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 A treatise on the of ices o 
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OFFICES OF CHRIST 
 
 ABRIDGED 
 
 FROM THE ORIGINAL WORK OF THE 
 
 REV. GEORGE STEVENSON, 
 
 WILLIAM S. PLUMER, D. D 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 
 
 WILLIAM S. MARTIEN, PUBLISHING AGENT. 
 
 1840. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Page 
 Mediation in General 9 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 The Mediator God and Man in one person 14 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 The Prophetical Office of Christ 17 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 General Observations 13 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 The various ways in which our Lord's instructions 
 as a Prophet have been, and continue to be com- 
 municated 22 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 Our Lord's Teaching 31 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 The extent of our Lord's commission with regard to 
 its objects ; and its various results 36 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 General remarks on the Priestly Office of Christ . . 60 
 
 * 1 «&>54 28fi uimnRAWN 
 
Vll CONTENTS. 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 Page 
 The Suretiship of Christ 63 
 
 SECTION X. 
 
 The humble state of Christ connected with his sure- 
 tiship 79 
 
 SECTION XI. 
 
 The functions of our Lord's Priesthood 83 
 
 SECTION XII. 
 The Kingly Office of Christ 117 
 
 SECTION XIII. 
 
 The extent of our Lord's dominion as Mediator . . 125 
 
 SECTION XIV. 
 
 Our Lord's administration in the Church 130 
 
 SECTION XV. 
 
 Our Lord's Administration as it extends to all things 
 for the benefit of his Church 136 
 
 SECTION XVI. 
 
 What is meant by Christ's delivering up the King- 
 dom 140 
 
 SECTION XVII. 
 
 The eternity of our Lord's reign over the Church 
 triumphant 144 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 MEDIATION IN GENERAL. 
 
 Mediation supposes an existing controversy. 
 A third party comes forward to make up the 
 breach. Hence the official title, mediator. 
 The mode of mediation must depend upon the 
 nature of the offence, and the dispositions of 
 the parties. If the offence is of that descrip- 
 tion which will admit of its being passed over 
 without a legal satisfaction, the mediator may 
 bring about a reconciliation, in so far as the 
 offended party is concerned, by simple inter- 
 cession; but, if the offence is of such a charac- 
 ter as to injure the honour of public law, or to 
 violate the rights of public justice, reconcilia- 
 tion can only be brought about by mediation, 
 in the way of the mediator's giving that satis- 
 faction in the room of the offender which the 
 law requires. In this last case, mediation in- 
 volves suretiship— the mediator takes the place 
 2 
 
10 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 of the offender in law, and gives satisfaction 
 for his offence. But, though the offended 
 party may be satisfied with the reparation 
 made by a surety for the injury he had sus- 
 tained; and, though the honour of public law 
 may be vindicated, the offender may still re- 
 main unreclaimed. To complete the recon- 
 ciliation of the parties, in this case, the offender 
 must be brought to such a frame of mind, and 
 to such a line of conduct, as would entitle him 
 to future confidence, and to the restoration of 
 that friendship which he had deservedly for- 
 feited. In effecting this, the mediator must be 
 regulated by circumstances. If the offensive 
 conduct proceeded merely from error in judg- 
 ment, the offender may be reclaimed by in- 
 struction or persuasion; but if to ignorance he 
 add obstinacy, then, if the mediating party has 
 the right and the means of interfering, -the 
 offender must be brought to submission by 
 power. These principles apply to the recon- 
 ciliation between God and men. 
 
 1. The parties between whom the Lord 
 Jesus is called to mediate are God and fallen 
 men. " There is one God and one Mediator 
 between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." 
 God made man upright, and so long as he re- 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 11 
 
 tained his primitive integrity, he had no need 
 of mediatory interference in his approaches to 
 his Maker. But sin separated between them; 
 and as man had neither the inclination, nor the 
 ability, to satisfy the claims of the divine law 
 which he had violated, if he was to be restored 
 to the favour of his offended sovereign, it be- 
 hoved to be by mediation. 
 
 2. The plan of mediation originated with 
 God. He was the party offended by the sin 
 of man, and according to the principles already 
 laid down, to him alone the right of admitting 
 the satisfaction of a surety in the room of 
 transgressors belonged. But God whom he 
 had offended did not merely admit of a vica- 
 rious satisfaction; he also, in his boundless 
 wisdom and grace, provided the ransom, in 
 the appointment and mission of his own Son 
 to be the Saviour of the world. The whole 
 plan originated in the grace of God, was framed 
 by his wisdom, and is carried into effect by 
 his power. 
 
 3. Our Lord has a peculiar fitness, as God- 
 man, for accomplishing the work of mediation. 
 A condignity of character, in the person who 
 mediates, to the persons with whom he is to 
 mediate, has been invariably thought necessary 
 
12 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 in cases of mediation among men; but it was 
 still more necessary in the present case. It 
 behoved him who was to approach God to 
 make expiation for our sins, to be himself a 
 divine person. Jesus is a divine person, " in 
 the form of God, and thinks it not robbery to 
 be equal with God/' But it was no less ne- 
 cessary that he should be nearly related to the 
 persons for whom he was to mediate; and 
 Jesus is not only God's fellow, but our bro- 
 ther. " As the children are partakers of flesh 
 and blood, he also himself likewise took part 
 of the same." 
 
 4. Our Lord mediates with God in behalf of 
 fallen men as a priest, by sacrifice and by in- 
 tercession. God is the party offended by the 
 sin of man, and to him satisfaction was due for 
 transgression, and this satisfaction could only 
 be made by blood-shedding. The Socinians 
 admit of our Lord's mediation as a priest in 
 heaven, by intercession; but they deny that 
 he mediated by his death as a sacrifice for sin 
 on earth. The Scriptures, however, make his 
 death as a propitiation for sin the fundamental 
 act of his mediation, on the validity of which 
 all his other mediatory acts proceed. " For 
 which cause he is the mediator of the New 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST- 13 
 
 Testament, that by means of death, for the 
 redemption of the transgressions that were 
 under the first testament, they which are called 
 might receive the promise of eternal inheri- 
 tance." Heb. ix. 15. 
 
 5. Our Lord's mediation, as it respects sin- 
 ners, is by instruction, and by power. By 
 his obedience unto death, the controversy on 
 God's part is removed, sin, the cause of it, 
 being expiated, and an everlasting righteous- 
 ness for the justification of the church brought 
 in. " He has made peace by the blood of his 
 cross." But to complete the work of media- 
 tion the offenders must be reclaimed v and 
 brought to a dutiful submission to the law and 
 government of God. This our Lord accom- 
 plishes by his instruction as a prophet, and 
 by his power as a king. 
 
 6. These remarks serve to show that our 
 Lord's general office as mediator* necessarily 
 includes the particular offices of prophet, priest, 
 and king. Sin had separated between us and 
 God; and sin could only be expiated by sacri- 
 fice — hence the necessity of his priesthood. 
 We are alienated from the life of God, by the 
 ignorance that is in us, because of the blind- 
 ness of our hearts — hence the necessity of his 
 
 2* 
 
14 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 prophetical office. We are under bondage to 
 sin, Satan, and the present evil world, and not 
 only captives, but also willing captives — and 
 hence the necessity of his kingly office. Thus 
 his official character is complete, as it is com- 
 mensurate to the utmost extent of our miseries 
 and wants. 
 
 7. We shall only add here, that our Lord 
 is the one mediator, to the exclusion of all 
 others. He has no partner with him in this 
 arduous work; and as he is alone in the work 
 of mediation, so to him, and to him alone, the 
 glory of it is due. " He builds the temple of 
 the Lord, and he shall bear the glory." a There 
 is one God and one mediator between God and 
 men, the man Christ Jesus." 
 
 # SECTION II. 
 
 THE MEDIATOR GOD AND MAN IN ONE PERSON. 
 
 When we assert, that the Mediator is God 
 and man in one person, we are not to be un- 
 derstood to mean that his incarnate state was 
 necessary to his appointment to the office; for 
 his appointment was from everlasting. Nor 
 is it to be understood that he was incapable of 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 15 
 
 mediatory acts till he became incarnate; for 
 he entered upon his work immediately after 
 the fall. But what is meant is, that all his 
 mediatory acts supposed his future incarna- 
 tion; and that the actual assumption of our 
 nature was absolutely necessary to the full 
 discharge of his work. 
 
 1. Our Lord subsisted in Godhead, not 
 only as a distinct, but as a divine person, be- 
 fore he assumed our nature. This appears 
 from the personal properties and personal acts 
 ascribed to him before he became incarnate. 
 He was a distinct person with the Father be- 
 fore he became man. *fl came forth from 
 the Father, and am come into the world; 
 again I leave the world, and go to the Father." 
 John xvi. 28. 
 
 2. This divine person who was in the form 
 of God, actually assumed our nature into union 
 with his divine person. He " was made flesh, 
 and dwelt among us." John i. 14. He was 
 " manifest in the flesh." 1 Tim. iii. 16. The 
 nature he assumed was our nature; not a na- 
 ture simply like ours. 
 
 3. This union did not change our Lord's 
 personal identity. His person was one before 
 he became incarnate, and it continued to be 
 
16 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 one after he was manifest in flesh. The Son 
 given, and the child born, are one person. 
 "For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is 
 given; and the government shall be upon his 
 shoulder, and his name name shall be called 
 Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, The 
 everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." 
 Isaiah ix. 6. 
 
 4. Though this is an intimate union, yet 
 the two natures are not confounded, nor their 
 properties mixed. When the Son of God 
 was manifested in flesh, his divine nature did 
 not become finite, neither did his human 
 nature become infinite. They continued to 
 retain their distinct properties or attributes. 
 They have distinct understandings, and dis- 
 tinct wills, though their operations are always 
 in unison. Thus, though, as God, he knew 
 all things, yet, as man, he is said not to have 
 known the day of judgment. John xxi. 17. 
 Matt. xxiv. 36. 
 
 5. By virtue of this union, the divine and 
 human natures in the person of Christ came 
 to have commiihion with each other in per- 
 sonal relations, -and personal agency. Our 
 Lord was naturally and necessarily the Son of 
 God, previous to his assumption of our nature. 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 17 
 
 His sonship is not founded, as some have sup- 
 posed, upon his incarnation, or upon his mis- 
 sion. He was the Son of God before he was 
 sent into our world, and before he was con- 
 ceived in the womb of the virgin. " God so 
 loved the world that he gave his only begot- 
 ten Son," &c. John iii. 16. " God sent forth 
 his Son, made of a woman, made under the 
 law," &c. Gal. iv. 4. But his sonship is pre- 
 dicated of his human nature; because, in con- 
 sequence of his assuming that nature into union 
 with his divine person, it came to have com- 
 munion with him in his divine sonship. " The 
 Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the 
 power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; 
 therefore, also that holy thing that shall be 
 born of thee shall be called the Son of God." 
 Luke i. 35. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 THE PROPHETICAL OFFICE OF CHRIST. 
 
 The term prophet in Scripture sometimes 
 denotes one who is employed by God to fore- 
 tell future events. In another sense it signi- 
 fies one who is employed to reveal the will 
 
18 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 of God to men, whatever be the matter of 
 the revelation. In this extended sense it is 
 applied to Jesus Christ. Our Lord acted as a 
 prophet from the earliest period of the church. 
 He was however, to appear in our nature in 
 the end of the Jewish dispensation as a public 
 teacher, and in this view his appearance as a 
 prophet was till then matter of promise. Moses 
 foretold that God would raise up to Israel a 
 prophet like unto him, to whom they should 
 hearken. Deut. xviii. 15. His approach was 
 foretold by Malachi, chap. iii. 1. and iv. 2. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 1. Our Lord's prophetical office was necessary 
 to the accomplishment of his work as media- 
 tor. As the plan of mercy for the recovery of 
 fallen men is supernatural, and could only be 
 known by supernatural revelation, so the ho- 
 nour of the divine character required, that this 
 gracious communication of God's will to his 
 fallen creatures shall be made by a mediator. 
 And it was no less necessary for the benefit of 
 sinners, to whom the communication was to 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 19 
 
 be made. A consciousness of guilt rendered 
 them incapable of receiving with profit even 
 the overtures of mercy immediately from God 
 in his absolute character. The dispensation 
 of the law from Horeb was a dispensation of 
 mercy, as the law was prefaced by an exhibi- 
 tion of God's gracious character; yet from its 
 being accompanied with the awful symbols of 
 the divine presence as a rectoral judge, the 
 Israelites could not endure what was com- 
 manded, and earnestly entreated Moses to me- 
 diate between God and them. Exod. xx. 19. 
 
 2. Our Lord has a peculiar fitness for his 
 work as a prophet, from his incarnate state, 
 and official gifts. Considered as God, he is 
 in the bosom of the Father, and hath the most 
 perfect knowledge of his nature, perfections, 
 and purposes; and when he unfolds these to 
 men, he testifies what he hrth seen. John i. 
 IS. Viewed as man, he hath a peculiar fit- 
 ness for communicating these mysteries to the 
 human race, in such a way as to prevent them 
 from losing the benefit of his instructions by 
 his overwhelming majesty. To see the ad- 
 vantage arising to the church from our Lord's 
 incarnation, considered as a prophet, we have 
 only to compare the terrific symbols of his 
 
20 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 presence when he gave the law from Horeb, 
 with his meek though majestic appearance, 
 w T hen he expounded the same law on a moun- 
 tain in Galilee; or to contrast, as is done by 
 the writer to the Hebrews, the former with the 
 present dispensation of God's grace. Heb. xii. 
 18—24. 
 
 3. Our Lord's prophetical office derives a 
 peculiar glory from the duration of its exer- 
 cise, and from the extent of his commission. 
 With regard to the duration of the exercise of 
 his prophetical office, it commenced almost 
 with time, and will be bounded only by eter- 
 nity. It would be an extremely partial view 
 of our Lord's prophetical work to limit it to 
 what has been called, though perhaps impro- 
 perly, his personal ministry. His abode on 
 earth was but short, and he acted as a public 
 teacher only during a small proportion of that 
 period. He began the exercise of his office as 
 the prophet of the church in the publication of 
 the first promise in paradise, immediately after 
 the fall; for that revelation of the plan of 
 mercy was made by the voice or personal word 
 of God, who was in the beginning with God. 
 Gen. iii. 8 — 15. He continued to exercise it 
 during the patriarchal and Mosaic dispensa- 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 21 
 
 tions by means of the prophets. It was from 
 him they received their commission, from him 
 they derived their instructions, and it was to 
 him they were indebted for their success. 
 
 4. The grand end of our Lord's administra- 
 tion as a prophet on earth was the manifesta- 
 tion of God's name, or the unfolding of his 
 character, attributes, and purposes; and he 
 could, when about to leave the world, appeal 
 to his Father, that in this important work he 
 had acted faithfully; but the continued prose- 
 cution of the same work, though not exactly 
 in the same manner, after his resurrection and 
 ascension to glory, was also the matter of his 
 vows. " righteous Father, the world hath 
 not known thee, but I have known thee, and 
 these have known that thou hast sent me. And 
 I have declared unto them thy name, and will 
 declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast 
 loved me may be in them, and I in them." 
 John xvii. 25, 26. See also Psalm xxii. 22, 
 23, 24; and Rev. xxi. 23. 
 
 5. With regard to the extent of his com- 
 mission, it far exceeds that of all the prophets 
 who went before him, both with respect to 
 the matter and the objects of it. They were 
 sent to communicate only certain portions of 
 
 3 
 
22 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 God's will to men, but his commission em- 
 braces the whole counsel of God. " He is 
 full of grace and truth." " In him are hid all 
 the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." 
 Their commission was in a great measure con- 
 fined to one people, but his commission ex- 
 tends to men of every nation under heaven. 
 "It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my 
 servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to 
 restore the preserved of Israel: I will also 
 give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou 
 mayest be my salvation unto the end of the 
 earth." Isa. xlix. 6. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 THE VARIOUS WAYS IN WHICH OUR LORD'S INSTRUCTIONS 
 AS A PROPHET HAVE BEEN, AND CONTINUE TO BE COMMUNI- 
 CATED. 
 
 In general our Lord's instructions were com- 
 municated to the prophets before his appear- 
 ance in our world as a public teacher, and to 
 the apostles and evangelists after his ascension, 
 by inspiration of the Spirit; and they were 
 to be delivered by them ministerially to the 
 church diffusive. The Holy Spirit, in inspi- 
 ring the prophets, and afterwards apostles, 
 acted in the appropriate character of the Spirit 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 23 
 
 of Christ. 1 Pet. i. 10, 11. We shall submit 
 to our readers the following remarks respect- 
 ing the nature of inspiration. 
 
 The possibility of inspiration seems to be 
 granted by all who profess to be Christians, 
 though there is a great diversity of opinion 
 with respect to its nature and degrees, as ap- 
 plied to the Scriptures. Some are of opinion 
 that the inspiration of the Scriptures amounted 
 to nothing more than a mere superintendence 
 over the minds of the sacred writers so as to 
 prevent them from publishing gross errors. 
 Others go a little further, and maintain that, 
 besides superintendence, the understandings of 
 the several writers were enlarged — that their 
 conceptions w r ere elevated above the measure 
 of ordinary men — and that with their minds 
 thus elevated, they were left to their own 
 judgment both as to matter and words. The 
 advocates of plenary inspiration, again, main- 
 tain that the Holy Spirit suggested to the 
 minds of the persons inspired not only the 
 matter to be communicated, but also the words 
 in w r hich the communication was to be made. 
 A fourth party are for taking in all these sup- 
 posed kinds of inspiration now mentioned; 
 and they maintain that the sacred writers 
 
24 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 sometimes wrote under mere superintendence, 
 sometimes under superintendence accompa- 
 nied with a high elevation of conception, and 
 at other times under divine suggestion, or what 
 is called plenary inspiration, according to the 
 nature of the subject on which they wrote. 
 
 We are humbly of opinion, that inspiration, 
 as employed in communicating the sacred 
 oracles to men, is only of one kind, and that 
 this is the inspiration of suggestion, according 
 to which not only the matter, but the words 
 also were communicated to the minds of the 
 sacred writers. 
 
 1. The Scriptures themselves take notice 
 of only one kind of inspiration, and repre- 
 sent it as extending to all the parts of Scrip- 
 ture — to those which are historical and moral, 
 as well as those which are prophetical and 
 doctrinal. See 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17, and 2 Pet. 
 i. 21. 
 
 2. There must have been more than an en- 
 largement of the understanding and an eleva- 
 tion of conception in inspiration, since a great 
 many of the things were such as could not 
 have entered into the hearts of men or of 
 angels, had they not been suggested to the 
 mind by the divine Spirit. Of this descrip- 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 25 
 
 tion were the events foretold by the sacred 
 writers many years before they took place, 
 and the whole of the doctrines that relate to 
 the supernatural plan of man's redemption. 
 
 3. For similar reasons we must insist for 
 the suggestion not only of the ideas, but also 
 of the words of Scripture. To us it is alto- 
 gether inconceivable how the sacred writers, 
 who, like other men, were accustomed to think 
 in words, could have the ideas suggested to 
 their own minds except in words; or how 
 they could have written intelligibly about 
 future events, with which they could have had 
 no previous acquaintance, and on doctrinal 
 subjects far above their comprehension, had 
 not the language as well as the matter been 
 furnished to them by divine suggestion. The 
 apostle Paul seems to put the matter beyond a 
 doubt. 1 Cor. ii. 13. 
 
