be reconciled with the integrity, humility, and piety of his character, upon the hypothesis of his simple humanity.12

He also assumed an absolute jurisdiction in matters of moral obedience; thus claiming that authority over the hearts and consciences of mankind which can belong only to the Supreme Lord, and which involves both a right and power of taking cognizance of the secret sentiments, principles, and feelings of men's souls. He represented himself as the Sovereign Head of the gospel-dispensation, and was uniformly so considered by his apostles; in relation to whom, he conducted himself as one possessed of an immeasurable superiority, and as exercising the most gracious condescension. The miraculous establishment of the gospel-dispensation is attributed to his personal and peculiar power, a power to modify and control the laws of nature: and, in all its arrangements, offices, ordinances, diffusion, and success, he is constantly declared to be the real and ever-present Agent. The exercise of this power manifestly implies a universal dominion over the whole course of natural and moral events; the causes and occasions of human action; the understandings, passions, and motives of men, in every state and of every character; and an efficient determination of what shall be the issue to all the purposes and actions of all mankind. In a perfect analogy with these high prerogatives and powers, the Lord Jesus ascribed to himself a spontaneous power to relinquish his own human life, and to resume it; and the resurrection of his body from the state of death, is expressly imputed to his own will and agency.13

12

Capit. VII.

13

Capit. VIII.

1

With all this, Jesus uniformly maintained his entire subordination to the will of God his Father; that all which he performed and suffered, taught and commanded, in the great work of his mission to mankind, he did, for no private or separate purpose, but solely in pursuance of the appointment, and for the accomplishment of the gracious designs, of Him who sent him. Not only did he reject the idea of having any detached interests or objects, but he even affirmed that he had not a detached existence from the existence of the Father. The will and work and glory of the Father, are repeatedly stated to have been identically the will and work and glory of the Son. It is declared that the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father; and that He and the Father are ONE.14

Such is the purport of the testimony which our Lord Jesus Christ bore concerning himself. Whether these particulars have been fairly deduced from their premises, by legitimate criticism and honest interpretation, has, throughout the preceding disquisitions, been carefully submitted to the judgment of the learned and intelligent reader: and he is again requested to exercise that judgment upon this recapitulation of the results. It has been, also, my honest endeavour to present the grounds of the evidence, at every step, in a manner so detailed and perspicuous, that, I flatter myself, any attentive and serious reader, though not possessed of the assistances to be derived from an acquaintance with the original languages of Scripture, will find it no difficult task to follow each argument, with a clear perception of every thing on which its validity can depend.

Let me intreat him, then, to meditate anew upon the character, both mental and moral, of the Person by whom all these attributives have been avowed as his own, or plainly assumed, or more or less indirectly implied, or permitted to be ascribed to him by others: and let him consider whether it is possible to believe the soundness and sobriety of mind of that Person, and still more his perfect holiness, humility, and piety, on the supposition of his knowing himself to be nothing more than a mere human creature, however singularly wise and virtuous; a fallible and peccable man: and whether, on the other hand, it is not necessary, in order to support the integrity of his character and the truth of his teachings, to believe that he possessed, not the nature of man only, but another Nature, superior and preexistent, celestial and really DIVINE.

CHAP. IV.

ON THE REAL HUMANITY OF JESUS CHRIST, ITS CHARACTERS AND AFFECTIONS.

SECTION I.

THE HUMAN NATURE, WITH ALL ITS INNOCENT PROPERTIES, AFFIRMED OF JESUS CHRIST.

Jesus Christ really and properly a man.-The progress of his intellectual and moral excellence.-His passions and susceptibilities. His conduct under sufferings. His moral qualities.-The causes, means, and extent of his intellectual acquirements. The limitation of his knowledge.—Inquiry into the meaning of Mark xiii. 32.-The perfection of our Lord's moral character vindicated, against insinuations:-Investigation of the causes and peculiar nature of the Redeemer's sufferings.-I. Designs of those sufferings.-1. To succour the human race.-2. To deliver from the terror of death;-not physical dissolution, but spiritual and eternal ruin.-3. To propitiate for sin.-4. Sympathy with suffering Christians. 5. The efficiency of salvation.-II. Reasons of those sufferings.-III. Their unparalleled kind. -Our Lord's agonies and prayers consistent with his moral perfection and his union with the Divine Nature.

A BEING who acts and speaks and is addressed as a man, and who exhibits all the properties which distinguish man from other beings, must be a real MAN. To such a being, possessing the nature and the essential attributes of a man, it is correct to ascribe a proper humanity; even if it should be the fact that, by the possession of a different class of properties which are known to be the attributes of another nature, this other nature should appear to be preternaturally conjoined with that being.

Therefore, a believer in the proper Deity of the Messiah, has no obstruction, on that account, to an equal assurance of the Messiah's proper humanity. He regards it as a case absolutely of its own kind, having no known analogy to any other fact or existence in the universe, and which is to be judged of solely from its own evidence, competent testimony.

By himself, by his friends and disciples, by his enemies and persecutors, Jesus Christ was spoken of as a proper human being.

His childhood was adorned with filial affections and the discharge of filial duty. "He went down with "his parents, and was subject to them."1 And on his cross he showed the same dutiful tenderness.

His intellectual powers, like those of other children, were progressive: and so was the developement of his moral excellencies. "The child grew and was "strengthened in spirit, being filled with wisdom; " and the favour of God was upon him :-he advanced "in wisdom, and in stature, and in favour with God "and men.

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In his earliest years, he embraced with eagerness the means of improvement. They found him in "the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and inquiring of them and all "who heard him were astonished at his understanding "and his replies."3 It cannot, with reason, be doubted that he availed himself of whatever opportunities besides were placed within his reach, in his obscure and lowly station.

He had large experience of human suffering: and he was, in the strongest manner, both by insidious art

1

Luke ii. 51.

2 Luke ii. 40, 52.

3

Luke ii. 46, 47.