CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. THE words MEDIATION and MEDIATORIAL, are employed in the ensuing pages, with reference to the office of the Son of God, by which He is the medium and agent of all divine manifestations. He is contemplated as standing between the invisible One and creatures: as bringing into existence, preserving and governing all dependent beings, and as possessing in himself the attributes and perfections which are manifested in His works of creation, providence and grace-"the image of the invisible God""God manifest in flesh." In the Scriptures, the Mediator is represented in different aspects, as the creator and upholder of the dependent universe, the providential and moral governor, the redeemer of lost men, the final judge and rewarder; as the head and ruler of the kingdom created by him, and as accomplishing by his works an outward and visible manifestation of the divine perfections, counsels and purposes. The capacities and faculties of the souls of men, their thoughts, affections, purposes &c., are mani fested to each other through the instrumentality of material bodies, endowed with appropriate organs of perception. The invisible things of God are, in a manner, somewhat analagous, manifested to intelligent creatures through the visible person and works of the Mediator. In the great scheme of manifestation, or as incidental to it, was included, as the unfolding of it has shown, the existence of evil; the apostasy of the angels who rebelled, and of the human race; and a triumph over that defection, in the recovery of a portion of fallen men, and the subjugation and punishment of all other fallen beings. Doubtless His chief object in this, as in other parts of His mediatorial work, was to manifest the divine perfections. The salvation of a portion of the human race cannot be deemed to have been the chief and ultimate object. To suppose it to have been, is no more consistent than to suppose the apostacy of man not to have been foreseen at his creation, but to have been a casualty, an unexpected evil, requiring, on the score of justice to creatures, such a reparation as is effected by the work of Christ; in which case all the fallen would alike behoove to be saved. The purpose of manifestation required a system into which evil should be admitted. The actual system therefore permitted the apostacy of the angels who fell and of man. All the fallen deserve punishment, without respite or mercy; and but for the object of divine manifestations, there could be imagined no consistent ground for delay of punishment, or for the ransom and recovery of any through the atonement. Such recov |