law, in his unqualified approbation of the obedience of others, and his frowns upon every transgressor. In his determination not to destroy the law but to fulfil it, and in his dying to fulfil its penalty in behalf of those whom his mercy would save, he gave the strongest possible testimony that he was holy as God is holy.

His justice was less conspicuous than many other moral attributes, because his errand into our world was to snatch rebels from its power by his own blood. He would not be a judge between a man and his brother, and would not condemn the adulteress. And yet never did any one so strictly observe the rules of righteousness as he did, and never had those rules been so clearly exhibited as we find them in his instructions. The grand rule embracing all others, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them," was never exhibited till it dropped from his lips. Thus, not to mention that in promotion of justice he laid down his life, it is manifest that he made it a first law of his kingdom that justice should be done to all beings.

His truth and faithfulness are without a parallel. What he said always accorded with strict veracity. All his promises he fulfilled, and every promise is sure to be accomplished. Never did he speak of things past, present, or future, but his language accorded with fact; and if all men are liars, he must have been more than human. His whole life was a perfect comment upon his own assertion that he came into the world to declare the truth.

His goodness and his mercy none could ever doubt. He spent his life to make the wretched happy, and died to save them from endless misery. He mourned and wept over those who would not be made happy, and prayed in his last hour that his murderers might be forgiven.

Thus every attribute of divinity which could be exhibited in connection with human nature, and in a point of time such as was his public ministry, was clearly displayed as inherent in the Lord Jesus Christ.

If we hear it said that he grew in wisdom, and in stature, and in favor with God and man; if we find him receiving intelligence like other men, and praying as he taught them to pray, this only proves, what no one denies, that he was strictly and properly a man as well as God. His humanity would have been doubted if in every thing but sin he had not exhibited the properties of human nature. Hence he hungered, and thirsted, and was weary; he was grieved, he wept, he prayed, he bled, he sweat, and he suffered. All this must be to render him a man. And yet he could create the very

bread for which he hungered, and the wine for which he thirsted; could sustain his own weakness, and take up the life he laid down. He could do for himself the very things which he asked the Father to do for him. While he lay in the manger, and while he hung on the tree, he still sustained the government of the world, and was the mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince of peace. And it seems to us that these opposite attributes must meet in one who is both God and man. Why because we see weakness shall we deny his deity, rather than deny his humanity, because we see him possessed of infinite power. Some have taken one side of this question and some the other. There have been many who have denied his humanity, and we live in a day when others are attempting to strip him of his divinity. But the prophets foresaw in the child that should be born a junction of divine and human atributes. He was the mighty God, and yet he was to hang upon a tree; he was to be a man of sorrows, and yet Jehovah in addressing him styles him the man that is my fellow; he was made under the law, and yet the government of the universe was upon his shoulders. And what the prophets thus foretold is manifest in all his history. He could still the sea, and yet was in an agony on the approach of the hour of his dissolution; he could raise the dead, and yet died himself.

Unable to see how these different attributes can be in the same person, some have asserted, and would have us believe, that all that was more than human were mere borrowed attributes; that Jesus was a man like other men, or at least a mere creature, and that God granted him for the time being divine attributes. Now we read that God will not give his glory to another; but whether God is not believed while he thus asserts, or whether men have discovered that as a loan is not a gift, so God may permit a creature to use temporarily attributes which are not permanently his, I leave you to judge. We are reminded, I know, that prophets and apostles wrought miracles, did what mere men unassisted could not do, in other words, were for a time endowed with supernatural power; and the question is triumphantly asked, Wherein do the cases differ. The prophets and apostles were men, mere men, yet were empowered to do what belonged to the prerogatives of Jehovah, and what else is true of the Lord Jesus Christ? With regard to these assertions I remark,

1. The Lord Jesus Christ acted as if these attributes which he exhibited were his own. He did not exhibit any signs of dependence on the will of another to enable him to do his mighty works.

