have been applied to Jesus by an Apostle ;* and yet if he were truly and properly God, it could be known only by his own declarations, or by those of the Apostles. But he never called himself God; and in the most unqualified manner he called himself a MAN who declared the truths

In this last instance (John xx. 28), a Jew using the Jewish language, addressing a Jew, in the presence of Jews, employs an appellation, the application of which to those to whom the word of God came, his Master had lately shown (John x. 34, 35) to rest upon irrefragable authority, that of the Jewish Scriptures. In one of the former (Heb. i. 8), a Jew, writing to Jews, in an epistle whose object peculiarly respected the Jewish dispensation, applies to Jesus a passage addressed by the Psalmist to Solomon. Surely no difficulty can possibly exist as to these instances; it cannot be imagined to be in any degree unreasonable, to suppose that the appellation God is there employed in the manner in which it is employed in the Jewish Scriptures, in reference to beings of the human race and I do not perceive how any difficulty can reasonably exist as to the remaining instance (John i. 2). Here a Jew who had probably heard, and who at any rate records in the same book, his Master's remarks respecting the scriptural use of the appellation God,-writing among, and probably for the use of those who were either Jews (see Acts xviii. 28. xix. 10. 17), or at any rate familiar with the Jewish Scriptures, (see various parts of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians,)-applies an appellation to Jesus, in the application of which he was fully borne out by the phraseology of the Scriptures (both in the Hebrew original and the Greek translation), and by the declaration of our Lord himself in reference to that phraseology. Among those readers of St. John's Gospel who had learnt Christianity of him, or of St. Paul, or who had been converted from Judaism by any others, no difficulty could exist as to the way in which the Evangelist uses the term; and I think that a heathen convert could have felt no perplexity respecting it. If for a moment he had supposed from it, that Jesus was truly God, his error would at once have been corrected, when he came to the words of Jesus in which he addresses the FATHER as the ONLY TRUE GOD: he could not possibly imagine that the Apostle meant to represent Jesus as a God, in the sense in which the word was applied to the heathen divinities; and he therefore would naturally presume, that he applied the appellation God in the way in which Jesus himself said it was applied in the Jewish Scriptures, viz. on account of the divine authority of his declarations, because to him the word of God came,' because he was a man who had received important truth's from God, and under His sanction delivered them to mankind.

which he had heard from GOD: see p. 70; and

also p. 105.

SECT. II.

Passages in which it is supposed that the CREATION OF THE NATURAL WORLD is ascribed to Jesus.

BEFORE Considering the passages separately, I wish to call the attention of the Reader to two undeniable principles.

First, the creation of the natural world is very frequently ascribed in the Scriptures to the Supreme Being himself, and in the most express and explicit language. For instance, Gen. i. 1. 'In the beginning, GOD created the heavens and the earth." Psalm xcv. 5. The sea is HIS, and HE made it, and his hands formed the dry land.' Isaiah xlv. 18. For thus saith JEHOVAH that created the heavens, GOD himself that formed the earth and made it-I am JEHOVAH and there is NONE ELSE.' Jer. xxvii. 5. Thus saith JEHOVAH Lord of hosts, the GOD of Israel-I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by MY great power, and MY outstretched arm.' Rev. iv. 11. THOU art wor thy, O LORD, to receive glory and honour and power; for THOU hast created all things.' Neh, ix. 6. THOU, even THOU art JEHOVAH alone; THOU bast made heaven, the heaven of heaven with all their hosts, the earth and all things that are therein, the seas and all that is therein.

Acts iv. 24. Sovereign Lord, THOU art GOD, who madest heaven and earth and the sea, and all that in them is.'*-I infer from this, that if (contrary to the language of the Apostles, in the last instance,) it was not God, but His holy servant Jesus, who created the heaven, earth, and sea, and all things in them, we may reasonably expect this singular fact to be declared unambiguously and by proper authority.

Secondly, the highly important and striking change, which was so suddenly produced, by the Christian dispensation, in the moral condition and prospects of the Gentile world, is spoken of by the Apostle Paul as a creation; and of this creation Jesus was the immediate agent. The Apostle, speaking of Christian believers says, Eph. ii. 10. For we are his workmanship, having been CREATED through Christ Jesus, to good works;' and in v. 15, speaking of the union of the Jews and Gentiles, he says that Christ abolished by his death the cause of enmity, in order to CREATE in himself, of the two, one new man.' In ch. iii. 9, he says that God hath CREATED all things,' meaning, if we judge from the connexion, created them anew to holiness; and in ch. iv. 24, he employs an expression which at once deter

Ps. viii. 1. 3.

* See among other places Gen. i. Job. ix. 8, 9. xix. 1. xxiv. 1, 2. xxxiii. 6. 9. lxxxix. 11. cxlviii. 4—6. Is. xl. 26. xlv. 7. xlviii. 13. Jer. x. 12. Amos iv. 13. Acts xiv. 15. xvii. 24. (comp. v. 31). If any one will examine the phraseology in these passages, he will perceive, that if the Apostle in Col. i. 16. meant to ascribe the natural creation to Christ, he has not done it in the language usually employed, (and employed even by himself in the last two passages,) respecting the natural creation,

mines that he sometimes, at least, spoke of the moral change which had occurred, as a creation:

To be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new man, which is CREATED, according to God, in righteousness and true holiness.' In like manner, in Col. iii. 10, he says, 'and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, according to the image of Him who CREATED him.'-Agreeably to this phraseology, the Apostle says, 2 Cor. v. 17. If any man be in Christ, he is a NEW CREATURE,' or 'there is a NEW CREATION;' and Gal. vi. 15. 'For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a NEW CREATION.'

The change of state experienced by the Hea thens in consequence of faith in Jesus, can hardly be calculated by those who scarcely remember the time when they did not know the leading truths of the Gospel. The Gentile believers had new hopes, new views, new desires; and the commencement of the change of mind, and indeed the change of state itself, was often instantaneous, produced by what they saw before their eyes, of the immediate agency of divine power. It was a change from darkness to light; from debasing ignorance, to a knowledge of the sublimest truths: it was a change from impurity of heart, to the desire after holiness; from earthly pleasures and hopes, to the prospect of an inheritance unfading in the heavens. How happy and full of rich and glorious

privilege was their new condition; the Greatest and Best of beings, their Father, their merciful and gracious Father; the living and exalted Jesus, their Lord and Saviour, their Friend and elder Brother; the way of duty cleared; the hopes of heaven, of pardon and everlasting life, distinctly sanctioned and firmly fixed upon a sure foundation. It seems to me almost impossible to think of these things, and hesitate to admit that this moral renovation was most justly represented by the Apostle as a new creation.↑

From the preceding considerations I maintain, that the principles of interpretation stated at the beginning of this Part (see Chap. IV.) require us to interpret passages which speak of the creation by Jesus Christ, as referring to this new creation. In this, Jesus was the honoured instrument of the Father's goodness; in the natural creation, all was effected by the fiat of the Almighty.

It has, however, been thought by some, that as the mighty works which are expressly ascribed to the power of God, and among others the spiritual regeneration of mankind, were nevertheless wrought by Christ as the immediate instrumental agent, performing them by the power which God gave him, so in reference to the natural creation, Christ might have been the

• John xx. 17. Rom. viii. 17. Heb. ii, 11,

The reader who wishes to examine this subject more minutely, will do well to consult a very valuable sermon entitled The Nature, Origin, and Effect of the Creation by Jesus Christ; by Russell Scott; as well as the authors referred to by him.