PART IV.

DIVINITY OF CHRIST.

1. Anticipations of Revelation. 2. Jehovah our Shepherd. 3. Christ's Testimony to his Deity. 4. Unless Christ be God, Christianity untrue. 5. Variety of Proofs for Christ's Divinity. 6. Force of Conjunct Evidence. 7. Temporary and Permanent Argument. 8. Christ appearing in the old Dispensation. 9. Christ perfect God and perfect Man. 10. The Character of Christ the demonstration at once of his Deity and of the Inspiration of Scripture.

I. THE Saviour came into the world heralded by a long succession of prophets, and not unexpected even by the Gentiles. It is difficult, when in the full possession of truth, to retrace the state of the minds of other men before a discovery was actually made. Very erroneous in general are the notions entertained respecting the state of the heathen, under what is called the natural light which they possessed a light, such as it was, by no means struck out by the exercise of their natural faculties, but gathered from the collected rays of dispersed tradition, though much distorted and discolored by the variety of mediums through which it had to pass. But with respect to the Gentiles before the coming of Christ, we are not left solely to our own conjectures, we have in the writings of Plato a noble representative of the heathen world. A man of the highest powers, and of the widest acquirements, inferior only in

amplitude to the all-embracing mind of his pupil Aristotle, but far superior in a lofty imagination, and in devotion to what he believed to be the fountain of truth and beauty throughout the universe. Not trusting to his own wonderful powers, he sought out, and carefully preserved all the indications of what he believed to be the primeval communications of heaven, and thus he perpetuated not only his own opinions, but the sentiments of remoter ages. So great was the palpable darkness he everywhere found, that he introduces Socrates dissuading Alcibiades from offering the customary sacrifices till some teacher should come from on high; and the result of all his inquiries was this, that there could be no certain knowledge obtained of the Divine nature, unless by some Divine revelation or logos," thus anticipating the same term, in the same sense, which was afterwards applied by St. John to him who alone reveals his heavenly Father to a lost and benighted race.

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If these anticipations do not harmonise with the inner doctrine of Platonism, they are not the less valuable—if they do not belong to Plato as a metaphysician, they belong to him as a moralist, pensive about the actual condition of man, not wildly dogmatising about abstractions. It is to the praise of Plato, and to the misfortune of Christianity, that some of Plato's guesses have a near resemblance and surprising coincidence with some of the doctrines of the Bible; and the early Christians, forgetful of the warning of the Apostle to "beware lest any man spoil them through philosophy and vain deceit," sought a patron for Christianity among the philosophers, and found one in Plato. The common effect of all such forced unions took place here, each of the systems was forced to bend, in order that they might meet; Plato assumed a more Christian appearance than belonged to him, and Christianity in return was compelled to Platonise.

The supposed trinity of Plato was no doubt a great

source of attraction to the early Christians, though it is a doctrine, the merit of which he must share with the Egyptians, the Hindoos, and in a fainter degree with some other nations. At first view there is something very striking in finding three Divine powers so often re-appearing in various countries and nations. Those whose object of interest it was to find triads every where in mythology, were easily able to make their point good, owing to the plastic and mutable nature of ancient creeds. But upon examining more largely, it is observable, that as much might be said for the other numbers also, if any cae were so minded.

For instance, whoever wishes to reduce all the ancient superstitions to the acknowledgment of one principle, need never be in want of arguments. Pantheism, or the supposing all Being to be indivisible, infinite, and absolute, was so prevalent through antiquity, that abundance. of quotations might be brought to prove, not only that there is but one Divine principle, but (what Cudworth, and those who contend for the unity of the Deity among the ancients, have not been so anxious to bring forward) that there is but one existence.

Again, if the number two had its admirers, equally copious materials would remain for them to demonstrate, that all existence was by the ancients considered either active or passive, either as cause or effect, and that nature producing or produced, (natura naturans or natura naturata,) comprehended within itself the sum of things; and this view might be still farther enlarged by the doctrine of the two principles of good and of evil, of light and darkness, of malignant matter and beneficent mind.

The trinal system, or the doctrine of the three principles, is an easy addition to that of the dual system, it is only adding a medial power to the two former. Thus Plato, to matter and mind added the intermediate principle

of the Idea, Exemplar, or Logos, according to which, and by whose medium, mind operated upon matter, and brought it into form. Thus also the Hindoo system might consist of two principles, Bramah or the personification of the one Being flowing out into the visible creation, and Seevah the destroyer, representing all created forms reabsorbed into the Divine essence; but it was also at the option of the ancient Hindoo mythologists to introduce a 'middle principle of continuance and preservation under the deification of Vishnoo.

Should any, like Pythagoras, rather approve of the number four, it were easy to make an addition to the three principles above mentioned. Plato may be argued to have held either a trinity or a quarternity at the choice of the disputant. His three first principles are mind, the idea or logos, and matter; but the trinity which he is more generally supposed to hold, consists of mind, then the logos, and, lastly, the good spirit transfused into the world to guide and actuate it. Hence, combining the two enumerations together, we may fairly state Plato's principles as consist ing of, first, original and infinite mind; second, of infinite thought or idea, the eternal produce and contemplation of that mind; thirdly, of matter; and, fourthly, of the infused spirit, the Agathodemon.

Considered in themselves, the opinions of Plato have no intimate connection with the peculiar doctrines of Christianity; but it is evident from a slight sketch of them, how readily each may be brought, by an easy process, to take the hue of the other. Whenever Christianity has been remodelled upon Platonism, the heresy generally termed Semi-Arian has prevailed, such as Dr. Clarke in later times supported, and in which the Messiah is considered not absolutely God, but "God of God;" and where the Holy Spirit is considered as a still more derivative emanation.

It was chiefly in defence, that the orthodox borrowed the same weapons from Plato, that they might encounter with equal arms the early philosophic heretics, and hence, even orthodox Christianity was formerly encumbered with Platonic doctrines, as afterwards it was perverted and harassed by the quarrelsome and vexatious logic of Aristotle. Christianity has always suffered in these foreign admixtures, and it is from the Bible alone, without any of the interpretations of philosophy, falsely so called, that we are to gather its genuine doctrines. All these dreams of old philosophy are fast fading away into oblivion, and it is only from the injuries they have occasioned by corrupting Christianity and obscuring the truths of the Bible, that they derive their importance. It is much to be regretted that some, from whom one might have expected better things, should, even to a late period, have blended the reveries of Plato in any degree with the truths of the gospel, and have used language not only unsanctioned by Scripture, but contrary to the absolute unity of the Godhead, so strongly established both by reason and revelation. We ought ever to remember with awful solemnity the declaration given to Israel, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord," while with equal veneration we receive the testimony of Jesus, "I and my Father are one."

II. The Jews, notwithstanding the fall of Adam, and the corruption of human nature, had the privilege of having Jehovah for their immediate head, he was their guardian and their guide, and they could say with confidence, "the Lord is my shepherd." But had any created Redeemer been subsequently interposed between man and his Maker, the condition of those under the mature and perfect dispensation would be inferior to that which the transitory and typical constitution of the Jews afforded, and Christ, instead of removing the middle wall of partition, would have raised up a barrier, and an intervention