The Messiah in Moses and the Prophets Part 5

Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." He saw him in that ineffable and, to mortals, all but insupportable splendor of glory, which caused such an impression of his deity and his holiness, as in contrast to make him conscious of his own vileness as a sinner, and induce in him the utmost self-abas.e.m.e.nt; as in the parallel instance of Ezekiel, it is said that "he fell upon his face;" and in that of Isaiah, that he exclaimed, on seeing Adonai Jehovah Zebaoth, "Woe is me! for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips;" and of Daniel, in an a.n.a.logous instance of his vision of the same glorified Person in the likeness of man, chap. x., that he fell with his face to the ground, that there remained no strength in him, that his comeliness was turned into corruption. So at the Transfiguration on the mount, the disciples fell on their faces and were sore afraid. Paul, on witnessing a like personal manifestation, fell to the earth; and John, in Patmos, seeing that glorified Person, fell at his feet as dead.

There was prevalent, at a very early period, a sentiment that to see G.o.d would occasion or be followed by the death of the beholder; which probably arose, not from simple appearances in the likeness of man, on occasions which called for no exhibitions of Divine majesty and glory, but from manifestations of overpowering, insupportable radiance, comparable only to that of lightning, or that of the unclouded sun. Such a manifestation we may well suppose to have been made on the expulsion of Adam from Eden, in conjunction with the cherubic forms, as in repeated instances afterwards. It was demanded by the occasion and the end to be accomplished. There were sword-like flames, or lightnings, as when Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with (the) Elohim, when he descended on mount Sinai; and they, terrified by the lightnings, said, "Let not Elohim speak with us, lest we die;" and as in the vision of Ezekiel, "out of the fire went forth lightning." So when the seventy elders ascended mount Sinai with Moses, "and saw the Elohe of Israel, the sight of the glory of Jehovah was like devouring fire."

The sentiment or apprehension above referred to is indicated by Jacob, after wrestling with the Messenger Jehovah: "I have seen Elohim face to face, and _my life is preserved_." Also in the words addressed to Gideon after he had exclaimed, "Alas, O Adonai Jehovah! for because I have seen the Messenger Jehovah face to face. And Jehovah said unto him, Fear not, thou shalt not die." And, "Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen Elohim." Such an inference is very likely to have been drawn from the declaration of Jehovah to Moses, Exod. x.x.xiii.

20: "Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man _see me_ and live;" that is, _see me_ unveiled by the human form, or by a dark or luminous cloud-like envelope, as in the burning bush, on mount Sinai, and in the tabernacle; for in these modes of appearance Moses had repeatedly seen him, and in the chapter above referred to, vs. 9, we read that, "As Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle; and Jehovah spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend." But, owing to the defection of Aaron and the people in making and wors.h.i.+pping a molten image, he had, to the consternation of Moses, intimated a purpose to withdraw from among them; and after he had, upon the earnest entreaty of Moses, signified that his presence should continue with them, Moses, in his anxiety and perturbation, and perhaps fearing that he would not visibly manifest himself, (see vs. 16,) besought that he would show him his glory, the unclouded glory of his person. This was denied, as certain to be fatal. But as far as he could endure the sight and live, the request was granted. "And Jehovah descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of Jehovah. And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth, and wors.h.i.+pped."

CHAPTER X.

Further notice of Divine Manifestations to Abraham and Jacob--Mysteriousness attending the Divine Appearances--The visible Form always like that of Man.

In resuming the notice of expressions and statements in the history of the patriarchs, which imply the local and visible presence of Jehovah, the first to be referred to is in Gen. xii.: "Now Jehovah had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee; and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing, and in thee"--thy SEED, which is Christ, Gal.

iii. 16--"shall all the families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as Jehovah had spoken unto him. And Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran ... to go into the land of Canaan." He had, some time before this, migrated with Terah his father from Ur of the Chaldees to Haran, as is related chap. xi. 31. That removal, by which probably he was separated from idolatrous neighbors, is thus referred to, chap. xv. 7: "And Jehovah said unto him, I am Jehovah that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it." And again, Nehemiah ix. 7: "Thou art Jehovah (the) Elohim, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees." From those references it is apparent that he was chosen, called, and received immediate personal communications from Jehovah, whom he afterwards saw in the form of man, and knew as El-Shadai, Jehovah, Adonai Jehovah, and Melach Jehovah.

