§ 2. CHRIST AS LORD WHILE ON EARTH.

One who reads the Bible with reflection . . . is astonished to find, that, on the very first appearance of Jesus Christ as a teacher, though attended with no exterior marks of splendor and majesty; though not acknowledged by the great and learned of the age; though meanly habited, in a garb not superior to that of an ordinary artificer, in which capacity we have ground to believe he assisted (Mark vi. 3) his supposed father in his earlier days, he is addressed by almost everybody in the peculiar manner in which the Almighty is addressed in prayer. Thus the leper, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean,” Matt. viii. 2. Thus the centurion, "Lord, my servant lieth at home," ver. 6. The Canaanitish woman crieth after him, "Have mercy on me, O Lord!" chap. xv. 22. He is likewise mentioned sometimes under the simple appellation of "the Lord" (John xx. 2), without any addition; a form of expression which, in the Old Testament, our translators .. had invariably appropriated to God. What is the meaning of this? Is it that, from his first showing himself in public, all men believed him to be the Messiah; and not only so, but to be possessed of a divine nature, and entitled to be accosted as God? Far from it. The utmost that can with truth be affirmed of the multitude is, that they believed him to be a prophet. And even those who, in process of time, came to think him the Messiah, never formed a conception of any character as belonging to that title, superior to that of an earthly sovereign, or of any nature superior to the human. Nay, that the apostles themselves, before his resurrection, had no higher notion, it were easy to prove. What, then, is the reason of this strange peculiarity? Does the original give any handle for it? None in the least. For, though the title that is given to him is the same that is given to God, it is so far from being peculiarly so, as is the case with the English term so circumstanced, that it is the common compellation of civility, given not only to every stranger, but to almost every man of a decent appearance, by those whose station does not place them in an evident superiority. It is the title with which Mary Magdalene accosted one whom she supposed to be a gardener, John xx. 15. It is the title given by some Greek proselytes to the apostle Philip, probably a fisherman of Galilee, chap. xii. 21. It is the title with which Paul the tent-maker, and Silas his companion, were saluted by the jailer at Philippi, Acts xvi. 30. Lastly, it is the title with which Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator, a pagan and idolater, is addressed by

the chief priests and Pharisees, Matt. xxvii. 63. . . . Further, it is the title which those gave to Jesus, who, at the time they gave it, knew nothing about him. In this manner the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well addressed him (John iv. 11), when she knew no more of him than that he was a Jew, which would not recommend him to her regard. Thus also he was addressed by the impotent man who lay near the pol of Bethesda (chap. v. 7), who, as we learn from the sequel of the story, did not then know the person who conversed with him, and who soon proved his benefactor. . . . Our interpreters have, in this particular [in generally translating Kúpos "Lord," instead of "Sir," when applied to Jesus in the Gospels], followed neither the Hebrew idiom nor the English, but adapted a peculiarity, in regard to Jesus Christ, which represents most of his contemporaries as entertaining the same opinions concerning him which are now entertained among Christians. Now, nothing can be more manifest than that, in those days, the ideas of his apostles themselves were far inferior to what we entertain. GEO. CAMPBELL: The Four Gospels, Diss. vii. part i. sects. 13, 14.

§ 3. CHRIST AS SAVIOUR OR REDEEMER.

When we are acquainted by Christ for what end he came into the world, and suffered and died, and rose again, we may discover the wisdom and goodness of God in it, in sending us such a Saviour, and in qualifying him in so excellent a manner for the work of our redemption; but we cannot safely draw any one conclusion from the person of Christ which his gospel hath not expressly taught, because we can know no more of the design of it than what is there revealed. - DR. WILLIAM SHERLOCK: Knowledge of Christ, chap. iii. sect. 3.

It was because God the Father infinitely loved his Son, and delighted to put honor upon him, that he appointed him to be the Author of that glorious work of the salvation of men. PRESIDENT EDWARDS: Sermon 3; in Works, vol. iii. p. 600.

As the grace of Christ is the meritorious, so the love of the Father is the original, cause of all spiritual blessings. The former source is traced to another still beyond. The Father is represented in Scripture as originating the salvation of man, as giving and sending his Son: "God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son; " "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" [John iii. 16; 1 John iv. 10]. Jesus Christ always speaks of himself as sent by the Father. - ROBERT HALL: Notes of Sermons; in Works, vol. iv. p. 568.

The Lord Jesus uniformly represented himself as performing all his acts for the instruction and salvation of men, in the most perfect subserviency to the will of his Father, and dependence upon him; and this fact he stated in a variety of expression, and on different occasions, so as to manifest an anxiety to impress it deeply on his followers. DR. J. P. SMITH: Scripture Testimony, vol. ii. p. 84.

The whole work of our redemption is attributed to God as its ultimate Author, and God is called our Saviour, because he produced the man Jesus by immediate creation, placed him in an entirely peculiar union with the Godhead; because God sent his Son; because Christ did, and still does, every thing according to the will of God; and because he was given us by God to be the Author of our salvation. STORR & FLATT: Biblical Theology, b. iv. § 75.

