Therefore the kingdom which Messiah will resign is the kingdom of God.

of David

dinate.

co-ordinate

Again, the reason assigned for this subjection is, "that God may be all in all." Rev. iii. 21. But when God's anointed King shall sit upon the throne of David-upon the throne The throne of a creature-will not God be all in all? suborIf he is not all in all, it cannot be from rival power, or co-ordination; it can only be because the creature is not in subjection: but this cannot be said of Christ. The next End of the point is the end of this kingdom, which is reign. the abolition of all dominion, and authority, and power, in order that God's decreed subjection of all things under the Son of man may be accomplished; "for he must reign 1 Cor. xv. till he shall have put all enemies under his quoted from feet." Which I should paraphrase thus:pared with "For Christ must reign, sharing the supreme dominion with the Father, until, with that supreme power and authority, Christ shall have subjected all his enemies ;" which answers to the Hebrew: "Sit thou at my right hand, until I cause to place thine ene

25, 27,

Psalm viii. 7, com

Heb. ii.

mies thy footstool."* By this we are also able to discover when the termination shall

* Amyraud's views are in exact accordance with this translation. "1 Cor. xv. 25. Here a difficulty presents itself; for this expression, till he shall have put,' may be equally understood as relating either to the Father or the Son; and, to follow the thread and tenour of the proposition of St. Paul in this place, it appears that it ought to be referred to Christ; but, in the Psalm whence this passage is extracted, it is undoubtedly spoken of the Father; 'Sit thou,' &c. To resolve this question, we must distinguish, in the office of mediator, the charge itself, which consists in the authority to act, and the virtue, or power, by which the acts themselves are exercised and, with regard to the power, it is common to the Father and the Son, because it is a property of their essence; so that it is indifferent whether we say, that it is the Father, or that it is the Son, who acts in this respect, because their operation in this, like their power, is common. If you look to the authority, the Son acts immediately on this occasion, because it is he who has within his hands the charge of reigning. The Father acts mediately by him, because it is the Father who has given him the charge and the commission to execute it. Now, if he who does any thing immediately is properly said to act, he who does it mediately by another, and by means of a commission which he has given to another, may be not less properly said to act, at least according to the

Psalm cx. 1.

be; for he sits at God's right hand in the attitude of expectation, "until his enemies are made his footstool; but when all shall Heb. viii. 1. have been subjected unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subjected, &c. He therefore must, at that time, resign the coordinate reign. Or we may state it thus: He sits at God's right hand, until his enemies shall have been put under his feet; and rules of law, which says, "He who does any thing by another is considered as doing it by himself." I believe, nevertheless, that a distinction may be drawn between the use of this expression at the time when God establishes his Son in the office of Mediator, and its use since Christ has been actually in the exercise of his office. In this second mode it is more suitable to say, that it is Christ who puts his enemies under his feet, because it is he who effectively executes immediately that which is designed by these words. In the other it is more proper to say, that it is the Father who promises to the Son, that he will render very easy to him the exercise and the administration of the kingdom which he commits to him, by putting all his enemies under his feet; as if he said to him, " And in this thine installation into the office which I commit to thee, fear not the enemies and the obstacles which may present themselves; for I will put all thine enemies under thy feet, by furnishing thee with all the power which shall be necessary to thee for obtaining a full and glorious victory."

D

Christ sits

at God's

until the re

signation of

the kingdom.

when his enemies shall be subjected, he will

give up the kingdom; he therefore sits at right hand God's right hand until he resigns the kingdom. The only observations necessary to establish this are: first, that sitting at God's right hand (Psalm cx. 1.) upon the Father's throne (Rev. iii.), is what the Apostle, in ver. 25, styles reigning; secondly, that it is not said that "he must reign until all his enemies are in the course of subjection," but "until he shall have put all enemies under his feet;" thirdly, that subjecting the enemies is the same as putting them under his feet and as I think that none of these can be refuted, it necessarily follows that the expression, "then the end," refers to the time when Christ shall leave God's right hand, and not to the end of a thousand years after Christ's coming; for as the kingdom is not to be delivered up at the termination of the thousand years, so neither can "the end," with which it is connected, take place at that time.*

1 Cor. xv: 24.

* We must distinguish between the subjecting of Christ's enemies, and the execution of the judicial

death coin

the resig

nation of

the king. dom.

52.

A second coincidence of events will be the Abolition of abolition of death, and Christ's resignation cident with of the kingdom. Death will be swallowed up in victory, in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, when the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and when "we" (i. e. the living saints) "shall be 1 Cor. xv changed;" "for this same corruptible must put on incorruptibility, and this same mortal [must] put on immortality." "But when this same corruptible shall have put on incorruptibility, and this same mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." The "when" and the "then" are clearly marks of time. But we also learn, that when death shall be swallowed up in victory, that then

sentence upon them (2 Thess. i. 8). In that victory, which, I believe, was typical, it is said expressly, that it was after the captains of Israel had put their feet on the necks of the kings, that Joshua smote them and slew them (Josh. x. 24, 26). And that psalm of praise, which is twice applied to Jesus in the New Testament, seems to make the subjection and destruction of his enemies as two distinct things (2 Sam. xxii. 41).