Second. This word ‘Saviour’ is a word so large that it hath place in all the undertakings of Christ: for whatever he doth in his mediation he doth as a Saviour. He interposeth between God and man as a Saviour; he engageth against sin, the devil, death, and hell, as a Saviour, and triumphed over them by himself as a Saviour.
Third. The word ‘Saviour,’ as I said, is all one with Redeemer, Deliverer, Reconciler, Peace-maker, or the like; for though there be variation in the terms, yet Saviour is the intendment of them all. By redeeming he becomes a Saviour, by delivering he becomes a Saviour, by reconciling he becomes a Saviour, and by making peace he becometh a Saviour. But I pass this now, intending to speak more to the same question afterwards.
SECOND. How it appears that God in all ages gave his people a promise that he would one day send them a Saviour.
It appears evidently; for so soon as man had sinned, God came to him with a heart full of promise, and continued to renew, and renew, till the time of the promised Messiah to be revealed was come.
[First.] He promised him under the name of ‘the seed of the women,’ after our first father had sinned—‘I will also put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel’ (Gen 3:15).[1] This the apostle hath his eye upon when he saith, ‘When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law’ (Gal 4:4,5).
Second. God renewed this promise to Abraham, and there tells him Christ should be his seed, saying, ‘In thy seed shall all families of the earth be blessed’ (Gen 12:3). ‘Now,’ saith Paul, ‘to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ’ (Gal 3:16).
Third. He was promised in the time of Moses under the name of a ‘prophet’—‘I will raise them up,’ saith God to him, ‘a prophet from among their brethren like unto thee’ (Deut 18:18). This Peter expounds of Christ, ‘For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you’ (Acts 3:22).
Fourth. He promised him to David under the title of a ‘son,’ saying, ‘I will be his Father, and he shall be my Son’ (2 Sam 7:14). For this the apostle expounded of the Saviour, saying, ‘Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee’; and again, ‘I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son’ (Heb 1:5).
Fifth. He was promised in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah—
1. By the name of a ‘branch’—‘In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious’ (Isa 4:2).