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holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith."* By the flesh of Jesus the Apostle evidently means his Human Nature, and by it, he says, we have access to the holy of holies, meaning, to the Inmost of Deity.

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Jesus Christ while on earth, when he speaks of himself as distinct from his Father, means, by that mode of phraseology, to speak of his Humanity as distinct from the Divine Essence. Now he says, "No man cometh unto the Father but by me ;"+ a clear declaration, that only in and by his Glorious Person is communication to be had with the Essential Divinity. When this is joined, as it is in the sacred narrative, with what he immediately aftewards said to Philip, remarked upon in the last Section, the evidence of the truth becomes irresistible. It is impossible to affirm more strongly, that the person of Jesus, or his Glorified Humanity, is the only Medium of communication between man and the Divine Essence, the only vehicle, so to speak, in and by which the pure Divinity can be seen or comprehended. Similar is the statement of the Evangelist John himself: "No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him ;" where the word in the original means, as already noticed, "hath manifested him," or " brought him forth to view." Thus, as the Lord Jesus Christ is the Divine Form which gives man access to God, so is he represented as being also the Medium which reveals the Godhead, and all things belonging to it, "All things," saith he in Matthew, are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him." So, in other passages, he is represented as receiving in himself all things be longing to the Father, and then, as the only Medium of communication between man and the Father, dispensing them to mankind. "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; even so he that eateth me shall live by me."§"When the comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me." "He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine and show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you."¶

to man.

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Many similar declarations might be adduced; but these may suffice for our present purpose. They abundantly represent

*Ch. ix. 19. † John xiv. 6. Ch. xv. 26.

‡ Ch. xi. 27. § John vi. 57. Ch. xvi. 14, 15.

the true nature of the Mediation of Jesus Christ, and show that it consists in his Glorified humanity's acting as a Medium, by which access is afforded to man from God, and divine benefits, even the gifts of salvation, which are the communications of the Holy Spirit, are conveyed from God to man.

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The reader, I am sure, will be gratified by seeing the above idea beautifully illustrated by Dr. Watts, "The sun in the natural world," he observes, "is a bright emblem of Divinity, or the Godhead; for it is the spring of all light and heat and life to the creation. Now if we should suppose this vast globe of fire, which we call the sun, to be inclosed in a huge hollow sphere of crystal, which should attemper its rays like a transparent veil, and give milder and gentler influences to the burning beams of heat, and yet transmit every desirable or useful portion of light or heat; this would be a happy emblem of the Man, Christ Jesus, in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Is the Lamb of God, who, in a milder and gracious manner, conveys the blessings originally derived from God, his Father, to all the saints. We partake of them in our measures in this lower world, among his churches here on earth; but it is with a nobler influence, and in a more sublime degree, the blessings of paradise are diffused through all the mansions of glory, by this illustrious medium of conveyance, Jesus the Son of God."* This emblem is as just as it is striking, provided we guard against one or two misapprehensions which may arise from it. Though the Son of God, or the Divine Humanity, is the medium of conveying all blessings to men and angels, we are not to regard it as a mere passive conveyance, but an infinitely active one. He says, "As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself:"+ thus the Divine Energies or Holy Spirit are not simply transmitted from the Divine Essence through the Humanity, but are first received by the Humanity, and thence, by its own life and activity derived from its perfect union with the Divine Essence, dispensed to mankind; precisely as is expressed in the words quoted above," whom I will send unto you from the Father." Secondly although it is true that the rays of Godhead are "attempered" by the Ilumanity, they are not thereby weakened or biunted; but on the contrary, are rendered, as to their influence on man, far more penetrating and powerful; so that Watt's crystal sphere must be considered as operating, with respect to man, in the manner of a magnifying lens. Thus the prophet, in regard to the effect on man of the assumption of humanity by Jehovah, uses these strong figures: "In that day, the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and

* Works, vol vii. P 148.

† John v. 26.

the light of the sun shall be seven fold, as the light of seven days; in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of her wound."* Be it also ob

served, that if the sun inclosed in a crystal sphere, is, as suggested by Watts, a just emblem of the Father and Son of the Scriptures, we see how impossible it is to regard them as two persons; we see that their relation is precisely that of the soul and the body; and we see how idle it must be to seek for God, anywhere but in the Person of Jesus Christ: to which convic tion Dr. Watts himself is reputed to have arrived before he died.

the sun.

