the hypothesis is highly improbable, that the bishops assembled at that council all agreed in drawing up a profession of faith which they knew to be fundamentally opposed to the doctrines held in the three preceding centuries; yet surely they would not have dared to assert, with such a mass of evidence before them, that they were supporting the same doctrine which had always been preached. They would have taken the bolder and more consistent ground of saying, that the Fathers who preceded them had gradually corrupted the purity of the Gospel. But their language is the very opposite to this. They drew up the exposition of their faith in the plainest and strongest terms, explaining every article so as to meet the varied objections and subtile sophistry of conflicting heresies; they were driven to assert the divinity of Christ with more minuteness and precision of language than it had ever been necessary to use before; and yet they declared, that every article of their belief had been held and preached from the days of the Apostles to their own. Nor did any person venture to rise up and contradict them by saying, that the Catholic church for the first three centuries had believed in the simple humanity of Jesus Christ.' But, Gentlemen, to proceed:- the Defendants, in the exposition of their creed, go all along upon the principle 1 Vide Burton's Test. of Ante-Nicene Fathers, p. 448. of their right to receive or to reject such parts and portions of Scripture as the reasoning faculties of men, of men like themselves, approve or disapprove; and hence they conceive that Christ was not only. a human being, but a man marked with the same "ignorance, prejudices, and frailties," as characterise every other man: in short, that he was only a very common man gifted with very uncommon endow-: ments. As a proof of this “ignorance," they conjecture that "Jesus knew not the honour and dignity for which he was intended, until after his baptism," which, we all know, took place when he was about to enter upon his public ministry. Now, upon the face of the Gospel history, it seems to me that his wisdom was most extraordinary, even at the early period of the twelfth year of his age, when, as we read, he went up with his parents to keep the passover at Jerusa→ lem, and took the opportunity of leaving their com pany unobserved, and, after a search of three days, was found in the schools of the Rabbins, within the temple, "His Father's house," as he called it, hearing their arguments, and replying to them in a manner" and with an understanding that astonished all who heard him." And what was the language he used in reply to the remonstrances of his mother for having deserted, and caused her and her husband such anxiety? "How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business" the business of man's salva tion? To me, and I think also to you, Gentlemen, these words convey an unquestionable proof that Christ, as man, knew from the earliest time what purpose his coming into the world was to answer, and why it was that he had come "down from heaven to do his Father's will." Again, to say that Christ had human "prejudices," is what I think none have shown, and none can prove, unless, indeed, that can be called prejudice, which led him first to prefer his own people and nation, the chosen of God, before others, in offering the terms of his mighty salvation; and to have personally visited them, and not the Gentiles. Unless his consideration of the poor, rather than of the rich, in his pastoral visitations; and his preference of the submissive and teachable disposition of the ignorant, to the self-conceited and opinionated Scribes, and others of the wise, be called prejudice; he assuredly had none. And, with respect to the "frailties" to which he is also said to have been subjectif by the expression more be meant than the natural infirmities which flesh is heir to, I, on behalf of the Christian world, repel the insinuation with the indignation and scorn which it deserves; for it is impossible to forget that Jesus, the holy Jesus, "did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth."1 And it is upon this firm ground, that 11 Peter, ii. 22. et Christ" did no sin," that I would take my stand against all the host of sceptics, to maintain his righteous claim to divinity. Whatever is of the earth must, in its inherent nature, be depraved and earthly: but here is a being in the form of man, obnoxious to the common infirmities of a created and fallen nature, and yet without sin, "without spot or blemish!" Here is one having outwardly all the bodily incidents of humanity, with a mind altogether heavenly and divine, and incapable of taint! Here is a man with a body that it was not possible for death to hold captive or to corrupt, yet with a spirit that was in heaven while he him3. self was on earth! "No man," saith he, "hath ascended up into heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in -heaven!" Here is a proof of his divinity springing from one of the simplest circumstances in the particulars of his history; yet a circumstance of such immense importance, that it was foretold by ancient and authentic prophecy, confirmed by its actual accomplishment, acknowledged by every believer of the Gospel, and denied by no enemy,by none, indeed, save only by Unitarians." ! 1 Peter, i. 19. 2 Isaiah, liii. 9. s It seems incredible, but still it is so, that the Unitarians, and the Unitarians only, deny that Christ was sinless. The trash brought to prop up this horrible perversion may be seen in a long note on Hebrews, vii. 28. of the Improved Version. Yet what say the Scriptures? God -The Defendant next proceeds to say, "that, after his baptism, Christ retired to the wilderness, where he was fully instructed in the nature of his Lmission, and invested with voluntary miraculous powers, which, by the VISIONARY scene of his temptDonation, he was instructed to exercise, not for his own personal advantage, but solely for the purposes of his mission," insinuations the most gross and the most degrading. This very common man, as they make of the divine Jesus, required, according to their belief, forty days' instruction, in retirement, for the knowledge of his mission; when his own -simple, fearful, ignorant disciples were prepared for theirs by the momentary conversion wrought on them by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost by the instantaneous impulse of that Spirit which he, Christ, their own Lord and Master, him> self poured out upon them! After this we are told God hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin. 212 Cor. v. 21. He was tempted like as we are, yet without sin.- Heb.iii, 13. Whoso committeth sin, transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law: but in himfis no sin.-1John, iii. 4,5. Christ, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God.- Heb. ix. 14. He once suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust.— 1 Pet. iii. 18. He shall appear a second time without sin. Heb. ix. 28. He that committeth sin is of the Devil; whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. - 1 John, iii. 8, 9. Christ himself asked, Which of you convinceth me of sin? |