All Christians agree in finding these characteristics, apparently so
incompatible, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, whom they call the
"Christ"; His followers gave Him this title by eminence, not that He had
been anointed in a sensible and material manner, as some kings,
prophets, and sacrificers anciently were, but because the Divine Spirit
had designated Him for those great offices, and He had received the
spiritual unction necessary thereunto.
We had proceeded thus far on so competent an article, when a Dutch
preacher, more celebrated for this discovery than for the indifferent
productions of a genius otherwise feeble and ill-formed, showed to us
that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah of God, was anointed at the
three grand periods of His life, as our King, our Prophet, and our
Sacrificer.
At the time of His baptism, the voice of the Sovereign Master of nature
declared Him to be His Son, His only, His well-beloved Son, and for that
very reason His representative.
When on Mount Tabor He was transfigured and associated with Moses and
Elias, the same supernatural voice announces Him to humanity as the Son
of Him who loves and who sends the prophets; as He who is to be
hearkened to in preference to all others.
In Gethsemane, an angel comes down from heaven to support Him in the
extreme anguish occasioned by the approach of His torments, and
strengthen Him against the terrible apprehensions of a death which He
cannot avoid, and enable Him to become a sacrificer the more excellent,
as Himself is the pure and innocent victim that He is about to offer.
The judicious Dutch preacher, a disciple of the illustrious Cocceius,
finds the sacramental oil of these different celestial unctions in the
visible signs which the power of God caused to appear on His anointed;
in His baptism, "the shadow of the dove," representing the Holy Ghost
coming down from Him; on Tabor, the "miraculous cloud," which enveloped
Him; in Gethsemane, the "bloody sweat," which covered His whole body.
After this, it would indeed be the height of incredulity not to
recognize by these marks the Lord's Anointed by eminence--the promised
Messiah; nor doubtless could we sufficiently deplore the inconceivable
blindness of the Jewish people, but that it was part of the plan of
God's infinite wisdom, and was, in His merciful views, essential to the
accomplishment of His work and the salvation of humanity.