03 - Chapter 3
CHAPTER III. A brief view of the worship which is addressed to our Lord Jesus Christ, and which acknowledges him to be God.
“THOU whose all providential eye surveys, Whose hand directs, whose Spirit fills and warms Creation, and holds empire far beyond!
Eternity’s Inhabitant august! ’ Of two eternities amazing Lord!, One, past ere man’s or angels had -began!
Aid, while I rescue from the foe’s assault” ’~ The holy’, worship of thine only Son, Who from Eternity was God with thee!
Aid thou my pen while I shall now describe, “ A theme forever, and for all, of weight, Of moment infinite! but relished most, By those who love thee most, who most adore.”
If the Bible proves that Jesus Christ is worshiped on earth and in heaven as God, certainly this must end all dispute as it relates to the Godhead of the adorable Savior. We are expressly forbidden by the Almighty Jehovah, to fall down and worship any thing in heaven or in earth, or in the waters under the earth, save himself alone. This idea is as clearly set forth on the pages of inspiration, as it is that there is any God at all. And, it is as clearly shown by the same book that Jesus Christ is worshiped as God, as it is that Jehovah is thus worshiped. The man who reads the volume of divine truth and does not see this must shut his eyes:
... “And bold with joy,.
Forth from his dark and lonely hiding place.
Portentous sight! Owlet infidelity!
Sailing oh obscene wings athwart the noon, Drops his blue-fringed lids, and holds them close, And hooting at the glorious sun in heaven, Cries out, “’Where is it?”
1. Jesus Christ is worshiped jointly with the Father and the Holy Spirit by his people both in heaven and on earth. In proof of this we will consider the numerous benedictions of an apostle on the Christian churches; “ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:3: 2 Corinthians 1:2. Galatians 1:3. Ephesians 1:2, and Ephesians 6:23. Php 3:1-21. Colossians 1:2:1 Thessalonians 1:1-10. 2 Thessalonians 1:2. Here the same blessing from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ is conferred by an inspired man no less than eleven times. The Father and Son are associated- together without any disparity in their characters, or claims to supreme divine worship! “ Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing, them in (eis) the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Matthew 28:18. It is admitted on all hands that baptism is an act of religious worship, and taking the common English version as it stands we have it “ In the name,” that if, by the authority of the sacred three. But as Unitarians believe the Holy Ghost to be only “ an energy* influence, or power, x>f The Father, it follows, if they are correct, that baptism is performed by the authority of Jehovah and a created being and an influence! This would be mere tautology. When the person is baptized in the name of the Father, certainly that includes all his attributes, then why baptize in the name of one of these attributes again? But who will ’deny that Jesus Christ is worshiped in this act even as the Father is worshiped?
Every person who reads the original of this passage, knows that the literal translation is, “ Go ye, therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them into (eis) the name, 3 ’ &c. Eis to onoma literally means, as we have stated already, into the name. With this translation of the preposition ew Unitarianism necessarily sinks one step lower. The candidate is baptized into the recognition of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost as his God. A late writer on Unitarianism* has tried to free his system from the burden this passage throws upon it; but every scholar who reads his work will see that he tried in vain, But Christ has settled this point when he says, that “ All men should honor the Son, even, as they honor the Father.” John 5:23. If the Father be honored as Creator, then the Son is to be honored in the same manner. If the Father be honored as Almighty, Preserver, or as the God of boundless perfections and glory; the Son claims the same honor. Again, we read “ Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Timothy 1:2. Titus 1:4. * John 3:1-36. Revelation 1:4-5. “Every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” Php 2:11. ’ Our Lord Jesus Christ, and God, <even our Father, * Mr, Morgridge, a preacher of the Christian denomination. comfort you hearts and stablish you.” 2 Thess. 6:16. “Every creature, which is in heaven and in earth, heard I saying, Blessing and. Honor -and Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever.” Revelation 5:13. From the above declaration of the word of God, it is evident that the worship done to the Father is also proffered, to the Son, that it is the same in quality and essence. Not the least shade of a difference can be made to appear. Then we have fully sustained the proposition that Jesus Christ is worshiped jointly with the Father and Holy Spirit, both in heaven and on earth. Nor does it seem rational that the Father would be associated with a mere creature in such acts of. solemn worship, after having expressly said that he alone would be worshiped and adored by all the saints on earth and all the spirits that shine in his presence above.
2. Acts of divine worship offered to Jesus Christ alone both in heaven and on earth.
“ All hail the great Immanuel’s name, Let angels prostrate fall,.
