02 — Christ's Divine Nature

Chapter 2 THE GLORY OF CHRIST’S DIVINE NATURE.

Dr. Priestly, the celebrated materialist and Unitarian, has remarked, that " the value of the gospel does not, in any degree, depend upon the idea which we may entertain concerning the Person of Christ, because all that is truly interesting to us is the object of his mission, and the authority with which his doctrine is promulgated." At what a great remove is this subtle remark from the whole scope and design of the sacred writings; from their special teaching on this very joint. As we have already seen, there is no topic of which they treat more largely than the Person of Christ; none on which they speak with deeper interest, and none of which they take more pains to present just conceptions. Our theme is his great glory. Our starting point is indeed far above us; it is a lofty eminence; but it is the only point of vision from which we hope to see him even " in part." The Scriptural views of the glory of Christ recognize his TRUE AND PROPER EQUALITY WITH GOD. If it is important to know anything concerning him, it is surely of importance to know whether he is God, or a mere creature. The difference is infinite. To assist us in deciding this question, I propose in the present chapter to institute the inquiry. What are the appropriate and peculiar excellencies of the Deity; to show that the same excellencies are ascribed by the sacred writers to Jesus Christ; and that he is therefore truly and properly God. Our first object is to institute the inquiry:

What are the appropriate and peculiar excellencies and claims of the Deity?

There is no uncertainty in human language when it speaks of this great theme. The first and most prominent thought, connected with the great word God, is that he possesses existence which is underived and eternal. This is what natural and revealed religion mean by God. The idea of an eternal, independent Being is the most exalted conception the human mind can receive of the all perfect Deity. He is one who exists prior to every other being, and derives his existence from no other. He is self-existent, and has the principle of life in himself. This is the conception which the eternal Deity has of his own existence, and which he has revealed to men in the Scriptures. When he revealed his name to Moses, his words were, " I am that I am; that is my name. Say unto Pharaoh, I AM hath sent me unto you." The peculiar and distinguishing name of this uncaused and eternal deity is Jehovah and it is specially expressive of the majesty and glory of his underived existence. To this eternal being the Scriptures also ascribe infinite greatness and goodness. They represent him as immutable and as the being " with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." They speak of him as omnipotent, as " the mighty God," and the " Lord God omnipotent;" as omniscient, as the one who " knoweth all things," and " looketh on the heart;" and explicitly affirm that he, even he only knows the hearts of all the children of men;" as omnipresent, " Behold the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee;" " Do I not fill heaven and earth?" They clothe him, too, with the robes of supremacy, and declare that " Dominion is with him;" that he is " the King of kings and the Lord of lords;" that his "is the glory," and that "his glory shall endure forever."

Reason and the Scriptures also ascribe to him great and glorious works. They affirm that he has done, is doing, and will yet perform deeds which are done by no other being in the universe. They recognize him as the Creator of all things; as having "stretched forth the heavens alone, and spread abroad the earth by himself. They speak of him as the great Preserver, and say " that the heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts, the earth and all things that are therein, he preserveth them all." Him, too, they represent as the Redeemer. The whole work of redemption, from beginning to end, is spoken of as peculiar to God. " The salvation of the righteous is of the Lord." "I, even I, am Jehovah, and besides me there is no Saviour." And as the work of redemption in general is ascribed to God, so is each particular part of it. The work of atonement is attributed to him. " Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price; wherefore, glorify God in your bodies and spirits, which are God’s;" " the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood." Regeneration is attributed to him. " Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Justification is attributed to him. " It is God that justifieth." The resurrection of the dead is also declared to be his peculiar work. " Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead? God will raise up us by his own power." Judging the world is also the sole prerogative of God. "The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth." " The heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God is Judge himself." The destruction of this material universe at the consummation of all things, is likewise spoken of as the peculiar work of God. " As a vesture shalt thou fold them, and they shall be changed;" so also the final glory of the righteous and the final perdition of the wicked are declared to be the act of God. The Scriptures also enjoin duties which all are bound to perform toward God and God only. All creatures are under the strongest obligations to obey him. They are to love him with all their hearts, and to trust and confide in him. Nor are they allowed to place their supreme confidence in any other; " Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his aim." They are required to worship him, and him alone. It is written, " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." This is the Scriptural description of that Being whom the Bible calls God; such are some of the peculiar properties and claims which belong inalienably to the God of the universe. He is just such a Being as this — infinite, eternal, unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. They are not the property of any mere manifestation but of a Being. Nor are they the properties of man nor angel, nor any created being in the universe: they belong to Deity. Reason ascribes them to him: the Bible ascribes them to him, and gives him this high honor. It is thus angels and the spirits of the just honor him; thus that holy men on his footstool honor him; and thus he will be honored by the services and the song of an ever-growing eternity. We repeat the thought, therefore, that the great Being who is this and does this is truly God.

