VIEW OF THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST. 5 "of the Father," which councils he declared to the world in his public ministry. Hence we find him saying, "The Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth."*"All things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him."+ The relation, therefore, in which he stands to the Father as his only begotten Son, and his being ever with him, the partaker of his councils, gave him opportunity to know perfectly the whole designs of God respecting the salvation of men, and qualified him for declaring the same to us with the utmost precision. It is manifest, too, that the divine dignity of our Lord's character, as the Son of God, is calculated to stamp an authority on every thing he said—to show the infinite importance of the truths he came to reveal, and the high value which the blessed God puts upon the human race. If the doctrines of Christianity had been of little moment in themselves, or of little importance to mankind, the all-wise God would not have sent his Son from heaven to reveal them. If the perishing of the human species had been a small matter in the sight of God, his Son would never have taken part with them in flesh and blood, and suffered what he did to save them. Yet "God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."+ man. But Jesus was not only God, he was also truly and properly He possessed all the constituent parts of human nature; he had a real body and reasonable soul. The former was nourished by food; it grew in stature, and was subject to hunger, thirst, weariness, cold, sleep, pain, and death. He had a human soul in which resided all the principles of the spiritual part of our nature. For, independently of the faculties of reason, memory, and will, which in him had the usual progress from small beginnings to a state of maturity, he possessed all the appetites natural to humanity, but under the most perfect government. He was susceptible of those pleasures and pains which affect the human mind through the medium of the senses. He had all the affections of our nature, whether of the inferior or superior kind * Joh. v. 20. + Matt. xi. 27. Joh. iii. 16. admiration, love, friendship, pity, tenderness, joy, grief, indignation, anger. In a word, if we except sin, there is nothing human which the Son of God did not possess-in him Deity and humanity were essentially combined, and shone forth with united splendour in all his words and actions. We may further observe, in this place, that his assumption of human nature into personal union with the divine was absolutely necessary to his performing the work of obedience and sacrifice, which are the declared ends of his mission into the world. Without this he could not have tasted death for the heirs of salvation, according to Heb. ii. 14. Without this he could not have made atonement for sin, by the shedding of his blood; for it was only in his human nature that he was susceptible of suffering: and, finally, his participation of human nature eminently qualified him for the discharge of the office of intercession with the Majesty of heaven in the behalf of his brethren on earth. In order to be a high priest he must be a man, and partake of the nature of those whom he was to represent, and for whom he was to officiate; and, to be a merciful and faithful high priest, it was necessary that he should have experience of human weakness, temptations, and sufferings, that so he might be qualified to sympathise with, and have compassion on his brethren in all their infirmities, sufferings, and trials, and be the more deeply interested and feelingly engaged to act with faithfulness in all their concerns relating to God, and particularly to make reconciliation for the sins of the people-and this is the doctrine of the apostle Paul concerning him in Heb. ii. 9 and iv. 15. But, not to enlarge further on a subject which will unavoidably present itself for consideration in the following Lectures, we shall now proceed to offer some general remarks upon it. In reviewing the character of Christ, as set before us in the simple and artless details of the evangelists, we are presented with a vast variety of particulars in his demeanour towards God and man, in every different situation and circumstance of life, in all of which he appears to demand our highest veneration and devoutest affection. His conduct in the several relations of human life, in retired intercourse with his chosen disciples, in the company of admiring thousands, in the midst of malicious detracters and inveterate enemies, is distinctly brought in view. He is ex VIEW OF THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST. 7 hibited in situations which are not only conceivable, but which have frequently been experienced by his followers; and what he did, how he spake and felt in these, is related with a particularity which places him directly before us, and brings him not only within the limits of human conception, but within the circle of human converse. Under a form which we can contemplate and appreciate, he invariably preserves the highest consistency of character, and, in every relation, lays himself open to the clearest inspection. Entertaining no diffidence of his own character, he shows no anxiety to support it: nor, considering the greatness and splendour of the evidence attending his mission, was it proper that he should discover any thing of the kind. When his enemies required signs in proof of his divine mission, knowing their malicious intentions, he treated them with an indifference more demonstrative of the justness of his claims than if he had performed the miracles required. The mighty works which he wrought in the course of his ministry, and the miraculous circumstances which attended his life, were plainly divine. Commissioned of God to instruct mankind in the things which concern their eternal interests, we never find him discoursing on subjects that were foreign to his mission and ministry. He