The great Antagonism--in what manner will it terminate?
The great peculiarity in the history of the human race took its rise in
the apostasy of man, and is exhibited in the antagonism between the
rightful Sovereign of the world and the instigator of that apostasy, and
in the agency, relations and destiny of their respective followers. In
the progress of the conflict between the righteous and the wicked,
holiness and sin, happiness and misery, light and darkness, truth and
falsehood, the desperate malevolence of the Evil One, and the guilt and
ruin of his followers, are made manifest to all observers; and on the
other hand, the infinite riches of the wisdom, goodness, righteousness
and mercy of the great Deliverer towards his followers, in their renewed
allegiance and recovery to holiness and happiness, are equally made
public. In the announcements of his Word, and in the administration of
his moral and providential government over them, the wrath of God is
revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. The angels
who kept not their first estate were reserved to an inevitable doom. The
early descendants of the first human pair wholly corrupted their way and
filled the earth with violence, and "the world that then was, being
overflowed with water, perished." The immediate successors of those who
were preserved in the ark, when, from the works of creation, the
teachings of Noah, and the institutions of revealed religion, they knew
God, glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but became vain in
their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the
incorruptible God--misrepresented his invisible attributes, eternal
power and Godhead, and the glory of his perfections, visibly displayed
in his works of creation and providence--by an image made like to
corruptible men, and to birds, and four-footed beasts and creeping
things; and changed the truth concerning God into a lie, and worshipped
and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for
ever. Therefore, even as they did not like to retain the true God in
their knowledge, he gave them over, in his righteous judgment, to a
reprobate mind, to the indulgence of their evil propensities under the
instigation of their chosen leader, "the Devil, who deceiveth the whole
world;" assuming to be, and usurping the place of, God; leading his
deluded followers "captive at his will," and foreshowing, by their
condition and conduct on earth, their ultimate doom, as the final
destiny of the angels who kept not their first estate is manifested by
their conduct while under sentence of condemnation prior to the final
judgment.
Throughout the history of this antagonism as recorded in the Old
Testament, the great question was, Who is the true God, the Creator,
Ruler, Benefactor, to whom all creatures owe allegiance--Jehovah or
_the_ Baal? This question was specially and publicly tried on various
occasions, as in the plagues of Egypt, in the controversy conducted by
Elijah, in that relating to the image erected by Nebuchadnezzar, and
many others of less notoriety. In several scores of instances it is the
declared purpose of particular dispensations and events that those to
whom they referred might be made to know that He, the true God, in
opposition to _the_ Baal, was Jehovah. And such, at the final
termination of the conflict, will be the resistless and universal
conviction: "every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." Having, in his official
character and complex Person, maintained the conflict throughout all the
periods and in all the forms of its exhibition, vanquished the great
Adversary, redressed the consequences of the fall, and destroyed even
death itself, his triumph is complete and final; vindicating all his
offices and agency, establishing the facts and doctrines, prerogatives
and rights upon which his government is founded, securing for ever the
loyalty and bliss of the unfallen and ransomed portions of his empire,
and filling the universe with the glory of his person and his name, and
with the boundless riches of his wisdom, grace and love. Then will be
displayed the vastness and grandeur of the scheme purposed in Christ
Jesus before the foundation of the world, and involving this conflict
between the Divine Mediator and the Arch-rebel and his party, that
through the redemption, resurrection, and final exaltation and glory of
the Church, the Divine perfections might be made known to the unfallen,
the principalities and powers in heavenly places.
The chief question which remains concerning this antagonism, relates to
the manner of its termination--the means and agencies by which it is to
be ended. That it is to end, there is no doubt. That it is to terminate
in such a manner as to fill the universe with new and previously
inconceivable demonstrations of the majesty, power, and glory of the
Messiah, and his people with unprecedented exultation, joy, and praise,
the Scriptures abundantly testify. But from a period shortly subsequent
to that of his ascension, there has been a difference of opinion in the
Church--more or less conspicuous at all times, but never, perhaps, more
marked than at present--concerning this great question. That difference
of opinion, on the part of the great majority even in the Protestant
churches, is believed to be founded in the Rabbinical and figurative
interpretations of the Old Testament, formerly referred to; and to
include among its principal elements a very defective estimate of those
sacred oracles, and an inadequate and erroneous view of their teachings
concerning the Person, titles, prerogatives, manifestations, works and
purposes of Christ.
On a point of this nature and importance, one might safely infer from
the analogy of the past, whether arguing from the history of the Jewish
or that of the _nominally_ Christian Church, that the party composing
the great majority were not in the right. It is presumed to be quite
safe to say, that at every period of any considerable extent of the
Jewish Church, after its establishment in Canaan, and more especially
after the reign of Solomon, the majority, notwithstanding the writings
of Moses and the instructions of the prophets, were under great delusion
and error respecting the Messiah and his kingdom; and at the Advent,
those who were in the right were few in number compared with the busy
scribes, the ostentatious Pharisees, and those doctors of the law who,
sitting in Moses' seat, taught the traditions and commandments of men.