We are then now prepared to show that:

All these properties, and deeds, and claims are affirmed in the Bible to belong to Jesus Christ.

There are some comprehensive declarations on this subject, that are not to be overlooked. We are told that " all men and angels " should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." If they honor the Father as God, even so should they honor the Son as God, because he has all the properties and claims of God. They shall treat him as God for the same reasons that require them to treat the Father as God. Whatever of religious veneration, whatever of honor in any form, is given, or is due to the Father, the same is due to the Son. " All things’’ saith the Son, " that the Father hath are mine," — and what is so properly God’s as his divinity? His existence is my existence; his perfections are my perfections; his Works are my works; the allegiance and the service that are due to him, are mine; our natures are equal and our glory one. But it is important to substantiate this position; and therefore we remark, in the first place. The eternal existence of the Father is declared in the Scriptures to belong to the Son. "Eternity", that great and emphatic property of the Deity, is expressly ascribed to him. Speaking of himself, he says, " I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I am the First and the Last. Before Abraham was, I AM." The Prophet Micah, predicting the birth of Christ, proclaims, " Out of Bethlehem, in Judah, shall he come forth who shall be a ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting." There is a declaration of still more unequivocal and decisive import, and one in which the Saviour explicitly affirms that he possesses the wondrous principle of self-existence in his own eternal nature. " For as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself." This is the great and special attribute of the Deity; it is his gift, it belongs to his nature; and the Son possesses it in common with the Father. It equally belongs to both their natures to possess this principle of self-existence. He existed from eternity; the Father’s eternity is his eternity; he inhabits it: it is his appropriate residence, his own eternity. What an avowal is this from him who was despised and rejected of men! It is no marvel that the Jews accused him of " making himself equal with God." Nor is the force of this declaration at all diminished by the phraseology, "so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself." Literally understood, for the Father to give self-existence to the Son would be a palpable absurdity, because it would imply a dependent existence. The true meaning is that the Son is a partaker, a sharer in his Father’s eternity. Christ borrows his existence, not from another: it is not a stream from another source; the fountain of it is in himself. He, like the Father, is the uncreated one; nor is it possible for us to conceive, if he were a mere creature, though the highest of creatures, that he " could have life in himself"

Then, in the second place, all other properties which are peculiar to the Deity, are ascribed to Christ. The same names and titles that belong to the Father are given to the Son. He is called Lord by the Father himself " The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." In the vision which the Prophet Isaiah had of Christ, he says, " I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple." The angels, after his resurrection, say of him, " Come see the place where the Lord lay." Very frequently, indeed, this divine name is applied to Jesus Christ, both in the Old and New Testaments; the Saviour, even in his lowly humiliation, more than once thus applies it. Jesus Christ receives this name and title of the Deity in an acceptation altogether different from that in which it is applied to any human superior or prince. He is styled " The Lord of glory’’ and the " The Lord from heaven:’’ and ’’ King of kings" and " Lord of lords’’ In a multitude of passages, also, the Son is called God. Isaiah says, " For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and his name shall be called the mighty God." Even Dr. Priestly consents to regard this passage as " evidently referring to the Messiah." In the forty-fifth Psalm, which Jews and Christians regard as addressed to the Messiah, the writer addresses him in the following exalted strain: " Thy throne, O God is forever and ever." And in the epistle to the Hebrews the validity of this application is confirmed beyond a doubt. " But unto the Son he saith. Thy throne, O God is forever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." Socinians have affirmed that this passage admits of a different translation, and will bear to be rendered, " But to the Son he saith, God is thy throne forever and ever;" but there is no grammatical reason for this rendering, and the argument of the apostle forbids it. And why should we, by a harsh and repugnant metaphor, thus make the eternal majesty the throne of a mere creature? John, speaking of Christ, says, " And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ; this is the true God and eternal life." Paul says, " By whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever." " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The Word is obviously a person, and not an attribute. The attributes of God are nowhere personified by the writers of the New Testament. The Word is also here said to have " become flesh and dwelt among us." And who was this, but Jesus Christ? Thomas also said to Jesus Christ, after his resurrection, "My Lord, and my God!’’ and Paul says to Timothy, " I adjure you before God, even Jesus Christ."

