Ess. x.] The Sonship of Christ. 269 them, of my Father which is in heaven; for, where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them :" Matt. xviii, 19, 20. Lastly, when he was on the point of his ascension, the words with which he parted from his disciples were these "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world:" xxviii, 20.. ..5. Abundant as are the evidences already adduced, that Jesus Christ assumed the divine character, it is impossible for me to do full justice to the present argument without entreating the reader's attention to some other parts of our Lord's discourses, which are, if possible, of still greater importance to it. I allude to those passages in which he unfolds the doctrine of his Sonship, and speaks of his own authority, character, works, and attributes, in connexion with those of his Father. The following selections will be found to correspond with this description. "All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son but the Father: neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him," Matt. xi, 27; or, as in Luke's Gospel, "No man knoweth who the Son is but the Father; and who the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him :" X, 22. "But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his (own) Father, making himself equal with God. Then answered Jesus, and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise; for the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that πατέρα ἴδιον. 270 The Sonship [Ess. x. himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son; that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.".... "For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself:" John v, 17 -26. "As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father:" x, 15. "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works, that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him." 37, 38. "He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me : and he that seeth me, seeth him that sent me :" xii, 44, 45. "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God; believe also in me . I am the way, the truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me. If ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also, and from henceforth ye know him and have seen him. Philip said unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus said unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. Verily, verily I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go Ess. x.] Of Christ. 271 unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it" xiv, 1-14. "He (the Spirit of Truth) shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore, said I, that he shall take of mine, and shew it unto you :" xvi, 14, 15. Even when engaged in supplicating his Father, in behalf of his disciples, Jesus still maintained the same method of indicating his union with the Being whom he addressed: "Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee......" I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them.. Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.... Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me, through their word: that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us... Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am" John xvii, 1, 9, 10, 11, 20, 21, 24. ...... It will be perceived that, in some of the passages now cited from our Lord's discourses, the doctrine is plainly promulgated, that Jesus Christ did nothing 2 The apostles might be said to do greater works than those of Christ, not because they wrought greater miracles, for this was obviously not the fact; but because they were the first to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, and because they converted far greater multitudes to faith in the Redeemer than were converted during the life and ministry of Jesus. The sphere in which he was pleased to act was Palestine. Their sphere of action was the world at large. Whatsoever the apostles effected, however, in the propagation of Christianity, they effected by the power of their Divine Master, who was gone to his Father, and had poured forth upon them the gifts of his Holy Spirit. This is evident from the context. 272 Testimony of the Son, ]Ess. x. "of himself." His works were the Father's works. His words were the Father's words. And this part of the doctrine of Jesus may be explained, either of his mediatorial character in general, in which he was man as well as God, and in which he was bearing the form of a servant, or else of his divine Sonship, in which (be it ever remembered) he is the Begotten of the Father, the Word, emanating from God, It is plainly impossible that the Saviour of mankind, even in his eternal Godhead, should perform any work, except in perfect conformity to the will of the Father; for he is the very "Image of the invisible God;" Col. i, 15; the "Express Image" of the Father's "Person (or substance);"3 Heb. i, 3. While, however, these passages of Scripture thus bear testimony either to our Lord's subjection to the will of God, in his capacity of a Mediator, or to his subordination to the Father, in his capacity of a Son, they also appear to declare, in language which cannot easily be misunderstood, his real equality and unity with the Father, in the divine nature. Clear is the light which many of our Lord's expressions now cited throw on the parallelism and reciprocity-on the intimate connexion, and even fellowship-on the harmony and union in the exercise of divine attributeswhich subsist between God the Father and that eternal Son of his love, in whom he is made manifest to mankind. The Father alone knoweth the Son, or who the Son is the Son alone knoweth theFather, or who the Father is. The omniscient Father has a perfect knowledge of the Son: and the Son knoweth the Father, even as the Father knoweth the Son. The Son glorifieth the Father, and the Father glorifieth the Son. All those persons who are in a peculiar sense the Son's, 3 8 χαρακτὴς τῆς ὑποστάσεως. 273 Ess. x.] to his own Union and Equality, are also the Father's: and all those persons who, in the same sense, belong to the Father, belong also to the Son. Whatsoever things, indeed, are possessed by the Son, are of necessity the Father's, and "ALL THINGS that the Father hath," are the Son's: John xvi, 15. So intimate is their connexion-in so absolute a sense is it true that the Son is in the Father, and the Father in the Son,-that whosoever believeth in the Son, believeth in the Father; whosoever knoweth the Son, knoweth the Father; whosoever seeth the Son seeth the Father; to whomsoever the Son is shown, the Father is shown. So even is their fellowship in the divine nature, that the unity of mind and counsel, which characterizes the equal disciples of the same Lord, is compared to the unity which subsists between these two-"That they may be one, as we are:" John xvii, 11. Nothing, indeed, can be much more striking or more evidently unsuitable to the condition and circumstances of any mere creature, than the familiar use which, in speaking of himself and God the Father Almighty, Our Lord has made of the pronouns, we, us, our. "If a man love me," cried Jesus, "he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him:" John xiv, 23. This is a mode of speech, with which (as it relates to the Deity) nothing, that I know of, can be justly compared, but the phraseology adopted by Jehovah himself in the Old Testament, "Let us make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness:" Gen. i, 26. "Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil :" iii, 22. Lastly, with respect to their joint and equal exercise of the divine attributes, we read that the Son works, as his Father works; that "whatsoever" he sees the Father do, he does himself-that, as the Father raises and quickens the dead, "even so" (in the |