Having arrived at the plain of Moreh, in the land of Canaan, "Jehovah _appeared_ unto Abram and said, Unto thy SEED will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto Jehovah who _appeared_ unto him."

Considering the reiterated statement in this brief pa.s.sage that Jehovah _appeared_ to Abram; that the occasion was that of the first formal announcement of the great promise of that dispensation to which all subsequent revelations, covenants and promises to Abraham relate; that on the most explicit renewal of this promise, chap. xxii. 18, Melach Jehovah is the speaker; and that Abram signalized the occasion of this first announcement by erecting an altar to Jehovah, and doubtless offering burnt offerings thereon, there seems sufficient ground to conclude that this was an instance of local visible presence.

Abram next removed to a mount east of Beth-El, "and there he builded an altar unto Jehovah, and called upon the name of Jehovah." Chap. xii. 8.

On the occurrence of a famine he went down to Egypt, whence he returned to Beth-El, "unto the place of the altar which he had made there at the first, and there Abram called on the name of Jehovah." xiii. 4. These pa.s.sages indicate his custom of offering typical sacrifices, and calling on the name of Jehovah at the place set apart, for the time being, to that purpose; and from the nature of the case, and its a.n.a.logy to other recorded instances (as Gen. x.x.xii. 13) of such offerings to Melach Jehovah, there is no ground to suppose that the same official Person was not the immediate object of homage in the present instance.

So of the ensuing narrative, Gen. xiii. 14-18: "And Jehovah said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever." "Then Abram removed his tent, and came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, and built there an altar unto Jehovah."

In chapter xv. we read that "The _Word_ of (rather _who is_) Jehovah _came_ unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram; I am thy s.h.i.+eld and thy exceeding great reward. And Abram said, Adonai Jehovah, what wilt thou give me, &c. And behold, the _Word_ (who is) Jehovah _came_ unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; ... and _He_ brought him forth abroad and said, Look now toward heaven and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them; and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be.

And he believed in Jehovah, and He counted it to him for righteousness.

And he said unto Him, Adonai Jehovah, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?" In this narrative the Personal Word appears to be designated by a term equivalent to Logos, as applied in the first chapter of John, namely, _Dabar_, importing the same as the Chaldee term _Memra_, frequently inserted with the same personal reference by the Chaldee paraphrasts. The Dabar (who is) Jehovah _came_ unto Abram, saying, ... He brought him forth abroad, and said, &c. These are personal acts, not to be affirmed of an audible voice. They imply the local presence of the speaker, whom Abram addresses as Adonai Jehovah.

Throughout the chapter he is the speaker. Abram's faith in him as Jehovah is unto righteousness. In this, as in some instances hereafter to be noticed, the sense and construction of the pa.s.sage seem to require that the term translated _Word_ should be considered a personal designation, having the same relation to the term Jehovah as Adon, Adonai, and Melach.

On the occasion of changing the patriarch's name to Abraham, and that of his wife to Sarah, chap. xvii., "Jehovah _appeared_ to Abram, and said unto him, I am El-Shadai; walk before me, and be thou perfect.... And Abram fell on his face, and Elohim talked with him." vs. 1, 3; and vs.

19, 22: "Elohim said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed....

And Elohim went up from Abraham." Here the phraseology in each of the clauses quoted implies a local personal presence of Jehovah. That it was a visible appearance is further implied in the next chapter, where, in the narrative of his appearance in the likeness of man, he refers to this promise of a son as having been made by him, vs. 10; and to remove the doubts of both Abraham and Sarah, he adds: "Is any thing too hard for Jehovah? At the time appointed _I will return_ unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son."