There are several passages in which the Son is also called Jehovah. The prophet Isaiah, in the vision just now referred to, in which he saw the glory of Christ, says, "Mine eyes have seen the king, Jehovah of hosts." The same prophet, speaking of the forerunner and herald of the Messiah, says, "Prepare for the way of Jehovah; make straight in the desert a highway for our God." " Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom." " Surely shall one say. In Jehovah have I righteousness and strength; in Jehovah shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory." "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and prosper. In his days, Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is the name whereby he shall be called, Jehovah our righteousness." By the general consent of Jewish and Christian interpreters, this and a subsequent passage which is parallel to it in the same prophecy, designate the Redeemer. In the prophecy of Zechariah, where the converted Jews are represented as looking to the Messiah with hope and repentance, Jehovah is introduced as saying, " They shall look upon me whom they have pierced; and in John there is a reference to this passage, in which he applies it immediately to Christ as he was hanging on the cross. Another Scripture saith, " They shall look on him whom they have pierced." The Father addresses the Son in the following Ianguage: " And thou, Jehovah in the beginning, hast laid the foundation of the earth." In all these passages, the original Hebrew word is Jehovah. The Scriptures also ascribe the same nature and attributes to Christ which they ascribe to God. Immutability is ascribed to him. In the one hundred and second Psalm, there is a strong and beautiful description of the immutability of God: " Of old hast thou laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end." The author of the epistle to the Hebrews applies this description directly to Christ. " But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. Thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the foundations of the earth;" and then he repeats the whole of this passage from the Psalms which has just been recited. The writer of the same epistle elsewhere says, " Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever." Omnipotence is also ascribed to Christ: " His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God." Christ himself says, " I am Alpha and Omega, — the Almighty." Omniscience is ascribed to him: " His disciples said to him, "Now we are sure that thou knowest all things Peter said to him, "Lord, thou knowest all things. Our Lord himself says, "And all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and the heart." The most emphatic passage asserting his omniscience, if we mistake not, is in the following words: "All things are delivered to me of my Father; and no man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." This and the exegetical passages are remarkable declarations. It teaches us that such is the incomprehensibleness of the Redeemer’s nature that it cannot be known by finite minds, while he himself knows the infinite. " None knoweth the Son but the Father;" such is his nature that the knowledge of him is too high an attainment for creatures, and is possessed by the Father alone. God only knows himself. He is the sun which no mortal eye can look at; a deep where all created thoughts are drowned; a plenitude which none but the infinite mind can fill. The Bible has nothing to propose to our belief more adorable, more sublime, or wonderful, than the fulness of God. Eternity alone can develop it; nor will the development ever be completed. It must be seen with the eyes, and known by the intelligence of the infinite mind. The deeper we search into this unfathomable depth, the deeper we find it. "Neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son." Creatures do not know him, cannot comprehend him: He surpasses all comprehension but that of the Son. " O righteous Father!" says he, " the world hath not known thee; but I have known thee. " As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father." No one knoweth who the Son is, except the Father; and who the Father is, except the Son." The Father’s knowledge of the Son, and the Son’s knowledge of the Father, are reciprocal. It requires omniscience to comprehend either. Their knowledge is equal, having the same extent and plenitude. It differs from our notions of perception, association, and intelligence; yet this mode and extent of knowledge, and in relation to the most incomprehensible theme, belong to the Son. Creatures know God but in part. The Son comprehends the entire nature of the Deity; and this is one of the indications of his unaided wisdom, of that " light of light," which beholds the Deity without a veil and without a cloud; which is co-eternal with the all comprehending mind, and which in time, dignity, and perfection, is equal to the incomprehensible God.

