an Infinite Being. But these are all human reasonings about what facts ought to be, according to human judgment. It is far safer to go to the Bible, and learn what facts are. It is not for man to say, what sort of atonement God will accept, even were it conceded that he requires a literal satisfaction. Whatever it is, can be effectual only by divine appointment. As it happens, we have only to complete the sentence, a part of which I have taken for my text, to learn the whole truth about this matter. "There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all." Here, then, is the atoning part of Christ's mediatorship disposed of in few words, and declared to have been effected by the man Christ Jesus. I say nothing here as to what the atonement was, but only remark, that it was effected by the man Christ Jesus. I now pass on to another passage, which touches still nearer the doctrine of the Trinity. It is in the First of Corinthians, eighth chapter, and sixth verse. "But to us, there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him." The Trinitarian creed says that God is three Persons, "The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." This text of Scripture asserts, that God is one, and that the Father alone is that God. In saying that there is but one God, and that God is the Father, the Apostle denies Deity to all besides. There can be no such God, as God the Son, or God the Holy Ghost. Jesus Christ is Lord. Not only is he different from the one God, but is shut out of the Deity by the very terms of the proposition. What is it to be Lord? It is simply to have authority. That authority may be original or derived. Lordship is a communicable attribute. It does not determine the nature of the person to whom it belongs. We have the authority of Scripture for affirming that this Lordship was conferred on Christ. Peter affirms that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ." "Wherefore," on account of his voluntary sufferings for the good of man, "God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue confess that he is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Lordship, then, when applied to Christ, involves, not the presence of divine attributes, but the absence of them, because it was conferred on him by another. It was conferred by God, and it inheres, not in any divine nature in him, but in Jesus who was crucified. And what is it to be God? Something very different from being Lord. To be God, is to be self-existent, eternal, unchangeable, the cause and source of existence to everything that has a being; to be the sole sustainer of all things, "the former of our bodies, and Father of our spirits." These attributes and relations cannot be communicated, cannot be shared. No other being can stand in the relation of God to us. not correspond to facts. the relation of God to us. assures us, is the Father. Names are nothing, if they do That being, the Apostle This diversity of relation is pointed out in this very passage. "To us there is but oue God, the Father, of whom are all things." This phrase, "all things," at first sight, has the appearance of meaning the universe, but though such a sense is not absolutely excluded, the words which succeed, seem to restrain the sense to the things which concern Christianity, for the Apostle adds, "and we in him," or rather into him, or nearer still, unto him; meaning, not the relation which we naturally sustain to him, but the relation into which we have been brought by Christianity, or Christ, as God's worshippers, acknowledging our allegiance to him. "And one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him;" that is, as the mediator, through whom we have received all things relating to religion, by whose instrumentality we have received the blessings of the Gospel, and are the worshippers of the only living and true God. There are other parts of the writings of Paul, which ascertain the relation between the Lord here mentioned, and the God here mentioned. Not only is the Person, here called God, the one only God, the God of the universe, but the God of the Lord that is mentioned in connection with him. In Ephesians, first chapter, it is said, "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom." This then ought to settle the question, as to the Lord Jesus Christ's being a person of the Trinity; for a person of a Trinity cannot have a God. If the Father is the only God, and is the God of the Lord Jesus Christ, then there are two reasons why Christ cannot be God; one, that the Father is the only God, and another, that he is the God of Christ. The next passage I shall quote is parallel to the last, and occurs in Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, fourth chapter, and fifth verse. "There is one body, and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." What I mean especially to point out in this quotation is, that Christ and God are spoken of in the same sentence as distinct from each other, and each as one, having an individuality of his own; one as God, and the other as Lord; and that these relations are not identical, nor the persons who sustain them, neither do they interfere with each other. What are the plain historical facts, to which this language corresponds? Jesus represented himself as having been sent by God to set up a new religion in the world. He was endowed with the knowledge and power which were necessary to this purpose. He gathered around him a society, of whom he was, under God, the head. These disciples called him their Master and Lord. He formed a church, and presided over it while here on earth. He died for it, and God raised him from the dead; and to confirm the church in their faith in him, and their allegiance to him, God continued to him those supernatural powers which he had possessed on earth; so that during the apostolic age he held communication with his apostles, gave them sensible tokens of his presence, and of the power with which he had been endowed. Miraculous powers were conferred on the disciples, according to his promise. He was seen in a vision by the martyr Stephen. He appeared to Paul, on the way to Damascus, with a striking manifestation of divine power. He often held communication with him in the course of his ministry. Various supernatural communications were made to the apostles during their lifetime, which assured them that he still cared for his church. They were made either by him in person, or by God, in furtherance of his religion; so that it was the same thing to them, as if they came immediately from him. This agency of Christ in the world was so firmly fixed in their minds, that they joined him with God in their salutations. Though invisible, he was still the head of the church, and cared for its interests. But you will observe, that though associated with God in the Epistles, he is nowhere spoken of as God, or as a Person of a Trinity, but as a person inferior and distinct. "To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints; grace to you, and peace from GoD our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." Note the wide distinction between God and Christ. "From God our Father," not God the Father, which the Trinitarian might possibly interpret to mean the first Person of a Trinity, but God our Father, the whole Deity, the same Person to whom Christ taught us to pray, saying, "Our Father, who art in heaven;" "from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." This is in the Epistle to the Romans. In the other Epistles, this salutation is repeated, with this variation |