Of the appearance last referred to, chap. xviii., when, in the form of a wayfaring man, he partook of the repast prepared by Abraham, spoke concerning Sarah, walked towards Sodom, disclosed his purpose of destroying that place, and heard Abraham's request on behalf of the righteous, there can be no question of its having been local and visible. It is noticeable that the narrative of this manifestation is introduced by the same formula as others which include no express indications of his visibility. Thus, vs. 1: "And Jehovah _appeared_ unto Abraham in the plains of Mamre." In the progress of the narrative, the Divine visitant is called a man, Jehovah, and Adonai, and at its close it is said that "Jehovah went his way"--literally, "walked away"--as "soon as he had left communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place." In the next chapter, which relates the destruction of Sodom, the same Person is called Jehovah and Elohim.

"Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before _Jehovah_"--that is, before the visible Person in the likeness of man, to whom he addressed his prayers for the righteous. "And it came to pa.s.s when _Elohim_ destroyed the cities of the plain, that _Elohim_ remembered Abraham."

When the time had arrived for Jacob to withdraw from Laban, "Jehovah said unto him, Return unto the land of thy fathers." Gen. x.x.xi. 3.

Referring to this, vs. 7, he says: "The Elohe of my father hath been with me." After relating to his family something of the treatment he had received from Laban, and of the special favor of Elohim to him, he recurs to the command above quoted, vs. 11-13: "And Melach (the) Elohim spake unto me in a dream and said, I am the El of Beth-El, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me. Now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred....

And Rachel and Leah answered, ... Now, whatsoever Elohim hath said unto thee, do." The statements in the two clauses first above cited evidently refer to the same occasion as those which follow; and therefore the Elohe of his father, who had been with him, was Melach, the Messenger Elohim who spoke to him, vs. 11, and who doubtless appeared to him to be present, in a form with which he was familiar. This is further implied in the words at the close of his remonstrance with Laban, vs. 42: "Except the Elohe of my father, the Elohe of Abraham, and the Fear of Isaac had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. Elohim hath seen my affliction, and the labor of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight."

The familiarity of Jacob with the visible presence of Jehovah is indicated by his expression when, to his surprise and joy, Esau met him with a kindness and cordiality which showed that he no longer harbored any ill-will towards him. Jacob urged him to receive his present, and said: "I have seen thy _face_, as though it had been the _face_ of Elohim, and thou wast pleased with me," chap. x.x.xiii. 10; implying that this personal interview and manifestation of favor produced an effect upon his feelings resembling that of visible Divine manifestations, to which he was accustomed; a signal instance of which had just occurred, chap. x.x.xii., when "he saw Elohim face to face."

Doubtless there was a degree of mysteriousness inseparable from those appearances of the Divine Person, arising, however, not from their infrequency, for they seldom seem to have occasioned surprise, but rather from the different forms of manifestation, the different degrees of visibility; a consciousness that He who was sometimes visibly present was, when unseen, not absent; not less cognizant of their thoughts and actions, nor less their preserver and defender. They knew that he could, at pleasure, render himself visible in the simple form of man, in a vision, in a dense or a luminous cloud, in the colors of the precious gems and minerals, and in the insupportable splendors of the solar and electric fires. They knew that he was of purer eyes than to behold iniquity with any allowance, and were conscious of their defilement and ill-desert. Their faith reposed on him, unseen as well as manifest; and when he was locally present to their senses, it was necessary to exclude or modify their accustomed discrimination between spiritual and physical, invisible and visible conditions and modes of being.

There must have been, besides a familiarity with the fact of his visible appearances, a well-established a.s.sociation of authorized and intelligent convictions in their minds respecting his official person and character, the nature of his Agency, his mediatorial relations, which a.s.sumed a covenant or stipulated relations.h.i.+p of man with the Deity in his Person, and harmonized the Divine in his manifestations with the human in his visible form, all which necessarily involved more or less of the mysterious and unknown. Yet they well understood the tokens which identified him, and, if not exhibited in the first moments of his appearance, recognized them as soon as given, and promptly rendered him the homage, addressed him by the t.i.tles, and ascribed to him the prerogatives and works of the Creator, Proprietor, Ruler and Redeemer of the world.