And of what considerable division of the nominally Christian Church,
from the second century to the Reformation, will any one affirm that a
great majority were not under deep delusion and error in respect to
important points of doctrine and practice? Or of the Romish Church
before or since the Reformation, will any one, not a Papist, say that it
has not held flagrant and astounding errors concerning the offices and
prerogatives of Christ, as Prophet, Priest, and King, the one only
Mediator, Lawgiver, and Head of his people?
Can it be presumptuous, then, to suppose that the great majority in the
Protestant churches are in error in holding that this antagonism is to
terminate without any further visible personal manifestations of
Jehovah, the Messenger incarnate; that the usurping Adversary, whose
domination over the race prior to the deluge was checked by that
catastrophe only till fitting subjects of his delusions reäppeared, and
whose sway over the Pagan, Mohammedan and Roman world has, with
occasional change of forms and names, continued substantially intact, is
to be vanquished and driven from the scene solely by moral and spiritual
influence; that the system of idolatry which has, from the call of
Abraham to the present hour, subjected most of the race to all the evils
and miseries of sin which are possible to human beings in the present
life; which has been the organized medium and embodiment of rebellion
against their rightful Sovereign, of denial of his claims, and of
studied provocation and affront; and which has withstood so many public
and visible shocks and terrors of his wrath and power, is at length to
yield and quietly disappear without any further visible demonstrations
of his supremacy, or public vindications of his righteousness?
Is there any thing more unlikely in the supposition that a misconstruction
of the prophecies relating to the period and objects of the second advent
should prevail and be pertinaciously adhered to by many, than in the
historical fact that the Jews and Jewish doctors misconstrued those
prophecies relating to the period and objects of the first advent, which,
to the faithful in the Gentile Church, have ever appeared unmistakably
plain and definitive?
If such misconstruction and error do not prevail with the generality of
Protestants, it is the first time in the history of the world that the
multitude, in opposition to the few on such a question, have held the
true meaning of the Scriptures. If they do prevail, they will assuredly
be renounced at least by the true worshippers. Their teachers and guides
will cease to be of those who regard the Old Testament as a shadowy
myth, all figurative with reference to the future, all obsolete in
relation to the past--creation resolved into primordial elements and
physical laws, or superseded by the chronology of sediment and fossil
bones--and miracles explained away as inconsistent with rationalism and
with the course of nature. On the other hand, the descendants of Israel
will recognize the Messiah in Jesus of Nazareth; the veil which, on
their reading of Moses, is on their hearts, will be taken away, and the
tabernacle of David, which is fallen down, will be reërected; and Jesus
the Messiah, Adonai, Jehovah the Messenger, will come and reign as
Priest and King upon his throne for ever and ever.
In their defection to idolatry, the Messiah, the Messenger Jehovah, became
an offense to Israel. They ceased to seek salvation, righteousness,
justification by faith in him, and trusted to the works of the law. They
stumbled at him as a stumbling-stone and rock of offense. But have they so
stumbled and fallen as to be utterly cut off? Far be it! Rather, through
their fall salvation came to the Gentiles. And if their Fall was followed
and counteracted by such benefits, what shall their recovery be but life
from the dead? If on their stock, decayed and rejected through unbelief,
the Gentiles as a wild olive were engrafted, God is able to engraft them
again into their own olive tree. If blindness of heart hath befallen
Israel, it is only till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; and then
all Israel will be saved. "As it is written, There shall come out of Zion
the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my
covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the
gospel, they are enemies for the Gentiles' sake; but as touching the
election, they are beloved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and
calling of God are without repentance. For as in times past [before the
Messiah came] the Gentiles believed not, but on his coming obtained mercy
because of the unbelief of Israel; so Israel now continues disobedient to
the mercy shown to the Gentiles, that through their mercy Israel also may
obtain mercy; that God may have mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his
judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of
the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? or who hath first given to him,
and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him,
and to him are all things; to whom be glory for ever. Amen." Romans xi.
Behold then, descendants of Israel, the Lamb of God who taketh away the
sin of the world! Behold in Jesus the Christ, the Messiah whom your
fathers crucified and pierced! Look to the Messenger Jehovah, who, when
the race in their primeval representative fell from the estate wherein
they were created, yielding to the will of the great Adversary,
renouncing their allegiance to God, and becoming heirs of his wrath and
condemnation, took their place as their representative and substitute,
entered the lists as their champion, assumed the responsibility of
encountering, counteracting, and finally subduing, vanquishing, and
triumphing over their destroyer, and by suffering in their stead, of
rescuing, sanctifying, and raising from the dead all who by faith
receive, trust, love, and obey him; the God-man, the only Mediator, to
whom, as Prophet, Priest, and King of Zion, King of Kings and Lord of
Lords, every knee must bow, and every tongue confess that He is
Jehovah.
