kill or slay, (the change of and being frequent, as in the Chaldee it is almost perpetual) but it is its own native signification. Gen. xxxi. 54. nai apy nam. Say we, Jacob offered sacrifices. Junius, Mactavit animalia, He slew beasts; which we allow in the margin, he killed beasts. Targum, pri paai Da D2 is to kill or slay, and is constantly so used: and is no more but mactatio, a slaughter; but because all sacrifices were offered by slaying, it is applied to signify a sacrifice also: so Isa. xxxiv. 6. It is true, there was a covenant made between Jacob and Laban; and covenants were sometimes confirmed by sacrifices with a feast of the covenanters ensuing thereon. But it is not likely that Jacob and Laban would agree in the same sacrifice, who scarcely owned the same God. It is therefore only the provision and entertainment that Jacob made for Laban and his company, for which he slew the cattle, that is intended. Otherwise the sacrifice would have been mentioned distinctly from the feast. So are these things expressed, Exod. xviii. 12. And so is rendered by us to kill or slay absolutely, 1 Sam. xxviii. 24. Deut. xii. 15, 16. 1 Kings xix. 21. i. 9. and so also ought it to be translated Numb. xxii. 40. where in our version it is offered. 1 the substantive is also mactatio, jugulatio, occisio: so Isa. xxxiv. 6. Zeph. i. 7. which James expresseth by Qayn, Chap. v. 5. And 2 are absolutely no more than paya; as from the slaughtering of the sacrifices, the altar is called man. Ova also, and Juria, do no otherwise signify, but to sacrifice, or sacrifice by mactation or killing. § 7. It is therefore evident, that there neither is nor can be any sacrifice, properly so called, but what is made by killing or slaying of the thing sacrificed. And the offerings of inanimate things under the law, as of flour, or wine, or the fruits of the earth, were improperly so called, in allusion unto, or by virtue of their conjunction with proper sacrifices. They might be sacrifices they were זבחים offerings or ascensions, but עולות not. And the act of sacrificing doth principally consist in the mactation or slaying of the sacrifices, as shall afterwards be manifested. And whereas the word oblation, when used about sacrifices, is commonly apprehended to consist in the actings of the sacrificer after the killing of the sacrifice or victim; it is so far otherwise, that it principally consists in bringing of it to be slain, and in the slaying itself; all that follows belonging to the religious manner of testifying faith and obedience thereby. This also discovers the proper and peculiar end of sacrifices, properly so called; especially such as might prefigure the sacrifice of Christ, to which our present discourse is confined. All such sacrifices must respect sin, and an atonement to be made for it. There never was, nor ever can be, any other end of the effusion of blood in the service of God. This the nature of the action, (quòd in ejus caput sit) and the whole series of divine institutions in this matter do manifest. For to what end should a man take a creature which is in his possession, which also he might use to his advantage, and slaying it, offer it up unto God; if not to confess his guilt, or somewhat for which he deserved to die; and to represent a commutation of the punishment due unto him, by the substitution of another in his place, according to the will of God? And this sheweth that no sacrifice which could be prefigurative of the sacrifice of Christ, could be offered in paradise, or in a state of innocence. For as there should have been there no bloody mactation of our fellow-creatures, so a supposition of sin there implies an express contradiction. 8. Again, Sacrifices require faith in the offerer of them, Heb. xi. 4. By faith Abel offered a sacrifice. And faith in the subject respects its proper object, which is divine revelation. Men can believe no more with divine faith than is revealed, and all our actings in faith must answer the doctrines of faith. Now, it can never be proved that sacrifices were revealed before the fall. And there was no doctrine belonging to the covenant of creation, that directly or analogically required or intimated an acceptance of any such religious worship as sacrifices. This might be manifested by a just consideration of the principles of that revelation, which God made of himself unto man under the first covenant, and what was necessary for him to know, that he might live unto God. But this I have done at large elsewhere, nor have I any thing of moment to add unto former discourses to this purpose. And this also renders it impossible that there should be any sacrifices properly so called, and prefigurative of the sacrifice of Christ in the state of inno cence. § 9. But these things are opposed, and must be vindicated. And this opposition is made unto both the positions laid down, the one concerning a priest, the other concerning sacrifices. For some have been, and are of a mind, that if man had not sinned, yet the Son of God would have taken our nature on him, both for the manifestation of the glory of God, and for the cherishing of the creation. And if so, he should have been in some sense the priest of the world. And those of this persuasion are of two sorts: First, Such as acknowledge a pre-existence of the Lord Christ in a divine nature. These affirm, that though sin had not entered into the world, he should have been so made flesh, by the uniting of our nature unto himself in his own Person, as now it is come to pass. This some of the ancient schoolmen inclined unto; as Alexan der ab Alez. Albertus Magnus, Scotus, Rupertus. As it is opposed by Aquinas, P. 3. Q.3. Bonaventura in Sentent. lib. 3. dist. 1. Ar. 2. Q. 1. and others. Immediately on the Reformation, this opinion was revived by Osiander, who maintained that Adam was said to be made in the image of God, because he was made in that nature and shape in which the Son of God was to be manifested. And he also was herein opposed by Calvin, Institut. lib. 2. cap. 12. lib. 3. cap. 11. by Wigandus de Osiandrismo, p. 23. and Schusselkburgius, lib. 6. Yet some are still of this judgment, or seem so to be. The other sort are the Socinians, who contend that God would have given such a head to the creation, as they fancy Christ to be. For as they lay no great weight on the first sin, so they hope to evince by this means, that the Lord Christ may discharge his whole office, without making any atonement for sin by sacrifice. And this, with most of their other opinions, they have borrowed from the ancient Pelagians, as may be seen from the account given by Cassianus, de Incarnatione, lib. 1. p. 1241. Quo factum est, saith he of the Pelagians, ut in majorem quoque ac monstruosiorem insaniam prorumpentes, dicerent Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, hunc in mundum, non ad præstandum humano generi redemptionem, sed ad præbenda bonorum actuum exempla venisse; videlicet ut disciplinam ejus sequentes homines, dum per eandem virtutis viam incederent, ad eadem virtutum præmia pervenirent. Those who assert sacrifices to have been necessary in the state of innocence, are the Romanists. Bellarmin, Gregory de Valentia, with others, do expressly contend for it; and these also have their peculiar design in this their peculiar opinion. For they endeavour to establish a general maxim, that proper sacrifices are indispensably necessary unto all religious worship, thereby to make way for their oblation of the mass. I shall consider the pretences of both sorts, and so proceed with our design. 