neration of mankind. So death paffed upon all men. But By Adam's tranfgreffion every man has been fubjected to the fentence, Duft thou art, and unto duft fhalt thou return. God is a God of mercy. Where fin abounded, he decreed that grace fhould much more abound. He decreed that the ruin brought on the human race by the prince of evil fpirits who animated the ferpent, by Satan, the father of lies, who was thus a murderer from the beginning, fhould not be without hope and without end. He decreed that by a being of that very nature which the Devil had degraded and fubdued; by a defcendent, according to the flesh, from thofe miferable finners, whom he now triumphantly led cap-. tive at his will; the lofs of man fhould be regained, the great Enemy fhould in his turn be vanquished and hurled into perdition. He decreed, that the feed of the woman should bruife the ferpent's head. He decreed that, as by man came death, by man should also come the refurrection of the dead; that as in Adam all die, even fo in Chrift fhall all be made alive. Christ undertook the office of mercy and reconciliation. He undertook, though without fin, to be made in the likeness of finful flesh; to lay down his life on the cross, there to accomplish by his meritorious fufferings an an atonement fufficient for the fins of the whole world; there openly to triumph over the principalities and powers of darkness; there to deftroy the empire of Satan, and to fet free the prisoners of the tomb. I will ranfom them, he cried, from the power of the grave: I will redeem them from death. death! I will be thy plague. O grave! I will be thy deftruction (c). Was the dominion acquired through Adam by death univerfal? So alfo is the redemption from death purchased by Jesus Christ. There shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the juft and unjust. The dead, fmall and great, shall stand before God. All that are in the graves fhall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall come forth: they that bave done good, unto the refurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation (d}. But every man in his own order. Chrift, the firft fruits: afterwards, they that are Chrift's, at his coming. The apoftle, having evinced, in the preceding verfes, the univerfality of the refurrection both of the righteous and of the wicked, is folicitous to win the hearts no lefs than the understandings of the Corinthians to a wil (c) Hof. xiii. 14. (d) AQs, xxiv. John, v. 25. 28, 29. Rev. xx. 12. ling acceptation of the doctrine of a future life. Hence, throughout the fubfequent part of the chapter he directs their attention almost exclusively to circumftances, which pertain to the refurrection of the just. Christ had already fulfilled the prophecies, which had declared that He fhould be the first who fhould rife from the dead. He had afcended into Heaven, and had entered into His glory. He had already presented himself before the throne of God as the interceffor, the forerunner, and the reprefentative, of his faints. In their due time, and in their appointed order, he will receive them from the east and from the weft, from the north and from the fouth, into the kingdom prepared for them, through his covenanted atonement, from the foundation of the world. When the Lord himself shall defcend from Heaven with a fhout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; the dead in Chrift fhall rife firft. And then fhall the righteous who remain alive at that aweful hour be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air: and fo fhall they all be for ever with the Lord (e). Then cometh the end, when He fhall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Fa (e) 1 Theff. iv. 15—17. Dd ther: ther: when He shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power. For He muft reign, till He hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be deftroyed is death: for He hath put all things under his feet. But when He faith, all things are put under Him; it is manifeft that He is excepted, which did put all things under Him. And when all things fhall be fubdued unto Him; then fhall the Son alfo himself be fubject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all. Because He, who was the Son of God, vouchfafed to become the Son of man; becaufe He who thought it not robbery to equal with God, He who in the beginning was with God and was God, took upon Himfelf the form of a fervant, and humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the crofs: therefore God hath highly exalted Him. As a partaker of the everlasting Godhead, our Saviour could not be exalted. But in His affumed nature as man, in His character as Mediator, He was capable of being exalted and glorified. Thy throne, O God, faith the Father unto the Son, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a fceptre of righteousness is the fceptre of thy kingdom. Thou haft loved righteoufnefs, and hated iniquity: therefore God, even thy God, ડ bath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows (f). "O Thou who art a par"taker of the fovereign and eternal God"head; Thou who, when Thou shalt become "incarnate in human nature, fhalt completely "fulfil my righteous law by the Spirit which "fhall be poured upon Thee without mea"fure: as Man fhalt Thou be raised unto glory foreign and unknown to the nature "which Thou shalt have affumed, unto a "throne of everlafting righteousness." To Christ, as man, hath His Almighty Father given a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confefs that Jefus Chrift is Lord. He hath fet Chrift, as man, at His own right hand in Heaven, far above all principality and power ́and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come: and hath put all things, Himself excepted, under His feet. All power is given unto Chrift in Heaven and in earth. And He must reign, His feparate and mediatorial kingdom must continue, until He fhall have put down all rule and all authority and (ƒ) Hebr. i. 5. 8, 9. power, until |