NOTE A--Relating to the Exposition of the Apocalypse, by D. N. Lord.
Instead of tracing the illustrations thus furnished, or making the
requisite citations, the writer can barely refer to them, and express,
as far as may be fitting, his opinion of that work as an exposition,
upon clear and indubitable principles, of a portion of the sacred
oracles previously sealed and unintelligible, to the opening of which no
clew had been discovered, and towards a reliable or satisfactory
explanation of which, no progress had been made. And he cannot forbear
to speak of it, even at the hazard of being supposed to have a motive
inferior to that of impartial admiration of the work, as opening to the
view a clear vision of the inner sanctuary, and vividly portraying the
scenes, the agencies, and the events of the last great act of the drama
begun in Eden; and as surpassing all other efforts towards an exposition
of any portion of the prophetic oracles, in the scriptural authority of
its principles, the loftiness and grandeur of its conceptions, the
adequacy of its representations of the Person, titles, offices,
prerogatives, agency, purposes, dominion and glory of Jehovah the
Incarnate Word; the luminousness of its descriptions, the relevancy of
its proofs and illustrations, the clearness and brevity of its style,
the absence of every thing not pertinent, and the exhibition of every
thing requisite to an exposition of "The Revelation of Jesus Christ
which God gave unto him to show unto his servants."
Such being the character of the work, it can occasion no surprise to
those who consider the reigning notions and prejudices of the times
concerning the import of some of the symbols, that it should be
neglected by the many. It overturns prevailing theories and fixed
opinions. Had it, with no settled rules of interpretation, followed the
beaten track, in conformity with those theories and opinions; its
accurate scholarship, its thorough acquaintance with preceding authors,
with the records, institutions, import, and bearings of the earlier
dispensations, with ancient and modern history, with the Greek and Latin
Fathers, and with collateral branches of literature and sources of
illustration, would have insured it the ready suffrage of the learned
and the public.
But it is from beginning to end an innovation. Instead of being an echo
of prior expositions, it is wholly original. Instead of being a version
of the conjectures and fancies of others, without settled and uniform
principles of exposition, it differs from them very much as astronomy
differs from astrology. It is based upon axioms and rules which are well
defined, and of certain and universal application to the subjects to
which they relate. It lays down what no prior exposition ever attempted,
"The Laws of Symbolic Representation;" and by a rigid and consistent
adherence to those laws, as by a process of inductive demonstration,
brings out intelligibly to the reader the meaning of the successive
symbols: in each instance illustrating and confirming the exposition by
references to history, and contrasting it with the views advanced by
preceding writers. These laws of symbolic representation are neither
less evidently founded in the nature of that mode of revelation, nor
less essential as a clew to its meaning, than are the common rules of
grammar in relation to ordinary literal language; and they are
accordingly sanctioned, and their reality and truthfulness are
demonstrated by numerous references to inspired expositions of
prophetic symbols.
A revelation by symbol is not a statement or description in words of what
is foreshown, but a representative exhibition in a visible form; as for
example of a living agent, with certain known natural characteristics, and
certain official insignia or other accompaniments, between which agent, so
depicted in its appropriate attitude and sphere of action, and the agent
or class of agents of a different nature and sphere of action which is
represented and foreshown, there are such resemblances and analogies as to
render the first an expressive and fitting representative of the other.
Thus the beast described Rev. xiii. as emerging from the sea, having seven
heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the
names of blasphemy; his body being like a leopard, his feet like those of
a bear, and his mouth as that of a lion; is described chap. xvii. as
representing by its seven heads, seven kings, dynasties, or forms of
executive power in the Roman Empire prior to its division; and by its ten
horns ten kings which as yet had received no kingdom; the ten kings,
namely, between whom the western empire was to be divided, and who, with
the relentless ferocity of lions, bears and leopards, were by persecution
and otherwise to make war with the Lamb. So in the vision of Daniel, chap.
viii., the ram with two horns is declared to represent the Kings of Media
and Persia; and the goat with one horn, the King of Grecia.
These examples illustrate the laws of symbolic representation with
reference to one class of symbols; and with respect to those symbols of
which there is no inspired explanation, the expositor, under the control
and guidance of those laws, is liable to no mistake, unless it be in
his inadequate discernment of analogies and erroneous selection of
agents, events, or other phenomena, instead of those intended to be
foreshown, and in which congruity with the characteristics and adjuncts
of the symbol, harmony with other Scriptures and predictions, and
correspondence with historical events and testimonies are confidently to
be expected.
