6 ɛ,-to be God, and to here speaks. That place will be universally acknowledged to be the right hand of God; the same therefore was his place of glory in the beginning, and from which he had descended. But the right hand of God primarily signifies a glory, not in the highest sense divine, but only next in dignity to God. So v. 24, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.' In these, as in other passages, we are taught that the nature of the Son is indeed divine, but distinct from and clearly inferior to the nature of the Father,―for to be with God, zgÒ's Оεòν, and to be from God, aga be in the bosom of God the Father,-to be God, and to be from God,-to be the one invisible God, and to be the only-begotten and visible, are things so different that they cannot be predicated of one and the same essence. Besides, the fact that the glory which he had even in his divine nature before the foundation of the world, was not self-derived, but given by the love of the Father, plainly demonstrates him to be inferior to the Father. So Matt. xvi. 27. in the glory of his Father.' Acts iii. 13. the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus.' Col. i. 19. 'it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.' ii. 9. in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.' Eph. iii. 19. that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.' These passages most clearly evince that Christ has received his fulness from God, in the sense in which we shall receive our fulness from Christ. For the term bodily, which is subjoined, either means substantially, in op เ 6 6 position to the vain deceit mentioned in the preceding verse,* or is of no weight in proving that Christ is of the same essence with God. 1 Pet. i. 21. who gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.' ii. 4. chosen of God and precious.' 2 Pet. i. 16, 17. we were eye-witnesses of his majesty ; for he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him-.' 1 Pet. iv. 11. compared with 2 Pet. iii. 18. that God in, all things may be glorified, through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever: but grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; to whom be glory both now and for ever.' On a collation of the two passages, it would seem that the phrase our Lord,' in the latter, must be understood of the Father, as is frequently the case. If however it be applied to the Son, the inference is the same, for it does not alter the doctrine of the former passage. John xii. 41. citing Isai. Ixiii. 5. these things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him,'—that is, the glory of the only-begotten, given to the Son by the Father. Nor is any difficulty created by Isai. xlii. 8. 'I am Jehovah, that is my name; and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.' For though the Son be another than the Father, God's meaning is merely that he will not give his glory to graven images and strange gods,-not that he will not give it to the Son, who is the brightness of his เ * Milton seems to have had the same idea in his mind in the following passage: 'Beyond compare the Son of God was seen Most glorious; in him all his Father shone Substantially express'd-.' Paradise Lost, III. 133. glory, and the express image of his person,* and upon whom he had promised that he would put his Spirit, v. 1. For the Father does not alienate his glory from himself in imparting it to the Son, inasmuch as the Son uniformly glorifies the Father.† John xiii. 31. now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him.' viii. 50. I seek not mine own glory; there is one that seeketh and judgeth.' 6 Hence it becomes evident on what principle the attributes of the Father are said to pertain to the Son. John xvi. 15. all things that the Father hath are mine.' xvii. 6, 7. thine they were, and thou gavest them me ;......now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.' It is * 'On his right The radiant image of his glory sat, His only Son.' Paradise Lost, III. 62. 'Son, thou in whom my glory I behold In full resplendence, heir of all my might-.' V. 719. 'Effulgence of my glory, Son belov'd, Son in whose face invisible is beheld Visibly, what by Deity I am ; And in whose hand what by decree I do, ... Unfolding bright Toward the right hand his glory, on the Son Resplendent all his Father manifest Express'd. X. 63. O Father, O supreme of heavenly thrones, First, Highest, Holiest, Best, thou always seek'st To glorify thy Son, I always thee, As is most just: This I my glory account, My exaltation, and my whole delight, &c. VI. 723. Shall I seek glory then, as vain men seek, Oft not deserv'd? I seek not mine, but his Who sent me, and thereby witness whence I am. Paradise Regained, II. 105. therefore said, v. 10. all mine are thine, and thine are mine'—namely, in the same sense in which he had called the kingdom his, Luke xxii. 30. for he had said in the preceding verse, I appoint unto you,a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me.' Lastly, his coming to judgment. 1 Tim. vi. 14. ' until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his time he shall show, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see.' Christ therefore, having received all these things from the Father, and being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,' Philipp. ii. 5. namely, because he had obtained them by gift, not by robbery. For if this passage imply his coequality with the Father, it rather refutes than proves his unity of essence; since equality cannot exist but between two or more essences. Further, the phrases 'he did not think it,'-' he made himself of no reputation,' (literally, he emptied himself,) appear inapplicable to the supreme God. For to think is nothing else than to entertain an opinion, which cannot be properly said of God.* Nor can the infinite God be said to empty himself, any more than to contradict himself; for infinity and emptiness are opposite terms. But since he emptied himself of that form of God in which he had previously existed, if the form * Opinio autem in Deum non cadit.' Milton uses the same words in his treatise on Logic, where he assigns the reason. 'Opinio tamen in Deum non cadit, quia per causas æque omnia cognoscit.' Prose Works, VI. 293. For, as he says in his Speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing, 'opinion is but knowledge in the making.' I. 322. of God is to be taken for the essence of the Deity itself, it would prove him to have emptied himself of that essence, which is impossible. 6 Again, the Son himself acknowledges and declares openly, that the Father is greater than the Son; which was the last proposition I undertook to prove. John x. 29. my Father is greater than all.' xiv. 28. 'my Father is greater than 1.' It will be answered, that Christ is speaking of his human nature. But did his disciples understand him as speaking merely of his human nature? Was this the belief in himself which Christ required? Such an opinion will scarcely be maintained. If therefore he said this, not of his human nature only, (for that the Father was greater than he in his human nature could not admit of a doubt) but in the sense in which he himself wished his followers to conceive of him both as God and man, it ought undoubtedly to be understood as if he had said, My Father is greater than I, whatsoever I am, both in my human and divine nature; otherwise the speaker would not have been he in whom they believed, and instead of teaching them, he would only have been imposing upon them with an equivocation. He must therefore have intended to compare the nature with the person, not the nature of God the Father with the nature of the Son in his human form. So v. 31. as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do.' John v. 18, 19. Being accused by the Jews of having made himself equal with God, he expressly denies it: the Son can do nothing of himself,' v. 30. as I hear I judge, and my judgement is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of my Father which sent me.' |
