capable of being transferred to another language. Hence we infer that Christ expressly intended to use the present tense; that the Evangelist in using that tense was infallibly directed; and that it is not an allowable solution of a supposed difficulty in the Greek to revert to a supposed ambiguity in the Syriac, as if the Evangelist had either doubted or decided wrong. The present it is; and we may not suppose it was originally spoken otherwise, unless the Greek reading be incorrect, which no one pretends. The phrase is peculiar, but remarkably forcible, and forcible even in its peculiarity; and we know not that we should go far beyond its spirit, if we paraphrased it, "Yes, I existed before Abraham; I am the existent one; I exist now; I shall exist for ever." But though this particular reference to the Syriac or Hebrew idiom does not satisfy us, Dr. Smith's general discussion on the passage is highly satisfactory, and utterly subverts the several hypotheses by which the force of this remarkable and decisive passage is attempted to be evaded. We only think that both here and elsewhere, he sometimes allows too much strength to objections which have in them rather the nature of cavils than reasons; and admits serious difficulties where there are none, except as raised by hypercriticism or party argumentation. We know not why it should be affirmed that our Lord's discourse John vi. 33-63, or John viii. 14, 23, 24, 42, is environed" with serious difficulty;" or why it should be "acknowledged as a great difficulty" that our Lord's declaration of his priority to Abraham did not make a stronger impression, was not alluded to by his disciples, and was not urged against him; since our author himself shews very obvious reasons why all this might not be, even if the alleged fact were proved, which it is not; for it is but a negative, which the brevity of the Evangelical narrative does not allow us to as sume it might be much talked of, and we not know of it; and it was certainly included in the general assumption of his being the Messiah, and was, we may naturally suppose, a portion of that alleged blasphemy which was imputed to him. But Dr. Smith admits even greater “difficulties;" for he says that "the chief difficulty that lies on the Trinitarian doctrine," and "a great and serious difficulty which it would be disingenuous not to admit," is, that "to attribute the characters of Divinity to the Messiah and to the Holy Spirit, is to set up other beings as Divine, besides the living and true God." We really are astonished to hear Dr. Smith call this a difficulty. It involves, indeed, a solemn mystery; but as to any difficulty, as if it bordered upon polytheism, the charge is utterly groundless. We worship one God one God only-how that one God subsists is an independent question, and its Scriptural solution does not make three Gods, but a tri-une God. Surely our respected author is far too indulgent to his opponents, in calling points like this "serious difficulties." They had been things utterly unascertainable, had they not been revealed; the whole subject had been too difficult for human scrutiny; but revealed, there is nothing in them but what the most enlightened understanding may ac knowledge to be congruous, and worthy of the highest ideas we can form of the Divine nature. Dr. Smith's opponents have however their "difficulties," but of a very different kind. Thus the late Mr. Belsham very honestly says, in reference to our Lord's declarations of his personal agency in the resurrection of the dead and the final judgment, which if we believe we must acknowledge him to be omnipotent, omniscient, and infinite; "That this is a great difficulty cannot be denied;" but he sets himself to do the best he can with it, adding, "Possibly, however, it may be alleviated by attention to the following considerations;" on which our author very justly exclaims: "Alleviated!-Is it then become an object with these persons to diminish the weight of his doctrines, whom they still acknowledge as the wisest and best of Teachers, the great one commissioned by God; to strip his words of their awful import, to extinguish their majesty, and to lighten their pressure upon the human conscience?-With good reason was it said by one of the most judicious as well as amiable of men (the late Dr. Ryland), How innumerable are the expressions, used by the writers of the New Testament, as well as in the ancient prophecies of the Messiah, which Socinian 'good sense' [alluding to an expression of Mr. Belsham's, attributing that quality pre-eminently, if not exclusively, to his own party,] would have carefully avoided! p. 272. We will quote from this chapter only one short passage more, which we beg leave to assign as our own reason why we refuse to use the term Unitarian, as assumed by the sects to whose opinions we have been alluding, as if we also were not Unitarians, while we worship the Son and the Holy Ghost, even as we worship the Father. It will, besides, shew that Dr. Smith was over-courteous to his opponents, when he talked of "serious difficulties," which he could so readily solve. "Whatever our opponents may think of the credibility and rationality of our sentiments, they ought to do us the justice of recollecting that we constantly and strenuously deny the assumption, by them made. Our doctrine is that, whatever may be the kind of distinction which we con ceive to subsist in the Divine Nature, that Nature is one. The Deity of the Son, and the Deity of the Holy Spirit, we believe to be one and the same with the Deity of the Father. Let this doctrine stand or fall, according to the evidence: but let it not be forgotten or overlooked that this is our doctrine. In honouring the Redeemer and the Sanctifier, we believe that we are honouring the Father and Fountain of all being and blessedness, and that, in each case, the object of our honour is the one and only God." p. 319. But we must no longer linger around this chapter; and as for the next two, on the real humanity of Christ, with its affections and character, and on the state of mind and the degree of knowledge of the Apostles during our Lord's sojourn upon earth-we must pass them wholly over, and proceed to the fourth book, the argument of which fills the greater part of the third volume. This argument, as we have above stated, is the testimony to the person of Christ derived from the writings of the Apostles. We have already had a double argument, the Old Testament, and the narratives of the four Evangelists, comprising our Lord's own declarations and admissions: we now arrive at the third thread in this threefold cord that cannot be broken. And this sums up the whole; for