resem

mands

Ar guid people

th from

urse of is used

5): "0

in the hor; presence,

ated the

camp of the Israelites in the desert, was not incompatible with their nature; but as walking is to the body what progress in thought is to the soul, and as light is to the eye what knowledge is to the mind, walking in a light emanating from Jehovah is put for acting conformably to the teachings which he is to communicate for their guidance.

God is exhibited by the figure as having a human form, and exerting acts that are proper to man; as extending the hand, lifting up a standard, smiting with a sword, weighing in scales, and measuring with a span. Thus (Is. v. 25), "Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them." Stretching forth the hand, and smiting them, were not the acts he had really exerted, but they are put for the measures of his providence, by which the evils they had suffered were inflicted on them. They are not to be considered as used by a metaphor, for though they are not proper to God as a spirit, they are appropriate to him in the shape he has assumed in the visible revelations he has made of himself. In his immediate communications with men he has usually appeared in a human form, and the acts he has exerted were such as are proper to that nature. Thus it was in that form that he revealed himself

to the first pair in Eden; as is seen from his audibly blessing them, and giving them a law, their hearing his footsteps as he approached them after their fall, and his discourse with them on sentencing them for their transgression. He appeared in that shape also to Abraham, to Moses, to Joshua, to Manoah, to David, to Isaiah, to Ezekiel, to Daniel, and to John, and probably to the other prophets; and it is because of his revealing himself in that form, doubtless, that he is exhibited as exerting those and other similar acts. It is suitable, therefore, to regard them as proper to Jehovah, the Logos and Revealer, who is the person to whom those and other acts exerted towards the Hebrews are ascribed; and who at length assumed our nature, and having ascended the throne of the universe, is in fact now exerting, and is hereafter to exert in it, many of the identical agencies that are ascribed to him in the prophets by the figure.

It is employed again (Is. v. 26), in the expressions, "And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth; and they shall come with speed swiftly." Lifting an ensign or standard, and hissing, are put for providential acts, by which the nations were to be induced to invade Palestine. Means of a different kind were to be as efficacious for the

7

o Jaz

dit:
dori

nd othe
ard the

aler, wi
s exerts

I who a
ascende

exerting

identia

rophets

he expre

to the t

a from th

with spee and hissing the natives Means of ous for the

purpose, as a call by his voice, and were to make the place where they were to assemble as well known as though it were indicated by a standard that could be seen from their several stations. Stretching out the hand, and setting up a signal, are used in a similar manner (Is. xi. 11, 12). Hissing is employed by the figure (Is. vii. 18, 19) to represent the means by which the fly and bee were to be prompted to repair from Egypt and Assyria to Palestine.

Using the hand in meting, measuring, and other acts, is employed in one of the sublimest passages of Isaiah, to indicate God's omnipotence, the absoluteness of his dominion, and the nothingness, compared to him, of his works: "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord; or, being his counsellor, hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance; behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing, and

Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering" (Is. xl. 12– 16). These great acts-measuring the waters in the hand, spanning the heavens, weighing the mountains, comprising the dust of the earth in a measure, and lifting the isles as a very little thing—are thus taken as appropriate to, and natural criteria of Deity; and the question is on that ground asked, Who has exerted them, that he should be likened to Jehovah, and be made an object of homage instead of him? "All nations before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God, or what likeness will ye compare unto him?" (v. 17, 18). These acts are all thus in effect ascribed to him, and are employed to represent acts that bespeak his infinite power and dominion, and demonstrate his deity. And with what beauty the figure accomplishes its object? By what other expedient could so sublime an illustration be made, in so few words, of the grandeur of his perfections, and the subordination to him of all other existences?

There is a grand example of the figure (Ezek. xxxii. 7, 8), in which acts of the Almighty towards the heavenly orbs are employed to represent the judgments he was to inflict on the monarch and princes of Egypt. After announcing that Pharaoh

Deas

12

in the

easure, are this

teria of

d asked ikened to e instead

nothing nothing n God, or (v. 17, 18 him, and espeak his onstrate his

are accom

lient could few words, he subordi

Ezek. xxxi.
towards the
present the
onarch and
at Pharaoh

should be taken and slain, the prediction pro

ceeds:

"And when I quench thee I will cover the heavens,

And I will cause the stars thereof to be black;

I will cover the sun with a cloud,

And the moon shall not give her light

All the shining lights of the heavens

I will clothe with black over thee,
And I will set darkness upon thy land,
Saith the Lord Jehovah."

As in announcing that he would put out or quench Pharaoh, he treats him as though he were a light, or luminary-the sun, moon, and stars, which he threatens to cover and intercept from giving light, represent the heir of the throne, and other princes of his family. And this is in accordance with the method of representation employed by the Egyptians themselves, who used the sun as a hieroglyph of the monarch; its course through the heavens to represent his reign; and its descent below the horizon to denote his departure to the other world. The total interception of light from the other luminaries would thence naturally denote the deprivation of the royal line of its kingly and princely power, and exclusion from official functions. The Egyptians would accordingly have regarded the prediction as indicating, that on the fall of