 4. If what has been called the inspiration 
 of superintendence and elevation, could in any 
 case be deemed to have been sufficient, it must 
 have been in cases where the sacred writers 
 may be supposed to have had a prior acquain- 
 tance, from other sources, with the subjects on 
 which they were called to write; such as sub- 
 jects of morality and history. Rut even in 
 
2G OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 these cases plenary inspiration seems to have 
 been absolutely necessary. With regard to 
 moral subjects, it may be observed, that in 
 giving the decalogue to the church, which con- 
 tains a summary of the whole duty of man, he 
 did not employ the ordinary means of com- 
 municating his will to men, but spake it with 
 his own mouth, and wrote it with his own 
 finger upon two tables of stone. With re- 
 spect to history, it may be observed that if 
 we consider the different colouring which dif- 
 ferent historians of the same age have given to 
 the same actions, (though they came under 
 their observation respectively,) when left to 
 their own judgment and inclination, it is im- 
 possible for us to conceive how the actions re- 
 corded in sacred history could have been se- 
 lected, the principles and motives from which 
 they proceeded traced out, and their moral 
 tendencies, as they affect not only the tempo- 
 ral destinies of nations, but the spiritual and 
 eternal state of individuals, delineated, as 
 they have been, by the sacred historians, had 
 they not written by divine suggestion or ple- 
 nary inspiration. 
 
 We may add further, that the typical, pro- 
 phetical, and even chronological writings of 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 27 
 
 Moses and the prophets pointed uniformly to 
 the person, offices, sufferings, and future glory 
 of Christ, as the magnet does to the pole. 
 " To him gave all the prophets witness." But 
 this could not have been the case had they 
 been left to their own judgment in the choice 
 either of matter or words; for it was after 
 they had received these communications, and 
 not before, that their judgment was employed 
 in diligent search to find out their typical and 
 prophetical references to this glorious person, 
 and the period of his advent. 
 
 5. We may notice further that the evange- 
 lists professedly give our Lord's discourses 
 in his own words, and an account of his 
 miracles in all their minute circumstances, 
 and that, too, a number of years after his as- 
 cension. But it is impossible to conceive, that, 
 at any time, and more especially, at a period 
 so remote from the time when these discourses 
 were delivered, and those miracles wrought, 
 they could have done so merely from memory. 
 Besides, John informs us, that there were also 
 many other things which our Lord did, which 
 were not recorded either by himself or his fel- 
 low-evangelists. Now, can we suppose for a 
 moment, that the evangelists were left to tljeir 
 
28 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 own judgment to select the things which were 
 written, especially when these were intended 
 for the standing use of the church, in all future 
 ages, as a rule of faith. Indeed, every consi- 
 deration forbids that we should admit, even 
 with regard to historical facts, any other spe- 
 cies of inspiration than that of divine sugges- 
 tion. 
 
 6. We observe further, in support of plerary 
 inspiration, that, unless it be admitted, the 
 Bible has no valid claim to be called the word 
 of God. The Scriptures frequently lay claim 
 to a divine origin in support of their supreme 
 authority as a rule of faith and manners; but if 
 the sacred writers were only under what is 
 called superintendence, we cannot see the just- 
 ness of that claim. It would be a gross per- 
 version of words, to call a man the author of a 
 book, who had no hand in its composition 
 further than merely guarding its real author 
 from falling into gross error. " All Scripture 
 is given by inspiration of God." 
 
 It may be observed, that, besides inspiration 
 strictly so called, the church was favoured with 
 communications of God's will by the more 
 immediate appearances of the Son of God: 
 sometimes in the likeness of human nature, 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 29 
 
 which he was to assume in the fulness of time, 
 and sometimes in the shechinah. Communi- 
 cations from God were made also by means of 
 dreams. Though these modes of communi- 
 cating God's will to men were distinct from 
 inspiration so called, yet they were always 
 accompanied by it; for the impression on 
 the minds of the prophets, that what they 
 heard was the voice of God, and that what 
 they saw was the symbol of a present Deity, 
 was as really the effect of the inspiration of 
 the Spirit, as were those revelations of God's 
 will which were communicated by simple sug- 
 gestion. 
 
 Let it be observed further, that one attribute 
 of inspiration was, that the persons inspired 
 could not conceal the words of the Holy One 
 communicated to them; which plainly shows, 
 that they were not left to their own judgment 
 or inclination. This appears from the case of 
 Balaam, who was, on one occasion, employed 
 to announce God's will to mankind. Nothing 
 could be further from his inclination than to 
 bless Israel; but when God put the word in 
 his mouth, he found himself impelled to 
 give it utterance. See Numb. xxiv. 12, 13. 
 The same thing appears from the example of 
 
30 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 Jeremiah. Though a good man, he once 
 rashly resolved, from the contempt and perse- 
 cution he met with in prosecuting his minis- 
 try, to speak no more in God's name; but he 
 tells us, that he was impelled to speak what 
 was communicated to him by the Spirit; not, 
 indeed, by mere physical force, but by the 
 same supernatural influence which, communi- 
 cated to him the message itself (o be delivered. 
 " Lord, thou hast persuaded me, and I was 
 persuaded; thou art stronger than I, and hast 
 prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one 
 mocketh me. For since I spake, I cried out, 
 I cried violence and spoil; because the word 
 of the Lord was made a reproach unto me, 
 and a derision, daily. Then I said, I will not 
 make mention of him, nor speak any more in 
 his name; but his word was in mine heart as 
 a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was 
 weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." 
 Jer. xx. 7 — 9. 
 
 The circumstance now mentioned is insepa- 
 rably connected with the very design of inspi- 
 ration. The gift of inspiration was conferred 
 not for the private benefit of the prophets them- 
 selves, but for the public edification of the 
 church. Had it been left to the choice of the 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 persons inspired to reveal or conceal the n._^ 
 sage delivered to them according to their own 
 inclination, the very end of inspiration might 
 have been defeated. The mandate of heaven 
 was peremptory. See Jer. xxiii. 28. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 OUR lord's teaching. 
 
 Several things characterized the teaching of 
 our Lord while in the world, as 
 
 1. His instructions were delivered with au- 
 thority peculiar to himself. 
 
 2. His instructions were delivered with the 
 utmost simplicity and plainness. 
 
 3. In his instructions, we see majesty com- 
 bined with humility and meekness. The 
 majesty of divinity pervaded the whole of his 
 work. Every thing he uttered indicated that 
 the speaker, as well as his doctrines, was of 
 heavenly origin. But though his instructions 
 were delivered with majesty, that majesty was 
 accompanied with meekness: he sought not 
 his own glory, but the glory of his Father. 
 On no occasion do we find him exhibiting 
 himself as an object of applause. In him the 
 
32 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 ancient predictions were fully verified. " He 
 shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice 
 to be heard in the street." Isaiah xlii. 2. 
 
 4. His instructions were seasonable, and 
 delivered with sympathy and feeling. "A 
 word spoken in season," says Solomon, "how 
 good is it!" And again, " A word fitly spo- 
 ken is like apples of gold in pictures of sil- 
 ver." This property our Lord's instructions 
 possessed in the highest degree. " The Lord 
 God," says he, " hath given me the tongue of 
 the learned, that I should know how to speak 
 a word in season to him that is weary." 
 Every word he uttered, whether for reproof, 
 instruction, or consolation, was admirably 
 adapted to the circumstances of the persons 
 whom he addressed. 
 
 5. His instructions were eminently charac- 
 terized by integrity and faithfulness. None 
 of the popular prejudices of his countrymen 
 escaped his reprehension. Neither could the 
 presence nor the threats of those in power 
 deter him from his duty. When told that if 
 he would not depart hence, Herod would kill 
 him; his reply was, " Go ye and tell that fox, 
 Behold I cast out devils, and do cures to-day 
 and to-morrow, and the third day I shall be 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 33 
 
 perfected. " The same integrity characterized 
 his conduct towards his friends. While he 
 treated them with great tenderness, he did not 
 suffer sin upon them, but detected, and point- 
 edly reproved them for their unbelief, their 
 prejudices, and their contentions. 
 
 6. He was a most condescending and pa- 
 tient teacher. He condescended to instruct 
 the meanest of the people. In this, as well 
 as in other respects, he supported the charac- 
 ter given of Messiah in ancient prophecy. 
 Hence he adduces this, to the messengers of 
 John, as a proof of his Messiahship. " The 
 blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, 
 the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, 
 and the poor have the gospel preached unto 
 them." 
 
 7. His instructions breathed the most ardent 
 zeal for his Father's honour, and the most 
 affectionate regard for his people's salvation. 
 He was actuated by ardent zeal for his Father's 
 honour. When he had spent a whole day 
 without food in teaching the people, "his dis- 
 cipl-es prayed him, saying, Master, eat; but he 
 said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye 
 know not of." " My meat is to do the will 
 of him who sent me, and to finish his work." 
 
 4 
 
34 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 When he cleansed the temple of money- 
 changers,, his disciples remembered that it 
 was written of him, " The zeal of thine house 
 hath eaten me up." Again, he was actuated 
 by a strong regard to his people's salvation. 
 He was a man of sorrows; and the only occa- 
 sion on which he is said to have rejoiced, was 
 when the disciples gave in the report of their 
 success in preaching the Gospel. "In that 
 hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank 
 thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that 
 thou hast hid these things from the wise and 
 prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes; 
 even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy 
 sight." On the other hand, the impenitence 
 of the Jews deeply affected his feeling heart. 
 Hence the tears he shed when he approached 
 Jerusalem: " When he came near, he beheld 
 the city and wept over it, saying, if thou hadst 
 known, even thou at least, in this thy day, 
 the things that belong to thy peace! but now 
 they are hid from thine eyes." Luke xix. 
 41,42. 
 
 8. His instructions came with irresistible 
 power upon the minds of men. This remark 
 applies not only to their saving effects upon 
 the minds of those who believed, but also to 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 35 
 
 the mere rational convictions produced by 
 them upon the minds of many who continued 
 in unbelief. He detected the most secret plots 
 of his enemies, and solved the most intricate 
 questions proposed to him in order to ensnare 
 him. Thus, when the Pharisees put the ques- 
 tion to him, " Is it lawful to give tribute to 
 Caesar or not?" his answer displayed such con- 
 summate wisdom and prudence, as filled them 
 with shame and confusion. " Jesus perceived 
 their wickedness, and said, why tempt ye me, 
 ye hypocrites! show me the tribute-money; 
 and they brought unto him a penny. And he 
 said unto them, whose is this image and super- 
 scription? They say unto him, Caesar's. Then 
 saith he, render therefore unto Caesar the 
 things which are Caesar's, and unto God the 
 things which are God's. When they heard 
 these words they marvelled, and left him, and 
 went their way. Mat. xxii. 17 — 22. 
 
 With respect to those who were saved, his 
 words were " with power" for their convic- 
 tion. They found his word to be quick and 
 powerful, and a discerner of the thoughts and 
 intents of the heart. What a discovery did 
 the woman of Samaria obtain of the evils of 
 her heart, and the profligacy of her past life, 
 
36 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 from our Lord's discourse to her at Jacob's 
 well! "Come," said she, "see a man that 
 told me all things that ever I did; is not this 
 the Christ?" They were also with power for 
 their saving illumination and conversion. 
 Though the want of apparent success as a 
 preacher seems to have been a part of our 
 Lord's humiliation, yet no inconsiderable 
 number were, by his personal ministry, turn- 
 ed from darkness unto light, and from the 
 power of Satan unto God; and these could tell 
 that the words which he spoke were " spirit 
 and life." 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 THE EXTENT OF OUR LORD'S COMMISSION WITH REGARD TO ITS 
 OBJECTS J AND ITS VARIOUS RESULTS. 
 
 In regard to the extent of his prophetical com- 
 mission, with respect to its objects, it may be 
 observed in general, that our Lord came to in- 
 struct fallen men, and not fallen angels. Though 
 we are not warranted to assert that our Lord's 
 commission extended to all mankind, or that all 
 mankind have in every age had even an obscure 
 revelation of the plan of mercy; yet the ob- 
 jection that this plan is unworthy of God, from 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 37 
 
 the revelation of it being confined within such 
 narrow limits, has less weight than some have 
 supposed. Though this, as well as many other 
 things connected with the providence of God ? 
 must be referred to divine sovereignty, yet it 
 will be found, that the moral cause why com- 
 paratively few of our race have hitherto en- 
 joyed the Gospel, at least in its purity, is, their 
 own hatred of the light, and their aversion to 
 come under its influence. This will appear 
 from the following remarks: 
 
 1. At two periods the whole of mankind 
 were favoured with the revelation of the plan 
 of salvation. They were so in the family of 
 Adam. The plan of mercy was revealed to 
 him, and to his wife, in the first promise; a 
 threatening, indeed, to the serpent, but a pro- 
 mise to the woman and her seed. The cir- 
 cumstances in which this promise was given 
 contributed greatly to render the knowledge of 
 it permanent in Adam's family. 
 
 But the whole human race again enjoyed 
 the light of supernatural revelation in the 
 family of Noah. Before the flood he was " a 
 preacher of righteousness/' which supposes 
 his acquaintance with the first promise; and 
 God's covenant with him after the flood not 
 4* 
 
38 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 only reduplicated upon that promise, but served 
 greatly to illustrate and confirm it. 
 
 In both these cases the same cause is to be 
 assigned for the loss of the knowledge of God. 
 Men hated the light, and, hating it themselves, 
 they neglected the means, even then in their 
 power, of transmitting the knowledge of it to 
 their children. 
 
 2. When the knowledge of the plan of 
 mercy communicated to our first parents, and 
 afterwards more fully to Noah, was nearly lost 
 among their degenerate offspring, God called 
 Abraham, gave him a new and enlarged exhi- 
 bition of his covenant of promise, and, under 
 the charter of that promise, erected his church 
 in his family, for preserving alive the know- 
 ledge of supernatural religion "until the time 
 of reformation." It would be a great mistake, 
 however, to suppose that the promise, and the 
 special privileges connected with it, were in- 
 tended exclusively, during that period, for the 
 benefit of the Abrahamic family. Provision 
 was made for the admission of the Gentiles 
 also to the same privileges, on condition of 
 their submission to circumcision and a cere- 
 monial ritual — the same terms on which they 
 were enjoyed by the descendants of Abraham. 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 39 
 
 In various ways, our Lord from age to age, 
 taught to different nations the true knowledge 
 of God. But men " did not like to retain God 
 in their knowledge." At length he came 
 in the flesh and wondrously revealed God's 
 mind and will, not only by his personal min- 
 istry, but also by giving some, apostles; and 
 some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and 
 some, pastors and teachers. 
 
 Having made these general remarks, we 
 proceed to observe more particularly, 
 
 1. That our Lord instructs all mankind ex- 
 ternally, who are favoured with supernatural 
 revelation. The word read or preached is the 
 grand means of instruction, so that wherever 
 the word comes, or wherever the dispensation 
 of the gospel is enjoyed, thither Christ comes 
 to instruct men in those things that belong to 
 their eternal peace. He is, in an especial 
 manner, the prophet of the church, as her sal- 
 vation is the grand end proposed by his pro- 
 phetical commission. But it would be a great 
 mistake to affirm, that his instructions are to 
 be confined to the church in her organized 
 state. The gospel is to be preached to all 
 nations as the means of God's appointment 
 for gathering sinners into the church; they are 
 
40 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 therefore supposed to be not only the objects 
 of his external teaching, but even the subjects 
 of his saving instruction before they enter her 
 fellowship. Into whatever country the am- 
 bassadors of peace enter, and proclaim the 
 good tidings of salvation, the kingdom of God 
 is come into that country; and into whatever 
 city they enter, the kingdom of God is come 
 into that city; and into whatever house they 
 enter, salvation is come into that house. It is 
 very true, that there may be many in that 
 country or city, and some even in that house, 
 who are never properly brought under the 
 influence of the gospel; but if they have heard 
 of it, and have ready access to it, they have 
 themselves to blame, if they continue ignorant 
 of it; and they will be treated by the great 
 prophet of the church as gospel despisers. See 
 Matt. x. 11 — 15; and John iii. 19, 20. 
 
 2. Our Lord instructs some not only by 
 his word, but also by his Spirit. 
 
 The word of Christ, whether read or 
 preached, possesses a special fitness as a means 
 for leading mankind to the knowledge of the 
 truth; but owing to the natural blindness and 
 ignorance of their hearts, they cannot discern 
 or appreciate the excellence and suitableness 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 41 
 
 of the objects presented to them in the word. 
 These are spiritual; "but the natural man 
 receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, 
 for they are foolishness unto him, neither can 
 he know them, because they are spiritually 
 discerned." The understanding is not only 
 incapable of discerning these things in their 
 true light, but the will and affections being 
 wholly engrossed with the honours, profits, 
 and pleasures of the world, are strongly op- 
 posed to them. H The carnal mind is enmity 
 against God, and is not subject to the law of 
 God, neither indeed can be/' These mighty 
 obstacles to a saving acquaintance with the 
 truth as it is in Jesus, can only be removed by 
 supernatural influence; and hence the neces- 
 sity of the saving instruction of the Spirit of 
 Christ. He leads the followers of Christ into 
 all truth — he takes of the things of Christ and 
 showeth them unto us. He is the Spirit of 
 wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of 
 Christ, and all that we know or can know sa- 
 vingly of God and of divine things, must be 
 traced to his illuminating influence. 1 Thess. 
 i. 5. 
 
 We now proceed to speak of the various 
 results of our Lord's instructions. 
 
42 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 But before entering upon their spiritual re- 
 sults, it may be observed in general, that our 
 Lord's instructions have had a beneficial influ- 
 ence upon the character and happiness of so- 
 ciety at large, independently of the considera- 
 tion of their spiritual effects and consequences. 
 This deserves notice. 
 
 Supernatural revelation is a remedial system 
 to society at large; it has contributed more by 
 its direct or indirect influence to the elevation 
 of the human mind — to the civilization of bar- 
 barous nations — to the improvement of their 
 government, laws, and institutions — to the 
 general amelioration of the state of society, 
 and to the advancement of public morals, than 
 all the discoveries of human science and the 
 power of the civil arm combined, either in an- 
 cient or modern times. 
 
 We now proceed to consider more particu- 
 larly the spiritual results of our Lord's in- 
 structions both in the case of those who are 
 saved, and in the case of those who perish. 
 
