is produced, will permit,) his excellence and dignity must necessarily far exceed the capacity of the universe, and, for the same reason, that of man. On this account he is said in scripture," to dwell in the light unto which no man can approach,' (1 Tim. vi, 16.) which strains even the most acute sight of any creature, by a brightness so great and dazzling, that the eye is blunted and overpowered, and would soon be blinded unless God, by some admirable process of attempering that blaze of light, should offer himself to the view of his creatures: This is the very manifestation before which darkness is said to have fixed its habitation. Nor is he himself alone inaccessible, but "as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are his ways higher than our ways, and his thoughts than our thoughts," (Isaiah lv, 9.) The actions of God are called "the ways of God," and the creation especially is called "the beginning of the way of God," (Prov. viii.) by which God began, as it were, to arise and to go forth from the throne of his majesty. Those actions therefore could not have been made known and understood, in the manner in which it is allowable to know and understand them, except by the revelation of God. This was also indicated before, in the term 'faith' which the Apostle employed. But the thoughts of God, and his will, (both that will which he wishes to be done by us, and that which he has resolved to do concerning us,) are of free disposition, which is determined by the Divine power and liberty inherent in himself; and since he has, in all this, called in the aid of no counsellor, those thoughts and that will are of necessity "unsearchable and past finding out." (Rom. xi. 33.) Of these, Legal Theology consists; and as they could not be known before the revelation of them proceeded from God, it is evidently proved that God is its Author. To this truth all nations and people assent. What compelled Rhadamanthus and Minos, those most equitable kings of Crete, to enter the dark cave of Jupiter and pretend that the laws, which they had promulgated among their subjects, were brought from that cave, at the inspiration of the Deity? It was because they knew those laws would not meet with general reception, unless they were believed to have been divinely communicated. Before Lycurgus began the work of legislation for his Lacedæmonians, imitating the example of those two kings, he went to Apollo at Delphos, that he might on his return confer on his laws the highest recommendation by means of the authority of the Delphic Oracle. To induce the ferocious minds of the Roman people to submit to religion, Numa Pompilius feigned that he had nocturnal conferences with the goddess Egeria. These were positive and evident testimonies of a notion which had pre-occupied the minds of men, " that no religion except one of divine origin and deriving its principles from heaven, deserved to be received." Such a truth they considered this, "that no one could know God, or any thing concerning God, except through God himself." 66 We 2. Let us now look at EVANGELICAL THEOLOGY. have made the Author of it to be Christ and God, at the command of the same scriptures as those which establish the divine claims of Legal Theology, and because the nature of the object requires it with the greater justice, in proportion as that object is the more deeply hidden in the abyss of the divine wisdom, and as the human mind is the more closely surrounded and enveloped with the shades of ignorance. (1) Exceedingly numerous are the passages of scripture which serve to aid and strengthen us in this opinion. We will enumerate a few of them: First, those which ascribe the manifestation of this doctrine to GOD THE FATHER; Then, those which ascribe it to CHRIST. "But we," says the Apostle, "speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: But God hath revealed it unto us by his Spirit." (1 Cor. ii, 7, 10.) The same Apostle says,-"The gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God." (Rom. xvi, 25, 26.) When Peter made a correct and just confession of Christ, it was said to him by the Saviour, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in Heaven." (Matt. xvi, 17.) John the Baptist attributed the same to Christ, saying, "The only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared God to us." (John i, 18.) Christ also ascribed this manifestation to himself in these words, "No man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." (Matt. xi, 27.) And, in another place, "I have manifested thy name unto the men whom thou gavest me out of the world, and they have believed that thou didst send me." (John xvii, 6, 8.) (2) Let us consider the necessity of this manifestation from the nature of its Object.. This is indicated by Christ when speaking of Evangelical Theology, in these words: "No man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father save the (Matt. xi, 27.) Therefore no man can reveal the Father or the Son, and yet in the knowledge of them are comprised the glad tidings of the gospel. The Baptist is an assertor of the necessity of this manifestation when he declares, that "No man hath seen God at any time.” (John i, 18.) It is the wisdom belonging to this Theology, which is said by the Apostle to be "hidden in a mystery, which none of the princes of this world knew, and which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man." (1 Cor. ii, 7, 8, 9.) It does not come within the cognizance of the understanding, and is not mixed up, as it were, with the first notions or ideas impressed on the mind at the period of its creation; it is not acquired in conversation or reasoning; but it is made known" in the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth." To this Theology belongs "that manifold wisdom of God which must be made known by the Church unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places," (Ephes. iii, 10.) otherwise it would remain unknown even to the angels themselves. What! Are the deep things of God “which no man knoweth but the Spirit of God