Scripture as the Son of God, in a sense entirely paramount, towering over and weighing down the subordinate sense in which this denomination is otherwise bestowed, whether upon men or angels. The first answer to our inquiry, and supporter of the assertion stated, is contained in the second Psalm and second verse: "The kings of the earth. set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands"-clearly speaking of the Lord and his anointed in terms of equality, And in the last verse it is said, "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him." "He shall cry unto me, Thou art my Father, my God. Also I will make my first-born higher than the kings of the earth." (Ps. lxxxix. 26, 27.) "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool." (Ps. cx.)

By this passage it was that He who could alone appreciate the highness of his own rank in the universe, and the nearness of his affinity, and the super-eminence of his relationship to the supreme being, was pleased to rectify the answer He received from the Pharisees to that most important question put by himself to them, "What think ye of Christ? of Christ? Whose Son is He? They say unto him, The Son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine ene

mies thy footstool? If David then call him Lord, how is He his Son? And no man was able to answer him a word; neither durst any man, (from that day forth,) ask him any more questions." And the answer which thus silenced them, is doubtless amply sufficient to silence us, and close this inquiry. But as the Scripture supplies such a weight of additional evidence on this point, we shall continue our insertions of it. "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bare a son, and shall call his name Immanuel;" (Isa. vii. 14;) which, as St. Matthew observes, being interpreted, is God with us. This was never said of God's servants the prophets; therefore, veiled in the human nature of Jesus Christ, God was unquestionably with us in a very different sense, and in a way completely surpassing the assistances received at sundry times, and in divers manners by our fathers, from inspired, but very subordinate agents. "Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace!" (Isa. ix. 6.) Here now is a passage handed down to us by the enemies to, and unbelievers in, Christianity; admitting no doubt as to its interpretation-a passage inserted in a book of the most acknowledged and unquestionable authenticity ;* a book, the contents of which alone is amply sufficient to fully and most satisfactorily establish every doctrine contained in the New Testament. 66 Unto us a child

* See Paley's Evidences, and others.

is born;" that human nature, unto which the Son of God so wonderfully condescended as to unite himself, and in which he glorified his Almighty Father. "Unto us a Son is given"-a Son who, as the high characteristics to be after particularised plainly show, was so denominated in a very widely different sense to that in which it was ever elsewhere given unto any other intelligent being. "And the government shall be upon his shoulder :"-of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end.* "His name, (most justly styled) Wonderful-wonderful in his union with the Father, wonderful in his incarnation, wonderful in his love, wonderful in his condescension, wonderful in the offices He fills, wonderful in the acts which he performs. "Counsellor:"-in the first chapter of the Bible, we find record of this truth, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness;" and again, (Gen. xi. 7,) Let us go down."† And there shall come

66

* Isa. ix. 7.

"The phraseology in which this resolution is couched, is remarkable: "Let us make man." But the Old Testament furnishes more instances of a similar kind. Behold, man is become like one of us: Let us go down and confound their language; Whom shall we send, and who will go for us?-These plural forms thus used by Deity, demand our attention. Three solutions of the question have been offered: the first is that given by the Jews, who tell us, that in these forms God speaks of himself and his angels. But may we not ask upon this occasion, Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor ?-with which of the angels did He at any time vouchsafe to share his works and his attributes?-Could they have been his coadjutors in the work of creation, which He so often claims to himself, declaring He will not give the glory of

forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and the spirit of counsel shall rest upon him. (Isa. xi. 1, 2;

it to another? Do we believe, do the Jews believe, did any body ever believe, that man was made by angels? Upon this opinion, therefore, we need not spend any more time: we know from whence it came, and for what end it was devised and propagated. A second account of the matter is, that the King of heaven adopts the style employed by the kings of the earth, who frequently speak of themselves in the plural number, to express dignity and majesty; but doth it seem at all reasonable to imagine, that God should borrow his way of speaking from a king, before man was created upon the earth? The contrary supposition would surely carry the air of more probability with it, namely, that because the Deity originally used this mode of expression, therefore kings, considering themselves as his delegates and representatives, afterwards did the same. But however this might be, the interpretation, if admitted, will not suffice to clear this point; for as it has been judiciously observed, though a king and governor may say 'us,' and 'we,' there is certainly no figure of speech, that will allow any single person to say one of us,' when he speaks only of himself. It is a phrase that can have no meaning, unless there be more persons than one concerned. What then should hinder us from accepting the third solution, given by the best expositors ancient and modern, and drawn from this consideration, that in the unity of the divine essence, there is a plurality of persons, co-equal and co-eternal, who might say with truth and propriety, Let us make man; and man is become like one of us? Of such a personality revelation informs us the creation of man, as well as all things else, is in different passages attributed to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; what more natural therefore, than that at its production this form of speech should be used by the divine persons? What more rational than to suppose, that a doctrine so important to the human race was communicated from the beginning, that men might know whom they worshipped, and how they ought to worship? What other good and sufficient reason can be given, why the name of God, in use among believers from the first, should likewise be in the plural number connected with

xxviii. 29.) The Lord of Hosts is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working, (Jer. xxxii. 19;) great in counsel, and mighty in work. (Zech. vi. 12.) "Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts, saying, Behold the mau, whose name is the branch; (that man in whom the Son of God. was pleased to become enveloped ;) and He shall build the temple of the Lord, and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and He shall be a priest upon his throne; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both." With that perfect consistency which pervades the sacred records, we find the same phraseology again employed in the New Testament (John iii. 11, 13) by our blessed Lord himself: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man that is in heaven;" plainly proving, that the plural pronouns we, and our, must mean

verbs, and pronouns in the singular. It is true, we Christians, with the New Testament in our hands, may not want these arguments to prove the doctrine; but why should we overlook or slight such very valuable evidence, of its having been revealed and received in the church of God, from the foundation of the world? It is a satisfaction, it is a comfort to reflect, that in this momentous article of our faith we have patriarchs and prophets for our fathers; that they lived, and that they died in the belief of it: that the God of Adam, of Noah, and of Abraham, is likewise our God; and that when we adore him in three persons, and give glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, we do as it was done in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be."-Dr. Horne's Sermon on the Creation of Man.