o6 (>^^-^^<.^.^/^2i^^ ^. ^_

SERMONS

ILLUSTRATING

THE DOCTRINE OF THE LORD,

AND OTHER

FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINES

THE NEW-JERUSALEM CHURCH.
».

BY RICHARD DE CHARMS,
AN ORDAINING MINISTER OF THAT CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES.

PHILADELPHIA:
BROWN, BICKING & GUILBERT, PRINTERS, 56 NORTH THIRD ST.
1840.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The writer of these sermons cannot give them publi
city without disclaiming, on the very threshold, all credit
for any truths which they may contain. All that belongs
to him is some peculiarity in the presentation and illustra
tion of the doctrines taught by Emanuel Swedenborg.
who, he believes, was peculiarly qualified, and personally
commanded by the Lord, to teach those doctrines to his
church. He is even willing to think that what he calls
his illustrations, may in fact be nothing more than tem
pering mediums of a too bright light. 1 i e hopes, however,
that the spiritual objects seen through them will not be
found to be distorted. If the light has been merely dimmed
by the medium in which it is refracted, it is perhaps
well ; for our weak eyes, in taking altitudes, need to be
defended from the sun's effulgence by coloured mediums.
In short, these sermons are designed to be simply an index
to the writings of Swedenborg, which contain "truths
continuous from the Lord :" and the author hopes that the
reader will go from the index to the bourn at which it
points. In the works of that enlightened writer, every
sincere seeker of truth, of all denominations, will find
fuller information and far clearer illustration of the sub
jects discussed in this book. And to aid him in his search
for truth, the titles of some of the principal theological

iv. ADVERTISEMENT.
works of Swedenborg, and the places where they may be
procured, are here indicated. Price"
Arcana Coelestia, 12 vols., 8»o.,  $ 30 00
Apocalypse Revealed, 3 vols., 12mo.,  3 00
Apocalypse Explained, 6 vols., 8vo.,  16 00
The True Christian Religion, 1 vol., 8vo  2 75
Heaven and Hell, 1 vol., 12mo.,  '75
Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and
the Divine Wisdom, 1 vol., 12mo.,  50
Do. do. the Divine Providence
1 vol., 8vo.,  1 75
Four Leading Doctrines — of the Lord, of Life, of
Faith, and of the Sacred Scriptures, 1 vol., 12mo., . 75
The Heavenly Doctrines of the Nero Jerusalem,
pamphlet, 12mo.,  12§
These works, with others pertaining to the new church,
are kept for sale by Otis Clapp, 121 Washington Street,
Boston ; Samuel Colman, Bookseller, 56 Gold Street, New
York; Daniel Goddard, 109 North Second Street, Phila
delphia; T. S. Arthur, 8 North Street, Baltimore; and
Southworth Holmes, Main Street, near Fifth Street,
Cincinnati. Philadelphia, May, 1840,

PREFACE.

These sermons are designed for persons, especially young
persons, just embracing the doctrines of the new church. They
are, therefore, written in a diffuse style, with much plainness
and familiarity of illustration, without any pretensions to
originaUty of thought, and with only an effort, perhaps an
ineffectual one, to make the abstruse and fundamental princi
ples of our theology plain to the commonest minds. To do
this well and effectively, would be the greatest use, worthy of
the utmost efforts of the strongest minds. The author dare not
hope that his effort can prove successful. But his best feelings
have been exercised in making it, and his prayer now is that
He who can give increase to the planting and watering of his
weakest agents, will, in his mercy, bless it with unforeseen pro
ductiveness. Young persons, when first embracing the doctrines of the new
church, are sometimes subjected to doubts, owing to infestations
from those of different faiths with whom they are obUged to as
sociate. The reason of these doubts seems to be given in the
following law of the spiritual world : " It is to be noted that it is
according to the laws of order, that no one ought to be per
suaded instantaneously concerning truth, that is, that truth
should instantaneously be so confirmed as to leave no doubt
concerning it. The reason is, because the truth which is so im
pressed, becomes persuasive truth, and is without any extension,
and also without any yielding. Such truth is represented in the
other life as hard, and of such a quality as not to admit good
into it, that it may become applicable. Hence it is, that, so
soon as any truth is presented before good spirits in the other
life by manifest experience, there is presently afterwards pre
sented some opposite which causes doubt. Thus it is given
them to think and consider whether it be so, and to collect rea
sons, and thereby to bring that truth rationally into their minds.

VI. PREFACE.
Hereby the spiritual sight has extension, as to that truth, even to
opposites." (A. C. 7298.)
From this it appears to be orderly, both that doubts should
be experienced in the reception of the true faith, and that those
doubts should be removed by rational confirmations of its truths.
On this ground a reasoning method will be found to form a pro
minent feature of these sermons. For a chief design in writing
them was, to furnish reasons suited to remove the doubts incident
'to young and ingenuous receivers of our faith, and to enable
therri to bring the truths of that faith rationally into their minds.
Reasoning whether a thing be so or not so will never bring
a negating mind into the perception Of what is. The mind itself
must first be true before it can perceive what is true. It is easy
to believe things to be as we love to have them : but nothing is
so difficult as to reason a man into a belief of that which he
does not love. The natural man does not love spiritual truths;
and hence, it is not only difficult to reason him into a belief of
them, but it is exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for him to
comprehend them. Now the truths which the New Jerusalem
teaches are eminently spiritual. Hence the natural man is prone
to negate them. While the evils of his will are quiescent, he
may give a mere intellectual assent to these truths, but he will
always deny them in spirit whenever they touch his life. They
cannot be perceived until, by the life of the doctrines that contain
them, spiritual discernment is attained ; when a man ceases to
be natural and becomes spiritual. Therefore we do not imagine
that natural men are to be converted to our faith by argument,
hut by that change of internal state, which Divine Providence,
in the exercise of some of his infinite means, effects.
StiU, as it is admissible to reason whether a thing be so or
not so, when the end is to conform truths already admitted on
a ground of faith, rational argument has been used here in
illustrating and confirming the truths contained in the doctrines
of the true church. And although we cannot hope to convince
confirmed negators by rational arguments for our tenets against
their fahh, yet we may free and defend ourselves from doubts
respecting our own faith, which their sphere may infuse into us
during our daily intercourse with them.
The mode of contrasting our views with others has been
adopted, not for the purpose of attacking and putting down the
principles or men of any prevailing denominations, but simply
for the purpose of confirming ourselves in the rational and vital
reception of the most essential principle of our faith, which can
not be so distinctly seen as when it is contrasted with its opposite.

CONTENTS.

SERMON I.
Jesus and the Father are one. — John, xiv. 8 — 11.
SERMON IL
True nature of the Spirit that testifies of Jesus. — John, xv. 26.
SERMON III.
The Nature and Necessity of a Second Coming of the Lord, in respect to the
regeneration of the individual soul, together -with a disquisition on the in
ternal and external revelation of truth, and an incidental explanation of
the Lord's declaration that the Father is greater than he. — John, xiv. 28.
SERMON IV.
The Holy Spirit is not a Person separate from Jesus Christ, but is a Divine
Sphere proceeding from him. — John, xx. 22.
SERMON V.
What are the three Constituent Principles of Deity ? — John, i. 1, 4, 14.
SERMON VL
The three ConsUtuent Principles of Deity are in Jesus Christ, so as to con
stitute him God alone. — Matthew, xxviii. 18, 14.
SERMON VII.
Jesus Christ is God alone because he is possessed of all the Divine Attributes.
— Matthew, xxviU. 18. SERMON VIII.
Jesus Christ, or the Humanity of Jehovah, or the Reactive Principle of Deity,
is the Proper Object of Christian Worship. — Psalm ii. 10.
SERMON IX.
Jesus Christ was worshiped when on earth. — Matlliew, xxviii. 9.
SERMON X.
Jesus Christ was not only worshiped on earth, but is now worshiped in
heaven, and, therefore, was presumably the Object of ApostoUc Worship.
— Revelation, v. 3.
SERMON XL
That Jesus Christ was thfe God of the Apostles, proved firom their Epistles,
together with an Exposition of the Ground and Nature of the Distinction
which the Apostles make between Jesus and the Father, and a considera
tion of the question. If the Apostles saw clearly that Jesus Christ and the
Father are one person, why did they not utter this truth plainly ?

VUI. CONTENTS.
SERMON XII.
That Jesus Christ was the God of the Apostles, proved particularly from the
Epistles of John. — Isaiah, ix. 6.
SERMON XIII.
Statement of the Difficulty which the Sensual Mind has in conceiving the
Unity of God and Man in one person, with a Declaration and Explanation
of the New-Church Faith, both general and particular, concerning the
Lord, whereby the Lord's alternate states of humiliation and glorification
are brought to bear upon the difficulty in question. — Matthew, xxvii. 46.
SERMON XIV.
The Doctrine of the Lord's Alternate States of Humiliation and Glorification
made to explain the Apparent Separation of Jesus and the Father, so as
to consist with the idea of their real Unity and Identity ; together with a
consideration of the Unitarian Objections to the views of the New Church
on this subject ; and a disclosure of the Root of the Difficulty which is felt
in receiving those views. — John, x. 17, 18, 19.
SERMON XV.
Consideration of the Lord's apparently contradictory assertions both of his
equality and inferiority to the Father. — Total difierence between the New-
Church and Unitarian Views of this subject. — True Reason of this wide
difference. — And a demonstration that the Divine Essence must have had
a Divine Form to eifect either creation, or redemption and salvation. —
Isaiah, lix. IG. SERMON XVI.
A Familiar Illustration of what the Divine Humanity of the Lord is. —
Jeremiah, iv, 25. SERMON XVII.
The Doctrine of a Divine Humanity the Touchstone which is to try who belong
It) the True Christian Church, and to be the means of breaking up all existing
Denominations of the Old Christian Church, by separating its Wheat from
its Chaff, or secerning its Spiritual from its Natural Men. — Luke, xx. 18.
SERMON XVIH.
The Necessity of Redemption. — An Answer to the Question, What did Jesus
Christ come for ? In which it is shown that Jesus Christ came to Redeem
and Save Mankind by subduing the Hells, reducing the Heavens to order,
and thereby establishing a True Church on earth. — Matthew, ix. 12, 13.
SERMON XIX.
The True Nature of the New Birth, in an explanation of what is meant by
being born of water and the spirit. — John, iii. 5.
SERMON XX.
The Necessity of the New Birth, tbgether with a demonstration of the gradual
aud progressive nature of this change ; and of the source from whence
alone it can be effected. — John, iii. 7.
SERMON XXI.
The Sum of all True Religion is the Life of Use from the Love of Use for its
own salie. — Matthew, vi. 33.

INTRODUCTION.