never touches on any topic of natural philosophy, mathematics, logic, rhetoric, grammar, or politics. His ministry and doctrine, as the great prophet of the church, were restricted to matters of religion and morality; and in handling these he did not entertain his hearers, like the Greek sophists, with empty speculations, calculated merely to gratify the curiosity and vanity of the human mind. He propounded no metaphysical disquisitions on the nature and attributes of God, nor upon the divine decrees, nor on liberty and necessity, nor on the entrance of sin into the world. These are subjects which the human understanding never can unravel. But he taught from what cause the universe derives its origin, by whom it is governed, and to whom all reasonable beings must ultimately render in their account. He testified of the world that it was naturally in a lost, fallen, and undone state; that mankind were universally the subjects of sin and exposed to condemnation and misery; and he declared that he came down from heaven to work out that righteousness through which alone God could be just in justifying any of the human race. He did not deliver his doctrines and precepts in a systematic form, or after a scientific manner, but he instilled them into the minds of his disciples by little and little, as they were able to bear them. His discourses were in perfect keeping with his whole character. There was a majesty in his teaching which was so remarkable that the common people were struck with it, and expressed their admiration.This, however, did not arise from any pomp of language on the contrary, it would be difficult to put his sentiments into language more simple; but it flowed from the divine authority with which his words were clothed-from the consciousness which he had of his own dignity, and of the certainty of the things which he delivered: "He taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes." But, to have a proper view of the excellency of his character, it is necessary that we keep in mind the opposition which he continually had to encounter from the world around him-even those whom he came to benefit by his doctrines and sufferings, his ministry and death. In his birth, he seemed an outcast from the society of man; nor was even a manger long allowed him as a place of repose. A jealous tyrant sought his life, and his infancy was passed in a land of bondage and oppression. But, when he announced his mission and the purposes of his manifestation, his sorrows thickened apace. Hunger and poverty were his companions; contempt, reproach, and persecution, his perpetual assailants. His own description of his condition was that "the foxes had holes and the birds of the air their nests, but the Son of Man had not where to lay his head." His character was traduced; his good evil spoken of; his miracles ascribed to the powers of hell. His endeavours to reclaim the wicked were resolved into a friendship for sinners. His affable manners, his courteous and condescending disposition, were stigmatized as evidences of intemperance. Never was a character so defamed as the perfect character of God's beloved Son; never was a life so tormented as that of the Prince of Life; and never was inhabitant of the world so miserably treated as the Lord who made it. Never did any one experience to such a degree the blindness, the folly, the weakness, the unbelief, the perverseness, ingratitude, perfidy, and malice of mankind. "All day long he stretched forth his hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people." "He VIEW OF THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST. 9 came unto his own; and his own received him not." Betrayed by one disciple and denied by another, until, in the hour of his extremity, they all forsook him and fled. Then indeed was the hour and power of darkness. False witnesses deposed against him; the appointed guardians of justice unrighteously condemned him. Priests and Levites, forgetting their office of mercy, joined and excited an incensate multitude in exclaiming "Away with him, Crucify him, Crucify him." Pilate timidly yielded him up -the soldiers derided, buffeted, spit upon, and crucified the image of the invisible God! But let us now reverse the picture, and see by what tenor of conduct it was that he merited this treatment. We read that "he was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners; "--that " he went about doing good;" that " he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth." But to render such general assertions more intelligible to our understandings, and to make them affecting to our hearts, we also read of the sick whom he healed, of the disconsolate whom he comforted, of the wretched whom he relieved, of the dead whom he raised, of friends to whom he was indissolubly attached, of enemies whom he forgave, of ignorance which he instructed, of perverseness which he meekly bore, of sufferings unparalleled which he endured with perfect resignation and fortitude, of purity untainted, of devotion uninterrupted and heavenly,—above all, of a voluntary sacrifice of himself, the offering of unexampled love: "He loved us, and gave himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet smelling savour," Eph. v. 2. And the words now quoted suggest to us a most interesting enquiry: In what light was all this viewed by the Majesty of heaven? We read indeed of the divine attestation repeatedly borne to Jesus of Nazareth in the days of his humiliation and suffering-of a voice which came unto him from the excellent glory, declaring "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The truth of this was indeed evinced by his raising him from the dead; for he thereby vindicated all his claims, and gloriously acquitted him of the charge of blasphemy in making himself the Son of God. But it deserves our particular consideration that the divine complacency centered in him and rested upon him, through all the scene of his complicated and dreadful sufferings. We are |