In this view Christ is said to be given " for a covenant ;" because he alone fulfils the conditions of it, and because we, in laying hold on him, become partakers of all its benefits.]
2. To perform it effectually in our behalf —
[Man being blinded by Satan and enslaved by sin, it was necessary that he should be enlightened with divine truth, and liberated from the dominion of his lusts. Accordingly Christ undertook to bring him forth into light, and liberty. In execu- tion of his office he illuminated the Jewish Church by the revelations made to Moses and the prophets; and since that period he has been " a light to the Gentiles" also, even to the very ends of the earth, Nor is it only by the outward mani- festation of his truth that he instructs the world : he teaches men by his Spirit also : he " opens the eyes of the blind," and causes them to " see out of obscurity and out of darkness." By the same Spirit also he enables them to burst the chains with which they are bound, and to come forth from their dungeons in which they are immured. As in delivering Peter from his prison, where he lay sleeping on the night preceding his in- tended execution, he caused the light to shine in upon him, and his chains to fall off, and the prison doors to fly open of their own accorde; so now he delivers the souls of men, " turning
b Gal.iii. 17. Tit. i. 2. Eph. i. 1. c Isai. liii. 10—1-2.
d Heb. viii. G. and vii. 22. " Acts xii. 1 — 10.