no means acquits the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation,"-" and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments." "O Lord God of Israel, who dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone; thou hast made heaven and earth. Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our Aleim is one Jehovah+-the Lord our God is one Lord." "Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, which wast, and art, aud art to come. "Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou king of saints." "Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name, for thou alone art holy?" "He is the Rock: his work is perfect, for all his ways are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity: just and right is he." “ Glorious in holiness, fearful in praise, doing wonders." II. Such are a few-a specimen of the Divine declarations concerning himself, repeated and re-echoed by the purest and most intellectual beings in heaven and earth. It is from his word and his works we learn the being and perfections of God. As we form a character of man from what he says and what he does, so learn we the Divine character. The heavens declare his glory, and the firmament showeth forth his handy work: day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge." Creation reveals the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of God. Providence proclaims also his justice, truth, and holiness. Redemption developes his mercy, condescension, and love; and all these are again characterized by infinity, eternity, immutability. Nature, then, attests and displays the knowledge, wisdom, power, and goodness of God. The law and the providence of God especially declare his justice, truth, and holiness; while the gospel unfolds his mercy, condescension, and love: and all these proclaim that God is infinite, eternal, and immutable. God appears before the universe of intellectuals in the threefold attitude of Creator, Lawgiver, and Redeemer; and although each of these involves and reveals many of his excellencies, still in each department three are most conspicuous. As Creator-wisdom, power, and goodness; as Lawgiver-justice, truth, and holiness; as Redeemer So reads the Hebrew. Deut. v. 4. mercy, condescension, and love. In each and all of which departments he is infinite, immutable, and eternal. III. But the scriptures speak of his divinity, or godhead, as well as of the unity, spirituality, and eternity of his being. We have not, indeed, much said upon this incomprehensible theme; for who by searching can find out God, or know the Almighty to perfection? The knowledge of him is high as heaven: What canst thou do? Deeper than hell: What canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea." These are the IV. Paul and Peter indeed speak of the divine nature in the abstract, or of the divinity or godhead. most abstract terms found in the Bible. divinity are, however, equally abstract, and almost equally rare in holy writ. Still they are necessarily found in the divine volume; because we must abstract nature from person before we can understand the remedial system. For the divine nature may be communicated or imparted in some sense; and, indeed, while it is essentially and necessarily singular, it is certainly plural in its personal manifestations. Hence we have the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit equally divine, though personally distinct from each other. We have, in fact, but one God, one Lord, one Holy Spirit; yet these are equally possessed of one and the same divine nature ? V. Some conceive of God as a mathematical unit; and as a thing, cannot be both mathematically singular and plural— one and three, at the same time and in the same sense, they deny the true and proper divinity of the Son of God and of the Spirit of God. But it would seem to us that they reason not in harmony with the sacred style of inspiration. But why should we imagine that there cannot be a plurality of personal manifestations in the divine nature any more than in the angelic or human, especially as man was created in the image of God? VI. The relations in human plurality are indeed limited to three; for while all the human nature was at one time originally and wholly in the person of Adam, it was afterwards found equally in the person of Eve; and again in the person of their first born. Now as to its derivation and mode of existence, it was diverse in the three. In Adam it was underived as respected human nature, in Eve it was derived B 5 from Adam, and in Cain it was again derived from Adam and Eve. Here the matter ends; for while Eve proceeded from Adam in one mode, and Cain proceeded from Adam and Eve in another, all the residue of human nature is participated without any new relation or mode of impartation. While, then, our nature is plural as to its participation, it is limited to three relations or modes of existence. Now as man was made in the image of God, we must conceive of him as having plurality, relation, and society in himself— though far be it from us to suppose that the divine nature either is or can be fairly or fully exhibited by any resemblance or illustration drawn from angel or from man, or from any created thing. Still there is a resemblance between God and the sun that shines upon us; between God and an angel; between God and man; and even in the mode of his existence, and in the varieties of relation and personal manifestation, there is so much resemblance as to peremptorily forbid all dogmatism as to what is, or is not, compatible with the unity, spirituality, and immutability of God. But of this more fully and intelligibly when we shall have examined the record concerning the WORD and the SPIRIT of God. CHAPTER IV. THE SON OF GOD. I. "THE holy progeny (or thing) which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." "Unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." "This is my Son, the Beloved; hear him." "No person has ascended into heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, who is in heaven," or whose abode is in heaven. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." "No man has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared him." "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel." Glorify thou me with thine ownself, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.' "In him dwells all the fulness of the godhead bodily," or substantially. "He is the first and the last." "All things were created by him and for him." "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made." "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; and we beheld his glory, the glory as of an only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." . II. So speak the Divine Oracles of the supreme Deity and excellency of the author and perfecter of the Christian system. By him and for him" all things were created and made; and "he is before all things, and by him all things consist." But "he became flesh." Who? He that existed before the universe, whose mysterious, sublime, and glorious designation was the WORD of God. Before the Christian system, before the relation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit began to be, his rank in the divine nature was that of the WORD OF GOD. Wonderful name! Intimate and dear relation! The relation between a word and the idea which it represents is the nearest of all relations in the universe: for the idea is in the word, and the word is in the idea. The idea is invisible, inaudible, unintelligible, but in and by the word. An idea cannot be without an image or a word to represent it; and therefore God was never without his word, nor was his word without him. "The Word was with God, and the Word was God;" for a word is the idea expressed: and thus the "Word that was made flesh" became "the brightness of his glory," and "the express image of his person"-insomuch that "he who has seen the Son has seen the Father also." The apostle here uses the word Theotees, Cor. ii. 9, which is but once found in the New Testament. We have, indeed, Theiotees, Rom. i. 20, from the same apostle, also found but once, translated godhead. We have also Theias, Theion, three times; once Acts xvi. 29, translated divinity; and by Peter, 2 Eph. i. 3, 4, twice; once in connexion with power, and once with nature-"His divine power;' "divine nature." "The fulness of the Deity," or godhead, indicates all divine excellency-all the perfections of God. "The fulness" of that divine nature is here contrasted with an empty and deceitful philosophy, (verse 8) and the term bodily superadded, shows that God is in Christ, not as he was in the tabernacle or temple, typically, but substantially, literally, and truly. from Adam, and in Cain it was again derived from Adam and Eve. Here the matter ends; for while Eve proceeded from Adam in one mode, and Cain proceeded from Adam and Eve in another, all the residue of human nature is participated without any new relation or mode of impartation. While, then, our nature is plural as to its participation, it is limited to three relations or modes of existence. Now as man was made in the image of God, we must conceive of him as having plurality, relation, and society in himself— though far be it from us to suppose that the divine nature either is or can be fairly or fully exhibited by any resemblance or illustration drawn from angel or from man, or from any created thing. Still there is a resemblance between God and the sun that shines upon us; between God and an angel; between God and man; and even in the mode of his existence, and in the varieties of relation and personal manifestation, there is so much resemblance as to peremptorily forbid all dogmatism as to what is, or is not, compatible with the unity, spirituality, and immutability of God. But of this more fully and intelligibly when we shall have examined the record concerning the WORD and the SPIRIT of God. CHAPTER IV. THE SON OF GOD. I. "THE holy progeny (or thing) which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." "Unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." "This is my Son, the Beloved; hear him." "No person has ascended into heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man, who is in heaven," or whose abode is in heaven. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." "No man has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared him." 'Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel." Glorify thou me with thine ownself, with the glory which I had with 66 |