1 John ii. 20, "Ye have

occurs no where but in the writings of John, and he applies it to christians in general, an unction from the holy One, and ye know all things." All therefore that can reasonably be understood by this expression, as applied to our Lord, is, that every thing necessary for the purposes of his mission was revealed to

him.

4. The apostles possessed what is called "the power of discerning spirits," 1 Cor. xii. 10; that is, probably, the power of discerning men's thoughts and characters upon certain occasions. Acts v. 3. 9. 1 Cor. v. 4. This was the same power which Christ possessed, but in a much higher degree. In the apostles it was limited and temporary. In him it was no doubt more extensive and permanent. But the measure of it cannot be accurately ascertained.

5. To argue the doctrine of the divinity of Christ, or even of his pre-existence and superior nature, from the strong and hyperbolical expressions which the evangelist John, unsupported by any other sacred writers, uses concerning the knowledge of Christ, especially when it is considered that he applies the same language to christians in general, is drawing a grand conclusion from very precarious premises.

VII. Christ alone knows the Father, and is known by the Father.

1. Matt. xi. 27. "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him."

2. Luke x. 22. "All things are delivered to me by my Father and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him."

Hence it is concluded that there is something very mysterious

mysterious in the person of the the Son, which no one but the Father knows; and that the Son alone can comprehend the essence of the Father: and from this mutual comprehension is inferred a unity of essence and equality of persons 5.

No conclusion can be more unfounded. It is plain that he to whom the Son reveals the Father, knows the Father. But what can a man thus learn of God? Nothing surely but his revealed will. In the same sense, precisely, the Son knows the Father, i. e. he knows his will, his thoughts, and purposes of mercy to mankind. And the Father alone knows the Son, knows the nature, the object, and the extent of his mission. See John i. 18; x. 14, 15.

3. John xiv. 7. 9, 10, 11. "If ye had known me, ye had known my Father also."-"He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father."-"Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me ?"-"The Father who dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."

Dr. Thomas Burnet, Dr. Doddridge, and others, who contend for what is called the indwelling scheme, understand our Lord as asserting that the essence of the Father is in some mysterious manner united to the essence of the Son, so as to communicate to him true and proper divinity. But this mystical language of the evangelist, when translated into popular phraseology, means nothing more than that our Lord spoke and acted under a divine commission. In the same sense our Lord prays that his apostles may be united with the Father and himself. See chap. xiv. 20; xv. 4; xvii. 11. 21-26.6

5 "These words plainly declare that there is something inexplicably mysterious in the nature and person of Christ." Doddridge.-On the other side, see Clarke and Grotius.

• See a valuable note of Dr. Clarke's upon these texts (Scrip. Doct. No. 600); also Whitby in loc.

VIII. Christ was perfectly innocent, and free from Sin. 1. John viii. 46. "Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do you not believe me?"

Rather, as Dr. Campbell translates, and as the connexion requires, "Which of you convicteth me of falsehood?"

2. Acts iii. 14. "But ye denied the Holy One and the Just."

3. Acts vii. 52. "And they have slain them who shewed before of the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers."

4. James v. 6. "Ye have condemned and killed the Just One; and he did not resist you."

Mr. Dodson supposes that in these texts there is an allusion to Isa. iii. 10, which he thinks to have been wilfully corrupted by the Jews in the original Hebrew, and which, in conformity to the LXX. and to Justin Martyr, he translates thus: "Wo to them, because they have devised evil against themselves, saying, Let us destroy the Just One, for he is of no use to us." This the learned translator understands to be a prophecy of the rejection and sufferings of the Messiah, here and in other places described as the Just or Righteous One.

5. 2 Cor. v. 21. "He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin."

6. Heb. vii. 26. "For such a high priest became us, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners."

7. 1 Pet. ii. 21, 22. "Christ suffered, leaving us an example:--who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth."

766 Toy Aixalov, the Righteous One,' and he did not resist you." Newcome. See Dodson on Isa. iii. 10.

8. 1 Pet.

8. 1 Pet. iii. 18. "Christ has once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust.'

9. 1 John iii. 5. "And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sin; and in him was no sin.” 10. Rev. iii. 10. "These things saith he that is holy, he that is true."

Remarks.

1. The moral character of Christ, through the whole course of his public ministry, as recorded by the evangelists, is pure and unimpeachable in every particular.

2. Whether this perfection of character in public life, combined with the general declarations of his freedom from sin, establish, or were intended to establish, the fact, that Jesus through the whole course of his private life was completely exempt from all the errors and failings of human nature, is a question of no great intrinsic moment, and concerning which we have no sufficient data to lead to a satisfactory conclusion,

3. The uniform and consummate wisdom, propriety, and rectitude of our Lord's conduct in the various singular and critical situations in which he was placed, as related by the concurrent testimony of four independent historiis a fact so extraordinary, as to preclude the possibility of fiction.

ans,

The great original, from which these artless historians have drawn so finished a portrait, must have had a real existence, and consequently the evangelical narrative must be true.

SECTION

SECTION VI.

CONCERNING THE ALLEGED SUPERIORITY OF CHRIST TO ANGELS.

For the better understanding of this question, it is necessary to introduce some preliminary remarks.

I. The primary sense of the word angel (ayyeλés) · is messenger:' and in this sense it frequently occurs in the Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament. 1 Sam. xix. 14, "Saul sent messengers (Gr. ayyeλous, angels) to take David." Luke ix. 52, "He sent messengers (angels) before his face." Chap. vii. 24, "When the messengers (angels) of John were departed."

II. The word angel, frequently in the Old Testament, and sometimes in the New, expresses any symbol of the divine presence, or any instrument by which God makes known his will, or executes his purposes. Thus the pillar of cloud and fire is called the angel of God,' Exod. xiv. 19.-The plagues of Egypt are called 'evil angels,' Psalm lxxviii. 49.-And Herod's disease is called the angel of the Lord,' Acts xii. 23.

III. The word is sometimes used to express a prophet or messenger of God. Matt. xi. 10, "This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger (angel) before thy face."

IV. The word angel sometimes expresses an order of beings, real or imaginary, superior to mankind: such as the Jews, at the commencement of the Christian æra, believed to be the instruments of Divine Providence in the

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