We have remarked that the Scriptures predicate great and glorious works of the true God: they ascribe the same works to Jesus Christ. He is declared to be the Creator of all things. The Apostle John declares that " all things were made by him, and without him there was not anything made that was made." All things were made by him — the universe, worlds material and immaterial, were the product of his power. " Unto the Son he saith. And thou Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of thy hands." Paul says to the Corinthians, " To us there is one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things." And to the Colossians, speaking expressly of Christ, he says, " Who is the image of the Invisible God, the first begotten before all creatures; for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." In the epistle to the Hebrews, it is said, " By him God created the world:" Unitarians have deduced the inference from this passage, that Christ was the mere instrumental cause by which God produced the creation; and that this passage is the key to the true meaning of all those texts which speak of the Son as the Creator. But is it a questionable fact that God himself is the Creator? Do not the Scriptures affirm, that " God himself formed the earth and made it," that he alone " and not by other hands, spread out the heavens?" With equal clearness is the Son represented as the Preserver of all things. " By him, all things consist." Of him who is "the brightness of the Father’s glory" it is said, " upholding all things by the word of his power." And surely, it is needless to show that the work of Redemption is everywhere attributed to the Son. " His name is Jesus because he saves his people from their sins." He is the " Captain of our salvation." He is the " Prince and Saviour." It is expressly declared, " there is salvation in no other." And as the work of Redemption generally is attributed to Christ, so is each particular part of it. It is he who made the great atonement, and who " was set forth to be the Propitiation." He too is the author of Regeneration. " No man knoweth the Father, but he to whom the Son will reveal Him " Other sheep I have, them also I must bring." He also is said to " sanctify the Church, and cleanse it with the washing of water." Christ is also declared to be the Justifier: he said of himself, " The Son also hath power on earth to forgive sins." When his enemies once murmured, because he exercised this power before their eyes, he wrought a miracle to justify himself, and to prove to them that this prerogative of the Deity belonged to him, as well as to the Father. In the Prophets it is also written, " By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many." The Redeemed before the throne, also speak of him as " having washed their sins in his own blood." And it is moreover explicitly declared, that " he is the author of eternal life to all that obey him."

It is he also who raises the dead. "As the Father raiseth the dead, and quickeneth them, so the Son quickeneth whom he will." " The hour is coming, in the which all that are in their graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God and come forth."

He also shall judge the world. " The Son of man shall come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory," and "before him shall be gathered all nations." " We must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ? "The Lord Jesus shall judge the quick and the dead, at his appearing and his kingdom." Before him all the tribes of the earth shall stand; patriarchs and prophets, apostles and martyrs, kings and potentates of the earth, and of the universe, fallen and unfallen angels shall bow before his judgment-seat, as the absolute disposer of life and death, as the everlasting rewarder, the immortal king of ages, the sovereign Lord of men and angels, the supreme Judge of every intelligent creature.

It belongs to him also to destroy the world. " As a vesture the Son shall fold up the heavens, and they shall be changed." " His voice once shook the earth, but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven; and this word, yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken." Such are the high prerogatives of the Son, as the Creator, the Preserver, the Governor, the Redeemer, the Judge, and the final Rewarder. " Whatsoever the Father doeth, those things doth the Son likewise."