The entire series, of which the sermons published in this
volume form a part, was originally delivered in Cincinnati.
After their delivery it was the design of the author to work
them up into articles for a periodical publication which he was
then editing in that city. But being subsequently removed, in
the Divine Providence, to another quarter of the general
church, and yielding to repeated requests to have these sermons
published elsewhere, it seems proper that the preceding parts,
which are necessary to complete the series, should be published
in connection with them. Therefore, four numbers, which
originally appeared in " The Precursor," the periodical work
above alluded to, under the head " Doctrines of the New
Church," are here presented as an introduction. These four
numbers were so many articles dicussing —
I. THE UNITY AND TRINITY OF GOD.
IL ) THE DIVINE TRINITY— SHOWING THAT THERE IS
III. ) A TRINITY IN THE ONE GOD. AND SHOWING
IV. THAT THERE MUST BE A TRINITY IN GOD.
I. The Unity and Trinity of God. — These principles
have ever been elemental and fundamental in all christian
theology. They are subjects so trite, and made so thread
bare by immemorial and all varied discussion, that it is
perhaps impossible to give to them any forms of newness.
It is essential, however, that they should be noticed in the
formal presentation and exposition of any doctrinal system ;
and the mists which have shrouded them with utter darkness
in the old church, have made it especially needful that they
should be placed in clear light -ivhen we essay to unfold the
lucid doctrines of the new. It will be our aim to make them
clear to common minds, although, in the effort, we may incur
2

2 INTRODUCTION.
the charge of commonplace dullness by uncommon ones. And,
in our discussion of these and other topics, we shall contrast, as
we go along, the views of the new church with those bf the
old, because " eVery perception of a thing is according to
reflection relative to discriminations arising from contraries in
various modes and degrees," (A. C. 7812,) and because "we
have no idea of truth without /aZsiiy." (H. K. to C. 17.)
As the Divinity is the First and the Last of all things, there
fore the true knowledge of him is the foundation of religion,
and the doctrine concerning him is the corner stone of the
church : consequently, a proper idea of the Divine Being is the
first subject of theological instruction.
In discussing this subject at some length, we shall take for
granted the divine existence and unity, and shall, in the first
place, show, from Scripture and the nature of things, that
there is and must be a trinity in the one God ; secondly, that
this trinity' is in the one person of our Lord Jesus Christ ;
thirdly, that Jesus Christ, or the son, ought t-o be directly
approached in worship ; fourthly, that he was worshiped
when on earth ; fifthly, that he is now worshiped in heaven ;
sixthly ; that he was very presumably the God of the apostles;
seventhly, that, therefore, he solely is the only true object of
all christian worship ; eighthly, that he came into the world to
subdue the hells, to restore the heavens, and by these means
to redeem and save' mankind ; ninthly, that he effected this
subjugation, restoration, redemption, and salvation, by a human
nature which he took unto himself in the world and made
divine ; and, tenthly, that now the doctrine of the divinity of
his humanity is the touchstone by which the christian church
is to be tried.
But before we proceed, it may be well, in this paper, just to
glance at the subject of the divine unity. As already premised,
we take for granted that God is, and that he is one. For the
voice of enlightened reason, and the express language of Holy
Writ, unequivocally pronounce that there is one, and but one,
God. This truth is written as it were on the frontlet of crea
tion. It is declared by the unity of design, and the coherency
and harmony of operation, every where conspicuous In the
universe. Hence there is a univel^al impression that the Di
vine Being is individual: so much so, that nothing can be more
revolting to the common sense of mankind ..than the "idea of a
plurality of gods.
Thd very definition of the Deity clearly evinces the indi
viduality of his nature. He is defined, an infinite, eternal.

INTRODUCTION. 3
omniscient and omnipotent being ; and it is very manifest that
there cannot be more than one such being, for the idea of two
infinites, or two omnipotents, is absurd.
The idea which every rational mind forms to itself of the
Deity also shows that he is one. We conceive that he has life
in himself, or suppose and admit that he is essential and unde-
rived life. Now it is perfectly manifest that a self-existing
being cannot generate another being that is seZ/'-existent.
For this involves contradiction and absurdity in the very terms :
since that which is generated derives existence from that which
generates, and of course cannot exist of itself. Hence it is
impossible for God to generate a god. And thus there can be
but one God.
This truth, which is sp clearly demonstrable by reason, is as
explicitly set forth in the S'acred Scriptures. " Hear, O Israel,
the Lord our God is one Lord." (Deut. vi. 4.) " I am the
Lord, and there is none else, there is no God besides, me."
(Isa. xiv. 5.) " Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of
the earth : for I am God, and there is none else." (v. 22.) " I
am the Lord thy God, and thou shalt know no God but me."
(Hosea, xiii. 4.) " Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel ; I
am the first, and I am the last, and besides me there is no
God." (Isa. xliv. 6.) " And the Lord shall be king over all the
earth : in that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one."
(Zech. xiv. 9.)
We assume, then, that God is one, and proceed now to dis
cuss the subject of a divine trinity.
In consequence of the above express declarations of the
Sacred Scriptures, all denominations of Christians admit and
maintain the unity of God. But they entertain very different
ideas of the nature of this unity. In general the old christian
church resolves itself into two parties; one of which maintains
that God is a simple oneness of being, and the other that his
existence is tripartite. The one party of course denies, and
the other affirms, the doctrine of a trinity. We, who believe
that we have received the doctrines of a new church, sent
down from the Lord out of heaven by the medium of an agent
whom he raised up, enlightened, and commissioned expressly
to teach them, hold, in common with the two parties just men
tioned, that God is one ; but differ from the former in asserting
that there is a trinity, and from the latter in denying that this
is a trinity of persons.
Trinitarians of the old school divide the godhead into three
persons, to each of which they assign distinct offices. What

4 INTRODUCTION.
they mean by person it is difficult to apprehend ; and even
they are not agreed among themselves as to what is to be
understood by this- wbrd. But whatever it means, they assert
that each person is " of himself" God. Hence you will find
in the Litany of one of the most respectable denominations of
the old chureh, adoration adelressed in the form of separate
supplications to " God the father," " God the son," and " God
the holy ghost." . Still, how;ever, they aver, that these three
persons, each of which is of himself God, are not three gdds,
but one god. And they aver this, because the contrary vrould
be repugnant to reason and common sense. They assert that
these three, — though clearly and definably distinct arid sepa
rate, — arOj some how one. They do not undertake to say how:
this they consider an impenetrable mystery ; a rnystery which
no human understanding can see into, and which it is the
height of presumption to attempt to understand. It is, they
say, a holy mystery, which is to be believed, whether it is
understood or not, because it is revealed in the Holy Scriptures.
Thus Trinitarians of the old church hold to one God in three
persons — God the father. Creator, God the son. Redeemer,
and God the holy ghost. Regenerator and Sanctifier. And
though they say these' three persons are one god, they believe
each is separate and distinct from the others. For they will
refer you to the~ baptism of our Lord by John, where the
voice from heaven says, " This is my beloved son," and will
ask you if the father and the son are not here clearly separate,
and of course distinct. They will tell you, too, that the son
intercedes at the -right hand of the .father, and of course is
separate and distinct from him. ' And they will ask you if the
holy ghost does not proceed from the father and the son, and
they will say, if he proceeds from them, he cannot but be a
separate person. Hence they believe in a trinity of separate
and distinct persons.
But the idea of the trinity as entertained by the new church
is essentially different. The new church believes there js one
God in one person, and that this one God consists of a trinity
of distinct principles, which have only a representative personi
fication in the Sacred Scriptures as father, son, and holy
ghost. She believes that this trinity is essential -to the exis
tence of the one God. She believes that, if either part of it
were taken away, the others could not exist. And hence she
believes that the father, the son, and the holy ghost, though
they may be distinct, are not, and cannot be separate : and
she believes that they are in no other sense distinct than end,

INTRODUCTION. 5
cause and effect, or soul, body and conduct, or will, under
standing and act, or love, wisdom and use. Hence she
believes that three divine principles are distinctly one in God,
and thus that there is a trinity in unity : in other words, that
the godhead consists of a trine, which is indispensable to
every one, viz : an essential, a formative, and a spherical prin
ciple ; and that these three are distinctly one in their subject,
which, as to the divine, or a human, being, is one person.
The difference, then, between the old church and the new
church is, that the former believes there is one God in a trinity
of separate and distinct persons, while the latter believes there
is a triune God in one person. Consequently, it is the peculiar
and distinguishing trait of the new church, as respects the
doctrine of the trinity, that, while the old church believes the
godhead is in three separate and distinct persons, she holds
that the Lord is constituted by three divine principles, which
are three essential requisites of one person.
Thus we trust we have distinctly, because distinctively, set
forth our view of the trinity. Be it then cleariy understood, that
we do not contend for a trinity of separate or individually and
functionally distinct divine existences, but, for a threefold dis
tinction in the essential constituents of the one Divine Being.
11. The Divine Trinity. — We have assumed the exist
ence and unity of God ; and we have distinctly stated our view
of the divine trinity. We proceed in this paper to show, from
the Word, that there is a trinity in the one God.
The passages of Scripture which assert in just so many
words that there is a triple principle in the godhead, are not
numerous. But many passages prove this truth inferentially.
And the whole Word is full of it in its spiritual meaning.
But in view of the letter of the Word we would premise, that
the Bible must be consistent ; and therefore, the unequivocal
meaning of one passage cannot be contradicted by the real
meaning of any other, however seemingly conflicting they may
be. Hence, if we can deduce the existence of a trinity from a
single passage of the Word in the letter, we shall claim to
have -dttained our end.
Now, in our view, the existence of such a trinity as we con
tend for is shown most unequivocally in this passage, from
Genesis xviii. 1 — 5, " And the Lord appeared unto Abraham
in the plains of Mamre : and he sat in the tent door in the
heat of fhe day; and he hfted up his eyes, and looked, and, lo,
three men stood by him : and when he saw them, he ran to
2*

6 INTRODUCTION.
meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself towards the
ground, and said. My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy
sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant : let a little
water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest
yourselves under the tree; and I will fetch a morsel of bread,
and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on ; for
therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said. So do,
as thou hast said."
To understand this passage fully, we should see it in its
spiritual sense. But it would be contrary to our design in
these papers, to unfold these verses as to their entire spiritual
import. It is sufficient for our present purpose to direct atten
tion to the fact which they state, that the Lord appeared
to Abraham under the representative and significative per
sonification of three men. For on this fact we ground our
argument. But in remarking upon these verses we must regard them as
having a spiritual meaning, although we do not undertake to
show fully what that meaning ' specifically is. For it is only
from this spiritual ground that the true meaning of their literal
sense can be seen. We at once, then, take the ground that
what Abraham here saw, was a vision. This is manifest
from the fact, that angels, as they are spiritual beings, cannot
be seen by the reflection of natural light. And hence Abra
ham could not have seen them with his natural eyes. It was
a vision similar to tliose which the prophets had — similar to-
to that of the three disciples when they saw the Lord trans
figured on the mount — similar to that of Mary Magdalene, in
which she saw "two angels in white, sitting, the one at the
head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had
lain." (John, xx. 12.) It was similar also to those visions that
the disciples had of our Lord, in which they communed and
ate with him after his ascension from the sepulchre. And it
was likewise similar to the visions of the martyred Stephen
and of St. John. The things beheld by these persons respectively
were objects seen in the light of heaven or the spiritual world,
thus by the opening of the spiritual sight. For in the case of
Stephen it is said that he saw the heavens opened, and in the
case of St. John it is expressly said he was " in the spirit on
the Lord's day." What they saw, therefore, was in spiritual
and not in natural vision. And we may presume it was the
same in the case of Abraham and the rest, inasmuch as the
objects which they saw were spiritual objects.
But as the spiritual sight can be opened in a state of bodily