But he was not at all times visible. The patriarchs lived by faith as well for the most part of their days and years, perhaps, with respect to him personally, as with respect to the future issues of his interpositions and administration. They could not see him at their pleasure, even when his words or acts indicated that he was locally near them. "Lo, he goeth by me," saith Job, "and I see him not: he pa.s.seth on, also, but I perceive him not. Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: on the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him; he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him; but he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold."

It would seem to have been by an effect wrought in them, both when awake and when asleep, that he, and also that created spiritual beings, when locally present, became visible or manifest to their consciousness. In several instances the eyes of the beholders are said to be opened, not to behold objects ordinarily visible, but objects which, though present, it was not, without that operation, their privilege to see. Thus, in the narrative of Balaam, "the Messenger Jehovah stood in the way as an adversary against him," and repeatedly checked his progress, while to him invisible. At length, "Jehovah opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the Messenger Jehovah standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand," &c. So in the case of the servant of Elisha: "Jehovah opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire, round about Elisha." And of the disciples on the way to Emmaus in company with the risen Saviour, it is said, "their eyes were holden that they should not know him;" and at length "their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight."

Considering that in all ages and countries the minds of men have been startled and thrown off their balance by the supposed apparition of spirits, real or imaginary, angelic or human, from the invisible world, whether in material or in impalpable forms, and have regarded them as inscrutably mysterious and appalling, the fact that such impressions of surprise and dread were not commonly occasioned, or are so slightly indicated, when the Messenger Jehovah was unexpectedly and visibly recognized, strongly implies that the beholders were familiar not only with the reality and the modes of his appearance, but with his official Person, character and relations.

The statements and intimations contained in the Holy Scriptures concerning the celestial beings comprehensively called angels, warrant the conclusion, that the faculties by which they perceive external objects are a.n.a.logous to those of man. They see and hear, and are seen and heard, in a way similar to that of the bodied human race. They have the faculty of becoming visible to men, and when visible, they have, in all recorded instances, the human form. It is obvious that, in order to be discernible by the human eye, they must have a specific form; and accordingly, both with reference to the Messenger who is Jehovah, and to the created angels, such is the case in each and every instance of visibility. Thus in the case of the three who, in the form of men, appeared to Abraham, prior to the destruction of Sodom. In form, the three appeared alike, and the two were distinguished from the ONE only by the circ.u.mstances which ensued.

To created angels appearing visibly in this manner, it is clear that the same laws of optics and acoustics are available as to men, only in a far higher degree. That they saw objects which are naturally visible to men as clearly as men see them, and heard sounds and voices audible to them as distinctly as they, is evident from every narrative in which such things are mentioned or implied. But their power of visual and auricular perception is not restricted as in the human race. From the nature of the organism in which the spirit of man resides, his natural power in these relations is very limited. In the instance of vision, however, his natural power may, in conformity with the ordinary laws of vision, be, by the appliances of art, immeasurably increased. Telescopes and microscopes are but additions to the natural organ. In angels that organ may naturally as far transcend the optical power of human skill and science, as the latter exceeds the unaided power of vision in man.

Moreover, to spirits inhabiting angelic organisms, things which circ.u.mscribe human vision probably const.i.tute no obstructions. Material bodies which to the human eye are opaque, may to them be as transparent as crystal or the atmosphere to man. The degree of light necessary to their vision of objects may be as nothing compared with that required by the human eye; and distance, so wonderfully obviated by the effect of optical instruments, may be, and undoubtedly is, proportionally, as nothing to them.

Now, since those beings have a distinct, personal, visible form--visible to the unaided human eye on the occasion of their appearance in the earlier and at the opening of the present dispensation, as at the annunciation and the resurrection--and since their visual perceptions correspond to our law of optics, it is to be inferred that they see each other and all external objects in the same way as they saw men; and doubtless the like, both with respect to the mode and the degree or extent of perception, may be safely inferred in relation to their hearing and feeling.

Whatever else may be true of the organisms in which they dwell, enough is revealed to justify the conclusion, that, being in their attributes as spirits like the spirits of men, they exercise their faculties through the instrumentality of those organisms in the same way as men through theirs. Thus it is certain that by means of those visible forms they exercise physical power. The two angels who came in the form of men to Lot in Sodom, "_put forth their hands and pulled Lot into the house to them_, and shut to the door. And _the men_ said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides?... And while he lingered, the _men_ laid hold upon his hand, ... and they brought him forth and set him without the city." Gen.

xix.