If the reader can imagine any thing of the awe and wonder which
overwhelmed the apostle in his visions, when, in his station on the
apocalyptic earth or in the heavenly sanctuary, he beheld the glorified
Person of his Lord in the effulgence of his Deity, seated on a throne,
from which, as at Sinai, proceeded lightnings and thunderings and
voices, and around which were exhibited the representative and
triumphant witnesses and trophies of his redemptive work; and beheld
that Person symbolizing himself in his aspect and relations as
incarnate, "a Lamb, standing as slain;" and saw, as on the revolving
canvas of a panorama, when the seals were opened, the symbolic forms
emerging into view one after another, each by its representative
character revealing, as in cipher, the agents and events of its future
appropriate and peculiar department; and witnessed the phenomena of
revolutions, tempests, earthquakes, darkness, fire and blood, foreshown
under the sounding of the trumpets; and successively the slaughter and
resurrection of the witnesses, the war of Michael and the Dragon, the
emergence of the ten-horned wild beast, the rise and career of the
two-horned wild beast and false prophet, the harvest and vintage of the
earth, the pouring out upon the earth of the plagues of the seven vials
of the wrath of God, the fall and destruction of great Babylon, and the
ensuing scenes of wonder and glory, retribution and judgment,
thanksgiving and triumph, he may in some degree conceive the effect of
converting the enigmatical portraitures of this panorama into
intelligible literal language, assigning each to its relative and
historical position, and reflecting on the version the light of earlier
revelations, that of ecclesiastical and secular history, and in a large
degree, in respect to the past, that of unmistakable events.
It is in respect to the result, as compared with that of preceding
efforts, like Daniel's interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream,
compared with the fruitless endeavors of the magicians, astrologers, and
Chaldeans of Babylon; or like the finally successful effort to read the
hieroglyphics of Egypt, compared with the fruitless attempts,
bewildering theories, and abortive labors of preceding ages.
Had this work been published at some transition-period, when the human
mind was freeing itself from erroneous and long-cherished opinions; at
the revival of learning in Europe, when there were Luthers and Calvins
to welcome it; or in England, when there were Latimers and Ridleys,
Boyles and Newtons, or Owens and Howes; or in this country at the period
of Edwards, it would have superseded and prevented the expositions to
which it is opposed, or else it would have been answered in the same way
as were the doctrines of Galileo. Such men under their circumstances
would not have been content to say, as many at present seem to be:
"Though we consider the Apocalypse a part of the inspired Word of God,
and though it evidently relates to the future of the Church, the conduct
of the redeemed and the destruction of their enemies, and above all to
the crowning, ultimate and eternal manifestation of the Person,
prerogatives, supremacy, prophetical and sacerdotal works, and regal
majesty, glory, triumph and reign of Jesus Christ; yet we neither
understand it, nor believe it will be understood in advance of its
issues; and therefore are not disposed to examine anything new upon the
subject."
But the transition now going on is not against, but in favor of ancient
and erroneous opinions. It is retrograde towards Pelagianism, Pantheism,
Neology, Romanism, and among the best, to the omnivorous infection of
infidel Germanism. The partisans of these errors desire no lights but
such as are reflected from the satellites of their respective systems.
In those exclusive and dubious lights, each is secure alike against the
arguments and examples of every other. They can controvert the doctrines
of Scripture and those of each other upon all disputed points, without
the slightest danger of extorting concessions or producing conviction;
for no two of them see the same thing by the same light. All hope and
expectation of defeating or silencing any party by the arguments or
Scripture citations or interpretations of another, or of dislodging
cherished and fixed opinions by any means short of a universal deluge,
or an annihilation like that of the Egyptians by the Red Sea, or that of
Sodom and Gomorrha by fire, is given up. And so long as they nominally
agree in respect to certain future issues, towards which they think the
onward course of things in the physical, intellectual, scientific,
mechanical, social and religious world is wafting them, their theories
and their relative positions will allow them fearlessly to float down
with the current, without having in advance even the light of a moon.
There is a Millennium in prospect; a vast, undefinable Mediterranean of
something better than the present, into which all the turbid streams of
humanity are tending, and towards which the preaching of the gospel to
all nations is but a tributary.
