Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

also, What reply is made to it by those who reject the doctrine of the Deity of Jesus Chirst? Among a variety of criticisms which they have offered, and which learned men have successfully shown to be inconsistent with the rules of the language in which the text was originally written, one proposal is, to insert a word, and thus to render the passage in the form of an ascription of praise, in allusion to the Gospel"who is over all; God be blessed for ever." Respecting such a liberty taken with the sacred text, one plain question may be asked, requiring merely the aid of a plain unsophisticated understanding in order to reply to it :-If permission should be given thus to insert words at pleasure, could not any document be made to speak any sentiments? Such individuals as adopt this means of supporting their opinions by the declarations of Scripture, should remember the solemn denunciation of plagues, which St. John records against him that should presume to add to the words of the Revelations; an admonition which, although appended to one particular part of the Scriptures, might justly deter any mortal from reaching forth his finger, either to obliterate, or to add to, any portion of that word which is delivered, "not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but in those which the Holy Ghost teacheth." Again, 1 Tim. iii. 16: "Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory." Nothing can be clearer than that these words refer to Jesus Christ. Of no other person with whom we are acquainted can it be said, that "he was justified by the Spirit, seen of angels, preached to the Gentiles, received up to glory." But the same person of whom these things are said, is also declared to have been "God manifested in the flesh."

In the Epistle to the Hebrews, i. 8, we find a quotation from the forty-fifth Psalm applied to Jesus Christ. "But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom." These words are addressed by the Father to Jesus Christ. The Father therefore has thought it proper

to call the Son God. Who can question the propriety of the appellation?

3. Christ is called the GREAT GOD. Titus, ii. 13: "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." According to the opinion of critics, most eminently learned in the original languages of the Scriptures, the words ought to be rendered, “the great God even our Saviour." A similar construction occurs four times in the New Testament; and in each the final conjunction is so rendered as to make the concluding member of the sentence exegetical, or explanatory, of the former.

4. Christ is called the TRUE GOD. 1 John, v. 20: “ We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This person is the true God, and eternal life." If this passage admit of any comment, it must be that of the Saviour himself, who says, "I am the life" and the same person who thus speaks, is here declared by St. John to be the true God.

5. He is also called the MIGHTY GOD. Isaiah, ix. 6: "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulders; and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, the Father of the everlasting Age, The Prince of Peace." This child, this son, is the mighty God. He who admits that this passage refers to Jesus Christ, cannot avoid the conclusion that he is also the mighty God, unless, in so many words, he would impeach the character of Isaiah as a prophet.

6. Christ is also called the GOD OF ISRAEL. Let us compare the following passages. Exodus, xxiv. 9, 10. "Then went up Moses, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and they saw the God of Israel." Psalm, lxviii. 17, 18: "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place. Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive." Ephesians, iv. 8: "Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is

it but that he first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.” Here the Apostle tells us, that the person who ascended up on high, and led captivity captive, was Christ. The Psalmist tells us, that he who led captivity captive was the Lord who appeared in Sanai. And Moses tells us, that he who appeared in Sinai was the God of Israel. Therefore, Christ is the God of Israel.

Permit me here to remind you, brethren, that all which we have yet done is, to show that each and all the names given to God in the Sacred Scriptures are, in the same Scriptures, given to Christ. This has been done by the selection of a few examples out of each kind of instances, to the omission of many others which might have been adduced. Of these a great number are equally explicit with those now brought forward; but there is not sufficient time to appeal to them. There are also several proofs from inference, equally strong; but these have been waved, as requiring more time for understanding them than is consistent with the delivery of a discourse. There is a further class of proofs derived by learned men from the amendments of the common translation. These have not been advanced, because we would meet every man's mind upon the common ground of the authorized translation; and as a further argument for their disuse, they were not needed.

In reference to the instances which have been adduced, we would ask,

indeed a truth which they had been taught to revere by the sufferings that had been inflicted on their nation whenever they had practised idolatry. It is also solemnly announced many times in the Old Testament, as an authoritative principle. "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." It should also be kept in mind, that Jesus Christ and his apostles professed a supreme regard for the Jewish Scriptures, and constantly referred to the declarations they contain as to the word of God. Yet, in the New Testament, we find that these apostles, both in their discourses and in their writings, apply to Jesus Christ the very names and titles, in which the writers of the Old Testament had spoken of the Supreme God. If they who gave these sacred names to Jesus, intended to convey the idea of the Deity of him of whom they spake, the application of such language must be acknowledged to be just and safe.

But if they professed and designed to convey no other idea than that he was a mere man, they adopted language calculated to convey any thing rather than the signification they intended.

