whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; lowers-but the arguments on which they relied were feeble, and such as were unfitted to give rest to the soul. The truth they had obtained by TRADITION; the arguments were THEIR own. 2. He revealed the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. This before was doubted or denied by nearly all the world. It was held to be absurd and impossible. The Sa up more than one to show that it was possible; he was himself raised, to put the whole matter beyond debate. 3. He revealed the certainty of future judgment-the judgment of all mankind. 4. He disclosed great and momentous truths respecting the future state. Before he came, all was dark. The Greeks spoke of Ely. sian fields, but they were dreams of the imagination; the Hebrews had some faint notion of a future state where all was dark and gloomy, with perhaps an occasional glimpse of the truth that there is a holy and blessed The Lord Jesus told us that he came to "give his life a ransom for many;" | that he laid down his life for his friends; that he was about to die for man; that he would draw all men to him. The prophets indeed-particularly Isaiah-threw much light on these points. But the mass of the people did not understand their revelations. They pertained to future events-always difficult to be under-viour taught its certainty; he raised stood. But Christ has told us the way of salvation, and he has made it so plain that he who runs may read. (c) The moral precepts of the Redeemer are superior to those of any and all that had gone before him. They are elevated, pure, expansive, benevolent-such as became the Son of God to proclaim. Indeed this is admitted on all hands. Infidels are constrained to acknowledge that all the moral precepts of the Saviour are eminently pure and benignant. If they were obeyed, the world would he filled with justice, truth, purity, and benevolence. Error, fraud, hy-heaven; but to the mass of mind all pocrisy, ambition, wars, licentious- was obscure. Christ revealed a heaness, and intemperance, would cease; ven, and told us of a hell. He showed and the opposite virtues would diffuse us that the one might be gained and happiness over the face of the world. the other avoided. He presented im Prophets had indeed delivered many portant motives for doing it; and moral precepts of great importance, had he done nothing more, his com but the purest and most extensive munications were worthy the pro. body of just principles of good morals found attention of mankind. I may on earth are to be found in the teach- add, (3.) That the Son of God has ings of the Saviour. (d) He has claims on our attention from the given to us the clearest view which MANNER in which he spoke. He spoke man has had of the future state; and as one having "authority." Matt. he has disclosed in regard to that fu- vii. 29. He spoke as a witness of ture state a class of truths of the what he saw and knew. John iii. 11. deepest interest to mankind, which He spoke without doubt or ambiguity were before wholly unknown or only of God, and heaven, and hell. His partially revealed. 1. He has re- is the language of one who is famivealed the certainty of a state of fu- liar with all that he describes; who ture existence-in opposition to the saw all, who knew all. There is no Sadducees of all ages. This was hesitancy or doubt in his mind of the denied before he came by multitudes, truth of what he speaks; and he and where it was not, the arguments speaks as if his whole soul were imby which it was supported were often pressed with its unspeakable import of the feeblest kind. The truth was ance. Never were so momentous held by some-like Plato and his fol- | communications made to men of hell · ii. 22. 43; iv. 16; xii. 9; Rom. ii. 16, as fell from the lips of the Lord Jesus (see Notes on Matt. xxiii. 33); never were announcements made so fitted to awe and appal a sinful world. ¶ Whom he hath appointed heir of all things. See Ps. ii. 8; comp. Notes Rom. viii. 17. This is language taken from the fact that he is the Son of God.' If a son, then he is an heir-for so it is usually among men. This is not to be taken literally, as if he inherits anything as a man does. An heir is one who inherits anything after the death of its possessor-usually his father. But this cannot be applied in this sense to the Lord Jesus. The language is used to denote his rank and dignity as the Son of God. As such all things are his, as the property of a father descends to his son at his death. The word rendered heir heir — κληρονόμος means properly (1) one who acquires anything by lot; and (2) an heir in means age-an indefinitely long pethe sense in which we usually under-riod of time; then perpetuity, ever, stand the word. It may also denote eternity-always being. For an exa possessor of anything received as a tended investigation of the meaning portion, or of property of any kind. of the word, the reader may consult See Rom. iv. 13, 14. It is in every an essay by Prof. Stuart, in the Spirit instance rendered heir in the New of the Pilgrims, for 1829, pp. 406Testament. Applied to Christ, it 452. From the sense of age, or du means that as the Son of God he is ration, the word comes to denote the possessor or lord of all things, or that present and future age; the present all things are his. Comp. Acts ii. world and the world to come; the 36; x. 36; John xvii. 10; xvi. 15. present world, with all its cares, "All things that the Father hath are anxieties, and evils; the men of this mine." The sense is, that all things world -a wicked generation, &c belong to the Son of God. Who is Then it means the world-the mateso rich then as Christ? Who so able rial universe-creation as it is. The to endow his friends with enduring only perfectly clear use of the word and abundant wealth? T By whom. in this sense in the New Testament By whose agency; or who was the is in Heb. xi. 3, and there there can actual agent in the creation. Gro- be no doubt. Through faith we tius supposes that this means, on understand that the worlds were made account of whom;' and that the by the word of God, so that things meaning is, that the universe was which are seen were not made of formed with reference to the Messiah, things which do appear." The pas in accordance with an ancient Jewish sage before us will bear the same in maxim. But the more common and terpretation, and this is the most obclassical usage of the word rendered vious and intelligible. What would by (dià), when it governs a genitive, be the meaning of saying that the as here, is to denote the instrumental ages or dispensations were made by the agent by which anything the son of God? The Hebrews used is donc. See Matt. i. 22; ii. 5. 