602 THE GLORY OF CHaisT As. GOD-nAN. contrived and agreed all the parts of this covenant. But does it not add a lustre and glory, and more emaspicuous equity, to this covenant, to suppose the manChrist Jesus, who is most properly the Mediator according to I Tim. ii. 5. to be also present before the world was made, to he chosen and appointed as the Redeem- er or Reconciler of mankind, to be then ordained the head of his future people, to receive promises, grace and blessings in their name, and to accept the solemn and weighty trust from the hand of his Father, that is, to take care of millions of souls ?--- Read the following scriptures, and see whether they, do not imply thus much ; 1 'l'im. ii. 5. There is one Mediator between God and man, even the Haan Christ Jesus. Eph. i. 3, 4. Blessed be the Godand Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who bath Iles, sed us with'all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ ; according as he hat/I chosen us in him before thefoundation of theworld. 2 Tim. i. 8, 9, l0. God hatls saved us, and called us with'a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his ownpurpose and grace which `was given us in Christ Jesus Dore the world began. 'l'it. i. 2. Eternal life, which God that cannot lie, promised before the world began. Now to whom could this promise be macle but to Jesus Christ, and to us in him, as the great patron and representative of believers ; Rev.. 6. lTllthat dwell on earth shall worship the beast, whose names `are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Whether these,words, "from the foundation of the world," refer to the slaying of the Lamb by way of anticipation, or rather to writing of the book of life, yet they certainly refer to the transaction of this important affair with the Lamb, and therefore this expression is used several times in the hook of the Revelation. It was by virtue of this covenant, and the sacrifice of his own blood which Christ was to offer in due time, that all the benefits of this covenant were derived upon mankind in thevari- ous ages of it ever since the fall of man ; therefore Christ was a Saviour from the beginning of the world; and those who apply all these things merely to the divine nature of Christ, as con- senting to this covenant upon the proposal of the Father, yet they suppose the human nature of Christ to be included in it, in the view of God the Father, by way of ". prolepsis," or anticipa- tion. But surely it seems much more proper to explain these things concerning the human soul of Christas actually united to the divinenature, and actually consenting to this covenant, since the human nature was to endure the sufferings; and then we need not he constroinecl to recur to such proleptical figures of speech to interpret the language of scripture, since the literal sense is just and true. Thus-it appears, if we:consider this covenant as made be-
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