TRIUMPHS OF TRUTH: CHRIST - MEDIATOR 13...

[ed. This is the twentieth of the 27-part-series from a pamphlet by Elder Wilson Thompson titled, The Triumphs of Truth. Or The Scripture A Sure Guide To Zion's Pilgrims.]


CHAPTER 20 THE MEDIATOR CONTINUED. 
Now who can thus view the primordial glory of the mediator, and read how they were chosen in him before the world was, how grace was given to them in him, how he appeared for the comfort of the old saints, revealing to them the glory of God and the promises of his grace; and   promises were ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. That the mediator as man laid aside this glory, and for our sakes became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich; how he gives to his people the same glory which the Father had given him, that they might be with him where he is, and behold the love wherewith God hath loved him and them before the world was; I say who can thus view the mediator, and not feel its practicable energies on the soul of the believer? Can I behold the whole Deity revealed in the mediator; and feel no hallowed passions for him? Can I behold the man in and through whom God emits his glory, in all its divine excellency, and feel no heavenly transport of soul? 

Can I behold in the mediator my nature gloriously arrayed with the divine glory, and lo, he lays his glory by and puts on a vestment of flesh, to suffer for my sins, and feel no contrition of soul? Can I see him rise again, with a laurel and the keys of hell and death in his hand, resume his primordial glory again, and hear him say, “I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,” and feel no emotions of gratitude possess my heart? No, my heart dissolves in penitential tears and songs of joy, my heart is smitten, is smitten with love to the King of saints. O for an immortal tongue, a cherubic song, and an eternity to spend in the sweet, the pleasing, the soul-ravishing employment of gazing on the glories and speaking of the worth of him who hath redeemed me unto God by his blood. If all this can be realized, and not have a practicable influence on the Christian, I know not what can move to practice; this view of the mediator must humble the Christian, exalt the Saviour in his views and affections, and expand his views of the glories of rich, sovereign and reigning grace through a glorious mediator. 

Objection: Was the human nature of the mediator self-existent, eternal, without beginning? Or was it brought forth at some period antecedent to the creation of this world? 

Answer: We cannot conceive of anything as being self-existent but God alone, but all before the world is eternity, yet God hath chosen us in Christ before the world was, and according to our view of things, God must have existed in his essence before he chose his people. As to the essence of love I cannot explain it, all I can know of love, or that love exists in any being is, when it acts upon some object. I cannot know that I possess one spark of love myself, unless I find that passion acting upon some object; therefore I have said in my other book [Simple Truth] “that love cannot be without its object, or without the object loved;” that is, love is only known to exist by its being active on some object; whatever love in its essence may be, I will not attempt to describe, but all I can know of it is in its being active on an object, and Christ as man is the object of the love of God, and seems to have existed ever since that love existed as an active principal, embracing an object beloved; and this was before the world was, but I have no dates to start it from and I will not conjecture on this point; but the scripture is plain. 

He was brought forth, set up, ordained, appointed heir, etc., and all before the world was. In relation to God he is his first born, his only begotten, his well beloved Son. In relation to his church he is the first born of every creature, our elder brother, etc. So we see plainly that he did exist before all worlds, that he was the object of God’s love before the world began, and that as such he was the brightness of God’s love and glory to the church, and that the same love which embraced or acted upon this object as the mediator of the church, embraced the elect church in him, as she was chosen in him before the world was, as Jesus said to the Father, “thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me, and thou lovedst me before the world was.” 

So we see, that this object was brought forth before the world, set up as the object of God’s love, by him or ever the earth was, with him in the beginning, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Now unless you can point out some going forth of the love of God before it went forth to Christ as its object, I still say that this object has existed ever since the love of God has existed as an active principal, or ever since the love of God went forth to an object, for Jesus was that object to which, and upon which this love first acted; so I may say, that Jesus as mediator, in the nature in which he does mediate, which is “the man Christ Jesus,” is the first begotten, the well beloved Son of God, who was in the bosom of the Father before all worlds and hath declared him unto us; this Son has come in the flesh, and John may say, “We have seen him, and do testify that he is the Son of God.” 

“Thus with my God the man I see, 

Who lived before the world could be, 

He lived, and in him scripture shows, 

The Father did his children chose. 

Thus I the mediator view, 

One person, but his natures two; 

As God he saves by might and power, 

As man redeems us in an hour. 

As God and man the throne he fills 

The man the glorious God reveals; 

To angels round his throne on high, 

Or men who on his footstool lie. 

My soul the Mediator praise, 

His manhood is the throne of grace, 

The God of grace enthroned here, 

Will hear the mourning suppliants prayer. 

Thither ye sons of God repair, 

And offer all your offerings there, 

Your God in Christ is reconciled, 

And smiles upon you as his child. 

Ye heavenly hosts around Him fall, 

And saints on this terraqueous ball, 

In strains as lucid as your joy, 

The Mediator’s praise employ. 

Adoring saints in heaven above, 

And saints below his glories prove, 

While through the man the God doth shine, 

They love the vision so divine. 

Now spotless Jesus, Mighty God, 

Redemption’s by thy precious blood 

To thee I come with sins and thrall, 

And find redemption from them all. 

When by the bleeding man I come, 

To God, and all my sins bemoan, 

I hear my heavenly Father say, 

Rise up my love and come away. 

Then in the Mediator’s face, 

I see the fullness of his grace, 

And for the immortal port I sail, 

When carried by the heavenly gale.”