INTRODUCTION. 7
wakefulness, and consists in the mind's consciousness being
raised above the sphere of natural into the sphere of spiritual
existences, while the natural plane of the mind is quiescent,—
as in a reverie, — the objects seen by the spiritual eye would
seem, to a person not aware of the fact that there is a spiritual
sight distinct from the natural sight and that his spiritual sight
was opened, as existing in the natural world : much the same
as when a person has had a remarkably impressive dream, he
can hardly divest himself of the notion that the things seen
and heard in the dream have been actual natural occurrences.
The only difference is, that, in the case of the dream, .the
transition from sleep to wakefulness, or from bodily quiescence
to bodily activity, makes the person sensible of his two states
of consciousness, and thus enables him to discriminate between
them; whereas, in the case of the visions, the spiritual sight
passing through the natural sight, which is now quiescent or
altogether subservient, the person has nothing to mark the two
states of his consciousness, and hence the spiritual objects seem
to be natural objects. And thus, when those spiritual objects
were persons, the circumstance of the spiritual eye being
opened and closed would be attended by the natural appearance
of spiritual beings coming and departing. Thus, " when the
doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of
the Jews, and Jesus came and stood in the midst," (John, xx.
19,) it doubtless appeared to his disciples as a natural event,
and they seemed to see him with their natural eyes ; but it was
manifestly a spiritual vision, because the walls of the room
where they were assembled, which did obstruct their natural
sight, were no obstruction to the Lord's apparent natural
entrance. So in the case of Abraham, the approach of the
Lord to him in the form of three men appeared to him as a
natural event ; when in fact it was a spiritual event, occurring
to the view of his spiritual sight. For Jehovah appeared to him
under angelic forms, Which, being spiritual, evidently could not
have been seen naturally. And as Abraham probably was not
aware that he saw by the opening of his spiritual sight, and thus
rested in the natural appearance ; hence it is recorded as an
historical event, that three men stood before him as he sat in his
tent door; and it is related that he performed natural offices to
them. It is however manifest that all this must have been a
spiritual occurrence of the merely mental world, seen by Abra
ham's spiritual eyes; and was but a. representative imaging of
divine and spiritual things, intended for the church in all ages.
For these things; in common with other historical events which

8 INTRODUCTION,
are recorded in the Old Testament, "happened," as Paul
says, " for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition,
upon whom the ends of the world are come." (1 Cor. x. 11.)
The eiid of the Divine Being in giving man a revelation, is
the salvation of his soul. He could not therefore have given
the Bible simply as an historical relation of events which took
place in the early ages of the world : for how can the mere
knowledge of an historical event avail to the soul's salvation %
But when the historical event is supposed to be represejitative
of spiritual and divine realities, and is supposed to be related
for the purpose of embodying those realities in sensible images
and of thereby representing them to the human mind, so that
when those sensible images are in the mind of man, angels
can be associated with him thereby ; we can very readily con
ceive how the divine end in giving that relation would be
attained. For those spiritual and divine realities, when so
communicated to the soul of man through angelic influence,
might, by their enlightening and purifying effects on his will and
understanding, save those faculties of his mind from evil and
false principles. We say, then, that this historical event which
is related as having occurred to Abraham in this world, was a
representative imaging of divine and spiritual things intended
for the church in all ages. We call it a representative imag
ing ; for though these might have been, and doubtless were, ac
tual angelic beings, still they were a representative personifica
tion of the Lord. For it is said " the Lord appeared unto him"
— " and he lifted up his eyes and looked, and lo, three rnen
stood by him, and when he saw them, he ran to meet them
from the tent door and bowed himself toward the ground, and
said, my Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not
away, I pray thee, from thy servant." All which shows that
these three men were characters representative of the one God.
They were representative, because they purported to be the
Lord, who is God ; but were not actually God, for Abraham
saw them, and " no man hath seen God at any time." (John, i.
18.)- And they were representative of the one God, because
Abraham addressed them as one. He calls them my Lord; and
throughout the chapter they are called the Lord, and in most
instances spoken of in the singular number. Thus in the last
verse it is said, "And the Lord went his way as soon as he
had left communing with Abraham : and Abraham returned
unto his place." We may here observe, incidentally, that this
expression, " Abraham returned unto his place," is a further
proof of Abraham's having been in a spiritual state when he

INTRODUCTION. 9
saw the Lord as three men : for it denotes that he came agaip
into his previous natural state. As before, his transition from
a natural to a spiritual state was attended by the circumstance
of the Lord's appearing, so here, his return to a natural state
is accompanied by the appearance of the Lord's going away.
Now this is our argument. Abraham saw the Lord repre
sentatively ; for he could not see the Lord himself and live.
(Exod. xxxiii. 20.) But a representation of the Lord must have
corresponded to his nature ; or else, it could not have brought
him forth to view. Now this representation of the Lord pre
sented him as three men. Therefore, there is something
threefold in his nature. And thus we prove there is in God a
trinity. Were there not, then, another text in Scripture, on
this alone we would boldly take our stand and confidently pro
claim a trinity in God !
But, say the Tripersonalists, Granted. We too proclaim
that there is a trinity in God, and bring this same passage to
prove that this is a trinity of persons. For, if this representa
tion indicates the Lord's nature, — as he is represented by three
men, and three men are three persons, — therefore, the Lord in
his nature is three persons. No ! we answer. This represen
tation only indicates that there are in the Lord's nature three
constituent principles. For the Word of God is so written
that it uses sensible forms to represent and signify spiritual
principles in the church and heaven, or divine principles
in God. And the person of a man is his outward form.
Hence his person must represent his inward principles.
And when the forms or persons of men are used in the
Word to represent the Deity, they represent the princi
ples which constitute him. Thus Moses represented the Lord
as to his divine law, or as to the principle of truth. Aaron
represented the Lord as a divine priest, or as to the principle
of goodness. David represented the Lord as a divine king, or
as a principle of truth ruling and governing the refractory
passions of men by bringing them into obedience to its dictates.
So universally a form or person is never used in the Word
simply to suggest an idea of itself and no more, but to involve
and present some principle to which it corresponds. This is
the case in the passage before us. Therefore, when the Lord
was presented as three men, it did not indicate that he was
three men in form, but that there were in his nature three prin
ciples which could be so represented. So when the Lord is
called a shield and buckler, it is not meant that he is in that
form, but that he effects that for the spirit of him who trusts in

10 INTRODUCTION.
him which a shield does for his body ; namely, defends it from
evil. Thus, in this instance, the sensible forms of a shield
and buckler are used to represent the Lord as a principle of
defence. So when the Lord was represented to John in a vision
as a lamb standing in the midst of the throne, it did not indi
cate that he is actually in the form of a lamb, but represented
him as to a certain principle of his nature, the principle of
innocence, to which the lamb corresponds. We repeat, then,
that these three men represented principles and not persons.
Again, we argue from this passage that there is a trinity of
principles in the individual Divine Bejng, and not a trinity of
individualities in the godhead, because Abraham addressed
these three men as one person, calling them my Lord. For
thus we reason : if the three men represented three persons,
then Abraham would have addressed them as Lords, and would
uniformly have spoken to and of them as plural in number.
But this he did not. For though he saw three, he addressed
them as one. We conclude, therefore, that these three repre
sented three essential constituents of one Lord.
Hence we are not to regard thii figurative representation
as indicating that there are three persons in the one God ; but
that the one God is constituted one person by three distinct but
essential principles of his being. These principles are distinct,
because they are not absolutely the same ; and they are essen
tial, because without them he could not be one person. Thus
these three are distinctly one.
But it is perhaps difficult for some minds to conceive how
three can be distinctly one. Let us endeavor to illustrate this.
Take for example that mathematical figure called a cube.
How are three essential mathematical properties distinctly one
cube ? The properties of a cube are length, breadth and depth.
These properties are distinct, because the length is not the
breadth, but is altogether different from it; and the length or
breadth is not the depth. But they are essential, because
without all three of these properties the figure would not be a
cube. Were there merely length and breadth, the figure would
not be a cube, but a superficies. Still less would it be a cube,
if there were only one of these properties. Hence, length,
breadth and depth are essential properties of one cube. And
being distinct, therefore they are distinctly one cube. Just so
it is with God. There are three principles essentially consti
tuent of his being. What these principles are, it would be out
of place here to say. We merely take the fkct as set forth
in the passage of the Word under consideration. In this pas-

INTRODUCTION. 11
sage the Lord is represented as three, and addressed as one.
From which it appears that there is a threefold something in
the one God. This, we maintain, is a threefold principle.
Or, we maintain that there are three principles by which God
is constituted one person. " And we present to view the sensible
figure of a cube, not to show the quality of the divine princi
ples, but simply to illustrate how three principles can constitute
one thing ; and thus show how three divine principles may
constitute one God. The nature of those principles will be
discussed hereafter.
Now it is merely this distinction of the constituent princi
ples of the one God which was represented to Abraham by the
three men. Of this he doubtless had an intuitive perception.
Hence, when he regarded the Deity in his complex character,
he addressed these three men as one Lord : but when he
regarded the Deity as to his distinctive constituent properties, he
addressed the one Lord as several. So the mathematician,
when he looks at the cube in the concrete, considers it one
thing. But, to serve the purposes of abstract reasoning, he
regards its three essential properties as distinct and several.
In some cases, as in an algebraic process, he even considers
these properties as separate from the subject in which they
necessarily inhere, and represents them by distinctive charac
ters. But this does not destroy the individuality of the subject,
and imply that there are three separate things in one cube.
So neither did Abraham, when he addressed the three men as
several, destroy the individuality of God, and imply that there
are three persons in the one God. He addressed the men as
several only when he regarded the essential constituent divine
principles distinctively. He still regarded them as one in their
subject; that is, as existing in and constituting one divine per
son. Hence he most frequently addresses them as one, and
speaks of them in the singular number. Of course, God is
individual in person, though his individuality may consist of a
threefold principle. And as he was represented to Abraham
as three men, we argue that he does consist of three principles.
And as Abraham addressed these three as one, we argue that
they are the constituent principles of one God. Therefore, in
our view, this passage of Scripture affords incontrovertible proof
that there is a trinity in the one God.
III. Same Subject Continued. — It is usual for those who
believe in a trinity to bring forward, in proof of their belief.
Genesis, i. 26, " let us make man in our image." But we do

12 INTRODUCTION.
not advance this passage, because we think the plurality of the
pronouns herein does not prove a trinity. It would serve just
as well to prove that there are four, or a hundred, as three.
Nor do we think that one person in the godhead could say to
two other persons, " let us make man in our image ;" because
it is utterly inconceivable how they could be so separate as to
talk to one another and yet not be three gods. Besides, it is
clear that God did not say this as three persons conversing
together, first, because it is afterwards said, in the singular
number, (verse 27,) " So God created man in his own image ;"
and, secondly, because man when created in God's image was
in one person and not in three.
But in Luke, i. 35, it is written, "And the angel answered
and said unto her. The holy ghost shall come upon thee, and
the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee : therefore also
that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the
son of God." Here mention is made of three, namely, the
Highest, the holy ghost, and the son of God.
In Matthew, i. 16, 17^" And Jesus, when he was baptized,
went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens
were opened unto him, and he saw the spirit of God, descend
ing like a dove, and lighting upon him; and, lo, a voice from
heaven, saying. This is my beloved son, in whom I am well
pleased." Here, too, there are three indicated — God, the spirit
of God, and the son of God.
We are aware that this passage is a strong redoubt of the
tripersonal scheme. But if we regard it in the same light in
which we viewed the passage from Genesis in our last number,
this text will be seen to afford to that scheme no defence. Let
it be observed, then, that what was here seen by the Lord,
although an occurrence actually taking place before the mind's
eye of a person living on this earth, was a representation in
the spiritual world. For it is said " the heavens were opened."
Of course, the things seen by the Lord were in the heavens.
This is a mode of expression uniformly used in the Word in
reference to the opening of the spiritual sight. Hence it is
used by the prophets, and others, when speaking of their
visions. Thus Ezekiel says, (i. 1,) " Now it came to pass in the
thirtieth year," &c. " that the heavens were opened, and I
saw visions of God." Stephen, when about to be stoned to
death, (Acts, vii. 56,) said, "Behold, / see the heavens opened,
and the son of man standing on the right hand of God." So, too,
Peter, when he fell into a trance, (Acts, x. 9 — 1 3,) " saw heaven
opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had

