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the Trinity, and in metaphysics, it refers to that which subsists, or underlies
anything, as opposed to attributes or `accidents'.
Take a crude illustration of the metaphysical usage.  Let us imagine we
have before us a brick.  Its shape is philosophically an `accident'; it is not
of the nature of essence, for a brick can be reduced to powder without altering
its chemical composition or its weight.  Its colour too is reflected light, and
if the light be changed, its apparent colour will change too.  In this way we
may remove one after another of the `attributes' of a brick until the mind
begins to inquire `what is then a brick?' and we are brought face to face with
the fact that even in the world of such palpable stuff as `brick', a world with
which we are acquainted, we are after all only acquainted with the superficial;
the underlying reality of matter is still beyond our ken.  It is for this reason
that we find the word hupostasis in Hebrews 1:3, where it is translated
`Person'.  Here again is a word in common use.  Yet we use a term that is highly
significant.  The word `person' comes from the Latin persona `to speak through'
and means a mask, especially one worn by play actors.  So Jeremy Taylor writes:
`No man can long put on person and act a part but his evil manners will
peep through the corners of his white robe'.
In Hebrews 1:1-3 Christ is said to be `the Express Image of His Person'.
Here we have two suggestive Greek words in apposition, charakter, `express
image', and hupostasis `person'.  Charakter comes from a word which means `to
engrave'.  Wycliffe uses it in his translation of Revelation 13:16.  The word
character also means `a letter' and in natural science, the essential marks
which distinguish a mineral, plant or animal, and so the ordinary use of the
term to indicate personal qualities.  God is Spirit.  God is invisible, and
Christ is `God manifest in the flesh'.  He is the `character' of God made
evident; the invisible hupostasis, that which `stands under' the substance,
being in Him made visible and expressed.  Faith therefore is the underlying
reality, the substance, of things hoped for.  In a legal document, the Petition
of Dionysia, the word is used as a technical term for the title deeds of a
property which was the subject of litigation.  We can therefore translate
somewhat freely, Hebrews 11:1, `faith is the title deeds of things hoped for'.
This brings us back to Ephesians 1:18.  `The hope of His calling' cannot
be severed from the faith, from things believed.  Things believed must refer to
the revelation made in Ephesians 1:3-14, which received the seal and the earnest
of the Spirit; we are therefore contemplating something new.  A new calling, a
new sphere, calls for a corresponding hope, and instead of actually teaching
what that hope will be, the apostle rather prays, knowing that an understanding
of its distinctive features will grow out of the believer's acknowledgment of
the truth already believed.  In some things we ourselves answer our own prayers.
The hope of His calling therefore must be closely related to the quality of our
blessings, `all spiritual'; the sphere of our future inheritance `in the
heavenly places', and the period of our election, `before the foundation (or
overthrow) of the world'.
Our hope therefore will be far above the earth which in the millennium and
in the new earth will blossom as the rose and be `Paradise restored'.  Our hope
will be realized `in heavenly places'; anything lower than this highest of all
spheres, would introduce a discrepancy between what we now entertain by faith,
and what we should actually enter by hope, which cannot be.  The fact that our
election antedates Genesis 1:2 removes this calling from any covenants
subsequently entered into either with Adam, Noah or Abraham.  What is true
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