Page:Sermons on the Ten Commandments.djvu/40

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Moreover, Jesus himself when he was in the world affirmed that "he and the Father were one,"[1] and that he who saw him, saw the Father:[2] said he, "Before Abraham was, I am,"[3] showing thus that he was the I am, Jehovah himself, clothed in a human form.

Now, if this be so,—if Jesus be Jehovah, the one God, at once the Creator and the Redeemer, then, it is plain that to worship any other God than he, is a violation of this Commandment. And this is still more clearly seen, when we consider the words that follow, understood in their spiritual sense. "I am Jehovah thy God, who brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of servants." Now by these words, spiritually understood, is signified the Redemption. For by the deliverance of the Israelites from the oppression of the Egyptians, was represented the Lord's work of Redemption, by which he delivered his people, that is, the good, the spiritual, from the bondage of hell, the tyranny of infernal spirits. By the people of Israel in the land of Goshen, while under the power of the Egyptians, were represented the spiritual, who lived before the Lord's coming, and who were reserved in a part of the spiritual world, termed the "lower earth," where they were, in a measure,, infested by the hells. They could not be delivered and elevated into heaven, until the Lord came in the flesh. But when he came, he emancipated them. This is what is meant in the old Apostles' Creed,, by the words, " He descended into hell"—hell,

  1. John x. 30.
  2. John xiv. 9.
  3. John viii. 58.