INTRODUCTION. 13
been a great sheet, knit at the four corners, and let down to the
earth: wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts, and
creeping things, and fowls of the air." The least reflection on
these passages will show that the opening of the heavens
here spoken of means an opening of the spiritual sight of men
on earth, so as to enable them to see visual representative forms
of spiritual and celestial things existing in heaven and the
church. This is especially manifest from the vision of Peter.
For he was afterwards made to understand that his vision was
a representative mode of signifying to him this truth, "that
God is no respecter of persons: but, in every nation, he that
feareth him and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him,"
(verses 34, 35.) Besides it is clearly seen that " fourfooted
beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things,
and fowls of the air" represented men and those mental quali
ties which constitute men, because Peter, in reference to these
animals which he saw in his vision, says, " God hath shown
me that I should not call any man common or unclean," (verse
28.) Hence we may concliide it is a law of the spiritual world,
that mental things, that is, voluntary and intellectual things,
should be represented by visible images. And when men are
in that state in which these images of heavenly things are seen,
heaven is said to be opened, for such is the appearance ; but in
fact man's visual powers are so expanded or extended, or, are
rather so indrawn, as to see things as they exist in a heavenly
state. This is what we mean by his spiritual sight being
opened. This undoubtedly was the case with the Lord when
he, as recorded in the passage of the Word which we are now
considering, saw heaven opened, and a dove descending and
fighting upon him, and heard a voice from heaven, saying.
This is my beloved son. Doubtless all this appeared, at the
time, to be an event transpiring in this natural world, but it
was, in reality, a visual representation and spiritual perception
of things spiritual and divine which were transpiring in the
Lord's internal man, or in the spiritual world. Therefore
what is said in this passage is not to be taken in its mere Hteral
sense. And hence the argument, based upon this sense, that
the father, son and holy ghost are separate and distinct per
sons, is fallacious.
But even though you take this passage in its apparent mean
ing, it will not support the argument of the Tripersonalists.
For, as a certain writer has remarked, if this passage, in its
literal sense, proves any thing for the tripersonal scheme, it
proves too much : since it proves, not only that the holy ghost
3

14 INTRODUCTION.
is separate from the Lord, but that he is in the form of a
bird! — which we presume the advocates of the personality of
the holy ghost are not disposed to maintain. Yet this is the
conclusion to which we must come, if we adhere to the strict
literal sense of this passage.
But this is not all : for, to prove the separate personahty of
the father and the son from this passage, you must suppose
that there was an audible voice from heaven, and that this was
actually the voice of the father. Yet the Lord says, (John, v.
37,) respecting the father, " Ye have neither heard his voice at
any time, nor seen his shape." It could not then have been the
voice of the father which was heard from heaven in this case ;
and thus the argument resting upon the supposition that the
father was, as a person, where the voice came from, and hence
was separate from the son, falls to the ground. Thus is mani
fest the fallacy of these reasonings from appearances in the
mere letter of the Word. And it is high time that Christians
should awake, and open their eyes upon the spiritual import
of that book which they believe to be the Word of God!
In fine, the Tripersonalists might just as well argue that
cherubim are actually in the form in which they were represent
ed in Ezekiel's vision, or that the Lord Jesus now actually
exists in the form of a lamb, slain, standing in the midst of
the throne of heaven, and that the New Jerusalem will actually
descend from heaven in the form of a city, — because these
things were so represented to John in vision, — as to argue,
from our Lord's vision in the present instance, that the father
and the holy ghost are persons separate or distinct from him,
because he saw the spirit descend as a dove and light upon him,
and heard a voice, as it had been the voice of the father,
calling him his son. The separation is only an appearance.
It is a visual representation of a certain process then going on
in the glorification of the Lord's human nature, and indicates
that the spirit is in him, or that he, even as to his human nature,
is infinitely imbued with the divine spirit — "For God giveth
not the spirit by measure anto him," (John, iii. 34.) Hence, we
have no more right to conclude that the holy ghost is actually
separate from the Lord Jesus, because it descended upon him in
the form of a dove, than we have to conclude that length, breadth,
and depth are actually separate from a cube, because the mathe
matician can so represent them in an algebraic process. This
vision which the Lord saw, like that which Abraham saw, was
representative. And if the three men, which Abraham saw,
represented the one God without distinction of persons ; much

INTRODUCTION. 15
more does this three fold appearance of the dove, the voice,
and the Lord's person, represent the same.
Thus this passage, though it does indeed prove a trinity,
does not prove a trinity of persons. And we deem ourselves
justified in concluding from this passage too, that there are three
essential divine principles in the one God.
Besides the passages above noticed, there are many others in
the New Testament from which the doctrine of a trinity can be
inferentially deduced : but it is needless to do more than advert
to the first of John, where it is said, " In the beginning was the
word," " and the word was made flesh ;" which word made
flesh afterwards breathed on his disciples and said " receive ye
the holy ghost." Here mention is made of the word, " which
was God," or the essential divine principle — the word made
flesh, which was " Immanuel, or God with us," the " express
image" of God's substance, the " form of God," and therefore
the dWine formative principle — and the breath, or proceeding
influence of Jesus Christ, the word made flesh, which was
called the holy ghost, and was the divine spherical principle.
Thus by this passage a trinity of principles is most clearly
proved. We may here just add, finally, that the Lord Jesus fre
quently speaks of the father as in him, of himself as coming
forth from the father, and of the holy ghost, or the comforter,
as sent by him from the father. And in the last of Matthew
he commands his apostles expressly to baptize all nations in
" the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy
ghost." In these passages, too, the same three fold distinction
is kept up. Frequent mention is made moreover of the father,
the son, and the holy ghost in the Epistles of the Apostles;
and so their testimony is given to the existence of a trinity.
A very remarkable instance of distinct reference to a trinity in
the one God is found in John's First General Epistle, (v. 7,)
" There are three that bear record in heaven, the father, the
word, and the holy ghost : and these three are one."
Here both the trinity and unity of God are expressly asserted.
We are aware that this is a disputed passage, and that many
Trinitarians have relinquished their hold upon it as an authen
tic part of the original epistle. But we are not disposed to
give it wholly up, both becau.se it is quoted as genuine by the
divinely commissioned teacher of the doctrines of the New
Jerusalem and because there are both intrinsic and extrinsic
evidences of its genuineness.

16 INTRODUCTION.
Some of the arguments for the authenticity of this verse are:
1. That the connection would be incomplete without it. To
see this, just read the sixth, seventh and eighth verses consecu
tively. Now would not the mention in the eighth verse of
three who bear witness in earth be too abrupt a transition from
the sixth verse? What possible connection can there be ima
gined, in the drift of the apostle's ideas, between the sixth and
eighth verses? Moreover, can there be three principles in
earth without three correspondent principles in heaven? There
is no question about the authenticity of the eighth verse, and if
this is genuine, then there is a trinity in earth ; and if so,
why should there not be a trinity in heaven also 1 Is not the
earth created of God, and does not the creation bear the image
of its creator ? Are not " the invisible things of him, from the
creation of the worid clearly seen, being understood by the
things that are made — even his eternal power and godhead?"
(Heb. i. 20.) Hence, if there is a trinity in earth, must there not
be a trinity in God too ? And if there are three correspondent
principles in the Divine Being, and in heaven from him, why
not mention them? We reason, then, that the connection
requires the verse which is supposed to be spurious ; and,
therefore, there is intrinsic evidence that it is in reality genuine.
But, from what has been just advanced, we may shift our
position, and directly argue, that, though the seventh verse be
omitted, still the doctrine of a trinity is effectually proved by
the eighth. For in this it is said there are three that bear
witness in earth. And we contend that there cannot be princi
ples in earth which have not principles in heaven from which
they exist and to which they correspond. And therefore, if it
be admitted that there is a trinity in earth, it will follow that
there is a trinity in heaven. Indeed Paul clearly shows that
this is so, when he says he was caught up into the third hea
ven. Hence there is a trinity in the complex heaven. Conse
quently there must be a trinity in God, from whom heaven
exists. 2. The clause in the eighth verse, »«; ot rpel? hi to eh e'io-iv,
which is rendered, " and these three agree in one," if rendered
literally would read, " and these three are in {the or) that one."
It might be rendered, " and these three correspond to that one."
The article in the phrase la to h, is evidently relative, and
relates to a one which has been previously mentioned. So Ihat
the sense of the eighth verse is in this way, too, proved to be
defective without the seventh.

INTRODUCTION. 17
3. The most ancient and most accurate manuscripts are
said to contain this verse : thus affording extrinsic evidence
that it is genuine.
4. It rests upon the authority, among others, of Cyprian,
one of the Fathers, who lived in the third century, before the
rise and spread of arianism : which proves that this seventh
verse existed in copies of John's First Epistle at a time when
there could be no temptation to interpolate arising out of the
arian controversy.
We conclude, then, that this verse is authentic ; and, of
course, the doctrine which it so unequivocally sets forth, can
not be impugned. But, admitting that it were not genuine, still
the doctrine of the trinity is so interwoven with -the very
texture of the whole Sacred Scriptures, that the whole must be
destroyed before it can be obliterated. And passages enough,
without this, have been adduced from the Word of God to
prove that there is a trinity in the one God.
IV. There must be a trinity in God. — We proceed in this
number to demonstrate that, in the nature of things, there must
be a trinity in the one God.
Paul says, (Rom. i. 20,) " the invisible things of God, —
even his eternal power and godhead, — are clearly seen from
the creation of the world, being understood by the things that
are made." Wherefore, the nature of the Deity is discernible
in his works. Consequently, we may reason from the essential
principles of natural existence to the essential principles of
divine existence, or, to use the words of the poet, we may
" look through nature up to nature's God."
This mode of reasoning is not only legitimate and admissible,
but, in the present constitution of man, it is the only way in
which he can form any adequate conceptions of the Divine
Being. Man is born in entire ignorance and helplessness.
And, without instruction, he cannot know even how to feed and
clothe himself. Hovif then can he know his creator, unless he
be instructed ? And unless he has ideas in his mind from the
objects of nature around him, there are no vehicles whatever
by which instruction respecting the Deity can be conveyed to
his mental apprehension or his moral feeling.
" That is first which is natural, and afterwards that which
is spiritual." The form must first be impressed on the senses,
before the rational and intellectual faculty can apprehend its
qualities and its essence. Hence nothing of thought or affec
tion can exist with man which has not with it a natural or
3 *

