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we find our Lord and his Apostles constantly appealing to the Scriptures, as testifying to the truth of their assertions respecting his office and dignity, and combating the common opinion concerning the Christ on many occasions: "How say the scribes, that Christ is the Son of David? for David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool; Divid therefore himself calleth him Lord; and whence is he then his son (h)?"—And when the Jews asked him, "Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead; and the prophets, which are dead; whom makest thou thyself? he answered, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him (i)," for they clearly understood this expression as agreeing with the sense in which he had called God his Father.

And we find the converts to the religion of Christ expressly declaring their faith in terms, which not only directly acknowledged their belief, that Jesus" was the Christ," but that he was also "the Son of God." Nathaniel, that true Israelite, confessed Jesus to be the Messiah in these words: " Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou

(h) Mark, c. 12. v. 35, 36, and 37.-
(i) John, c. 8, v. 53. 58, and 59.

thou art the King of Israel (k).”—And Martha said, "I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God (1)."-" Then they who were in the ship," who had seen him walk upon the water and calm the storm, 66 came and worshipped him, saying, of a truth thou art the Son of God (m)."—" Jesus asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias, and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church (n).”— John the Baptist "bare record that this is the Son of God," having received this knowledge by a special revelation (o).—And God himself bore witness to the truth of Christ's pretensions

(k) John, c. 1. v. 49.
(1) John, c. 11. v. 27.
(m) Matt. c. 14. v. 33.

(n) Matt. c. 16. v.

13-18.

(0) John, c. 1. v. 33 and 34.

by

by a voice from heaven, at the time of his baptism in the river, and when he was transfigured upon the mount in the presence of three of his apostles, saying, "This is my beloved Son hear him (p). To these quotations from the Gospels I shall add one from the Acts : When Philip found the Ethiopian eunuch studying the prophecies of Isaiah, anxious but unable to understand them, "he began at the same Scripture, (chap. 53d) and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water; and the eunuch said, See, here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized? and Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (q)." He does not merely profess his faith in Jesus (of whom he probably had never before heard) as a teacher sent from God, or as the Christ expected by the Jews; but he declares his belief that Jesus Christ, the circumstances of whose life and resurrection Philip had related, is the Son of God, the Messiah of whom the prophets wrote, and whom Isaiah in particular had described in terms appropriate to God alone.

And when we reflect further, that this
eunuch

(p) Matt. c. 3. v. 17. Luke, c. 9. v. 35.
(q) Acts, c. 8. v. 35, &c.

eunuch was a Jewish proselyte, "going to worship at Jerusalem," we cannot but conclude that this confession of faith contained an acknowledgment of the divinity of Christ, since it has been proved that the Jews actually condemned our Lord to death for assuming the title of Son of God, which they imagined to be blasphemy. Now, if it be considered that many of the first converts to the Gospel were Jews, who, when their minds were opened, by either natural or supernatural means, to believe that Jesus was the Messiah, would understand from the ancient Scriptures that the Messiah was to be the Son of God, the belief of the early Christians in the divinity of Christ can hardly be questioned. It resulted immediately from the agreement of his claims (claims for which he was crucified by their blinded nation) and of the circumstances of his life, with the prophecies concerning him; and accordingly we find little dispute in the first century concerning the divinity of Christ; it was his humanity that was chiefly denied (r).

It

(r) After the destruction of Jerusalem we hear of some Jewish Christians who, retaining their dependance upon the efficacy of the law for justification, retained also their ancient prejudices respecting the person of the Messiah, but their number was too inconsiderable to attract much attention till the second

Century

It may further be observed, that the relation of Father and Son, the names by which the first and second persons in the Holy Trinity are distinguished, is not only consistent with, but seems to imply, sameness of nature, " ut præscripsit

ipsa

century. Alike contemned by Jews and Christians, they formed themselves into a sect, and were called Ebionites. Ebion signifies a beggar, or poor, and whether that name was given them for trusting " to the beggarly elements of the law," or from a person of that name, is not certainly known. These men, "who called themselves Christians," says Origen, "denied the divinity of Christ, and the doctrine of the atonement" According to Epiphanius they rejected the authority of all Scripture, except the Pentateuch, and received only a spurious Hebrew Gospel, altered from St. Matthew's to suit their opinions. In the first century the Gnostic heresies were the most prevalent; but both those who maintained the simple divinity, and those who maintained the simple humanity of Christ, denied the doctrine of the atonement, which was evidently considered by the Apostles as the fundamental principle of the Christian religion. St. John, therefore, in many passages of his writings, lays great stress upon the humanity of Christ, from zeal to prove the reality of his sufferings and the certainty of the atonement; but at the same time we find that he cautiously guards against the consequences to which these passages might have led, by asserting the divinity of Christ in more express terms than are to be found in any of the preceding Gospels.

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