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mensurate with eternity, by whose power the universe was created, and by whose wisdom it is governed; whose presence fills all space, and whose knowledge extends to the thoughts of every man in every age, and to the events of all places, past, present, and to come, the mind is quickly lost in the vastness of these ideas, and unable to find any sure guide to direct its progress, it becomes, at every step, more bewildered and entangled in the endless mazes of metaphysical abstraction." God is a God that hideth himself (o)."—"We cannot by searching find out God (p)."-" Behold God is great, and we know him not (q)."-" Such knowledge is too wonderful and excellent for us; it is high; we cannot attain unto it (r)."

(0) Job, c 23. v. 9. (q) Job, c. 36. v. 26.

(p) Job, c. 11. v. 7.
(r) Psalm, 139. v. 6.

ARTICLE THE SECOND.

Of the Word, or Son of God, which was made very Man.

THE SON WHICH IS THE WORD OF THE FATHER, BEGOTTEN FROM EVERLASTING OF THE FATHER, THE VERY AND ETERNAL GOD, OF ONE SUBSTANCE WITH THE FATHER, TOOK MAN'S NATURE IN THE WOMB OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN OF HER SUBSTANCE; SO THAT TWO WHOLE AND PERFECT NATURES, THAT IS TO SAY, THE GODHEAD AND MANHOOD, WERE JOINED TOGETHER IN ONE PERSON, NEVER TO BE DIVIDED, WHEREOF IS ONE CHRIST, VERY GOD AND VERY MAN; WHO TRULY SUFFERED, WAS CRUCIFIED, DEAD, AND BURIED, TO RECONCILE HIS FATHER TO US, AND TO BE A SACRIFICE, NOT ONLY FOR ORIGINAL GUILT, BUT ALSO FOR ACTUAL SINS OF MEN.

THE second person in the Holy Trinity is distinguished by the name of THE SON, that is, "the Son of God." It is sometimes said that the phrase "Son of God," admits of various significations, and is used metaphorically in Scripture; but this observation cannot affect the argument

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argument which may be derived from it concerning our Saviour, as it cannot be denied that the Jews, in his time, affixed to this expression a determinate and particular meaning applicable only to the Divine nature, and in this sense we shall find it was claimed by Christ, and understood to be so both by his disciples and by his enemies: "Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he had not only broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his (proper) Father, making himself equal with God (a).". Upon our Lord's declaring to the Jews, "I and my Father are one," they took up stones to stone him, saying, "For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, and because that thou being a man, makest thyself God;" and our Lord's answer proves this to be only an equivalent expression with the assertion that he was the Son of God," Say ye, thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God (b)?" But the condemnation of our Lord, immediately upon his answer to the direct question of the high priest, may alone be considered as conclusive: "And the high priest said to Jesus, I adjure thee by the living God (the judicial form of administering

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(α) John, c. 5. v. 18. Οτι & μονον ἔλυε το σαββατον, άλλα και πατερα ίδιον έλεγε τον Θεον.

(b) John, c. 10. v. 30. 33. 36.

an oath according to the Jewish law) that thou tell me whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, hereafter shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy, what further need have we of witnesses? Behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy, what think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death (c)." St. Luke's account of this examination places the argument in a still stronger point of view he mentions two distinct questions as having been put to Jesus in the council, first, "Art thou the Christ?" and upon our Saviour's answering, "if I tell you, ye will not believe," and solemnly declaring, "Hereafter shall the Son of Man sit on the right hand of the power of God;" they further ask, secondly, "Art thou then the Son of God?" And when "he said, unto them, Ye say that I am (d)," they said, "What need we any further witness? for we ourselves

(c) Matt. c. 26. v. 63-66.

(d) This, as well as the expression "thou hast said," in the parallel passage just now quoted from St. Matthew, was an Eastern mode of answering in the affirmative. Vide Mark, c. 14. v. 62.

ourselves have heard of his own mouth (e)." And when Pilate would have released Jesus, declaring, "he found no fault in him," the Jews answered him, "We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God (f)." Thus it appears that our Lord suffered death, according to the Jewish law, as a blasphemer, because avowing himself to be the Son of God, he was clearly understood to represent himself as equal with God (g). This circumstance must, I think, be allowed as alone sufficient to prove that the Jews understood the. title of "Son of God," in the sense of absolute divinity; but it does not prove that they expected the Messiah to be the Son of God. This was the opinion of but those few, who like Simeon and Anna, waited for the promises of God, and adhered to the true and original sense of the Scriptures, unadulterated by the comments and glosses of the scribes, which had produced the general expectation of a temporal kingdom under a temporal prince; and

(e) Luke, c. 22. v. 67. 69–71. (f) John, c. 19, v. 6 and 7.

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(g) It should be observed, that the Jews never thought of punishing with death those impostors who pretended to be the Christ. This claim did not include the crime of blasphemy, according to their idea of the Messiah, any more than the pretensions to be a prophet did.

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