18 INTRODUCTION.
sensual idea. QuaUties cannot exist without subjects in which
they inhere ; and the mind cannot comprehend qualities
without a distinct idea of their subjects. Hence the mind can
not apprehend the qualities of the Deity unless, and only in the
degree that, it has a distinct idea of the forms which these
qualities assume. And this is one meaning of that scripture,
" No man cometh to the father, but by me," the son.
The essential divine principles, which, in the unapproachable
and indescribable adytum of their own infinite and eternal
being, ro man hath seen nor can see, flowing down by a regu
lar gradation of cause and effect, at length clothe themselves in
natural forms and thus produce creation. In this plane of
creation man first exists ; and the images of the natural forms,
that are the outermost coverings of the divine principles from
which they ultimately exist, form the ground-work of his mind.
When the form is presented, and is seen or perceived, by the
imprinting of its image on organs suited to receive it, the quali
ties of that form may be gradually discerned, and thus its
essence apprehended. And no quality can be discerned, and
no essence apprehended, until the image of the form in which
they inhere is thus received. And unless the qualities and
essences of natural forms are discerned and apprehended, there
is no possible way by which the mind can have any conception
of the divine principles from which they exist, and which are
most intimately within them. Hence, without the images of
natural forms impressed on the senses, it is altogether impossi
ble that man can have any idea of God. But, when the images
of these forms are thus impressed, then the perfection of man's
wisdom consists in the eternal opening up of his mind towards
the essential divine principles from which those forms come
forth. These natural forms are the effects of the influx of spiritual
forms as causes. They are common things which involve in
numerable spiritual and infinite divine particulars ; which
particulars can never be reached or approached, before the
common things which contain them are known and appre
hended. For illustration, take the case of the human body.
This consists of various common members, which involve
many organical, visceral, muscular, fibrous, nervous and other
particular parts. And these again, may be traced to singular
constituents so minute and hidden that they elude the ken of
the most searching and scrutinizing microscopic vision. Now
what anatomist can, or attempts to know the hidden parts of
the human body without first becoming acquainted with its

INTRODUCTION. 19
common and obvious parts ? In short, what is common is an
effect caused by the influx of what is particular. And we can
not discern the cause if we do not know the effect.
Thus the only way in which man can attain to any know
ledge of the hidden essences of things is, by tracing effects up
to their causes. So that it is legitimate to reason from the
essential principles of natural existence to the essential constitu
ent principles of the Divine Being. In fact, these natural
existences, or the works of creation, are the fruits of the Di
vine Being. And his own divine law must be universal in its
application — " By thiesu fruits ye shall know them." There
fore, by his fruits we must know him.
Hence, if we discern that in every natural existence there is
a threefold principle, we must conclude that there is a trinity
in God.
In pursuing this argument, we must take things as they are.
It is not necessary for us to show why they are so ; nor to in
quire whether the Divine Being could not have constituted
things differently. It is sufficient for us to know that the order
in which things do exist, is the result of infinite wisdom ; and
we are not to suppose that infinite wisdom could devise any
other order than that which it has produced. For an infinite
being cannot act otherwise than according to his nature — thus
infinitely. And to suppose that he could produce any other
order than the one he has produced, would be to suppose that
he could produce either what is more than infinite, which is ab
surd ; or what is less than infinite, which is impossible.
Our prescribed limits will not allow us to expatiate so widely
on this head as might be necessary. And we must therefore
confine ourselves within the narrow compass of a very cursory
view of the general principles of natural existence.
In starting we take this position, that a trinity is necessary
to every unity ; which we will strive to maintain, first, by the
fact that there is a threefold principle in every existence, and,
secondly, by the rational deduction from this fact, that from a
simple or metaphysical oneness of being nothing can exist :
which will lead us directly to the conclusion that the Deity is
not a simple oneness of being, and of course that he is a triune
being. Casting our eyes over the whole scope of creation, we'can-
not but observe this fact, viz. that in every existence there are
three things essential to that existence, namely, an inmost, a
middle and an ultimate. These three things are the essential
principles of all being, and universally manifest themselves as

20 INTRODUCTION.
action, reaction, and the operation or result of these two. In
philosophical language these three principles are called end,
cause, and effect. The end is the intimate, the cause is the
intermediate, and the effect is the ultimate. The end is the
essential principle, the cause is the formative principle, and the
effect is the spherical or influential principle. Thus there are
three essential principles in every one existence, which are es
sentially distinct the one from the others.
That this is the constitution of things, any of us may be
sensible by attending to the subjects of our observation or con
sciousness. For in whatever we behold or examine, we find an
inmost, a middle, and an outermost. In a circle, there is a
centre, an area, and a circumference. In the earth there is a
centre, a spherical bulk, and a surface. In a flower of the
field there is its essence, its form, and its odor. In ourselves
there is an inmost, a middlp, and an ultimate principle : that is,
there is a voluntary, an intellectual, and an operative principle ;
or a will, an understanding, and an act; or a love, a wisdom,
and a use. And in this inmost of us are our ends, in this
middle our causes, and in this ultimate our effects : that is, In
our inmost are motives to action, in our middle are modes of
action, and in our ultimate are actions themselves. So in
every thing which is an object of our sight or consciousness,
there is an end, a cause, and an effect — or an inmost, a middle,
and an outermost.
And every effect is seen to be the result of an action and a
reaction. Our will acts, our understanding reacts, and the con
sequence is affection and thought. Our mind acts, our body
reacts, and the consequence is the varied modes of bodily mo
tion. The head acts, the trunk reacts, and in consequence the
animal fluids pervade the system, causing sensation in all its
forms. The heart acts, the arteries react, and hence the blood
circulates, producing bodily sustentation. All the viscera act,
while the bony, muscular, membranaceous, and cuticular parts
react, and thus the various members are formed, and the whole
body is kept in order, symmetry, and beauty.
Now in all these things the result of action and reaction is
essential to the mode of existence and subsistence. And this
is true of all nature and of every object of nature — of every
animal, plant, and mineral — of every work of art and of every
mechanical invention. You could not shoot a gun unless the
barrel reacted on the expanding powder, and thus caused it to
speed the bullet in its course. Unless the projectile tendency
of a planet reacted on the sun's attractive power, the planet
would not move in its orbit. Unless the earth reacted on the

INTRODUCTION. 21
sun's influences, no material form whatever could exist. You
could not walk, unless the ground reacted on your feet : and
hence the tiresome effects of walking on loose sand or newly
fallen snow. You could not breathe, if the air did not react
upon your lungs. You could not speak if the various conforma
tions of the throat and mouth did not react on the air sent
back again from the lungs. You could not hear your preachers,
unless the walls of your temples and the atmosphere reacted
on their voice. You could not understand their teachings,
unless your minds reacted on theirs so as to give the requisite
attention. And all preaching would be vain, unless the hearts
of the people so reacted on its practical precepts as to bring
them into life.
There is, then, in every thing, action, reaction, and the result
of these. Or, in other words, there is an active principle and
a passive subject; and the flowing of the active into the passive,
and the reaction of the passive on the active, produce life in
all its varied forms.
Thus there are in every thing end, cause, and effect. And
these three are essential to every existence. For if you were
to take any one away, the others would cease to exist. If, for
instance, you take away the effect, the end and the cause would
be nonentities for want of a power of ultimation. If you take
away the cause, the end could not come into effect for want of
the requisite means. And if you take away the end, cause and
effect must of course cease for want of a first principle of their
existence. Thus, if you take away exercise from the mind,
it becomes enervated. If you take away understanding, will
cannot effect its purposes. And if you take away volition, un
derstanding is dormant. A disorganization of the brain pro
duces insanity. A sudden recession of the spirit, as in the case
of excessive fright, joy, or what not, produces instant death of
the body. And a violent assault of the love, bj' some cruel
treatment, sad disappointment, or dire calamity, oftentimes
produces alienation of mind and premature dissolution. All
which are instances in which the end, the cause, or the effect
are suspended, obstructed, or taken away. So a workman
without tools, though he has the best design and most perfect
practical skill, can produce nothing useful. Without skill his
design could do nothing with the best of tools. And without
design his skill and tools would be both inoperative.
Thus we see, that in every thing there is an inmost, a mid
dle, and an outermost. And we also perceive that they never
can be blended. For they are evidently separated by discrete

22 INTRODUCTION.
degrees. Hence the end by any continuity can never become
the cause. So neither can the cause ever become the effect.
Your will by any increase or activity whatever can never
become understanding. And your understanding can never
become act. Or your desire can never become thought; or
your thought speech ; except by correspondence. So that
these three essential constituents of one thing, are and must
be distinct. This is universal. It is true of every thing which
comes within our observation. And hence we conclude that it
is true with respect to the whole creation in general, and every
part in particular. Consequently, there is a distinctly threefold
principle in every existence. And thus a trinity is necessary
to every existence.
Now, — taking things as they are, and supposing that they
could not be otherwise in the divine economy, — from the fact
that there is a threefold principle in every existence, we reason
that, from a simple oneness, nothing can exist. By simple
oneness we mean oneness in a metaphysical sense — that is,
mere, abstract oneness, or a principle of unity without a sub
ject of unity : which is the idea that we suppose Unitarians to
have of the divine unity.
In arguing this point, we lay it down as an axiom that all
things exist and subsist from the Divine Being. Of course,
existing from the Divine Being, they cannot exist of them
selves ; but must exist by virtue of life flowing into them.
Now as every thing which exists is the result of action and
reaction; hence there must be a twofold influx, that is an im
mediate and a mediate influx. For the acting principle must
be distinct, and we have seen that it is distinct, from the react
ing principle : and that which acts must be distinct from that
which reacts : since to predicate action and reaction of abso
lutely one and the same thing is absurd. For to do this we
must consider absolutely one and the same thing distinctly from
itself: which would be like considering length as distinct from
length : than which there cannot be a greater absurdity. And
as action and reaction are distinct and twofold, hence the influx
of the active and reactive principles, which produces these,
must be twofold likewise. Thus there must be the influ.x of
the active principle, or life, and this is called immediate influx ;
and the influx of that which forms the plane of operation of the
former, and this is called mediate influx.
Let us illustrate this. In the formation and growth of a plant,
for instance, the germ in the seed manifests itself by expand
ing and clothing itself in the elements of nature. Here there

INTRODUCTION. 23
is the influx of life from the spiritual world into the germ,
and the influx of the sun and earth into that material form
which the life assumes in the natural world. The former is
called immediate influx, not because it is life from the t)ivine
Being flowing in without any media, but because it flows through
spiritual agents, and thus is more direct than the latter, which
comes from the same source by the round about way of
material agents.
Take the case of man. His spirit or active principle flows
in from the spiritual world, and his body or reactive principle
flows in from the natural world. So his love, affection, or
virtue, as an active principle, flows in immediately, or from
within, into instruction, knowledge, or wisdom, which, as a
reactive principle, flows into him mediately, that is by instruc
tors and teachers, thus from without.
So in the various parts of his body, as the hand, for instance,
or the arm. There is the immediate influx of the soul into the
arm, by which it acts and performs its wonted operations for
the body; and the mediate influx of the heart and lungs, by
which it exists as a material reactive plane for the soul's
activity. The immediate influx in this case is by the nerves —
the mediate by the arteries and veins : and the immediate is so
called, because its medium, the nerves, is also the medium of
the active principle to the heart, the source of the arteries, as
well as to the arm, which those arteries support. That there
is this twofold influx in the case of the arm, is proved by the
fact, that, if you destroy the nerves, or interrupt the communi
cation by them, as in a paralysis, the arm loses its power of
action, while it still exists by nourishment from the heart : and
if the communication from the heart is cut off, or the requisite
supply of nourishment is lessened, as is the case in some
diseases, the arm withers, while it is still capable of acting
until it ceases fo furnish an adequate reactive plane for the
active principle.
So, universally, there must be into every thing that exists
a twofold influx. Of course, this influx must have a twofold
source. For how can that which is twofold proceed from that
which is absolutely simple? Manifestly, that which is abso
lutely simple cannot both act and react in itself. How then can
it produce action and reaction in that which is out of itself 7
Clearly mere, abstract, simple oneness can produce nothing at
all. It is just as impossible as it is for an apothecary to make
a compound medicine out of one drug ; or for an arithmetician
to compute with nothing but units ; or for a conspiracy to be