which is in himself," explained by this doctrine? Does it also unfold "the length, and breadth, and depth, and height" of the wisdom of God? As the Apostle speaks in another passage, in a tone of the most impassioned admiration, and almost at a loss what words to employ in expressing the fulness of this Theology, in which are proposed, as objects of discovery, "the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding." (Ephes. iii, 18.) From these passages it most evidently appears, that the Object of Evangelical Theology must have been revealed by God and Christ, or it must otherwise have remained hidden and surrounded by perpetual darkness; or, (which is the same thing,) that Evangelical Theology would not have come within the range of our knowledge, and, on that account, as a necessary consequence, there could have been none at all. If it be an agreeable occupation to any person, (and such it must always prove!) to look more methodically and distinctly through each part, let him cast the eyes of his mind on those VOL. I. U properties of the Divine Nature which this Theology displays, clothed in their own appropriate mode; let him consider those actions of God which this doctrine brings to light, and that will of God which he has revealed in his gospel: When he has done this, (and of much more than this the subject is worthy!) he will more distinctly understand the necessity of the Divine manifestation. If any one would adopt a compendious method, let him only contemplate Christ; and when he has diligently observed that admirable union of the WORD and FLESH, his investiture into office and the manner in which its duties were executed; when he has at the same time reflected, that the whole of these arrangements and proceedings are in consequence of the voluntary economy, regulation, and free dispensation of God;he cannot avoid professing openly, that the knowledge of all these things could not have been obtained except by means of the revelation of God and Christ. But lest any one should take occasion, from the remarks which we have now made, to entertain an unjust suspicion or error, as though God the Father alone, to the exclusion of the Son, were the Author of the legal doctrine, and the Father through the Son were the Author of the Evangelical doctrine, a few observations shall be added, that may serve to solve this difficulty, and further to illustrate the matter of our discourse. As God by his WORD, (which is his own Son,) and by his SPIRIT, created all things, and man according to the image of himself, so it is likewise certain, that no intercourse can take place between him and man, without the agency of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. How is this possible, since the ad extra works of the Deity are indivisible, and when the order of operation ad extra is the same as the order of procession ad intra? We do not, therefore, by any means exclude the Son as the Word of the Father, and the Holy Ghost who is "the Spirit of Prophecy," from efficiency in this revelation. But there is another consideration in the manifestation of the gospel, not indeed with respect to the persons testifying, but in regard to the manner in which they come to be considered. For the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, have not only a natural relation among themselves, but another likewise which derives its origin from the will; yet the latter entirely agrees with the natural relation that subsists among them. There is an internal procession in the persons; and there is an external one, which is called in the scriptures and in the writings of the Fathers, by the name of "Mission" or "sending." To the latter mode of procession, special regard must be had in this revelation. For the Father manifests the Gospel through his Son and Spirit.(i.) He manifests it through the Son, as to his being, sent for the purpose of performing the office of Mediator between God and sinful men; as to his being the WORD made flesh, and God manifest in the flesh; and as to his having died, and to his being raised again to life, whether that was done in reality, or only in the decree and foreknowledge of God. (i.) He also manifests it through his Spirit, as to his being the Spirit of Christ, whom he asked of his Father by his passion and his death, and whom he obtained when he was raised from the dead, and placed at the right hand of the Father. I think you will understand the distinction which I imagine to be here employed: I will afford you an opportunity to examine and prove it, by adducing the clearest passages of scripture to aid us in confirming it. (i.) "All things," said Christ, "are delivered to me of my Father; and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son." (Matt. xi, 27.) They were delivered by the Father, to him as the Mediator, "in whom it was his pleasure that all fulness should dwell." (Col. i. 19. See also ii. 9.) In the same sense must be understood what Christ says in John: "I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me;" for it is subjoined," and they have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me." (xvii. 8.) From hence it appears, that the Father had given those words to him as the Mediator: on which account he says, in another place, "He whom God hath sent, speaketh the words of God." (John iii. 34.) With this the saying of the Baptist agrees, "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." (John i. 17.) But in reference to his being opposed to Moses, who accuses and condemns sinners, Christ is considered as the Mediator between God and sinners. The following passage tends to the same point: "No man hath seen God at any time: the onlybegotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father," [that is, "admitted," in his capacity of Mediator, to the intimate and confidential view and knowledge of his Father's secrets,] "he hath declared him :" (John i. 18.) "For the Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand;" (John iii. 35.) and among the things thus given, was the doctrine of the |