DISCOURSE V. 225 whether they be things past, present, or to come. God the Fa- ther kept Jesus Christ his Son ever in his eye, in this view, through all his transactions with the children of men. It is generally supposed that Adam stood in the state of innocence but a few days at most, or a very short time after his creation, though our Lord Jesus Christ came not into this world, nor took flesh and blood upon him, of the substance of the virgin Mary, till about four thousand years afterwards. Many ages ran out amongst the inhabitants of this world in that time, and even some of the transactionsof God in his own eternity, before the foundationof the world, are reasonably supposed to bederi- ved from this very idea, in the mind and appointment of the bles- sed God; because he hadoriginally appointed, that JesusChrist should in due time take fleshandblood, and be offered as a sacri- fice for the sins of men. Herewe shall first enquire, what are thoseearly transac- tions of the blessed God in eternity, or in time, which may be supposed to have been any way influenced by this view of our . Lord Jesus Christ, and the answers are these :- 1. -It was in this view thatGod at first decreed and designed to save and recover any Dart of fallen man from their ruin, sin, and misery ; andchose thousands of the race of sinful mankind to be restored to his favour and to his image : Eph. i. 4, 5, 7. " Behold my servant whom I uphold : mine elect iu whom my soul delighteth ;" Is. xlii. 1. That so God might have a proper atonement made for all their sins, by our Lord Jesus Christ, in order to be reconciled to them, and to reconcile them to himself that they might be holy and without blame. It would be too long at present to enter into this enquiry, why God required an atonement forsin, or why his justice and his grace would not unite in the salvation of fallen man without it : The great God thought it unbecoming his supreme majesty, and his character, to deal thus in away of absolute mercy withmen ; and as he has determined it so in his word, this is enough for us to acquiesce therein : As Heb. ii. 10. " It became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." To.s.avay i. e. as critics in the Greek language expound it, to consecrate, sanctify, or finish this Captain of salvation for this service, by an atoning sa- crifice. God was pleased to make his beloved Son, Jesus Christ, his first elect ; Is. xlii. 1. and hechose all the rest in him ; Eph. i. 4. " According as he bathchosen us in him before the founda- tion of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." He was resolved to set him up at thehead of all the saved number, who was his own Son, that he should Voa. II. P
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