edification of the church, which is his body, the fulness of him who filleth all in all.

The immediate cause of the Incarnation, was the fall of man and the consequent invasion of sin and subjection of all earthly things to the prince of darkness. I say that this was the Immediate cause, or, as we may say, the occasion of it: for, if man had not fallen, there would never have been upon this earth any such event as the Incarnation, whereof the first fruit is to recover that which Adam lost, and, at the least, to reinstate mankind and their habitation in that condition wherein they were created. This fall of man was also the formal cause of the Incarnation; that is to say, what gave to the purpose of God its outward form and character, requiring his Son to take upon him the nature of man, and not of angels, to be under the law, and to bear the curse of death, as it is written (Heb. ii. 14, 15), “ Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; 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." But, if we would ascend to the first cause of this great act of the Godhead, we must seek it in God himself, who worketh all things after the pleasure of his own will, and to the praise of his own glory. The fall of man was not an accident which fell out against the disposition and to the hindrance of God's universal and all-including scheme of creation, and providence, and grace: but though the will of man was free-that is, under his own single controul, and not in bondage of a stronger as now it is, yet was the act of his disobedience both known

and foreseen, and permitted of God, though not in such a way as to overrule, or constrain, or in any way to bias his mind to evil, but all the contrary. And as it was foreseen, so was it provided for; and as it was permitted, so was it overruled for the greater glory and honour of the most holy and righteous God, and for the total and eternal extinction and abolition of the active power of sin. Therefore is it most necessary to reach to a higher and more remote source than the fall, or even the creation of our first parents, in order to attain unto the great and first cause of the mystery of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And the rule is general, that we must wholly disentangle every spiritual subject from the conditions of space and time, which are only the forms of its manifestation, ere we can arrive at its proper bearings, or handle it in a way profitable to the spiritual life.

Accordingly, it is written concerning this mystery of the incarnation, in various parts of Scripture, that it came not within the coasts of time, but had its origin before the foundation of the world. In the beginning of his Gospel, the testimony of John is given to this effect: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world:" concerning which Lamb he testifies, in the thirteenth chapter of the Revelation, ver. 8, that he was "slain from the foundation of the world;" "whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."--But lest any one should say that this doth carry the offering of Christ only to, and not beyond, the foundation of the world, I have Christ's testimony concerning himself in the

seventeenth chapter of John: "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.' And lest this should be interpreted of the Father's love to him, anterior to, and independent on, his mediatorial office (although it is, to my mind, nothing less than an absurdity and contradiction to imagine that the Father can contemplate his Son otherwise than in the fulness of all his offices, there being no application of time to the Godhead), I have to shew you a passage in the First Epistle of Peter, which places the sacrifice of the Lamb, yea, and the fore-ordination and appointment of it, before the foundation of the world: "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you." In which idea that the Apostles were rooted and grounded, you cannot read one of their Epistles without perceiving; where you shall find that it is not in the fall of man they date the origin of our redemption, but in the eternal counsel of God, which he purposed in himself before the world began, as it is written (2 Tim. i. 9), "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus

before the world began; but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel." In which passage, that which is seen and temporal with respect to the Messiah, is regarded merely as the manifestation of that purpose which the Godhead had purposed in himself before the world was, before any world was; all good purposes being ever present with him, and the execution of them all ever seen in the fulness of THE WORD, contemplated in Him as their great architect, and fabricator, and upholder. But the full development of this doctrine is to be found written in the Epistle to the Ephesians; of which Paul himself doth witness the great depth, saying, that when we read it, we may understand his knowledge in the mystery of Christ. If you read with me, at the third verse of the first chapter you will find, that the Apostle carries us out of place; at ver. 4, out of time; at ver. 5, out of the present age; and at ver. 6, out of all external cause: at ver. 7, he rehearseth the act of its revelation in time; and in verses 8, 9, 10, consummates the act: in ver. 11, he takes in the personal interest in, and in ver. 12, he shews the end, of the purpose.

The doctrine, therefore, concerning the incarnation, upon which the primitive church was founded by the Apostles, and to which the Reformers brought us back, and from which we are fast swerving again, is this,-That it is a great purpose of the Divine will which God was minded from all eternity to make known unto his creatures, for their greater information, delight, and blessedness; to make known, I say, to all his in

telligent creatures, the grace and mercy, the forgiveness and love which he beareth towards those who love the honour of his Son, and believe in the word of his testimony. In order that thereby his children, comprehending more fully the beauty and loveliness of the Divine Majesty, might desire him the more, and cleave unto him with an entire fidelity. Which aspect, if I may so speak, of the Divine character, could never be beheld by a creature unfallen; forasmuch as grace, and mercy, and forgiveness, do necessarily presuppose and require guilt, and offence, and hatefulness, for the objects upon which to put themselves forth, as necessarily as the power, and wisdom, and order, and harmony of creation require a chaos, and confusion, and darkness which they may adorn, and order, and bless. And as God did not at once command the created world to come forth as we now behold it, but first permitted a chaos which was without form and void, in order that by successive acts of wisdom and goodness, he might order it into beauty and light; so also did he permit that in the moral part of his works, there should be a rebellion, and darkness, and disobedience, in order that by successive acts of compelling grace, he might lead out the harmony and unity of all his chosen, "against the dispensation of the fulness of the times when he shall gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in the heavens and which are on the earth." And in thus proceeding, he doth manifest the grace or favour which he beareth even to sinners who honour his Son, giving his Son thereby a very great exaltation before the heavenly host, when they perceive that for his sake