ESSAY XI.

ON THE REDEMPTION OF MANKIND.

IN the two preceding Essays we have been engaged, on the one hand, in contemplating the fall and moral ruin of our species; our loss of the image of God, and with it of eternal happiness; our subjection to the dominion of Satan; and our liability, under the curse of the law, to everlasting destruction and, on the other hand, we have surveyed the evidences of Scripture respecting the person and nature of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ— a survey which, I trust, has been amply sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of the doctrine of his proper and unchangeable Divinity. Such a course of investigation will be found to afford the most suitable introduction to that comprehensive and all-important topic of Christian theology-the redemption of mankind.

What, we may justly inquire, was the mighty and equivalent purpose for which this infinitely glorious Person, the Son of God, who is one with the Father in the Divine nature, and is, therefore, himself JEHOVAH, did so marvellously humble himself took our nature upon him. in that nature underwent every species of contumely and contradiction of sinners, and finally died, on the cross, a cruel and shameful death?

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[Ess. XI. When we reflect on the perfect adaptation which always subsists, and is generally apparent, in the operation both of nature and of providence, between the cause and the effect, the means and the end— when we thus take analogy as the guide of our reasoning-we can scarcely avoid perceiving how strong an improbability attaches to the supposition that such A ONE should not only come into the world, but should live, suffer, and die, as a man, for the single purpose of revealing the truth. Experience teaches us that any inspired person, whose Divine mission was attested by miracles, might have been an adequate instrument for such a purpose for it is evidently on this simple ground that Christians are unanimous in giving their credence to the doctrines delivered to the Jews by Moses, and to the followers of Jesus Christ by his apostles. No doubt, to reveal the truth was one of the offices of our blessed Saviour, that chief of prophets; nor ought we ever to forget thot it was another of his offices, by his holy and charitable life and conversation on earth, to institute that perfect pattern by which the conduct of his disciples, in all ages, was to be formed and regulated. For, Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God; and the perfection of the Christian character consists in its conformity to that image-in its resemblance to the Divine Model.

But, important and salutary as these offices were, the peculiar circumstances of the case are such as inevitably lead us to believe that, in humbling himself from the height of his Divine glory, in assum

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ing our frail and suffering nature, and in submitting even to the death of the cross, the Son of God (in unison of counsel with the Father who sent him) had yet higher, nobler, and more comprehensive purposes in view. When we consider the infinite dignity of our heavenly Visitor, and the marvellous condescension which he displayed in visiting us, it seems impossible for us not to conclude, that such a dispensation of Divine mercy towards us was intended to supply ALL our spiritual need.

It is true that we need information respecting heavenly things; for, without such information, we are, by nature, in great darkness. It is true also, that, as moral agents, we require, at the hands of our heavenly Father, a revelation of his law; for unless it is revealed to us, we are unable to obey it. Nor can we deny that it is a vast advantage to our weakness to behold the requisitions of that law embodied in a public and perfect example. Nevertheless, were information, precept, and example, the only blessings conferred on us through the dispensation of the gospel, all our need would be far indeed from being supplied. Powerless and corrupt as we are, we should still be left to perish in our sins; and the light thus communicated to us, if unaccompanied with further help, would only aggravate our woe, and render our destruction more terrible. Where is the individual, who understands the "plague of his own heart," who is not aware that he stands in need, not only of information, but of reconciliation with God; not only of light, but of life; not only of precept and example, but of

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[Ess. XI. power to obey the one and to imitate the other? Unquestionably, the gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is no message of glad tidings to us, unless it proclaims to us indemnity and cure-the forgiveness of sins that are past, and a deliverance from sin for the future. Thus, and thus only, does it offer to us the supply of all our spiritual need.

This plain course of reasoning, grounded on scriptural principles already recognised, leads us, with little difficulty, to the conclusion, that the Son of God did indeed come into the world in order to bestow upon us, not only information, precept, and example, but indemnity and cure; or, in a single word, redemption. But, happily, this is a subject on which we are not left to any conclusions of our own forming. It is one on which the declarations of Holy Writ are at once very abundant and very clear.

In endeavoring to unfold these scriptural evidences, I may, in the first place, briefly advert to those parts of the Bible in which the doctrine of redemption, or salvation, by Jesus Christ, is promulgated in general terms.

Such a description applies, in full force, to the first passage of the Bible in which the Messiah is alluded to. The great purpose of his mission was proclaimed at a very early stage of the history of man, when, after the fall of Adam and Eve, Jehovah thus addressed the serpent, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel," Gen. iii. 15. We have already found occasion to notice the evidence afforded by

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the analogy of Scripture in general, and by some indirect references to this passage in the New Testament, that the serpent who tempted Eve was the Devil, the author of moral evil, and the great enemy of the souls of men; and that the seed of the woman, here mentioned, is no other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the descendant of Eve, and the Son of the virgin Mary, is generally understood and allowed by the professors of the Christian name. From the curse here pronounced, therefore, and from the promise connected with it, we learn that the incarnate Son of God was utterly to subdue our great adversary, and to deliver mankind from the thraldom of his power. Such an interpretation of Gen. iii. 15, is in full accordance with the doctrine of the apostle, who taught the Hebrews that the Son took part of flesh and blood, in order "that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage," Heb. ii. 14, 15. And the Apostle John has written on the same subject, in terms equally explicit: "He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this pur ose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil," 1 John iii. 8.

The Divine purpose in the mission of the Messiah, which was thus obscurely indicated in the original promise of a Redeemer, was further unfolded in other prophecies of the Old Testament, which make mention of Christ as the Redeemer, or Saviour, of men. Such was the office, for example, which Job attribu