Thirdly, Compare the appellations used by the writers of the New Testament in reference to Christ, with the state of the Pagan world at the time of the first promulgation of Christianity. When Christianity was first published, all the nations of mankind, except the Jews, worshipped idols. It was the avowed design of Jesus Christ, and of his apostles, to deliver mankind from the errors and delusions of idolatry, and to establish them in the belief and worship of the one only true God. Hence Jesus himself proclaimed, that "there is none good, but one, that is God." St. Paul congratulates the Ephesians, upon their emancipation from the worship of the dumb idols, after which they had been led. St. John thus exhorts them to whom he wrote:-" Little children, keep yourselves from idols." In the catalogue of characters whom he afterwards declares would be excluded from Secondly, Compare these appellations the kingdom of heaven, and have their as applied to Christ, with the religious portion in the lake of fire, he places state of the Jews at the time of the pub-idolaters in the enumeration. With lication of Christianity. In the time of Jesus Christ and of his Apostles, the Jews were strenuous defenders of the doctrine of the unity of God. It was

First, Is there a single instance in which any of the most excellent persons, who are mentioned either in the Old or New Testament, have received such appellations as Jehovah, the Great God, the True God, the Mighty God, the God of Israel? Did Noah, or Abraham, or Lot, or Job, or any of the patriarchs? Did Moses, or Isaiah, or any of the prophets? Did St. John, or any of the Evangelists? Did St. Paul, or any of the Apostles?

such an intention, as these passages and a variety of others indicate, on the part of our Saviour and his first ministers, it would be highly necessary for

them to avoid the slightest confusion or obscurity of language. The least expression which might seem to deify a creature would have served to countenance the error which they wished to counteract. What their feelings really were, in relation to such consequences, may be easily inferred from the vehement expostulation of Paul and Barnabas, when the people of Lystra would have offered them religious service. Acts xiv. 14. We are expressly informed that, when the apostles apprehended their design, they rent their clothes, and ran among the people, and said, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein."

[ocr errors]

Knowing, then, as the apostles did, the supreme caution that was needful, they nevertheless adopted language calculated to convey ideas of the Deity of Christ; and thus, upon the supposition that Christ is not God, counteract their own design. Witness such language as this:-"The word was God." "God was manifest in the flesh." The Jews" crucified the Lord of Glory." "Christ who is over all, God blessed for ever." If Jesus Christ be, indeed, God over all, then the expressions referred to, are the words of truth and sobriety: if he be not, such language must be pronounced unwarrantable in itself, and singularly, and in a manner most uncalled for, calculated to mislead. It has also been observed, that the "richest terms afforded by the Greek language are made use of in reference to Jesus Christ-that this circumstance cannot be accounted for by alleging the paucity of the language; as in certain older languages, terms are often obliged to be made use of in different senses-but that terms expressive of inferiority, corresponding to almost every shade of distinction, could easily have been selected from that copious language in which the New Testament was written." It is also worthy of remark, that, as the Apostles addressed their writings, not exclusively, nor even principally, to scholars or philosophers, but to the mmon people, they would naturally words of a plain signification.

And that the common people understood their words in the usual sense is evident for we are told, that, in the Dioclesian persecution, when the Roman soldiers sacked a Phrygian city inhabited by Christians, even women and children submitted to their fate, calling upon Christ the God over all.

Fourthly, Examine whether events have justified that notion which the Jewish prophets gave to their countrymen if Jesus Christ be not God. It is well known that their prophets announced one characteristic event of the Messiah's advent would be, the recovery of the Gentiles from idolatry to the worship of the true God. It is distinctly told us by one of them, that "the Lord would famish all the gods of the heathens," that is, Gentiles. So also, Isaiah, ii. 3 : “Many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." If Jesus Christ be God, then the event answers to the prediction; for the progress of Christianity has been attended by the dispersion of idolatry. If he be not God, the event has not coincided with the prophecy; since, upon that supposition, a mere creature has ever been, and still is, worshipped by the majority of the persons called Christians; idolatry evidently consisting in attributing these honours to any created being which are due to God alone.

Fifthly, The supposition that the Deity of Jesus Christ was taught by the Saviour and by his apostles, will alone enable us to account for the rejection of Christianity by the Jews. The rejection of Christ by the Jews does not appear to have been owing to the poverty of his outward circumstances, or to the spirituality and self-denial of his precepts. In both these respects he was equalled by the circumstances and preaching of his forerunner, John the Baptist. And yet we are told, so little was the objection arising from them, that "all men mused in their hearts whether John were the Christ or not:" and the Chief Priests and Scribes sent a deputation of their body, to ask him whether he was the Christ. Many at

the city, to execute upon him the death prescribed for that sin by the Jewish law.

He died, too, as he had lived, asserting the Deity of Christ. His last acts were a prayer to him for his murderers-" Lord, lay not this sin to their charge;" and a prayer for himself "Lord Jesus, into thy hands I commend my spirit." These proofs might be multiplied, and would serve to attest the truth of the assertion, that the doctrine of our Saviour's Deity was the chief reason for the re

the multitude of the Jews. By many of them, indeed, the Divinity of the Messiah was an acknowledged truth. I mean by those to whom he "manifested himself as he did not unto the world." Nathaniel knew him as "the Son of God." Thomas called him his "Lord and his God." St. Peter confesses for all the apostles, that Jesus was "the Son of the Blessed." His real disciples knew and believed this truth then, equally as they have done in every succeeding age: while the sensual, and the worldly-minded, and the proud, denied it also then, as many such persons have done ever since.

