Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

"As the Fa

hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of the Father, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day." "Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, they that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation." I admit, that if Christ were represented as doing this by his own underived power, it would be conclusive to prove what is claimed for it, that he had more than a human nature. But what is the fact? Did he raise Lazarus by his own power? No. He disclaimed it. He says, "Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. ther hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself." It will not be by his own power that he will raise the dead, for the Apostle says, "Knowing that he which raised up Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus." Now if this be the case, that he is only the instrument, there is no possibility of determining his nature, from what he does, to be this or that; and whatever inferences can be drawn from the fact, that GOD will raise the dead by him, are against his divine nature rather than in favor of it. The omnipotence of God can clothe any agent that he pleases to select with sufficient power to do anything that he chooses. The Apostles went forth commissioned to raise the dead; but any one who should infer from this, that they had any other nature than human, would be greatly deceived.

But it is urged over and over, as unanswerable, that

Christ must be God, or at least have a nature more than human, because he is to judge the world. It is said, that such an office must require omniscience, nothing short of a knowledge of all the transactions of the past. That, however, is a human speculation. It is of little consequence how we may speculate. The shortest

way is to appeal to facts. Those we shall find to be plain, on an appeal to the Bible. "I charge thee beford GOD, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearance and his kingdom." "Why dost thou judge thy brother, and why dost thou set at naught thy brother, for we must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ." "For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every man may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or whether it be evil." "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, with all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them, the one from the other, as the shepherd divideth the sheep from the goats."

Now, whatever this judgment may be, Christ will act in it only in an instrumental capacity, for the same Scriptures say; "In the day when GoD shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ." "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in their graves shall hear his voice, and come forth, they that have done good to the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damna

tion. I can of mine own self do nothing; as I hear I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." That his judgment is merely ministerial, appears from the very language of the description of the final judgment. "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Not only is the judgment to be instrumental, but to be exercised by a man. Paul at Athens declares, "God hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead." Peter makes, in substance, the same declaration in his speech to Cornelius and his companions. The person, who when here on earth, owed his power of working miracles to his "being anointed with the Holy Ghost," and to "God's being with him," must owe his power of judging the world to the same assistance. "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed with the devil, for God was with him; whom they slew and hanged on a tree; him hath God raised up and showed him openly. And he hath commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is he that was ordained of God to be the judge of the quick and the dead."

I trust that these quotations are sufficient to show, that in whatever sense Christ is to judge the world, his agency is to be ministerial only; through him GoD is to judge the world, and is to judge the world by the man Christ Jesus.

Finally, in the state of exaltation to which Christ was advanced, we find no traces of his possessing two natures. Soon after his ascension, he was seen in vision by the martyr Stephen, but not as a Person of the Trinity, not as God in any sense, nor as having more than one nature. "He saw heaven opened, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God." He was seen by Paul on his way to Damascus. In answer to Paul's question, asking who he was, he says, "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest." The exaltation of Christ is generally connected with his crucifixion. Only one nature of Christ was capable of being crucified. "Who is he that condemneth? Is it Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." In another place, which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but in that which is to come." In another place it is said, that it was in consequence of his suffering death, that he is crowned with glory and honor. another place it is said to be in consequence of his submission to die on the cross, that "God has highly exalted him, and given him a name that is above every name." Such passages as these are sufficient to show us, that the exaltation of Christ is no objection to the simplicity of his nature; nor ought it to be, since God is omnipotent, and can bestow any measure of power, knowledge, and dignity, on any being he pleases, short of communicating his own incommunicable attributes.

In

From the arguments we have gone over, you perceive there is no sufficient ground in the Scriptures for supposing that Christ had two natures united in his person. We see no traces of more than one intelligence, one mind and will. What his nature was, I leave every one to gather for himself. Whatever honor we pay him, we must remember that it is not an honor due his nature, but only his commission; and all the honor we pay him must redound to God, for we read that all men must honor the Son as they honor the Father, because he is the Father's representative. "He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father which sent him."

There is a class of texts, which it may be well to consider here, which have led some to imagine, that we are to honor the Son as we honor the Father, that we are to honor Christ as we honor God, because God has committed to him the government and control of the physical universe; that it is he, and not God, who now sustains and guides all things. I have myself heard a preacher, whose opinions are implicitly received by a numerous sect in this country, declare that when Christ ascended, there was a revolution in heaven; that God gave up the control of the whole creation, visible and invisible, to Christ; and it seemed to be inferred, that he himself retired and became quiescent.

Such a government of the universe as this, would seem to be altogether incommensurate with human nature, in any state of exaltation. I propose to consider here those texts upon which such an opinion is founded. The strongest passage, which is thought to support this opinion, is found in the words of Christ when he com

« ÎnapoiContinuă »