We remark, in the next place, that the same claims that are insisted on by God and the same duties which all owe to him, are also due to the Son. This will not be doubted by any believer in the sacred Scriptures. The supreme love of every intelligent being belongs to the Son. " He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me." " If any man love not the Lord Jesus, let him be anathema, maranatha." The supreme confidence and trust of the soul are also due to him. While the God of heaven has denounced a woe on the man who puts his trust in any other than the Deity, he invites and urges all to trust in Christ. " In his name shall the Gentiles trust." " Blessed are all they that put their trust in him." " Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Nor is the duty of worshiping the Son less binding than that of worshiping the Father. When the Father "bringeth the first begotten into the world, he saith. Let all the angels of God worship him!" The early Christians, we are told by the sacred historian, habitually " called on Christ’s name," that is, worshiped him. Stephen kneeled down, and said, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." The disciples, after he had ascended to heaven before their eyes, " worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem." Nor is this the employment merely of the church on earth. The voice of many angels round the throne, and the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them is ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, all unite in the inscription, " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive blessing, and honor, and thanksgiving, and glory!" Nor are these mere acts of civil respect, and not of religious worship, as Unitarians would fain have us believe. They are greater honors than can possibly be due from one creature to another. The most exalted angel can, with no more propriety, require such homage than the meanest reptile. And yet heaven and earth pay this homage to Christ. No honor which men or angels pay to God may be withheld from Christ, We can conceive of no tribute of respect to the Father which does not belong to the Son. Those garments of light and beauty which deck the divine nature are his; those royal splendors which surround the eternal throne belong to him. All belong to that distinguished personage, whom the Scriptures call the Son of God. They belong to him essentially; they belong to him eternally. The time never existed when he did not possess them, and the time never will exist when he will not possess them. The essential glory and properties of the Father and the Son are the same. To show more distinctly the bearing of this illustration, we proceed in the next place to draw the chords of our argument together, and to prove: That from this ascription of the prerogatives of the deity to Jesus Christ, the inference cannot be avoided that he is truly and properly God. This is perhaps too obvious a proposition to require proof; yet we will venture to say, in regard to it, that the following thoughts deserve consideration. In the first place, the question very naturally suggests itself, Do the Scriptures ascribe the same prerogatives to a mere creature which they ascribe to God? By whatever excellency of nature or dignity of station any mere creature may be distinguished, he falls infinitely below the Eternal Creator. There is an immeasurable distance between all creatures and the ever-living God. A beggar is a creature, and so is a king. Both are of the dust; both must lie down alike, and the worms cover them. Both are born in sin, and responsible to the bar of Eternal Justice. A worm is a creature, and an angel is a creature, as truly as the worm. The one soars and burns in its created splendor in heaven; the other grovels on the earth. God made them both, and in this they are alike. Yet is the distance measurable between the loftiest seraph, and the meanest worm. But who shall measure the line of difference between the seraph and the Creator? " Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the winds in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?"

If uncreated, then is he the independent, eternal First Cause, and therefore God. If a creature, then do the Scriptures ascribe to him the same existence, properties, claims, and honors — the same in kind, the same in variety, the same in degree — which they ascribe to the great Creator. Will any man seriously affirm, that a revelation that comes from God, does in sober verity, justify and demand the ascription of equal honors to a mere creature, with those which belong to the living and true God? Do they affirm that any mere creature is self-existent, and from everlasting to everlasting? Do they appropriate the characteristic names and titles of the Supreme God to a mere creature? Can any mere creature be said to be the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the Blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the great I AM, the wonderful Jehovah? Would the Scriptures attribute the same attributes to a mere creature, that are ascribed to the Creator? Can a mere creature be said to be immutable, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and eternal? If the Son himself existed before anything was created, how can he be a creature? Would the Scriptures ascribe the same words to a mere creature, which in a multitude of places they ascribe exclusively to God? Can any mere creature be the Creator, the Preserver, the Governor, the Redeemer, the Justifier, the Judge, the Rewarder, the Disposer of angels and men? And finally, can the Scriptures consistently require the same duties to be paid to a mere creature, that they demand for God the Creator? Is it right in itself or is it consistent with the law of God, that the same love and confidence, the same worship and obedience, enforced by the same rewards and penalties, should be challenged for a creature, that are required only for the Lord God?

