356

DIVINITY OF CHRIST

any of you be hardened by the de

sin."

at a God within him. In opposi holds forth as the Christ him

be a mere man, and whom med and rejected, because

aman.

in their temple, their ences of the law;

permanent than

The Apostle argues, that, a deliver mankind, it was neces be a human being, resembli whom he came to save. dren are partakers of himself also partook death, he might dest of death, that is, t' those who through lifetime subject espoused the c the seed of

him to be l'

might be

priest, to introdu

...ended

egs of vice y and happiness,

-perfect archetype in

ence they were led occane Gospel and its founder the the dr Jos, which in its strictest sense declea intellectual system. The religion of an being thus spiritualized, its external ort'ances were considered as symbols, designed 10 introduce and perfect it, which necessarily disappeared, when the great reality to which they pointed had taken place.

If the rites of the law were only shadows of a purer and more intellectual order of things, it followed that their evanescence proved not the dissolution, but the perfection and final establishment of the law itself. This is the point of view in which the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews places the Levitical code, and prepares the Hebrew believers for its abolition, by

REFUTED FROM HEBREWS.

357

God within him. In opposimere man, and whom 4 rejected, because forth as the Christ him

mple, their

e law;

ury

*ts subserviency to the Christian dispen

trine of intellectual ideas as patthings, we have the following "he author calls them cons*, hem forth as entities which opposition to the sensible on of them, which are By faith we compre eternal models of

word of God, so made from the things . xi. 3. Which means, comprehend that the universe

e, did not proceed from sensible ob

at is, from mere combinations of matter motion, but from a spiritual intelligent Being, who created all things conformably to perfect models previously formed in his own mind.' This leads us to the true sense of a passage which appears to assert the pre-existence of Christ, and which has occasioned much perplexity to unitarian divines.

Heb. i. 1. "God, who at sundry times, and in divers ways, hath in times past spoken to the

* The lexicographers, and the excellent Schleusner, in the number, have overlooked this sense of awv, though this is not the only place where it occurs in its present acceptation. See 1 Cor. x. 11. where TQ TεÀN TWY XIWvwv, usually rendered the end of the ages or world, means the completions of the eternal models, that is, "the events have come to pass in our time which fulfil or realize the patterns of things in the divine mind." The context, as well as the words, point put this sense.

Hebrews to this sad calamity, and to prevent the despair and the apostacy which it was likely to produce? The philosophy of Moses taught that all sensible things were made after certain models or patterns, previously formed in the Divine mind; that these, as being intellectual, were perfect and eternal realities; while the objects of sense made in imitation of them, were mere shadows, perishable and fleeting. The philosophical Christians among the Jews, in the number of whom was the writer to the Hebrews, had learnt this doctrine in the school of the Jewish legislator. They contemplated the Gospel as a sublime spiritual system, intended to raise the moral world from the dregs of vice and misery to that state of purity and happiness, which corresponds to its all-perfect archetype in the divine mind. Hence they were led occasionally to give the Gospel and its founder the name of Logos, which in its strictest sense denoted the intellectual system. The religion of Moses being thus spiritualized, its external ordinances were considered as symbols, designed to introduce and perfect it, which necessarily disappeared, when the great reality to which they pointed had taken place.

If the rites of the law were only shadows of a purer and more intellectual order of things, it followed that their evanescence proved not the dissolution, but the perfection and final establishment of the law itself. This is the point of view in which the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews places the Levitical code, and prepares the Hebrew believers for its abolition, by

shewing its subserviency to the Christian dispen sation.

To the doctrine of intellectual ideas as patterns of sensible things, we have the following clear allusion. The author calls them cons ages, thus holding them forth as entities which continued for ever, in opposition to the sensible objects made in imitation of them, which are mutable and transient. "By faith we compre hend that the æons-the eternal models of things were formed by the word of God, so that things seen were not made from the things which appear." Heb. xi. 3. Which means, "By faith we comprehend that the universe which we see, did not proceed from sensible objects, that is, from mere combinations of matter and motion, but from a spiritual intelligent Being, who created all things conformably to perfect models previously formed in his own mind." This leads us to the true sense of a passage which appears to assert the pre-existence of Christ, and which has occasioned much perplexity to unita rian divines.

Heb. i. 1. "God, who at sundry times, and in divers ways, hath in times past spoken to the

The lexicographers, and the excellent Schleusner, in the number, have overlooked this sense of aw, though this is not the only place where it occurs in its present acceptation. See 1 Cor. x. 11. where T TEÀN TWV XIWVWV, usually rendered the end of the ages or world, means the completions of the eternal models, that is, "the events have come to pass in our time which fulfil or realize the patterns of things in the divine mind." The context, as well as the words, point out this sense.

fathers by the prophets, speaketh to us in these last days by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the eternal models, who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and conducting all things by the word of his power, after having by the sacrifice of himself purified us from our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

The account which Philo has given of the creation, furnishes an easy and natural solution of this difficult passage. The intellectual world, which he calls the Logos, the first-born son, the image of God, is expressly said by him to have been the medium by which God created all sensible things. The very words which the Apostle has used, are used also by Philo; and the care and precision with which the latter has explained them, as denoting not a person, but a power or quality, lead us to conclude with certainty that the description here given of the Son of God, is not intended to designate his person, but copied from the Logos which the writer, in common with other philosophical Christians, considered as a pure and perfect entity in the divine mind.

Jesus Christ was the Son of Man, and the Son of God, that is, he was a mere man endued with the Logos of God; and the Apostle has asserted of the Logos what he did not intend to be understood of his nature. The Logos is the eldest or the first-born Son of God, by whom he formed the systein of nature: the same Logos became flesh in the man Jesus, and gave to him his peculiar title as the Son of God. This language, reduced to simple terms, means, as we