CHAP. III.

TESTIMONIES OF THE APOSTLES PETER, JUDE, AND JAMEs.

I. The First Epistle of Peter, i. 8,9. Nature of the Religious affections demanded to be exercised towards the Redeemer.-Strictures on the Calm Inquirer's remarks upon Love to Christ.-II. Chap. i. 11. The Messiah, by his Spirit, directed the ancient prophets.-III. The reverence required to Christ, which is due to God.-IV. Second Epistle i. 1. Christ called "our God and Saviour." -Notice of the controversy on the use of the Greek Article.-V. Chap. ii. 1. and Jude 4. Sovereign dominion of Christ in matters of moral obligation.— VI. Chap. iii. 2, &c. The day of Christ, of the Lord, or of God.-VII. Chap. iii. 18. Ascription of Divine honour to Christ.-VIII. Jude 21. Christ the efficient cause of the highest good.-IX. The Epistle of James.

I. EVERY attentive reader of the Scriptures must have observed, with what a solicitous care their doctrines and admonitions caution men against exercising strong affections of admiration, confidence, and delight, towards any fellow-creature. One passage may be specified as a representative of many; "Thus "saith Jehovah, Accursed is he who trusteth in man, "and maketh flesh his arm: and whose heart depart"eth from the Lord!-Blessed is he who trusteth "in Jehovah, and whose confidence Jehovah is!"1

If, therefore, we find that these holy writings, in their most perfect form of the gospel-inspiration, require and encourage the reposing of those affections in Christ, which the tenor of the Old Testament demands as exclusively due to Jehovah; we have an 1 Jerem. xvii. 5, 7.

additional instance of the attributing of divine qualities to the Messiah, and a proof, presumptive at least, of his possessing the Divine Nature, which alone could be a proper foundation for such affections, and for the requirement to exercise them. "Ye believe "in God," said the Saviour: "believe also in me." Upon such confiding in HIM, it is the constant doctrine of Christ and his apostles that the everlasting happiness of man is suspended; and that the devotedness and attachment which he requires, is such as must surpass our love for our most valuable relations, our most important interests, and even our very lives." Consonant with these sentiments is the testimony of the Apostle Peter:

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Jesus Christ; whom, though ye have not seen, ye love; upon whom, though ye now behold "him not, yet believing, ye exult with unspeakable and enraptured joy; gaining the end of your faith, the "salvation of your souls."

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Here it is to be observed that the affection which is demanded for Christ is not founded on "a personal intercourse "+ with him, for the want of such intercourse is expressly stated. It must, therefore, rest upon that conviction which is given by believing the

2 John xiv. 1; iii. 18; vi. 51–56. Matt. x. 37-39. Luke xiv. 26.

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3 1 Pet. i. 8, 9. The comprehension of ideas under the different Hebrew words signifying glory, honour, majesty, splendour, and the like, and which equally affected the Hebraized diction of the N.T., appears to justify the rendering here adopted of dedočαoμévy. The mind of the believer is represented as transported, as it were, with rapture, in the prospect of the consummation of his faith, the pure and immortal blessedness.

* See the next citation from the Calm Inquiry.

testimony of truth concerning Christ; a conviction of his possessing the qualities which are the proper ground of this exalted affection. It is objected, that veneration, gratitude, and even love are due to men of distinguished worth and eminent benefactors of their species, though they are absent or long ago dead. Undoubtedly; and the Scriptures do not discourage such affections; but they inculcate great moderation in the indulgence of them, by giving us the most solemn cautions against "glorying in men, "or thinking of men above that which is written, or "accepting any man's person;" and by assuring the best and holiest of mortals, that, "when they have "done all, they are to say, We are unprofitable ser"vants," and that solely "by the grace of God they are "what they are." The absence of strong encomiums, on even the most eminent human instruments of divine beneficence to the world, is a very remarkable characteristic of the inspired writings, and especially of the New Testament: and it is a circumstance strictly accordant with the great plan of divine wisdom, that "no flesh should glory in the presence of God, but that " he who glorieth should glory in the Lord." Yet to all this a most striking contrast is presented, in the whole manner of mentioning and referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no restraint to the fulness of expression, no caution against trenching upon the divine prerogatives, no appearance of apprehension lest the line should be stretched too far in celebrating the honours of the Blessed Redeemer, and in pouring out the very transports of encomium and admiration with respect to him. Christians are taught to glory in him, with the warmest affection and zeal. Faith,

love, trust, devotedness to Christ, and expectation from him of the highest blessings in all spiritual and immortal good, are habitually represented as the genius and essence of true piety. No loftiness of language is spared, in the description of his excellencies. Yet, on the supposition that Christ is one of the same class of beings with Moses, John, and Paul, it was the fact with regard to him, equally as to them, that all his excellency was given to him by grace from above. Restrictive cautions would, therefore, have been the more necessary in this case, on account of the abundance and higher description of the revelations of which he was the vehicle. It could not but have been of the first importance, to provide effective guards against temptations so powerful, acting upon minds totally unprepared, and so tinctured with polytheistic prepossessions as, beyond a doubt, the converts from heathenism were.

This, then, is the answer to the objection; and this course of observation applies to the text before us, and to many similar passages in the apostolic Episties. With respect to the passage before us in particular, there are two marked circumstances which appear to carry it infinitely out of the range of a rational application to any created nature: the one is, the unmeasured character of the affection described, "joy "unspeakable and glorified," the joy whose maturity is supreme bliss: the other is, that the apostle lays,

5 "Modò dictum est, v. 7, dólar esse præstantissimam beatitatem. Igitur gaudium dedožaoμévor est gaudium longè beatissimum, propter quod sumus έv rỷ dóžņ, in illâ felicitate." It has just before, v. 7, been mentioned that glory is the supreme blessedness. Therefore the joy full of glory [literally glorified joy] here spoken of, is that infinitely blessed joy in which our actual possession of that glory or

as a reason of this joy, "the salvation of the soul,”. deliverance from the lowest misery, that of sin, and the acquisition of the greatest happiness, that of moral conformity to God;-and this blessing, infinite in its value, is a gift received from Christ, as is evidently implied in the connexion, and as the first principles of the gospel oblige us to recollect. It is therefore incumbent upon us to consider WHAT qualities and active faculties such affections imply in the Object of them what knowledge, power, wisdom, holiness, condescension, and grace, are thus attributed to that object; unless we suppose those affections to be most preposterously and impiously placed. Will the supposition of any degree of those qualities, less than that which is divine, comport with this ardent and unlimited style of expression? Let the whole be compared with the language of the Old Testament, in its various expressions of religious affections due to Jehovah, which are always claimed for him, which are ever expressed by his grateful people, and to place which on any inferior object is often represented as exceedingly criminal. The sentiments of the passage under consideration have a close resemblance to those of the prophet; "I will exceedingly rejoice in Jeho"vah, my soul shall exult in my God; for he hath "clothed me with the garments of salvation, the robe "of righteousness he hath spread over me." "

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In the remarks which Mr. Belsham has made on this subject,' he appears to have overlooked the

happiness will consist.' Mori Prælect. in Jac. et Petr. p. 177. Leipz. 1794.

6 Isaiah lxi. 10.

"Our Lord has so explicitly and repeatedly declared, that all