CHAP. I. 3. Engraved charac ter. Καράκτηρ καὶ εἴκων Θεσ. Life in Doddridge. him we see, and by him we approach, the invisible and inaccessible. "And engraved character of his subsistence." Philo calls the Logos "Karakter kai icon Scott's Christian Theou;"* by which it appears, that the term might have been familiar to the Jews, before the Apostle wrote; indeed, I think it has its origin in the Old Testament Scriptures; and this clause, taken in connection with the former, appears to be a reference to Num. xii. 8. Num. xii. 8. Num. xii. 8. Ex. xx. 4. In Thomson's translation it is rendered "He hath actually seen the Glory of God." The Jews gloried much in Moses; the great privilege, however, which he enjoyed over other Prophets, was, "beholding the similitude of the Lord;" the word here translated 66 similitude," is the same as that rendered in Exodus xx. 4, "likeness," which is in connexion with the expression graven image." Thus it appears to convey much the idea of the expression in this Epistle, Engraved Character.' Moreover, the term similitude of the Lord,' is, in the Septuagint, rendered Glory of the Lord;" so the Apostle appears 6 The illustrious Moses has compared the form of the rational soul to no created being, but has said, that it is the genuine impression of that divine and pure Spirit, stamped and moulded by the seal of God, of which The Eternal Word is THE EXPRESS IMAGE. Philo in Pye Smith, p. 581. The Jews observed the difference of persons in Ex. xx. Comp. v. 6 and 7, "me" and "his," which led them to declare that the one was "The Word;" this I think quite correct, and El Kana,' a jealous El, perhaps betokens the relation of husband, and the jealousy is not of being represented, but of an idol being made instead of him, the only "Similitude of Jehovah," and thus we see, how Idolatry is constantly set out by Adultery,' in Scripture. to lay hold of both the Hebrew and the Septuagint, by the two terms,* Brightness of Glory and Engraved Character;' thus he prepares for shewing the superiority of Christ over Moses, declaring the one to be that Glorious Person, in the beholding of whom consisted the great privilege of the other. “The Effulgence of the Glory" may denote that which is displayed of the Godhead, and the subsistence of GOD is that which he essentially is; but "his subsistence" I should conceive to imply, what God the Father personally is, or that incomprehensible subsistence, which makes him to be regarded in the relation of Father, by which he is personally distinguished from the Son, however Amyraldus conceives otherwise.† Beza refers "The Brightness," &c. to the humanity of Christ, because that must needs be here meant, whereby we come to know the Father by the Son, and this is not by his divinity, but by his humanity; for, in the Son taking flesh, God is revealed to us, and not in his naked Divinity; but, with Meyer, we must understand it to embrace both natures; For," says he, "take him as man only, he is no such Brightness; take him as God only, and to us he is not such Brightness." 66 + "It may be doubted whether Person' exactly conveys the intention and emphasis of the word used by the Apostle, for he does not express himself thus, "The Son is the engraved mark or imprint of the Father,' but The engraved mark of the subsistence of God.' The term, The Father,' not being in any of the preceding words, but only that of God,' now, it is certain, he who says Son,' obliges the intellect to reflect on the relation of Father; but you will allow, that, since he has expressed himself by the term God,' rather than that of Father, it appears, that he preferred suggesting the idea of Deity, surrounded with its marvellous attributes, eternal essence, and infinite majesty, to that of the relation of Father, by which he is distinguished CHAP. 1. 3. Hooker. John v. 26. Rom. i. The Engraved Character," or delineation, must, I conceive, be the shewing out of the Invisible. If the Father is self-existent, or of none,' (for the substance of God with this property, to be of none, doth make the Person of the Father,) to the character of his subsistence must be given "to have life in himself," which was so "defined" or "declared" "by his resurrection from the dead.” In this instance, he is the engraved character of the Father, or of that, which is attributed specially to the first Person in the Godhead; but he must also be the engraved character of the Father in those essential properties, which are common to all the subsistences in the Godhead: if the Father is omnipresent, so must Christ fill heaven and earth, though from the Son; and of this incomprehensible subsistence, which