15. the word-Dhiy-'Olám- in the 23; Luke xviii. 31; John i. 17; Acts same sense. It properly means gi cause; 3 Who being the bright-ness of his glory, and the ex a Jno. 1. 14. duration; and thence it came to be used by them to denote the worldmade up of ages or generations; and then the world itself. This is the fair, and, as it seems to me, the only intelligible interpretation of this passage-an interpretation amply sus. tained by texts referred to above as demonstrating that the universe was made by the agency of the Son of God. Comp. Notes on ver. 10, and on John i. 3. T press image of his person, and the incarnate Son of God; the equal of the Father in human flesh; and this leads the writer to dwell on his divine character, and to argue from that. Vs. 8. 10-12. I have no doubt, therefore, that this description refers to his divine nature, but it is the di vine nature as it appears in human flesh. An examination of the words used will repare us for a more clear comprehension of the sense. The word glory—dóğa- -mcans properly a 3. Who being the brightness of his seeming, an appearance; and then glory. This verse is designed to state (1) praise, applause, honour; (2) digthe dignity and exalted rank of the nity, splendour, glory; (3) brightness, Son of God, and is exceedingly im- dazzling light; and (4) excellence, portant with reference to a correct perfection, such as belongs to God, view of the Redeemer. Every word and such as there is in heaven. It which is employed is of great im- is probably used here, as the wordportance, and should be clearly un-712-Kabhōdh—is often among the derstood in order to a correct apprc- Hebrews, to denote splendour, bright hension of the passage. First, in ness, and refers to the divine perfecwhat manner does it refer to the Rc- tions as resembling a bright light, or deemer? To his divine nature? To the sun. The word is applied to the the mode of his existence before he sun and stars, I. Cor. xv. 40, 41; to was incarnate? Or to him as he ap- the light which Paul saw on the way peared on earth? Most of the ancient to Damascus, Acts xxii. 11; to the commentators supposed that it refer- shining of Moses' face, II. Cor. iii. 7 ; red to his divine dignity before he to the celestial light which surrounds became incarnate, and proceed to the angels, Rev. xviii. I; and gloriargue on that supposition on the fied saints, Luke ix. 31, 32; and to mode of the divine existence. The the dazzling splendour or majesty in true solution seems to me to be, that which God is enthroned. II. Thess. it refers to him as incarnate, but still i. 9; II. Pet. i. 17; Rev. xv. 8; xxi. has reference to him as the incarnate 11. 23. Here there is a comparison Son of God. It refers to him as Mc- of God with the sun; he is encomdiator, but not simply or mainly as a passed with splendour and majesty; man. It is rather to him as divinc- he is a being of light and of infinite thus, in his incarnation, being the perfection. It refers to all in God brightness of the divine glory, and that is bright, splendid, glorious; and the express image of God. That this the idea is, that the Son of God is the is the correct view is apparent, I brightness of it all. The word renthink, from the whole scope of the dered brightness-áravyaoμa-occurs passage. The drift of the argument nowhere else in the New Testament. is, to show his dignity as he has It means properly reflected splendour, spoken to us (ver. 1), and not in the or the light which emanates from a period antecedent to his incarnation. luminous body. The rays or beams It is to show his claims to our reve- of the sun are its "brightness," or rence as sent from God-the last and that by which the sun is scen and greatest of the messengers which God | known. The sun itself we do not has sent to man. But then it is a see; the beams which flow from it description of him as he actually is- we do sec. we do see. The meaning here :3 b a c. 7. 27; 9. 12-14. b Ps. 110. I. graving-tool; and then something engraved, or stamped-a character~~ as a letter, mark, sign. The image stampd on coins, scals, wax, expresses the idea; and the sense here is, that if God be represented under the idea of a substance, or being, then Christ is the exact resemblance of that--as an image is of the stamp or die. The resemblance between a stamp and the figure which is impressed is exact; and so is the resemblance between the Redeemer and God. See Coll, i. 15. "Who is the image of the invisible God." ¶ Of his person. The word person with us denotes an individual being, and is applied to human beings, consist ing of body and soul. We do not apply it to anything dead-not using it with reference to the body when the spirit is gone. It is applied to man-with individual and separate consciousness and will; with body and soul; with an existence separate from others. It is evident that it cannot be used in this sense when applied to God, and that this word does not express the true idea of the passage here. Tindal rendes it, more accurately, substance. The word in the original-RÓOTαOIS — whence our word hypostasis, means, literally, a foundation, or substructure. Then it means a well-founded trust, firm expectation, confidence, firmness, boldness; and then reality, sub. upholding all things by the | sat down on the right hand of word of his power, when he the Majesty on high. had by himself purged our sins, that if God be represented under the image of a luminous body, as he is in the Scriptures (see Ps. lxxiv. 