To this divine ascription, the unto the Lamb, for ever and ever. On this comparative view of the wonderful subject, under consideration, I make the following remarks. 1st. It is evident to the least consideration, that the things, which are here said of Christ, are exceedingly unlike each other. So unlike are they, that, if we suppose two beings to be the subjects of holiness; their characters cannot be more different from each other, than the things, are, which are here declared concerning Christ. Let any man attempt to describe two, the most distant, characters of two, the most distant, holy beings; and he will find himself unable to place them farther asunder, than these two characters of Christ are placed. Therefore, 2dly. These two characters cannot be given to any being, possessed of a simple nature. That they are all truly said, will not be here called in question. If we suppose the person, of whom they are said, to be only God; we shall be obliged either to say, with the Sabellians, that Christ was no other than God manifesting himself in one particular form; or, with the Patripassians, that the Father lived here, suffered, and died, as a man; or, with the Docetae, that Christ was God only; that his appearance as a man was an illusion; that he had a visionary body; and suffered only in appearance and pretence ; while Judas Iscariot, or some other culprit, was crucified in his stead. It is plainly impossible, that the same simple being should be set up from everlasting, be the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending; and yet be born in Judea, in the reign of Herod the Great: Be the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever; and yet increase in wisdom, and in favour with God and man: Create all things visible and invisible; and yet be made of a woman: be the Lawgiver to the Universe; and yet be made under the Law: Uphold all things by the word of his power; and yet be a petitioner for the daily supplies of his wants, and the protection of his person: Possess all things, and yet have not where to lay his head: Know all things, and yet not know as, if we adopt the common interpretation, we must suppose he did not know, the time of the destruction of Jerusalem: Be the final Judge and Rewarder of the quick and the dead, and yet be tried, condemned, and executed by men and be in the form of God, and justly think it no robbery to be equal with God, and yet be a servant, a man, and a frail and dying man. But all these things, and innumerable others, substantially of the same nature, in both respects, are declared concerning Christ. All, also, are declared by God himself. They are, therefore, true; and true, in the natural, obvious sense. Of course, they are worthy of all acceptation. It follows, then; that Christ is, notwithstanding the sneers of Unitarians, God and Mun. In the language of the Scriptures, The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.. Yet, humble as were the station and circumstances in which he appeared, we are able still to behold his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the FATHER. 3dly. There are three important facts, recorded concerning Christ, in which he differs wholly from all created beings, and which merit the attentive consideration of every serious man. 1. He always taught in his own name; even when altering, and annulling, the acknowledged Word of God. ner. Christ came, to change the Mosaic system into the Christian; and accordingly substituted the latter for the former. In every part of this employment He taught in his own name. The preceding Prophets had uniformly introduced their Instructions with Thus saith the Lord; Thus saith Jehovah. Christ immediately after addressing his consolations to his disciples by way of preface, introduces his Sermon on the Mount in the following manThink not that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets : that is, the system of Religion in the Old Testament: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, &c. This phraseology he repeats every where throughout this Sermon, and throughout the Gospel. Not once does he say, Thus saith the Lord, during his Ministry; nor teach with any authority except his own. Now it is evident, that the authority, which he actually assumed, was equal in his view, and in the view of the Scriptures, to that, which sanctioned the declarations of the Old Testament; because he changes, and annuls, both the doctrines and the precepts of the Old Testament, at his pleasure. In the same manner when he appeared unto St. Paul in the way to Damascus, after informing Paul, that he was Jesus, whom ke persecuted, he commissioned him to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, and sent him as his Apostle to them, by his own authority, without appealing to any other. As, therefore, the authority, assumed in these cases, is equivalent to that, by which the Old Testament was revealed; He, whe rightfully assumed it, was God. The same authority, also, Christ assumed, and exhibited, generally, when he wrought miracles; and he never makes mention of any other. 