 1. With respect to those who are saved, 
 our Lord's instructions prove the wisdom of 
 God, and the power of God, for their con- 
 version, and for building them up in holiness 
 till they arrive at perfection. When he com- 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 43 
 
 mences his work of instruction, he finds this 
 class in the same state of ignorance, enmity, 
 and obstinacy with others — " having their un- 
 derstanding darkened, being alienated from 
 the life of God by the ignorance that is in 
 them, because of the blindness of their hearts;" 
 and having their whole attention engrossed 
 with the honours, profits, and pleasures of the 
 world, to the total neglect of those things that 
 belong to their eternal welfare. Or, if some 
 of them are of a more serious cast of mind, 
 he finds them filled with deep rooted preju- 
 dices against the plan of salvation by grace, 
 and building their hope of acceptance with 
 God on the sandy foundation of their own 
 righteousness. But the change produced by 
 his saving instructions is of the most striking 
 character. They are aroused from their state 
 of gross indifference about the things of God, 
 and their total insensibility to their own spiri- 
 tual condition, and brought to exclaim with 
 the gaoler, " What shall I do to be saved?" 
 They are not only driven from their carnal 
 confidence of obtaining happiness in the en- 
 joyment of the perishing things of this world, 
 but brought off from their dependence on their 
 own works for salvation, and shut up to the 
 
44 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 faith of pardon and acceptance with God by 
 grace, as it reigns through imputed righteous- 
 ness. All this is effected by means of the 
 law, accompanied with the gracious calls and 
 free offers of the gospel, brought home with 
 power upon the mind by the Spirit of Christ. 
 " His arrows are sharp in the heart of the 
 king's enemies, whereby the people fall under 
 him." " Through the law they become dead 
 to the law, that they may live unto God." A 
 thorough change of heart and life is produced 
 upon those who are brought under the saving 
 influence of our Lord's instructions. Once 
 they were darkness, but now they are light in 
 the Lord, and walk as children of the light and 
 of the day; once they were enemies to God in 
 their hearts, and no less opposed to the grace 
 of God than to the law of God, but now the 
 enmity of their hearts is subdued, and sweetly 
 constrained by the love of God towards them 
 through Christ Jesus, they give him love for 
 love. Once they were the slaves of Satan, and 
 the devoted servants of sin; but now, being 
 made free from sin, they have their fruit unto 
 holiness and the end everlasting life. Once 
 " they yielded their members as instruments 
 of unrighteousness unto sin;" now " they yield 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 45 
 
 themselves unto God, as those that are alive 
 from the dead, and their members as instru- 
 ments of righteousness unto God." Once 
 their affections were wholly set upon carnal 
 and sensual objects, and these were the ob- 
 jects of their main pursuit; now, being risen 
 with Christ, they seek those things that are 
 above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand 
 of God. Once they could not look forward 
 to a future state without alarm, and to gain 
 temporary ease they endeavoured to banish 
 from their minds the thoughts of death and 
 judgment, by engaging more earnestly in 
 worldly pursuits, by fleeing into vain com- 
 pany, and perhaps by rushing into scenes of 
 riot and dissipation; but now, blessed with the 
 hope of a happy immortality, they have their 
 conversation in heaven, from whence also 
 they look for the Saviour, even the Lord 
 Jesus Christ; and under the influence of this 
 hope they give all diligence, in the use of 
 every appointed means, to be found of him in 
 peace, and without spot, and blameless, at his 
 coming. How wonderful the change! " Old 
 things have passed away, and, behold, all 
 things are become new." 
 
 2. With respect to those who perish, the 
 5 
 
46 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 contempt of our Lord's instructions greatly 
 aggravates their sin now, and in the end will 
 bring upon them accumulated and inevitable 
 destruction. Christ, as an instructer, finds all 
 our fallen race, as we have seen already, in the 
 same state of guilt and depravity; but while 
 his instructions, by being accompanied with 
 the power of his Spirit, are the means of re- 
 claiming some from the error of their ways, 
 they are the occasion of hardening others in a 
 course of folly and wickedness. Every dis- 
 covery which God is pleased to make of him- 
 self to his fallen creatures must have either a 
 mollifying or hardening influence upon their 
 minds: and, in the case of those whose hearts 
 are not renewed by divine grace, the disco- 
 very must always prove hardening. They 
 view God as an enemy, and the dread of him 
 as an enemy and avenger produces slavish 
 fear, and slavish fear genders hatred, and the 
 more fully and clearly the object we hate is 
 hrought under our. view, the more powerful 
 the operation of aversion in the mind to that 
 object. Paul felt this, with regard to God 
 and the spirituality of his law, previous to his 
 conversion. The law of God, which con- 
 demns* every sin, and which is a transcript of 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 47 
 
 God's own moral image, was, when brought 
 home with power upon his conscience, the 
 occasion of irritating instead of subduing his 
 corruptions. Rom. vii. S. 
 
 But the carnal mind is not less opposed to 
 the grace of God than to the law of God. The 
 freedom and sovereignty of God's grace are 
 peculiarly offensive to the natural pride of in- 
 tellect and supposed moral worth, to be found 
 in the breast of every child of fallen Adam; 
 accordingly, under the power of the pride and 
 legality of the heart, the sinner meets the in- 
 vitations of mercy through a crucified Saviour, 
 in the gospel, with strong aversion. 1 Cor. 
 i. 23; and 1 Pet. ii. 7, S. 
 
 As the sinner wholly under the power of sin 
 meets the offers of grace and mercy with strong 
 opposition, and must continue to do so, unless 
 the enmity of his mind be subdued, so by 
 every new act of positive unbelief the heart 
 becomes more hardened as it tends to cherish 
 the pride of the heart, and to increase its en- 
 mity to God. Hence the Spirit of God makes 
 unbelief and the hardening of the heart 
 against the voice of God, terms of similar im- 
 port. Heb. iii. 7, 8. 
 
 As the sin of the despisers of the gospel is 
 
48 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 accompanied with special aggravations, so their 
 punishment, if they continue in unbelief, will 
 be great in proportion. Hence the final doom 
 of those who reject the gospel is described as 
 the most awful in the penal code of heaven. 
 " This is the condemnation, that light is come 
 into the world, and men have loved darkness 
 rather than light, because their deeds are evil." 
 John iii. 19. We are told that those who 
 have sinned without the written law will per- 
 ish without law; but a still more terrible doom 
 awaits those who have not only sinned against 
 the revealed law of God, but have poured con- 
 tempt upon the gospel of his Son. It will be 
 more tolerable in the day of judgment for the 
 heathen than for them. " Then began he to 
 upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty 
 works were done, because they repented not. 
 Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, 
 Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which 
 were done in you, had been done in Tyre and 
 Sidon, they would have repented long ago in 
 sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it 
 shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at 
 the day of judgment than for you." Matt, 
 xi. 20—22. 
 
 We shall only add, that the destruction of 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 49 
 
 those who reject the gospel must be inevi- 
 table. The dispensation of the gospel is the 
 last and the most powerful dispensation of 
 means provided by God for the recovery of 
 fallen men, and if this be neglected, their case 
 must be indeed hepeless. For those who re- 
 ject the sacrifice of Christ, there remaineth no 
 more sacrifice for sin; and for those who re- 
 ject God's calls in the gospel, accompanied 
 with the strivings of the Spirit, to turn to him 
 and live, there remain no more overtures of 
 grace and mercy. Heb. x. 26. 
 
 We now proceed to consider the results of 
 our Lord's instructions, as they respect the 
 glory of God. In general, he receives a reve- 
 nue of glory and honour from the administra- 
 tion of his Son, as the great prophet of the 
 church. At present we would confine the 
 attention of our readers to the development of 
 the divine character and attributes, by the 
 various results of our Lord's prophetic admin- 
 istration, in them that are saved and in them 
 that perish. 
 
 1. In the case of both, there is a rich dis- 
 play of divine forbearance or long-suffering. 
 The forbearance of God is exercised, first, in 
 suspending the execution of the penal sentence 
 5* 
 
50 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 of his law upon transgressors, in the present 
 life, for a longer or shorter period. He bears 
 long with individuals and bodies corporate, 
 after they have gone a great length in wicked- 
 ness. 
 
 Again, divine forbearance, as exercised 
 towards our fallen race, implies not only the 
 suspension of punishment for a season, but 
 also the furnishing of its objects with moral 
 means, adapted, from their own nature, if not 
 to lead them to that repentance which is unto 
 life, at least, to restrain their wickedness, and 
 leave them inexcusable; and it is in propor- 
 tion to the nature and extent of the means of 
 moral and religious reformation enjoyed, that 
 God's forbearance derives a rich revenue of 
 praise and honour from the prophetical admin- 
 istration of his Son. This is the richest dis- 
 pensation of means for reclaiming mankind 
 that ever God did or will confer on men. 
 
 2. In both cases there is also a rich display 
 of divine sovereignty. The sovereignty of 
 God is that right which he hath from his ab- 
 solute supremacy to do whatever he pleaseth, 
 independently of any thing in his creatures. 
 God, however, is a holy, wise, and just sove- 
 reign; and though he does according to his 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 51 
 
 will in the armies of heaven, and among the 
 inhabitants of the earth, yet in all his volitions 
 and actions, his sovereignty is regulated by a 
 regard to the rectitude of his nature. God's 
 sovereignty entered deeply into his purpose 
 from everlasting as it respected the final state 
 of his rational creatures. This purpose, as it 
 regarded the apostate part of the intelligent 
 creatures, viewed them all as fallen and on a 
 level, as exposed to his wrath and curse; but 
 no other reason can be assigned why God 
 passed by the angels who kept not their first 
 estate, and set his electing love upon fallen 
 men; or why he elected some of our fallen 
 race to everlasting life, and to the enjoyment 
 of all the means leading to it, and left others 
 to perish in their sins, than this, " So it seem- 
 ed good in his sight." 
 
 We notice the following particulars: 
 First, divine sovereignty is strikingly dis- 
 played in the distribution of the means of 
 grace. 
 
 We have already seen that at two periods 
 God favoured all mankind with these means, 
 but that the knowledge of them was soon lost 
 through their carelessness and aversion to the 
 truth. At present ou-r attention is to be turn- 
 
52 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 ed to the sovereignty of God as displayed in 
 restoring these means to families and nations 
 in which the knowledge of them had been 
 extinguished. 
 
 For examples we might refer to the calling 
 of Abraham, an Ammonite, married to a Hit- 
 tite; to the calling of Israel out of Egypt; and 
 to the calling of the Gentiles; in all of which 
 God illustrated his own sovereignty in an 
 adorable manner. " I will, (says he,) have 
 mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will 
 have compassion on whom I will have com- 
 passion." 
 
 We shall only add here, that divine sove- 
 reignty appears in withdrawing the means of 
 grace from, as well as in conferring them upon 
 a people; but in this case it is always accom- 
 panied with a display of divine justice. The 
 moral cause of their removal is the unbelief 
 of those who enjoyed them. God does not 
 love putting away. It is not till an enchurch- 
 ed people have deliberately and obstinately re- 
 jected the counsel of God against themselves, 
 that God casts them off from being his people. 
 
 Again, divine sovereignty is strikingly dis- 
 played in the different results of these means 
 with regard to individuals. 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 53 
 
 In the same family, where the children of 
 the same parents had the same religious in- 
 struction and example, we find Esau turning 
 out a profane person, who for one morsel of 
 meat, sold his birthright, while his younger 
 brother Jacob had power with God, and pre- 
 vailed in his wrestling with the angel for the 
 blessing. This can only be accounted for in 
 the way that the Spirit of God accounts for it, 
 by referring it to divine sovereignty in with- 
 holding special grace, and conferring it at plea- 
 sure. See Rom. ix. 11, 16. In the same reli- 
 gious assembly, and under the same dispensa- 
 tion of the Gospel, some receive the Gospel- 
 report to the saving of their souls, and others 
 reject it to their eternal ruin; while it proves 
 to the former the savour of life unto life, it 
 proves to the latter the savour of death unto 
 death; and this can be accounted for only en 
 the same principle. It is grace, sovereign and 
 efficacious grace, that makes the distinction. 
 
 We shall only add, that while divine sove- 
 reignty knows no reason without God himself, 
 yet all its acts are in strict accordance with 
 immutable justice. In conferring special grace 
 upon them who are saved, his justice loses none 
 of its honours, for all its claims upon them for 
 
54 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 satisfaction for sin were fully answered by 
 their surety: "God is just and the justifier of 
 him who believeth in Jesus;" and in with- 
 holding special grace from them who perish, 
 God does them no wrong. It would have 
 been just in him to have withheld that grace 
 from the whole of our fallen race; therefore, in 
 conferring it on some, he does no injustice to 
 others from whom it is withheld; yea, this last 
 class never sincerely wished it, else they would 
 have sought it, and had they sought it in the 
 way prescribed by God, they would have ob- 
 tained it. The fact is, that those who perish 
 under a dispensation of the means of grace, 
 perish on account of their contempt of that 
 grace, " they will not come to Christ that they 
 may have life." 
 
 3. In the case of those who perish in their 
 unbelief, God's justice will be magnified, and 
 the power of his judicial anger displayed 
 in their condign punishment. Every trans- 
 gression of God's law, natural or revealed, ex- 
 poses the sinner to God's wrath and curse — 
 " The wages of sin is death." " Cursed is 
 every one who continueth not in all things 
 written in the book of the law to do them." 
 But as there are some sins, which in them- 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 55 
 
 selves, and by reason of several aggravations, 
 are more heinous in the sight of God than 
 others, so they must expose those guilty of 
 them to a higher degree of punishment; and 
 our object at present is to show that unbelief, 
 when persevered in, under a rich dispensation 
 of grace, is the most aggravated sin that can be 
 committed; and that consequently it must ex- 
 pose the unbeliever to the most severe punish- 
 ment. It is a sin committed against great 
 light — not merely against the law of nature, 
 but against the written law — not merely against 
 the law of God, but against the Gospel of 
 Christ. It is a sin which strikes against God 
 in a special and peculiar manner. Every sin 
 is committed against God, as it is a contempt 
 of his authority as a lawgiver; but unbelief is 
 not only a contempt of his authority as a law- 
 giver, but of the riches of his grace as a Sa- 
 viour — it not only pours contempt upon the 
 grace of God, but tramples under foot the Son 
 of God — it not only tramples under foot the 
 Son of God, but it also does despite to the 
 Spirit of God. But it is not only one simple 
 act; in many cases it is a long course of hosti- 
 lity against God under a rich dispensation of 
 means adapted in their own nature to lead the 
 
56 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 unbeliever to repentance; and this of itself 
 greatly aggravates his sin, and must, if mercy 
 prevent not, greatly increase his punishment. 
 As money at interest loses nothing by the pro- 
 longation of the term of payment, since it 
 accumulates in proportion to the period pay- 
 ment is delayed, so, in proportion to the term 
 of divine forbearance toward the unbeliever, 
 must be the degree of his punishment in the 
 end. Every year, every day, yea every hour 
 that he is spared while continuing to pour con- 
 tempt upon the rich overtures of divine grace 
 and mercy, " he treasures up unto himself 
 wrath against the day of wrath and revelation 
 of the righteous judgment of God." 
 
 4. In the case of those who are saved under 
 a gospel dispensation, we have the richest dis- 
 play of the love, grace, and mercy of God 
 towards our fallen family. God's special good- 
 ness, considered as it existed in the divine 
 purpose, is commonly in Scripture called his 
 love — as manifested in conferring spiritual 
 blessings upon his creatures, viewed as unde- 
 serving, it is denominated his grace or free 
 favour — and as it terminates on them as ill- 
 deserving and miserable, and is displayed in 
 extricating them from their miseries, it is call- 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 57 
 
 ed his mercy; but, as if all these terms, so full 
 of benignity, were not sufficient to express the 
 special goodness of God with regard to our 
 race, it is also called his kindness, which con- 
 ducts us to the very heart of God, or intimates, 
 that in doing us good, he doeth it with his 
 whole heart, and with his whole soul. But 
 all this unparalleled grace and kindness is 
 brought into view under our Lord's adminis- 
 tration, and by means of his glorious gospel. 
 In its supernatural doctrines we are told, that 
 "God so loved the world, that he gave his 
 only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
 on him should not perish, but have everlasting 
 life;" and that, " God sent not his Son to con- 
 demn the world, but that the world through 
 him might be saved." 
 
 2. The results of our Lord's instructions 
 also serve to bring into view his official glory, 
 or the efficiency and energy of all his offices. 
 The gospel does this doctrinally, as he is the 
 great subject of it. The whole gospel respects 
 either directly or indirectly his person, offices, 
 grace, and fulness. But at present we are to 
 consider them as brought into view by their 
 effects, in the salvation of his redeemed people. 
 There was a glory connected with the decease 
 6 
 
58 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 our Lord accomplished at Jerusalem as a 
 priest, which, in many respects, exceeds the 
 glory connected with the calling of the uni- 
 verse into existence. As none but God could 
 create the world, so none but God could re- 
 deem the church. The purchase of the church 
 was the most wonderful effect of the grace, 
 the wisdom, and the power of God. But at 
 the time it happened its real glory was veiled. 
 To outward view it had no glory. 
 
 But Christ's instructions as a prophet, by 
 their saving effects upon the minds of men, 
 and their general influence upon the moral 
 character of society, also bring into view his 
 energies as a king. In the application of sal- 
 vation, the exercise of our Lord's prophetical 
 office, and the exercise of his kingly office, are 
 combined. " His word is with power." And 
 the power of Christ as a king is put forth in a 
 variety of ways. Before the sinner can be 
 rescued from the dominion of Satan, by whom 
 he has been led captive at his will, Satan must 
 be bound. Christ, the stronger man, binds 
 Satan the strong man, and spoils him of his 
 goods. But the power of Christ must not only 
 be put forth upon Satan, but also upon the sin- 
 ner himself. He is not only a captive, but a 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 59 
 
 willing captive; and the pride, enmity, and 
 carnality of his heart must be subdued, before 
 he desert the camp of Satan, and come over to 
 the standard of the Redeemer. And this is 
 the effect of the power of Christ: " Thy people 
 shall be willing in the day of thy power," &c. 
 Ps. ex. 3. Wherever the word of Christ as a 
 prophet proves successful, therefore, for the 
 conversion of sinners, and the building up of 
 saints in their most holy faith, his power as a 
 king is gloriously brought into view. Hence 
 the descriptions given of him as a prophet are 
 uniformly combined with attributes that be- 
 long to him more especially as a king. 
 
 But we are not to confine our attention to 
 the grace of God as exhibited in the superna- 
 tural doctrines, free offers, and calls of the 
 gospel; we must attend also to the power of 
 that grace displayed in them who believe, in 
 turning them from darkness unto light, and 
 from the power of Satan unto God. It is 
 power of no ordinary kind, and even no ordi- 
 nary display of divine power, but such a dis- 
 play of it as corresponds with the exceeding 
 greatness of that power manifested in raising 
 Christ from the dead. 
 
 The trophies of God's converting and sav- 
 
60 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 ing grace have often, prior to their conversion, 
 been persons of most profligate character; or, 
 if of more sober habits, persons whose hearts 
 seemed to be steeled with the most deep- 
 rooted prejudices against the truth as it is in 
 Jesus. But the grace of God has proved all- 
 powerful for u casting down imaginations, and 
 every high thing that exalteth itself against 
 the knowledge of God, and for bringing into 
 captivity every thought to the obedience of 
 Christ." 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 GENERAL REMARKS ON THE PRIESTLY OFFICE OF CHRIST. 
 
 The priesthood of Christ holds a prominent 
 place in the plan of mediation. Every thing 
 connected with his priestly office has 3 claim 
 to our particular attention. 
 
 1. The priesthood of Christ has God for its 
 primary object. In this respect his sacerdo- 
 tal diners from his prophetical and kingly 
 offices. These terminate, in their exercise, 
 upon sinners, in turning them from darkness 
 unto light, and from the power of Satan unto 
 God; but, as a priest, he is ordained for men 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 61 
 
 in things pertaining to God. It is as a priest 
 he made satisfaction for sin, and this satisfac- 
 tion was made to God, the party offended; it 
 is as a priest that he intercedes for sinners, on 
 the ground of his sacrifice; and it is with God 
 that he intercedes: " If any man sin, we have 
 an advocate with the Father." 
 
 2. Our Lord's priesthood, with respect to 
 its origin, is sovereign, and yet necessary. It 
 supposes a purpose of mercy towards our fallen 
 race, and is to be considered as a means de- 
 vised by infinite wisdom, for carrying that 
 purpose into effect; but the purpose itself 
 springs from divine sovereignty. For any 
 thing we know, God might have permitted 
 the whole human family to perish in their 
 sins, as he did fallen angels; and, in this case, 
 there would have been no occasion for priest- 
 hood. On the supposition, however, of a pur- 
 pose of mercy, priesthood was necessa/y to 
 carry it into effect. This could only be done, 
 consistently with the honour of God's law and 
 moral administration, by a sacrifice for sin, 
 and the bringing in of an everlasting righte- 
 ousness; but these could only be effected by 
 one invested with the priestly office. 
 
