5. Is God then the maker of man?

Yes: he made man after "his own image and likeness." Gen. i. 26.

6. In what does the likeness consist?

In this, that man's soul is, like God, a spirit, and cannot die.

7. In what else?

That his will, memory, understanding, and

sary for the explication of the phenomena, that the earth has existed during myriads of agesnor does the Scripture in any place assert the contrary. The creation of the earth, and the creation of man, are two different facts, which are not stated to have happened at the same time. All that we can collect from Scripture is, that the earth was created in the beginning; and that afterwards-how long afterwards we know not when the earth was shapeless and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, God was pleased to fashion it by degrees for the habitation of man. (Gen. i. 1, 2, &c.) During that interval of unknown duration, between the beginning and the works of the six days, it is very possible that all those revolutions may have taken place, of which geologists discover, or persuade themselves that they have discovered, traces in the internal conformation of the shell of our globe.

5. He made man.-' -The Lord God formed man of the slime of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul. (Gen. ii. 7.) His own image and likeness. So God created man to his own image: to the image of God did he create him. (Gen. ii. 27.)

7. Faint images. He gave them counsel and a tongue, and eyes and ears, and a heart to devise; and he

L

other faculties are faint images of the attributes of God.

8. Why hath God given to man these faculties? That we may know him and serve him here, and be happy with him forever hereafter.

PART II. ARTICLE II.

"And in Jesus Christ," and the rest as far as "to judge the living and the dead.

1. How do you begin the second part of the creed?

"And in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord."

2. What is the meaning of the name "Jesus"? "Saviour or Redeemer."

filled them with the knowledge of understanding, he created in them the science of the spirit, he filled their heart with wisdom, and he shewed them both good and evil. (Eccles. xvii. 56.) The powers, however, of the human soul are of necessity limited and defective, those of the Deity boundless and unchangeable; still the former must be taken for faint likenesses of the latter; for we are unable to form a notion of any power or attribute of the Divinity, of which we do not discover some imperfect trace in ourselves.

8. To know him, &c. This answer follows of course from the commandments which he has enjoined us to observe, and the rewards which he has promised to those who observe them. If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. Every one who shall have forsaken houses, &c. for my sake, shall receive a hundred-fold, and shall inherit everlasting life. (Matt. xix. 17, 29; Luke x. 25-28.) 2. Saviour or Redeemer.-Thou shalt call his name

3. What is the meaning of the word “Christ”? "The anointed" of God?

4. Why do you add to the name Jesus Christ, the words, "his only son"?

Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. (Matt. i. 21.) When the angels announced his birth, they said, Unto you is born this day a Saviour. (Luke ii. 11.) And St. Paul declared the same to the Jews at Antioch; Of this man's seed hath God, according to his promise, raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus. (Acts xiii. 23.)

3. The Anointed. --The Saviour whom the Jews expected was designated by the Jewish teachers the Messiah, which is translated into Greek by the word Christ, and means in English the anointed. We have found the Messiah, which translated meaneth the Christ, or the anointed. (John. i. 41.) I know that Christ (or Messiah) cometh. (John iv. 25.) I (John) am not the Christ, that is the Messiah. John i. 20.) The Jews agreed that, if any man should confess Jesus for the Christ (or Messiah), he should be cast out of the synagogue. (John ix. 21.)

4. Jesus Christ.-10. Jesus was the name given to him by the angel. Thou shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. (Luke i. 31.) His name was called Jesus, the same by which he had been called by the angel, before he was conceived in the womb. (Luke ii. 21.) 2o. To the name Jesus was added by the Apostles, the epithet Christ, or Messiah, to point out to the Jews that he was the very Saviour whom they had been taught to expect under that designation. St. John says that he wrote his gospel, that men might believe that Jesus was the Christ, or Messiah. (John xx. 31.)

To denote that he is not merely man, but also the son of the Father, and there

Who, he asks is a liar but he who denieth that Jesus is the Christ? (1 John ii. 22; see also Acts xvii. 3-xviii. 5, 28.)

His only Son.-The high title of Son of God is repeatedly given to our blessed Lord in the Scriptures. We believe and know that thou art the Christ, the son of God. (John vi. 69.) Rabbi, thou art the son of God. (John i. 49.) I believe that thou art Christ, the son of the living God. (John xi. 27.) At his baptism a voice from heaven announced, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased (Matt. iii. 17); and at his transfiguration a similar voice was heard; This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him. (Matt. xvii. 5.)

But he is not merely a son of God, a designation which has sometimes been given to men ; his title is one that is incommunicable to any other; for he is the only son of God, the only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the Father (John i. 18); the only begotten son, whom God hath sent into the world, that we might live by him. (1 John iv. 9; and John iii. 16.)

ven.

Inasmuch, then, as he was the only begotten son of God, he must have come down from heaThis follows both from what has been already stated, that he came into the world from the bosom of his Father, and also from his own words. For when the Jews said, Is he not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How then doth he say, I came down from heaven? Jesus answered, I am the bread of life, the bread that came down from heaven. (John vi.

fore the second person of the blessed Trinity.

42, 51.) And, in allusion to his future ascension into heaven, he said, What then, if ye see the son of man ascend up, where he was before. (ibid. 62.) I came out from the Father, and have come into the world. Again I leave the world, and go to the Father. (John xvi. 28.)

Hence, then, he must have existed before his birth in this world: and the same is attested by the Baptist, who says: This is he of whom I said, He that is coming after me was before me, for he is more ancient than I. (John i. 15, 27, 30.) Yet John was born before our Saviour.

He tells us that he existed before Abraham, the father of the Jews. Your father Abraham leaped for joy to see my day. He saw it, and was glad. Amen, amen, before Abraham was made, I am. (John viii. 56, 58.)

He existed before the world was made. For he prays: Glorify me, O Father, with that glory in thy presence, which I possessed with thee before the world was. (John xvii. 5.)

He was employed in the creation of all things, and consequently was increated himself. For all things were made through that word, which became flesh, and made his abode among us, and without him was made no thing that was made. (John i. 3, 14.)

If, then, he was the only unbegotten son of the Father, he must have been of the same divine nature with the Father; if he was increated, he must have been God: and so we are assured by St. John, who tells us, that the word was God (John i. 1); and by St. Paul, who pronounces him