some to maintain that the second clause of the verse is only a general statement, " God is not a God who gives the Spirit by mea ure." But all the best commentat(jrs, from Augustine down- wards, hold the view of our translators, that it is Christ who is signified, and that " unto Him" ought to be supplied in any translation,
Chemnitius thinks that this verse specially refers to Isaiah xi. 2, where it is predicted that the seven-fold gifts of the Spirit shall rest on Messiah.
35. — {The Father hveth...Son...given alL.hand.'] There is something, at first sight, abrupt and elliptical in this verse. The full mean- ing of it, I beheve to be as follows. " He whom God hath sent is One far above me or any other prophet. He is the eternal Son of God, whom the Father loved from all eternity, and into whose hands all things concerning man's salvation have been given and committed by an everlasting covenant. He is no mere man, as you, my disciples, ignorantly suppose. He is the Son, of whom it is written, ' Kiss the Son lest He be angry, and so ye perish from the way.' He is the Son to whom the Father has snid, *I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the utter- most parts of the earth for thy possession.' (Psalm ii. 7 — 9.) Instead of being jealous of his present popularity, you should serve Him with fear, and rejoice before Him with trembling."
The " love of the Father toward the Son," here spoken of, is a subject far too deep for man to fathom. It is an expression graciously accommodated to man's feeble understanding, and intended to signify that most intimate and inetfable union which exists between the First and Second Persons in the blessed Trinity, and the entire approbation and complacency wiih which the Father regards the work of redemption undertaken by the Son. It is that love to which our Lord refers in the words, " Thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world," (John xvii. 24,) and which the Father expressly asserted at the begin- ning of the Son's earthly ministry, " This is mj beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matt. iii. 17.)
When it says that " the Father hath given all things into the Son's hand," we must understand that mediatorial kingdom which in the eternal counsels of the Trinity has been appointed to Christ. By the terms of the everlasting covenant, the Father has given to the Son power over all flesh, to quicken whom He will — to justify, to sanctify, to keep, and to glorify His people, — to judge, and finally punish the wicked and unbelieving, — and at last to take to Himself a kingdom over all the world, and put down every enemy under His teet. These are the " all things/' of which cfoiin speaks. Christ, he would have us know, has the