 3. Our Lord's priesthood took its rise from 
 
 6* 
 
02 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 the divine purpose and covenant. The pur- 
 pose of mercy is ascribed primarily to the 
 Father, as the first in the order of personal 
 subsistence and operation in Trinity; and this 
 purpose had a special reference to the priest- 
 hood of Christ, as the means by which it was 
 to be carried into effect. We are redeemed 
 with " the precious blood of Christ, as of a 
 lamb without blemish and without spot; who 
 verily was fore-ordained before the foundation 
 of the world, but was manifest in these last 
 times for you." 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. See also 
 Isaiah liii. 10; and Heb. x. 7. 
 
 4. This purpose, in its covenant form, as 
 revealed in the scriptures of the Old Testa- 
 ment, contains our Lord's call or commission. 
 The promises and predictions of the Old Tes- 
 tament have a special reference to his priest- 
 hood, and to the work which he was to accom- 
 plish in that character. The moral law, as 
 promulgated from Sinai, accompanied with its 
 awful sanctions, contained the rule of his obe- 
 dience, and the penalty to which he was to be 
 subjected as our surety. The order of his 
 priesthood was prefigured by that of Melchi- 
 sedek, and its various functions by the ritual 
 prescribed to the priests of the order of Aaron. 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 63 
 
 These served, in the mean time, to direct the 
 hopes of the Old Testament worshippers for- 
 ward to the coming Messiah, and to shut them 
 up to the faith of salvation through the blood 
 of his cross; but another end proposed by 
 them, was, to unfold our Lord's call and com- 
 mission as a priest. His commission was, in- 
 deed, the matter of a divine purpose from 
 everlasting; but, considered in this light, it 
 was simply the object of his knowledge as 
 God. He was, however, to execute his priest- 
 ly office in his assumed nature; and it was, 
 therefore, necessary that it should be brought 
 under the view of that nature, which was done 
 by special revelation in the Old Testament. 
 Accordingly, when entering upon his work, 
 we find him referring to that sacred book as 
 containing his call: "Wherefore, when he 
 cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and 
 offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast 
 thou prepared me," &c. 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 THE SURETYSHIP OF CHRIST. 
 
 Our Lord's suretiship is essential to his priest- 
 hood and demands special consideration. 
 
64 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 A surety is one who engages to pay a debt, 
 or to suffer a penalty incurred by another. 
 Thus, Paul offered to become surety to Phile- 
 mon for any debt that might be owing to him 
 by Onesimus. " If he hath wronged thee, or 
 oweth thee ought, put that on mine account; 
 I, Paul, have written it with mine own hand, 
 I will repay it." Judah, in like manner, 
 offered himself as a surety for Benjamin, to 
 suffer the penalty supposed to be incurred by 
 him: "Now, therefore, I pray thee, let thy 
 servant abide instead of the lad, a bond ser- 
 vant to my lord, and let the lad go up with his 
 brethren." By our violation of the first cove- 
 nant in Adam, and our own personal trans- 
 gressions, we had forfeited our title to life, 
 and incurred the penalty of death; and our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, as the surety of the new 
 covenant, engaged, by his obedience unto 
 death, to redeem us from the curse of the law, 
 and to recover our mortgaged inheritance. 
 " By so much was Jesus made a surety of a 
 better testament." Heb. vii. 22. We are 
 aware that the adversaries of the atonement 
 insist, that the term surety, as here applied to 
 Christ, is to be understood in a lax sense, as 
 referring to his fidelity as a witness for God. 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 65 
 
 But, were he called a surety in this sense, it 
 would refer to his prophetical, and not to his 
 priestly office; whereas, it is evident from the 
 context, that his suretiship regards his priest- 
 hood. It is in consequence of his being made 
 a priest by an oath, that he is the surety of a 
 better testament. But, as we have seen, the 
 priesthood of Christ has God for its object: he 
 is not a surety for God to us, but a surety for 
 us to God. The oath of God is a sufficient 
 guarantee on his part for the fulfilment of the 
 promissory part of the covenant; but as we 
 could not fulfil its condition ourselves, we 
 needed a surety. We are also aware, that 
 those who plead for a more general atone- 
 ment, as opposed to a satisfaction in kind to 
 the law and justice of God, adopt the word 
 substitute instead of surety, to denote the 
 relation in which our Lord stood to those for 
 whom he suffered. But we apprehend that 
 term does not fully express that relation. He 
 acted and suffered in their room, not only as a 
 substitute appointed by God, but as a surety 
 bound by his own engagement, to fulfil the 
 law in their stead. 
 
 The suretiship of our Lord implies the im- 
 putation of our sins to him and the impu- 
 
(){) OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 tation of his righteousness to us. On this 
 subject we would explain — 
 
 First, that the enlightened advocates for the 
 doctrine of imputation do not maintain that 
 the personal actions of one being may, by im- 
 putation, become the personal actions of ano- 
 ther being: what is pleaded for, is, that the 
 guilt or righteousness of the actions of one be- 
 ing may be reckoned to the account of another. 
 Secondly, this is not pleaded for in regard to 
 acts of obedience or disobedience to the law in 
 its natural state and as performed by persons 
 acting in a private capacity; but only in re- 
 gard to acts of obedience or disobedience to 
 the law in a covenant form; and as performed 
 by persons acting in a representative capacity. 
 It is the guilt of Adam's first sin, committed 
 by him as a public representative in the cove- 
 nant of works, that is imputed to his posterity, 
 and not the guilt of his future sins, after he 
 had ceased to act in that character. In like 
 manner, the guilt of our sins was imputed to 
 Christ, as the surety of the covenant of grace, 
 that he might bear their punishment from God; 
 and it is his righteousness, as a surety, that is 
 imputed to us for our justification. 
 
 The word impute invariably signifies to 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 67 
 
 reckon to the account of a perso?i, or to 
 charge to his account. It is a judicial term, 
 and when used with reference to guilt or desert, 
 it expresses the act of a judge charging that 
 guilt upon a person in order to punishment. 
 
 When we say that sin was imputed to Christ 
 as our surety, we mean only that the guilt of 
 it was imputed. 
 
 The guilt of sin is the legal obligation it 
 lays the sinner under to suffer the punishment 
 due to his crimes, and the punishment of sin 
 is death. But it is impossible to account, in a 
 satisfactory manner, for the death of infants, 
 who are never capable of personal transgres- 
 sion, unless by admitting, that the guilt con- 
 tracted by Adam's first sin is charged upon his 
 posterity. This is the way in which the apos- 
 tle Paul accounts for it: "By one man sin en- 
 tered into the world, and death by sin; and so 
 death passed upon all men, for that all have 
 sinned: for, until the law, sin was in the 
 world; but sin is not imputed where there is 
 no law. Nevertheless death reigned from 
 Adam to Moses, even over them who had not 
 sinned after the similitude of Adam's trans- 
 gression, who is the figure of him that was to 
 
68 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 Some, indeed, reject the word impute. They 
 associate with it the idea of such a transfer as 
 actually imparts guilt, and does not merely 
 impute it. But their offence at the word im- 
 pute is wholly unnecessary. 
 
 When the word impute is applied to per- 
 sons in themselves criminal, it does not signify 
 the conveyance of guilt to the criminal, but 
 only the judicial charge of it upon him. This 
 is evident from the example of Shimei. He 
 had cursed David, and he was conscious of the 
 guilt contracted by the action, as well as the 
 criminality of the action; and his conscious- 
 ness of guilt, as we have seen, dictated his re- 
 quest to David, " Let not my Lord impute sin 
 unto me." He could not therefore, be under- 
 stood as requesting the king not to impart the 
 guilt of the action to him which he had con- 
 tracted by his own criminal conduct. What 
 he requested obviously was, that the king 
 would not judicially charge him with it in 
 order to his suffering punishment. That this 
 was his meaning, is obvious from the king's 
 reply in the way of granting his request. 
 "The king said unto Shimei, thou shalt not 
 die; and the king sware unto him." Now, 
 what is pleaded for is, that, in the same sense, 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 69 
 
 our guilt was imputed to Christ, not by im- 
 parting it to him so as to make it his in the 
 same sense as it was ours, but by judicially 
 charging it to his account, in order to pun- 
 ishment. These observations are the more 
 necessary, as some of the friends of the doc- 
 trine of our Lord's suretiship have stumbled at 
 the word i?npute, as applied to the charging of 
 our guilt to his account, from the idea that it 
 implies a change of personal character. But 
 this is a mistake; the word impute implies no 
 such change. Had David imputed iniquity to 
 Shimei, he had not made his personal charac- 
 ter either the worse or the better; but merely 
 charged his guilt upon him in order to his being 
 put to death. In like manner, when our guilt 
 was imputed to Christ, or laid upon him, it 
 did not change his personal character. When 
 bearing our sins in his own body on the tree, 
 he was still " the just suffering for the unjust, 
 that he might bring us to God." 
 
 We are aware that it will be objected, that 
 the case of Shimei and that of Christ are not 
 parallel. Shimei had personal guilt, and had 
 David imputed iniquity to him, he would have 
 judged of him as he really was— a person de- 
 serving to die; but for God to have imputed 
 7 
 
70 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 guilt to Christ who had done no iniquity, 
 would have been to judge of things as they 
 were not. This brings us to the main point 
 in this important question. Though they are 
 not in all respects parallel, yet, in both cases, 
 the thing imputed, or supposed to be imputed, 
 is guilt, or the obligation to suffer the punish- 
 ment due to sin; and in both cases, the parties 
 are supposed to have incurred the obligation 
 prior to the act of imputation; but they widely 
 differ as to the manner in which it was in- 
 curred. In the case of Shimei, it was con- 
 tracted by his own criminal conduct; in the 
 case of Christ, it was incurred by suretiship. 
 When, therefore, God judicially charged his 
 own Son with our guilt, in order to his suffer- 
 ing the punishment due to our sins, he did not 
 judge of things as they were not; for, by the 
 Son's own voluntary engagement, he had in- 
 curred the obligation to suffer that punish- 
 ment. 
 
 But to render the matter, if possible, more 
 plain, it may be observed, that guilt, or the 
 obligation to suffer the punishment due to sin, 
 may be incurred in three ways. First, by 
 personal transgression, as to the case of Shi- 
 mei, when he cursed David. Secondly, by 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 71 
 
 the sin contracted in the person of a represen- 
 tative, as in the case of all Adam's natural pos- 
 terity. Thirdly, by a person voluntarily en- 
 gaged to pay a debt, or to suffer a penalty in 
 the room of another. In this last case, the 
 party, though personally considered innocent 
 of the crime by which the guilt was contracted, 
 is amenable to the law for satisfaction for that 
 crime, on the ground of his own engagement; 
 and the judge in charging the guilt of the crime 
 upon him, in order to punishment, proceeds on 
 the ground of that engagement. Our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, in the establishment of the cove- 
 nant of redemption, came under an engage- 
 ment to bear the punishment of our iniquities. 
 That engagement was to be fulfilled, and could 
 only be fulfilled upon his assuming our nature; 
 and the moment he assumed that nature, he 
 came into a state of actual suretiship, and God, 
 in the character of a judge, upon the footing of 
 his engagement to make his soul an offering 
 for our sin, charged him with the whole of our 
 criminal debt, or exacted from him the pun- 
 ishment of our iniquities. 
 
 From these remarks it will appear that it is 
 not the crime, but the guilt contracted by the 
 crime, that is charged to the account of a per- 
 
72 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 son by the act of imputation; that it does not 
 transfer guilt so as to alter personal character, 
 but supposes the guilt already incurred by per- 
 sonal transgression, by sin committed in the 
 person of a representative, or by suretiship; 
 and that imputation means the judicial charge 
 of the guilt incurred in one or other of these 
 ways upon a person, in order to his suffering 
 punishment. 
 
 We shall only add, that the doctrine plead- 
 ed for does not depend upon the application of 
 the word impute in any particular instance. 
 That Christ was charged in law with our sins, 
 in consequence of his own eternal undertak- 
 ing, that he might bear their punishment from 
 God, is a doctrine which runs through the 
 whole of supernatural revelation. It remains, 
 therefore, that we proceed more particularly 
 to state the doctrine of our Lord's suretiship^ 
 and show its consistency with the moral char- 
 acter and government of God. 
 
 1. Our Lord was a surety in type, and in 
 respect of the efficacy of his sacrifice from the 
 period of the first revelation of the covenant 
 of redemption. His suretiship respects the 
 fulfilment of the condition of that covenant, to 
 make way for the accomplishment of its pro- 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 73 
 
 mise in the salvation of his people. Hence it 
 was necessary, that the exhibition of his death 
 in type should be coeval with the promulga- 
 tion of the promise of the covenant. This 
 promise was revealed immediately after the 
 fall in God's address to the serpent — an ad- 
 dress containing, indeed, a declaration of ruin 
 to the serpent, but a promise of victory, over 
 all the power and policy of hell, to the woman 
 and her seed. Gen. iii. 15. But this and 
 every subsequent revelation of the promise 
 was accompanied with a symbol of the future 
 sacrifice of Christ. Hence the origin of the 
 rite of sacrifice. 
 
 This rite was observed for ages. But it 
 always pointed to him, who was " the Lamb of 
 God slain from the foundation of the world." 
 The idea of substitution was always prominent 
 in all bloody sacrifices. It is also proper to ob- 
 serve that our Lord was a surety under the 
 ancient economy, not in type only, but also 
 with respect to the efficacy of his sacrifice. 
 By that sacrifice which he offered in the end 
 of ages, he expiated the sins committed by 
 his people, not only under the second, but 
 also under the first dispensation: "He is the 
 mediator of the New Testament, that by 
 7* 
 
74 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 means of death, for the redemption of the trans- 
 gressions that were under the first testament, 
 they which are called might receive the pro- 
 mise of eternal inheritance." Heb. ix. 15. 
 
 2. Our Lord came into a condition of actual 
 suretiship when he assumed our nature. He 
 had voluntarily engaged from everlasting to 
 obey the precept and endure the penalty of 
 the law in the room of his people and in their 
 nature; and the moment he assumed that na- 
 ture, the justice of God exacted from him, 
 upon the footing of that engagement, the 
 whole of their criminal debt. He was made 
 of a woman, and made under the law by a 
 supernatural constitution, in the room of them 
 who were under the law, and for the express 
 purpose of their redemption. Gal. iv. 4. He 
 was made under the penalty of the law by 
 having the whole guilt of his people, contract- 
 ed in their first federal head and in their own 
 persons, imputed to him in the sense already 
 explained. 
 
 Our Lord's suretiship was not confined to 
 the penalty of the law, but extended also to 
 its precept. As he was made under the pe- 
 nalty of the law, to redeem his people from 
 condemnation, so he was made under its pre- 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 75 
 
 cept, to procure their title to life. On this 
 subject the Scriptures are very explicit. Rom. 
 v. 17. 
 
 3. Satisfaction by suretiship is no way in- 
 consistent with the claims of God's law, nor 
 with the honour of the lawgiver. It is readily 
 granted that, in the ordinary course of divine 
 justice, every man must die for his own sin; 
 but this does not prevent God by an act of 
 sovereignty, from admitting satisfaction to the 
 claims of his violated law by a surety in the 
 room of transgressors. This will appear first 
 from the formal nature of sin on the one hand, 
 and of divine punishments on the other. That 
 sin is contrary to the purity of the divine na- 
 ture must be admitted, but, formally consider- 
 ed, it is not an injury done to God absolutely, 
 but in the moral relations in which he stands 
 to his rational creatures as their Lawgiver and 
 Judge. His independence places him beyond 
 the reach of injury, absolutely considered, 
 from any of his creatures. As their goodness 
 cannot extend to him, so their wickedness 
 connot affect his essential blessedness. Job 
 xxxv. 6-8, 
 
 Formally considered, sin is not, with re- 
 spect to God, of the nature of a personal in- 
 
76 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 jury, but an offence against his law and gov- 
 ernment. "He that committeth sin transgress- 
 eth also the law, for sin is the transgression of 
 the law.*' As sin is not to be viewed, in re- 
 gard to God, as a private offence, so divine 
 punishment is not to be considered as an act 
 of private revenge, but as an act of retribu- 
 tive justice for the vindication of law and 
 government. Were sin to be viewed, as com- 
 mitted against God, as a private injury, and 
 divine punishment as of the nature of private 
 revenge, there would be no room for satisfac- 
 tion by substitution; for revenge will rest sa- 
 tisfied with nothing short of the ruin of its 
 object. But since sin is an offence against the 
 law and government of God, and punishment, 
 under his administration, is for the vindication 
 of the honour of his law and government, if 
 this end of punishment can be gained even 
 more effectually by satisfaction from a surety 
 than it could possibly be by the eternal de- 
 struction of the sinner, the doctrine of satis- 
 faction by substitution must be compatible 
 with the honour of God's law and moral ad- 
 ministration. 
 
 Secondly, This will further appear from the 
 place which punishment holds in the moral 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 77 
 
 administration of God. It holds the place, not 
 of an end. but of a means. God never inflicts 
 punishment merely for the purpose of render- 
 ing his creatures miserable. No: " He has no 
 pleasure in the death of the wicked." The 
 end proposed by him is the vindication of the 
 honour of his law and moral administration. 
 If the end of penal infliction on the part of 
 God were the misery of the sinner, it could 
 not be gained by the death of a substitute. In 
 this case it behoved the sinner to suffer the 
 penal consequences of his own sin. But as it 
 has for its own end the vindication of God's 
 honour as a lawgiver, and as this end may 
 be gained more effectually by the death of 
 a surety, than by the destruction of the sin- 
 ner, the doctrine of satisfaction for sin by the 
 death of a surety, must be perfectly consistent 
 with God's moral honour. 
 
 Thirdly, It appears further, from the nature 
 of divine rewards, as annexed to obedience. 
 As divine punishments have for their object 
 the manifestation of God's judicial displeasure 
 at sin, so divine rewards must have for 
 their object the display of his approbation of 
 righteousness; but, if the one object may be 
 gained by vicarious sufferings, the other, upon 
 
78 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 the same principle, may be gained by vicarious 
 obedience. Besides, there is less difficulty in 
 the one case than in the other, from the nature 
 of divine rewards. God has a right to the ser- 
 vices of his rational creatures, independently 
 of any promise of future reward, the annex- 
 ing of the promise of such a reward to obe- 
 dience must, therefore, be an act of sovereign 
 goodness; but the same sovereign goodness 
 which attaches the promise of reward to the 
 obedience of the natural subject of the law, 
 may extend it to the obedience of a substitute 
 regularly constituted; especially when by his 
 obedience not merely equal, but even supe- 
 rior provision is made for vindicating the 
 claims of the law and the honour of the law- 
 giver, as in the case of our Lord's substitution. 
 By his obedience unto death the law is not 
 only fulfilled, but " magnified and made hon- 
 ourable." 
 
 4. Though the honour of the law admits of 
 satisfaction by a surety, that surety must be 
 regularly appointed by the lawgiver who pos- 
 sesses the sole right of admitting the obedi- 
 ence and death of a surety in the room of 
 transgressors; he must possess personal quali- 
 fications suited to his work, and be so identifi- 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 79 
 
 ed with those in whose room he is to act, as to 
 be considered one with them in law. Such a 
 surety is Jesus. He did not take to himself 
 the honour of priesthood without a divine 
 call, but was called of God as was Aaron. He 
 possessed all those personal qualifications suit- 
 ed to his work as a high priest. Whatever 
 prophecy or law had declared to be either 
 essential or proper to the efficacy of Christ's 
 priesthood was found abundantly, and most 
 manifestly, in our Lord. " We beheld him 
 full of grace and truth." 
 
