naturally subject to the former; and as the latter, the moral law,-was nothing more in itself, than a faithful transcript or delineation of the immaculate purity of his spotless soul: what Messiah did, therefore, and suffered, from the first moment of life, till he was cut off on the accursed tree, he did and suffered vicariously, and not for himself. Dan. ix. 26.

"O Goodness infinite! Goodness immense !
"And Love that passeth knowledge! Words

are vain :

66 Language is lost in wonder so divine!

CHAP. III.

VICTIM OF THE ATONEMENT.

CHAP. III.

51

OF THE GODHEAD OF CHRIST, AS CONNECTED WITH THE ATONEMENT.

HAVING, in the preceding Chapter, attempted the consideration of such points as more immediately regard the Manhood of Christ, and the Offering of his Body once for all, it now remains to be contemplated, with reverential fear, in what respects the Divine Nature of the Son of

God

God was specially concerned in the Work of Redemption; for it must be taken as a fundamental principle of Christianity, that in no one circumstance whatever, connected with the salvation of the world, did either the Manhood or the Godhead of the Redeemer stand alone; although it be equally true, that in every case, the two distinct natures were engaged respectively, as well as jointly, in accomplishing that great object; each enduring, or effecting that, which accorded with the fitness of things, and which the unfathomable wisdom of God had ordained as proper to the one or to the other: hence, although the great sacrifice for human sin consisted penally in the sufferings and death of the hu

man

man nature, yet that sacrifice was most assuredly rendered efficacious and plenary, by, and in consequence of, the union and conjoint operations of the divine nature. And, as in this stupendous Ordinance of Mercy and Love,

"Love without end, and without measure, Grace!"

each of the Persons of the Divine Trinity, is represented as having graciously occupied his own distinct province; so also in that department which was specially assumed by the eternal Logos, or second Divine Person, in conjunction with his Humanity, each of his two proper natures contributed its own respective acts and energies towards the redemption price, and