THEOLOGY.
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legal authority. See Oath. By thus restoring the law to its ori-
f inal purity, and in many cases extending its sense, the blessedesus executed the office of a prophet to the lost sheep of thebouse of Israel ; but had he not been more than an ordinary pro-phet, he could not have abrogated the most trivial ceremony of it,nor even extended the sense of any of its moral precepts; for theirgreat lawgiver had told them, (Deut. xviii. 15,) that “ the Lordtheir God would raise up unto them but one Prophet, like untohim, to whom they should hearken.” That prophet was by them-selves understood to be the Messiah , whom they expected to tellthem all things. It was necessary, therefore, that Jesus, as hetaught some new doctrines, and plainly indicated that greaterchanges would soon be introduced, should vindicate his claim tothat exalted character which alone could authorise him to proposeinnovations. This he did in the amplest manner, by fulfillingBrophecies and working miracles; see Miracle, andPROPHECY,
so that the unprejudiced part of the people readily acknowledgedhim to be of a truth, “ that Prophet who should come into theworld ; the Son of God, and the King of Israel .” Pie did not,however, make any change in the national worship, or assume tohimself the smallest civil authority. He had submitted to the riteof circumcision, and strictly-performed every duty, ceremonialas well as moral, which that covenant made incumbent upon otherJews ; thus fulfilling all righteousness. Though the religion whichhe came to propagate was, in many respects, contrary to the rituallaw, it could not be established, or that law abrogated, but in con-sequence of his death, which the system of sacrifices was appointedto prefigure; and as his kingdom, which was not of this world,could not commence till after his resurrection, he yielded duringthe whole course of his life a cheerful obedience to the civil magi-strates, and wrought a miracle to obtain money to pay the tributethat was exacted of him. Being thus circumstanced, he chosefrom the lowest and least corrupted of the people certain followers,Whom he treated with the most endearing familiarity for threeyears, and commissioned at his departure to promulgate such doc-trines as, consistently with the order of the divine dispensations, hecould not personally preach himself. With these men, during thecourse of his ministry on earth, he went about continually doinggood, healing the sick, casting out devils, raising the dead, re-proving vice, preaching righteousness, and instructing his country-men, by the most perfect example which was ever exhibited inthe world, of whatsoever things are true, or honest, or just, orPure, or lovely, or of good report. The Scribes and Pharisees ,however, finding him not that conqueror whom they vainly ex-pected, becoming envious of his reputation among the people,and being filled with rancour against him for detecting their hypo-critical arts, delivered him up to the Roman governor, who,though convinced of his innocence, yielded to the popular cla-mour, and crucified him between two thieves, as an enemy to9®sar. In yielding up his dying breath he said, “ it is finished,”jhus intimating that the great purpose was now fulfilled, for whichhe had come into the world, and which, as he formerly told hisdisciples, “ was not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and toB've his life a ransom for many.” For his blood, as he assuredthem at the institution of the Kucharist,“ was to be shed for theRemission of sins.” That Christ died voluntarily for us, the justmr the unjust, and that “ there is none other name under heavenSjven among men whereby we must be saved, 1 ' is the uniformdoctrine of the prophets who foretold his coming, of John the Bap-dst, who was his immediate harbinger, and ot the apostles andSysugelists who preached the gospel after his ascension into heaven.