The aspect of things, accordingly, is much like that in the days of
Noah, while the ark was preparing; as if Satan were already bound, and
no deluge of wrath or terrors of retribution were impending; and as if
with science and art, ancient relics and now inventions, gold mines and
traffic, steam and electricity, as pioneers, the Ethiopian were about to
change his skin, and the leopard his spots, the wolf to lie down with
the lamb, and the lion to eat straw like the ox. The more startling the
events of Providence, the shattering of political fabrics, the excision
and restoration of dynasties, the revival of Popish arrogations and
intolerance, the pitched battle of despotism against liberty, the more
sure they are to be construed as immediate signals of the universal
prevalence and triumph of human hopes. The purple and scarlet robes of
the Babylonish Sorceress are seemingly changed to vestal whiteness, as
gazed at through the spectrum of discolored glass, or seen in the
sepulchral, bewildering, superstitious twilight of Baalistic tapers;
while the murmurings of unearthly music, the chantings and mutterings of
unintelligible words, and the spell of imputed and pretended mysteries,
subdue the victim to whatever the spiritual operator may prescribe or
denounce. The nations in the four quarters of the globe seem to many to
be about to renounce their idolatries, and to be released without a
struggle on the part of Satan, who has held them in bondage hitherto,
and to be arranging to assume white robes and take their stations on the
glass-like expanse before the throne. The partisans of such views
neither realize nor believe that there is any thing to the contrary
revealed in Scripture; or if there is, it is so concealed in symbol and
figure as to preclude its being understood till all is over. And
accordingly, like the Pharisees of old, who scrupulously paid tithes of
mint and all manner of herbs, and omitted the weightier matters of
practical righteousness, faith, and the love of God, they resolve
religion into outward action, the love of God into eclectic sympathy
with his creatures, and faith into their theory of particular duties.
Formerly, in religious controversy, there was something positive on one
side, against which an opposing negative was asserted. In the great
controversy recorded in the Bible, the supremacy of Jehovah and the
authority of his Word were explicitly and constantly affirmed by one
party, and as directly and perseveringly denied by the other; and the two
parties were therefore broadly and unmistakably distinguished. But at
present the case is widely different. No active partisan, theological or
scientific, now denies the existence of a Supreme Being, or professes to
disbelieve the Scriptures. All claim to be believers in God and in the
Bible. What they differ about is as to what kind of Being that is whom
they call God; whether personality is one of his attributes, and what
works and purposes are to be ascribed to him: and as to what the
Scriptures teach, how they are to be understood; whether they are inspired
or not; whether they are all typical, or what portion or whether the whole
of them is in some way figurative; whether miracles were ever wrought;
whether the Mosaic account of the creation is to be understood literally,
and the like. And if there is at this moment, in the compass of the world,
or in the Protestant portion of it, one comprehensive error, conspicuous
above all others, it is that of inadequate, partial, defective
apprehensions, recognitions, and acknowledgments of what the Scriptures
reveal concerning the Person, prerogatives, offices, works, dominion,
triumph and glory of the Messiah, and concerning his yet unended conflict
with the Arch-apostate.
NOTE B--The primary ground of Mediation, &c.
The primary ground or reason of that mediation, in the economy of the
universe, which is affirmed of the one Mediator in all the relations of
God to the World, is the infinite difference between the Deity and
creatures in nature, attributes, and mode of existence and action. The
relations implied in the existence and agency of creatures are such as
cannot be conceived to subsist between beings so diverse in all respects
as the infinite and finite, except through an intermediate agent, in the
constitution of whose person and office the opposite extremes are
united. For in creating, upholding, and governing finite beings, the
agency of the Creator and Ruler connects itself with the conditions and
relations of time and space; the conditions and relations of matter; of
succession of thought, feeling, and action; of that which is external,
visible, limited; that which begins and ends.
It may therefore be said, that in the nature of things such mediation,
the interposition of such an official Person, is necessary; and
accordingly the agency of the Mediator in those relations is
presupposed, assumed, or expressly recognized, throughout the
Scriptures.
In this system, the moral government which is administered by the
Mediator is founded on the perfections, prerogatives and rights of the
Deity as manifested by him in the works of creation, providence and
grace, and applies to creatures in the relations which they sustain to
him.
The whole is therefore a system of manifestation; on his part of the
perfections and rights of the Deity, and on theirs of holiness and
happiness, or of sin and misery, in the relations in which they exist.
In the progress of this system, all intelligent creatures will be
instructed in all that is knowable by them concerning the Deity, and all
that respects themselves, and the nature, tendency, and consequences of
holiness on the one hand, and of apostasy and wickedness on the other.
The Deity thus made known will, by the holy, the unfallen and redeemed,
be eternally reverenced, supremely loved, and exclusively worshipped and
obeyed; his rights and prerogatives will be acknowledged, and his
perfections and the boundless emanations of his goodness be regarded
with ceaseless, adoring, grateful rapture and delight.
In the administration of his moral government over apostate creatures,
and in their future punishment, the Mediator's sceptre is a sceptre of
perfect righteousness.
