PHILOSOPHICALLY AND THEOLOGICALLY EXAMINED.

NO. VIII.

On the Divinity of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. * Εν αρχή ην ο λογος, και ο λογος ην προς τον Θεον και Θεος ην ο λόγος, - και ο λόγος σαρξ εγένετο.”

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.-And the Word was made flesh." John, i. 1-14.

vii.

Neque igitur Dominus, neque Spiritus Sanctus, neque Apostoli, eum qui non esset Deus, definitive et absolute Deum nominassent aliquando, nisi esset verus Deus: neque Dominum appellassent aliquem ex sua persona, nisi qui dominatur omnium, Deum Patrem, et Filium ejus. Vere igitur cum Pater sit Dominus et Filius vere sit Dominus, merito Spiritus Sanctus Domini appellatione signavit eos." S. Irenæus, lib. iii.adv. hæres. cap. "Neither, therefore, the Lord, nor the Holy Ghost, nor the Apos tles would ever have called him (Jesus Christ,) God, unless he were true God. Neither would they have called any one personally, Lord, unless him who is Lord of all things, God the Father, and his Son. As therefore the Father is truly Lord, and the Son is truly Lord, it is with reason that the Holy Ghost has designated them by the appellation of Lord."

CHAPTER III.

On the Eternal Generation of Jesus Christ as the Word of God the Father.

1. Dogmatic Position.

CCVI. Jesus Christ as to his Divine Nature existed before he was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

A few Scripture passages will render this position undeniable.

1st Proof. John, vi. c. 3. Christ says to his disciples, "Doth this scandalize you? If then you should see the Son of Man ascend up, where he was before?" Whence I thus argue: Jesus, according to the Scriptures, ascended into heaven. But Jesus Christ declares, that "he was there before." He, therefore, was in heaven before he was upon earth; but he was not there according to his human nature, therefore, according to his divine nature; Jesus Christ is, of course, the true God, or at least existed before he was born of his blessed Mother.

2d. Proof. Phill. ii. c. 6. “Who (Christ) being in the form of God thought it no robbery himself to be equal to God; but debased himself by taking the form of a servant, being made to the likeness of man, and in shape found as a man." From this passage I thus reason: Christ was " in the form or nature of God, and thought it no robbery himself to be equal to God, before he debased himself, before he took the form of a ser vant, and was made to the likeness of man: he was therefore true God, before he became a servant : he existed, therefore, before he became a servant or man born of the blessed Virgin Mary.

3d. Proof. St. John being about to speak of Christ takes the exordium of his Gospel from the eternal origin of the Divine Word, from his excellence, power, munificence, and overflowing charity towards men: then at the 14th verse begins to describe the temporal birth of the Divine Word in the flesh. Here are his words: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God;" behold the heavenly and eternal origin of the Word!" And the Word was God;" behold his divine essence! All things were made by him; and without him was made nothing that was made. In him was life;" behold his sovereign creative power! "He was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world;" behold the munificence and excessive charity of the Divine Word towards men!" And the Word was made flesh." Behold the human nature taken by the Divine Word! Whence I form this argument: "The Word was made flesh, or man :"

the Word was, therefore, before he became man. Again, the Word was in the beginning of the creation of all things, and was with God; he, therefore, as the Word, existed before he took human nature.

4th Proof. John, viii. 56. Christ says to the Jews, "Abraham, your father, rejoiced that he might see my day: he saw it and was glad. The Jews then said to him, Thou art not yet fifty years old; and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said to them: Amen, Amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am." Christ was before Abraham; he existed, therefore prior to his temporal birth.

5th Proof. John, xvii. 5. Christ thus prays to the Father, "And now glorify thou me, O Father, with thyself, with the Christ glory which I had with thee before the world was." had glory with the Father, before the world was; he existed, therefore, before the creation of the world.

