and the former be abfolutely a man, as representing his natural defcendants; the latter, furely, on the fame principle, must likewise be a man; as representing alfo a particular divifion of the fame fpecies. If they are upon a par with regard to office, there feems to be equal reafon for concluding, that they are likewise on a par with regard to nature: fince the latter seems to lay the best ground for the former, among creatures of the fame common effence, as the good and bad are.

NOR is this all for as it is past doubt with me, that there is fufficient evidence to conclude, that the fecond Adam is as much an human intelligence as the firft Adam, from the characters they refpectively bear, or the general relation, which they stand in to mankind, under the diftribution above: fo fhall we likewife have it in our power to fupply ourselves with additional proof on this article, when we have taken a view of their respective deportment under those characters, or the different parts, which they act in relation to the nature they represent, confider'd in it's fall on the one part, and it's recovery on the other. To illuftrate this by particular examples, let the following inquiries be made: Who was it, that was foil'd by fatan's temptations? A man. Again, on the contrary, who was the perfon, that vanquish'd the tempter himself? A man. Who was it, that tranfgrefs'd the law of his creation, and by that means laid himself open to deferv'd punishment? A man. Again : who was

B

the

the perfon, that fulfill'd all righteousness, and, by fubmiting to the fentence denounc'd, averted the curfe? A man. Once more: who was it, that brought death upon himself and his pofterity by his disobedience? A man. On the contrary: who was it brought life and immortality to light by his doctrine and refurrection? A man. For thus the apostle speaks in the context, faying: Since by man came death, by man came alfo the refurrection of the dead, ver. 21.-Now the reafon on which the above queftions, with others of like import, may bé put, I take to be this: that it feems quite neceffary on the foot of analogy, or what is term'd the fitness of things, that in the fame nature, in which the majesty of heaven had been injur'd, in that fame nature fatisfaction reciprocally ought to be made: divine justice, as it were, by this means, turning fatan's own weapons directly against himself. Which means that, as he had from malice, and through subtilty, feduced the human nature in Adam, the first man, to rebel against heaven fo that now, in return, it fhould be ordered in fuch fort, that his works fhould be destroyed, and his kingdom overthrown, in the fame nature, by CHRIST, the fecond Adam.

:

NOT, indeed, but it is here likewife to be obferv'd, as neceffary to do juftice to OUR SAVIOUR in the prefent particular, that the above distribution of mankind under their respective public heads, Adam, for the natural feed, and CHRIST, for the fpiritual; is to be understood,

as

as taking place only with respect to their mo ral circumstances; I mean, as they fall under the diftinction of good and bad, righteous and wicked. For the truth (taking mankind at large, or in their common natural capacity) undoubtedly is that THE LORD from heaven [pre-exifting in his human fpirit, as the beginning of the creation of GOD ';] is, in fact, the abfolute head of the whole nature; that fo, he might in all things have the pre-eminence. CHRIST is truly the root and exemplar of the intire human fpecies. And he must certainly make a strange figure in this relation, who bears no other refemblance to the bulk of mankind, than what refults from fo inferior a part of the man, as the body only, Surely, due reflection allowed, it can never be fuppofed, that fo diftant an intereft as this, can give any one juft claim to ftand at the head of the human nature; when, as has been often obferv❜d, the reasonable foul, as the alone diftinguishing criterion of that nature, is intirely wanting. But to proceed:

IV. I THINK, it is agreed on all hands that, among the various orders in the scale of being, the human is abfolutely the middle nature. But that allowed, it must then alfo, of confequence, be the proper point of union to all creatures, as well fuperior as inferior. If the human be the middle nature in the chain of

1 Rev. iii. 14. Col. i. 15 and 18. 2 Ibid.

B 2

created

created beings, then all the several links in that chain of existence (let the gradations on each fide be ever fo numerous, the feveral links) muft of neceffity unite in that one, common point. And this exactly correfponds with the place, which St. Paul tells us, THE ALMIGHTY has affign'd the mediatorial perfon: or, in other words, comes up to the precise use which THE DIVINE BEING proposed to himfelf, by fetting up this particular constitution: namely, that he might make him the centre of union to his several other creatures, be they of what nature or dignity they will. The paffage, which I refer to is this: that in the difpenfation of the fulness of times, he [GOD THE FATHER] might gather together in one all things in CHRIST, both which are in the heavens, and which are in earth, even IN HIM ".

Now from this difpofition of things it will appear, that the angelical, and fo the feveral created beings of an higher order, are for ever excluded the mediatorial office, and by confequence, all the great concerns of redemption; being plainly incapacitated for these transactions by the peculiar metaphyfical structure of their respective natures. And that being thus remov'd, by feveral gradations, above that middle nature, which is alone proper to these fervices, they actually come in as fo many appendages, or different lines, connected with, and uniting in this central point. On the contrary, this again, is the evident reason, why • Ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς. 2 Eph. i. 10.

all

all created beings, of a nature inferior to ours, are, and cannot, likewife, but be, excluded, as above. Because these also, as fo many links in the lower extreme of existence, are found to meet equally in the fame centre of union.

WHEREFORE, this being a juft ftate of the cafe, as CHRIST is exprefly declared to be THE one and only MEDIATOR between GOD and men; and it appears, that no nature, either of a fuperior or inferior quality to that of our own, is, in it's effential conftruction, a proper medium in the fcale of being; it follows, I imagine, as a neceffary conclufion, either that CHRIST is not THE MEDIATOR (which would be to contradict scripture) or that he is a true and perfect man, as the nature and neceffity of the thing plainly require. Add to this

V. THOSE Accounts, which tell us, in one place, that THE MEDIATOR was to be raised up from among his brethren1; and, in another place, that he was to be chofen from among the people. [For tho', as to it's literal import, David, the victorious king of Ifrael, be undoubtedly intended in the latter of thefe texts; yet expofitors, in general, are agreed, that it's fpiritual reference terminates on CHRIST, as David's antitype.] Now tho' we fhould explain his brethren, in the former place, in a more restrain'd fenfe, to intimate that CHRIST, according to the flesh, was to defcend from the stock of Abraham, and fo arife from

■ Deut. xviii. 18,

B 3

2 Pf. lxxxix. 19.

among