the Son to have in himself, and to exhibit to man, a heavenly life that was pure, perfect, and self-sufficient. CHARLES ULLMANN: Sinless Character of Jesus, sects. iv. and viii.; in Selections of German Literature, pp. 407, 444.

The piety of Christ was uniform and complete. His supreme love to God was divinely manifested in the cheerfulness with which he undertook the most arduous, and at the same time the most benevolent, of all employments; and, of course, that which was most pleasing to him, and most honorable to his name. His faith was equally conspicuous in the unshaken constancy with which he encountered the innumerable difficulties in his progress; his patience, in the quietness of spirit with which he bore every affliction; and his submission, in his ready acquiescence in his Father's will, while requiring him to pass through the deepest humiliation, pain, and sorrow. However humbling, however distressing, his allotments were, even in his agony in the garden and in the succeeding agonies of the cross, he never uttered a complaint. But, though afflicted beyond example, he exhibited a more perfect submission than is manifested by the most pious men under small and ordinary trials. No inhabitant of this world ever showed such an entire reverence for God, on any occasion, as he discovered on all occasions. He gave his Father, at all times, the glory of his mission, his doctrines, and his miracles; seized every proper opportunity to set forth, in terms pre-eminently pure and sublime, the excellence of the divine character; and spoke uniformly in the most reverential manner of the word, the law, and the ordinances, of God. At the same time, he was constant and fervent in the worship of God. - DR. TIMOTHY DWIGHT: Sermon 51; in Theology Explained, vol. ii. pp. 155–6.

That Christ was properly a human person will appear, if we consider the state and circumstances in which he was placed while he lived in this world. For, 1. He was fixed in a state of dependence. This he repeatedly and plainly acknowledged. "Then Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do." Again he said, "When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but, as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things." And again, "The words I speak unto you I speak not of myself; but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." These are plain expressions of his dependence upon his Father. And it was upon this ground that he so frequently

and devoutly prayed to his Father. Prayer always implies dependence upon him to whom it is addressed. The prayers of Christ, therefore, prove that he lived and moved and had his being in God as really as other men, and was as much dependent upon him for divine assistance, direction, and preservation, through the whole course of his life, as any other of the human race. He prayed for divine direction in the choice of his twelve disciples. He prayed for divine assistance to raise Lazarus from the grave. He prayed for Peter, and for all his apostles and followers, at the last passover he ever attended. And he prayed to be divinely strengthened and supported through all his agonies in the garden and his sufferings on the cross. His continual prayers were a continual and practical expression of his state of dependence during his continuance on earth; and his dependence was a demonstration of his real humanity. DR. NATHANAEL EMMONS: Works, vol. iv. pp. 597-8.

The principal passages to which Dr. EMMONS refers are John v. 19; viii. 28; xiv. 10. Luke vi. 12. John xi. 41, 42. Luke xxii. 32. John xvii. Matt. xxvi. 36-44; xxvii. 46. Mark xiv. 32-39; xv. 34. Luke xxii. 41-45; xxiii. 84, 46.

He [Jesus] always withdrew at once from the crowd when his work was done. He sought solitude, he shrunk from observation; in fact, almost the only enjoyment which he seemed really to love was his lonely ramble at midnight for rest and prayer. He spent whole nights thus, we are told. And it is not surprising, that, after the heated crowds and exhausting labors of the day, he should love to retire to silence and seclusion, to enjoy the cool and balmy air, the refreshing stillness, and all the beauties and glories of midnight, among the solitudes of the Galilean hills; to find there happy communion with his Father, and to gather fresh strength for the labors and trials that yet remained. JACOB ABBOTT: The Corner-stone, p. 61.

Not less indicative of his [Christ's] humanity was his perfect dependence. He was dependent on his parents, and indebted to their watchfulness and love, and labors and bounty. He was dependent on divine providence, and looked to its daily supplies. He was a man of prayer; and this alone is proof that he was sensible of his dependence on God. He made the frank avowal, "I can do nothing of myself." So absolute was his dependence that he could promise himself nothing but what his heavenly Father chose to give him from day to day.

In the character of Christ, the love of God was ever supreme and ever constant. He could not love God more fervently or more

constantly than he did. His intellectual and active powers had their limits; but to the full extent of them he loved. He had no other, he knew no other, God. There was not an idol in his heart, nor an idolatrous thought or desire. When we read his biography, the delightful impression everywhere comes upon us, that he enjoyed a constant sense of God's presence. God was in all his thoughts; nor did such a sin ever lurk in his bosom as forgetfulness of his Father in heaven. His affections toward him were affections of love in all its sweet combinations of esteem, attachment, gratitude, and joy, and so cheerfully indulged that communion with him was his great solace and comfort, and the hiding of his face was the bitterest ingredient ever mingled in his cup. He had but one heart, and that heart was God's,a whole heart, a pure heart, a heart never debased by an unworthy thought; a throne that was never usurped by a rival deity; a marble tablet, pure and burnished from its native quarry, on which was never engraven any tale of shame, and where suspicion never threw its doubtful shadow. . . . None so much as he ever delighted themselves in the diligent study of the divine nature and glory, or so much enjoyed the divine love. His affections toward God were eminently filial. He was the only-begotten Son, who "lay in the bosom of the Father:" the everlasting arms were his refuge and his home. His first and best thoughts, his first and warmest affections, his most delighted admiration, his most peaceful confidence and profound reverence, were attracted toward his Father which is in heaven. His peculiar character is most emphatically written in the words, "He went about doing good." It was an art he had studied well, and it was the care and business of every day. He aimed to be harmless ; but he had higher aims. The infinite God was his example: he was perfect as his Father in heaven was perfect. Wherever he went, he wrapped himself in the mantle of that love, the very fold and hem of which were a refuge for the wants and woes of men. . . . So intent, so dominant, was his purpose, that he made the first and the last end of his existence to labor for God and man. His life was one of peculiar intercourse and near communion with God. Many a time did he rise up a great while before day, and retire to some selected mountain, or sequestered brook or grove, there to enjoy solitary intercourse with his Father in heaven. Whole nights he often employed in prayer. Forty days of fasting and prayer were his preparations for his public ministry. He loved to be alone with God. No employment, no society, no trials, ever prevented his inter

