every one of you be saved. You must renounce all depen- dence on yourselves, and look to the Lord Jesus Christ as your only hope. If you will not believe this, go and try the experiment : go and try by your own righteousness to satisfy the justice of Almighty God; and by your own arm to vanquish all your spiritual enemies. But both the one and the other of these things are impossible to mortal man : and therefore go with all humility to the Son of God ; and know, that " if the Son make you free, you shall be free indeed."]
Abraham's views of christ.
John viii. 56. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day : and he saw it, and was glad.
ONE cannot read any of our Lord's discourses without seeing the need of a spiritual discernment. For want of it, his hearers could not understand his plainest assertions. It being his object to convey spiritual instruction, he used such expressions as were suited to that end: but his hearers annexed only a carnal sense to them, and therefore conceived of him as talking like a maniac ; " Thou hast a devil, and art mad." One expression in particular gave them the highest offence : he had said, " If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death :" this they interpreted as relating to the death of the body; and, well knowing that Abraham and the prophets had all died, they could not endure such arrogance as that assertion implied ; since it, in fact, exalted him above Abraham himself. Though they miscon- strued his meaning, our Lord would not deny the inference which they drew from his words ; but, on the contrary, confirmed it ; and told them, that, con- temptible as they thought him, Abraham himself had "eagerly desired to see his daya," and, on being favoured with a sight of it, " had greatly rejoiced." At this they stumbled still more : and, on being fur- ther assured by him that he existed before Abraham was born, they took up stones -to stone him.
a This must be the sense of rryaXkidaaTb in this place ; else there would he a manifest tautology.
1657.] Abraham's views of christ. 471
In the assertion before us, however ridiculous it appeared to their carnal apprehensions, is contained a most important truth : to illustrate which, we shall shew,
I. What were Abraham's views of Christ —
To mark this with precision is no easy matter. If we suppose that Abraham understood the types as we do, his views of Christ were complete indeed : for, from the appearance of Jehovah to him in human shape b, he would behold the incarnation of Christ; and from Melchizedec, to whom Abraham himself offered tithes of all that he possessed, and from whom also he received a blessing0, he would know the ever- lasting priesthood of Christ, and the necessity of depending on him for all spiritual blessings. More- over, from his being ordered to offer Isaac upon an altar on Mount Moriah (the very place where Christ was afterwards crucified ;) and from Isaac being re- stored to him, when in Abraham's purpose he was already dead ; he would learn the sacrifice of Christ by the hand, as it were, of his own Father d, and his resur- rection from the dead. And as he is said to have made this offering " by faith," and to have " received his son from the dead in a figure," we are by no means certain that he did not see the mystery contained in that remarkable transaction6. But we wish always to lean to the safe side in our interpretations of Holy Writ, and rather to assert too little than too much : we therefore content ourselves with ascribing to Abraham such views only as the New Testament writers have clearly assigned to him. He saw then, 1. The person and work of Christ as a Saviour —