IX. LORD OF GLORY. 15. 1 Cor. ii. 8: They would not have crucified the Lord of glory. i.e. the glorious Jehovah.-Piscator. the author of human felicity.-Schleusner. who has in his hands the disposing of all true glory.-Locke. the glorious Lord, because he was by God crowned with glory and honour.-Racov. Catechism. 16. James ii. 1: The faith of our .. King of glory-glorious King..... Ps. xxiv. 7-10. y Matt. xxv. 31-40: When the Son of man shall come in his glory, &c.-See John iii. 30-34. Heb. i. 9. z Rom. ii. 7-10: To them who.. seek Lord J. Christ, [the Lord] of glory. for glory, honour, and immortality, eternal the faith of our glorious Lord J. Christ.-Bible 1596. the faith of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.— Hammond, Macknight. the glorious faith of our Lord J. C.-Whitby (Com.), S. Clarke, Priestley. The title Saviour, in the absolute, emphatic manner in which it is given to the Lord Jesus, and that too in a religious sense with reference to the salvation of the soul, is a title which could not without idolatry be given to any creature.-Carlile. Christ was sent of God to be the Saviour of the world, in a manner that makes him (his benevolence) the cause of our salvation, as well as that original benevolence of the Deity, from which all other benevolence is derived.-Price. XI. IMAGE OF GOD. 18, 19. 2 Cor. iv. 4: Christ, who is the image of God.-See Col. i. 15. EXPLANATIONS. Christ is the image of God, reflecting the light derived from him; clearly manifesting his heavenly doctrine to all who are willing to receive it.-Belsham. By the divine power which he displayed, he was a representation on earth of the ever-blessed Deity.-Price. He was the image of the Father, by his holiness, doctrine, and miracles. Le Clerc. The sense is the same in 2 Cor. iv. 4. 1 Tim. iii. 16. Heb. i. 3. Adam was an image of God, but of a very inferior kind. In Christ appeared most completely how wise, how powerful, how good God is. Thus we behold the sun [reflected] on water.-Grotius on Col. i. 15. For remarks by Beza and Whitby, see p. 270. life... Glory, honour, and peace to every man that worketh good. (Comp. Rom. xiv. 10. Acts xvii. 31.)-See 1 Cor. ii. 7. a Neh. ix. 27: According to thy manifold mercies, thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies. See Judges iii. 9, 15. 2 Kings xiii. 5. Isa. xix. 20. Obadiah 21. Also, 1 Cor. vii. 16. 1 Tim. iv. 16. James v. 20. b Acts xiii. 23: God.. brought unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus. (G.) 1 John iv. 14: The Father sent the Son [to be] the Saviour, &c.-See John iii. 16, 17. Acts v. 31. c See Isa. xliii. 11; xlv. 15, 21. Jer. xiv. 8. Hos. xiii. 4. Luke i. 47. 1 Tim. i, 1; ii. 3; iv. 10. Jude 25. d Tit. iii. 4-6: The kindness and love of GOD OUR SAVIOUR toward man appeared, according to his mercy HE SAVED US, through Jesus Christ our Saviour.-See chap. i. 3, 4; ii. 10, 13. e Gen. i. 26, 27: And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in [his] own image: in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Chap. v. 1: In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him. Chap. ix. 6: Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made he man. 1 Cor. xi. 7: For a man indeed ought not to cover [his] head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of the man. f Rom. viii. 29: For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] OBSERVATIONS. 15, 16. It is highly probable that the title Lord of glory is a Hebraism, and signifies glorious Lord or Master; being analogous in form to such expressions as King of glory, which denotes the glorious king; God of truth, the true God; ambassador of faithfulness, a faithful ambassador. Instances of this phraseology abound in the Sacred Scriptures, particularly in the Old Testament. Jesus is the Lord of glory, or our glorious Master, inasmuch as he is greatly superior, in moral character and divine authority, to all other holy men and prophets; or because "it is from his hands that the faithful disciple will receive the glory, honour, and immortality, which God has promised to all who obey him." 17. Patriots who have been successful in achieving the deliverance of their country from the yoke of tyranny, and holy men who have awakened their fellow-creatures from the lethargy of vice and error, are deservedly spoken of as Saviours and deliverers;" and surely he, whose sacred exertions in the cause of truth, benevolence, and piety, are daily effecting the emancipation of the human race from the degrading thraldom of sin and misery, may with the greatest propriety be termed the Saviour-the Saviour of the world. But, as patriots and prophets-however good and great they may be. are merely instruments in the hands of the Deity to accomplish his all-wise purposes, and as Christ himself was given," "sent into the world," and "exalted," by his Father to be a Saviour, this distinguished title, in its highest sense, belongs only to the Father.. This conclusion derives the strongest support from those passages of St. Paul's Epistles, in which he distinctly mentions two Saviours; namely, GOD OUR SAVIOUR, and Jesus Christ our Saviour.d 66 18-20. In