11; Mal. iv. 2), then Christ is the radiance of that light, the brightness of that luminary. Stuart. He is that by which we perceive God, or by which God is made known to us in his real perfections. Comp. John i. 18; xiv. 9.-It is by him only that the true character and glory of God is known to men. This is true in regard to the great system of revelation; but it is especially true in regard to the views which men have of God. Matt. xi. 27. "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.' The human soul is dark respecting the divine character until it is enlightened by Christ. It sees no beauty, no glory in his nature-nothing that excites wonder, or that wins the affections, until it is disclosed by the Redeemer. Somehow it happens, account for it as men may, that there are no clevating practical views of God in the world; no views that engage and hold the affections of the soul; no views that are transforming and purifying, but those which are derived from the Lord Jesus. A man becomes a Christian, and at once he has elevated, practical views of God. He is to him the most glorious of all beings. He finds supreme delight instance, essential nature. In the New contemplating his perfections. But he may be a philosopher or an infidel, and though he may profess to believe in the existence of God, yet the belief excites no practical influence on him; he sees nothing to admire; nothing which leads him to worship him. Comp. Rom. i. 21. ¶ And the express image. The word here used -Xapakтip-likewise occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It is that from which our word character is derived. It properly means a Testament, it is rendered confident, or confidence (II. Cor. ix. 4; xi. 17; Heb. iii. 14); substance (Heb. xi. 1), and person in the passage before us. It is not elsewhere used. Here it properly refers to the essential nature of God—that which distinguishes him from all other beings, and which, it I may so say, constitutes him God and the idea is, that the Redeemer is the exact resemblance of that. This resemblance consists, probably, in the following things-though perhaps the enumeration does not include all | glory, and the express image of his —but in these he certainly resembles person. (a) It was by him, eminently, God, or is his exact image. (1.) In that God was made known to men his original mode of being, or be- as it is by the beams of the sun that fore the incarnation. Of this we that is made known. (b) He bore know little. But he had a But he had a "glory an exact resemblance to God. He with the Father before the world was just such a being as we should was." John xvii. 5. He was "in suppose God to be were he to become the beginning with God, and was incarnate, and to act as a man. He God." John i. 1. He was in inti- was the embodied representation of mate union with the Father, and was the Deity. He was pure-like God. one with Him, in certain respects; He was benevolent-like God. He though in certain other respects, spake to the winds and storms—like there was a distinction. I do not God. He healed diseases-like God. see any evidence in the Scriptures of He raised the dead-like God. He the doctrine of" eternal generation," wielded the power which God only and it is certain that that doctrine can wield, and he manifested a chamilitates against the proper eternity racter in all respects like that which of the Son of God. The natural and we should suppose God would evince fair meaning of that doctrine would if he appeared in human flesh, and be, that there was a time when he dwelt among men. And this is sayhad not an existence, and when he ing much. It is in fact saying that began to be, or was begotten. But the account in the Gospels is real, the Scripture doctrine is, that he had and that the Christian religion is a strict and proper eternity. I see true. Uninspired men could never no evidence that he was in any sense have drawn such a character as that a derived being-deriving his exist of Jesus Christ unless that character ence and his divinity from the Fa- had actually existed. The attempt ther. The Fathers of the Christian has often been made to describe God, church, it is believed, held that the or to show how he would speak and Son of God as to his divine, as well act if he came down to earth. Thus as his human nature, was derived the Hindoos speak of the incarnafrom the Father. Hence the Nicene tions of Vishnu; and thus Homer, creed speaks of him as "begotten of and Virgil, and most of the ancient the Father before all worlds; God of poets, speak of the appearance of the God, Light of Light, very God of very gods, and describe them as they were God, begotten not made"-language supposed to appear. But how differ implying derivation in his divine na-ent from the character of the Lord ture. They held, with one voice, Jesus! They are full of passion, and that he was God; but it was in this lust, and anger, and contention, and manner. See Stuart, Excursus III. strife; they come to mingle in baton the Epistle to the Hebrews. But tles, and to take part with contending this is incredible, and impossible. A armies, and they evince the same derived being cannot in any proper | spirit as men, and are merely men of sense be God; and if there is any great power, and more gigantic pasattribute which the Scriptures have sions; but Christ is GOD IN HUMAN ascribed to the Saviour with peculiar NATURE. The form is that of man; clearness, it is that of proper eternity. the spirit is that of God. He walks, Rev. i. 11. 18; John i. 1. It may and eats, and sleeps as a man; he have been that it was by him that the thinks, and speaks, and acts like God. perfections of God were made known He was born as a man-but the anbefore the incarnation to the angelic gels adored him as God. As a man world, but on that point the Scrip- he ate; yet by a word he created tures are silent. (2.) On earth he food for thousands, as if he were God was the brightness of the divine | Like a man he slept on a pillow while |