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22. Christ, as a mediator, is a possessor by grant, and there was a suitableness, that he who was the Son should thus be heir. Whence Chrysostom and Theophylact affirm, that the words denote "the propriety of his sonship, and the immutability of his lordship." Not that he was then made heir of all, as he was (ovoyevs) the only begotten Son of the Father, John i, 14; but it was meet that he who was eternally such, and had on that account an absolute dominion over all with his Father, should become the first-born among many brethren: should have a delegated heirship of all,and be appointed "head over all to the church," Ephes. i, 22.

(3.) That he hath both this title and possession by grant from the Father; by virtue of which grant he is made Lord by a new title, and hath possession given him accordingly.

$19. He is the Lord (Taviwy) of all. This is the ob ject of Messiah's heirship; that his extensive inheri tance. The word may be taken either in the masculine gender, and denote all persons; or in the neuter, denoting, absolutely, all things. And it is this latter sense that suits the apostle's argument, and adds a double force to his design. For,

1. The author of the gospel being heir and Lord of all things universally, the sovereign disposer of all those rites and ordinances of worship, about which the Jews contended, must needs be at his disposal, to change and alter them as he thought proper. And hence it was easy for them to conclude, that if they intended to be made partakers of any good in heaven or earth, in love and mercy, it must be by an interest in him; which yet without constant obedience to his gospel cannot be attained. 2. This sense is evinced from the words immediately following, "By whom also he made the worlds." Probably they render a reason

of the equitableness of this great trust reposed in the Son. He made all, and therefore it was meet he should be Lord of all. However, the force of the

word is equal to the term (aves) worlds.

$20. Upon the creation of man, God gave him a dominion over all things in this lower world, Gen. i, 28, 29. He made him his heir, vicegerent, and substitute on earth. And as for the other creatures, to which his power and authority did not immediately extend, as the whole inanimate host of the superior world, they were ordered by him that made them to serve for his good. Gen. i, 14; Deut. iv, 19. But besides the lower part of his dominion, God had for his glory created angels in heaven above. These made up another branch of God's providential kingdom; the whole, notwithstanding, the upper and lower world, being independent of each other, and meeting in nothing but their subjection to God himself. When man fell from his delegated dominion, all things returned to an immediate, absolute dependerge on the government of God. But as the fall of angels did not, in its own nature, prejudice mankind; no more did this fall of man the angels, that persisted in their obedience, they being no part of his inheritance. However, by the apostasy and punishment of those angels, that kept not their first station, it was manifested how possible it was that the remainder of them may sin after the similitude of their transgression. Things being brought into this condition; one branch of the kingdom of God, that which had been under the administration of man and allotted to his service, being cast out of that order wherein he had placed it, and the other in an apparent possibility of being so also; it seemed good to the Lord in his infinite wisdom, to erect one king

dom out of these two disordered members of his first dominion, and to appoint one common heir Lord and ruler of them both. Ephes. i, 10, "He gathered together in one all things in Christ, both which are in the heavens, and which are in earth, even in him.”

§21. (2.) The way whereby Christ the Son came to his inheritance is expressed by (exe) he hath appointed. Which denotes, in this connexion, "The glorious investiture of the Lord Messiah in the full and actual possession of his kingdom after his resurrection, with the manifestation of it in his ascension, and the illustrious token of its stability in his sitting at the right hand of God." The grant was actually made to him upon his resurrection; Matt. xxviii, 18, and all was sealed and ratified when he took possession of his throne at the right hand of the Father; and in virtue hereof was he declared to be "both Lord and Christ," Acts ii, 36, v. 31. And such weight do the scriptures lay upon this glorious investiture of Christ in his inheritance, that they speak of his whole power as then first granted him; Rom. xiv, 9; Phil. ii, 7, 10, And the reason of it is, because he had then actually performed that stupendous work, on account of which his mediatorial power and authority were originally granted and eternally designed. And it is manifest that he who is the Lord and heir of all things, spiritual, temporal, and ecclesiastical, must needs have power over all Mosaical institutions as a part of his unrival led jurisdiction. In short, God, in pursuit of the sovereign purpose of his will, hath granted the Son as incarnate, and mediator of the new covenant, according to the eternal counsel between them both, a sovereign power over all things both in heaven and earth, with the possession of an absolute proprietor, to dispose of

them at his pleasure, for the advancement of his proper and peculiar work, as head of his church.*

