Important are the truths, which this divine Counsellor has therein brought to light. He hath taught us to confider God as a spiritual Effence, who is therefore to be worshipped in a spiritual manner; inflexibly just, yet abounding in clemency and benevolence. He hath taught us alfo to know ourselves, as fallen indeed from that divine image, in which we were originally made, yet still retaining fo much intereft at the throne of grace, as to engage the Son of God himself to take our nature upon him, that he might become our Mediator and Advocate with his heavenly Father: in which capacity he has undertaken, as a Prophet, to teach us our duty by repentance and obedience; as a Prieft, to make atonement and interceffion for us by the price of his own blood; and as a King, to govern us by his laws, to place us in a ftate of grace, and to open to us the gate of everlasting life. In these two names of Wonderful, Counfellor, he is reprefented as the energy of divine power, and the effufion of divine wif dom. But he has a title to a ftill more diftinguished name, as he partakes of the divine effence. He is called The Mighty God. In this fulness of divinity he is characterized by Ifaiah in other places; especially in the C open ing ing of the latter feries of his prophecies, which has a more exprefs relation to the Meffiah and his kingdom. For therein he foretels a Meffenger, who fhould prepare the way of the Lord in the wilderness, and should declare to Judah, Behold your God P! And in this fulnefs of divinity he is reprefented by St. John in the opening of his gofpel: He was not only in the beginning with God, but he was God himself. And in that high character he bears the attributes of a Creator and a Preferver: "All things were made by him, and without him existed no created thing 9." Of himself our Lord declares, that he and his Father are one 1." Of him St. Paul exprefsly fays, that "he is over all, God bleffed for ever '.' In his Epistle to the Hebrews he declares, that God hath now spoken to us by his Son, fuperior to the Angels, and partaking of the effence of the Godhead, by whom he made the worlds, by whom he upholdeth all things, and whom he hath appointed Heir of all things. And thus he is ftill more forcibly represented in the book of Revelations: He is feated with his Father on his throne of eminence, he is dignified with this name infcribed upon his vef p Ifa. xl. 3, 9. • Rom. ix. 5. ture and his perfon, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. And he takes to himself this peculiar title of fupreme divinity, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the firft and the laft, who was, and who is, and who shall be, the Almighty "." By which he fignifies that his existence is from eternity to eternity, that the whole fyftem of the univerfe originated from his power and wisdom, is fuftained and governed by his providence, and is finally directed to his will. Thus to him may be applied these peculiar attributes of the Deity, as expreffed by the Apostle, that" from him, and through him, and to him, are all things *." The name that follows next is, Everlasting Father. If we take this word in the cuftomary sense, it seems to repeat what is comprehended in the preceding term, that he is felf-existent through all eternity, and that he is the fource and origin of all things. But a more diftinct and expreffive fense will be drawn, if we understand it as accepted by fome learned men, The Father of the everlafting age; that is, the Founder of an Economy that shall have no end; namely, that Economy which is called in Scriptural lan Rev. i. 8, 11. xix. 16. x Rom. xi. 36. C 2 guage, guage, The Kingdom of Heaven; that Difpenfation of divine grace and truth without limit or period, which the Meffiah would establish in the world. In which respect it ftands in contraft with the conftitution both civil and religious of the Jews; which was limited to a certain people, and was to subsist for an appointed time. The eternity, as also the universality of this kingdom, is repeatedly foretold in the Pfalms and in the Prophets; "Afk of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy poffeffion"."-" Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the fceptre of thy kingdom is a fceptre of righteousness.”. 66 They fhall fear thee as long as the fun and moon endure, throughout all generations. He fhall have dominion from sea to fea, and from the river to the ends of the earth "." a Thus alfo the Prophet, when to the carnal and temporary inftitutions of the Law he opposes the spiritual and eternal institutions of the Gospel ; "All flesh is grafs, and all the goodlinefs thereof is as the flower of the field. The grafs withereth, and the flower fadeth; but the word of the Lord endureth for ever b." And this is fully delineated in a y Pf. ii. 8. z Pf. xlv. 6. a Pf. lxxii. 5, &c. vision to Daniel, which, after describing feveral temporal dynasties rifing and falling in fucceffion, represents one advancing like the Son of Man, invested with the clouds of heaven. "And there was given him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages fhould ferve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away; and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." With this agrees the term with which our Lord continually defignates his difpenfation. The Kingdom of Heaven implies a constitution widely different from the partial and tranfitory monarchies of men. Though it begins on earth, it fhall extend to heaven; though it commences in time, it shall endure to eternity. The last of these titles is, The Prince of Peace. The foregoing names bear abundant evidence of his kingly dignity: This delineates the peculiar feature of his kingly character. The allusion might be drawn from Melchifedec, King of Salem, whose personal name denoted, King of righteousness, as his official title fignified, King of peace; for these two qualities the holy Scripture frequently combines in representing the true kingly character. |