CHAPTER XVI.

OF THE MINISTRY OF REDEMPTION..

HAVING treated of the mediatorial office, and its threefold functions, we are now to consider the manner in which it is discharged. discharged. This includes the state of humiliation to which our Redeemer submitted, as well as his state of exaltation.

The humiliation of Christ is that state in which under his character of God-man he voluntarily submitted himself to the divine justice, as well in life as in death, for the purpose of undergoing all things requisite to accomplish our redemption.

Under his character of God-man. Philipp. ii. 6—8. ' he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant.' Luke xxii. 43. 'there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.' Now the presence of an angel would have been superfluous, unless the divine nature of Christ, as well as his human, had needed support. So also Matt. xxvii. 46. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' If his divine nature had not partaken of the trial, why was it not at hand to sustain him when he demanded succour? or, if it had the ability, but not the will to help him, of what

avail was it to call upon his Father, whose will was identically one with his own?

In life. Rom. viii. 3. in the likeness of sinful flesh.' This is conspicuous even from his birth, Luke ii. 7. in his circumcision, Rom. xv. 8. by which he became a 'a debtor to do the whole law,' Gal. v. 3. whence an offering was made for him, Luke ii, 24; in his flight into Egypt, Matt. iii. in his subjection to his parents, Luke ii. 51; in his submitting to manual labour, Mark vi. 3; in his baptism, Matt. iii. in his temptation, Matt. iv. Heb. ii. 18. iv. 15; in his poverty, Matt. viii. 20. 2 Cor. viii. 9. that ye through his poverty might be rich;' in the persecutions, insults, and dangers which he underwent; for an account of which, together with the whole of his passion, it is better to refer to the gospels, than to cite the passages at length. To the same purport is the prediction of Isaiah, l. 6. I gave my back to the smiters-.' Compare also xlix. 6, 7. liii. 2. 3.

In death. Psal. xxii. Philipp. ii. 8. he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.' This death was ignominious in the highest degree; Deut. xxi. 23. he that is hanged, is accursed of God.' The curse also to which we were obnoxious, was transferred to him, Gal. iii. 13. accompanied with a dreadful consciousness of the pouring out of the divine wrath upon his head, which extorted from him the dying exclamation, Matt. xxvii. 46. 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' Lastly, he was datained in the grave three days after death ; 1 Cor. xv. 4. And here may be found the solution of the difficulty respecting the descent into hell,*

*It has not been questioned whether the soul of Christ descended into hell, (as seems to be implied in the words of Milton) which no Chris

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which has occasioned so much acrimonious controversy among divines; for if Christ's death was real, his soul must have died on the same day with his body, as was above shown. There is another question which seems less easy of solution; namely, whether he yielded to death in his divine nature likewise. For not a few passages of Scripture intimate that his divine nature was subjected to death conjointly with his human; passages too clear to be explained away by the supposition of idiomatic language. Rom. x. 9. if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved,' Him whom we ought to confess with the mouth, God raised from the dead. But he whom we ought to confess with the mouth is the Lord Jesus,' that is, the whole person of Jesus; therefore God raised from the dead the whole person of the Lord Jesus. 1 Cor. ii. 8. had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.' Gal. i. 1. not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.' Christ therefore was not raised in his human nature alone, but in the whole of his person; and Paul received his mission from him not as man, but as God-man. Philipp. ii. 6-8. who being in the form of God....made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form

tian can deny,' says St. Augustin, it is so clearly delivered in this prephecy of the Psalmist (Psal. xvi. 8-10.) and application of the apostle (Acts ii. 25)' but the controverted point has been, what that hell was into which he descended. See the various opinions stated at large, in Burnet and Beveridge On the Third Article; Pearson, On the Creed, Fifth Article; see also Bp. Horsley's Sermon on 1 Pet. iii. 18-20. Vol. II. 145.

of a servant....he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death.' 1 John iii. 16. hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us.' Rev. i. 17, 18. 'I am the first and the last; I am he that liveth, and was dead.' See also ii. 8. The only uncertainty, therefore, arises from the words of Christ to the thief, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise;' a passage which has on other accounts given much trouble to the learned. As to the conciseness of expression in 1 Pet. iii. 18. I consider it as of comparatively little importance; being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by' (or in) 'the Spirit: since, if the antithesis be correct, the apostle's intention is to specify, on the one hand, the part in which he died, and on the other, that in which he was quickened. Now that which was quickened, must have been previously dead. But if the Spirit' be here put for that which causes life, it must be understood, on comparing it with less obscure texts of Scripture, to signify the Spirit of God the Father. The fact, that Christ became a sacrifice both in his divine and human nature, is denied by none; and as it was requisite that the whole of the sacrifice should be slain, Christ, who was the sacrificed lamb, must be considered as slain in the whole of his nature.

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To the divine justice. Luke xxiv. 26. ought not Christ to have suffered these things?' Isai. liii. 6. 'Jehovah hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.'

The humiliation of Christ was succeeded by his exaltation.

The exaltation of Christ is that by which, having triumphed over death, and laid aside the form of a servant, he was exalted by God the Father to a state

of immortality and of the highest glory, partly by his own merits,* partly by the gift of the Father, for the benefit of mankind; wherefore he rose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God.

Having triumphed over death, and laid aside the form of a servant. Luke xxiv. 26. ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? Col. ii. 14, 15. 'having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.'

He was exalted by God the Father. John x. 18. 'I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again this commandment have I received of my Father.' Hence John ii. 19. destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,' namely, because he had been so commanded by the Father, as he acknowledges in the preceding quotation. Acts ii. 24. whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death.' v. 33. being by the right hand of God exalted.' v. 30, 31. 'the God of our fathers raised up Jesus....him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince.' See also x. 40. and xiii. 32-34. as above. Rom. i. 4. declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.' viii. 11.

if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies.' 2 Cor. xiii. 4. though he was crucified through weakness,