though, as we have before observed, our Lord's own words and intimations are satisfactory and unequivocal-especially as explicated under that succeeding inspired teaching, by which the Holy Spirit whom he promised was to lead his church into all truth, taking of the things which are Christ's, and revealing them specially to his Apostles, and through their writings to those who should live after them: yet it was not our Lord's design to disclose fully the sation, during his own personal remysteries of the Christian dispensidence upon earth. Many points were reserved for that last stage of Divine revelation, which was completed in the Apostolic letters, the inspired history of the infant church, and the revelations of St. John. Our Lord himself delivered some things darkly, and others with only partial explanation; the full light being intended for a future period, the period of the especial manifestation of the Spirit, of which the miraculous scene of the day of Pentecost was at once a sign, a pledge, and a specimen. We cannot doubt that our Lord intended specially to appoint his Apostles, and the inspired penmen of the New Testament, to be the receivers and transmitters of those Divinely revealed truths respecting him, which, during the period of his ministry upon earth, his own disciples were slow to understand. To effect this purpose he promised his Spirit as the Illuminator of their understandings, and their Guide to truth; and thus taught by Him who cannot lie, their testimony is, that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world; truly God, yet truly man, by a Divine and ineffable mystery. We cannot follow our author through the long series of texts which he has brought forward in proof of the Apostolic witness to Christ; but we shall state his method, and advert to his conclusions. He first considers the examples of Apostolic instruction, in the book of the Acts; and then in the declarations of those of the Apostles themselves, whose writings have been transmitted to posterity as a portion of the inspired canon. The book of the Acts of the Apostles is not meant for a regular history it neither comprises in its notices the whole range of the early Christian church, nor the whole of the actions of its first teachers, or any one of them; it is chiefly a rapid view of several highly important occurrences, with more copious details respecting particular individuals and churches. And if it be not a regular history, much less is it a regular code of doctrine. It does not profess to discuss the whole system of the Gospel; it refers rather to its memorable events than to its tenets, which the reader is supposed to know from other sources, while his belief in them is confirmed by the occurrences related in this early missionary chronicle. But this being the case, the incidental light which is cast upon important points of doctrine is the more remarkable. In a set treatise, like that of the Epistle to the Hebrews, we expect direct and ample discussions; but in a narrative of events, matters of doctrine break in upon us only as necessary to the explication of the story: so that the absence of any particular doctrine, were it absent, would not imply a disbelief in it, but only that an al lusion to it was not requisite to the point in hand. If, therefore, the book of the Acts of the Apostles, only tacitly implied, or took for granted, or was built upon the Divinity of our Lord, without any express mention of it, it would not follow that the doctrine was not Scriptural, or was unknown to the primitive church. But it was so appointed that this preliminary consideration is scarcely necessary; for that great truth beams out in this part of sacred writ with a strength which would be sufficient to exhibit it in all its lustre, were there no other evidence; and which being chiefly collateral and incidental, is doubly forcible. We must leave our readers to collate the passages for themselves, in the course of their biblical studies; but shall present them with our author's brief summary of the result :— "Thus we have endeavoured to collect the declarations contained in the Acts of the Apostles, on the subject of our inquiry. The sum of the testimonies appears to be this that the Christ is really and truly a man; yet that powers and actions are attributed to him which are totally incongruous with the human or any other cre ated nature; that he is the author and cause of spiritual and immortal blessings to the human race; that the miracles, which attested the mission of the Apostles, were performed by his efficient power; Spirit had the same origination; that he that the peculiar operations of the Holy will be the final and universal Judge of mankind; that, in all these respects, Jesus Christ acts in subordination to the primary grace and authority of the Father; that the characteristic institutions of Christianity have an especial respect to him as their author, and the object to whom, equally with God the Father, their homage Lord, in the absolute form; that the is directed; that he is often styled the phrase of performing religious acts in his Name, is used, in a manner analogous to the peculiar application of that expression ligious worship was paid to him, and that in the Scriptures to the Deity; that resuch worship was a designating mark of the primitive Christians." pp. 54, 55. And is not even this of itself sufficient; and, combined with all that had gone before, from Genesis to Malachi, and from the Gospel of St. Matthew to that of St. John, is it not even more than sufficient, to convince all who are willing to be convinced, what is the Scripture doctrine relative to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? Yet far more is yet untold; for the Apostolic Epistles and the Book of the Revelations are the climax of the whole argument. On these our author dilates seriatim, and at considerable length. His general conclusions, which are derived from large and truly philosophical induction, are summed up as follows: "In taking this review, the first remarkable feature that strikes our attention is the combining of qualities in the same subject, which are the undoubted attributes of two essentially distinct and inconvertible natures. Yet this language, involving combination, is used by the Apostles habitually, without any indications of being oppressed by an insurmountable difficulty. This fact appears incapable of solution, except on the ad mission that the writers, in so expressing themselves, were directed by an infallible and divine teaching, and were fully sensible that, in this astonishing combination of opposite properties, there was no real incongruity. The necessary inference is that which we have been obliged to draw, from finding the same habit of expression in all the preceding parts of our inquiry; that, in the person of the Messiah, the two natures of humanity and Deity are really united, in a manner the most intimate and indissoluble, yet without the extinction of either class of properties, without confusion, and without any impediment to the affections and exercises distinctive of each.-' Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness,' the transcendent doctrine of piety and truth! "We have found the general idea of pre-existence pervading the whole current of the apostolic testimony; in some places directly affirmed, but usually in the way of implication. Christ is also spoken of, in the same current style of assumption and implication, as having come, or been brought, into the condition of human and mortal existence; and that this coming to mankind was an act of beneficent indulgence and condescension, so great as to be above description, thus implying an original dignity and worth superior to those of any created nature; for it would have been an unspeakable favour and honour conferred upon any creature, to have been invested with the office of being the Saviour of the world. He is shewn to be the intervening Agent, between the holy government of God and man the offending creature: an intelligent, voluntary, and active being, condescending to CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 345. become man in order to effect a purpose of infinite goodness. To Christ is attriexcellency, the same kind of beauty and grandeur which the Scriptures always present to us as that which constitutes the peculiar glory of the Divine perfections. the most exalting and dignifying attainThe knowledge of Him is represented as ment to which men can aspire, and as conferring upon them the most valuable benefits. The name of Christ is repreistics and relations, and claiming the same sented as possessing the same characterhonours as those which belong to the name of God. He is represented as possessing an original and intimate knowledge of the attributes, purposes, and acts which are peculiar to the Deity. His own will and purposes are spoken of as unsearchable, and as identical with those of the Eternal Mind. To him are attributed a legislative and judicial authority, and an actual power, in the moral government of the world; a dominion over the mental actions and affections of men, their consciences, their responsibility, and their moral state. He is described as having all futurity lying open before him, and as disposing of all persons, things, and events, at his own pleasure. He is represented as the source of the apostolic verity and authority, the efficient producer of the miraculous attestations to Christianity, and the author of the prophetic inspiration, though it was granted ages before his human existence. buted a richness and fulness of moral "The Epistles also, in their entire strain of assertion, implication, and recognition, hold forth Jesus Christ as the author and imparter of that which is the supreme good to rational creatures; he is the deliverer and preserver from moral and natural evil, in their most dreadful forms: and he is the designing and active cause of all that constitutes the perfection of man, spiritual happiness, in its essence, its production in the mind, its progress, its security, and its heavenly consummation. He is the possessor and imparter of life, both in its inferior and in its highest modes of subsistence. On him the being and the well-being of all happy creatures depend for ever. He confers ability for enduring the severest trials, and for performing the most difficult duties. counteracts, restrains, and destroys the mightiest agencies of evil. He is the proprietor and sovereign of mankind, and of the universe besides. He is even represented as the Creator of the universe, subsisting in oneness with Deity at the first production of dependent nature; and as the sustainer and preserver of all things, material, intellectual, and moral. It is he that will raise the dead, and effect, upon those who shall be living at the time of the universal resurrection, the analogous change in their corporeal frame. To him will belong the sovereign adjudication, irreversible, and without appeal, of the ever4 F He lasting state of all the individuals of mankind. "These writings further exhibit Christ as the proper object of confidence, for the acquisition of the greatest possible blessings; and of veneration, love, and delight, in preference to every thing created. He is appealed to in awful and holy obtestations; and is the express object of religious invocation, in both prayer and praise. To him religious obedience is directed, as its proper object; and it is against him that disobedience is committed. Ascriptions are made to him of supreme honours, comporting with the highest celebrations of Jehovah in the Old Testament. All created intelligences, even the highest, are introduced as adoring him; both in the dispensations of time and in the future world. He is displayed as supreme in excellency; superior to all creatures, distributively and collectively; being the true, full, and proper representation to mankind of the Infinite Godhead; the Son of God, in a manner peculiar to himself, and exclusive of any mode of created existence; of the same nature as the Father; unchangeable; eternal; having all Divine perfection; denominated the Lord, in connexions and with predicates requiring the highest and absolute sense of the appellation; God; the God and Lord; the Christ and God; the True God; the Great God and Saviour." pp. 388-392. What a constellation of celestial attributes! And is it possible to resist the evidence thus ably and admirably summed up? Yet, after all, a few plain texts, some two or three of the several hundreds alluded to, or remarked upon, in these volumes, will be sufficient for the religious repose of an honest and simple mind. And, in truth, we turn from the dazzling and overwhelming display of concentrated glory, exhibited in the last extract, to the mild radiance with which that glory is scattered over many a page of holy writ; not condensed to a focus of almost intolerable brightness, but illuminating and cheering the whole spiritual universe with its mild and genial radiations. Yet all that our author has thus industriously and powerfully collected from the apostolic writings into a few paragraphs, till the mind is almost overpowered and bewildered with the cluster of ideas, is really told us in detail in those hallowed pages: Christ is described to be all that has just been stated; and the diligent |