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 passage 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
passages 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 analogy to other
recorded instances (as Gen. xxxii. 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 shield
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 passage 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 pass
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. xxxi. 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. xxxiii. 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. xxxii., 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 association of authorized and
intelligent convictions in their minds respecting his official person
and character, the nature of his Agency, his mediatorial relations,
which assumed a covenant or stipulated relationship 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 titles, 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 passeth 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 analogous 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 circumstances 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
circumscribe human vision probably constitute 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 assigned to the
human race; insomuch that such beings were never otherwise discernible
to the human eye. That form was assumed, 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
nobles (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 _passed_ 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. xxxiv. "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. xxxiii. 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. xxxiv. "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 God-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 analogy,
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 circumstances 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
associated 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
worship 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 worship 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 constitution of his complex
official person, his delegated character, his sacerdotal and mediatory
work; this knowledge being common to all true worshippers, and being
illustrated and confirmed to others by local visible appearances of the
Personal Word, by oral instructions from inspired men, and by the
external institutions, rites and forms of the true worship; it is
obvious how, and with what facility, the adverse party, the worshippers
of Baal after the deluge, obtained their antagonist counterfeit notions
of the incarnation of their rival god, 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 god 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
rivalship and homage was exhibited in the face of the universe in the
forms of political tyranny and idolatry. To reässert 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 God-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
multitudes 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, assume 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 God-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 Godhead 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 constitution 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.
In the execution of his undertaking, local and visible manifestations of
his person and of his official prerogatives and acts were indispensable,
in the relations he was to sustain as Lawgiver and Ruler, Prophet and
Priest. His undertaking comprised a succession of acts and dispensations,
and of corresponding changes in the manner of his agency, the nature of
his manifestations, and the immediate objects of his administration. In
these respects the progress of his work is indicated in the revelation he
has made in the Holy Scriptures, in which his person and his acts appear,
from stage to stage, in different aspects. He speaks of himself, and is
spoken of by the inspired writers, sometimes with reference only to his
Divine, and at other times with reference only to his human nature. On
some occasions acts are ascribed to him which are proper to him only as
Divine; and on other occasions such as could be affirmed of him only as
human; as in one case, the act of creation, and in the other, the act of
walking.
It is in this complex person that he is primarily the object of all our
knowledge of the Deity as revealed in the Scriptures. He is the image,
the visible manifestation of the invisible God, whom no man hath seen or
can see. He in this person hath declared, manifested the Father; no less
under the earliest, than under the present dispensation.
Accordingly, though distinguished by Moses in the beginning of his
narrative by designations which specially relate to the Divine nature in
his person, acts are ascribed to him which denote his complex official
person; such as walking in the garden of Eden, and conversing face to
face with Adam. As his official work is in Scripture referred to as one
comprehensive undertaking, though involving a long succession of acts
and events, so his official person is ever referred to as the same,
though in the succession many events preceded that of his taking man's
nature into union with that person. By appointment and covenant,
virtually and officially he was the same from the beginning; and on that
ground, and because his expiatory death in man's nature was essential to
his undertaking as a whole, and its effect as necessary to the earliest
as to any succeeding portion of man's race, he is spoken of as "slain
from the foundation of the world."
Had no apostasy of man taken place, we are warranted in believing that
he would have continued that local, visible presence and intercourse
with Adam and his descendants which characterized the earliest period of
their existence. For as Creator of all things he was the Heir and Lord
of all, and would have been Lawgiver and King of the race, the medium of
their relations to God and of their homage, as he is to be hereafter at
the restitution of all things to their primeval condition, when all the
evil consequences of the fall shall have been superseded, death itself
destroyed, and the earth delivered from the curse and restored to its
original perfection.
But no such course of things could have been possible had the earth, at
the epoch of man's creation, been in its present imperfect condition,
the scene of disease and death. Nor can there, if it was at the outset
so imperfect and so fraught with physical evils, be a restoration of it
hereafter to its pristine state. If it is to be renovated, remodelled,
new-made, it is because it has been degraded from its primeval
condition. If it is to be restored by the instrumentality of fire, that
is to happen as the counterpart of its destruction by water. If its
renovation is to be one of the consequences and concomitants of his
perfect triumph over the evils of the apostasy, its subjection to its
present state is no less certainly a consequence of the apostasy.
In view of this scheme and course of administration, we may perhaps
discern some of the reasons why this earth and the human race were
selected.
We may suppose that of all the orders of intelligent creatures, man,
with his material body, is the least exalted, and for that reason, in
such a course of manifestation to all orders, alliance with his nature
would be selected.
The visibility required in such a scheme would require union with a
visible body.
So far as we have reason to conclude, no other race of intelligent
creatures is multiplied by succession. That peculiarity of the human
race rendered it practicable for the Creator to take the human nature
into union with his person; and it likewise allows of a perpetual
increase of the subjects of his grace and of his kingdom, after the
ruins of the fall shall have been overcome, and the sovereignty of the
rest of the universe, preserved and confirmed in holiness, shall have
been surrendered to the Father.
Probably the preservation of the rest of the universe from defection is
among the results of his expiation of sin, his ascension incarnate to
heaven, his reign there till his second advent, and his victory over
Satan and all opposition. That being accomplished, he resumes and
prosecutes his original purpose as visible Head and King of the human
race.