attain adequate notions of redemption and justification, it willhe necessary to look back to the fall; for the great purpose for"finch Christ was promised, and for which he came into the world," as > by bruising the head of the serpent, to restore mankind tome inheritance which they had lost through the transgression of^vdam. This is apparent not only from the original promise madem the woman, but also from dilferent passages in the epistles ofot. P ai i] ) w |i 0 expressly cails Christ the second Adam, and says," a C “as by the offence of one, judgment came upon all men tocondemnation; even so by the righteousness of one, the free giftc ame upon all men unto justification of life;” that, “as by one">an’s disobedience many w ere made sinners, so by the obedience°f one shall many be made righteous;” and that, “as in Adami in Christ shall all be made alive.” Ilence it was
one
a 'l die, even so i
that John the Baptist , when he saw Jesus coming to him, said tohis disciples, “ Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away, notthe sins, but the sin of the world,” evidently alluding to Adam’ssin and its consequences; since no other sin was ever committedof which the consequences extend to the whole world. It istherefore undeniable, that whatever we lost in the first Adam isirestored to us by the second ; and so they who believe that the;punishment denounced against eating the forbidden fruit was deathcorporal, spiritual, and eternal, must believe that we are redeemedfrom all these by Christ; who having “ appeared once in the endof the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, died forus, that whether we wake or sleep we should live together withhim.” If the image of God in which man was created was lostby the breach of the first covenant, it is more than restored to us“ by the Mediator of a better covenant, which is established uponbetter promises;” if by thesin of Adam we were utterly indisposed,disabled, and made opposite to all that is spiritually good, andwholly inclined to all evil, and that continually, we are freed fromthat dreadful curse by “ our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave him-self for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purifyto himself a peculiar people zealous, of goodworks;” and if forour share in the first transgression we be justly liable to all pu-nishments in this world and that which is to come, the apostle as-sures us, th.at “ when we were enemies we were reconciled toGod by the death of his Son, because that God was in Christ re-conciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses untothem.” As Jesus is, “ the Lamb slam from the foundation of theworld,” these beneficial consequences of his death have been ex-tended by a retrospective view to all in every age who believe inhis name, though it is absurd to suppose that he literally took theirsins upon him, and impious to imagine that he suffered under theimputation of sin. The first conspicuous proof which our blessedLord gave of being vested with supreme power, and made headover all things to the church, was on the day of Pentecost . Hehad told the apostles that he would pray the Father to give themanother Comforter, who should abide with them for ever, even theSpirit of truth, who should teach them all things, and bring allthings to their remembrance which he said unto them. He hadassured them, that it was expedient for them that he himself shouldgo away; “ for if I go not ayay said he, (John xvi. 17,). the Com-forter will not come unto you; but if 1 depart, I will semi himunto you” It was this Divine Spirit, who, on the day of Pente-cost , inspired the apostles with the knowledge of dilferent lan-guages; and as these were given only to enable them to preachthe gospel to every creature, it can admit of no doubt but that he,who so amply provided the means of preaching, would take carethat the gospel should be preached in purity, Our Saviour hadtold his apostles that the Comforter would guide them into all thetruth (uf irao-ay t>i v reXii9u«v,) and bring all things to their remem-brance, whatsoever he had said unto them; but if they had notcomprehended the meaning of what he said, the bare remembranceof his sayings would have been of little importance.. That beforethis miraculous shedding abroad of the Spirit they had but a yeryimperfect knowledge ot his doctrines, and of the purpose for whichhe had come into the world, is apparent from that unseasonablequestion which they put to him when assembled to witness hjsglorious ascension ; “ Lord, wilt thou at this lime restore again thekingdom to Israel ?” Their minds still cherished with fondnessthe vain prospect of temporal power; but after the day of Pente-cost they were directed ,to nobler objects. I rom the same bpiritthey received diversities: of gifts besides that of language ; for weare assured by St. Paui, when speaking of the early converts toChristianity in general, that “ to one was given by the Holy Spi-rit the word of wisdom ; to another the word of knowledge by tfiesame Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another, thegifts of healing by the same Spirit; to another the working of mi-racles; to another prophecy; to another .discerning of spirits; toanother divers kinds ot tongues; to another the interpretation oftongues:” (I Cor. xi.,8— 12 ,) and these gifts, which were.seve-rally divided either among private Christians , or among the infe-rior orders of ministers in the church, we have reason to believewere ail bestowed in a greater or less degree upon each of theapostles. Men thus qualified were well fitted to declare all thecounsel of God. By the word of wisdom, they communicated tothe Gentile nations a pure system of religionturning them from
the