If there is a Supreme Being, one who is so much superior to creatures, that they are all as a drop of a bucket before him; it is reasonable to suppose that there are honors by which he is exclusively distinguished. And if a mere creature, a being no matter how exalted, yet infinitely inferior to the Creator, is distinguished by the uncaused existence, the names, attributes, and works of the Deity; by the love, confidence, and worship that are due to him; what then are the distinctions of the Supreme, unequaled God? And if, as we have seen, all these are attributed to the Son, is not the inference irresistible, that he is no mere creature, but " very God of very God." In the second place, if the Son be not truly and properly God, then do the Scriptures furnish the strongest temptation to idolatry. They not only justify, but require the same honors to be given to the Son, that are given to the Father; and require them as the reverence and homage which are due from all intelligent creatures to their Creator. An idolater is one who worships the creature instead of the Creator; and if Christ be not God, this is gross idolatry. To this sin of idolatry, be it remembered, men are peculiarly exposed; in every age of the world they have exhibited a strong and almost invincible propensity to worship them that are no gods. Hence, no sin is more frequently, or more severely reprobated in the word of God. The God of heaven has done more to discountenance and condemn this sin, than any other single sin of man. In his law he says, " Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me, there shall no strange god be in thee, neither shalt thou worship any strange god." And his providence enforces the precepts and prohibitions of his law. By all his kindness to the children of Israel in the wilderness he taught them, that " the Lord alone was with them, and there was no strange god with them." And when he saw their exposures to this sin, very often did he remove the sources of temptation from before their eyes. When they became mad upon their idols, and would not abjure the worship of false gods, he desolated their city, prostrated their Temple, and carried them away into captivity to a pagan land, where they became surfeited with the idols of Babylon and cured of their idolatrous spirit. And when he commissioned the gospel of his grace to be published to the pagan nations, it was to " turn them from idols, to serve the Living God." And hence Cornelius refused to receive any act of religious worship from the Centurion; and Paul and Barnabas refused it from the Lycaonians; and the angel in the Apocalypse refused it from John. Whence is it then, that this book of God should so universally sanction the divine claims and this worship of Christ, if he be not God? The great Founder of our religion uniformly accepted and approved the worship paid to him. When the Cyrophenician woman worshiped him; when the two blind men worshiped him; when his disciples on the lake, and after his ascension, worshiped him; when Paul and the martyr Stephen worshiped him; they were not reproached as idolaters. Nor are those his heavenly worshipers, whose number is " ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands," reproached for their idolatry, who cast their crowns at the feet of the Lamb and worship him day and night in the eternal temple. If he be not God, then has Christianity established a system of idolatry, unspeakably more dangerous and plausible, than that which it came to destroy. If he be not God, then has the whole Christian Church been an idolatrous community from its establishment to the present hour. Then has the God of heaven, notwithstanding his promise and prediction that under the reign of the Messiah his people should worship him in spirit and in truth left his Church for eighteen centuries to this most dark apostasy. Then was the religion of the gospel unknown and unpracticed until the days of Arius and Socinus, and these men stand out to the world as the rare examples of Christian piety! Nor are we slow of heart to believe, nor doubtful to assert, that if the worship of Jesus Christ be apostasy, it is an apostasy from which the Church will with difficulty be recovered. So far from condemning, the Bible justifies it, demands it. I know not how it could furnish stronger temptations to idolatry than in the worship it allows to Jesus Christ, if he be not God. If the writers of the New Testament did not intend to exalt their Master to an equality with God, and give him divine honors without restriction, and of the highest kind; then can I form no other judgment than that the language of the Bible was framed to deceive. I remark, In the third place, the account which the Scriptures give of the honors ascribed to the Father and the Son is utterly inconsistent with itself and perfectly contradictory and absurd unless the Son be truly and properly God. If we concede to the Bible what we concede to the productions of mere uninspired men, we must believe it to be consistent with itself. No interpretation should be admitted which makes the Holy Spirit contradict himself, and renders what he says in one place at variance with what he says in another. This is a principle of interpretation so important, that we may never consider ourselves as possessed of the true meaning of any passage, until we have given it a construction that is not inconsistent with other passages, and with the general scope and design of the sacred writings. It is a rule of interpretation among men never to vitiate an instrument for any apparent inconsistencies; and it is founded in sound sense and moral honesty. And much less ought we feel at liberty to set aside the sacred record, if there be any possible construction that will make it consistent with itself

Now in relation to the character of Christ, we are free to confess there are some apparent incongruities in the Bible. This book informs us that there is but one Being whose name is Jehovah: yet they attribute this name to the Father and the Son. It informs us that there is but one Being who is eternal, immutable, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent; yet they affirm that these perfections belong to the Father and the Son. It informs us that there is but one Being who is the Creator, Preserver, Governor, Redeemer and Judge of men; yet they declare that the appropriate work of each belongs both to the Father and the Son. It informs us that there is but one Being to whom are due supreme love, unreserved confidence and worship, and to whom these high and peculiar honors are ascribed; yet it affirms that "all should honor the Son even as they honor the Father." The Scriptures also speak of the Son in language that is apparently incongruous and inconsistent with itself. At one time they speak of him as God at another as man. At one time they speak of him as the Son of God at another as the Son of man. In the same sentence they say, " Unto us a child is born, and his name shall be called the mighty God." They say that he was born in Bethlehem, and that his goings forth were from of old from everlasting. They say that he is both the Root and the offspring of David. And he himself says, " I and my Father are one;’’ and also says, "My Father is greater than I".