When he stilled the storm he merely said, "Peace, be still." When he dispossessed the demoniacs he commanded them to go out. When he healed diseases he took an attitude highly independent, "I will, be thou whole." When he delivered predictions he did not say, as the prophets did, "Thus saith the Lord." When he raised the dead his language was, "Lazarus come forth." He spoke of what he had done, and would do. He associated himself with the Father, and said, "We will come to him and make our abode with him." And when others spoke of what he had done, he never disclaimed the praise, or referred them to God as the author of these works. When he had communicated blessings to the sufferers he permitted them to give him all the praise. Now all this would have been unpardonable impudence in a creature the most exalted. There was never seen any thing like it in the prophets or the apostles. They used the power of working miracles as a borrowed attribute, and constantly ascribed all the glory to God. If others offered to worship them, they shrunk from the honor and declared themselves to be mere men.

2. The Lord Jesus Christ assured his disciples that the attributes he employed were his own, and the praise his due. He assured them that he was one with the Father, and that it was the duty of all men He assured them to honor the Son even as they honor the Father. that he had power on earth to forgive sins, and encouraged them to apply to him for pardon. He spoke of being in the Father in the same sense that the Father was in him. If then he was a mere creature, and had no honor or power but that which was loaned and temporary, he certainly betrayed his trust as no agent ever did before, and accumulated about himself the glory due to him who sent him.

3. It is certain that beings in all worlds viewed him with a respect which it would seem could not have been his due had he appeared great only in borrowed attributes. We hear the Father say, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." The disciples addressed their prayers to him, called him their Lord, and committed their spirits into his hand. Said Peter, "Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee." Devils did him honor, feared his power, and trembled at his approach. The Jews understood him to assert that he was equal with God. And he seems to have permitted all about him to retain their high views of his person and character.

4. The Lord Jesus Christ speaks of himself, and is spoken of, as possessing these attributes before he came in the flesh and since his ascension. Said he "Before Abraham was I am." And said

an apostle, with reference to him, "For by him were all things created that are in heaven, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him and for him." And he is represented as continuing to govern the world as mediator till the judgment, when he will deliver up the kingdom to the Father. Still, however, he is to be worshipped equally with the Father for ever, and will doubtless for ever reign with him. There will continue to be ascribed to him "Power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." Now who can believe that God can loan to a mere creature all his attributes, and give assurance that he shall enjoy them and the honors they attract to him, for ever? What absurdity can be more glaring? Hence what a rotten and miserable scheme it is which thus degrades the Redeemer and robs the gospel system of all its glory.

That still as mediator he acted in a delegated capacity, we know and are not disposed to deny. That in this character he was inferior to the Father, or acted under him, none will dispute. But that still he is invested with all the rights of Jehovah, and that every attribute of the true God is his without derivation, or loan, or bequest, is to me as manifest as that any other doctrine of the Bible is true.

The scheme of reasoning which vests the Redeemer with borrowed attributes, would throw us afloat on points the most obvious. How can we know that the being which we call man is any other than a brute beast vested for a few days with the loan of intelligence? He may to-morrow rot and perish like the ox. We do not use the power of reason, more as if it were an inherent property of our nature, than did the Lord Jesus Christ the high and holy attributes which come into view in his history. It would seem to me far easier to doubt whether men had any other than a borrowed intelligence, than to doubt the Deity of Christ. In infancy man seems like a mere animal, and often he reaches a similar state in old age. How can we know, then, that there awaits us any other existence beyond the grave than a mere beastly existence, if any. True intelligence was attached to us for a time, and we hoped to think and reason for ever, but this may all be fallacy on the principle that we oppose. Men have been styled angels in disguise, but we have, it seems, arrived at the conclusion that they are brutes in disguise, and may soon lay aside the intelligence which assimilates us to the angels.

REMARKS.

1. The subject may inspire God's people with confidence. The Savior, we trust, is the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace. He is doubtless able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God through him. How can we distrust such a Savior? or be ashamed of such a Savior? or live in the neglect of such a Savior? What a glory does his Godhead give to the scheme of redemption. Those whose Savior is a man or angel may well yield to gloom and despondency; but he whose Savior built and will judge the world, is the mighty God, has the keys of hell and of death, may cast off every fear, may rejoice and be happy.

2. The subject may show us how great is the crime of rejecting the Savior. If God himself would come down to save us, our salvation must be an important object, and our ruin an incalculable loss. And how daring the impudence of disregarding a message brought to us from heaven by the Son of God! How tremendous must be the ruin of gospel sinners!

3. The subject may help us to try our religion. If in Jesus Christ we see the whole of the Divine character, we may by discovering whether we love him, know whether we love the Father.