course with God and heaven. He and his Father were one, if for nothing but the uninterrupted fellowship which existed between them. Things unseen and eternal were the things he looked at. He often spoke of them, and of the beauty and riches and glory of them, and of heavenly thrones and heavenly joys. With intense interest and delight he spoke of them, and with pensive thoughts that they were at a distance, and with sweet anticipations that in a little while he should go to the Father..... There never was any reason why

men should not be as holy as Christ, either in the nature of holiness, or their own nature; either in the binding force of the moral law, or the precepts, prohibitions, and spirit of the gospel. There is a cause for the imperfection of Christians, but there is no reason for it. The cause is their own sinful nature and love of wickedness. DR. GARDINER SPRING: Glory of Christ, vol. i. pp. 81–2, 105–7, 114–15, 125, 129.

§ 2. AS EXHIBITED AMID TEMPTATIONS.

How are we to understand his [Christ's] first sufferings immediately after his baptism? It would be forcing common sense itself to suppose it not a real man, but a personage of a much more exalted nature, that was afflicted with the sensation of extreme hunger, that he might be induced to abuse and misapply the divine power of which he found himself possessed. As unnatural is it to suppose, that all the glory of this terrestrial globe was presented as a temptation to one who was of a nature so far surpassing not only that of men, but of angels and all created beings whatever. The prospect, how dazzling soever to human sense, could not possibly be a trial to such a being. It is in respect of his human nature that our Saviour is set before us as a pattern for our imitation. His whole deportment through life witnessed a strong sense of duty to his Father, and an unremitted exercise of benevolent affections towards the human race. And as he lived, so are we exhorted to live; for in piety and true goodness we are capable of imitating him. Nor are we called upon to do more than it is our duty to do, more than human nature is capable of, more than what we know he as man did, when we are exhorted to live as he lived, "doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly before God." But conceive him, with regard to his behavior under those circumstances which to us are trials of integrity, to have had a nature different from and far superior to ours, and you can no longer consider him as exemplifying our duty by his own conduct, or derive from it encouragement to hope

uccess in the like temptations assaulting our weaker nature. We ........y, on this supposition, admire and adore his vastly superior excellence; but we shall be ever discouraged in the pursuit of virtue, through difficulties that are looked upon to require more than human nature to struggle under with any hope of success. DR. BENJAMIN DAWSON: Illustration of Texts, pp. 179–81.

These remarks, though levelled at the high Arian views of our Lord, seem to have still greater force if applied to the Trinitarian doctrine of Christ's person.

The most important passages which treat of the sinlessness of Jesus are 2 Cor. v. 21; 1 John iii. 3, 5; Heb. iv. 15; 1 Pet. i. 19. The texts also in which it is said that he was obedient to the will and command of God belong in this connection; as Heb. v. 8, and many passages in John. The virtue of Christ, in resisting steadfastly all the temptations to sin, acquires a real value and merit only on admission that he could have sinned. This opinion is, in fact, scriptural; for we are frequently exhorted to imitate the example of Jesus, in his virtue, his conquest of sinful desires, &c. But how could this be done, if he had none of those inducements to sin which we have, and if it had been impossible for him to commit it? Improvement in knowledge and in perfections of every kind is ascribed in Scripture to Christ; and Paul says that through sufferings he constantly improved in obedience, Heb. v. 8. We read expressly that Christ was tried, i. e., tempted to sin; but that he overcame the temptation, Matt. iv. 1, seq. This temptation took place shortly before his entrance upon his public office, and tended to prepare him for it. It was intended to exercise and confirm him in virtue, and in obedience to God. But what object could there have been in this temptation, if it had been impossible for Jesus to yield to it? and what merit would there have been in his resistance? No difference is made in the thing itself, and in its consequences, by considering it, with Farmer and others, as a vision and parable, and not as a real occurrence. If it was impossible that Christ, as a man, should sin, it would be hard to find what the Bible means when it speaks of his being tempted, and commends him for overcoming temptation. — Abridged from GEORGE C. KNAPP: Christian Theology, sect. xciii. III.

Had Jesus made use of miraculous power for the purpose of exempting himself from those sufferings which were laid upon him by his Father, this would have impaired the perfection of his obedience, and would have been a positive non-compliance with the appointment