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CHAPTER III.

The God of the hidden Period.

And Abraham planted a grove at Beersheba, and he there on the name of Jehovah (El-Olam) the God o hidden period. Gen. xxi. 93.

In the early ages, Jehovah revealed himse

mankind under various appellations; which ap lations were all relative, and, in a way, met situation of those to whom they were seve disclosed. These gave rise to expectations, objects of which were firmly believed in, and a mighty influence over the life. Thus to A ham, after he had obtained a victory, and bro back the subjects of the king of Sodom that been carried away captive; after he had jected the offer of the goods of these captives, cause he had lifted up his hand to the mighty sessor of heaven and earth, that he would nothing, the Lord appeared, and bid him n fear, for that he would be his shield and exc ing great reward. Thus with the same patria when he was now within one year of an hund and when all prospect of offspring seemed ent cut off, God, to prevent his staggering at the mise that he was just going to make him, b

by telling him that he was (El-Shaddai) God allsufficient. This all-sufficiency he pledges to the accomplishment of things, which to Abraham might appear so difficult as nearly to imply an impossibility that he should be the father of a multitude of nations. Thus in the very same way by another appellation, he meets that natural terror so apt to rise in the mind at the thought of what that duration might be, over which death draws a veil; and which, on account of its being entirely unknown to mankind, was by the Hebrews termed Qlam, or hidden; and he calls himself, as forming here the rock of their trust, the God of that period, i. e. that even that dark unknoron should not separate them from him. So in Isaiah 40-28 he is termed not only the creator of the ends of the earth, as having to do with man in his mortal state, but also the (Elohe-Olam) the God of the hidden duration, as extending his care to the departed spirits, who are still represented as waiting for him. To prevent all doubting, he brought himself under a solemn engagement to that purpose, and to which he gave the name of the engagement of the hidden period (Berith-Olam); and as farther Gen. 17.7 exegetical of this, Jehovah adds immediately after, "to be to thee for a God, and to thy seed after thee." Now as all this is expressed as a future deed, it is upon it that the antient Hebrews raised

the observation, "that God is not in the most

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eminent sense called the God of any one, w he is in a state of mortality." Now this coven from its very name, involves in it the intermed state, and the resurrection, when Abraham his descendants were no longer visible to ear and when they, as we learn from Christ, were ex ing, according to the spirit, and living unto G Hebb This St. Paul plainly expresses, when he says Jehovah is their God, in that exclusive and propriate way, as to have them entirely to him as a holy nation, in that place which he hath pared for them. In the apostle's view, his be to be at some future period their God, entirely cludes earth; and is, by the reason he assi limited only to that city which at death rece their departed spirits. The circumstance of not being ashamed of them to be called their G implies such a situation as this, for on earth has always reason to be ashamed of them, stupid, dull, and stiff-necked people. How oft Abraham mistrusthis protection? even Moses sp unadvisedly with his lips. Isaiah confessed he was a man of unclean lips, and dwelling am a people of unclean lips. Here he has to tise them with the rod of men, and with stripes of the children of men," but there his I are in their hearts, and correction has no place This is the very view which Christ himself hibits in that passage of the Pentateuch, which

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b Mat. 22.32

seen so much overlooked by the Sadducees, as conaining a proof both of the present subsisting of ne soul, and of the future resurrection of the ody. "I am the God of Abraham and the God F.x.3.6,15,16 f Isaac;" I am the God of their hidden period or Mar. 12.26 ecret state of existence. Disappeared from Lk.20.37 nortal view, their souls are still in the secret place f Jehovah. This Christ virtually expresses, when e says, they all live unto him; that is, every paricle of their existence (which is never the case in this world) being entirely devoted unto him. Hence when to Abraham Canaan is promised, mot simply, but as a possession (Olam) of the hidden period, his idea rose from earth to heaven. The country which he now has in his eye, is enobled by the epithet which is added, heavenly; and he cheerfully acquiesced to become a pilgrim here, while the hope was given him of being exalted to be a citizen in that city which God hath prepared for him.

In this act of invocation we may view Abraham as pleading with God, the benefit of the discovery which he had condescended to make, and expressing his trust that Jehovah would, as he had promised, meet with him in that other world, and to whom in that state of existence his life was to be entirely devoted.

This engagement came to be termed the covenant (kodsho) not of his holiness, as in our version,

but

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but the covenant of his separation, that is an a ment (which is decidedly explanatory of the ginal word) to take his people by death among the nations of the earth, and to give a deliverance from enemies, in order that might serve him in holiness and right ness. Of this glorious and perfect separa there was exhibited an earthly reflexion in separation of the children of Israel from rest of the world, and giving them for observance a distinct body of statutes and The raising up the horn of salvation, or siah, was, according to Zechariah, " in ren -72 brance of his mercy to Abraham and his through the extent of the future age, and to mercy to our fathers." Nothing could have m our translators to recede from the sense giv the vulgate version, and to intrude their supplement, promised to, but the apprehensi giving somewhat of countenance to the li Patrum, in which these fathers were by supposed to be. They saw plainly the sen the words, " to exercise mercy with our fath but they could not digest the idea of the fa being where they needed any mercy. The not advert to this, that they, and others their state of separation, needed to be ranso from the power of Sheol; and that as Origen others had remarked upon the words, the nefits of Christ's death reached these spirits in invi

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