The course of things eventually to be realized on earth will be such as
would have taken place from the beginning, had no apostasy occurred. The
apostasy and the curse on man and the earth will be overcome. The
antagonism between the Mediator and the Adversary will cease. The earth,
freed from the curse and from all enemies, renovated, restored to its
original beauty, will be the perpetual scene of holiness and happiness.
Under the past and present dispensations, the object has been to do away
the consequences of the fall of the first Adam as head of the race. When
the second Adam, ("the Lord from heaven,") as head of his elect people,
shall have accomplished this at his second advent, and destroyed all
enemies, he will be thenceforth _the head of the race_ for ever.
The apostasy was a violation of preëxisting relations between the
Creator and creatures. The victory gained by Satan over the first Adam
as head of his race made him as much master of that Adam and his
descendants as he was of the angels who joined him in apostasy. By that
victory he had the power of death. Doubtless it was his object to
destroy, as to the purposes and mode of existence for which they were
created, the race with which, by the constitution of his official
Person, the Mediator was connected; and thereby to defeat him.
The victory of the second Adam over Satan, utterly despoils him of all
he had taken from the first Adam, destroys all his works, and ends in
the destruction of himself and all enemies. As yet the results are but
partially manifested. His victory as man--the victory of that nature in
his official Person which had been overthrown in Adam--was achieved by
his triumph over the direct personal temptation in the wilderness, and
by his death, resurrection and ascension. The consummation of his
triumph by the final overthrow and banishment of all enemies, in which
his Divine attributes and prerogatives will be displayed, is yet future.
The administration of the Mediator in the government of this world,
proceeds upon a definite and intelligible plan. It is one scheme, with
which all agencies and events are connected, and of which the
consummation is distinctly foretold. The Mediator is, from the beginning
to the end, the Divine Actor and Revealer, the Alpha and Omega, first
and last.
From the date of the apostasy this government relates to mankind as
separated into two classes or parties, the loyal and the rebellious. The
result of the first prolonged trial was the destruction of the whole
race as rebellious and incorrigible, Noah and his family excepted.
On the apostasy of the renewed race, shortly after the deluge, to the
impious rival system of idolatry, Abraham was called to be the head of a
separated race, who, by a system of external and visible rites,
institutions, teachings, services, benefits and discipline, were to be
visibly--and as peculiarly dealt with, in contrast with the rest of the
world--the loyal party. As such, the Mediator was personally to dwell
with them and to exercise his offices, and rule them as Priest and King.
He accordingly, having brought the children of Israel into the
wilderness of Sinai, entered, prior to the giving of the Law, into a
formal covenant with them, as recorded in Exodus xix: "Jehovah called
unto Moses out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house
of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto
the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto
myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my
covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people,
(for all the earth is mine;) and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of
priests, and a holy nation." Moses rehearsed these terms to the people:
"And all the people answered together, and said, All that Jehovah hath
spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto
Jehovah."
During the trial under this covenant, the other nations were governed
and dealt with as in a state of total and avowed rebellion, under
condemnation, and obnoxious to the demands of justice. Pursuant to this
system, the nations of Canaan were first destroyed. After Egypt, Assyria
was for a long time the head of the rebellious party; then Babylon, and
subsequently the four empires predicted in Daniel.
All the nations and governments of that party were idolatrous. This was
the leading feature in their character as apostates and rebels. And to
this, by their relations to them, the Israelites.
The Messenger Jehovah, having executed judgment upon Egypt, and brought
the children of Israel into the wilderness of Sinai, appeared on the top
of the mount in the brightness of lightnings, and with the voice of a
trumpet which shook the mountain. The people, who, after witnessing the
wonders of Egypt and of the Red Sea, had exhibited a murmuring and
rebellious spirit, were impressed and awed by this manifestation, while
the Law of the Ten Commandments was announced. "They removed and stood
afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will
hear, but let not Elohim speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto
the people, Fear not; for _the_ Elohim is come _to prove you, and that
his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not_. And the people
stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where _the_
Elohim was. And Jehovah said unto Moses, Thus thou shalt say unto the
children of Israel, Ye have seen that I have talked with you from
heaven. Ye shall not make with me Elohe of silver, neither shall ye make
unto you Elohe of gold. An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and
shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings ...
in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will
bless thee." Exod. xx.
Thus, at the outset of this trial, under the most appalling tokens of
his presence, Jehovah reiterates the prohibition expressed in the first
two commandments against idolatry. Among the judicial laws prescribed at
the same time with the moral, there is one making idolatry a civil
offense, to be punished with death. "He that sacrificeth unto any
Elohim, save unto Jehovah only, he shall be utterly destroyed." Exodus
xxii. 20. Again (xxiii. 13) they are enjoined to "make no mention of the
name of any other Elohim;" and subsequently in the same chapter they are
commanded not to bow down to the Elohim of the nations of Canaan, but to
overthrow them and break down their images.