 SECTION X. 
 
 THE HUMBI^ STATE OF CHRIST CONNECTED WITH HIS SURE- 
 TISHIP. 
 
 As our Lord, in the character of a surety, was 
 to act in our room, so it was necessary that in 
 all things, sin excepted, he should come into 
 that low condition into which we are reduced 
 by our fall. " In all things it behoved him to 
 be made like unto his brethren, that he might 
 be a merciful and faithful high priest, in things 
 pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for 
 the sins of the people." Heb. ii. 17. The fol- 
 
80 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 lowing things claim our particular attention in 
 illustrating this part of our subject. 
 
 1. It was not only necessary to the dis- 
 charge of his work that he should assume our 
 nature, but that he should take it in a low 
 condition as to external circumstances. Our 
 blessed Lord was in the form of God, and 
 thought it not robbery to be equal with God, 
 before he was made in the likeness of man; 
 and had he not been truly God, he could not 
 have redeemed the church. But it is equally 
 true that one who was simply God could not 
 have redeemed the church. God made the 
 worlds by the word of his power, but the 
 church could not be redeemed by a simple act 
 of divine power. Her redemption could only 
 be effected by death; but one who was simply 
 a divine person could not suffer or die. Hence 
 the necessity of his assuming an inferior na- 
 ture, in order to his accomplishing the work 
 of our redemption. It was necessary that he 
 should assume not only an inferior, but a 
 human nature; not merely a nature in all 
 respects like ours, but cur nature. His human 
 nature was not, like Adam's, formed of the 
 dust of the ground, but " made of a woman" — 
 •^ made of the seed of David according to the 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 81 
 
 flesh." This was necessary, that the law 
 might receive that satisfaction in kind which 
 it required, and from one to whom the right 
 of redemption belonged. That he might be 
 our Redeemer, it was necessary he should be 
 our kinsman — " bone of our bone, and flesh 
 of our flesh." " He that sanctifieth, and they 
 who are sanctified, are all of one; for which 
 cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren." 
 Heb. ii. 11. 
 
 2. It was also necessary that he should 
 come into the condition of a servant. He who 
 is in the form of God, and thought it not rob- 
 bery to be equal with God, took upon him the 
 form of a servant. He undertook, from ever- 
 lasting, to fulfil the claims of the law in our 
 room; but, while only in the form of God, he 
 could not be the subject of law. Besides, the 
 law he came to fulfil was the law human nature 
 was under, and did not attach to him, as our 
 surety, till he assumed our nature. But the 
 moment he came into a condition to satisfy 
 the claims of the law, the justice of God took 
 hold of him as our surety, and exacted from 
 him the full payment of our criminal debt. 
 " He was made of a woman, made under the 
 law." 
 
 S 
 
$2 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 3. Our Lord also, in his assumed nature, 
 and in the character of a bond-servant, came 
 into a condition of dependence upon the Father 
 in accomplishing the work of our redemption. 
 He is God's servant whom he upholds, his 
 elect in whom his soul delightetb. Isaiah 
 xlii. 1. 
 
 4. He took our nature with all its sinless 
 infirmities, and came into a scene of trial and 
 suffering similar to that to which his people, 
 whom he came to redeem, were exposed. He 
 took upon him our mental infirmities, such as 
 fear, sorrow, and grief; and our bodily infirmi- 
 ties, such as hunger, thirst, weariness and lia- 
 bility to death. It was necessary that he 
 should assume our nature with these infirmi- 
 ties, since he was to suffer and die for our 
 redemption. These are the principles of our 
 nature which render us susceptible of suffer- 
 ing, or the avenues through which penal evil 
 assails our frame; so that, unless he had 
 assumed our nature with these infirmities, he 
 could not have endured the curse in our room. 
 
 5. Though he took our nature with our 
 physical infirmities and weaknesses, and came 
 into a similar scene "of trial, yet he was with- 
 out sin: "We have not an high priest who 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 83 
 
 cannot be touched with the feeling of our 
 infirmities, but was in all points tempted like 
 as we are, yet without sin. Heb. iv. 15. 
 Those who adopt the unscriptural notion that 
 our Lord assumed our nature as fallen and 
 peccable, eagerly resort to this and parallel 
 passages, where Christ is said to be touched 
 with our infirmities, and to be tempted like as 
 we are. It is to guard us against any such 
 unscriptural notion that it is added, " yet 
 without sin." 
 
 SECTION XI. 
 
 THE FUNCTIONS OF OUR LORD'S PRIESTHOOD. 
 
 The services attached to the Levitical priest- 
 hood were numerous. The high priest was to 
 offer gifts and sacrifices; to sprinkle the blood 
 as the symbol of intercession; to preside over 
 the whole services of the sanctuary; to deliver 
 the responses of God to the people; to explain 
 the law and decide legal controversies; and to 
 bless the people in the name of the Lord. As 
 some of these had a typical reference to Christ, 
 rather in his prophetical and kingly, than in 
 
84 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 his priestly office, we shall confine ourselves to 
 the things peculiar to his priesthood; namely, 
 his obedience, sacrifice, and intercession, to- 
 gether with his presidency over the house of 
 God. 
 
 Our Lord's obedience in general. — The 
 writer to the Hebrews tells us, that " every 
 high priest is ordained for men in things 
 pertaining to God, that he may offer up 
 both gifts and sacrifices." Every sacrifice 
 under the law was an offering; but every of- 
 fering was not a sacrifice. Sacrifice implies 
 blood-shedding; so that to constitute offering 
 a sacrifice, it was necessary it should be slain; 
 but many of the things presented to God by 
 the Levitical priests were inanimate objects, 
 and, consequently, incapable of suffering death. 
 These were not intended for the purpose of 
 expiation, but as acts of piety towards God and 
 benevolence towards men; and, in so far as 
 they had a typical reference to our Lord's 
 work as a priest, they must have prefigured 
 his obedience to the precept of the law to pro- 
 cure our title to life, and not his satisfaction 
 for sin by his death. Nor is it any thing un- 
 common in Scripture, for acts of piety and 
 benevolence to be termed gifts and offerings. 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 85 
 
 The services to be performed by the Gentiles, 
 after the ceremonial law should no longer 
 exist, are so denominated: "For from the 
 rising of the sun, to the going down of the 
 same, my name shall be great among the Gen- 
 tiles, and in every place incense shall be offered 
 unto my name and a pure offering; for my 
 name shall be great among the heathen, saith 
 the Lord of hosts." Mai. i. 11. Besides, 
 many of the sin-offerings and trespass-offerings 
 that prefigured our Lord's sacrifice for sin, 
 were accompanied with a meat-offering, which 
 was consumed along with them upon the altar, 
 to give thein a sweet savour. This, without 
 doubt, had a typical reference to our Lord's 
 obedience, as it ran through the whole of his 
 penal sufferings, and rendered them u a sacri- 
 fice to God for a sweet-smelling savour." Eph. 
 v. 1, 2. 
 
 1. Our Lord yielded perfect obedience to 
 the first table of the divine law. As his know- 
 ledge of the divine law was free from every 
 kind of misconception, so his acknowledgment 
 of God and his laws and institutions was open, 
 decided, and uniform, in the face of every spe- 
 cies of opposition and danger. When only 
 twelve years of age he appeared as a witness 
 
86 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 for the truth in the temple, with a boldness 
 and clearness of argument that filled all who 
 heard him with astonishment, When he en- 
 tered upon his public ministry, the whole of 
 his doctrine was calculated to illustrate the 
 divine character, and to vindicate the divine 
 government. He could appeal to his Father 
 at the close of his ministry: "I have mani- 
 fested thy name unto the men whom thou 
 gavest me out of the world;" and again, "I 
 have declared unto them thy name, and will 
 declare it." On every occasion he supported 
 the character of a faithful and true witness, and 
 at length sealed his testimony with his blood. 
 
 2. His conformity to the second table of the 
 divine law was equally perfect. He discharged 
 every relative duty most exactly. 
 
 3. He never did any thing that was morally 
 evil. The best of mere men have had their 
 faults; but he was holy, harmless, and separa- 
 ted from sinners. His gold was without alloy, 
 and his silver without dross. As he never omit- 
 ted a duty, so he never committed a sin. As 
 his heart was free from malice or deceit, so a 
 malicious or deceitful word never dropped from 
 his lips. " When reviled he reviled not again ; 
 and when persecuted he threatened not." He 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 87 
 
 could challenge his enemies in any instance to 
 convince him of sin; and it was so ordered in 
 the providence of God, that his innocence was 
 vindicated not only by friends but by foes. 
 
 4. Our Lord's obedience proceeded from 
 the most pure principles. Had we no other 
 means of estimating his character, we might 
 safely infer the rectitude of his dispositions 
 and principles, from the purity of his life. In 
 no case was ever his doctrine so happily illus- 
 trated as by his own conduct: "A good man, 
 out of the good treasure of the heart, bringeth 
 forth good things." 
 
 5. It implies no imperfection in our Lord's 
 obedience, that there are certain duties, or 
 modifications of duty, incumbent on us, of 
 which we have no example in the history of 
 his life. This proceeds from two causes. 
 First, from his personal holiness. The law 
 enjoins certain duties on us as fallen creatures, 
 which it would not have exacted from man, 
 had he retained his primitive integrity. Every 
 sinner is bound by the law of God to repent, 
 and to glorify God by confessing his personal 
 transgressions; but Jesus was a just man, and 
 needed no repentance. Secondly, the want 
 of such examples in other instances, is suffi- 
 
88 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 ciently accounted for from the peculiar sphere 
 in which he was destined to act, in accom- 
 plishing his work. 
 
 6. To have just views of our Lord's obe- 
 dience we must connect it with the dignity of 
 his person. He who honoured the law by his 
 obedience as our surety, is God's fellow. 
 " Though he were a Son, yet learned he obe- 
 dience by the things that he suffered." He 
 obeyed the precept and endured the penalty 
 of the law in human nature, but still his obe- 
 dience was that of a divine person. Though 
 all that he did and suffered was directly and 
 formally the effect of his will as man, yet his 
 whole service originated in his will as God. 
 It was according to his divine will that he 
 engaged to do God's will in man's redemption 
 in the eternal covenant, and it was according 
 to it that he came into our world and took 
 upon him the form of a servant in time. Be- 
 sides, every act of his will as man, in accom- 
 plishing the work given him to do, was ac- 
 companied with a corresponding exercise of 
 his will as God, and this diffused infinite value 
 and dignity through the whole of his obe- 
 dience. The righteousness he wrought out in 
 human nature is the righteousness of God, not 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 89 
 
 only as devised by God, but as fulfilled by a 
 person who is God, and therefore of infinite 
 value for our justification. " But now the 
 righteousness of God without the law is mani- 
 fested, being witnessed by the law and the 
 prophets; even the righteousness of God which 
 is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon 
 all them that believe." Rom. iii. 21, 22. 
 We proceed now to speak of 
 The Sacrifice of Christ.— This constituted 
 the principal part of his service as a priest. 
 The first Adam as a covenant representative, 
 had simply to obey the law as unbroken; be- 
 sides, his covenant obedience, by which he 
 was to give proof of his submission to the 
 whole law, was brought into a narrow compass 
 in the positive precept respecting the tree of 
 the knowledge of good and evil; but the case 
 was very different with respect to Christ the 
 second Adam. The law demanded from him 
 as our surety, not only perfect obedience, as 
 the condition of life, to its precept, but also 
 satisfaction for sin incurred by transgression. 
 This is what our Lord emphatically calls the 
 commandment he had received from his Fa- 
 ther. John xiv. 31. 
 
90 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 The sufferings of Christ as a sacrifice for 
 sin are confined by some to what he endured 
 upon the cross. To this we cannot agree. 
 Though he was a sacrifice especially in his 
 death, yet he was a man of sorrows and ac- 
 quainted with grief through life, and all his 
 sufferings through life led to and terminated 
 in his death. 
 
 We shall only observe further, before enter- 
 ing upon the more particular consideration of 
 our Lord's sufferings, that he endured all the 
 penal evil contained in the curse, and which 
 those he came to redeem must have suffered, 
 had he not been made a curse for them. 
 
 While we insist that our Lord suffered the 
 full amount of the penal evil contained in the 
 curse of the law, it is not however admitted 
 that all the ingredients which will enter into 
 the sufferings of the wicked entered into his 
 sufferings. Many of these do not arise ne- 
 cessarily from the penal sentence of the law, 
 but from the state and character of the suffer- 
 ers. The workings of the corrupt passions of 
 the heart, such as pride, envy, and malice, are 
 sources of real misery to the wicked in the 
 present life, and they will prove still greater 
 sources of misery to them in a future world; 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 91 
 
 but this arises from their inherent depravity, 
 and could form no part of the sufferings of the 
 holy Jesus. Remorse will be one bitter in- 
 gredient of their misery, but as it arises not 
 from the law, but from the consciousness of 
 personal guilt, and of their being their own 
 destroyers, it could form no part of the suffer- 
 ings of our Lord, who was always holy, 
 harmless, and separated from sinners. In fine, 
 their sufferings will be eternal, whereas his 
 were only temporary; but this also proceeds 
 not from the law, but from the nature of the 
 sufferers. Sin is an evil of infinite demerit, 
 and as sinners cannot endure infinite punish- 
 ment in any limited period of duration, their 
 sufferings must be eternal; whereas our Lord's 
 sufferings, though limited as to their duration, 
 were of infinite efficiency for expiating our 
 sins from the dignity of his person. 
 
 Having made these general remarks, we 
 now proceed to consider more particularly 
 what our Lord suffered through life and at his 
 death. 
 
 1. His sufferings were of great diversity. 
 He suffered in every way that an innocent 
 person could have suffered. He suffered much 
 from the poverty of his condition in the world, 
 
92 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 and the privations connected with it. Though 
 he descended from the royal family of David, 
 yet at the time of his birth that family had 
 fallen into great decay, so that his birth was 
 accompanied with circumstances of great ex- 
 ternal meanness. Mary brought forth her first- 
 born son in a stable, and laid him in a manger, 
 because there was no room for him in the inn. 
 As his real mother was a mean woman, so his 
 supposed father was in poor outward circum- 
 stances; and this was turned to his reproach 
 by those who formed their estimate of human 
 character from worldly rank and affluence, and 
 not from moral worth. " Is not this," said 
 they, " the carpenter, the son of Mary, and 
 brother of James and Joses ? and are not his 
 sisters with us ?" and they were offended at 
 him. Till he entered upon his public minis- 
 try, he seems, from the passage now quoted, 
 to have earned his food, with the sweat of his 
 brow, at the humble occupation of his suppo- 
 sed father, hence called, not the son of the car- 
 penter, but the carpenter; and after he had 
 entered on his ministry, he was subjected to 
 great poverty — being, for the most part, de- 
 pendent for the necessaries of life upon the 
 hospitality of others. " The foxes," says he, 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 93 
 
 " have holes, and the birds of the air have 
 nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to 
 lay his head." 
 
 The blessed Jesus also suffered in his repu- 
 tation by the most cruel and unmerited re- 
 proach. Though holy, harmless, and undenled, 
 his enemies said, "Behold a wine- bibber, and 
 a friend of publicans and sinners!" And 
 although he came to destroy the works of the 
 devil, they ascribed his miracles to Satanic in- 
 fluence. — u He casteth out devils," said they, 
 " by Beelzebub the prince of devils." 
 
 The blessed Jesus also endured exquisite 
 torture in his body. 
 
 But his most severe sufferings were in his 
 soul. He was always a man of sorrows. The 
 wickedness of mankind was to him a source 
 of continual sorrow; and their misery, even 
 in prospect, pained his feeling heart. 
 
 2. He suffered from every quarter from 
 which an innocent person can be supposed to 
 have suffered. He was made a curse for us, 
 and under it he did not only suffer immedi- 
 ately from God, as an offended judge, but from 
 all the creatures of God, whom he was pleased 
 to employ as the instruments of his judicial 
 infliction on account of sin. 
 9 
 
94 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 He suffered not only from the agency of 
 men, but from the agency of devils. Satan 
 having overcome our first federal head by his 
 temptation, sought by the same means to ruin 
 the surety of the new covenant; but when the 
 prince of this world came, he found nothing 
 in him. 
 
 But his most severe sufferings were in his 
 soul from the immediate hand of God; and we 
 now proceed to speak of them particularly, as 
 they enter more especially into his satisfac- 
 tion for sin, and the matter of his sacrifice as 
 our great High Priest. 
 
 1. As the understanding is the leading facul- 
 ty of the mind, so mental distress is pro- 
 duced by objects of an alarming nature being 
 presented to it. Our Lord, during the whole 
 of his state of humiliation, was under the curse 
 of the broken law; and, from the time that he 
 arrived at the age of discernment, he was 
 always conscious of it. Besides, his painful 
 feeling arising from this consciousness of im- 
 puted guilt must have been great in degree, in 
 proportion to his extensive knowledge of the 
 malignity of sin, and its high demerit. This 
 accounts for his being, at every period of his 
 life of humiliation, a man of sorrows. We 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 95 
 
 often read of his sorrows and of his tears, but 
 only once of his rejoicing in spirit. 
 
 2. Besides the knowledge he had of the 
 extent of the penal evil contained in the curse, 
 we are to take into account the power with 
 which that sentence was accompanied on his 
 soul — called in Scripture the power of God's 
 anger, and the fierceness of his wrath, which 
 it was necessary he should feel in its full 
 amount, that he might taste that spiritual 
 death which is the w T ages of sin. It was not 
 necessary that this power should accompany 
 the sentence of the law in his case at all times, 
 since the value of his sufferings did not depend 
 upon their duration, but arose from the dignity 
 of the sufferer, and his obediential acting un- 
 der his sufferings; and this accounts for his 
 mental distress not being at all times of the 
 same degree of intensity. 
 
 3. It was necessary, however, to make 
 atonement for our sins, that he should endure 
 the power of God's judicial anger in all its 
 extent for a season. This he did endure in 
 the garden of Gethsemane — a scene of mental 
 distress which never had, and never can have 
 a parallel, and which can only be accounted 
 for by admitting that it was produced by im> 
 
96 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 mediate infliction on the part of God: "He 
 was stricken, smitten of God and afflicted." 
 God's fierce wrath went over him, his terrors 
 did cut him off. They came round about him 
 like water, they compassed him about toge- 
 ther. See also Mark xiv. 33, 34; and Luke 
 xxii. 44. 
 
 Our Lord's agony in the garden did not 
 complete his sacrifice, but, without doubt, it 
 constituted a principal part of it. Here was 
 blood-shedding of an extraordinary kind, pro- 
 duced not as on the cross by an external visi- 
 ble cause, but by the secret, yet all-powerful 
 agency of the rectoral Judge of the universe, 
 inflicting upon his own Son the punishment 
 due to our transgressions. This was the 
 sacred fire from heaven that consumed his 
 sacrifice. 
 