The established form, then, in which, from the beginning, spiritual beings have visibly appeared, was conformable to that a.s.signed to the human race; insomuch that such beings were never otherwise discernible to the human eye. That form was a.s.sumed, with man's nature, by the Messiah when he became incarnate; and there is therefore nothing incongruous or inherently improbable in the supposition of his having appeared visibly in the likeness of that form at earlier periods, as the Scriptures clearly teach. It is not more unlikely that in those earlier appearances, on occasions when no Divine effulgence was exhibited, his visible appearance should be like that of angelic messengers, than that theirs should be like that of man, or that his should be so when literally incarnate. And if the Deity has ever appeared visibly to man, it was indubitably to the patriarchs and prophets as the Messiah, under the designations and on the occasions heretofore referred to, and publicly in Judea at the period of his literal incarnation.

Consistently with these views, the Scriptures, in speaking of him in the various aspects and relations in which he appeared, employ terms which are appropriate to one with attributes and modes of visible action like those of man; of his head, face, eyes, hands, feet; of his sitting down, rising up, standing, walking, working, resting, hearing, speaking, and the like. As leader and defender of his people, "Jehovah is _a man_ [is like a man] of war, Jehovah is his name." Exod. xv. 3. "And Jehovah _went_ [walked] his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham."

Gen. xviii. 33. "Jehovah _looked_ unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud." Exod. xiv. Moses and the elders ascended mount Sinai, "and they saw the Elohe of Israel; and there was under _his feet_ as it were a paved work of sapphire; ... and upon the n.o.bles (Moses and the elders) he laid not his _hand:_ ... they saw _the_ Elohim, and did eat and drink." Exod. xxiv. "And Jehovah _descended_ in the cloud and _stood_ with Moses, and proclaimed the name of Jehovah.

And Jehovah _pa.s.sed_ by _before him_, and proclaimed, Jehovah, El, merciful and gracious. And Moses said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Adonai, let Adonai, I pray thee, _go_ amongst us, and pardon our iniquity and our sin." Exod. x.x.xiv. "Melach Jehovah _stood_ in the way for an adversary against Balaam.... Jehovah opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw Melach Jehovah _standing_ in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand." Numb. xxiii. "And Joshua looked, and behold, there _stood_ a _man_ over against him with his sword drawn in his _hand_....

And he said, As captain of the host of Jehovah am I now come.... And the captain of the host of Jehovah _said_ unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy." Josh. v.

"Melach Jehovah _came_ up from Gilgal [the place where the ark, the ark of the Adon of all the earth, then rested] to Bochim, and said, _I_ made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you into the land which _I_ gave unto your fathers, and _I said_, I will never break my covenant with you." Judges ii. "Thus saith Jehovah, Elohe of Israel, I brought you up from Egypt, and _I said_ unto you, I am Jehovah your Elohe."

"And Melach Jehovah _came and sat_ under an oak, and said unto Gideon, Jehovah is with thee. And Melach _the_ Elohim _said_ unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes and lay them upon this rock. And Melach Jehovah _put forth_ the end of the staff that was in his _hand_, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes." Judges v. "The _eye_ of Jehovah is upon them that fear him." Ps. x.x.xiii. 18. "The _eyes_ of Jehovah thy Elohe are always upon it [the land]." Deut. xi. "The _eyes_ of Jehovah are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.

The _face_ of Jehovah is against them that do evil. Melach Jehovah _encampeth_ round about them that fear him, and delivereth them. They cry, and Jehovah _heareth_ them." Ps. x.x.xiv. "Melach Jehovah _touched_ Elijah, and said, Arise and eat." 1 Kings xix.

The preceding observations concerning the faculties of angels suggest the relation to their acquisition of knowledge of the visible persons, objects and events within their view on earth, and the congruity of that relation with the visibility of the G.o.d-man, Messiah, Mediator, Ruler, and Revealer.