Moses having written out the moral and judicial laws thus far
prescribed, the people consented to them and promised obedience; and
having built an altar, and "twelve pillars, according to the twelve
tribes of Israel," he offered sacrifices, read the book of the covenant,
and ratified it by sprinkling blood on the people. Exod. xxiv.
After this proceeding, Moses with the elders ascended the mount, where,
after an extraordinary personal manifestation of Jehovah, the Elohe of
Israel, the ceremonial law was prescribed. Nearly forty days having
elapsed, the people, impatient at Moses' absence, instigated Aaron to
make them a molten image--a golden calf. This being done under pretense
that the image represented Jehovah, "they said, This is thy Elohe, O
Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." Aaron built an
altar before it, and appointed "a feast to Jehovah; and upon the altar
they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings." Exod. xxxii.
For this audacious treason and unbelief, about three thousand men were
slain: soon after which, Jehovah made a covenant with the people,
promising to drive out the Canaanites before them, and renewedly
enjoining them to break their images and destroy their altars and
groves. Chap. xxxiv.
The tabernacle having been erected and offerings made according to the
ritual, "There came a fire out from before Jehovah, and consumed upon
the altar the burnt offering, ... which when all the people saw, they
shouted and fell on their faces." Leviticus ix. On this occasion two of
the priests, Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron, in the spirit of the
Egyptian idolatry, burnt incense with strange fire, _i. e._, such as
idolaters used: "And there went out fire from Jehovah and devoured them,
and they died before Jehovah." Levit. x.
The constant recurrence of reproof, instruction and prediction, in the
historical and Prophetic writings of the Old Testament, proceeds from
the nature of that dispensation, the conduct of the people under it, and
the manner of its final consummation.
The dispensation was one of outward and visible manifestation,
discipline, trial, prefiguration and hope; disobedience under it was
acted out visibly in idolatry and all practical abominations. Reproofs
were uttered according to actual circumstances, having respect to
present actual wickedness.
A leading feature of that dispensation was that of the personal, local,
visible appearances and interpositions of the Mediator. The tendencies
and results of the dispensation were thwarted and delayed by the
idolatry and wickedness of the people. The predictions, founded in the
nature and design of that visible economy, looked forward to the
circumstances, agencies and results which were to fulfil, complete and
vindicate the nature and original design of the economy.
Hence the humiliation and vicarious sufferings of the Mediator, and the
glory of his ultimate manifestations, judgments and triumph, are the
prominent topics of prophetic announcement; and the latter chiefly, as
more in keeping with the analogy of the past, and as being ultimate and
perfect. By the things thus predicted, the thwarted and delayed purposes
and tendencies of the dispensation were to be adequately provided for,
and rendered effective by the foreseen intervention of the agency and
power of the Mediator in his incarnate state. The prophets accordingly
pass from the circumstances which gave rise to their predictions to the
circumstances and events of their fulfilment by the Mediator in his
future visible manifestations.
It was, for example, provided in the Mosaic economy that the loyalty and
obedience of the Israelites should have a trial under the government of
the Mediator as King; as Priest and King on his throne in the
tabernacle. Being thus perfectly protected and provided for, they had
every facility and every inducement to be loyal and obedient. But they
rebelled and rejected him as King.
At length they desired and solicited a human chieftain as king, after
the manner of the surrounding nations. This was granted, and a trial
made under vicegerents in the persons of David and Solomon, sitting on
the throne of Jehovah, as rulers in his place, and as types of his
kingly office, when he shall at the latter day visibly resume it.
The rejection of the Mediator as King, and the consequent interruption
and final discontinuance of the theocratic administration, gave occasion
to the mission of the prophets; the earliest of whom, Hosea, prophesied
in the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, about 800 years
before Christ, and the latest, Malachi, about 440 B. C. Hosea flourished
about 180 years after the death of Solomon. The apostasy of all the
tribes to idol worship was then nearly total. The restoration from the
Babylonish exile having resulted in no reformation, both Jews and
Samaritans, at the close of Malachi's mission, were, like the heathen
nations, left to themselves.
The prophets and true worshippers all regarded the separation of the ten
tribes as an apostasy from the theocratic government, the seat of which
was in the temple, and the representative vicegerent on the throne was
to be in the line of David.
Elijah's taking twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of
Israel, when he repaired the altar of Jehovah and offered acceptable
sacrifices, showed that he considered the defection of the ten tribes as
a rejection of Jehovah as Mediator. 1 Kings xviii. 31. True worship was
to be offered, in conformity with the system connected with the temple.
