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Triumphs of Truth
Chapter 13
From the above texts, with the general spirit of revelation, we are plainly taught, that the blessed Jesus as mediator did exist before all worlds; and that as mediator he existed in both natures, divine and human, or God and man; as man he came down from heaven, and afterwards ascended up to heaven, where he had been before; in the human nature, as a victim for our sins, he was as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and in the divine nature he was performing all that was requisite to the divine; and so divinity and humanity in one mediator is, and was in existence from the foundation of the world; and as mediator he has officiated in his priestly office from the beginning, without beginning of days, without predecessor or successor, but a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec. This is our high priest, he is higher than the heavens, the offering of himself or of his manhood, is all-atoning, for he was offered through the Eternal Spirit without spot, the victim in our nature dies, but dies upon the altar of divinity, which sanctifies the gift, and is offered through the Eternal Spirit; and he makes peace through the blood of his cross, and reconciles the world to himself. This is the mediator of the New Testament, who by means of death for the transgressions committed under the first testament, has in his priestly office and by his offering obtained eternal redemption for us, and so we may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Having briefly noticed the priestly office of Christ, and plainly showed the indispensable necessity of the real existence of his human nature in that office, I shall now proceed to show that his human nature did exist necessarily to his prophetical office in his mediatorial character. If it was by the word of the Lord that the prophets of old were taught what to speak to the people, then that word was in existence, and not only taught the prophets in dreams and visions, but in personal and visible form. Holy men spake as they were taught by the Holy Ghost, but the word of the Lord came unto the prophets; thus the spirit in the word came unto them, and the word taught the prophets what to teach the people, and so it is said, God spake in time past to the fathers by the prophets; but he spake to them by his word. See I Sam.3:4, "The Lord called Samuel; and he answered, Here am I." V s 21, "And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh; for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord." Compare Eze.33:1, & chap. 22:1, & 21:1, & 24:1, &c. Thus the word of the Lord came unto the prophets, saying unto them, prophesy thus and thus; was not that word which came unto them a prophet to them, teaching them what they should teach the people? When the Word was made flesh he spake to the people himself in person; but under the former dispensation the Word came to the prophets, and sent them to the people with the message which he had delivered unto them. I know there are many in the present day that have been taught by tradition, to hold a scheme in direct opposition to this, and which is derogatory to the primitive glory of the mediator, and some have even denied that this prophet was in existence! But we will prove by positive scripture, that as man he did exist, in his prophetical office, long before his birth of Mary. O that God may help the reader to divest himself of every improper bias, and enable him to see and love the truth, and no longer deny the existence of the mediator in our nature. It cannot be denied by any well informed christian, but that the man Christ Jesus was in his prophetical office ages before Mary's time, or before he was born of Mary, and as man was seen by, &c., talked with many of the old saints, not in visions only, but in real and visible form, and was called a man by the saints, and I dare not contradict them, as I must do if I deny that he existed as man before his birth of Mary. See Gen.18:1,2,3, "And the LORD appeared unto him [Abraham] in the plain of Mamre; and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; and he lifted up his eyes, and looked, and lo, three men stood by him; and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent-door, and bowed himself toward the ground, and said, my lords, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant."
From this passage we are informed that the LORD appeared unto Abraham with other two men, and as Abraham speaks to them all together, and calls them his lords, he does not capital the word lords as he does in the first verse; but at the tenth verse the Lord is spoken of distinct from the other two, and from this forward, as in the first verse, where he is spoken of distinct from the other two, the term Lord is in capitals, which might have been properly rendered Jehovah; it seems therefore that one of the three men was Jehovah, for when the [two] men turned their faces from thence and went towards Sodom, that "Abraham stood yet before the LORD;" and at the 22nd verse, Abraham commences his entreaty in behalf of Sodom. At the close of the chapter it is said, "And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place." Some may think that the LORD was not one of the three men that Abraham first saw, but a fourth one. This objection must vanish at once, if the reader will notice the 19th chapter, 1st and 2nd verses. In the first verse it is said, "There came two angels to Sodom at even." Now these two angels that came to Sodom at even were without doubt two of the men that Abraham had seen in the heat of the day, that turned their faces towards Sodom, from the place where Abraham had plead with the Lord in behalf of Sodom. Now these two angels that came to Sodom were called men by Abraham, and angels by Lot. I believe they were men, and Lot properly called them angels, because they were messengers from God, and in this sense men are frequently called angels, because the word angel signifies a messenger; and the LORD that communed with Abraham is here called a man, and as such talked with Abraham and Sarah, and that in his prophetical office, for he taught them many things respecting the birth of Isaac, and the seed of Abraham. Can any man account for the LORD'S being called a man, his conversing with Abraham as a man, his delivering this promise and prophecy to Abraham as a man, if the mediator as man at that time, had no existence; surely he did then exist as man, for as man Abraham saw him, and he never could have seen him as man, if he then had no existence as man, and on this account Abraham calls the Lord a man, because the Lord appeared to him in the man, therefore the man must have been in existence, or he could not have been seen as man. His appearance on this occasion was as a prophet to Abraham, or in his prophetical office, which shows the existence of his human nature, as requisite to his prophetical office as mediator.
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