makes him to be regarded as Father, and not properly as God. Moreover, what I have said upon the word effulgence,' which has been employed to shew us that Christ is he in whom God, who, otherwise unknown, manifests himself to us; should equally be said of the word "engraved mark," "character," or "imprint;" I can well understand that a Son may be called the image of his Father, because he represents him in the faculties of his mind, the structure of his body, and the lineaments of his face; but how he can be said to be his image, in regard to that method of subsistence which distinguishes the one from the other, is what I do not comprehend. And it appears to me, that the method of subsistence which constitutes the one a Son, is as incomprehensible to me as that which makes the other a Father: and that I cannot recognise the one by the other, as one would an original by his portrait."-Sermons prononcez à Charenton, par Moyse Amyraud. 1658. This appears to me unanswerable against those who suppose the Apostle to be speaking of the essential Sonship. CHAP. I. 3. not with his humanity; yet " his humanity is 6 be meritorious, Now, as in Christ there is an effulgence of the qualities, both intellectual and moral, of Deity whereby he acts, " for he had the same justice, the same goodness, the same wisdom, His goodness, to the same mercy," &c. as God, so that he could say, "He that has seen me, has seen the Father." So also there is, in like manner, an image of God in Christ's works; and though the image of God in Christ's person be more excellent, yet this excels the image of God in Angels, or any other creature: so In this sense, what Benuit says, I think, holds good; "The resemblance is as original as the original, and hence it comes that the one has nothing, which is not in the other, that, by a reciprocal communion, all the Father is in the Son, all the Son is in the Father. The Father and the Son are but one, and if there is any property which distinguishes them, there is at least. no diversity, which prevents the one from being seen in the other." + I would grant, that the miracles which Christ wrought before the multitude, were probably intended to display his authority, or confirm his mission, but the exhibition of his attributes to the disciples was in proof of his divine person; he displays his prescience (John xiii. 19) that they may know him to be the " I AM." John recorded them, that we might believe, that Jesus is the Son of God, so his followers, when convinced of his omniscience, (John xvi. 30,) believed that he " came forth from God:" which expression must, I conceive, imply more than that he was a Prophet; I think it must denote his divine origin. good but God;" for the merit of an action must be resolved into the it springs. source whence CHAP. I. 3. is he called 1 Cor. i. ult. Goodwin. 66 the Wisdom of God," and the Power of God," in the abstract; but he is not so called in respect of that image of God, which shines in his person, but in the works he has done, as he is "made unto us wisdom, righteousness," &c. 66 Upholding all things by the Word of his Power."* This expression, I conceive, (like that in Col. i. 17, " By him all things consist,") to be a periphrasis of Adonai, the Sustainer, or Upholder, a title specially, though not, perhaps, exclusively, belonging to Christ. Goodwin says, "The Jewish Cabalists confess the mystery of that name, Adonai, or title of Lord, (and so the Person of him, the Son, that more particularly bears *The Targumist on 2 Chron. ii. 6, uses a phrase very much like this, "God .... whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, because," adds he, "he bears or sustains all things by the arm of his power."- Gill. This WORD of the Supreme Essence is the bond of the universe, which contains and clasps together all its component parts.-Philo in P. Smith, p. 583. The ETERNAL WORD of the Everlasting God is the supremely strong and firm support of the universe. Extended from the midst to the extremities, and from the summit to the midst, he moves round the unwearied course of nature, holding together and clasping all its parts, for the Father who begat him hath made him the unfailing bond of the universe.Ditto, p. 558-9. There is nothing can stand out of God, and there was none must or could stand in God by a personal union, but he (i. e. Christ,) they (i. e. the creatures,) could not have been to have stood in God manu-tenently, or to have been upheld by his immediate power, without the Mediator, whom he had appointed heir of all things, by whom also (as that heir of all,) he made the worlds. Hussey, Glory of Christ, p. 76. |