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he it? As heretofore, to do his Father's will. He waiteth the Father's election to give him whom he pleaseth, and all whom the Father giveth him he baptiseth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He hath received power over all flesh, to give eternal life to as many as the Father shall give unto him. He hath received all power in heaven and in earth. He is Lord of all. And this lordship he asserts in every one of his people to whom he gives power to overcome every form of wickedness, and to be holy as he was holy; which if we are not, then are we guilty of unbelief and wilful disobedience, not He chargeable with inability or withholding; also in the church gathered out of all kingdoms and nations, and tongues and generations, and by whom, he hath successfully resisted every form of wickedness and error which hath ever been, in the fulness of his spiritual power shewn forth. And when he comes again to rule the world, it shall not be by mixing nature up with the Holy Spirit. There is no such amalgam; but there is a world subjected to the Spirit of Christ. And to mix the Holy Ghost with the human nature of Christ, is the form of that heresy concerning the Lord's body which is now passing current for orthodoxy in so many quarters; shewing, alas! how miserably, in those quarters, the people are afflicted with dulness of spiritual vision, their senses not being exercised to discern good and evil. The matter on which the Spirit works, like the atoms of the Epicureans, is all at war within itself, and with God through sin. It is the prerogative of God to shew it to be his creature still, by reducing it unto his will against its own will, by implanting in it a law of the Spirit contrary to, and masterful over, the law of nature. Thus he proves himself to be the Lord of creation, as a man doth prove himself lord and master of a rebellious steed, when, in spite of its manifest ragings, he curbeth it into obedience, and maketh it to do his will. This is the essence of spiritual power, it is supernatural power exercised over ungodly nature, to bring nature into harmony with the will and mind of God.

THE TITLE OF THE LAMB TO REDEEM.

Ver. 7. "And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne."-This action

of taking the book into his hand, is regarded by all the beholders as equivalent to the opening of it, yea and the possessing of the inheritance which it bequeaths. He is not required, as the seer was in the case of the little book, (ch. x.) to eat it, but simply to take it into his hand. This of itself seems to me, to prove that it must signify something to be possessed, and not something to be known. In the case of Ezekiel, ch. ii. and of our seer, ch. x. when the book was for knowledge, which they were afterwards. to utter by the mouth, they are required to take it into the mouth, and swallow it; because things uttered come out of the mouth. According to our Lord's mode of speech, "not that which goeth in by the mouth, but that which cometh out of the mouth defileth the man, for out of the mouth proceed evil thoughts," &c.: but now that the book concerneth possession, it is taken into the hand, and the giving of it up to be holden by another, doth signify the right of that other to possess the thing signified therein. This is the custom in all countries that he who possesses the title-deeds, possesses the right over the inheritance; and thus thought the church in heaven, and the angels, and innumerable company of every creature, who immediately burst forth into strains of joy and gratulation over their Redeemer. Now this seems to be the proper place, for inquiring into the right or title which the Lamb had, to take and to open this book, at which all heaven stood amazed.,

According to the Law of Moses, the redeemer must be a kinsman of the same blood, and the nearest of kin; and if the first-born of the family were alive, it pertained to him both in duty and in privilege. The duties were threefold, as were also the privileges. The first duty was, to avenge the blood of any member of the family who had been slain; in which capacity he is called "the avenger of blood" (Deut. xix. 6). The second duty was, to redeem the mortgaged land of any branch of the family {Ruth iv. 4; Jer. xxxii. 7); so that the inheritance might remain in his hand till the year of jubilee. The third was to relieve the bondman from prison, to which there is an evident allusion in Heb. ii. 14, 15; where it is said, that for this end our Saviour took partnership with us in flesh and blood, that he might be our kinsman and undertake

