Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/40

 Thus, then, while the Scriptures commence by announcing to us the Supreme Being under the name of Jehovah God, they close, after recording many miracles of His providence, by telling us that He is Jesus Christ: Jesus, in the last portions of His revelation, being substituted for Jehovah in the first; and God, in the first, being transposed into Christ in the last. In both cases we have the twofold appellation of the Deity, because in each they are necessary to express the two attributes of love and wisdom by which He is distinguished, and from which He acts. The name, Jehovah God, expresses those attributes more in the abstract; while that of Jesus Christ expresses the same attributes, but as they exist in, and emanate from, the concrete of a Divine humanity; in this He opened out a new and living way for the salvation of His people; and, as it has been said, took to Himself His great power, and became a Saviour to the uttermost.

Hence. He "who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty," is to be thought of as an infinite, eternal, and omnipotent Person, whose Divine essence has, in the fulness of time, been revealed in a glorified humanity. This essence being the Father, whom no man hath seen or can see; and this humanity being the Son, whom men have seen and may see;—together, like soul and body, they constitute a one; and the Holy Spirit, which was not until Jesus was glorified, consists in those enlightening influences which have resulted from their union. Surely, in the knowledge of these facts, the Lord has realized His own prediction, "The time will come when I will show you plainly of the Father." As there is but one God; as Jesus Christ was "God manifest in the flesh," and "in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily;" how plain