Labouring under this most blighting and soul-darkening opinion for several centuries, without the light of any new revelation, and without the aid of that immediate inspiration which attended Moses and the prophets, their foolish hearts became darkened as a necessary consequence. Inflated with pride, and a false but sincere reverence for the scriptures of a previous age, they became a conspicuous and warning example to this generation of ignorance, not only of the scriptures, which they carefully memorized, but also of all the essential attributes of the person, character, and doctrine of God.
Now, sir, during the long period of sixteen or eighteen hundred years, in which the light of immediate revelation has not shone, the religious world have fallen into similar and even far greater darkness. The true and living God is not known as I shall proceed to show.
The religious world have an abundance of zeal for God, and diligence in spreading the scriptures and their missionaries over the face of the earth; but, alas! the God they profess to worship is an unknown God, and this ignorance of God is the legitimate consequence of not having immediate revelation from him, during a long period of near eighteen hundred years; and unaided by the spirit of inspiration, the ancient scriptures have become a dark and obscure book—their import has been warmly debated by a thousand learned disputants, without any prospect of approximation to unity.
A very general conviction concerning the character of God now is, that He is a Being without body, or parts, or passions. A greater absurdity cannot be furnished in all the annals of heathenism. Even images of wood, and brass, and stone, are scarcely more remote from the picture of the true God, than the theory of a passionless, matterless God—an inconceivable sort of chaotic being, that is without form, or void, or dwelling place! a being whose circumference is everywhere, and his centre nowhere!
Another theory concerning God, that is entertained by Jewish Rabbies, though of an opposite character, is not much more extravagant than the common orthodox theory, viz, the Rabbies suppose that God is a Being of some "millions of miles in length."
Again, the popular notion of modern Jews, as expressed in a recent number of the Jewish Chronicle, is, that the Almighty God is a Being of such infinite dimension, that He cannot condense himself sufficiently to speak to men, or be tangible or visible by mortals. Accordingly, when he gives revelation to men, He creates a fictitious or imaginary messenger, through whom he communicates his will, and this messenger has no real existence in the eye of God, and only in the momentary perception of the person addressed.—(See Millennial Star No. 15, also Jewish Chronicle.)
From the foregoing it may be seen how grossly ignorant both Jews and Christians are of the person of God, the Creator and Saviour of the world! All this, too, in an age of the world boasting of blazing light! of a millennial dawn! of the unparalleled march of improvement! but, alas! the very God and Father of us all, who ought to be truly known in order to be rightly worshipped, is regarded as the most insensible (a God without "passion" must be insensible), and irrational, and unattractive as to form, of all beings that can be conceived of; and the most surprising feature in all modern theology in an age of sanity is, that this notion concerning the person of God, is deducible from the scriptures of the Old and New Testament.
The New Testament tells us most unequivocally what kind of person God has, and whether he is a Being having both passion and physical form. It tells whether he can be so "condensed" as to speak to men, and be seen of them, and talk to them face to face, as a man talks to his fellow man. The New Testament declares that in Jesus Christ dwelt the "FULNESS OF THE GODHEAD, BODILY."
Now, if the Godhead dwelt in the body of Christ, then it is certain that God is not without a body. But He has a body; and what is His body like unto? The New Testament tells us what His body is like. It is so nearly and exactly like unto the body of Christ, that there is no difference. Paul says, that Christ was the "express image of his person." It is then beyond all dispute that the body and person of Jesus Christ and the Father are alike. Language cannot express the similitude of the Father and the Son in plainer or stronger terms. Then, if we can show from the New Testament what kind of body or person Jesus Christ had, we can also tell what kind of body the Father has, because they are alike. One is the express image of the other. If one has a fleshy material body, the other has the same. If one resembles in stature the seed of the woman, the other also wears the same resemblance. If one can be so "condensed" as to speak and walk, and feel and act like a man, the other can do the same. If one wearing a body of flesh and bones, in all points like unto his brethren, is capable of holding all power in heaven and earth, and also of displaying the brightness of celestial glory, the other can do the same in a similar body of flesh and bones.
Well, now, what kind of body or person had Jesus Christ, which looked so much like the Father's person? Was it an airy, invisible, evanescent, mystical nothing, which some would denominate spirit? No, by no means; very much otherwise. Hearken now, my dear sir, and all ye readers, that have an honest desire to know the living and true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent, in order that men might know from the person of the Son what is the personal appearance of the Father. He, "the Word, was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth." Jesus had a fleshly form like the seed of Abraham, and being begotten of the Father he partook of his likeness. Men beheld his glory in human form, and Paul says that his glory was the glory of the Father.