of Christ in which it is implied. But we may here make the general remark, that if the Apostles had regarded their master as an incarnation of a great pre-existent spirit, far superior to man, they would not have left us to gather their belief from a doubtful interpretation of a few scattered passages. No fact concerning him, personally, would have been put forward in their writings with more prominence and distinctness. None would have been oftener brought into notice. None would have more strongly affected their imaginations and feelings. None would have been adapted more to affect their disciples. St. Matthew would not have written an account of his Master, as it must be conceded that he has, without any where expressly declaring the fact. The Apostles would have left us in as little doubt concerning their belief of it, as concerning their belief of his crucifixion and resurrection.

CLASS V.

Passages relating to the divine authority of Christ as the minister of God, to the manifestation of divine power in his miracles and in the establishment of Christianity, and to Christianity itself, spoken of under the name of Christ, and considered as a promulgation of the laws of God's moral government,-which have been misinterpreted as proving that Christ himself is God.

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For example; there are two passages in the prophecies of the Old Testament, which speak of a messenger as going before Jehovah to prepare his way and announce his coming, They are:

Isaiah xl. 3. A voice is crying; Prepare ye in the waste the way of Jehovah, make straight in the desert a road for our God.'

Malachi iii. 1. Behold I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me.'

These passages are in the Gospels applied to John the Baptist, the precursor of Christ.*

*Matt. iii. 3. xi. 10, Mark i. 2, 3. Luke i. 76. iii. 4. John i. 23.

The angel, who, according to the narrative in the first chapter of Luke's Gospel, announced the birth of John, is likewise represented as saying to Zachariah;

'And many of the sons of Israel shall he turn to Jehovah their God; and he shall go before him with the spirit and power of Elijah.'*

From these passages, it is inferred that Christ is Jehovah. But they admit of an easy explanation.

In conformity to the rude apprehensions of the Jews, we often find in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, strong, and, in themselves considered, harsh figures applied to God, which are borrowed from the properties, passions, and actions of man, and even of the inferior animals. Among them is the common figure by which God, in giving any peculiar manifestation of his power, is represented as changing his place, and coming to the scene where his power is displayed. But if we except the case of miraculous operations exerted directly upon the minds of men, the power of God must be manifested by means of sensible objects. It is often represented as exerted through the agency of human beings and other conscious ministers of his will. When thus exerted, its effects, and the circumstances by which its display is attended, are sometimes referred to God as the ultimate cause, and sometimes to the immediate agent. What is said in one case to be done by an angel, or by Moses, or by Christ, or by some other instrument of God's will, is in another case said to be done by God. The power displayed, is regarded, according to different modes of conceiving the same thing, as appertaining to him or to them. God comes, according to the language of Scripture, when a commissioned instrument of his will appears; and the precursor of the latter is the precursor of God. Thus too, as the power and goodness of God were displayed in Christ, he might be denominated 'Immanuel,' a name meaning 'God is with us.'+

*Luke i. 16, 17.

+In the usage supposed, there is nothing extraordinary or foreign from our modes of expression. But in the Pentateuch the agent of God's will, Moses, is confounded with God himself in a very strange and almost inexplicable manner; which at least illustrates the fact, how far we ought to be from insisting upon the bare letter of a passage, picked out here and there, in opposition to common sense and the general tenor of a writing.

In the first part of the discourse of our Saviour with the Jews, recorded in the fifth chapter of John's Gospel (verses 16-30,) which took place after he had excited their enmity against him by miraculously curing a man on the Sabbath,

In Deuteronomy xi. 13-15, Moses is represented as thus addressing the Israelites:

And it shall come to pass, that if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love Jehovah, your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, that I will give you the rain of your land in its due season,.............. and I will send grass in thy fields.'

Instead of 'I will give,' the Samaritan text, the Septuagint, and the Vulgate here read He will give;' but this reading appears obviously to have been introduced to remove the difficulty of the passage.

Again; Deuteronomy xxix. 2, 5, 6.

'And Moses called together all Ísrael and said unto them,.........I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not waxen old upon you, nor your shoes waxen old upon your feet; ye have not eaten bread nor drunk wine nor strong drink; that ye may know that I, Jehovah, am your God.'

Here the Samaritan text agrees with the Hebrew; the Septuagint in the Alexandrine MS., and the Vulgate and Syriac versions, alter as in the preceding passage, changing the pronoun of the first person for that of the third.

Once more; Deuteronomy xxxi. 22, 23.

Moses, then, wrote this song, the same day, and taught it the children of Israel.