What has been proved in this position respecting the preexistence of Christ, is of itself sufficient to overthrow Unitarianism. For the pre-existence of Christ as the divine Word, before the creation of the world, necessarily supposes his eternity. For, if nothing respecting duration be conceivable by men but time and eternity, that of course which exists before the creation of things, and by a necessary consequence before time, must needs be eternal. Having therefore shown that Christ exists before time, it necessarily follows that he must be eternal. That all things were created by Christ, the Arians themselves the natural ancestors of the Unitarians, but in this respect more pious than their off spring, could not deny; for the Scripture evidence on this head is too irresistible, as we have seen already, and will still But whether we more appear from what remains to be said.

consult the indubitable maxims of philosophy, or the oracles of theology, a Being that possesses the creative power, a power essentially implying omnipotence, must be infinite in all kind of perfection: For creation necessarily supposes an infinite and unlimited power in the agent, which nothing can resist, and which every thing must obey, "which calls things which are not as the things that are." But if the Being which

possesses the creative power be infinite and omnipotent, and if what is infinite and omnipotent, be necessarily infinite in every possible degree of perfection, since one divine attribute cannot be without all the others, it being nothing else than God himself, it follows that he who is proved to have pre-existed to the creation of the world, and to have created the world, must needs be eternal, and the true God in the strictest sense of the word. Here then we might stop, but having such a mass of evidence of every kind in support of the Godhead of Jesus Christ before us, to his greater glory we shall proceed. And, indeed, if Christ did not exist before he was born of the blessed Virgin Mary, the extraordinary manner in which his coming into the world is expressed, is unaccountable; for it necessarily supposes pre-existence, knowledge and choice, &c. "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus that being rich, he became poor for your sakes; that through his poverty you might be rich." 2 Corinth. xix. 9. "Who, being in the form of God-took the form of a servant, being made to the likeness of men, and in shape found as man." Philip. ii. 7. "For no where does he take hold of angels: but of the seed of Abraham he taketh hold." Heb. i. 16. "And we know that the Son of God is come." 1 John, v. 20. this purpose the Son of God appeared, that he might destroy the works of the devil." 1 John, iii. 8. "I came down from heaven," St. John, vi. and elsewhere, passim.

II. Dogmatical Position.

"For

CCVII. Christ as the Word proceeds by Eternal Generation from God the Father.

One single verse, viz. the 8th of the 2d Psalm, will suffice to set this dogma beyond the possibility of a doubt. "The Lord hath said to me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." It is most certain that these words are to be understood of the Messiah, or of Christ; for, not to say any thing of the ancient Jews, who all understood them of the Messiah, as the very learned Huet decidedly prove sin his Evangelical

Demonstration, 7th Proposition, No. xiv., we can bave no better interpreter of these words than St. Paul, who was ravished into the third heaven. Now, this great doctor of the Gentiles expressly says, that those words were said of Jesus Christ. Acts, xiii. 33.

"This same (promise) hath God fulfilled to our children, raising up Jesus Christ again, as in the 2d Psalm also is written : 'Thou art my Son, this day have, begotten thee.' And, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, i. 4. Being made so much better than the angels, as he has inherited a more excellent name above them. For to which of the angels has he said at any time: Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.""

Now, let us weigh every word of this important passage. ist. "The Lord has said to me;" not to others, but to me, as the Word; to me, singularly and properly. Next, "Thou art my Son;" Thou, and no other: Christ, therefore, is the only begotten, and single Son of God, not adoptive, as all just men and angels are, but natural, begotten" from the womb," that is, out of the substance of God, as it is said, Psalm, cix. 3. "From the womb before the day-star I begot thee." In a word, he is so the Son of God, that, according to the apostle, Heb. i. 4, 5. this denomination cannot belong to any other: "To which of the angels hath he said at any time: Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee?" this day, that is to say, from all eternity, or before the "day-star," as it is said in the cix. Psal.v. 3. ; and "from the days of eternity." Micheas, v. 2. Because, as the eternity of God exists always entire, and is an indivisible and immoveable Now, in which, as St. Augustin observes, Psalm, ii. No. 2. "Nothing is past, as if it had ceased to be, nor future as it were not as yet," it is most properly expressed by the word: Hodie, this day, and hence God himself expressed his eternal and permanent Being by a word, in the present tense, Exod. iii. 14. "I am who am. Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: He who is, has sent me to you."

Many other passages equally conclusive might be brought forward in support of the dogma under consideration, but this