This is the way, also, in which the Lord Jesus Christ makes intercession for man: not by intreating a wrathful God to look on him with pity, but by affording the requisite Medium by which a defiled creature, like man, can approach the holiness of an infinite God, without perishing in the attempt, as a piece of earthly substance would do on approaching immediately to Can they who believe in intercession by intreaty, pretend to deny, that in heart they believe in at least two Gods, and those, also, of opposite natures? For how can the God who supplicates and intreats, be the same God as he who is supplicated and intreated? How can the nature of the God, who, without any feast on another's sufferings to appease his offended justice, intreats and supplicates another God to lay aside his wrath, be the same as that of him who only lays aside his wrath in compliance with such intreaty and supplication? Nay, how can the God who cannot raise man to heaven of his own free motion, but must first obtain his forgiveness of another God by prayer and supplication, be any God at all? Does not the supposition fully imply, that the Father and Son are as completely two Gods as any two human beings are two men, and that they differ as much from each other as a subject from an absolute sovereign? All this fiction, also, respecting the Lord's mediating and interceding for man by praying to the Father, has been invented in direct contradiction to his own as surance: I say NOT unto you," he declares "that I will pray the Father for you: for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God." It is in vain to offer to put this proof aside, as has been attempted, by referring to the instances, in John xvii., of the Lord's praying for his disciples: for does it follow, because the Lord prayed for his disciples before his complete glorifica tion, that he prays for them now? Before his glorification he prayed for himself; does he pray for himself now? As has been proved in the preceding SECTION,* since his glorification, † P. 392.

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* Isa. xxx. 26.

↑ John xvi. 26, 27.

or perfect union with the Father, he does not pray to, or address in any way, the Father at all, being the One Person with him. It is in reference to the completion of this union that he here says, "I will not pray the Father for you: for the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God." To believe that the Lord came out from God, is, as we have seen in the last SECTION,* to believe that his Humanity is an immediate evolution from his Divine Essence- an actual manifestation of what was always potentially included in the Divinity, ready to be put forth, for the salvation of man, when the fullness of state and time should have arrived. When this is acknowledged, the Father himself is said to love us, because the love which constitutes his essence is then capable of being communicated to us and received by us. Hence again we see that the Lord's Humani ty is the Medium by which we gain access to his Divinity, and are brought into communication with it; just as by the medium of a man's body we gain access to, and have communication with, his soul. The Lord teaches the same truth in the most direct form when he says, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.”+ What is the door but the medium of access? And that, to obtain such access, we are to address the naked Divinity immediately, but the Lord Jesus Christ as the Divine Person of the Father, he again teaches when he says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber."

Consider the subject seriously, ye Candid and Reflecting! and examine whether this is not the only view of the Mediation of Jesus Christ which harmonizes with all the great truths of Scripture and reason, and, without taking any thing away from what is really taught in the Scriptures, renders the subject invulnerable to any deistical objections. Jehovah assumed Humanity to make himself accessible to his fallen creatures. We are to avail ourselves of the Medium thus divinely appointed, and approach him therein. "Let us enter into the holiest by the new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh." Let us accept with thankfulness the saving blessings which his Glorified Humanity is the only Medium of conveying to man's soul.

In conclusion: May not these views of the New Church on the Atonement and Mediation of Jesus Christ be confidently recommended to the consideration of the Candid and Reflect* Pp. 425, 426.

John x. 9.

Ver. 1.

ing? Do they not unfold the true doctrine of the Scriptures on these momentous subjects, in a manner which is calculated to recommend the Scriptures themselves to the more cordial acceptance of men of reason and reflection? Do they not satisfactorily clear the Christian Religion from the imputation of sanctioning doctrines at which all reason and common sense revolt, by showing that the sentiments on those subjects which bear that character are not those of the true Christian Religion, but are the mere fallacious conclusions of gross minds, that have looked at the Scriptures in a merely superficial manner? Do they not evince, that the genuine doctrines of Scripture are here co-incident with the views of sound reason and true phi losophy? Ought not then the writings of the enlightened Instrument by whom these doctrines are deduced from the Scrip tures, to be favorably regarded by all those to whom true phi losophy, sound reason, and scriptural theology, are objects of esteem?

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