further included in the prediction than when it is said that " salva- tion is of the Jews." In all these and similar cases we have two guides as to the real meaning of the Spirit. The one is found in subsequent and explanatory declarations of the Scriptures, the other is in the fulfilment of the predictions. We know from the event who the seed of the woman ; who the seed of Abraham ; who the Shiloh ; Avho the Son of David; who the servant of the Lord were ; for in Christ and by Him was fulfilled all that was predicted of them. The seed of the woman was to bruise the serpent's head. But it was Christ, and Christ alone, who came into the world to destroy the works of the Devil. This he declared to be the purpose of his mission. Satan was the strong man armed whom Christ came to dispossess and to deliver from him those who were led captive by him at his will. We have, then, the promise of redemp- tion made to our first parents immediately after the fall, to be by them communicated to their descendants to be kept in perpetual remembrance. This promise was repeated and amplified from time to time, until the Redeemer actually came. In these additional and fuller predictions, the nature of this redemption was set forth with ever increasing clearness. This general promise included many specific promises. Thus we find God promising to his faith- ful people the forgiveness of their sins, restoration to his favour, the renewing of their liearts, and the gift of his Spirit. No higher blessings than these are offered under the Christian dispensation. And for these blessings the ancient people of God earnestly longed and prayed. The Old Testament, and especially the Psalms and other devotional parts of the early Scriptures, are filled with the record of such prayers and longings. Nothing can be plainer than that pardon and the favour of God were promised to holy men before the coming of Christ, and these are the blessings which are now promised to us.
The Apostle in Heb. xi. teaches that the hopes of the patriarchs were not confined to the present life, but were fixed on a future state of existence. Such a state, therefore, must have been revealed to them, and eternal life must have been promised to them. Thus he says (chapter xi. 10), that Abraham " looked for the city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." That this was heaven is plain from verse 16, where it is said, " They desire a better country, that is, an heavenly : wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God ; for He hath prepared for them a city." He tells us that these ancient worthies gladly sacrificed all earthly good, and even life itself, " not accepting deliverance ; that they
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870 PART in. Ch. il — the covenant of grace.
might obtain a better resurrection." That this was the common faith of the Jews long before the coming of Christ appears from 2 Mace. vii. 9, where the dying martyr says to his tormentor, "Thou like a fuiy takest us out of this present life, but the King of the world shall raise us up, who have died for his laws, unto everlast- ing life." Our Lord teaches us that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are still alive ; and that where Abraham is, is heaven. His bosom was the resting-place of the faithful.
Christ, the Redeemer, under both Dispensations.
This is a very imperfect exhibition of the evidence which the Scriptures afford that the promise of redemption, and of all that redemption includes, pardon, sanctification, the favour of God, and eternal life, was made to the people of God from the beginning. It is no less clear that the Redeemer is the same under all dispensa- tions. He who was predicted as the seed of the woman, as the seed of Abraham, the Son of David, the Branch, the Servant of the Lord, the Prince of Peace, is our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God manifest in the flesh. He, therefore, from the beginning has been held up as the hope of the world, the Salvator hominum. He was set forth in all his offices, as Prophet, Priest, and King. His work was described as a sacrifice, as well as a i-edemption. All this is so obvious, and so generally admitted, as to render the cita- tion of proof texts unnecessary. It is enough to refer to the general declarations of the New Testament on this subject. Our Lord commanded the Jews to search their Scriptures, because they tes- tified of Him. He said that Moses and the prophets wrote of Him. Beginning at Moses and all the prophets. He expounded to the disciples in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. The Apostles when they began to preach the gospel, not only every- where proved from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ, but they referred to them continually in support of everything which they taught concerning his person and his woi'k. It is from the Old Testament they prove his divinity ; his incarnation ; the sacrificial nature of his death ; that He was truly a Priest to make reconcilia- tion for the people, as well as a Prophet and a King ; and that He was to die, to rise again on the third day, to ascend into heaven, and to be invested with absolute authority over all the earth, and over all orders of created beings. There is not a doctrine concern- ing Christ, taught in the New Testament, which the Apostles do not affirm to have been revealed under former dispensations. They therefore distinctly assert that it was through Him and the efficacy