Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

who, under the patriarchal and legal dispensations, had the name of GOD in him, was called JEHOVAH, spake in the first person as JEHOVAH, calling himself"The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," appeared in the visible glory of God, was worshipped as God; yet we know, and are assured upon testimony the most unexceptionable, that "no man has seen the Father at any time." But this great and ineffable name of JEHOVAH was also by the prophets given to the Messiah; for the prophecy of Jeremiah declares that the name by which the Messiah shall be called is, JEHOVAH OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.1 And what do we read in Isaiah? “I, even I, am JEHOVAH, besides me there is NO SAVIOUR;" and yet St. John emphatically declares Jesus Christ to be the Saviour of the WORLD.2 The great name of JEHOVAH being thus given by the prophets to the Messiah, and, by implication at least, if not directly, ascribed to Jesus Christ by the writers of the New Testament, is it any wonder to find the Apostle to the Hebrews insisting so much

1 Ch. xxiii. 6.

2 See Nares's Reply, p. 88. and note.

Compare Isaiah, ch. xliii. and John, iv. 42.

The Prophet also says (xliv. 6.): " Thus saith Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts, I am the First and the Last, and besides me there is no God.". Now, this very character of the God of Israel, Christ assumes to himself in the Revelation, "I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last." (Rev. xxii. 13.)

on the superiority of Christ above the Prophets of the Old Testament, describing him as the "effulgence and the brightness of God's glory," and "the express image of his person; 66 as sitting on the right hand of the Majesty on high, being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent NAME than they "

66

every NAME

[ocr errors]

"that at

a NAME which is above the NAME of JESUs every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the Father?" 1 These are the several plain and strong declarations of the Apostle Paul: but, to sum up the whole, and to bring the matter to a perfect focus, I will add that clear, explicit, and incontrovertible passage of this Apostle to his disciple Titus: "The grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity. These things speak and exhort." 2

Att. Gen. But one of the Defendants has al

1 Philip. ii. 9—11.

2 Chap. ii. 13-15.

ready declared that there is no obligation to credit` such things, merely because it is the belief of an Apostle; so we will proceed to some other point. How, then, sir, do the Defendants, and Belsham in particular, render the words 'Tiòs Oso, where it occurs in the New Testament?

Witness. Invariably so, as that the same expression may be applied indifferently to any pious and good Christian whatever.

Att. Gen. How is this?

Witness. They say the Unitarians acknowledge that our Lord fully confessed himself to be The Son of God; but then they do not grant it in that high sense which he claimed, and the Evangelists and Apostles ascribe to him; and they render 'Tiòs

EO, "The Son of a God;" that is, a Son of Jupiter, or Mercury, or the god of Siam, perhaps. And in the passage of St. Matthew (xiv. 33.) where the Disciples are described as worshipping Christ, saying, "Truly Thou art the Son of God," after he had performed the most stupendous miracle, not as an inspired Prophet, but upon his own inherent authority, and they acknowledged in the expression both his divinity and his Messiahship; they render the words, "Truly Thou art a son of God!" which amounts to nothing more than an acknowledgment that he was a religious person: "Blessed are the peace-makers, for they shall be called the children of God." When our Saviour

was crucified, his enemies reviled him, because he had said that he was The Son of God: this was no blasphemy, as the High Priests declared it was, had it been spoken in the sense which the Unitarians give it, instead of its being claimed by Christ, as being equal to God, and as the title of the Messiah.

Att. Gen. How do they understand and render Logos, THE WORD OF GOD?

Witness. The Court will best see by referring to the first verse of St. John's Gospel, as given and explained in their New and Improved Version. The words are these in our version: "In the beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God; and the Word was God:" which are thus rendered by them: "The Word was in the beginning; and the Word was with God; and the Word was a God." Then follows the explanation:-"The Word, or Jesus Christ, through whom God revealed his word, was in the beginning of the Gospel dispensation; and The Word, or Jesus, was with God, withdrawing from the world to receive divine instructions and qualifications for his ministry: he was then invested with extraordinary miraculous powers, and thus, in Jewish phraseology, was called a god." 1

I See Improved Version, and notes upon John i. l.

K

Att. Gen. How do they get over the plain and simple construction and grammar of the original Greek?

Witness. This is all made to give way to their conjectures; and articles, definite and indefinite, are subtracted, added, or omitted, to answer the constrained and perverted sense, or rather nonsense, of this unwarrantable interpretation.

Court. How is that memorable confession of St. Thomas's faith rendered, when Christ removed his unbelief by showing the wounds that had been inflicted upon him at his crucifixion, and he cried out, "My Lord, and my God!"

Witness. The force and sense of these words, spoken and solely addressed to Jesus, are got over by the assertion of the Defendants, that they are not a confession, but an exclamation; an exclamation to the Almighty, meaning, My Lord and my God, how great is thy power!1

Att. Gen. How do you meet this?

Witness. By affirming that the words speak a direct and unequivocal confession of our Saviour's divine nature. The Defendant says they are an exclamation; but it is quite certain that the words, "My Lord," refer to our Saviour; and in an exclamation like that of Thomas, which was occasioned

1 John xx. 29. and note of Improved Version.

« ElőzőTovább »