 But death, which is the wages of sin, in- 
 cludes not only the punishment of sense, men- 
 tal and corporal, but also the punishment of 
 loss. This our Lord sustained in all that 
 degree of which his holy soul was capable, 
 and which is in its own nature penal. He 
 did not sustain the loss of God's moral image; 
 for this, in our case, is the consequence of sin, 
 and does not necessarily belong to its punish- 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 97 
 
 merit. His righteousness in suffering lay in 
 maintaining that image unimpaired and unsul- 
 lied, and in the full exercise of all its moral 
 energies, amid a scene of unparalleled trial; 
 but he sustained the loss for a season of the 
 sensible manifestations of his Father's love. 
 However, to prevent mistakes, and to set this 
 matter in its true light, let it be observed: 
 
 1. That the desertion to which our Lord 
 was subjected, especially on the cross, did not 
 involve in it the smallest abatement of his 
 Father's love to him. On the contrary, Christ 
 says expressly, " Therefore doth my Father 
 love me, because I lay down my life, that I 
 might take it again." John x. 17. 
 
 2. Nor are we to suppose that^ at that try- 
 ing hour, his Father withheld from him, in 
 his suffering nature, his promised support. 
 Even then he was God's servant whom he 
 upheld — his elect in whom his soul delighted. 
 With him, even then when suffering in weak- 
 ness, God's hand was established, and his arm 
 did strengthen him. 
 
 3. The desertion lay in the total suspension, 
 for a season, both of the sensible manifestation 
 of his Father's love, and of the sensible expe- 
 
 9* 
 
98 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 rience of his supporting influence. What but 
 the total eclipse of the sun of heavenly conso- 
 lation could have made the patient Jesus utter 
 that bitter lamentation on the cross, " My 
 God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, 
 and why art thou so far from helping me, and 
 from the words of my roaring?" 
 
 4. In order to our having some just view 
 of the intensity of our Lord's sufferings from 
 these causes, we must take into the account 
 his untainted purity, and the supreme delight 
 he had in his Father. 
 
 As our Lord's supreme happiness arose 
 from communion with his Father, and the 
 sweet manifestations of his love, so the com- 
 plete suspension of these, for a season, must 
 have constituted the very essence of mental 
 death. 
 
 It was necessary, too, not only that he should 
 suffer, but suffer even unto death. Death was 
 in the cup of suffering given him by his Father, 
 and it behoved him to drink it. Though we do 
 not suppose that our Lord's sufferings at the 
 moment of the separation of his soul from his 
 body were greater than, or even of the same 
 intensity as what he suffered in the garden of 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 Gethsemane, yet, doubtless, it was the lowest 
 stage of his humiliation, as in his death there 
 was a more public display of God's judicial 
 displeasure at sin, and his determinate purpose 
 to punish it. 
 
 We shall now speak of 
 
 Our Lord's obedience in offering himself 
 a Sacrifice for Sin. — This was the principal 
 part of his priestly functions, and that which 
 gave value and efficacy to his sufferings unto 
 death for our redemption. His penal suffer- 
 ings were absolutely necessary — necessary as 
 an expression of God's aversion to moral evil, 
 necessary to the full manifestation of God's in- 
 flexible justice — and necessary to vindicate his 
 immutable veracity, pledged in the penal sen- 
 tence of the law; but it was not his sufferings, 
 however intense, or his death, however igno- 
 minious, abstractly considered, that made re- 
 conciliation for sin, but his obedience in suffer- 
 ing and dying. Sin is the transgression of the 
 law, but no sufferings can make a reparation to 
 the injured honours of a violated law, except 
 those which are obediential; and such were the 
 sufferings of Christ, when he humbled himself, 
 and became obedient unto death, even the death 
 of the cross. We now proceed, therefore, to 
 
100 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 illustrate his obedience in offering himself a, 
 sacrifice for sin. 
 
 1. As a priest, in obedience to his Father's 
 will, he provided a sin-offering for the people. 
 
 Under the Levitical priesthood, the greater 
 part of the offerings was provided by the peo- 
 ple. This was owing to the imperfection of 
 that priesthood; but our Lord's offering was 
 provided at his own proper expense. True, 
 indeed, his Father prepared a holy human 
 nature for him in his miraculous conception; 
 but that nature became his own by the act of 
 assumption, and, as such, he offered it for our 
 redemption. 
 
 2. As a priest, he conducted his offering to 
 the place where it was to be slain in sacrifice. 
 The sacrifices under the law were not to be 
 offered in every place, but only in the place 
 where the Lord should choose to put his name. 
 Neither were they to be offered at all times, 
 but only at the seasons appointed by the law 
 of sacrifice; and one part of the priest's office 
 was to see that the circumstances of time and 
 place should be regularly observed. This also 
 entered into the service of our great High 
 Priest. He minutely attended to the time, 
 place, and manner of his death, as fixed by the 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 101 
 
 purpose of God, and unfolded in the writings 
 of the prophets. Until the time fixed for his 
 death arrived, emphatically called by himself 
 his hour, he used all the means for his own 
 preservation dictated by his consummate wis- 
 dom and prudence. 
 
 3. As a priest, he solemnly devoted himself 
 to God as an offering for sin. Under the law, 
 the offering being conducted to the place where 
 it was to be slain, it was solemnly devoted to 
 God. The devotement made by our great 
 High Priest of his offering, may be considered 
 as taking its date from everlasting in the eter- 
 nal covenant. In that covenant he engaged, 
 according to his Father's will, to make his 
 soul an offering for sin. This engagement was 
 properly the act of his divine will; but when 
 he assumed our nature, his human will was 
 always in strict accordance with his divine 
 will; accordingly, this dedication was strictly 
 and properly the act of his person. Having 
 taken the form of a servant, he did not seek to 
 go out free, till his work and term of service 
 were completed. Hence we find him, in allu- 
 sion to the rite by which the Hebrew servant 
 devoted himself to the service of his master at 
 the year of jubilee, when he might have gone 
 
102 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 out free, saying, " Sacrifice and offering thou 
 didst not desire, mine ear hast thou opened." 
 
 4. As a priest he actually offered himself to 
 God a sacrifice for sin. This takes in the ex- 
 ercise of all the graces of the Spirit with which 
 he was anointed without measure, and these, 
 put forth in his devotional exercise, under all 
 his sufferings, and especially during his passion 
 in the garden, and at the time of his death on 
 the cross. He met these manifestations of 
 God's judicial displeasure in the highest exer- 
 cise of submission to the will of God, reveren- 
 tial awe of his holiness and his justice, love to 
 him, zeal for his honour, faith in him for his 
 promised support in his work, and for the re- 
 ward of it when finished, accompanied with 
 meekness and long-suffering towards his be- 
 trayers and murderers, and the most tender 
 compassion towards his people. These, and 
 the other pious affections of his heart, were 
 poured out to God in the solemn exercise of 
 prayer and supplication, and constituted the 
 oblation that rendered his sacrifice holy and 
 acceptable to God. Heb. v. 7. 
 
 We shall only add, that not only his sacri- 
 fice but his agency in offering it to God, de- 
 rived infinite value from the dignity of his 
 
OFFICES uy CHRIST. 103 
 
 person. He who approached God to make 
 reconciliation was God's fellow. He who by 
 himself purged our sins is " the brightness of 
 his Father's glory and the express image of 
 his person." And though he suffered, and 
 could suffer in his assumed nature only; yet 
 his giving himself up to suffer, and to die, was 
 no less the act of his divine, than of his human 
 will: his agency in offering himself a sacrifice 
 to God was therefore strictly and properly the 
 agency of a divine person, and consequently 
 of infinite value for our redemption. 
 
 We proceed to consider 
 
 Our Lord's Intercession. — Our Lord's in- 
 tercession is an important function of his 
 priesthood; and although it does not enter 
 into the matter of the atonement for sin which 
 was completed on Calvary, yet it is necessary 
 to give full effect to the grand design of the 
 atonement; as the atonement itself was intend- 
 ed to secure God's honour as a rectoral judge, 
 in dispensing pardoning mercy to guilty men, 
 so one grand end of his intercession is to per- 
 petuate the manifestation of the connexion be- 
 tween the atonement and a dispensation of 
 mercy. 
 
104 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 Respecting our Lord's advocacy, it may be 
 observed, 
 
 1. Our Lord's advocacy in our nature was 
 foretold and typified under the former dispen- 
 sation. It was matter of promise, or predic- 
 tion, under the ancient economy, not because 
 it was to be peculiar, to the new dispensation, 
 but because under it Christ was to enter hea- 
 ven and make intercession in our nature, hav- 
 ing completed his work as a sacrificing priest 
 on earth. Isaiah liii. 12. 
 
 2. Our Lord was an advocate, not only in 
 type, but also in substance, from the first erec- 
 tion of the church. This advocacy belongs to 
 the administration of the covenant of grace, 
 but it began to be administered, as we have 
 seen already, immediately after the fall. And 
 as Old Testament saints were redeemed by his 
 future sacrifice, so they were saved by his ad- 
 vocacy, not merely in type, but in actual ope- 
 ration, though not in the same manner as since 
 his incarnation and ascension to heaven. Ac- 
 cordingly, he is more than once introduced 
 under the Old Testament dispensation, as ad- 
 vocating the cause of his church and people 
 before God. Waiting on God is expressive of 
 intercession, but he is introduced by the pro- 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 105 
 
 phet Isaiah saying — " Bind up the testimony; 
 seal the law among my disciples. And I will 
 wait upon the Lord, that hideth his face from 
 the house of Jacob, and I will look for him." 
 Isa. viii. 16, 17. See also Isa. xlii. 1, and 
 Zech. i. 12, 13. 
 
 3. His advocacy is brought more fully and 
 more clearly into view under the New Testa- 
 ment dispensation. The New Testament Scrip- 
 tures inform us of the place where he intercedes, 
 < ; He has entered heaven itself, now to appear 
 in the presence of God for us:" — of the way of 
 his access to heaven as our advocate, " It was 
 not by the blood of calves and goats, but by 
 his own blood that he entered in once into the 
 holy place, having obtained eternal redemption 
 for us:" — of the general mode of his inter- 
 cession, " It is an appearance in the midst of 
 the throne as a Lamb that hath been slain" — 
 " an appearance in the presence of God for 
 us." With respect to its duration and success, 
 we are told, " that he is able also to save them 
 to the uttermost that come unto God by him, 
 seeing he everliveth to make intercession for 
 them." 
 
 4. He is well qualified for his work as an 
 advocate, from his personal character, and offi- 
 
 10 
 
106 OFFICES OF CHKIST. 
 
 cial fulness. With regard to his personal cha- 
 racter, being God and man in one person, he 
 is nearly related to God with whom he inter- 
 cedes, and to man for whom he intercedes. He 
 is God's fellow, and our brother; a fit days- 
 man who can lay his hand upon both parties; 
 while as God he takes a deep interest in his 
 Father's honour, as man, he has a fellow-feel- 
 ing with his people under all their infirmities 
 and wants. Heb. iv. 15. He has also all that 
 official fulness necessary to render his inter- 
 cession ever prevalent with the Father. None 
 could approach God as an advocate who had 
 not a divine call; but he is called of God, as 
 was Aaron. As he has a legal right by virtue 
 of his call, so he has a federal right by virtue 
 of his sacrifice. 
 
 5. As his advocacy proceeds on the ground 
 of his sacrifice, so it is of the same extent with 
 it both with respect to persons and things. 
 With respect to the persons for whom he in- 
 tercedes, they are the same definite number for 
 whom he laid down his life. These were 
 given to him by the Father to be redeemed 
 by his death and saved by his life, and it is for 
 them alone he intercedes. He has no plea for 
 any other, as his advocacy proceeds upon the 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 107 
 
 ground of his sacrifice. " I pray for them, I 
 pray not for the world, but for them that thou 
 hast given me, for they are thine." 
 
 6. With respect to the manner of his inter- 
 cession, we are taught to conceive of it as an 
 appearance in God's presence for us in the 
 same nature in which he suffered and died. 
 " He is not entered into the holy place made 
 with hands, which were the figures of the true, 
 but into heaven itself, now to appear in the 
 presence of God for us." It is obvious, that 
 Christ used words in interceding for his people 
 on earth, but it would be presumptuous to de- 
 termine whether or not he uses words in hea- 
 ven; but his appearance there as a lamb that 
 hath been slain is an all powerful plea. Abel's 
 blood is said to have cried for vengeance on him 
 who shed it, and its cry is said to have reached 
 from earth to heaven; but how much more 
 shall the blood of Christ which he presents 
 continually before God's throne plead, effectu- 
 ally plead for mercy on those for whose re- 
 demption it was shed ? 
 
 7. Our Lord's intercession extends both to 
 individuals, and to the church collective. The 
 Jewish high priest, when he entered the holy 
 of holies, bore on his breast-plate the names of 
 
108 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 the twelve tribes of Israel, but our great High 
 Priest bears on his heart every individual per- 
 son given to him by the Father. It is in 
 answer to his request, that the sinner, when 
 the period of his conversion arrives, is either 
 brought to the means of grace, or these means 
 sent to him; and it is at his request that the 
 Spirit is sent into his heart to render these 
 means effectual for turning him from darkness 
 to light, and from the power of Satan unto 
 God. Sprinkling under the law was the 
 symbol of intercession, and on certain occa- 
 sions it was applied not only to the throne but 
 to tbe people; but Christ sprinkles the nations. 
 He has not only carried the blood of his sacri- 
 fice into heaven, but he also applies it to the 
 consciences of sinners on earth, to purge them 
 from guilt and dead works. Isa lii. 14, 15. 
 
 8. Our Lord's intercession is ever preva- 
 lent. This may be inferred from the Father's 
 love to Christ himself. When the men of 
 Tyre wished to conciliate the favour of Herod, 
 they made Blastus the king's chamberlain their 
 friend, and then went in boldly to Herod; and 
 with how much greater boldness may we ap- 
 proach God's throne since his dear Son is our 
 friend and advocate! The Father will assuredlv 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 109 
 
 give to bis Son, so near and dear to him, his 
 heart's desire, and will not withhold from him 
 the requests of his lips. But in addition to 
 this, the Father loves those for whom he inter- 
 cedes. He does not intercede with God for 
 them, to procure his love for them; his inter- 
 cession, like his sacrifice, only respects the ho- 
 nourable channel of its conveyance. Our Lord 
 was careful to impress this upon the minds of 
 his disciples. " At that day ye shall ask in my 
 name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray 
 the Father for you; for the Father himself 
 loveth you." John xvi. 26, 27. The success 
 of his intercession may also be inferred from 
 the Father's faithfulness. "Him the Father 
 heareth always." 
 
 We shall now remark briefly on 
 Chinst/s Presidency as a Priest over the 
 House of God. — Under the legal economy, the 
 whole management of what related to the ser- 
 vices of God's house belonged to the priest- 
 hood, and was vested in the person of the high 
 priest. Though a number of the functions of 
 the Jewish high priest are merged in the exer- 
 cise of our Lord's prophetical and kingly of- 
 fices, yet that of presidency over the worship 
 and services of the sanctuary of God is ascrib- 
 10* 
 
HO OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 ed particularly to him as a priest, and held out 
 as affording the greatest encouragement to hum- 
 ble boldness in our approaches to God. Thus, 
 when the writer to the Hebrews speaks of the 
 grounds of the Christian's boldness to enter 
 into the holiest, he does not only take notice 
 of the blood of Christ, by which the way to 
 the holiest was opened, and its properties as a 
 new and living way, but he adds as another 
 ground of encouragement, " And having a 
 great high priest over the house of God, let 
 us draw near with a true heart," &c. Heb. 
 x. 21. 
 
 1. As a priest he has not only opened up 
 the-way to the throne of God by his death, 
 but he also keeps it open by his continual inter- 
 cession. Sin separates between us and God, 
 and excludes us from all gracious intercourse 
 with him. But Christ has put away sin by 
 the sacrifice of himself; and in putting away 
 sin, he has opened for us a new and living 
 way, not into these holy places made with 
 hands, which were only figures of the true, 
 but into heaven itself, whither he himself 
 entered as our forerunner, and into which be- 
 lievers have now access by faith, and will ulti- 
 mately be admitted in their whole persons. 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST, ] 1 1 
 
 2. He does not only open the way to God 
 by his death, and keep it open by his inter- 
 cession, but he takes the lead in the service? 
 of the sanctuary, both in the church militant 
 and church triumphant. To prevent mistakes, 
 we must here call the attention of our readers 
 to the twofold character of Christ, his essential 
 character as God, and his assumed character 
 as man and mediator. In his essential charac- 
 ter as God, he is the object of all religious ser- 
 vice, both in the church militant and in the 
 church triumphant, equally with the Father 
 and Spirit. The praises of saints and angels 
 are addressed to the Godhead in three persons, 
 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But in his 
 assumed character, and created nature, he is 
 subordinate to the Godhead, and must acknow- 
 ledge that subordination in a way suited to the 
 station he occupies in these characters. It is 
 not meant to affirm, when we say that Christ 
 takes the lead in the service of God's sanc- 
 tuary, that in every respect his service and 
 that of his people are parallel. While on earth, 
 he obeyed the law as a substitute, and now 
 that he is gone to heaven, his service is still 
 official, whereas their service is that of the 
 natural subjects of law; but in this they agree, 
 
112 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 that both have for their common end the ad- 
 vancement of God's declarative glory. 
 
 We shall only add, that although the human 
 nature of Christ is, by virtue of its union to 
 the divine person of the Son of God, far exalt- 
 ed above every mere creature, yet it is still a 
 created nature, and, as such, a dependent na- 
 ture; and it may be inferred from its absolute 
 perfection, that all its powers and faculties will 
 be put forth in the acknowledgment of its 
 dependence on the Godhead in the purest and 
 liveliest strains of adoration. 
 
 3. Our high priest also consecrates all his 
 younger brethren to God, and forms them for 
 his service. They are made priests unto God, 
 and as such, consecrated by sacrifice to his 
 service. " Jesus also, that he might sanctify, 
 (consecrate,) the people with his own blood, 
 suffered without the gate." This takes in two 
 things — First, the opening up by his sacrifice 
 of the way to the throne, which has been 
 already considered. Secondly, the application 
 of the blood of his sacrifice to the conscience. 
 This was typified when the first covenant was 
 dedicated by sprinkling the people. By that 
 act they were set apart to God as a nation of 
 priests, a holy people. As the offering of his 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 113 
 
 sacrifice was necessary to open the way to the 
 holiest; so the application of his hlood to the 
 conscience is necessary to give them boldness 
 to improve the way. With guilt on the con- 
 science, we will never draw near to God; and 
 nothing but his blood can purge the conscience 
 from guilt and dead works. Heb. ix. 14. 
 
 4. Having inclined them to improve the 
 way of access, and formed them for service, 
 he has a fellow-feeling with them in their pre- 
 sent state under all their privations and temp- 
 tations. Our great high priest has all the pity 
 of God, and all the compassion of human na- 
 ture; and his compassion as man, so far as it 
 regards the outward sufferings, privations, and 
 temptations to which his people are exposed 
 in the present life, partakes of the nature of 
 fellow-feeling from his being once placed in 
 similar circumstances of privation and trial. 
 When in affliction, we expect most sympathy 
 from one who has been in similar circum- 
 stances of distress. He may not naturally be 
 superior to others in respect of feeling, but 
 from the experience he has had of distress 
 similar to that which we are labouring under, 
 we expect he will enter more readily into our 
 feelings under it, and be more prompt to afford 
 
114 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 us, if in his power, the desired relief. Such is 
 the compassion of Christ. " He suffered, be- 
 ing tempted, that he might know how to suc- 
 cour them that are tempted/' 
 
 5. Our great high priest succours and re- 
 lieves his people under their afflictions and 
 temptations in divers ways. He sometimes 
 rebukes the tempter, so that they are relieved 
 from his attacks for the present, as in the case 
 of Joshua the high priest. " The Lord said 
 unto Satan, the Lord rebuke thee, Satan; 
 even the Lord who hath chosen Jerusalem, 
 rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out 
 of the fire?" Sometimes the temptation is 
 prolonged, as in the case of Paul, but then he 
 affords relief by granting new supplies of 
 grace in proportion to the extent and duration 
 of the trial, so that they are, instead of faint- 
 ing, led to glory in their infirmities, as they 
 afford occasion for the manifestation of the 
 power of Christ, and his care about his people. 
 