24 INTRODUCTION.
formed by one man. Thus nothing can exist without action
and reaction. And action and reaction cannot exist without a
twofold influx. And a twofold influx cannot proceed from a
simple oneness of being. Therefore, from a simple oneness of
being nothing can exist.
But things do exist. And their existence is the result of
action and reaction : which are owing to a twofold influx ; that
is, both an immediate and a mediate influx of life from the
Divine Being. Since, then, action and reaction, and their two
fold influx, cannot exist from a simple oneness of being, and
they do exist from the Deity, therefore, the Deity is not a
simple oneness of being.
And further, as it is legitimate to reason from the essential
principles of natural existence to the constituent principles of
divine existence, and as a threefold principle is essential to
every thing which exists in nature, hence we conclude that
there is a threefold principle in the Deity. Thus there must
be in the Deity, a divine active, a divine reactive, and a divine
influential principle. And as we are not to suppose that things
can exist in any other order than that in which they do exist,
consequently are bound to suppose, that, as there is a trinity
in every unity, there must be a trinity in every unity ; hence
we conclude that in the nature of things, there must be a trinity
in the one God.
And this trinity does not consist in three persons or indivi
dualities. For every individual thing must be constituted by
an inmost, a middle and an outermost. And hence, if there
were three persons or individualities in the one God, there
would be in the one God three inmosts, three middles, and
three outermosts — or three divine actives, three divine reactives,
and three divine influences ; which is absurd.
But the trinity in the one God consists in three essential and
indispensable principles, which are his inmost, his middle, and
his outermost — that is, it consists in a divine active, a divine
reactive, and a divine spherical principle ; which, on another
occasion, we shall prove to be divine love, divine wisdom, and
divine use ; and which, in the divine language of the Sacred
Scriptures, are called, — that is, are personified to the thought
of man as, — the father, the son, and the holy ghost. Thus,
then, " there are three that bear record in heaven — the father,
the word, and the holy ghost ; and these three are one."
We have now, as we proposed, proved from the Holy Word
that there is — and have shown by rational deduction from the
nature of things that there must be — a trinity in the one God.

INTRODUCTION. 25
And we have pointed out the true nature of this trinity as
consisting, not in three divine persons, but in three indispensa
ble divine principles.
To those persons, then, whose minds are not made up on
this subject, we will, in concluding this paper, hold up to them
a miniature portrait of the faith of the old church, and one of
the faith of the new, in respect to the trinity.
The old church believes — " There is but one living and true
God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions ; of infinite
power, wisdom, and goodness ; the maker and preserver of all
things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this godhead,
there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity —
the father, the son, and the holy ghost." — "There is one per
son of the father, another of fhe son, and another of the holy
ghost : the father is God and Lord, the son is God and Lord,
and the holy ghost is God and Lord ; nevertheless there are not
three gods and three lords, but one God and one Lord. For as
we are compelled by the christian verity to acknowledge every
person by himself to be God and Lord, so are we forbidden by
the catholic religion to say there be three gods or three lords."
The faith of the new-jerusalem church is — That there is one
infinite and eternal God in one divine person — thai this one
person is necessarily constituted by an active, a reactive, and
an influential principle — which are a divine essence, a divine
form, and a divine sphere : and that these three principles,
which in the Scriptures are called father, son, and holy ghost,
are distinctly one God, just as soul, body, and conduct, are
distinctly one man.
There are the two portraits before you. Judge ye for your
selves which is the best likeness of the truth. Look at them
and compare them with the portraiture of the Divine Being, as
seen in his Word and in his works ; and, in the free and re
sponsible exercise of your own reason and volition, take that
which is conscientiously deemed best.

SERMON I.

JOHN, XIV. S-U.
« Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the father, and it sufficeth us.
Jesus saith unto him. Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast
thou not known me, Phihp'! he that hath seen me hath seen the
: father, and how sayest thou, Show us the father 1 Believest thou not
that I am in the father, and the father in me 1 The words that I
speak unto you, I speak not of myself: but the father that dwelleth in
me, he doeth the works. Believe me, that I am in the father, and the
father in rae."
All religion is founded on the knowledge of God ; and the
nature of a religion is determined by the quality of this know
ledge. Hence its idea of the Divine Being wholly characterises
a church. Consequently the difference between churches may
be known by knowing the difference between their ideas of the
Deity. The new-jerusalem church, which is now making its ap
pearance in the world, differs essentially from the old christian
church. It is a new church, not because it advances entirely
different doctrines, but because it understands the same doc
trines in a new way. The old church is divided chiefly into
Unitarians and Trinitarians. We have already stated our doc
trine of the unity and trinity of God, and contrasted it with those
of these two grand divisions of the old christian church.
But that doctrine which most peculiarly distinguishes the new
christian church from the old, is her doctrine of the Lord, and
especially of the divinity of his humanity. This doctrine we
shall now proceed to unfold. However, before we go on to the
specific consideration of this doctrine, it may be well to give

28 JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE.
here a brief recapitulation of what has been advanced in the
introduction. We of the New Jerusalem hold, in common with Unitarians
of the old church, to the unity of God; yet differ from them in
holding also to the personality of God. The Unitarian's idea
of the divine unity is, that God is a simple, abstract divine
principle without any conceivable divine embodyment. Our
idea is, that God is one, because all the divine principles are
embodied in one person. We believe, with Paul, that all the
fullness of the godhead dwells bodily in Jesus Christ ; whereas
the Unitarian believes that Jesus Christ is a mere man — highly
gifted, indeed, above all other men — but still in respect to God
a mere man ; and that God is a divine, an infinite, an eternal,
an omnipotent and an impersonal mind, dwelling infinitely above
and entirely out of him.
On the other hand, we agree with Trinitarians in admitting
a trinity ; yet differ from them in denying that this is a trinity
of persons. They maintain that there are three divine persons
called father, son, and holy ghost, each of which is "of him
self" God, and yet that these three are not three gods but
one God. How these persons can be each of himself God,
and yet not three gods, they do not undertake to explain.
They say it is a mystery which is to be believed because it is
revealed in the Bible. It is a mystery, they say, which is
above reason, and which is to be humbly admitted on a ground
of faith.
But we of the New Jerusalem hold that such a trinity as that
held by Trinitarians of the old christian church is not only
above, but contrary, to reason ; and' therefore that it cannot be
revealed in the Word, because the Word of God cannot reveal
that which is contrary to reason and therefore impossible to be
understood. Yet we do believe that the Word of God inculcates a doctrine
of the trinity — namely, a doctrine of three divine principles
dwelling bodily in the one divine person, Jesus Christ. What
these principles are, we shall show hereafter, when we come
to demonstrate, from the Word, that Jesus Christ is their em-

JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 29
bodyment. And at this time will only add, as a succinct con
trast of our idea of God with those of old-church Trinitarians
and Unitarians, that the Trinitarians believe there is one God
in three persons — the Unitarians, that there is one God with
out any person — and we, that there is one God in one person.
In this discourse we shall trace the difference between the
New-jerusalemists and the Trinitarians, and therefore shall
take for granted the divinity of our Lord, because they hold
that he is "very God," as well as " very man."
We proceed to show, first, negatively, that Jesus Christ and
the father cannot be two divine beings; and then, affirmatively,
that Jesus and the father are one and the same.
First, Jesus Christ and the father are not two. To show
this, it will be necessary to bring forward the preliminary proof
that the Lord's human, is not separate from his divine, nature ;
and that Jesus Christ as God has not an individuality distinct
from the father.
In the first chapter of John, first verse, it is said, " In the
beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and God
was the word" — which word, it is said in the fourteenth verse,
" was made flesh and dwelt among us." Thus God being the
word, and the word being made flesh, it is manifest that God was
in the flesh, or thai the flesh was nothing more than an outward
manifestation of divinity within it. Hence it is manifest that
the flesh, that is the human nature of the Lord, had not a soul,
or a vital principle, separate or distinct from the Divinity within
it, from which as its only soul, it was originally formed and
continued fo exist. Therefore the New Jerusalem teaches that
the Lord " was conceived from Jehovah ; hence he had a di
vine esse from nativity, which was to him for a soul, and con
sequently was the inmost principle of his life — which was
exteriorly clothed with what he assumed from the mother."
(A. C. 4641.)
Again, " the Lord's soul, being derived from the father, was
of itself the essential divinity, and his body became a likeness
of the soul, that is, of the father," T. C. R. 21.— And lastly,
" He whose thought is from intellectual truth, and whose per-
4*

30 JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE.
ception is from divine good, (which also was the Lord's a»
being the father's, for he had no other soul,) must needs act
from his own proper power. * * * He who is conceived
of Jehovah, has no other internal, that is, no other soul than
Jehovah ; wherefore, as to his veriest life, the Lord was Jeho
vah himself. Jehovah, or the divine essence, cannot be divided,
like the soul of a human father, from which an offspring is con
ceived. This offspring, in proportion as it recedes from the fa
ther's likeness, recedes from the father himself, consequently, it
recedes more and more according to its advancement in age-
Hence it is that the love of a father towards his children dimini-
shesas they advance in years. But the case was otherwise with
the Lord, who, as he advanced in age in respect to his human es
sence, did not recede, but continually approached to his father,
even to perfect union. Hence it is evident that he is the same
with Jehovah the father ; as he himself also plainly teaches."
(A. C. 1921.)
It is clear, then, that the Lord's human was but an embody--
ment of Jehovah, or the essential divinity, which was in it as
a soul. And this is seen, likewise, from the birth of our
Lord, as recorded in Matt. i. 18, and following verses, which
shows an essential difference between the human of the Lord
and that of any other man. The Lord's human is there stated
to have been conceived directly from the holy ghost or the di
vine sphere, and hence he was expressly called God-with-us.
If he had possessed a human soul which intervened between
the divine essence and us, then he would not have been God
with us, but would have been one of us. Or he would have
been God with us only in the sense that the Divine Being is
with us through the medium of any mere man who is in some
remarkable degree a subject of the divine influences — and this
is precisely the unitarian doctrine. But the Holy Scriptures
are explicit : " Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise ;
when, as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they
came together, she was found with child of the holy ghost."
(Matt. i. 18.) And again, in the twentieth verse, where the
angel, encouraging Joseph to take Mary as his wife, says,

JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 31
" fear not to take unto thee Mary, thy wife : for that which is
conceived in her is of the holy ghost." See also Luke, i.
26—35. Here you see there is no ground of equivocation ; but a plain
and direct assertion that Jesus was the immediate offspring of
the holy ghost, that is, of the divine emanating sphere. The
assertion is so direct and plain, that no subterfuge can get over
it. And hence certain theologians — to whose system it is com
pletely fatal — sometimes assert and maintain that these passages
are interpolations. But this will not do : for the whole tenor
of Scripture clearly intimates that Jehovah himself would come
unto his people, and hence that that body, that human form,
that person, by which he would manifest himself, would be the
" mighty God himself," (Isaiah, ix. 6,) and not a mere man,
highly gifted, and commissioned by God. Thus the child that
is born unto us, is, to use the words of Paul, the express image
of God's substance, and the brightness of his glory. And
thus the Lord's human is a mere continent of his essential di
vinity. Since, then, the Lord's humanity is comparatively a mere
covering of the divinity which is within it, and from which
it immediately exists, it it clear that his human, is not separate
from his divine, nature.
This is confirmed moreover by his own express declarations.
For in John, v. 20, he says, "I can of mine own self do nothing."
And, in the nineteenth verse, " The son can do nothing of him
self, but what lie seeth the father do : for whatsoever things he
doeth, these also doth the son likewise." So in chapter
xii. V. 49, " For I have not spoken of myself, but the father
which sent me, he gave rae a commandment, what I should say,
and what I should speak." And in our text, " I speak not of
myself, but the father that is in me, he doeth the works.'' It
is evident, then, that the Lord's human nature is not separate
from his divine nature.
Neither is his divine nature separate from the divine nature
of the father : that is, Jesus Christ, as God, has not an individu
ality distinct from the father.

