late heritages."[742]

How glorious this sign!--The Messenger of the Covenant, the Mediator of
the New Covenant, Immanuel--God with us! But for his covenant, he had
remained unseen by the eye of man. To make that known, he made his
fallen creatures see God. The universe of material nature is glorious.
More glorious is the intelligent creation. Both together are tokens of
God's wisdom, and goodness, and power. But what was to be a token of his
attributes in all their glory displayed in the salvation of man? The
laws which he has given to his creatures are tokens of his will
concerning them. But what creatures could sufficiently denote his
covenant, its blessings, and its duties? The sabbath, and circumcision,
were each, at once a privilege and a duty, and, as well as other things,
a sign of the Covenant. But what among the effects of Jehovah's
sovereignty, could betoken it in all its glory? Its effects on creatures
being finite, what is finite might these in some measure point out. But
could any dependent being fully designate its glorious origin, and
infinite Surety? The world is finite, though due to Almighty power, and
so are its ordinances; and a finite being might betoken these. Miracles
of healing, raising the dead, of controlling the material world, and the
actions of angels and men, and of bringing from spiritual death to life
are all finite, but beyond the might of less than Almighty power. And
all these in some measure by some creature as a token might be
signified. But the law of God embodied in his covenant is exceeding
broad; its blessings are inconceivably great. God is the author of the
Covenant. God is the mediator of the Covenant. God in his own nature and
in the nature of man, is the glorious body to which are spiritually
united the children of the Covenant. God, in the nature of man, alone
could have afforded a manifestation of the Covenant adequate to its
character. Behold, then, as the most glorious display that has been made
of God or his ways, the Lord Jesus given to denote the Covenant that had
been made for the people!

FOOTNOTES:

[662] Gen. ix. 12-15.

[663] Gen. vi. 17, 18.

[664] Gen. vi. 18-21.

[665] Gen. viii. 20-22.

[666] Gen. ix. 11.

[667] Gen. ix. 16.

[668] Gen. vi. 5.

[669] Job xxii. 17.

[670] Job xxii. 21.

[671] Ps. civ. 5-9.

[672] Jer. v. 22-24, 2, 7, 25.

[673] Is. liv. 9, 10.

[674] Ezek. xvi. 8, 59.

[675] Ezek. xi. 21.

[676] Ezek. xi. 19, 20.