Suppose the celestial hosts, with the visual powers and the freedom from the conditions of distance above intimated, from the moment of their creation in the full maturity of their faculties and of their endowments, except in respect to the knowledge to be derived from the evolution and progress of events, to have seen each other, and the visible objects of their own and other spheres; to have seen, among the earliest of events, the rebellion and dejection from their ranks of an archangel, with numerous adherents, followed by the apostasy and degradation of the progenitors of the human race; and, in connection therewith, to have seen the Personal Word walking in Eden, to have heard his voice, and thenceforth to have observed the acts and events connected with our race. It is plain that if they see and hear in conformity with the same laws as men, and acquire knowledge by so seeing and hearing, then it was necessary to them, as well as to man, that all the agents in the scene should be visible, and that their voices should be audible.

The object, on the occasions referred to, was to instruct and influence, by visible and tangible realities presented to the senses. To suppose some of the agents and acts to have been what they are declared to be, and others to have been illusions, unreal, imaginary, is to defeat the object of them, divest them of all certainty, and justify the same inference with respect to the human as to the celestial agents. In numerous instances it is evident that the power of vision in men was so enlarged, that they beheld objects not ordinarily visible to them. Had that augmented power continued, those objects would have continued to be visible, and so far from being less, would have been more free from illusion and uncertainty; and it is absurd, and contrary to all a.n.a.logy, to suppose that it did not render their vision as certain, and their inference from it as just, in respect to every person and object apprehended by it, as in respect to any one of them. And if, as in the case of the three who appeared to Abraham, and in other cases, they did not see the persons in the likeness of men whom they are declared to have seen, then we have no ground of certainty that they themselves were present, or acted the parts ascribed to them.

It is observed above that in every instance of the personal manifestation of the Messenger Jehovah under the ancient dispensations, he was distinctly recognized in the likeness of man. On many occasions he is expressly called a man; and in various instances acts peculiar to a man are ascribed to him. Thus, at his appearance to Abraham in the plain of Mamre, to Jacob at Peni-El, to Joshua, to Manoah, to Ezekiel, to Daniel, to Amos, and to Zechariah, he is expressly called a man; in Eden and in the plain of Mamre he walked and spoke as a man; to Moses he spake face to face, as a man speaketh with his friend, and of him it was said, "the similitude of Jehovah shall he behold;" to Balaam, Joshua, and David, he appeared with a drawn sword in his hand; when accepting the offering of Gideon, he put forth the staff that was in his hand, and touched the sacrifice; he "touched Elijah, and said, Arise and eat." Again, in the instances in which it is said that he appeared to Abraham and others, without specifying that his person was visible, and in those in which it is said that he came, or that the Word of the Lord came, to Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, and the prophets, the things said and done are, as to matter and manner, in respect to the persons addressed or spoken of, reference to circ.u.mstances of time and place, particularity of directions and details, similar to those in which he visibly appeared as man.

In the minds of the patriarchs and prophets, therefore, the human likeness in which he visibly appeared was intimately and familiarly a.s.sociated with his person. When they thought of him, they thought of him in that form, and accordingly his visible appearance in that form occasioned little or no surprise. They knew, it may well be believed, from and after the first appearance or announcement of the Messiah in Eden, that human nature and the human form were appointed and essential conditions of his complex official person and his sacerdotal work.

Every typical sacrifice, the piacular shedding of blood, the altar typifying the cross, the burnt offering, the paschal lamb, every net of wors.h.i.+p founded on the revealed doctrine of mediation, implied this distinctive apprehension of his person as Mediator. To suppose that patriarchs and prophets to whom he appeared in this manner, and whom he inspired to teach others, did not know and recognize him in his true character, is not less derogatory to him than to them; and to suppose that those who earliest offered typical sacrifices did not as truly and adequately understand what belonged to his personal and official character as those who succeeded, is to nullify their wors.h.i.+p and their faith, and to treat the system as a device of sinful and ignorant men, rather than as divinely revealed and sanctioned.

