LECTURE II.

RECONCILIATION WITH GOD.

JUDGES Xiii. 22, 23.

And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God. But his wife said unto him, If the Lord had been pleased to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and a meat offering at our hands.

SUCH is the remarkable reasoning by which the mother of one of the typical deliverers of Israel reassures her trembling husband, after a manifestation of the Divine presence. And I find in it traces of a general truth, which I shall endeavour to illustrate on the present occasion. In the first Lecture of this course, I maintained, that in the appearances of the Almighty to his ancient Churches, the contrast between Divine purity and human corruption was constantly and emphatically inculcated: that Jehovah manifested himself as a consuming fire, and fenced about his presence with manifold cover

ings and restrictions, to shew that man was not worthy to appear before God, and that the original paternal aspect of the Creator towards his creatures was changed into one of wrath and severity.

My present purpose will be to shew, that with wrath, mercy was also revealed: in other words, that besides the doctrine of human depravity being impressed upon the ancient worshippers, they also, and in the same act of self-renouncing adoration, learned that sin was pardoned, a satisfaction having been made.

In so doing, I would first direct your attention to the state of things immediately after the fall of our first parents. The sentence pronounced upon disobedience had been positive and unqualified: "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Equally positive and unqualified was the curse which had passed upon creation for man's sin: "Cursed is the ground

on thine account." On the one side then we have the God of purity and justice, who will by no means clear the guilty; and on the other, man, and man's world, under the sentence of his wrath, and at enmity with him. Why does the sentence tarry? Why are not the offenders blotted out from the universe of God? On the contrary, Man still lives: man's world, with its varied beauties and ministrations of delight, is still around him. But the consuming fire of

God's presence is set up over against the garden of Eden. Now, surely, the victims of his just displeasure will fall a sacrifice to his present vengeance. Now the flame of the sword will go forth devouring and to devour, and earth will again become without form and void. But what do I find, instead of this work of wrath and devastation? I see that the fire of God's anger dwelt among men from that time forward. I see by the very same appearances that proclaimed the distance between man and God, the reconciliation between man and God constantly and plainly set forth. The fire of destruction, which might have consumed the offending world, descends and dwells among men. God can look upon man; can speak with him; can be approached by him. I am not now arguing for any disputed sense of words, or drawing any doubtful inferences: I simply lay before you the state of our fallen parents, unquestioned by any believers in Scripture; and assert that the very fact of this continued existence of themselves and the world around them, sentenced as both had been, and subject to the execution of that sentence, proclaimed to them with a voice not to be mistaken, "Sin is pardoned; God can be just, and yet a justifier." Enough for my purpose is the undisputed narrative of the sacrifice of Cain and Abel: from that I maintain, that there was, whatever it may have been, a place of God's

presence, where he received offerings, and from which he spoke; and that therefore the great watchword of redemption, "God with us," was in the possession of man from the very first entrance of sin into the world.

But though my foundations rest on the simple Scripture narrative, I would build upon them other considerations, not uninteresting nor unimportant. If I examine the nature of the appearance over against Eden, and compare with it the other manifestations of the Divine presence, I find certain symbolic forms common to them all. In the midst of the consuming fire, living creatures moved up and down. We find them in actual presence at Eden; represented in the Mosaic tabernacle; continued in Solomon's temple; revealed in the visions of Isaiah and Ezekiel, and particularly described in the latter; appearing again to the beloved Apostle in Patmos. Now I am not about to enter on any of the fanciful theories which have been raised upon the names and aspects of these symbolic beings: I wish simply to remind you of the few following particulars, which may be gathered respecting their purport. We find from Ezekiel that they were creatures compounded of the noblest forms in animated nature. We find again, where the prince of Tyrus is compared to one of these, it is called "the impression of

similitude, and the crown of beauty:" and as identifying it with the appearance in Eden, it is added, “Thou wast in Eden, the garden of God, and hast moved among the stones of fire." Again, in Isaiah's vision, where the Seraphim cry to one another, and ascribe holiness to Jehovah, they add, "the earth is full of thy glory;" or, according to our marginal rendering, "thy glory is the fulness of the earth." Again, in Solomon's temple, by the Psalmist, and by Ezekiel, I find them described as bearing up or carrying the glory of the Lord. I am led from these circumstances to infer that these forms symbolized the animated creation.

Now, if I search the Apocalyptic visions, I shall find this idea strongly confirmed. There' they are represented, as in Isaiah, as ascribing holiness to the Lord God Almighty: and we read, "And when those living creatures give glory and honour and thanks to him that sate on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty Elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power : for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created." In the next chapter, they are included among those

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9 Ezek. xxviii. 12; LXX. version.

2 Rev. iv. 6-11.

1 Isa. vi. 3.

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ver. 9.