Q. Moses and the Prophets when they performed miracles were gifted with supernatural power: what difference was there between such power of theirs, and that of Christ?

A. Moses and the Prophets performed miracles by the same power with Christ; viz. by the power of God. The difference was in the degree and in the mode of their exercising the powers bestowed upon them.

Q. If the power was the same: why are not Moses and the Prophets called God?

&

A. First, Because they had not this power in themselves, as Christ had'. Secondly, Because it was given to them in measure, to Christ without measure". Thirdly, Because they were men, born of men, peccable and sinful. Christ was born without the instrumentality of men,

bodies without any pollution of themselves, how can that spiritual essence contract the least infirmity by any union with humanity? We must neither harbour so low an estimation of the divine nature, as to conceive it capable of any diminution nor so mean esteem of the essence of the Word, as to imagine it subject to the sufferings of the flesh he took; nor yet so groundless an estimation of the great mystery of the incarna tion, as to make the properties of one nature mix in confusion with the other. These were the wild collections of the Arian and Apollinarian hereticks, whom the Church hath long since silenced by a sound and sober assertion, that all the sufferings of our Mediator were subjected in his human nature." *John iii. 34.

* John v. 21. **

and was impeccable and sinless. Fourthly, Because Christ was God before he was man, having had a pre-existence in heaven *. Of Moses and the Prophets no such assertion can be made. On every account then they could not be called God, in the true sense of that word, as Christ

was.

Q. You said that Christ derived all his power from God, and now you state that he differs from Moses and the Prophets because he had power in himself. Reconcile this seeming discrepance.

A. Moses and the Prophets, as passive engines, were acted upon by a power foreign to their being, the nature and force of whose operations they neither knew nor could direct. The power of Christ, on the contrary, was from everlasting, and was the power of the Godhead, as we before proved. At the same time we allowed that he assumed the nature of man. As a man then, talking to men, agreeably to the comprehension of men, he might well say, I (the man Christ) can do nothing of myself; but within me is the power of the Godhead, though in shrouded Majesty. This power has been mine from all eternity; by it I made the heavens, and the earth, and all things therein; and by it

Irenæus, lib. iii. cap. viii.

I shall finally judge the world in righteousness. By this power I can of myself do what seemeth good unto me".

Q. In what does the great difficulty, there is always supposed to be in comprehending and explaining this doctrine, consist?

A. The difficulty appears to be, that we are obliged to explain a divine mystery by imperfect language. For instance, we say Christ is equal to the Father. Now in the common forms of speech equality gives the idea of independency. But we never mean to contend that Christ is independent of the Father. If so, there would be two co-equal Gods: which is alike opposed to common sense and revelation. only apply the term equal in contradistinction to those who argue that there is inferiority in God the Son to God the Father. Thus again, when we speak of the person of the Son as distinct

We

▾ Whitby, (John v. 22.) after explaining how God "hath committed all judgment to the Son," adds, "Now how all these things can be done by a mere creature, is as difficult to conceive as any mystery of the Blessed Trinity. I answer, therefore, in that distinction of the schools, that the principium quod, or the person thus judging, is the Son of man, this judgment being to be exercised by the man Christ Jesus, (Acts xvii. 31.) but the principium quo, i. e. the power or the principle by which he does it, is the whole fulness of the Deity, individually united to his human nature, or the word made flesh. See also Sherlock's Discourses, Vol. iv. Disc. i. Part 2.

from the person of the Father, the first idea conveyed to the mind is, that they have separate bodies. But in truth this is merely a false deduction, the origin of which is a want of sufficiently considering how different the divine nature must be from the human; and consequently how different the meaning of terms must be, when applied to a sublime mystery, from the common and familiar acceptation of such terms. They who adopt the word person to distinguish God the Father from God the Son, are fully aware that the essence of the Godhead is one and the same, in substance indivisible. Some word expressive of distinction must be used when we have to dwell, as we should frequently do, with fervour and devotion, upon the sublime attributes of him who created, and of him who redeemed us. And what better term does the English language supply? Thus the union of the two natures in Jesus Christ, though it has led to the use of expressions relative to him, which may have been mistaken, in itself is clear, and no way opposed to reason.

We now therefore take leave of this section with

Quandocunque personas appello, rogo vos ne me putetis personas hominum dicere, ego personas in Patre, et Filio et Spiritu Sancto, non dico quasi personas hominum. Dividuntur proprietatibus, sed naturâ sociantur. Augustin, tom. x. De Temp. Sermon, clxxxviii.

a prayer to God, that we may not on the one hand be found guilty of presumption in an endeavour to explain passages of Scripture which embrace so sublime a mystery as that of the Majesty on High and on the other hand, may not have left any anxious searcher after truth, in doubt as to our meaning, or ignorant of the interpretation of the Word of God.

SECTION IV.

Our Lord.

Q. Why is Jesus Christ called our Lord? A. To express his power and dominion over us; our reverence for, and submission to him. Q. Is he often called Lord in Holy Scripture?

A. He is repeatedly so called in almost every page of the New Testament. There came a leper and worshipped him, saying, "Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me whole." There came a centurion beseeching him and saying, "Lord, my servant lieth at home sick." His Disciples came to him and awoke him saying, "Lord save us." Our Saviour himself said, "Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things