Bring forth” the royal diadem, And crown Him LORD of All.
Dear to the saints of God is the privilege of worshiping him who washed them in his own blood and made them Kings and Priests to God. Though they may be accused by Unitarians of.” worshiping God and two other beings,” or of being gross idolaters, yet while they think of the bower of prayer, they say, with bosoms heaving with love to the Redeemer, and to the Lord Jesus:
“How oft have I knelt on the evergreen there, And poured out my soul to my Savior in prayer.”
Says the blessed Savior, “ Where two or three are met in my name, there am I.” Matthew 18:20. To meet in his name} is to meet for his worship. “ And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus y receive my spirit.’. 5 Acts 7:59._ The Word “ God” is not in the original, we frankly allow. And it is strange that Unitarians should seize this circumstance, thinking that leaving the word God out, would benefit their system. Who did Stephen pray to with his dying breath, when he said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit? The word (epikaloumenon,) which is translated “calling upon, and saying,” literally means to invoke, or lopray, therefore it is evident he prayed to the Lord Jesus. Who else would the saint of God commit his soul to, at this last crisis? But this prayer of Stephen, the Martyr, A. D. 88, was not a singular prayer. The primitive Christians, in the days of the apostles, prayed to Jesus Christ usually. Says Paul, “ Unto the church of God that is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.” 1 Corinthians 1:2. No rational man can help seeing, that according to these words, all the saints called upon the name of Jesus Christ, that is, they prayed to him. Did they pray to a mere creature? How appalling the thought. They were bred from infancy to worship God only) and they had the most convincing proof of the Godhead of the Savior, or they would not have worshiped him as God. But we have a number of passages more to this very point. “ In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” Acts 3:6. This is a most solemn appeal to his Almighty power. “ Wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” Acts 22:16. “The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit.” 2 Timothy 4:22. “ But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to whom be glory, now and forever. Amen.” 2 Peter 3:18. “ When he bringeth his first begotten into the world, he saith.
Let all the angels of God worship him.” Hebrews 1:6. “ And I beheld and heard the voice of “many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, “and thousands of thousands, saying with aloud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive Power, and Riches, and Wisdom, and Strength, and Honor, and Glory, and Blessing.” Revelation 5:11-12. Are not the loftiest strains of angelic worship due to the Lamb even in heaven and shall we be called idolaters because we worship him in feebler strains below?
“We’ll crowd his gates with thankful songs, High as the heavens our voices raise, And earth, with her ten thousand tongues, ’ Shall fill his courts with sounding praise.”
Thus we see the Savior is worshiped in heaven, and on earth alone, and as God. But one or two testimonies more in regard to the devotions of the apostles and early disciples, of Christ. “ And they prayed and said, Thou, Lord, that knowest the hearts of all men.” Acts 1:24. The church was his peculiar care, for Jesus Christ was the head over all things to the church, and it was with the- utmost propriety, ’that they should call upon him while they were choosing a person to fill the same place and office, that one whom he had formerly chosen himself, had occupied. It is also evident that the disciples, after his resurrection, applied the titles Lord and God to him indifferently. “ Lord, wilt thou, at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel.” Acts 1:6. “ Philip, speaking to him says, My Lord and my God.” John 20:28. But lastly on this point. We read in the beginning of the ninth chapter of the Acts, that Saul breathed out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. When the Lord appeared to him, he inquires, “Who art thou, Lord,” “and the Lord said, I arn Jesus.” The same Lord appeared to Ananias, and Ananias said to him, “ Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem, and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind ALL THAT CALL UPON THY NAME.” Ananias went to Saul and told him, “ The Lord even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way as thou comest, hath SENT ME, that thou mightest receive thy sight.” This same Lord told Ananias that Saul was a chosen vessel unto him, and that he must suffer much for his name’s sake* Acts 9:16. But when Paul rehearsed this -story in his defence. Acts 22:1-30, he says; “Ananias came unto me, and stood, and said unto me. Brother Saul, receive thy sight, and the same hour I looked up upon him. And he said the GOD of our fathers hath chosen thee,” &c. From this we see that the Christians of the apostles’ days prayed or called upon the name of the Lord Jesus. generally, and this was a distinguishing characteristic of Christians,-that they prayed to Jesus-Christ. Again, Ave see that the same person is called Jesus, Lord, and God, in this transaction, even the God of the Hebrew Fathers. Certainly this is sufficient evidence that Jesus Christ was, and is, worshiped on earth, and as heaven as God, and consequently, when Trinitarians worship Him as such, they cannot justly be termed idolaters.