But the Divine Mediator being thus clearly and familiarly known from the first beginning of the race, as to the const.i.tution of his complex official person, his delegated character, his sacerdotal and mediatory work; this knowledge being common to all true wors.h.i.+ppers, and being ill.u.s.trated and confirmed to others by local visible appearances of the Personal Word, by oral instructions from inspired men, and by the external inst.i.tutions, rites and forms of the true wors.h.i.+p; it is obvious how, and with what facility, the adverse party, the wors.h.i.+ppers of Baal after the deluge, obtained their antagonist counterfeit notions of the incarnation of their rival G.o.d, and afterwards of other spiritual beings and disembodied intelligences; of a shekina of visible glory as the residence or tabernacle of Baal; of mediation, oracular responses, altars, sacrifices, incense, &c. To suppose that any one of these things was originally conceived and invented by the natural reason of man, is at once to yield the question between revealed religion and the competency of fallen man to devise one which should obtain the undivided suffrage of nine tenths of the human race from age to age. The utter absurdity of such a supposition is shown by the fact that all the different nations and tribes of idolaters have, from the earliest records and traditions of their history, held essentially the same ideas upon these and kindred subjects. In the history of some countries, indeed, as in that of India, Thibet and China, the notion of the incarnation, and of repeated incarnations, of their false G.o.d is more conspicuous than in that of others. But the notion that the shedding of blood would procure the remission of sin, that the piacular sacrifices must be offered on an altar and burnt with fire, that the firstlings of the flock must be sacrificed, and that incense must be burned by consecrated priests, has prevailed among all pagan nations and tribes, with or without letters, in all climates, and in all ages, and if not derived from the descendants of Noah at the dispersion, we must, by ascribing the invention to each distinct community for itself, imagine a greater miracle than that of the inspiration of true prophets.

The revolt of the arch-apostate, with his angels and the head of the human race, was an open renunciation of allegiance to Jehovah as Creator, Lawgiver and Ruler, from which a total and ceaseless alienation and opposition ensued, which, but for his redemptive work, would have subverted and defeated his design as Creator. To counteract and overcome that revolt required his humiliation unto death. Prior to that event, his opposers denied his prerogatives and rights as Creator, Lawgiver and Ruler, and arrogated them for creatures. The antagonist system of rivals.h.i.+p and homage was exhibited in the face of the universe in the forms of political tyranny and idolatry. To rea.s.sert and exhibit to the whole universe his claims, after his humiliation, he rose from the grave, ascended on high, was invested with all power in heaven and earth, and in his glorified and visible person as G.o.d-man was recognized as swaying the sceptre of universal empire.

His claims and prerogatives as Creator, Upholder and Ruler being thus manifested and established, and the efficacy of his vicarious death being at the same time demonstrated by the conversion and salvation of mult.i.tudes from age to age, he will at length return to the earth to consummate his victory over all adversaries, to remove the curse and restore the earth to its primeval state, a.s.sume his visible regal sway, and establish his everlasting kingdom.

The union, as appointed and fixed in the order of events, of the Divine and human natures in the Person of the G.o.d-man, was a primary condition in the great scheme of Divine works and manifestations. That union is, accordingly, implied in all the designations, whether prophetic or otherwise, of the Anointed, or official Person; the Logos, who was in the beginning; the Christ, who was before all things. On the basis of this union of the second Person of the G.o.dhead with human nature, rendering him capable of subordinate relations and agencies, the works of creation, providence and grace were delegated to him by the Father.

Such a provision in the const.i.tution of his official person, in order to the subordinate relations, delegated agencies, and visible manifestations, involved in his undertaking, would seem manifestly necessary. Apart from that provision, he was in all respects equal with the Father; and in respect to his person, therefore, some special ground of subordination, in order to the delegation to him of such works in such relations with man, and with material and visible things, would seem to be necessary.

Again, the works delegated to him, and for which he was sent of the Father, all of them in some relations, and many of them absolutely, implied and required this union of the human nature with his person.

Accordingly, in this delegated, subordinate official Person, he was foreordained before the foundation of the world, and had glory with the Father before the world was.

By him and for him, in his official person and delegated character, are all things. By him and for his pleasure they were created. He upholds all things, and by him all things consist.

His undertaking included the works of creation, providence and redemption; the physical and moral government of the world, and the manifestation of the Divine perfections to all intelligent creatures.