He through whom the Deity opens, as it were, afresh his intercourse with human nature, becomes necessarily the Redeemer, not from one special spiritual burden, pressing on one particular period, but from the burden which weighed down the whole human race, at all times and everywhere.-E. L. MAGOON: Republican Christianity, p. 107.

Many citations of a similar character might be here introduced; but they will more properly come under the texts which they serve to explain.

§ 4. CHRIST AS MEDIATOR.

The mediatorial exaltation of Jesus Christ is everywhere in the New Testament attributed to the Father; as, for example, when it is said, after a description of his humiliation, "Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above every name,” Phil. ii. 10. — DR. J. P. SMITH: Scripture Testimony to the Messiah, vol. ii. p. 84.

There is the utmost care taken in Scripture, . . . that, in all that Jesus did, he should be represented as acting in concurrence with the Father of all, for the fulfilment of his decrees, and the manifestation of his glory. The Lord Jesus Christ, as Mediator and as conducting his mediatorial kingdom, is manifestly to be distinguished in Scripture from the Sovereign of the universe. As Mediator, he is inferior to the Sovereign of the universe. He is a servant (having taken on him the form or condition of a servant), engaged in a peculiar service, subordinate to the general government of the universe. In his person he was inferior to God; for when the Word, who was "with God," and who "was God," "was made flesh," and was "found in fashion as

a man," he descended to the condition of a created being. That one person, Jesus, the Mediator between God and man, who combined in his person the divine and human nature, was inferior to the invisible, eternal Deity, as unallied to any creature. He was a person formed, by the will and wisdom of God, for a particular end connected with his universal government: he had therefore a beginning, that is, there was no person uniting in himself the nature of God and man from eternity; and the person so constituted was necessarily inferior to Him who in this sense created him. And the Lord Jesus, thus constituted, was inferior to the Father of all, not only as to his person, but as to his office. He was appointed, delegated, sent to the fulfilment of it. He was Mediator between God and man, but not an independent Mediator, nor a Mediator provided by man; but a Mediator provided by the mercy and wisdom and power of God. JAMES CARLILE :

Jesus Christ the Great God our Saviour, pp. 317-18.

Because Christ is thus sent by the Father with a commission what to do and teach, it follows, even without the direct scriptural statement of the fact, that he is subordinate to the Father; since, without contradiction, he who sends is greater than he who is sent. The attempt to explain such declarations of our Lord as the following, My Father is greater than I" (John xiv. 28), on the simple ground of his humanity, would be, in our apprehension, entirely unsatisfactory; for his subordination to the Father, as the receiver to the giver, extends to those offices that are manifestly above the capacity of a finite nature. Of that subordination of the Son to the Father which runs through all the scriptural representations concerning him, we have no new explanation to give; for we regard the old explanation, that of official investiture, as abundantly sufficient. The Son receives from the Father his mediatorial office in all its parts; he acts under him and by his authority, and is thus less than the Father; not merely as "the man Christ Jesus," but also as "God manifest in the flesh." But the question still remains, How can any but a Divine Being receive the office which the Father commits to the Son? — PROFESSOR E. P. BARROWS: Article 2, in the Bibliotheca Sacra for October, 1854; vol. xi. pp. 700-1.

By "a Divine Being," the writer evidently means God, or a being equal to God; for he adopts not the Arian hypothesis. But would it not be more rational to ask, How could a being who is infinitely powerful, and all-perfect in himself, have committed to him by another person any authority or office whatever?

SECT. VII. THE MORAL CHARACTER OF CHRIST, THAT OF A FINITE AND DEPENDENT BEING.

Jesus alone, of all the human race, by the strength and light imparted from above, was exempt from sin, and rendered superior to temptation. - HORSLEY.

§ 1. AS EXHIBITED IN HIS HABITUAL PIETY.

Among the qualities by which Jesus is so peculiarly distinguished, there is none which more attracts our observation, and commands our applause, than a vigorous and fervent spirit of piety, an entire resignation to the will of God, an implicit submission to his pleasure. Nor is there any principle which he inculcates more earnestly and more frequently upon his disciples than the necessity and propriety of having recourse to God in prayer, of absolute dependence upon him, of the most ardent love and filial awe toward him, of the most anxious and incessant endeavor to obey his will and to promote his glory. The Being whom he thus professed to honor, and whom he enjoined his followers to adore, was undoubtedly the Jehovah of Israel, the Source to which Moses referred his authority, the Founder of the civil and religious polity established among the Jews. BISHOP MALTBY: Illustrations of the Truth of the Christian Religion, chap. vi. p. 260.

It is apparent, from multiplied expressions of Jesus and from all his acts, that the will of his Father, which he was entirely certain that he perfectly understood, was the only rule and the living power of his conduct. To God, as the Source of his spiritual life, was his soul ever turned; and this direction of his mind was a matter of indispensable necessity to him. It was his meat and his drink to do the will of his Father. Without uniting himself to God wholly, consecrating himself to God unreservedly, feeling himself to be perfectly one with God, he could not have lived; he could not have been at peace in his spirit a single instant. In every thing which he said and did, he pointed to the Fountain of truth and goodness; to the Father, who permitted