2. The Apostles uniformly appeal to the authority of Christ in their preaching and miracles. In the name of Jesus Christ, says St. Peter to the impotent man, rise up, and walk. By what power, said the Sanhedrim to Peter and his companions, or by what name, have you done this? that is, healed the impotent man? Be it known unto you all, answered the Apostle, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. Eneas, said Peter, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole. All authority, says our Saviour, is delivered to me in Heaven and in Earth. As my Father hath sent me, so send I you. Under this commission the Apostles preached, and acted; and in multiplied instances have declared to us, that it was the authority of God. A single declaration of this sort will suffice for them all. Mark xvi. 20, And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. 3. In the Revelation of St. John, it is to be observed, Christ receives the praises of the Heavenly host, both singly and in conjunction with the Father, but never unites in them. Neither Christ, nor the Holy Spirit, is ever called upon to perform the great duty of all creatures to praise God, or to pray to Him. Both these duties Christ performed as a man, when here on earth: but he is never exhibited as performing the duty of praise in Heaven. All other virtuous beings are exhibited as making this their constant worship, and a prime part of their duty. But amid all their ascriptions of praise to God, Christ is no where exhibited as uniting with them in this duty; in itself so delightful to a virtuous mind, and so naturally and obviously obligatory on every rational being. The whole multitude of saints and angels, with the four living ones at their head, join, without exception, in the Heavenly song; Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth on the throne. But the only part, ever attributed to Christ, is to be united, in receiving the ascription, together with Him that sitteth on the throne: for the ascription is made to Him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb, for ever and ever*. I have now finished the observations, which I intended to make concerning this interesting subject; and exhibited what appears to me to be the true meaning of the remarkable phraseology in the text. God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and of other similar passages found in the Scriptures: such as, The word was made flesh; The seed of David according to the flesh; Of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came; Christ is come in the flesh, &c. I shall now conclude the discourse with the following REMARKS. 1st. This doctrine teaches us, in the strongest manner, the condescension of Christ. In this light it is considered by St. Paul in that memorable passage, Phil. ii. 5, &c. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a Servant, and was made in the likeness of men. No subject presents to us so wonderful an example of condescension, as the incarnation of Christ: Nor could any fact fill our minds with the same astonishment, were it not, that we have been accustomed to hear it repeated from the cradle, and, like the state of the weather, rendered an object of perpetual familiarity; a thing, almost of course, in the ordinary current of our thoughts; by unceasing inculcation. From these causes, we pass it without serious attention, and, even when we dwell upon it, scarcely realize its nature. The impressions, which it makes on the mind, resemble those, made on the eye of such, as have been long accustomed to them, by a delightful landscape, a stupendous cataract, or a mountain, which loses its summit in the clouds. At the view of these, a stranger is fixed in exquisite delight; and has all his thoughts engrossed, and his emotions absorbed, by the wonderful scene. No language will in his view serve to describe, and no picture to image, on the one hand the beauty, or on the other the sublimity, of these illustrious objects. To do them justice in his representations, and to spread fairly before others the views, formed of them by his own mind, he will labour in thought, select and refuse, alternately, the language which offers itself, and will at last sit down, discouraged, without a hope of being able to render his conceptions visible to other eyes, or to do any thing like justice to what was so magnificent in the view of his own. Those, in the mean time, who have long lived in the neighbourhood of the same objects, will, in many, though not indeed in all instances, survey them without emotion, and even without attention; apparently as insensible to the beauty and grandeur, as the horses which they ride, or the oxen which they drive. Such seem, but too commonly, to be the views, formed by most men concerning the incarnation of Christ; and such the insensibility, with which it is but too generally regarded. Even Christians, like their predecessors, mentioned in the Gospel, are, in innumerable instances, fools in this respect, and slow of heart to believe, or even to realize. But let us, for a moment at least, lay aside these obtuse views, these eyes which are dull of seeing, these hearts too gross to understand. Let us shake off the torpor which benumbs our frame, and rouse ourselves to perception and feeling. Let us regard this wonderful subject with common justice, and common can dour. |