Now here are apparent inconsistencies; and they either vitiate the divine record, else is there some principle of fair and honest and sound interpretation on which they can be reconciled. It is conceded that they do not vitiate the divine record; all agree that it is the word of God and consistent with itself. And with this concession, we call on Arians and Socinians, and Unitarians of every class, to reconcile them. The whole history of the Unitarian controversy, from the days of Faustus Socinus to the present hour, shows with how much diffidence they have attempted it; so much that they have not even attempted it at all; and for the best of all reasons. The inconsistencies must stand, and deface, and pollute the revelation of God to man, unless it be conceded that in the scriptural descriptions of Christ, there is a union of supremacy and inferiority, and that he is there exhibited in the two opposite characters of humanity and Deity. This principle adopted, and no part of the sacred record is rejected. Here we see that Jesus Christ is God as well as man; that he was made of the seed of David, according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power; that as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever; and that being in the form of God he thought it not robbery to he equal with God but made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. There we learn that great is the mystery of godliness; God manifest in the flesh. But without this mystery, there is no consistency in the Bible. In the Bible I hear the God of heaven say, " I am the Lord that stretcheth forth the heavens alone that spreadeth abroad the heavens by myself; and at the same time I hear him say, that "all things were made by the Word" and that the "Word was made flesh." Which of these declarations is true, and which shall I adopt? To this we reply, you may not reject either of them. One deserves your confidence as really as the other. If there is a principle of reconciliation and harmony between them, you are bound to adopt it. Take the strong declaration of Christ, " I and my Father are one," and compare it with the declaration, " My Father is greater than I." We affirm, that if there is a ground on which both these declarations may be consistently believed, since both are supported by the same evidence; on every consideration of fairness and candor, this is the ground we ought to stand upon. There is one such principle, and only one. With the humanity, admit the divinity of the Son, and with his essential equality with God, admit his mediatorial and official subjection, and the representations are harmonious. It certainly requires little argument and no sophistry to reconcile all such representations with the true and orthodox notion of the deity of Christ. Reject this truth, and the Bible is a mass of contradictions. These seeming inconsistencies become absolute and irreconcilable; the way of life, no longer plain to the wayfaring man, becomes a dark, impervious way. I may add, In the fourth place, that if Christ is not God, there is no proof from the Scriptures that there is any God at all. The Scriptures assert the being of a God; they assume it as one of the great truths of natural religion. But they do not simply assert this truth; they prove the divine existence by referring to his works. They tell you that the act of bringing this world into existence; of establishing the harmony and design which pervade all the operations of nature, and of preserving and governing all things, furnishes incontestable proof that the being who performs these things is God. This then is the evidence on which the Scriptures rely, and on which they say all ought to rely, for the existence of God. But we have proved, that he who created, upholds, and governs this world, is Jesus Christ. And if any will still say, that he who does this is not truly and properly God; we ask them to show us the evidence they have of the divine existence. The Scriptures furnish the same evidence that Christ is God, which they furnish of the existence of any Supreme Deity. And the evidence is worth just as much in the one case as in the other. If it does not prove that Christ is God, it does not prove the existence of any God whatever. What do we mean by that great word GOD? Do we not mean the intelligent, eternal First Cause, who has created, and upholds, and governs all things? Is not this the notion the Bible gives us of the One who is really and truly God? This is what God means by himself; and what he has proclaimed himself to be. Yet these same Scriptures say, that that Great Personage whom they call the Son is all this. They speak of him in the same language, in the same acceptation. If we have any ideas of God at all, the Scriptures require us to transfer them all to Jesus Christ. What shall that Great Being, the Supreme God, he and perform in order to prove his existence and justify his claims; if they be not such as we have spoken of? Yet all these are attributed to Christ. And if any still say Christ is not God, we call upon them to prove from the Bible that there is a God. Are not these rash violators of the Redeemer’s glory in danger of becoming Pantheists or Atheists? This is the tendency of some late German and American disquisitions. Everything is God! God is in the clouds; God is in the atmosphere; God is in the wind, and in the green grass, and in the cup of water which I drink, just as God is in Christ! Miserable sophistry! miserable paganism! worse than disgraces the pages of Roman and Grecian mythology! And is it not a fact, that such men are fast becoming so? Most true is it that they are far on the way to Atheism. If the Son be not God, then the Bible knows no God; with all its moral instructions, all its paternal counsels, and tenderness, it actually leaves us " without God and without hope."