The

$22. (3.) By whom he made the worlds. apostle in these words corroborates his present argument, from another consideration of the person of the Messiah, wherein he also discovers the foundation of the pre-eminence before ascribed to him. By him the worlds were made; so that they were his own, John i, 11; and it was meet that, in the new condition which he underwent, he should be Lord of them all. Moreover, if all things were made by him, all disobedience to him is most unreasonable, and will be attended with inevitable ruin.

That which some men design in their wresting of this place, is to defeat the illustrious testimony herein given to the eternal deity of the Son of God, and to this purpose they proceed variously.†

*The demirable digression "of the dominion or lordship of Christ," stands, in this edition, as the concluding preliminary Exercitation.

† Some affirm that by (di) by whom, (diov) for whom is intended. According to this exposition of the words, we have in them an expression of the love of God towards the Messiah, in that for his sake he made the worlds; but not any thing of the excellency, power, and glory of the Messiah himself. But neither is it proved that in any other place these expressions are equipollent; nor, if that could be supposed, is there any reason offered why the one of them should in this place be put for the other. For the places usually referred to, do no way prove that (i) with a genitive, doth ever denote the final cause, but the efficient only. As to Rom. vi, 4, be it observed, the case is not the same where things, as where persons are spoken of: g here relates to a person, (whom) and yet is dià joined with it, asserted by the objectors, to denote the end of the things spok. en of, which is insolent. Besides dota wargos, in that place, is indeed the glorious power of the Father's, the efficient of the resurrection of Christ treated of. So that, whereas dia is used, six hundred times with a genitive case in the New Testament, no one instance can be given, where it may be rendered prop ter, for, and therefore cannot be so here. But on supposition that some such instance might be produced, yet being contrary

$23. The Socinians generally lay no exception against the person making, whom they acknowledge to be the Son Messiah, but to the world said to be made. "These are not, say they, the things of the old, but of the new creation; not the fabric of heayen and earth, but the conversion of the souls of men; not the first institution and forming of all things, but the restoration of mankind, and their translation into a new condition of life." To this we reply,

1. The only new creation granted by such persons being nothing but a moral swasion of men's minds, by the outward doctrine of the gospel, I know not what allusion can be fancied in it to the creation of the world out of nothing.

2. The apostle speaks here of the same creation that John treats of in the beginning of his gospel; but that is the creation of the whole world, and all things contained in it, it must be granted, or we may well despair of ever understanding one line of the sacred oracles, or the common forms of speech.

The expression of "planting the heavens," and "laying the foundation of the earth," Isa. li, 17, are plainly allegorical, as appears from the circumstance of time when this is said to be done, which was at the coming of Israel out of Egypt; when the heavens and

to the constant use of the word, some cogent reason from the text wherein it is used, or the thing treated of, must be urged to give that sense admittance: and nothing of that nature can be here pleaded. Besides, as di & and ɛç ov, are distinguished, the one expressing the efficient, the other the final cause, Rom. xi, 36; so also are they in this very epistle, chap. ii, 10, diov Tà πάντα, καὶ δὶ ἔ τὰ παντα. For whom are all things and by whom are all things:' and is it likely that the apostle would put one of them for the other, contrary to the proper use which he intended immediately to assign severally unto them? Again, Si è, by whom, here is the same with di auto, by him, John i, 8; which incontestably signifies the efficient cause.

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