vindicating the Unitarian doctrine, that Jesus Christ is a being distinct from God, and inferior to him, we inserted these passages into Part First of this work, for the very obvious reason, that that which is the image of any thing cannot be the thing whose image it is; that, because Christ is called the image of God, he must be different from him of whom he is the representation; and, if different, subordinate to him, except on the absurd and antiscriptural supposition of their being two supreme and eternal Deities. Some Trinitarians, however, have urged the texts under consideration in proof of the consubstantiality of the Son of his possessing the same nature and substance with the Father. But, besides the reasons above assigned, there are other considerations which show the futility of the argument for this doctrine drawn from the phrases image of God, &c. We are told that mankind were formed in the image of their Creator; and that the early disciples of Jesus were created in the image of their Lord and Master; but no one would hence infer, that these Christians were identical with Jesus XI. IMAGE OF GOD. 20. Heb. i. 3: Who, being the brightness of [His] glory, and the express image of His person. aяavyaσua, the brightness.-Com. Ver. effulgentia.-Beza. a ray.-Wakefield. the effulgence.-Parkhurst. a bright ray.-S. Clarke. the beam.-Hammond. a reflection.-Norton. the effulgence, or bright manifestation.-Carpenter. χαρακτηρ, express image.-Com. Ver. figura.-Limborch. figure.-Rhemes Ver. imago expressa.-Schleusner, very image.-Tyndale. the image.-Carpenter. an image.-Wakefield. the engraved form.-Bible 1596, 1607, 1613. the express delineation.- Doddridge. ὑποστασεω; αυτού, of his person.-Com. Ver. essentiæ, seu naturæ divinæ ejus,-Schleusner. personæ illius.-Beza. substantiæ ejus.-Limborch. of his subsistence.-Hammond, Wakefield. of his substance.-Tyndale, Macknight, Parkhurst. of his perfections.-Wakefield, Carpenter, Norton. of Himself.-Belsham. of God.-Eyre. XII. FORM OF GOD. 21. Phil. ii. 5, 6: Christ Jesus, who, being in the FORM of God. in the condition of God.-Stuart. being as God. -Norton. in a divine form.-Wakefield. in the form of a god.-Haynes. in the character or station of a god, because, by the appointment of Jehovah, he was possessed of divine authority and divine powers.-Carpenter. Like to God in wisdom, power, and the majesty of his dominion.-Brentus. The following are given from Dr. J. P. Smith. of divine nature.-Leander van Ess. in the lofty station of God.-Storr. in a divine condition. -Ernesti. like to the Deity; in a form of God.-Stolz. in the likeness of God.-Peshito Syriac, Tertullian, Arabic of Walton's Polyglott. the visible image of God.-Seiler. REMARKS. Form.. signifies the external shape or figure of a material object.... Dropping the figure, the notion is evidently that of specific difference, or essential and distinguishing properties.-Smith. The term og.. implies the outward form, face, resemblance of any thing or person, in opposition to its real internal nature and constitution.-Lindsey. Ος εν μορφῇ Θεοῦ ὑπάρχων.—Bp. Bur gess understands this to mean pre-existing in the nature of God. According to this sense of τág,.. Joseph of Arimathea (Luke xxiii. 50) pre-existed as a counsellor, Stephen (Acts vii. 55) pre-existed full of the holy spirit, and the Philippian persecutors (Acts xvi. 20) accused Paul and Silas as pre-existent Jews.—Mardon. For other remarks, see Appendix, p. 270. ILLUSTRATIVE TEXTS. conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many bre thren, 1 Cor. xv. 49: As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 2 Cor. iii. 18: We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, [even] as by the spirit of the I.ord. Col. iii. 9-11: Lie not one to another; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new [man], that is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him; where is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond [nor] free; but Christ [is] all, and in all. g Job iv. 15, 16: A spirit passed before face: my it stood still, but I could not discover the form thereof: an image [was] before mine eyes, &c.- See Dan. iv. 36 v. 6, 10; vii. 28 (in the LXX). h Mark xvi. 12: After that, he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. -See instances of the compounds of the same word: Matt. xvii. 2. Mark ix. 2. Rom. viii. 29; xii. 2. 2 Cor. iii. 18. Phil. iii. 21. i See Matt. xxiii. 37. Luke xxiii. 34. j Matt. xiii. 54: When he was come into his own country, he taught them in their synagogues, insomuch that they were astonished, and said, Whence hath this [man] this wisdom, and [these] mighty works?-See chap. xxviii. 18. k John x. 34-36: Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods unto whom the word of God came, &c. 7 Matt. viii. 26: Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.-See John xi. 43. et al. m John xiii. 4, 5: He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself, After that, he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, &c.— See Matt. viii. 20. 