our redemption from death. These were the duties of the redeemer; and for his privileges, if he were the firstborn, he had, first, a double portion of his father's goods, (Deut. xxi. 17); secondly, he was the priest of the family; and, thirdly, if he died childless, his brother was to raise up seed unto him (Deut. xxv. 5). Now our blessed Lord, in right of the first-born, is our Redeemer; as is declared, Col. i. 15; Rev. i. 5; Rom. viii. 29; and the church of the redeemed is called "the general assembly and church of the first-born" (Heb. xii. 23). And how, it may be asked, is Jesus first-born; seeing he was long after Adam, the Seed of Abraham, the Son of David? The answer is threefold: first, as set up from eternity in the purpose of God, He was his image, according to which Adam was fashioned. To this his form as the predestinative Christ, the Apostle seems to me to refer, in his Epistle to the Colossians, i. 15: "Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature:" for in this character, as the image of the invisible Godhead, and the first-born he is said to have created all things. To this form of the Christ, assumed before the world was, reference seems to be made when in the book of Revelations, iii. 14, he takes to himself the mysterious title, “ the Beginning of the creation of God;" that form of subsistence, which was capable of expressing unto a future creation the invisible Godhead, and which he took before` creation was, and unto creation's being, after the fashion of which Adam was made, and with whom Adam conversed in the garden, and Abraham in the plain, Moses upon the mount, and Joshua in the camp before Jericho, in which he appeared in the days of his flesh, and in which he now sits at the right hand of God, and shall for ever continue. In this form of the Christ, I say, which is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, he is entitled to, and doth receive the name of the first-born. I speak not now of his eternal generation in the Godhead, but of his being set up before the ages as the fulness of creation and life, and blessedness, in which God saw his purpose all complete, ere yet any outward thing did exist. To this his pre-existent glory, as the Christ of God, these words of the commencement of the Epistle to the Hebrews also refer: "Whom he hath appointed heir of all things,

in us.

by whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power."Secondly: He is the first born, as being the first Son of the Holy Ghost's begetting; the first born of the regeneration. All creation of men in Adam's loins, and from him by generation proceeding, was put out of life by that word which said, "In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." This word made null and void Adam's primogeniture, and the primogeniture of all men who were born before Christ. Mankind by that word lay dissolved in death: a living man was not any more; but mortal men we all became. Jesus receiving in his generation the regeneration of the Holy Ghost, became at once of the mortal and of the eternal life. From thenceforth, though mortal, he had eternal life abiding in him; just as we, who are regenerate though mortal, have eternal life also abiding This gave him a right, as a creature, to that name Son of God, which as Creator he had possessed in his Divine nature from eternity. To this his prerogative of first-born, from his generation of the virgin, the Apostle seemeth to make reference, Rom. viii. 29: "Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren." In his generation by the Holy Ghost, he did give to human nature a second beginning of life; or rather, resigning the pleroma or fulness of creation's wealth and life, which was his, being created by him and for him, and consenting to become poor, mean, and mortal, for the end of manifesting the grace which is in God, he did, in the very act of taking the mortal doomed thing, receive from the Father a Holy-Ghost life, which hath no death, but is the death of death, being the resurrection and the life. This Holy-Ghost life in him, as in us, was compassed round with a body of sin and death, which must be changed into a body of glory and life, and was so in the resurrection, in order to his being declared to be manifestly, as from his generation he had been really, the Son of God.-Thirdly: And this, even bis resurrection from the dead in the glory of the spiritual and unchangeable body, is his third and consummate title to the name of the First-born, as is declared in express terms Col. i. 18,

Rev. i. 5. To the exposition which we have given of the last of these passages, we refer for further information on this point. And in virtue of this his resurrection it is, that the Apostle, Rom. i. 4, declareth that he was determined or defined to be the Son of God. His generation by the Holy Ghost, determined him to be the Son of God, so far as God himself was concerned, and those to whom it was made known by God's special revelation; the descent of the Dove upon him, and the audible voice of God, did the same in the hearing of the thousands of Israel assembled at Bethabara beyond Jordan: but his resurrection out of death, determined him to be the Son of God in the sight of all the creatures of God; for death had set its seal upon all creation, and he who overcomes death must be more than creation, that is, the Creator himself. Creation itself could not stand against sin and death: when therefore one in creation's form rose up from the bed of death, he was shewn to be that Son of God who had created all things, and now hath redeemed all things: and he therefore is able to govern all things, and to be their support for ever. And thus also is he proved to be the life of all things, when all things, having made shipwreck of the gift of life, shall be, by the word of his mouth, raised from the dead and constituted in an endless state of being.

These three forms of primogeniture,-the eternal generation manifested in the setting up of the Christ, his generation of the virgin's substance in the form of mortal creature, and the generation from the grave, in the form of immortal creature-being,—are all required in order to constitute Him the Redeemer of creation. He must be begotten before all worlds, in order to claim the worlds as his; for a redeemer must have a previous title to that which he would redeem. Redemption doth not constitute a title. It only recovers a title for a season forfeited. Now that all creation was the property of the Son, both in right of creation, and in right of possession, and in right of sustentation, doth appear not only from the passage quoted above from the first chapter of the Epistle to the Colossians; All things were created by him, and for him; and by him all things consist;" and likewise from the passage quoted from the first chapter of the Hebrews; "Hath spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed Heir of all, by whom also he made the worlds;"

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