Ans. (1.) It seems to be supposed in this argument that there was indeed a revelation made unto Adam, Gen. ii. 23, of the incar- nation of Christ; so that nothing remains to be proved but that he did not foreknow his fall, whence it would ensue that the pretended revelation belonged unto the state of innocency. But, indeed, there is no intimation of any such revelation; for,—
_ (2) I have manifested elsewhere how God, in his infinite wisdom, ordered the things of the first creation so as they might be laid in a subserviency, in a way of representation, unto the new creation, or the renovation of ‘all things by Jesus Christ; that is, he so made them as that they might be natural types of what he would do after- wards. ‘This doth not prove that they were designed to make any revelation of Christ and his grace, or prefigure them, but only were meet to be brought into an useful subordination unto them, so that from them instructive allusions might be taken. Thus was it in the first marriage in the law of creation. It had no other nature, use,
SECT. 16, 17.] PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. 29
nor end, but to be the bond of individual society of two persons, male and female, for the procreation and education of children, with all mutual assistances unto human life and conversation. And the making of woman out of the man, “bone of his bones, and flesh of his flesh,’ was intended only for the laying that society, whose inti- macy was to be unparalleled, in a singular foundation. But both these things were so ordered, in the wisdom of God, as that they might represent another union, in a state that God would bring in afterwards, namely, of Christ and his church. What Adam spike concerning the natural condition and relation of himself and Eve, that our apostle speaks concerning the spiritual and supernatural condi- tion and relation of Christ and the church, because of some resem- blance between them. Aquinas himself determines this whole matter, with an assertion which would have been to his own advantage to have attended unto upon other occasions. Saith he, “Ha que ex sola Dei voluntate proveniunt supra omne debitum creature, nobis innotescere non possunt, nisi quatenus in sacra Scriptura traduntur, per quam divina voluntas innotescit. Unde cum in sacra Scriptura ubique incarnationis ratio ex peccato primi hominis assignetur, con- venientius dicitur incarnationis opus ordinatum esse a Deo in com- modum contra peccatum, quod peccato non existente incarnatio non fuisset.”
17. There is yet another argument mentioned by Aquinas, and much improved by the modern Scotists, insisted on -also by some divines of our own, which deserves a somewhat fuller consideration ; and this is taken from the predestinution of the man Christ Jesus. This the schodlmen consider on that of our apostle, Rom. i. 4, “Con- cerning Jesus Christ, égiedévrog Yio Oeod ev duvéwer:” which the Vulgar renders, “ Qui preedestinatus est Filius Dei in virtute ;’—“ Predes- tinate the Son of God with power,” as our Rhemists. But dprodévrog there is no more than darcdederybévrog, “ manifested, declared,” as it is well rendered by ours. Nor can expositors fix any tolerable sense to their “ predestinate” in this place. But the thing itself is true. | The Lord Christ was predestinated or preordained before the world was. We were “redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, xpoey- voouevov xpd xarutor%s xdcuov,’ 1 Pet. i. 20,— foreordained” (“pre- destinated”) “before the foundation of the world.” Now, it is pleaded that “this predestination of Christ unto the grace of union and glory was the first of God’s purposes and decrees in order of nature, and antecedent unto the predestination of the elect, at least as it should comprise in it a purpose of deliverance from the fall. For God first designed to glorify himself in the assumption of human nature, before he decreed to save the elect by that nature so assumed ; for we are said to be ‘chosen in him, that is, as our head, Eph,
30 THE ORIGIN OF THE [EXERC. XXVI.
i. 4, whence it necessarily ensues that he was chosen before us, and so without respect untous. So in all things was he to have the pre- eminence, Col. i. 19; and thence it is that we are ‘ predestinated to be conformed to his image,’ Rom. viii. 29. This preordination, therefore, of the Lord Christ, which was unto grace and glory, was ~ antecedent unto the permission of the fall of man; so that he should have been incarnate had that never fallen out.”
These things are by some at large deduced and explained, but this is the sum of what is pleaded in the pursuit of this argument, which shall be as briefly examined as the nature of the matter itself will permit.
The order of the divine eternal decrees, as to their priority one unto another in order of nature and reason, so as not the decrees themselves, which are all absolutely free and arrespective, but the things decreed, should be one for another, hath been at large dis- coursed of and discussed by many. But there are yet not a few who suppose those very discourses on all hands to have more of nicety and curious subtilty than of solid truth unto edification. And because this is a matter wherein the Scripture is utterly silent, though one opinion may be more agreeable to sound reason than another, yet none is built upon such certain foundations as to be- come a matter of faith, or the principle of any thing that is so. That which explains this order most conveniently and suitably unto divine wisdom, will, and sovereignty, and which best answers the com- mon apprehensions of rational natures and the rules of their actings, is to be preferred before any opinion that includes what is opposite unto or alien from any of these things, which that order hath respect unto. From any such order in the decrees of God no advantage can be drawn unto the opinion under consideration; but if men may be allowed to suppose what they will, they may easily infer thereon what they please. Let us, therefore, take a view of the several series of divine decrees, which have been confirmed with a consider- able suffrage of learned men, setting aside particular conjectures, which never received entertainment beyond the minds of their au- thors. And these may be reduced unto three :—