tempts have been made to deceive the Jews, by persons assuming the character of the Messiah: yet, it is said, there is no instance upon record of their having persecuted the false Christs. The enmity of the Jews against Jesus Christ was excited by the declaration of his Divine nature. This will be evident if you recollect the charges which were preferred against him upon his trial, if trial it may be called. "We have a law," say the Jews, "and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God." Injection of him, and of his gospel, by what way they understood this charge is clearly seen by their interpretation of that phrase before alluded to. "They sought to kill him, because he had not only broken the Sabbath, but also said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God." The same cause which had led them to reject and crucify Christ, operated on the minds of the Jews, and produced their rejection of his apostles. It was the immediate cause of their putting the martyr Stephen to death. The accusation against him was, "the blasphemous things which he had spoken against the temple, and against the law, against Moses, and against God." The blasphemy against the temple, and against the law, was, no doubt, the prediction that the temple would be destroyed, and the ritual abolished. The blasphemy against Moses was probably a declaration of his inferiority to Christ. But what was the blas- 1. Is the Deity of Jesus Christ a phemy against God? What indeed doctrine of Scripture?-then how is could there be in the preaching of the the accuracy of his precepts ratifiedapostles, which could be considered as how entire is the proof of their conblasphemy against God, but the doc-formity to the will of God. trine of the Deity of him whom the Jews had crucified as a malefactor? That this was the blessed protomartyr's crime, the conclusion of the account will show. "He looked up steadfastly to heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God." He saw the man Jesus in the midst of the Divine light. His declaring what he saw infuriated the Jews; and they stopped their ears, lest they should hear his blasphemy; and hurried him out of

The subject now discoursed upon admits of extensive application. It will, however, be within our power merely to enumerate the modes by which the application may be made, and to leave the rest to your own meditations.

2. Is the Saviour possessed of a Divine nature?—how absolutely, therefore, is he able to scrutinize our professions of his gospel.

3. The same truth also invites the utmost confidence in his declarations of mercy, and offers of pardon.

The object of the succeeding discourse will be, to show that all the several attributes ascribed to God in the Scriptures, are also ascribed to Jesus Christ.

A Sermon

DELIVERED BY THE REV. DR. RAFFLES,

(OF LIVERPOOL)

AT CASTLE GREEN CHAPEL, BRISTOL, On behalf of the BRISTOL MISSIONARY SOCIETY, SEPT. 22, 1830.

John, xii. 32.-" And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”

THIS he said signifying what death he should die, and what effect his dying should ultimately produce. There is an obvious reference to that memorable epoch in the Israelitish history, the lifting up the brazen serpent in the wilderness. You have an account of it in the book of Numbers. Picture to yourselves a vast plain, over which, as far as the eye reached, the camp of Israel is outstretched: all around is agitation, and horror, and despair; for fiery serpents, whose bite is certain, if not instantaneous death, are let loose on the people, as a just judgment from avenging heaven for their crimes. The plague is indiscriminate and universal in its influence; neither sex, nor rank, nor age, is spared. The lisping infant, and the playful child, the blooming maiden, and the vigorous youth, the venerable patriarch, and the hoary headed sage, are seen, in every direction, writhing in anguish, and convulsed with death. But in the midst of judgment God remembers mercy; he hears the intercession of his servant Moses on their behalf; and, by his express direction, a serpent of brass is made, exactly resembling the monster from whose bite the people suffered, and is lifted up on a pole in the midst of the camp. Proclamation is made, Whosoever is bitten, if he look to the brazen serpent he shall live. Instantly that scene of death becomes the theatre of life; joy beams in every eye, new pulses of health beat in every vein; as soon as the Israelite feels the gripe of the monster, he looks to the brazen emblem of the great Redeemer; and as he looks he lives.

Such, my brethren, is the scene to which our Redeemer refers in the text. He had already pointed out its typical reference to himself, in his memorable

But

conversation with Nicodemus the Jewish Rabbin :-"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him might not perish, but have everlasting life." That announcement he now confirms, adding the extent to which it should be ultimately known and realized;— "and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." what does he mean by this ambiguous mode of expressing himself?" If I be lifted up from the earth." Is there any uncertainty connected with this great event? Is it, after all, a transaction that may or may not transpire? Oh, no. It was fixed in the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God, that he should be lifted up. It was the purpose of his own infinite mind from everlasting to be lifted up. It was for this that he condescended to take our degraded humanity into mysterious and indissoluble union with his own divinity. He hung on the scenes of Calvary, with ardent anticipation and intense desire, long ere he had formed the woods and the waters, the hills and the vallies, of this fair and beautiful world. There was no other way by which he could possibly accomplish the benevolent purpose of his mission to our world, and secure the redemption of his people. This was the baptism of tears and of blood, wherewith he was to be baptized. This was the deed he was to accomplish at Jerusalem, which was ever present to his mind, and of which he spoke even amidst the splendours of his transfiguration. Nay, he never swerved, he never hesitated, he never shrank; he steadily pursued his course, till he had reached its destined consummation; and, on the summit of Mount

« AnteriorContinuar »