if, when Paul esteems nothing valuable or worthy of being known but Christ crucified, he would receive an ass as the author of salvation. Therefore he who in another place declares that Christ was appointed by the eternal decree of the Father as "the head over all," (g) would never acknowledge any other who had not been appointed to the office of a Redeemer.

VI. But the principle which he boasts, is altogether frivolous. He maintains that man was created in the image of God, because he was formed in the similitude of the future Messiah, that he might resemble him whom the Father had already decreed to clothe with flesh. Whence he concludes, that if Adam had never fallen from his primitive integrity, Christ would nevertheless have become man. How nugatory and forced this is, all who possess a sound judgment readily perceive: but he supposes that he has been the first to discover wherein the Divine image consisted; namely, that the glory of God not only shone in those eminent talents with which man was endued, but that God himself essentially resided in him. Now though I admit that Adam bore the Divine image, inasmuch as he was united to God, which is true dignity and consummate perfection; yet I contend that the similitude of God is to be sought only in those characters of excellence, with which God distinguished Adam above the other creatures. And that Christ was even then the image of God, is universally allowed; and therefore whatever excellence was impressed on Adam proceeded from this circumstance, that he approached

to the glory of his Maker by means of his only-begotten Son. Man therefore was made in the image of God, and was designed to be a mirror to display the glory of his Creator. He was exalted to this degree of honour by the favour of the onlybegotten Son, but I add, that this Son was a common head to angels as well as to men: so that the angels also were entitled to the same dignity which was conferred on man. And when we hear them called the "children of God," (h) it would be unreasonable to deny that they have some resemblance to their Father. But if he designed his glory to be represented in angels as well as in men, and to be equally conspicuous in the angelic as in the human nature, Osiander betrays his ignorance and folly in saying that men were preferred to angels, because the latter did not bear the image of Christ. For unless they were like him, they could not constantly enjoy the present contemplation of God: and Paul teaches us that men are no otherwise renewed after the image of God than that, if they be associated with angels, they may be united together under one head. (i) Finally, if we give credit to Christ, our ultimate felicity, when we shall be received into heaven, will consist in being conformed to the angels. But if Osiander may infer, that the primary exemplar of the Divine image was taken from the human nature of Christ, with the same justice may any other person contend, that Christ must have been made a partaker of the nature of angels, because they likewise possess the image of God.

VII. Osiander then has no reason to fear, that God could possibly be proved a liar, unless the decree concerning the incarnation of his Son had been previously and immutably fixed in his mind. Because though Adam had not fallen from his integrity, yet he would have resembled God just as the angels do; and yet it would not have been necessary on that account for the Son of God to become either a man or an angel. Nor has he any cause to fear this absurdity, if God had not immutably decreed, before the creation of man, that Christ should be born, not as a Redeemer, but as the first man, that he might not lose his prerogative: whereas now he would (1) Col. ii. 10.

(h) Psalm lxxxii. 6.