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GENESIS.

Chap. i, 26-28 compared with Psalm viii, and Hebrews ii, 5,

II. "And God said, let us make man in our image, after our "likeness, and let them have dominion, &c."-" And God bless"ed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over "the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over "every living thing that moveth on the earth." Gen. i, 26-28.

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As Saint John in Rev. xxii describes the glorious state of the Church on earth before the last judgment; (for what need in supreme glory of a river of water, of streets, or of a tree of life?) so David falls into a divine meditation of the estate of Adam in innocency, and composes a prophetical psalm of praise on the subject, as the Apostle Paul expounds it in Heb. ii. For that dominion over all things, given to Adam at the first, both David and Paul knew should be recovered and made good by the Son of Man, Christ. For surely to have dominion over the beasts, fishes, and fowls, (as David also has it vv. 7, 8,) cannot be referred to the state of the saints in the highest heavens; nor was it performed on earth in David's time: for he was ever and anon in danger of beasts, or bestial men; just as the saints in general (the members of the Son of Man) have been frequently in danger since David. This subduing of the creatures, in such a "the way as that enemy and avenger" among men must be stilled, (v. 2,) and the saints mouths be filled with praise, (which the whole form of the psalm sets forth,) must be fulfilled visibly on earth.

The Apostle introduces the psalm thus: "Unto the Angels God hath not subjected the world to come, of which we speak :" which phrase," World to come," is in the Greek spoken with great emphasis, with the article repeated, (n

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μɛλsoav,) equal in English to, That same world, even that to come.' And yet it means a state on earth for the word oikoumenee, rendered world,' in strict propriety signifies in

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habited world, as men inhabit their dwelling-houses; (the word oikos, house, being of the kindred of the word world;) and, in common use, oikoumenee is put to signify the world on earth, at least fifteen times in the New Testament. u Sometimes in those places the word earth is for plainer expression adjoined, and even used thus to signify the Roman monarchy only; v and never is it used to signify the supremest heaven. So that put all the Apostle's phrase together, and the inhabited world to come can signify no other, than that the monarchy on earth (in the Apostle's time under the Romans) should, before the last judgment, become the monarchy of Christ and of the saints under him.

The second part of the phrase, (viz. " of which we speak,”) doth more fully demonstrate this: for where did the Apostle speak before of that world to come, as he here intimates, but in the sixth verse of the previous chapter; which being read according to the Greek runs thus; "But when again he bringeth in (or shall bring in) the first begotten Son into the world, he saith also, Let all the angels of God worship him." In Greek—órav de nadiv ɛioaγαγη τον πρωτοτοκον εισ την οιχεμενην, λεγει και προσκυνησάτωσαν αυτώ παντεσ αγγελοι Θεο. As our translators have rendered this passage (And again when,' instead of, But when again') it seems merely a new proof of Christ's superiority above angels; but the words are an antithesis and auxesis to the fifth verse, thus-' He saith not to any angel thou art my Son,' &c.; but (to lessen the dignity of angels and exalt Christ over them) he saith, Let all the angels of God worship him.' So that the first 'and' (de) must be turned into but';-the word again' is not meant as another proof; but to signify the time when the worship shall be given ;-and as for the second and,' between the words saith and let, it offends against common sense, against the propriety of our English idiom, against the context of the Greek, and against the Hebrew text from whence it is quoted. Is it not against common sense and English idiom to say, in a recital of another's words,' He saith, or he said and so and so? In the

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u Matt. xxiv, 14; Luke ii, 1; iv, 5; xxi, 26; Acts xi, 28; xvii, 6; xvii, 31 ; xix, 27; xxiv, 5; Rom. x, 18; Heb. i, 6; ii, 5; Rev. iii, 10; xii, 9; xvi, 14.

v Luke ii, 1; Acts xi, 28.

narrative of the Old or New Testament it is a common thing to bring in a party with ' And he said;' but in a quotation it is not tolerable. And it is against the context of the Greek, which is as we have given it; whereas our translators, with a vain tautology, join to 'saith' two ands: for it runs thus, ' And again he saith, and.' Lastly, the latter and appears as if taken from the Hebrew; whereas there is no such thing, for the whole place in Psalm xcvii, 7, is to a word thus,-" Confounded be all they that worship graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him all ye Gods." Thus the word 'world' in Heb. ii, 5, must not only signify the world on earth; (or the Apostle's reference to Heb. i, 6, is overthrown ;) but we must also infer that in this Heb. ii, 5, mention is made of the same world to come' on earth. And if my reading of Heb. i, 6, is the true one, then also this question arises, when did God ever bring his first begotten Son into the world again? When the ninetyseventh Psalm was penned, Christ had not in the flesh been brought into the world at all; and when the Epistle to the Hebrews was written, Christ had been brought into the world But Psalm xcvii, 7, will come under review again presently, therefore we return now to Heb. ii. w

but once.

