which expressly declare that Jesus is the Creator, viz: ́ John i., 1-18; Colos. i., 15-18; Heb. i. His expositions of these, and references to other passages, leave no room to doubt but that the apparent is the real meaning of these portions of Scripture. In the conclusion, he observes: "When you take the language of the Old Testament, which makes creation the work of the true God, and the language of the New Testament, where creation is ascribed to Jesus, you discover the traces of a system which reconciles the apparent discordance. Jesus Christ is essentially God, always with the Father, united with him in nature, in perfections, in counsel and in operations. Whatsoever things the Father doth, these also doth the Son likewise.' The Father acts by the Son, and the Son, in creating the world, displayed that power and Godhead which from eternity resided in him. This system is delivered in the earliest Christian writers," etc.p. 280.

36. In the succeeding chapter, the fifth, he in like manner shows that the same Divine Person is the preserver of all things; and that to Him the Scriptures ascribe the entire works of Providence. Upon the intimations of Scripture to this effect "is founded," he observes, "an opinion which, since the days of the Apostles, has been held by almost every Christian writer who admits the pre-existence of Jesus, that he who in the fulness of time was made flesh, appeared to the patriarchs, gave the law from Mount Sinai, spake by the prophets, and maintained the whole of that intercourse with mankind, which is recorded in the Old

Testament as preparatory to the coming of the Messiah."

37. He accordingly proceeds to exhibit the evidence of Scripture in support of this opinion, and particularly to show that all the appearances recorded in the Old Testament of one called Angel, and God, were personal appearances of Christ, the creator and governor of all creatures. At the close of this discussion he observes, "All these particulars laid together constitute an evidence which appears to be satisfactory, that Jesus Christ is the person who appeared to the patriarchs, and gave the law from Mount Sinai; who was worshipped in the Temple of Jerusalem, and who was announced by the prophets as the author of a new dispensation."-p. 299.

38. "The general principles," he observes again, "of the opinion-that He who in the fullness of time was made flesh, appeared to the patriarchs, &c., are these: God the Father is represented in Scripture as 'invisible, whom no man hath seen at any time.' But it is often said in the Old Testament, that the patriarchs, the prophets, and the people, saw God; and there is an ease, a familiarity of intercourse in many of the scenes which are recorded, inconsistent with the awful majesty of Him who covereth himself with thick clouds. The God of Israel, whom the people saw, is often called an angel, i. e., a person sent; therefore he cannot be God the Father, for it is impossible that the Father should be sent by any one. But he is also called Jehovah. The highest titles, the most exalted actions, and the most entire reverence, are

Therefore he cannot be a being And the only method in which

appropriated to him. of an inferior order.

we can reconcile the seeming discordance is, by supposing that he is the Son of God-who being at a particular time made flesh,' and so manifested in the human nature, may be conceived without irreverence, to have manifested himself at former times in different ways."-pp. 282, 283.

CHAPTER II.

THE MEDIATORIAL WORK CHARACTERIZED BY OUTWARD AND VISIBLE MANIFESTATIONS.

1. This work contemplated as embracing the creation, preservation and government of all creatures, and as having for its object the manifestation of the Divine counsels and perfections, is in its nature external and visible; and our knowledge of it results from those operations of the Mediator which are objective to our apprehensions: we behold the visible works of his hand in the material creation, we hear his voice in his word, and witness the results of his agency in preserving and governing the dependent universe.

2. His adoption of this method warrants the assumption that created minds, whether angels or men, were, in the nature of the case, not more incapable of omniscience, than of acquiring a knowledge of the Divine perfections, except as they were manifested by acts and results, operations and effects, so brought within their observation as to be properly characterized as visible, or cognizable to their external perceptions, or their consciousness.

3. The fact that innumerable material worlds have been created, is evidence enough that outward, visible, tangible or otherwise perceptible subsistences distinct

and diverse in nature from mind, were necessary as a medium of Divine manifestations to rational creatures; that the existence and conditions of matter were necessary on account of the mode in which, from their nature and their limited faculties, rational creatures could alone receive or attain any knowledge of the Divine perfections.

4. Accordingly the Apostle argues, that as no man knows the thoughts, feelings, desires or purposes, of another's mind, except so far as he makes them known by words or acts within the observation or perception of others: so the things of God, his perfections and purposes, cannot be known unless manifested by audible revelation, or in other ways suited to man's capacities and modes of apprehension.

5. Hence, if intelligent creatures were to be brought into existence, and if it was to be the chief end of their existence that they should glorify and enjoy God, and if from their nature as created, finite and dependent beings, they could not intuitively or by virtue of any faculties of created moral agents, perceive or learn any thing of the Invisible One, without the accompaniment of an outward and visible machinery suited to their natures as intelligent creatures, as a telescope is suited to the material organ of vision, then the co-existence and conditions of the material creation were necessary to the end.

6. This necessity may be illustrated by supposing that after the work of creation no apostacy of angels or men had taken place, and consequently that no