2 Cor. viii. 9. et al. Christ, or that the human race possess the same nature and substance as the Creator of the universe. Why, then, should it be inferred from similar expressions applied to our Saviour, that he is God, equal to the Father in power and glory? Man is the image and glory of God, by reason of his being endowed with powers of mind which bear some faint resemblance to the attributes of the Deity, particularly to his power and sovereignty; and the true Christian is the image of the Son of God, by conforming to his precepts, imbibing his divine spirit, and becoming thoroughly renewed in all his dispositions and habits. As Jesus, however, possessed a moral character of the most exalted and perfect kind, and as he was appointed by the universal Father to sustain to the human race the offices of Instructor, King, and Judge, it may be justly predicated of him, that he is not only "the image of the invisible God," but "the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person." k 21. Since it is admitted, by eminent critics of the Trinitarian persuasion, that the word here translated form denotes external appearance, we cannot perceive why-except to support a system—it should be rendered nature or essence. It occurs repeatedly in the Jewish Scriptures, particularly the Septuagint version, but once only in its simple state in the New Testament, exclusively of the passage which we are considering; and in all of these the word evidently bears the former signification. The phrase form of God no more implies that Christ was that God in whose form he appeared, than the expression form of a servant, as used in the following verse, implies that he actually entered into the condition of a bond-servant. The meaning probably is, that he possessed great benevolence, wisdom, and authority; that he acted in the capacity of God himself; that, to demonstrate the divinity of his mission, he was gifted by the Father with a voluntary power of controlling the laws of nature-of curing the most inveterate diseases, bestowing food in a miraculous manner to famishing multitudes, giving sight to the blind, and restoring the dead to life.' This explanation, we think, harmonises both with the scope of the apostle's reasoning, and with the whole tenor of our Lord's deportment and actions. Though "in the form of God”though in possession of extraordinary and divine powers, he did not assume the splendour of such a state, "but made himself of no reputation". -he lived in poverty and contempt, while he meliorated the condition of thousands around him by the employment of his mighty powers. "He took upon him the form of a servant:" he not only exercised, for the good of others, the godlike qualifications with which he had been invested by the Father, but he ministered to the welfare of his brethren, by the practice of duties peculiar to the meanest slave." Y SECT. VI.-EXAMINATION OF THE SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE ALLEGED FOR THE OPINION, THAT THE ATTRIBUTES OF ETERNITY, SELF-EXISTENCE, IMMUTABILITY, ETC. BELONG TO JESUS CHRIST. I. ETERNAL EXISTENCE. 1. Prov. viii. 22-31: Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old, &c. REMARKS. 'That the person here spoken of under the name of Wisdom is Christ, cannot be rationally questioned by any man who reads this chapter with attention, especially if he compare it with the account given by the same person of himself, in the first chapter of the same book.-Dwight. The book of Proverbs meant only to urge, in the usual poetical style of expression, the necessity of adhering to wisdom, both in religious and social life, strengthening the exhortation by pointing out that all the works of God are founded upon wisdom.-Rammohun Roy. 2. Micah v. 2. (Quoted in ref. d.) whose goings forth.-Com. Ver. origin.-Noyes. descent.-Hincks, Acton. origin or descent.Gesenius. sources of springing forth.-R. Roy. cujus ortus et egressus in mnndum.-Brenius. from of old.-Com. Ver. from eternity.-Smith. Rammohun Roy. from the beginning.-Calvin, Douay Ver. from ancient times.-Hincks. from everlasting.-Com. Ver. days of eternity.Dwight. days of the everlasting period.-Smith. days of the age.-Calvin. days of hidden ages. -Newcome. days of old.-Hincks, Noyes. ILLUSTRATIVE TEXTS. a Prov. iii. 19: Jehovah by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. -See Apocrypha: Wisd. ix. 9. Eccles. xxiv. 9. b Prov. viii. 1-2: Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice? She standeth in the top of high places..... O ye simple, understand wisdom; and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart... Wisdom [is] better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it. I WISDOM dwell with PRUDENCE.-See Prov. i. 1-7, 20, 21; ii. 1, 2, 6, 7, 10; iii. 13-19, 21; iv. 5—9, 11; v. 1; vii. 4; ix. 1-5, 10. et al. c See 1 Cor. xiii. and page 88. f Gen. i. 1: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. John ii. 10: Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine, &c. Ver. 11: This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him. Chap. xv. 27: And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.— See Job xlii. 12. Isa. lxiv. 4. Mark i. i. Luke i. 2. Acts xi. 15. et al. g See page 120, second column. |