- being the beginning and first-born of them. The apostle in these
_ words gives us the whole of what we intend, namely, that the making of the worlds, and of all things in them, in the first crea- tion by the Son, was peculiarly subservient to the glory of the grace of God in the reparation and renovation of all things by him as incarnate.
__ It is not for us to inquire much into or after the reason of this economy and dispensation; we “cannot by searching find out God,
80 AN EXPOSITION OF THE [CHAP. I.
we cannot find out the Almighty unto perfection,” Job xi. 7. It may suftice us that he disposeth of all things according to “the counsel of his own will,” Eph. i111. This antecedently unto the consideration of the effects of it, we cannot, we may not search into, Deut. xxix. 29. What are the effects and consequences of his infi- nitely holy, wise counsel, wherein his glory shines forth unto his creatures, those we may consider and contemplate on, and rejoice in the light that they will afford us into the treasures of these counsels themselves.
Now, herein we see, first, that it was the eternal design of God that the whole creation should be put in subjection unto the Word incarnate ; whereof the apostle also treats in the second chapter of this epistle. “God hath highly exalted him, and given him 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 confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father,” Phil. ii, 9-11. God hath put all things in subjection unto him, not only the things pe- culiarly redeemed by him, but all things whatever, as we shall show in the next words of our epistle. See 1 Cor. xv. 27; Heb. ii. 8; Rom. xiv. 11. Hence John saw “ every creature which is in hea- ven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, ascribing blessing, and honour, and glory, and power unto the Lamb for ever and ever,” Rev. v. 13; that is, owning and avowing their duty, obedience, and subjection unto him. ‘This being designed of God in the eternal counsel of his will, before the world was, 1 Pet. 1. 2, Tit. i. 2, he prepared and made way for it in the creation of all things by him; so that his title and right to be the ruler and lord of all angels and men, the whole creation, in and of heaven and earth, might be laid on this great and blessed foundation, that he made them all.
Again, God designed from eternity that his great and everlasting glory should arise from the new creation and the work thereof. Herein hath he ordered all things “to the praise of the glory of his grace,” Eph. i. 6. And this praise will he inhabit for ever. It is true, the works of the old creation did set forth the glory of God, Ps. xix. 1; they manifested his “ eternal power and Godhead,” Rom. i. 20. But God had not resolved ultimately to commit the manifes- tation of his glory unto those works, though very glorious; and therefore did he suffer sin to enter into the world, which stained the beauty of it, and brought it wholly under the curse. But he never suffered spot or stain to come upon the work of the new creation, Eph. v.26, 27,—nothing that might defeat, eclipse, or impair the glory that he intended to exalt himself in thereby. Yet God hath so ultimately laid up his glory in the new creation, as that he will not lose any
“VER. 1, 2.] EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 81
thing of that which also is due unto him from the old; but yet he will not receive it immediately from thence neither, but as it is put over into a subserviency unto the work of the new. Now, God ordered all things so as that this might be effected without force, coaction, or wresting of the creation, or putting it beside its own order. And is there any thing more genuine, natural, and proper, than that the world should come into subjection unto Him by whom it was made, although there be some alteration in its state and con- dition, as to outward dispensation, in his being made man? And this I take to be the meaning of that discourse of the apostle about the bondage and liberty of the creature, which we have, Rom. viii- 19-22. The apostle tells us that the creature itself had an expecta- tion and desire after “the manifestation of the sons of God,” or the bringing forth of the kingdom of Christ in glory and power, verse 19; and gives this reason for it, because it is brought into a condition of vanity, corruption, and bondage, wherein it did, as it were, unwill- ingly abide, and groaned to be delivered from it. That is, by the entrance of sin the creation was brought into that condition as wherein it could not answer the end for which it was made and erected, namely, to declare the glory of God, that he might be wor- shipped and honoured as God; but was as it were left, especially in the earth, and the inhabitants of it, to be astage for men to act their enmity against God upon, and a means for the fulfilling and satis- faction of their filthy lusts. This state being unsuitable unto its primitive constitution, preternatural, occasional, and forced, it is said to dislike it, to groan under it, to hope for deliverance, doing that in what it is by its nature, which it would do voluntarily were it en- dowed with a rational understanding. But, saith the apostle, there is a better condition for this creation; which, whilst it was afar off, it put out its head after and unto. What is this better state? Why, “the glorious liberty of the sonsof God;” that is, the new state and condition that all things are restored unto, in order unto the glory of God, by Jesus Christ. The creation hath, as it were, a natural propensity, yea, a longing, to come into a subjection unto Christ, as that which retrieves and frees it from the vanity, bondage, and cor- ruption that it was cast into, when put out of its first order by sin. And this ariseth from that plot and design which God first laid in the creation of all things, that they, beimg made by the Son, should ‘naturally and willingly, as it were, give up themselves unto obedi- ence unto him, when he should take the rule of them upon the new account of his mediation.