Church Catholic. The force of their unanimity in this doctrine, it is obvious, is greatly heightened by their pointed discrepancies upon other subjects. Compare, for example, the Confessions and Articles of Faith of the Churches of England and Scotland, differing exceedingly, not merely in some important particulars, but in their general tone and spirit; or compare all the Confessions of the Protestant Churches with one another, and again with those of the Greek Church and the Church of Rome, and consider their disagreement upon so many points, even of great importance, and their universal agreement in this doctrine, and judge whether some deference is not justly due to an unanimity so remarkable; and to this must be added the fact that we can trace the doctrine of the Divinity of the Messiah in writer after writer throughout each preceding century up to the very age immediately succeeding that of the Apostles; and this not as the belief of individuals alone, but as the expression of the faith professed by the Church at large, not in one country alone, but at Antioch, Sardis, Ephesus, Athens, Rome, Carthage, Alexandria, in almost every branch of the then existing Church.

The more startling the doctrine of the union of the Divine and human natures in the person of the Messiah, the eternal Word made very man, "God "manifest in the flesh"-so much the less will the earnest enquirer deem it probable that such a doctrine could have been acknowledged and maintained, century after century, by "the holy Church "throughout all the world," without an overwhelming proof in the word of Revelation.

With the view to the more complete illustration

of the use of the Scriptures and the Church together in the investigation of sacred truth, it may not be unprofitable to offer a few suggestions upon the mode in which the declarations of Holy Writ should be examined, and applied more or less directly, in proof of the teaching of the Church.

Assuming Jesus Christ to have been in truth "God dwelling among us," we could not expect that He should openly declare His Divine nature so long as He appeared in this world under the veil of the nature of man. His words upon earth would rather be strange, startling and mysterious, fitted to excite awful expectations of the truth, such as devout men would muse upon, and lay up in their hearts, even until He was exalted and glorified. Such a preparation for the doctrine, accordingly, we discover not merely in some few insulated passages, but even in His usual and accustomed turns of expression. To this purpose is His frequent designation of Himself as "the Son" as contrasted with "the Father," and that Father the Most High. "All things are delivered unto me of my Father; “and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; "neither knoweth any one the Father save the Son, "and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." "But of that day and that hour knoweth no one, 66 no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the "Son, but the Father." He does not employ this language only in parables,-" last of all He sent unto "them His Son;" "having yet one Son, His well "beloved,❞—but in His most explicit declarations of fact and doctrine: "God sent not His Son into the "world to condemn the world.-God so loved the "world that He gave His only begotten Son, that

"whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but "have everlasting life." "As the Father raiseth

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up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son "quickeneth whom He will. For the Father judgeth "no one, but hath committed all judgment unto the "Son; that all men should honour the Son even as "they honour the Father." "The Son abideth ever; if the Son therefore shall make you free, ye "shall be free indeed." Again the truth is indicated in that other remarkable designation of Himself as "the Son of man," evidently employed to signify that He was also more than man. "The Son of "man hath power on earth to forgive sins;" "the Son "of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day;" "of him "shall the Son of man be ashamed when He cometh "in the glory of His Father with the holy angels." This designation, in a word, implies His humiliation; and His humiliation implies His previous glory.* But these frequent and peculiar expressions are only unfolded, or rather preparation is made for their being fully unfolded at the proper time, in those passages which plainly invite the attention of the people to the dignity of Messiah's person. As in the text, "What think ye of Christ? of Christ? Whose Son "is He?" And when the Pharisees reply in terms applicable only to His human nature, they are at once remanded to their own Scriptures and pressed with the argument, "If David then call Him Lord,

* Paley observes that the expression, Son of man, is never used except by Christ to Himself, and never of Him or towards Him by any other person. It occurs seventeen times in St. Matthew's Gospel, twelve times in St. Mark's, twenty-one times in St. Luke's, and eleven times in St. John's, always with this restriction.

"how is He his son ?" To the same purpose the question to the Disciples," Whom do man say that I, "the Son of man, am?" and the emphatic blessing pronounced upon St. Peter for that confession of faith, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living 66 God," which in effect declared that He was both the Son of man and the Son of God. And again the striking instances in which our Lord intentionally adopts expressions, which to those who knew not His Divine Nature must, and did, appear profane and blasphemous: "Verily, verily, I verily, I say unto you, "before Abraham was I am;" "My Father worketh "hitherto, and I work; " "The Father is in me, and "I in Him;" "I and my Father are one." It has been objected that the form of expression in the two verses last cited, being precisely the same with those in which our Saviour described the union of His disciples with one another and with God, they cannot therefore be adduced in proof of His Divine nature. But how were they understood at the time? "a good work," said the Jews, "we stone thee not, "but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a "man, makest thyself God." We must not therefore cite words like these apart from their context. Viewed with their context and with their effect upon the hearers considered, and that effect clearly foreseen by our Lord, they become arguments of His meaning and intention. And that awful sense assigned to them at first by the Jews, and by the Church ever afterwards, what is it but a solution of other expressions otherwise inexplicable, as in our Lord's latest prayer and last command: "And "now, O Father, glorify me with thine own self with "the glory which I had with Thee before the world

"For

'was; " and "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, "baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, "and of the Holy Ghost." Explained by the doctrine of the Church all these passages are consistent and intelligible. And however difficult that doctrine, it is at least incomparably more easy than to suppose a mere man, being yet a Prophet, a true and inspired Prophet, thus to speak and to pray, and to command His disciples thus to be baptized, according to the Socinian hypothesis, into the name of God, and of a man, and of a Divine energy or operation.

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Let us turn to the indications of the doctrine existing in the Old Testament, for the Divinity of the Messiah is not a discovery of these latter days, it was not altogether a new doctrine even at the first preaching of our Lord. In the Psalms and Prophets there are many expressions applicable to the Messiah. As in the Psalms: "The Lord hath "said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee." Thy throne, O God, is for 66 ever and ever." And Isaiah: "A Virgin shall 66 conceive and bear a Son, and shall call his name "Immanuel." Again, "Unto us a child is born, "unto us a Son is given: and the government shall "be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be "called Wonderful, Councillor, the Mighty God, the "Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." And again, "The voice of Him that crieth in the "wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, "make straight in the desert a highway for our "God:-say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your "God!" And Jeremiah : "This is His name "whereby He shall be called, The Lord (that is