tells the Colossians that the Son is "the image of the invisible God," Col. i. 15; and the Hebrews that he is "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,"-Heb. i. 3; and, in both instances, establishes the assertion upon the ground that he is the Maker of all things. To attempt to glance, even, at any large proportion of the evidence on this point, which is found in all the teachings of our Saviour himself, is impossible and unnecessary. When the Jews persecuted him for working a miracle on the Sabbath, and claiming God as his Father, thereby making himself equal with God, he replied to them, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."-John v. 19. To his disciple Philip, asking him to show them the Father, he says, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?"-John xiv. 9. He tells his disciples, "All things that the Father hath are mine; therefore said I that he [the Comforter] shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you."-John xvi. 15. And, in his prayer to the Father, he says, "I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." "I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me."-John xvii. 4, 6. So Paul declares, that "great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifested in the flesh, . . . seen of angels."-1 Tim. iii. 16. In respect to the relation of the work of Christ to the angelic hosts, our space will not permit an extended discussion. It is, however, evident that his office is one involving, not only dominion over them, but beneficent purposes toward them, and that the scheme of the covenant contemplated, as the ultimate end had in view, the revelation of God, to all the intelligent creatures, in the person and work of Christ his Son.

In order to the fulfilment of the purposes contemplated in his investiture with this office, it was necessary that Christ should be, not only the Saviour of men, but the Maker of all things, the Lord of Providence, and Head over all; as, in all these, the

glory of the Godhead shines. It was, therefore, requisite that the Son should be placed upon the throne, in the midst of that same eternity in which the covenant was made. This, indeed, is implied in the very announcement of such a compact between such parties. The bounds and limitations which time and space, and finite intelligence, set to the conceptions and actions of men, have no application to Him who inhabits eternity and immensity; alike unlimited by either of those dimensions. To the holiness and truth of God, the mutual pledges of the covenant are equivalent to their fulfilment. To his eternity, the work of Christ on earth was from everlasting as fully present in its whole process and completion, as when, in the annals of time, the Son walked among men, and laboured and died. The throne was, therefore, possessed by the Son, from the sealing of the compact; both as being thus a matter of purchased right, and as his installation was the means, contemplated in it, for the fulfilling of the ends of the covenant. Hence, the declaration of Wisdom, in the book of Proverbs:-"I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning or ever the earth was.”—Prov. viii. 23. As we have seen, the word, "set up," is the same which in the second Psalm declares the coronation of the Son:-"Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill."-Psalm ii. 6. The transaction is the same. And, as in the Psalm the date is fixed by coincidence with the birth of the Son,-"this day have I begotten thee," so, here, they are associated, and together dated "from everlasting."

The extent of the field embraced in the purview of the covenant was proportionate to the dignity of the parties, and the

12. Its pur- grandeur and importance of the objects. Without view, all things. limitation or reserve, it comprehended in its provisions all things in the universe. Its conditions embraced every creature and event; all time and eternity. We have already, in a former chapter, considered the leading features of an eternal plan according to which God has seen good to reveal himself to his creatures. The covenant was the means, devised by infinite wisdom, of making known to the creatures the immutability of the council embodied in that plan; and of securing

its infallible accomplishment. The provisions, therefore, are coextensive and identical with the features of the plan; and their end is one and the same, the revelation of God to his intelligent creatures. In the process of administration, man is the great centre of interest and action. The first Adam, the image of God and crown of the creation, enthroned amid the joyous shoutings of the sons of God; and his apostasy and ruin;-the second Adam, the Son of God and of man, the brightness of the Father's glory, and express image of his person; his eternal generation; his creation of all things; his incarnation and death; his triumphant conflict with Satan; his exaltation and glory, as man swaying the sceptre of universal empire, and receiving the homage of every knee in heaven and earth; the general judgment, where the man Christ Jesus and his people shall sit, and, in presence of the universe, determine the eternal state of every creature, devils, angels and reprobate men; and the final and eternal pre-eminence of man in the persons of Christ and his people;—these are the grand features in the whole amazing scheme, and landmarks in the process of its accomplishment. Subservient to these are all other creatures and events. In the light of this covenant, our earth is the great centre of attraction to the universe, and the high throne of God's revealed glory. The material universe, in all its magnificence and starry beauty, is but a chaplet, to adorn the brow of that Second Man, in whose unsearchable person the Maker of them all is incarnate. They all were made by him and for him; he upholdeth them all by the word of his power; and in him they consist. The angelic throng,―creatures of the power, and dependent upon the upholding goodness, of the Son of man,-are all man's servants, ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for the heirs of salvation; and students, desiring to look into, and comprehend, the mystery of God, revealed in the persons of the first and second Adam and the history of man. Man was the prize, for whom the Son of God left his throne, and entered the lists with Satan and all his hosts; and earth was its scene. And when, at length, the mystery of God shall be finished, and the Son shall have triumphed over every foe, when he shall have cast Satan and death and hell and all

the enemies into the bottomless pit, and sealed the door, no more to be opened, because there is no more curse,-when he shall have rescued from the grave the dust of his people, and received them to his own glory,-when, by his whole wondrous administration, he shall have made known the invisible God, to the blessed angelic hosts, in all the glorious symmetry of his unsearchable perfections and unspeakable grace, and shall have established them in perfect holiness and infallible allegiance, forever, when the whole scheme of the covenant shall be completed, and all its ends accomplished, and the Son, accompanied by all the angels of God, shall draw near the throne, to deliver up the kingdom to God even the Father, the redeemed of men will be the attendants nearest his person; and the child of Mary will be He, the attraction of every eye, his beauties the delight of every heart, and the lustre of his deeds the theme of every tongue. And the spontaneous burst of rapturous praise, which will pour in mingled harmony from every voice and harp in heaven, as the sound of mighty thunderings, and as the sound of many waters, will extol and celebrate the glory of the throne, and majesty of the kingdom, of the Son of David, the Son of man. Nor, in all the blessed and adoring throng, are there any but debtors to the power the goodness and grace of Him whose praise they celebrate. "For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him and for him; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the first born from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.”—Col. i. 16-20.

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truly a man.

CHAPTER XX.

THE SECOND ADAM.

IN the days of Herod, the king of Judea, "the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a 1. Christ was. Virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said. Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.... And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her."Luke i. 26-38.

The Scriptures are very particular in setting forth the true and proper humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and his derivation of it, by a true generation, from the common nature and parents of the race. In the original promise, he is described as the seed of the woman.

In the covenant with Abraham, he is