Thus have we instituted the inquiry. What are the appropriate and peculiar properties of the Deity; have shown that they are ascribed by the sacred writers to Jesus Christ; and that he is therefore truly and properly God. There are many other sources of argument and a multitude of Scriptures not mentioned in the argument here presented. But we have given as extensive a view of the subject as a single discussion allows.

We have only to say, in concluding the present chapter, that we see abundant and conclusive reasons for adhering to this fundamental article of the Christian faith. Pluck who dares, the diadem from his brow who hath on his vesture and on his thigh, a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords and on whose head are many crowns! The Christian must surely feel a heart-thrilling satisfaction in those bright marks of divine glory which beam round the Saviour on whom God hath caused him to hope. This is the great glory of our redeeming God and King, — the " brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of his Person." His being is infinite; infinite his power; infinite his rectitude; infinite his knowledge; infinite his goodness, justice, and mercy. Everything that he is and does has the seal of divinity upon it. There is nothing we can contemplate so vast as the infinite glory of Christ. Here human reason, in humble and adoring silence, submits to the authority of a divine faith, nor does she presume to question God’s word upon a subject so far above the reach of her comprehension. The rays of his infinite majesty dazzle and overpower us with their splendor. Glorified spirits in heaven fall prostrate, and lay their crowns at his feet, when they approach his throne. What glory greater than the glory of Christ belongs to God himself? O it is a delightful thought, that there is no perfection that adorns the Deity, but it is also the adornment of God our Saviour; no views of God so high and adoring, no sentiments that wake the soul to admiration and praise, as she surveys the richness and fulness of the divine loveliness and beauty, but may be appropriately excited in view of God manifest in the flesh. If there be those whose eyes are closed to this great glory, we may well remind them of the Saviour’s words, when he rejoiced in spirit and said, " I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." The knowledge of the Redeemer’s personal and divine glory has much to do with the believer’s confidence. Strong and immovable is the basis of those hopes which have this divine Saviour for their foundation. It is the anchorage for eternity. What marvel that Paul should say, " Which hope we have as an anchor to the soul, sure and steadfast, entering into that which is within the veil, whither the forerunner hath for us entered." What marvel to hear him say elsewhere, " I know whom I have believed, and that he is able to keep that I have committed to him I." There is no fact better attested, and no truth in the Christian system in which good men take more delight than the true and proper Deity of the Saviour in whom they trust. Veil the divinity of the Redeemer, and the Sun of righteousness sets in total eclipse. " Such an High Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, separate from sinners, and was made higher than the heavens." To a thoughtless sinner, it may not be so important a question whether this Saviour be divine or human. But to a man who has seen his sinfulness and trembled at his exposure to the wrath of God; who has felt that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of unmitigated justice; who has been perplexed in spirit to ascertain how it could be right and just to extend forgiveness to the chief of sinners, and whose perplexity has well nigh sunk him into total despair of mercy; to such a man it is a point of unutterable moment to be directed to one infinitely above all created helpers. Never, till he knows that the Saviour who solicits his confidence is the mighty God, can he cast himself into his arms. No truth pours a purer or deeper element of joy through the countless bosoms of the redeemed, than the true and proper equality of the Son with the Father. Poor indeed are the consolations of that religion which blots out from its affections, its hopes, and its experience this unequaled glory! Blessed be God, his church is built on this imperishable, this eternal Rock, and the gates of hell shall never prevail against it.

What, then, shall I say to those who have no interest in the love and faithfulness, the deity and propitiation of this Son of God? What but repeat his own all-sufficient invitation, "Look unto me, and be ye saved all ye ends of the earth, for l am God and there is none else." He is the way in which all must walk who would enter in through the gates into the heavenly city. He is the truth which all must believe who would not come into condemnation. He is the life which all must attain who possess the great salvation; for there is no salvation in any other, neither is there any other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. So that, at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess, that he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.