I repeat then, that for man to be over all visibly on earth, as Adam was, (which is David's application in Psalm viii, of Gen. i, 26, &c. and Paul's explication in this second of Hebrews, of Psalm viii,) has never been performed since Adam's fall. The saints in general were never thus "crowned with glory and honor;" nor were their “enemies and avengers ever thus stilled.” Psalm viii, 5 & 2. It cannot be said to have had more than a typical fulfilment in Adam; for then was no enemy and avenger stilled-then was not the whole universe actually subjected to him; but his dominion was in the territory of Paradise: much less was the habitable world to come subjected to him. Therefore the great question is, Whether this hath been fulfilled to Christ? The Apostle, in this second of Hebrews, seems to me to say, it hath not. For that which is to be put under Christ's feet is the inhabited world to come," viz. to come after Paul

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w Some weeks after I had penned these things upon Heb. ii, 5, compared with Heb. i, 6, &c. I met with Mr. Mede's Opuscula (newly published) concurring with me in the grammar and sense of those places which I have altered. work I refer the Reader for more.

To his

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66

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*

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wrote that. And the Apostle doth strongly (as Pareus observes) urge, out of Psalm viii, the universal particle all, (55) Thou "hast put all things in subjection under his feet; for (saith he) in that he put ALL in subjection under him, he left NOTHING 'that is not put under him: but now we see not yet all things "put under him." He appeals to sense;" But now, (though "Christ is ascended,) we see not yet all things put under him." What was fulfilled, he fully expresses; viz. (to keep to the exact order of the words) Him, that was made a little while a "little lower than the angels, we see, even Jesus, in regard of "his suffering of death, to be crowned with glory and honor, I that he by the free grace of God might taste of death for every man." All which may be thus paraphrased: The world to come is not to be put in subjection to angels, but unto Christ, according to the eighth Psalm. But this is not yet fulfilled; all things are not yet put under him; only we see him, for the 'suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; which is ' not a subjection of the inhabitable world to come unto him, 'much less of all things therein. The angels are in heaven as well as he; and thus, in place, they as well as he are above the 'things below: but Christ must have the inhabited world, and 'all things, so subject to and under him, as they shall not 'be to angels.' So that, if we heed the context, the Apostle tells us, that in one sense Christ is exalted above all,-viz. in his possession of the highest heaven, through suffering; but that this is in another place, than the inhabited world to come; and upon another account, than the precise formal dominion over it, —it was to taste death for every man.' It was in prosecution of a design; viz," to bring many sons to glory:" not a perfecting of a thing finished; viz. the attainment of his absolute dominion on earth, over Turks, Jews, Papists, Heathens, &c. But this must come to pass: Christ and his members must have absolute dominion over the world below, in that estate of it which is yet future.

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2. The Promises of God to Abraham and his posterity, Gen. xii, 1-3; xv, 4, 6; xvii, 1-7; xviii, 18; xxii, 18; xxvi, 4

* Το βραχύ τι and ηλαττώσας, in v. 7, and ηλαττωμενον, must be distinguished. See the margin.

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xlviii, 19 & 26; with the Apostle's explication and application of those promises, Rom, iv, 3-25; Gal. iii, 6-17; and Hebrews xi, 8-17.

The Reader is requested to read carefully the above places, and first to note generally, of the treasure of promises contained in them, that, howsoever narrow they may appear to shortsighted men, whose eye is intent only upon Jews, Canaan, and men under the Law; yet the divine Apostles, the absolute interpreters of the Old Testament, do, in the places of the New Testament annexed, extend their meaning unto all nations of the world, in all countries of the earth, and under the Gospel; and in such a way that, in their judgment, they were not completely fulfilled when they wrote. The extension of them is particularly evident if we compare Genesis xii, 1-3, with Galatians iii, 8, and Hebrews xi, 8, &c.; Genesis xv, 4, with Romans iv, 3-22; Genesis xvii, 1, 2, &c. with Romans iv, 11, &c.

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And with great justice doth the Apostle thus explain and apply the places above quoted to an evangelical state under the New Testament; for those Old Testament Scriptures have in them many evangelical strains, all harmoniously agreeing to that glorious state which we expect. For, first, there is spiritual, yet visible, salvation, delivered in the express form of a covenant of 66 viz. grace; that God will establish his covenant with Abraham, and with his seed after him in "their generations, for an everlasting covenant,—to be a "God unto him and to his seed after him :" promises often repeated, and illustrated and amplified with the plain expression of faith, and of God's accounting faith to the believer for righteousness, and of blessing through the one seed of Abraham. Secondly, there is a happy and blessed possession upon the face of the whole earth; to the ruin of them that should rise up against them, whom he would curse.z Thirdly, we have a numerous multiplication of the seed of Abraham both of Jews and Gentiles, who through that salvation should attain to that possession;—a multiplication of them as the sands of the sea,' the stars of heaven,' 'a multitude of nations,' &c.*

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y Gen. xv, 6; xvii, 7, 8; xxii, 18; xxvi, 4; Gal. iii, 16. z Ibid xii, 3; xviii, 18. *The phrase "Multitude of Nations" is literally "fulness of nations;" whence the Apostle borrows his phrase" The fulness of the Gen

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