The reformation under Hezekiah and that under Josiah also virtually
included, in respect to religion, a reunion of all the tribes. There
could be no return to Jehovah, but by returning to the temple worship,
where He as Mediator presided. The separation of the ten tribes was
equally a religious and a civil apostasy; for Jehovah, as Priest and
King on his throne, was at once the head of the religious and civil
system. Hence the political revolt and the institution of a rival and
hostile civil government, was necessarily connected with the institution
of a rival and hostile religious system. A political revolt necessarily
involved a religious one; and to maintain their political power in
opposition to that of the line of David, Jeroboam and his successors
found it necessary to render the separation in respect to religion as
wide as possible.
The prophets accordingly, while they speak of the chiefs of the revolted
tribes as kings, in conformity with popular usage, never recognize them
as such of right.
To effect an entire religious apostasy as a means of sustaining the
political revolt, (1 Kings xii.) Jeroboam instituted the golden calves,
under pretense of their being symbols, representative of the Jehovah,
and in place of the Shekina. The Levites appear to have refused to
concur in the imposture thus attempted, and being exiled as likely to
hinder its success. Priests to officiate in this apostate worship were
selected from the lowest of the people. So offensive and intolerable
indeed to the true worshippers was this apostasy, "that the priests, and
the Levites that were in all Israel ... came to Judah and Jerusalem....
And after them out of all the tribes of Israel such as set their hearts
to seek Jehovah, the Elohe of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to
Jehovah, the Elohe of their fathers." 2 Chron. xi. 13-16. Jeroboam,
having cast off the Levites, "ordained him priests for the high places,
and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made." Ibid.
The government of the ten tribes being founded in a total apostasy, and
including a rival and hostile system of religion, is treated accordingly
by the prophets as a rebellion. As a rebellion, it could not dissolve
the relation previously established, by solemn covenants, between
Jehovah, as Priest and King on his throne in the tabernacle, and the
people of Israel. That relation could be dissolved or discontinued on
his part, only by such events as afterwards took place in their
rejection and exile. In the meantime, prophets were sent to them, and
various dispensations of judgment and mercy were employed to reclaim
them from their idolatry and wickedness.
Such is the point of view in which the Israelites and their kings are to
be regarded in considering the language and predictions of the prophets.
Viewed in this light, the statements respecting their apostate
condition, the aggravations of their wickedness, the judgments inflicted
on them, their dispersion, and the predictions concerning their future
restoration under one head, are for the most part rendered plain; while
the fact that they revolted from the Theocracy, the system of local,
personal, visible manifestation of the Mediator as Priest and King, is
the manifest ground of the predictions that, in due time, what had been
thwarted and delayed by their wickedness will be resumed and carried
into effect by a regathering of them under the Mediator as King, in his
incarnate state and visible reign.
Epoch.
Transcriber's Notes:
All obvious punctuation errors have been corrected.
Pg 19, the reference 'Isaiah l. 3, 5' has been changed to 'Isaiah xl.
3, 5'
Pg 26, 'burnt-offering' was changed to 'burnt offering.'
Pg 42, 'covenent' was changed to 'covenant.'
Pg 56, 'Padanaram' was changed to 'Padan-aram.'
Pg 67, 'Pharoah' was changed to 'Pharaoh.'
Pg 87, 'ill desert' was changed to 'ill-desert.'
Pg 97, 'El Shadai' was changed to 'El-Shadai.'
Pg 119, 'meditorial' was changed to 'mediatorial.'
Pg 121, 'no' was changed to 'not.'
Pg 132, missing quotation mark was placed before the word 'Adonai.'
Pg 132, missing quotation mark was placed at the end of this sentence:
"And Moses spake _before_ Jehovah...."
Pg 144, 'preceeding' was changed to 'preceding.'
Pg 166, removed final closing single quote.
Pg 172, 'coeval' was changed to 'coëval.'
pg 190, 'difficult' was changed to 'difficulty.'
Pg 244, 'coeval' was changed to 'coëval.'
Pg 267, 'up on' was changed to 'upon.'
Pg 297, missing opening quotation mark was added before, "These are the
generations..."
Pg 320, 'exscision' was changed to 'excision.'
Pg 327, 'Israelities' was changed to 'Israelites.'
The variant spellings, 'El-Shadai' and 'El-Shaddai,' have been retained.
All instances of 'i. e.' have been italicised to conform to the majority
of instances.
The original book omitted a paragraph on page 21 and was added back to
the book as an appendix. This paragraph has been added back to the text
in the place that it was originally intended to be placed. The paragraph
starts as follows, '"Sometimes the same Divine appearance which at one
time is called Melach Jehovah...."' This change has also been reflected
in the table of contents.
The titles of the end notes have been changed to match the table of
contents and because the original titles referenced page numbers from
the book that did not appear to be accurate.
The oe ligature has been rendered as [oe].