 6. His Presidency over God's house also 
 secures the acceptance of their services before 
 God. After all that is wrought in them, and 
 after all the gracious succours they receive in 
 the season of service and in the hour of trial, 
 their services are very imperfect in this life; 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 115 
 
 still, as their persons are accepted on the 
 ground of his righteousness, so, on the ground 
 of the same righteousness pleaded on their 
 behalf by him as their advocate before the 
 throne, their services also come up with ac- 
 ceptance before God: " Ye also, as lively 
 stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy 
 priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices ac- 
 ceptable to God by Jesus Christ. " 
 
 7. As our great high priest over the house 
 of God, he has not only a tender feeling for 
 the worshippers, but an ardent zeal for God's 
 honour. His zeal for God's honour in what 
 relates to the religious observances of the sanc- 
 tuary, was displayed by him while on earth 
 doctrinally ', by detecting and exposing the 
 many corruptions that had crept into the wor- 
 ship of God, and actually by purging the 
 temple of buyers and sellers. John ii. 13 — 17. 
 
 But his zeal for the purity of every thing 
 connected with the house of God is nothing 
 abated now that he is gone to heaven. He is 
 still spiritually present in his church on earth, 
 and he sits in her as a refiner of silver, that 
 he may purify the sons of Levi, and purge 
 them as gold and silver, that they may offer 
 unto the Lord an offering in righteousness> 
 
116 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 Nor is his care in this respect confined to those 
 in office in the church. It extends to every 
 church-member. 
 
 S. His presidency over the church triumph- 
 ant will continue for ever. Jesus, because he 
 continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priest- 
 hood; but his presidency over the worship and 
 services of the church triumphant will consti- 
 tute, if not the principal, at least one of the 
 main functions of his priesthood in eternity. 
 The splendour of his royal dignity will never 
 eclipse the memorials of his death as a priest 
 on Calvary, which he carried along with him 
 to the throne of God. No; while eternal ages 
 roll on, he will appear in the midst of the 
 throne as a lamb that hath been slain, and by 
 his appearance in this character he will con- 
 tinue to direct, enliven, and stimulate the 
 praises of saints and angels for ever and ever. 
 As believers in the church on earth are sweetly 
 constrained, by the love of God in giving his 
 Son to save them, and the love of the Son in 
 giving his life a ransom for them, to devote 
 their persons and services to God, so the saints 
 in glory will be sweetly, yet powerfully, influ- 
 enced by the same motives, in prosecuting the 
 services of the celestial world; and these mo- 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. ] 17 
 
 tives will be maintained in constant operation 
 by the saints in light having perpetually in 
 their view the memorials of that death by 
 which they were redeemed to God out of 
 every kindred, and tongue, and people, and 
 nation. 
 
 SECTION XII. 
 
 THE KINGLY OFFICE OF CHRIST. 
 
 The kingly office of Christ holds a promi- 
 nent place in the Christian system. As a 
 priest, by his one sacrifice he obtained eternal 
 redemption for his church; but that would 
 have availed us nothing had he not applied it to 
 us by his power as a king. The doctrine of our 
 Lord's kingly office has in every age strong- 
 ly excited the jealousy of the powers of the 
 the world. "The kings of the earth set them- 
 selves, and the rulers take counsel together, 
 against the Lord, and against his Anointed." 
 Besides, it finds an opponent in the heart of 
 every child of Adam, from its aversion to the 
 extent, purity, and spirituality of the divine 
 11 
 
118 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 law. For these reasons it has always occupied 
 a distinguished place in the testimony of the 
 church. Christ himself died a martyr to the 
 truth of his kingly office. A great cloud of 
 witnesses suffered unto the death in support of 
 the same truth, under pagan and antichristian 
 Rome; and it still continues to be opposed in 
 various ways, even in Protestant countries. 
 These considerations, as well as its vital im- 
 portance in the Christian system, give it a high 
 claim to our most serious attention. 
 
 General Remarks. — 1. Our Lord is neces- 
 sarily a king as God. He is the creator of all 
 things: "For by him were all things created 
 that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible 
 and invisible, whether they be thrones, or do- 
 minions, or principalities, or powers: all things 
 were created by him and for him." Besides, 
 he sustains the universe in existence. " He 
 is before all things, and by him all things con- 
 sist." " He upholdeth all things by the word 
 of his power." 
 
 2. Our Lord is also a king as Mediator. 
 His dominion as God belongs to him necessa- 
 rily, but his dominion as Mediator is delegated 
 to him by the Father, as the representative of 
 Godhead in the economy of redemption : " Yet 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 1 19 
 
 have I set my King upon my holy hill of 
 Zion." Psal. ii. 6. " The Father loveth the 
 Son, and hath given all things into his hand." 
 John iii. 35. See also Eph. i. 20—23. Ac- 
 cordingly the Scriptures ascribe royal names 
 and titles to him, such as " Ruler in Israel" — 
 " Judge"— -" Leader and Commander" — "the 
 Captain of salvation" — "Lord of all" — "Prince 
 of peace" — "King of saints" — " King of kings, 
 and Lord of lords." To the same purpose 
 the Scriptures assign to him symbols of royal- 
 ty, such as royal unction, a royal sceptre, and 
 a royal throne. Psal. xlv. 6,7. 
 
 3. As his mediatory authority as a king is 
 delegated to him by the Father, so it is by the 
 Father's grant that he possesses ability for 
 carrying into effect the ends of his administra- 
 tion. These could only be effected by divine 
 energy; but this is put forth by Christ as a 
 king in the salvation of the church. It must 
 be remembered, however, that this grant to 
 Christ as Mediator supposes his supreme God- 
 head; for, as the Divine nature cannot be 
 communicated, so the life, said to be in Christ 
 by the Father's grant, could not have been 
 conferred upon him in his official character for 
 mediatory purposes, had it not been in him 
 
120 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 necessarily as the eternal Son of God. We 
 shall only add here, that our Lord applies sal- 
 vation to the church by the more immediate 
 agency of his Spirit, and for this end he is 
 said to have been anointed with the Spirit 
 without measure; but had he not been a divine 
 person, he could not have been the recipient 
 of this immeasurable unction. - " He whom 
 God hath sent, speaketh the words of God, 
 for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto 
 him." 
 
 4. Our Lord, as Mediator, is not only the 
 King of the church, but also head over all 
 things for her benefit. The church, compre- 
 hending all who profess their faith in Christ, 
 and obedience to him, as also their children, is 
 our Lord's proper kingdom over which he 
 reigns. This is his free, spiritual, and inde- 
 pendent kingdom; a society in, though not of 
 the world, and which is created and maintain- 
 ed on earth for the purpose of gathering God's 
 elect out of the world lying in wickedness, 
 and building them up in holiness, through faith 
 unto salvation. But the church, while on 
 earth, is exposed to many and powerful ene- 
 mies, who are continually plotting her destruc- 
 tion. This rendered it necessary for her pro- 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 121 
 
 tection, that the power of Christ as a King 
 should be extended to all things in heaven and 
 on earth. " He rules in the midst of his 
 enemies." 
 
 5. Though our Lord's dominion as Media- 
 tor is equally extensive with regard to its ob- 
 jects as his dominion as God, yet it does not 
 subvert or even supersede God's essential do- 
 minion. 
 
 First: The government of Christ, as it re- 
 spects religion and law, does not subvert or set 
 aside God's moral government. One grand 
 design of our Lord's work as Mediator, was to 
 fulfil and establish the law originally given to 
 man. This he did most effectually, in his own 
 person, as a priest, on earth, by satisfying all 
 its claims, as a covenant law, both for obedi- 
 ence to its precept and satisfaction to its pe- 
 nalty, in our room; and he continues to pro- 
 secute the same design, as a king, though in a 
 different way, in bringing back sinners by the 
 power of his grace to a dutiful submission to 
 the same law as a rule of righteousness. Be- 
 lievers, it is true, are under the law as a rule 
 of duty, not in the form in which it was ori- 
 ginally given to man, though it is the same law 
 in substance. They are under the law as in 
 11* 
 
122 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 the hand of Christ; but this does not dissolve 
 but strengthen their obligation to it, as a rule 
 of duty to God. They are " not without law 
 to God but under the law to Christ." 
 
 Secondly: Neither does our Lord's domin- 
 ion over all things, as Mediator, subvert or 
 supersede God's physical government. His 
 physical government over all things consists in 
 his ordering and disposing of these things in 
 their natural order, so as to accomplish the 
 natural ends proposed by them. Our Lord's 
 mediatory government, as it respects the same 
 things, lies in his ordering and disposing of 
 them, in a supernatural way, so as to prove 
 subservient to the interests of his church and 
 people. Nor does this introduce any discord- 
 ance into the plan of the divine government, 
 for the God of nature is also the God of grace, 
 and in fixing the plan of his general govern- 
 ment, he made provision for making ever)^ 
 thing in the plan tend to the advancement of 
 the interests of his church. 
 
 6. Our Lord's mediatory government, as it 
 consists in the prescription and administration 
 of religion and law, does not extend to all 
 mankind, but only to the visible church, and 
 those who have access to the means of grace 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 123 
 
 as dispensed in her. This appears, first, from 
 the fact that these alone have the means of 
 acquaintance with the Mediator. The light of 
 nature affords no notices of a mediator, or of 
 the law as in the hand of the mediator; but 
 where there is no law there can be no trans- 
 gression. The heathen who perish, shall 
 perish, not for the transgression of the law con- 
 sidered as the law of Christ, or the contempt 
 of his authority as a mediatory king, but for 
 their violation of the law of nature. This is 
 certainly the meaning of the apostle when he 
 tells us, that " as many as have sinned without 
 law, shall also perish without law; and as 
 many as have sinned in the law shall be judged 
 by the law." Rom. ii. 12. Secondly, The 
 Scriptures never represent Christ in his official 
 character as the moral governor of the heathen, 
 but only as the king of the church. He is 
 God's king, whom he hath set upon his holy 
 hill of Zion. Ps. ii. 6. He rules as a moral 
 governor, not over all mankind, but over the 
 house of Israel; over his own house, which 
 must signify his church, which he purchased 
 with his blood and saved by his power. Luke 
 i. 33.; Heb. iii. 6. Thirdly, His kingdom, 
 over which he rules by a dispensation of law, 
 
124 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 admits of having multitudes added to it. - Hence 
 the conversion of the isles to the Redeemer is 
 signified by their waiting for his laws, which 
 implies, that they were not originally under 
 them. 
 
 7. Our Lord's administration as a King 
 must have been coeval with the revelation 
 of the plan of mercy. The old world was 
 drowned — the cities of the plain were con- 
 sumed — the Israelites were delivered from 
 Egypt — Pharoah and his host were over- 
 whelmed and God's people saved by the 
 power of Christ our King. " The angel of 
 his presence saved them." See Exodus xxiii. 
 20, 21; and Joshua v. 13, 14. 
 
 Though the main design of his incarnation 
 and appearance in our world was to put away 
 sin by the sacrifice of himself, as a priest; yet 
 he continued to act as- the king of his church 
 during his humbled estate. This is evident 
 from his clearing the temple of buyers and 
 sellers, his casting out devils, his instituting 
 ordinances, and appointing office-bearers in 
 his church. In his resurrection, ascension, 
 and session at the Father's right hand, he was 
 more openly and solemnly invested with royal 
 authority in the church, and over all things, 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 125 
 
 for her benefit. And he shall continue "to 
 reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of 
 his kingdom there shall be no end." Luke 
 i. 33. 
 
 SECTION XIII. 
 
 THE EXTENT OF OUR LORD'S DOiYIINION AS MEDIATOR. 
 
 While the church is the proper kingdom of 
 Christ over which he is appointed as Media- 
 tor, yet his dominion extends to all things for 
 her benefit. Under the head of his mediatory 
 dominion, therefore, we include his church on 
 earth — his subsidiary kingdom — and his king- 
 dom of glory. 
 
 I. The dominion of Christ extends to his 
 church. She is the proper kingdom over 
 which he reigns. "Yet have I set my king 
 upon my holy hill of Zion." Under God, as 
 the God of grace, Christ is the alone king and 
 head of the church. He is her Lord, her law- 
 giver, and her king, and he will save her. 
 She is his free and independent kingdom — a 
 kingdom in the world, but not of the world; 
 and none can claim headship over her, or inter- 
 
128 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 fere with her internal laws and administrations, 
 without usurping his rights and the royal pre- 
 rogatives. 
 
 II. Our Lord's dominion extends to all 
 things for the good of the church. The church, 
 his proper kingdom, has often been confined 
 within narrow limits, but his subsidiary king- 
 dom extends to the whole creation of God. 
 
 1. It extends to all the human race, and for 
 various purposes. First, That he may collect 
 his own elect out of the world and bring them 
 into the church militant, and thus prepare 
 them for being introduced into the church 
 triumphant: " Thou hast given him power 
 over all flesh, that he should give eternal life 
 to as many as thou hast given him." John 
 xvii. 2. Secondly, That he may employ the 
 agency of the unbelieving part of the world 
 for the benefit of his church, whether in the 
 way of contributing to her temporal interests, 
 as when the earth is made to help the woman, 
 or by over-ruling their malice against the 
 church for correction or trial. " The wicked 
 are established for correction. Surely the 
 wrath of man shall praise thee, the remainder 
 of wrath shalt thou restrain." Thirdly, That 
 he may bruise the finally impenitent under his 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 127 
 
 feet, and the feet of his people. Hence the 
 grant made to him in the second Psalm, a grant 
 which has a retrospective view to the combi- 
 nation mentioned in the beginning of that 
 Psalm, of kings and others in authority, against 
 the Lord and against his Anointed; and which 
 is intended to defeat their malignant designs 
 by their condign punishment. Ask of me and 
 I shall give thee the heathen for thy possession. 
 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou 
 shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's ves- 
 sel." Verses S, 9. 
 
 2. His subsidiary kingdom extends to holy 
 angels. These blessed spirits retained their 
 allegiance to God when their kindred spirits 
 fell from their first estate, so that they are the 
 subjects of our Lord viewed in his essential 
 character. But they are also put under him 
 as Mediator, to be employed by him for media- 
 tory purposes; and, considered in this light, 
 they act voluntarily in the service of Christ. 
 The service in which they are employed is 
 extensive. 
 
 3. The subsidiary kingdom of Christ ex- 
 tends to fallen angels. Our Lord reigns not 
 only over holy angels as willing subjects, who 
 fulfil his pleasure with alacrity and delight, but 
 
128 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 he reigns over fallen spirits also, as rebels and 
 vanquished enemies. His dominion as Media- 
 tor is extended to these for obvious reasons. 
 Those whom he came to redeem by his blood, 
 and save by his power, are, in their fallen 
 state, under the dominion of Satan, and led 
 captive by him at his will; it was therefore 
 necessary that the Redeemer of the church 
 should be invested with power to enter Satan's 
 dominions and rescue his chosen people — to 
 bind that " strong man," and to spoil him of 
 his goods. 
 
 4. The subsidiary kingdom of Christ also 
 extends to the lower animals, and the different 
 parts of the inanimate creation. Heb. ii. 5-S. 
 
 III. Our Lord's dominion also extends to 
 the kingdom of glory. His kingdom of grace 
 in the church militant is erected and main- 
 tained for the important purposes of gathering 
 sinners to Christ, building them up in holi- 
 ness, and thus preparing them for entering the 
 church triumphant. Christ has taken posses- 
 sion of the kingdom of glory as the Head of 
 the church. It is, with respect to its local 
 situation, the third heaven — the throne of God, 
 or the place of his glorious residence. " When 
 Christ had by himself purged our sins, he sat 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 129 
 
 down on the right hand of the Majesty on 
 high." " The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit 
 thou at my right hand, until I make thine ene- 
 mies thy footstool." Christ is now a king on 
 his throne, and his throne is in heaven. And, 
 to show the intimate connexion between his 
 mediatory and God's essential dominion, and 
 the tendency the former has to secure the 
 honours of the latter, he is represented as asso- 
 ciated with the Father upon the same throne. 
 " To him that overcometh will I grant to sit 
 with me in my throne, even as I also over- 
 came, and am set down with my Father on his 
 throne." Nor is Christ, considered as a me- 
 diatory king in heaven, a prince without sub- 
 jects. A great number of the redeemed from 
 among men have already entered heaven in 
 respect of their souls, and not a few both in 
 soul and body; all of whom serve him day and 
 night in his temple. Besides, his kingdom of 
 glory is continually increasing. The saints 
 leave the church militant that they may enter 
 the church triumphant. The saints on earth 
 and the saints in glory are but one family, 
 only the former are in a state of minority, and 
 the latter have arrived at a state of majority; 
 the former are on their way to their Father's 
 12 
 
130 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 house, whereas the latter have entered it to go 
 no more out. They have all one Father even 
 God, one Lord, and one inheritance; though 
 believers on earth have the inheritance only 
 in prospect, whereas the saints in glory have 
 it in actual possession. 
 
 SECTION XIV. 
 
 our lord's administration in the church. 
 
 We have seen that the church is Christ's 
 free, spiritual, and independent kingdom, and 
 that the power given him over all things is 
 for her benefit. His administration in the 
 church has, therefore, the first claim to our 
 attention. This naturally divides itself into 
 two parts: First, what relates to her external 
 form or organization; and, secondly, what re- 
 lates to that spiritual influence by which her 
 ordinances and administrations are rendered 
 effectual for the ends of her erection and main- 
 tenance in the world. 
 
 What relates to the external form or or- 
 ganization of the church. — 1. The first act 
 of our Lord's administration in the formation 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 131 
 
 of the church, is the authoritative publication 
 of her charter of privileges. This charter is 
 the gospel, called by Christ the gospel of the 
 kingdom. 
 
 That this must be viewed as the primary 
 act of Christ in the erection of his church as a 
 king, will appear from the following consider- 
 ations. First in order to the formation of a 
 church, there must be persons who are joined 
 together as a visible society; but the gospel is 
 the grand means of converting the soul lying 
 in sin, and it is by a profession of faith in the 
 gospel that we enter the church, and are ad- 
 mitted to the enjoyment of her privileges. 
 The members of the church are in their na- 
 tural state enemies to God by wicked works; 
 but a gospel ministry is the ministry of recon- 
 ciliation, and the gospel itself the rod of the 
 Redeemer's strength sent out of Zion, by 
 which those who were once alienated from 
 God and enemies to him by wicked works, 
 are made a willing people. 2 Cor. v. 13, 19; 
 Psalm ex. 2, 3. Secondly, it appears from the 
 nature of our Lord's administration as it re- 
 gards law and government. We have seen 
 already that it grafts duty on privilege; and 
 this supposes that the authoritative grant of 
 
132 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 privilege must be the first act of his adminis- 
 tration. 
 
 2. As a king, he prescribes laws and ap- 
 points ordinances of worship in his church. 
 
 Our Lord, as Mediator, is a lawgiver, but 
 not in the sense in which it is understood by 
 the adversaries of the doctrine of grace. They 
 maintain, that the main end of his coming into 
 the world was to procure for his people a new 
 and easier law as the condition of life; but so 
 far from this, our Lord himself assures us that 
 he came " not to destroy the law," as original- 
 ly given to man, " but to fulfil it." 
 