'And he gave Joshua, the son of Nun, a charge, and said; Be strong and of good courage; for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I sware unto them, and I will be with thee.'

Here to avoid the difficulty, the Septuagint reads, 'which the Lord sware unto them, and he will be with thee;' expressly ascribing the speech to Moses, as the connexion requires, and supplying his name, thus; And Moses charged Joshua.' The Vulgate takes a different course, ascribing the whole speech to Jehovah, thus, And the Lord charged Joshua.'

The various readings of the Versions evidently deserve no consideration, as the origin of them is apparent. Whoever may look into a number of commentators, unless he be more fortunate than myself, will be surprised to find, either that these passages are passed over in silence, or that the attempts to explain them are but slight and unsatisfactory. How they are to be explained, or accounted for, is a question which it is not here the place to discuss, and one which it is not easy to answer. But it may be remarked that if a passage corresponding to them had been found in the discourses of Christ, it must have appeared, I think, to a Trinitarian a much stronger argument than any that can now be adduced in support of the doctrine of the deity of Christ.

there are expressions as strong as are anywhere used concerning his authority as a minister of God, and concerning his religion as taught and sanctioned by God, as a promulgation of the laws of God's moral government. The words of Christ were bold and figurative. The style of St. John, who has reported them, is in general obscure, except in mere narrative; and the same style appears in his own compositions and in the discourses of our Saviour as recorded by him, which differ in this respect from those given by the other three Evangelists. It appears probable, therefore, that St. John, preserving essentially the thoughts uttered by his Master, conformed the language, more or less, to his own modes of expression. The passage, from these causes, is in the original somewhat difficult to be understood; and in the imperfect and erroneous rendering of the Common Version, its bearing and purpose are scarcely to be discerned. As in similar cases, the obscurity thus spread over it has served to countenance the supposition that it involves some mysterious meaning. Yet, even as rendered in the Common Version, the passage, so far from affording any proof of the deity of Christ, presents only the conception of his entire dependence upon God.

In order to enter into its character and purpose, we must consider that the Jews in general, having little moral desert to recommend them to the favour of God, placed their reliance upon external ceremonies; and among these, there was none to which they attached more importance than a superstitious observance of the Sabbath. The majority of the Jews had that enmity toward Christ, which the bigots of a false religion always feel toward a teacher of the truth, who discloses the nothingness and falsehood of their pretensions. As the descendants of Abraham, as performing the works of the Law,' which in their view were little more than the ceremonies of the law, as God's chosen people, they considered themselves as holy, and looked upon Christ as a profane heresiarch. Their feelings toward him were such as in the fifteenth century might have been excited among the members of the Romish Church in any Catholic country, by one openly teaching, I do not say Protestantism, but pure Christianity, the essential truths of religion and morals, and fearlessly reproving the vices, superstitions, and hypocrisy of the age. They regarded him, as such a reformer would have been

regarded, as an enemy of God; for if he were not at enmity with God, they were.

In opposition to this state of feeling among them, our Saviour used the strongest expressions to declare, that he was acting wholly under the guidance of God, and that his authority was the authority of God. It is an obvious remark, though it may be worth pointing out, that the expressions of the most absolute dependence upon God, and the boldest assertions of divine authority, amount to the same thing, and occur indiscriminately in his discourses. So far as he was a mere instrument in the hands of God, so far was his authority identical with that of God. These considerations will perhaps explain the general character of the passage we are considering, which may be thus rendered:

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Upon this the Jews came in pursuit of Jesus, because he had done thus upon the Sabbath. Then Jesus said to them, My Father has been working hitherto as I am working. Then, for this, the Jews were more bent upon killing him; because he had not only broken the Sabbath, but spoken of God as particularly his Father, putting himself on an equality with God. Then Jesus said to them, I tell you in truth the Son can do nothing of himself, but only what he sees his Father doing for it is what he does, that the Son is doing like him. For the Father loves the Son and directs him in all that he does; and will direct him in greater works than these, to your astonishment. For as the Father raises the dead, and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. Nor does the Father condemn any, but has committed all condemnation to the Son; so that the Son is to he honored by all as they honor the Father. He who honors not the Son, honors not the Father who sent him. I tell you in truth, he who listens to my words and puts his trust in him who sent me, has eternal life, and shall not come under condemnation; but has passed from death to life. I tell you in truth, that the hour is coming, nay, it has come, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they who listen to it shall live. For as the Father is the fountain of life, so has he given to the Son to be the fountain of life; and he has intrusted him with authority to pass condemnation also, because he is the Man. Be not astonished at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in their sepulchres shall hear his voice, and come forth; those who