810. As to the first opinion, concerning the incarnation of the Son of God without respect to sin and redemption, there are many pretences given unto it, which shall be afterwards particularly considered. They say, That the manifestation of the glory of God, required that he should effect this most perfect way of it, that so he might give a complete expression of his image and likeness. His love and goodness also were thus to be perfectly represented in the union of a created nature with his own. And herein also God would satisfy himself in the contemplation of this full communication of himself unto our nature. Besides, it was necessary that there should be a head appointed to the whole creation, to conduct and guide it, man especially, to its utmost end.' And sundry other things they allege out of their own imaginations. It is granted, that even in that state, all immediate transactions with the creatures should have been by the Son. For by him, as the power and wisdom of God, were they made, John i. 3. Heb. i. 2. Col. i. 16, 17. He therefore should have immediately guided and conducted man to his happiness, and that both by confirming him in his. obedience, and by giving him his reward. Of this we have an express proof in the case of the angels that sinned not. But for the opinion of his being incarnate, without respect to redemption from sin and misery, the whole of it is argaqov, or unwritten, and therefore uncertain and curious; yea yeαov, or contrary to what is written, and therefore false; and axoyor, or destitute of any solid spiritual reason for the confirmation of it. § 11. First, It is unwritten: it is no where revealed, no where mentioned in the Scripture; nor can it be shewn, that this is the faith of any one of the saints of God, either under the Old Testament or the New. The first promise, and consequently first revelation of the incarnation of the Son of God, was after the entrance of sin, and has respect to the recovery of the sinner, to the glory of God. And by this all other promises, declarations and revelations concerning it, as to their end, are to be regulated. For that which is the first in any kind, as to an end aimed at, is the rule of all that follows in the same kind. And therefore that on which men ground this opinion, is indeed neither argument nor testimony, but conjecture and curiosity. They frame to themselves a notional state of things, which they suppose beautiful and comely, (as who are not enamoured with the fruits of their own imaginations?) and then they assert, that it was meet and according to divine wisdom, that God should so order things to his own glory, as they have fancied. Thus they suppose, that without respect to sin or grace, God would take to himself the glory of uniting our nature to him. Why so? Because that they find how greatly and gloriously he is exalted in his so doing. But does this proceed absolutely from the thing itself, or is it with respect to the causes, ends, effects and circumstances of it, as they are stated since the entrance of sin, and revealed in the Scripture? Set aside the consideration of sin, grace and redemption, with what attends them, and a man may say in a better compliance with the harmony and testimony of Scripture, that the assumption of human nature into union with the Divine, in the person of the Son of God, is no way suited to the exaltation of divine glory, but rather to beget false notions and apprehensions in men of the nature of the Godhead, and to disturb them in their worship thereof. For the assumption of human nature absolutely, is expressed as a great condescension, as it was indeed, Phil. ii, 7-9. and as that which for a season obscured the glory of the Deity in him that assumed it, John xvii. 5. But the glory of it lies in that which caused it, and that which ensued thereon. For in them lay the highest effects and manifestations of divine love, goodness, wisdom, power and holiness, Rom. iii. 24-26. And this is plainly revealed in the gospel, if any thing be so. I fear therefore that this curious speculation that is thus destitute of any Scriptural testimony, is but a pretence for being wise above what is written, and a prying into things which men have not seen, and which are not revealed unto them. § 12. Secondly, This opinion is contradictory to the Scripture, and that in places innumerable. Nothing is more fully and perspicuously revealed in the Scripture, than are the causes and ends of the incarnation of Christ. For as it is the great display of the glory of God, the foundation of all that obedience which we yield to him, and of all our expectation of blessedness with him, and being a thing in itself deep and mysterious, it was necessary that it should be fully revealed and declared. It were endless to recite all the testimonies which might be produced to this purpose; some few only shall be produced. First then, on the part of the Father, the sending of the Son to be incarnate, is constantly ascribed to his love to mankind, that they might be saved from sin and misery, with a respect to the promoting thus his own glory, as the ultimate end. ́ John iii. 16. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Rom. iii. 25. "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation." Chap. v. 8. "God commendeth his love unto us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Chap. viii. 3. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh," 1 John iv. 8. Gal. iv. 5, 6. Secondly, On the part of the Son himself, the same causes, the same ends of his taking flesh are, constantly assigned. Luke xix. 10. "The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost." 1 Tim. i. 15. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." Heb. ii. 14, "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." Gal. ii. 20. John xviii. 38. " To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth;" namely, of the promises of God made unto the fathers concerning his coming: see Rom. xv. 8. Phil. ii. 6-10. And all this is said in pursuit and in explication of the first promise concerning him, the sum whereof was, that he' should be manifested in the flesh to destroy the works of the devil, as it is expounded, 1 John iii. 8. To this the whole Scripture constantly and uniformly giveth testimony: this is the design and scope of all its instructions: and the opposite |