 3. Our Lord, as a king, institutes offices; ap- 
 points office-bearers in his church; calls them 
 to their work; assigns to them severally their 
 sphere of labour; and determines the measure 
 of their success. 
 
 4. Our Lord, as a king, has appointed a form 
 of government and discipline in his church, 
 distinct from, and not subordinate to, civil go- 
 vernment. 
 
 Christ's internal administration in the 
 church. — Having finished what was intended 
 upon our Lord's administration as it regards 
 the external form of the church, we proceed 
 to speak of his internal administration as it 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 133 
 
 respects the power with which he accompanies 
 his own institutions for the conversion of his 
 chosen people, and for building them up in 
 holiness through faith unto salvation. 
 
 In this important work, the king of the 
 church appears with all the gentleness and 
 meekness connected with his character as a 
 Saviour. The cause in support of which he 
 appears, is the cause of meekness, of truth, 
 and of righteousness. His appearance itself 
 is sweetened with meekness. He is meek 
 and bringing salvation. But his coming in 
 the gospel dispensation is also with all the ma- 
 jesty of a mighty warrior. Ps. lv. 3, 4. 
 
 1. He subdues sinners to himself by his 
 word, accompanied with the power of his 
 Spirit. The season of this spiritual conquest, 
 as it regards individuals, is the period fixed 
 in God's eternal purpose, for their translation 
 from a state of nature into a state of grace. 
 When this period arrives, they are sought 
 and not forsaken, and the means of grace 
 which are to be rendered effectual for their 
 conversion, are either sent to them, or they 
 are brought to the means. The good shep- 
 herd seeks out his sheep, and gathers them 
 from all places where they have been scatter- 
 
134 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 ed in the cloudy and dark day, and brings 
 them into his own fold. 
 
 2. The change of the sinner's state, as well 
 as of his heart, is ascribed to our Lord's admin- 
 istration as a king. He is " exalted a Prince 
 and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel, 
 and forgiveness of sins." Acts v. 31. The 
 same observation applies to adoption, another 
 relative change. Formally considered, adop- 
 tion is the act of God as a Father; but Christ 
 is said to give power to become the sons of 
 God, when he implants faith in the heart, and 
 enables us to realize the blessing of adoption 
 and its rich fruits as offered in the gospel. 
 " As many as received him, to them gave he 
 power to become the sons of God, even to 
 them that believe on his name." John i. 12. 
 
 3. Having called and justified, he governs 
 them by his laws, and carries forward a work 
 of sanctification in their souls. Believers are 
 dead to the law as a covenant, but they are not 
 without law to God, but under the law to 
 Christ. They have not this law as a written 
 rule merely, in common with others, but as 
 engraven on their hearts. " They are the 
 epistle of Christ, written not with ink, but 
 with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 135 
 
 of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart." 
 Their duty is their delight. They find them- 
 selves bound to obey, not only as creatures 
 depending on God for existence and daily pre- 
 servation, but from the consideration of their 
 election of grace, their redemption through the 
 blood of Christ, and their effectual vocation. 
 The authority of Christ is sweetened by his 
 love, which constrains them to walk with him 
 in all the ways of new obedience. They are 
 his subjects not merely in name but in truth, 
 and from choice. The kingdom of God is 
 within them — that kingdom which is not meat 
 and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and 
 joy in the Holy Ghost. Christ sits enthroned 
 in their hearts, and all the powers of their 
 minds are brought under his subjection. 
 
 4. He orders and disposes of every circum- 
 stance in their lot, so as to make it subservient 
 to the advancement of their spiritual interests. 
 See 1 Cor. vii. 20 — 26; and Heb. xii. 3 — 12; 
 and Rom. viii. 28. 
 
136 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 SECTION XV. 
 
 OUR lord's administration as it extends to all things 
 
 FOR THE BENEFIT OF HIS CHURCH. 
 
 We have seen already that our Lord executes 
 his office as a king in the church, by his word, 
 ordinances, and laws, accompanied with the 
 power of his Spirit. But he does not govern 
 his subsidiary kingdom by ordinances and 
 office-bearers, distinct or different from the 
 established laws of nature and the ordinary 
 instruments of providence; but by giving these 
 a supernatural direction for the benefit of the 
 church. In both cases however, power is put 
 forth by the immediate agency of the Spirit, as 
 the Spirit of Christ, to render the means and 
 instruments effectual for the supernatural ends 
 proposed by them. The same Spirit who 
 gives effect to the ordinances of his grace in 
 the church for the salvation of sinners, directs 
 the laws of nature and the instruments of pro- 
 vidence in the moral world, beyond, as well 
 as within her pale, for her benefit. Thus, in 
 Ezekiel's vision of the cherub, the four living 
 creatures, the symbols of the ministers of reli- 
 gion, and the wheels, the symbols of the in- 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 137 
 
 struments of God's moral government in the 
 world, though, in their nature distinct, run 
 parallel, and both contribute in their owa way, 
 so far as relates to the church, to promote one 
 common end; and the reason assigned is, that 
 the same Spirit who animates the living crea- 
 tures, regulates the motion of the wheels. 
 "And when the living creatures went, the 
 wheels went by them; and when the living 
 creatures were lifted up from the earth, the 
 wheels were lifted up. Whithersoever the 
 spirit was to go, they went, thither was their 
 spirit to go; and the wheels were lifted up 
 over against them; for the spirit of the living 
 creature was in the wheels." Ezek. i. 19, 20. 
 1. In exercising this power, our Lord so 
 disposes of nations and their governments, as 
 to remove those physical and political obstruc- 
 tions out of the way, which tend to retard the 
 progress of his Gospel in the world. Even 
 so early as the original division of the earth, 
 we find provision made, by mediatory inter- 
 ference for the future settlement of the church 
 in Abraham's family, in the land of Canaan. 
 " When the Most High divided to the nations 
 their inheritance, when he separated the sons 
 of Adam, he set the bounds of the people, 
 
138 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 according to the number of the children of 
 Israel." See also Haggai ii. 7; and Heb. xii. 
 26, 27. 
 
 2. In the exercise of his power over all flesh, 
 he sometimes makes those who are strangers 
 to religion contribute by the influence of their 
 authority to the advancement of his work in 
 the church. He can make the earth help the 
 woman. The Egyptians were the instruments 
 of feeding the infant church in the season of 
 famine. Cyrus was raised up for restoring the 
 Jews to their own land, and rebuilding the 
 temple. 
 
 3. He employs wicked men, especially those 
 in power, for the correction and trial of the 
 church. Thus, he employed the Assyrians for 
 punishing the ten tribes and correcting Judah 
 for their apostasy. Nothing was further from 
 the intention of the Assyrian monarch, than 
 to execute God's purpose. He was prompted 
 by no higher motive than worldly ambition. 
 But the great Head of the church overruled 
 his ambition for the accomplishing of his own 
 designs with regard to his rebellious people. 
 " Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his 
 heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy 
 and cut off nations not a few." Isa. x. 7. 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 139 
 
 4. Having accomplished his work of cor- 
 rection upon mount Zion, he punishes her op- 
 pressors for their malice and cruelty. They 
 are not the less guilty that their cruelty is 
 overruled by the Head of the church for her 
 good. Though He means it for good, when 
 He permits them to persecute and afflict her, 
 they mean it for evil, and merit punishment 
 accordingly. Judgment begins at God's house, 
 but it ends with the wicked. The church 
 tastes the brim of-the cup, but the wicked of 
 the earth are made to wring out the bitter 
 dregs of it. See Isa. li. 22, 23. 
 
 5. These judgments, executed upon nations 
 and individuals by Christ, all lead to, and shall 
 terminate in the general judgment. In the 
 present world judgment is often suspended for 
 a season, and, even when inflicted, is mitigated 
 for the sake of the elect who are interspersed 
 among the wicked, or perhaps still in their 
 loins. It was for this reason Judah was re- 
 stored to her own land while the ten tribes re- 
 mained in captivity. Isa. vi. 13. It was for 
 this reason too, that the Jews were respited 
 during forty years after they had crucified the 
 Saviour, and that, when judgment was actu- 
 ally inflicted, the days of their calamity were 
 
140 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 shortened. 2 Pet. iii. 9; Matth. xxiv. 22. 
 But, at the second coming of Christ, this rea- 
 son for divine forbearance shall no longer ex- 
 ist; the elect being all born, converted, and 
 separated from the wicked. Then wrath shall 
 come upon them to the uttermost. They shall 
 be brought before the judgment-seat, condemn- 
 ed, and cast into hell, where is weeping, and 
 wailing, and gnashing of teeth. 
 
 SECTION XVI. 
 
 WHAT IS MEANT BY CHRIST'S DELIVERING UP THE KINGDOM. 
 
 Besides the change which will take place 
 after the judgment in the mode of the admin- 
 istration of our Lord in his church, he will 
 also cease to exercise that mediatory control 
 he now has over her implacable enemies. 
 In speaking of our Lord's dominion as Me- 
 diator, we noticed, that it does not only ex- 
 tend to the church his proper kingdom, but " 
 also to all things for her benefit. As his elect 
 were to be gathered from the common mass of 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 141 
 
 mankind, it was necessary that his dominion 
 should extend to all flesh; and as not only the 
 principalities of hell, but also the powers of 
 this world, have generally been combined 
 against the church, it was necessary that his 
 power should extend to both for her protec- 
 tion. But since at his second coming all the 
 election of grace shall be gathered out of the 
 world, and all principality and power, both 
 human and angelic, put down, so as never 
 more to be able to manage any opposition to 
 the church, so he is to deliver up the kingdom, 
 so far as regards them, and they are henceforth 
 to fall immediately under the dominion of 
 God, in his absolute character; "Then cometh 
 the end, when he shall have delivered up the 
 kingdom to God, even the Father; when he 
 shall have put down all rule, and all authority 
 and power." 1 Cor. xv. 24. That this king- 
 dom is not his church, nor even his subsidiary 
 kingdom, as a whole, appears evident from the 
 text and context. The grant to the Mediator 
 of the power of control over all the human 
 and angelic enemies of the church is particu- 
 larly mentioned, and the term of its duration 
 with regard to its exercise specified, in Psalm 
 ex. He was to reign over these enemies till 
 13 
 
142 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 subdued under his feet, and the feet of his 
 church. " The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit 
 thou at my right hand, until I make thine ene- 
 mies thy footstool. The Lord shall send the 
 rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in 
 the midst of thine enemies." Now since the 
 apostle quotes the passage in the psalm which 
 respects his reign over his enemies, in support 
 of his delivering up the kingdom; and since, 
 on the one hand, he assigns their complete 
 subjugation at the time of the end as the rea- 
 son why he shall deliver it up; (ver. 24,) 
 u when he shall have put down all rule, and 
 all authority and power;" and since, on the 
 other hand, he assigns as the reason that it 
 shall not be delivered up till the time of the 
 end, that these principalities and powers must 
 first be subdued, (ver. 25,) "for he must reign 
 till he hath put all enemies under his feet;" 
 we must conclude that by the kingdom itself 
 to be delivered up, we are to understand, not 
 his dominion in the church herself, but his do- 
 minion as extended to her human and angelic 
 enemies, for her protection. 
 
 When Christ is said to deliver up the 
 kingdom, even in the sense in which we 
 have explained it, we are not to understand 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 143 
 
 it to signify the alienation of his right as 
 Mediator, to rule over those enemies of his 
 church at any future period; for the Father 
 grants no right to Christ which he will re- 
 call. It only denotes the suspension of the 
 exercise of mediatory control over them, as it 
 shall then be no longer necessary for her pro- 
 tection. But could we suppose that, at any 
 future period, the church would be attacked 
 by these enemies, his right to exercise that 
 control would be found to be entire. We shall 
 only add, that it is not meant by these re- 
 marks, to deny, that Christ, as Mediator, will 
 at the last day give in his account to the Father 
 of his mediatory administration in the church. 
 No; as he undertook in the character of the 
 Father's servant, not only to ransom his church 
 as a priest, but also to save her as a king, so 
 in the end he shall give an account of the trust 
 committed to him. But what we plead for 
 is, that this is not what is meant by his giving 
 up the kingdom, and that by the kingdom to 
 be delivered up, we are to understand, not the 
 church, but his subsidiary kingdom, as it re- 
 spects the enemies of his church. 
 
144 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 SECTION XVII. 
 
 THE ETERNITY OF OUR LORD'S REIGN OVER THE CHURCH 
 TRIUMPHANT. 
 
 In concluding this treatise, we propose to show 
 that there will be no termination of our Lord's 
 reign over the church, but that it shall con- 
 tinue for ever. 
 
 1. This appears from the nature of the grant 
 made of the church by the Father to Christ. 
 It was a grant made to him in the specific cha- 
 racter of mediator, and of which he was to be 
 put in possession, as the reward of his suffering 
 unto death for her redemption. "When thou 
 shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall 
 see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the 
 pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 
 He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall 
 be satisfied." Isaiah liii. 10, 11. But till his 
 second coming he shall not enter fully upon 
 the possession of this reward, since till then 
 the whole of his ransomed people will not be 
 converted and saved; and can we suppose for 
 a moment, that this reward will be wrested 
 from him at the very period when he comes 
 to the full possession of it, by his ceasing to be 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 145 
 
 a mediatory king, and their ceasing in that 
 character to be his subjects? Besides, we are 
 to take into the account the confirmation of the 
 grant by the oath of God. We noticed, when 
 speaking of the perpetuity of his priesthood, 
 that God confirms no grant of privilege by his 
 oath that shall be recalled. The very end of 
 his swearing is to show the immutability of 
 his counsel in regard to that about which he 
 swears. Heb. vi. 17, 18. But as the Son was 
 consecrated a priest for ever by God's oath, so 
 by the same oath he is consecrated an eternal 
 king. Ps. lxxxix. 35, 36. 
 
 2. Instead of his laying aside his royal 
 honours at the end of time, it is only then that 
 he is represented as coming to the full posses- 
 sion of them. At present he is described as 
 acquiring for himself, by spiritual conquest, a 
 kingdom. For this end he went to heaven to 
 send the Holy Spirit to convince the world of 
 sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. For 
 the same purpose the Lord sends the rod of 
 his strength out of Zion, by which he makes 
 a willing people; and it is only at his*second 
 coming that he shall take possession of his 
 kingdom, thus acquired. This is evidently 
 13* 
 
146 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 the import of the parable — " A certain noble- 
 man went into a far country to receive for 
 himself a kingdom, and to return. And he 
 called his ten servants, and delivered them ten 
 pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I 
 come. But his citizens hated him, and sent a 
 message after him, saying, We will not have 
 this man to reign over us. And it came to 
 pass, that when he was returned, having 
 received the kingdom, then he commanded 
 these servants to be called unto him to whom 
 he had given the money, that he might know 
 how much every man had gained by trading." 
 Luke xix. 12 — 15. But can we suppose that 
 Christ as Mediator will, at the day of judg- 
 ment, at once receive his kingdom, and lay 
 aside his royal honours? In addition to this, 
 he is represented in Scripture as arriving, at 
 the day of judgment, at the full glory of his 
 mediatory reign. " I charge thee, therefore," 
 says Paul to Timothy, " before God and the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick 
 and the dead, at his appearing, and his king- 
 dom." But can we suppose that the great 
 king of the church shall descend from that 
 mediatory throne which he had acquired, not 
 only by conquest, but by blood, just when 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 147 
 
 arrived at the summit of his glory? The idea 
 cannot be entertained for a moment. 
 
 3. This appears also from the high honours 
 to which his people shall be exalted in heaven 
 as the fruit of his mediatory reign. They are 
 to inherit a kingdom; they are to reign as 
 kings; they are to sit with Christ on his throne, 
 even as he overcame, and sat down with his 
 Father on his throne. But all these high 
 attainments of the members suppose the con- 
 tinued reign of their head. Can it possibly be 
 supposed, that when they come to the posses- 
 sion of their kingdom, he shall yield up the 
 possession of his; that when they begin to 
 reign, he shall cease to reign; and that when 
 they ascend the throne, he shall descend from 
 it? It is not sufficient to say, that though he 
 cease to reign as Mediator, he shall continue 
 to reign as God; for the saints are described as 
 about to enjoy all these high honours, not 
 immediately from their communion with him 
 as God, but as Mediator. 
 
 4. This appears further from the tenure by 
 which the saints in heaven shall enjoy all their 
 exalted privileges. They shall hold them by 
 a mediatory tenure. They shall enter heaven 
 on his right: " In my Father's house are many 
 
148 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 mansions; if it were not so I would have told 
 you: I go to prepare a place for you." They 
 shall retain it by the same tenure: " They 
 shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ." 
 
 5. The perpetuity of our Lord's mediato- 
 rial character further appears, from the perpe- 
 tuity of his subordination to the Father. When 
 the Father, in his resurrection and ascension 
 to heaven in our nature, put all things under 
 him, by a divine grant, for the good of the 
 church his body, whether they be thrones or 
 dominions, principalities or powers, the Father 
 himself was excepted. Though vested with 
 this extensive authority, still the head of Christ 
 as Mediator was God; "For he hath put all 
 things under his feet. But when he saith, 
 All things are put under him, it is manifest 
 that he is excepted who did put all things 
 under him." 1 Cor. xv. 27. But we are told 
 that when all those things are subdued unto 
 him at the end of time, and when on that 
 account, in the sense already explained, he 
 shall have delivered up the kingdom to God 
 even the Father, the same subordination shall 
 continue, which plainly implies the continua- 
 tion of his mediatory office, according to which 
 alone he is subordinate: "And when all things 
 
OFFICES OF CHRIST. 149 
 
 shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son 
 also himself be subject unto him that put all 
 things under him, that God may be all in all." 
 (Verse 28.) We admit that, with an Arian 
 and a Socinian, this argument will have no 
 weight, since both deny our Lord's essential 
 Deity or equality with the Father; but to a 
 Trinitarian, we apprehend the argument now 
 stated, in support of the perpetuity of our 
 Lord's mediatory character, must appear con- 
 clusive. As the Son, viewed as God, is the 
 Father's equal, so in the sense in which they 
 are equal there can be no subordination of the 
 one to the other; and viewed simply as man, 
 there could be no use for bringing forward his 
 subordination in the present argument, since 
 in this view he is essentially and necessarily 
 subordinate to the Godhead; the subordination 
 mentioned in the passage under consideration 
 can, therefore, refer to him in no other cha- 
 racter than that of Mediator. 
 
 In fine, this doctrine is fraught with com- 
 fort to the believer, to whom every office 
 which our Lord holds as Mediator is precious, 
 so precious that the opposite doctrine is calcu- 
 lated to throw a gloom over his mind, in his 
 meditations and anticipations with respect to 
 
150 OFFICES OF CHRIST. 
 
 the heavenly state. It is true, that, in one 
 view, this is no decisive proof that Christ's 
 official character shall continue for ever; but, 
 in another, it affords a strong presumption in 
 its favour. We can scarcely suppose that the 
 Holy Spirit would have inculcated so strongly, 
 and so frequently, in the word, the sentiments 
 of esteem for Christ, trust and delight in him, 
 in the specific character of Mediator, and fos- 
 tered and cherished the same feelings and sen- 
 timents in the hearts of them who believe, in 
 preparing them for heaven, by his saving 
 operations, if, upon their admission in com- 
 plete human nature into heaven, they were to 
 find our Lord divested of his official character, 
 which they now hold so precious, and through 
 which alone they expect acceptance with God 
 in the present life, and to be admitted to dwell 
 for ever in his beatific presence in the life to 
 come. But, in this particular, their hopes 
 shall not be disappointed; for " he shall reign 
 over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his 
 kingdom there shall be no end." 
 
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