32 JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE.
Old-church Trinitarians hold that the son, or second person
in the trinity, was begotten of the father from eternity ; and
that this son, who is himself " very and eternal God," " took
man's nature in the womb of the blessed virgin :" " so that
two whole and perfect natures, that is to say, the godhead and
manhood, were joined together in one person, never to be di
vided, whereof is one Christ, very God and very man." From
this it would seem that the second person of the trinity is the
divinity in connexion with the Lord's humanity : and as this di
vinity, being begotten of the father, must, of course, be distinct
from the father, it follows from this view that the Lord's di
vinity is distinct from the divinity of the father. But we can
not find any authority in the Word for the doctrine of a son of
God begotten from eternity. Nay, we even dare to deny that
any such doctrine can be either expressly, or by implication,
drawn from the Sacred Scriptures. It would be irrelevant to
our present purpose to discuss this point at length here, or we
could prove fully that the word made flesh is the only son of
God. We will, however, refer you again to the quotation we
have already made from John, " In the beginning was the word,
and the word was with God, and the word was God." Here
there is an absolute identity explicitly stated between God and
the word. It is not said, nor intimated, that the word was be
gotten of God ; but it is said expressly that the teord was God :
thus at least intimating that God and the word were one and
the same being ; however they might — from its being said that
the word was with God — be supposed to be in some sense dis
tinctly one. And this word, which was God, and the only God,
inasmuch as there is but one God, " was made flesh, and dwelt
among us, full of grace and truth." And it was of this flesh
that John said, " we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the father." For they could not behold the word,
which was within the flesh ; because this was God : and it is
expressly said, in the eighteenth verse, " No man hath seen
God at any time, the only begotten son which is in the bosom
of the father, he hath declared him." It was, then, the glory
of the human principles which the Divinity assumed — in other

JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 33
words, the human nature of our Lord, which the evangelist
means when he says " we beheld his glory." But mark, this
was the glory of the only begotten of the father. The human
nature of the Lord, assumed in time, is, then, the only begotten
son, which is in the bosom of the father. If, then, this son be
gotten in time, is the only begotten son ; how can there be
another son begotten from eternity ? And if there is not a son
begotten from eternity, which, as a distinct divine being, is the
divinity of our Lord, but the word — which the Scriptures say is
the very God, and is so with the father as lo make one with
himself — forms his divine nature, then it is perfectly clear that
the divine nature of Jesus Christ is not separate from that of
the father.
But further, if we admit that Jesus Christ is in any sense God,
it is altogether irrational to suppose that he can have an in
dividuality distinct from the father. The idea we have of God
is, that he is infinite, eternal, and unchangably the same ; that
he is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. If, then, Jesus
Christ is God, he must be omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent,
and " the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." But, if so,
how can he have an individuality separate or distinct from the
father ? If there is a deity, called the father, separate and dis
tinct from the divine nature of the Lord Jesus, then there are
two infinite beings ; which cannot be, for the supposition of
two infinites is infinitely absurd. Nor does it avail to say,
that they are not separate, but are in some way mystically
united so as to make one. For they are not supposed to be ab
solutely one and the same ; but, notwithstanding their unity,
they are still imagined to be distinct individualities, having dis
tinct characteristics, and distinct functions to perform — one being
creator, another redeemer, and the third regenerator : and they
cannot be in any possible degree distinct, in this sense, unless
the one possesses something which the others do not. But this
also involves an absurdity ; for this distinctive something in
the one would detract from the infinity of the other. The dif
ficulty is the same, too, whether we suppose them to possess

34 JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE.
something different in kind, or something respectively their own
of the same kind.
The fact is, the attributes of deity are absolutely incommu
nicable ; and the idea of a God's making or generating a god
is utterly absurd. Divine attributes are in their very nature
essentially one and indivisible ; and thus, where they exist at
all, they must exist wholly. Hence, if the Lord Jesus Christ
is God at all, he is wholly God. He cannot, therefore, have a
divine nature separate or distinct from the divinity of the father.
For it is ridiculous to think he can have an omnipotence in any
possible degree distinct from that of the father. So of omni
presence and all the other divine attributes. For if the Lord
possesses any power, of any kind, or of a degree ever so
min-ute — to say nothing of all power — which the father does
not, then the father is not o?nraipotent. Yet if the Lord does
not possess a power in some respects different from that of the
father, there cannot be any distinction between them in respect
to this attribute : for if their power is in no respect different, it
IS absolutely the same. Again, if omnipresence is attributed to
the Lord, he is every where. But if he is every where, how
can you conceive of the father's being where he is not ? And
if the father cannot be where he is not, how can the father be
in any possible degree separate or individually distinct from the
Lord ? But if he is not separate or individually distinct from
him, then they are one and the same being. The omnipotence,
omniscience, and omnipresence of the father are those of the
Lord, and thus the divinity of the father is the divinity of the
Lord. Consequently, as the Lord's humanity is the bodily
manifestation of his divinity, it is the bodily manifestation of
the divinity of the father; and thus the Lord and the father are
absolutely one and the same divine being. Of course, Jesus
Christ and the father are not two.
In the second place, Jesus Christ and the father are one.
The unity of the Lord and the father was negatively establish
ed, under the foregoing head, principally on rational grounds ;
we purpose now to estabhsh it affirmatively by scriptural quo
tations.

JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER OKTE. 35
When we say that Jesus Christ and the father are one, we
mean that they are one as the soul and body are one. Now it
appears to us that such a union between the Lord and the
father could not possibly be more clearly set forth than it is in
our text.
We are aware that the words of our text, having been uttered
by a divine being, must have a recondite as well as an apparent
sense ; and that the unity of the Lord and the father is much
more incontrovertibly seen by the light of their spiritual sense,
than by any proof which the mere natural sense can furnish :
for, in attaining to a spiritual perception of the Lord's words,
we ourselves must pass through a process in some sort resem
bling that by which his unition with the father was effected ;
and thus, feeling in ourselves something resembling this union,
we can best understand what it is. But as theologians of the
present day, in deducing doctrines from the Sacred Scriptures,
regard their natural or apparent sense alone — as they suppose
that the Lord spoke from natural thought and affection, and
have no idea that his aim was to embody in natural images
divine and essential truths, but imagine that he inculcated mere
dogmatic truths — we will, for the sake of confuting their false
notions even on their own premises, reason from these words
taken in their apparent sense merely.
It would seem, then, that Philip, having heard the Lord often
speak of the father, and pray to him — having witnessed, per
haps, the opening of the heavens at his baptism, and heard the
audible voice, as it were of the father, in heaven, proclaiming
him his beloved son — was deeply impressed with the idea that
the father and the son were separate and distinct persons.
And when the Lord intimated that they from that time knew
and had seen the father, Philip — conscious that he had seen no
divine person other than the Lord, and thus being unable to
conceive how he could have seen the father, as he was not yet
aware of the intimate connection between the Lord himself and
the father — intreats of him, " Lord, show us the father, and it
sufficeth us." Now let us suppose that the doctrines at this
day prevalent with respect to the distinct individuality of thei

36 JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE.
father and the son are true. If so, then the Lord could have
inculcated no other : for he is " the truth," and therefore
nothing but truth can proceed from him. Let us suppose, too,
that he spake for the purpose of uttering dogmatic truths, which
must be the case if his words are to be understood only in their
apparent sense. Here, then, the point of theology which we
are discussing was brought distinctly into view. Philip,
imagining, as the Christian of the present time does, and as
does the mere natural man of every age, that the Lord and the
father are distinct beings, wants to see the father. The Lord
he had seen, and wanted no further evidence of his existence.
To have seen the father, therefore, would have answered his
doubts, and satisfied his desires. He very naturally, therefore,
asks to see the father. On the supposition, then, that the Lord
was teaching truths dogmatically, would he not have satisfied
his inquiry in the precise way in which He, who always knows
what is in man, must have known that Philip wished for in
formation ? And on the supposition that he and the father are
actually distinct, would he not have proceeded to explain to
Philip the distinction between himself and the father ? Would
he not have pourtrayed the father's character, described his
person, spoken of his distinct offices, or in some way have in
timated that he was a distinct individuality ? But does he do
this ? No : so far was he from even hinting at a distinction —
so far was he from implying that he as the son was a person
separate and distinct from the father, he even proceeds to say
that he is the very father himself: " Have / been so long time
with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip ? he that
hath seen me hath seen the father."
Having so often assured them that he of himself could do
nothing — that he spake not of himself, and that he had not a
thought or a will of his own ; knowing that they had heard
him speak " as never man spake," and had seen him do works
which none but a divine being could do ; and hence supposing
that they could not but have been sensible that the Divinity was
in him, and hence that he himself was divine ; having, in short,
expressly told them, as he did, on another occasion, (John, x.

JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 37
80,) that he and the father are one ; there is in the apparen
sense of his words an expression of surprise at the request ol
Philip. Show us the father ! Can you behold the essential
divine principle and live ? No man hath seen God at any
time ; the only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the
father, he hath brought him forth to view. As if he had .said.
Do not I, begotten of him as you know, manifest him in the
only way in which he can be manifested to finite apprehension ?
How are the affections and thoughts of your invisible soul
manifested to your fellow-men ? How can they be manifested
but by your body 1 How then can you expect to see the divine
affections and thoughts of your heavenly father, except by his
body ? Now, being intimately united to him by the peculiarity
of my birth, and thus having him within me as my soul or in
most principle of life, speaking as he dictates, and doing as he
doth ; having nothing which I do not derive from him, my everj
feeling, thought and action being his in and by me; I am the
brightness of his glory, and the express image of his substance
am, in a word, his body ; and thus am a lower manifestatior
of him who woidd otherwise be unapproachable and incompre
hensible to you. Being, therefore, so thoroughly identified
with him, am not I and the father one — as much so as a soul
and body ? and do I not, therefore, show him to you ? " How
sayest thou, then. Show us the father? Believest thou not that
I am in the father, and the father in me? the words that I
speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the father that dwell
eth in me, he doth the works. Believe me, that I am in the
father and the father in me."
Now, my hearers, I appeal to you as men of common sense,
whether, on the supposition that the Lord spoke in only a literal
sense, language can be more explicit than this. Mark, he ex
pressly says, " I speak not of myself." He could not even
speak without the indwelling father. How then could he be
an individual distinct from him?
It is of no moment to urge that, when the Lord Jesus said'he
did not speak of himself, he meant to intimate that he was a
subordinate being ; for this is true of all creatures. His hearers
5

38 JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE.
did not in this sense speak of themselves, and they knew it.
Hence it was hardly necessary for him to utter a truth so ob
vious. It could not then have been with the view of signifying
that he was a mere man, as the Unitarians suppose, that he
spake these words. For had he been a mere man, and the
people had supposed him to be such, he need not have said any
thing about it. But if, on the other hand, the people supposed
him to be divine, and he perceived that they did so, when he
knew he was not, he certainly should have adopted a more ex
plicit mode of undeceiving them than he did, when he pro
ceeded not only to say, " the father is in me," but also, " I
am in the father." For he might have said the father was in
him, if he were only a divinely commissioned agent, but he
could not have said that he was in the father unless he had
been himself divine. For no one can be in the Infinite, the
Eternal, the Omnipotent, the Omniscient, but he who is him
self possessed of infinity, eternity, omnipotence, and omni
science. When, therefore, the Lord says, " I speak not of
myself," he indicates his identity with the father, and not his
subordination to him. So that this clause harmonizes perfectly
with that in which he says, " I am in the father :" for it im
plies that he himself is very God — since, as we have said, to
be in the father, who is infinite, he must be himself infinite ;
and if he is infinite, he is God. And if he is God at all, he
must be the only God ; for if he is not the only God, and yet
is God at all, then there are more gods than one — which is im
possible and absurd.
We say, then, confidently, that Jesus Christ and the father
are one. And, in doing so, we only echo the Lord's own words
when he says, (John, v. 30,) " I and my father are one." Here
you see a direct and explicit assertion, by the Lord himself, of
the point which we are maintaining. Observe, too, that the
Lord says he and the father are one — completely subverting
the notion that the humanity has for its proximate divine prin
ciple a son or second person in the trinity.
We again, then, appeal to all men of common sense and
rational Christians, whether — even on the grounds of argument

JESUS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE. 3'J
taken by those who support a contrary doctrine — we are not
justified in concluding, from these express declarations of the
Lord, that Jesus Christ and the father are one.
Here we might leave our case as entirely made out ; but, as
this is a most important point, we will confirm it by a few more
passages from the Word.
Jesus says, in our text, that they who saw him saw the father ;
and he could say this in truth, because Jehovah himself had
declared, (by Isaiah, ix. 6,) that the child which was to be born
should be called " the everlasting father.'" Isaiah says, (xl. 3,)
" The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye
the way of Jehovah ; make straight in the desert a highway
for our God." But John said, (i. 23,) "I am the voice of one
crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord."
And it is well known that John made straight the way of Jesus
Christ. Therefore, Jesus Christ is one with Jehovah. In Isai
ah, xliii. 11, are these words, "I am Jehovah, and besides
me there is no saviour" — Hosea, xiii. 4, " I am Jehovah thy
God, thou shalt know no God but me, for there is no saviour
besides me." But it was the express injunction of the angel of
the Lord to Joseph, in respect to the son born of Mary, " thou
shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from
their sins." If, then, there is no saviour besides Jehovah, and
Jesus Christ is saviour, Jesus Christ is Jehovah. — Again, in
Isaiah, xlix. 26, and xl. 16, Jehovah is called the " redeemer ;"
and by this name too he is identified with the Lord Jesus^' who is
confessedly the redeemer of the world. We have also, in Paul's
Epistle to the Hebrews, xiii. 8, this remarkable passage, " Jesus
Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." From
which, compared with John, iv. 42, " This is Christ, the sa
viour of the world," it follows, that, if Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, to-day, and for ever, and in John's time, or at any
time, was saviour, he must have been saviour at all times ; and
consequently was so when Jehovah said, by Isaiah, " besides
me there is no saviour." Wherefore this, too, shows that Jesus
and Jehovah are one and the same being. The Lord himself
declares, " I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the

40 JESnS CHRIST AND THE FATHER ONE.
End, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Al
mighty"  " I am the First and the Last." But how could he
be the First, if he were a son begotten from eternity ? In this
case there would have been a divine principle eternally before
him, and therefore he could not be in a divine sense the First.
To be the First, therefore, he must be the father himself. And
this the more especially, as he is " the Almighty;" for if he is
not the very father, then there are two almighties — which is
absurd. Hence, when Jesus Christ declares that he is the First
and the Last, he only uses another form of saying that he and
the father are one.
It is needless to multiply quotations on this head, had we
time : for were we to quote all that would go, either directly or
indirectly, to prove this point, we should be obhged to read the
whole Bible.
Still we are aware, that, notwithstanding this overwhelming
evidence from the Word, many will continue to cling to ap
pearances of truth which seem to inculcate a different doctrine.
And if they are resolved to adhere to the tenets, true or false,
in which they may happen to have been educated, they may do
so easily : they will find enough in the mere letter of the Word,
which will give plausible colouring to their views ; because any
doctrine, however false or heretical, may be confirmed by the
apparent sense of Scripture. But let all such beware how
they ground their doctrines upon constructions of Scripture
when those doctrines are at variance with the Lord's express
declarations. When the Lord says the father is in him, and
that he is himself the father, let them beware how they set about
making the father a being out of him, so as to be a person
separate and distinct from him. " Let them kiss the son, lest
he be angry, and they perish from the way when his wrath is
kindled but a little." And while they are confirming their
views by the appearances of truth in the mere letter of the
Word, let them take good heed to the apostle Paul, when he
says, "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."

SERMON II.

JOHN, XV. 26.
" When the comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the
father, even the spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the father, he
shall testify of me."
These are the words of the Lord Jesus to his disciples.
They form a link in that chain of comforting and sustaining
assurances which he gave them in view of his departure from
this world, when they were to be left scattered like sheep while
their shepherd was smitten.
This text will lead us to consider, first, the true nature of the
spirit which testifies of Jesus ; and, next, to explain some diffi
cult points of our theology, by throwing upon them its light.
The first of these topics will be the theme of our present dis
course, the second that of our next.
Let us, then, remark here that the spirit which testifies of
Jesus is "</je spirit of truth which proceeds from the father."
A father is one who begets, or has begotten, children ; and who
sustains them in existence. Hence, in the abstract, the term
father denotes a begetting and sustaining principle. Conse
quently, the term father as applied to the Deity, means a divine
begetting and sustaining principle in God. And what this is,
will appear plainly to any spiritually minded person who duly
considers the apostolic declaration that "God is love." The
father, or all begetting and all sustaining principle in God, is,
then, divine love. Therefore, " the spirit of truth which pro
ceeds from the father," is the spirit of truth which proceeds
from divine love. And what this is, is clearly indicated by that
5-'

42 TRUE NATURE OF THE SPIRIT
other apostolic declaration that "God is light." Hence, "the
spirit of truth which proceeds from the father," is the sphere
of divine light which flows from divine love.
It is the same thing to say the spirit of truth which proceeds
from Jesus ; for he expressly says, " I and my father are one :"
and " he that seeth me, seeththe father." For Jesus Christ, when
he was glorified with the glory which he had with the father
before the world was, became the divine good of the divine love
even as to his very body. This was the reason that, on the
mount of transfiguration, his face did shine as the sun ; because
the activities of the divine love are the sun of heaven, and the
divine love, being within Jesus Christ as his soul, shined forth
through his face, as a man's face corresponds to and manifests
the interiors of his mind. Thus " the spirit of truth which
proceeds from the father," is the sphere of divine light which
flows from the divine love in Jesus Christ, which is a sphere of
life enlightening the mind ; because " in him was life, and the
life was the light of men." (John, i. 4.) Hence, the Lord says,
in our text, the comforter which is the spirit of truth, " whom
/ will send unto you from the father." For when Jesus was
so glorified that he and the father were one, and those that saw
him saw the father, he was divine good in form; and as the form
of good is truth, therefore he, as the form of divine good, was
divine truth, that is, truth itself. And hence, his spirit, that is
his breath or proceeding influence, must have been the spirit of
of truth, or a sphere of light and life.
We reason, then, that the spirit spoken of in our text, and
which is therein said to testify of Jesus, is truth itself in its
sphere or its activity. It is thus the fruit of truth, by which
truth, or He who is " the truth," may be known. For the law
is, "By their fruits ye shall know them." Thus the spirit in
question is truth proceeding from the Lord Jesus Christ, as the
sphere of his life, and so expressing his quality. And as it is
the sphere of his life, it is the activity of his love, which is the
divine love, and is the father in him. Consequently, the spirit
of truth, spoken of in our text, being the activity of divine
love in Jesus Christ, is the sphere of truth proceeding from the

THAT TESTIFIES OF JESUS. 43
father in him; which activity, as it is the fruit of his life, is of
course that by which his quality is to be known, and therefore
is that which testifies of him.
We are aware that this view conflicts with the commonly
received opinion, that the spirit is not a mere principle of truth,
but a third person co-equal with two other persons in the god
head. But that the spirit is nothing more than truth proceed
ing from the Lord Jesus as a sphere of his life, and so bearing
witness of him, is evident from what John says in his First
Epistle, V. 6, " This is he that came by water and blood, even
Jesus Christ : not by water only, but by water and blood.
And it is the spirit that beareth witness, because the spirit is
truth." To understand the phraseology of the apostle here, we shall
have to regard his words in spiritual light. We must attach
to his words spiritual ideas ; or we must give to his natural
language a spiritual interpretation. Because the apostolical
principle of exegesis was, to " compare spiritual things with
spiritual ;" and not to rest in the mere " letter which killeth."
By water, therefore, in this passage from the Epistle of John,
we are not to understand mere material water, but spiritual
water, which is truth ; for washing with truth cleanses fhe spirit
as washing with water cleanses the body. The Lord says,
"now are ye clean through the words which I have spoken
unto you." And Paul speaks of Christ having cleansed his
church " by the washing of water with the Word."
And by blood, also, is not to be understood material blood,
but spiritual blood, that is, truth of another and a higher degree;
for the saints are said, in the Revelations, to have " washed
their robes, and made them white, in the blood of the Lamb;"
which passage evidently indicates some sort of purification
which the spirits of just men made perfect have undergone by
means of truth from the Lord Jesus, who is expressly called
"the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world."
The difference between truth as water and truth as blood is,
that in the latter case, truth has more of a vital quality. For
it is said in Genesis, " the blood is the life." Hence, in the pas-

44 TRUE NATURE OF THE SPIRIT
sage of John's. Epistle before us, water means truth in a clear
but cold degree, and blood means truth in a warm and vital
degree. Water means truth of the intellect merely, and blood
truth of the will and the life also. In short, water means
natural truth, and blood means spiritual truth. Natural truth
is external truth — truth of the body, that is, truth as mere
knowledge and intelligence; but spiritual truth is internal
truth, truth of the spirit, that is, truth of life, or truth united to
good, which is intellectual truth reduced to practice.
Thus we can see that Jesus Christ's coming by blood as
vi^ell as by water, or his not coming " by water alone, but by
water and blood," means that he came not as a principle of
truth alone, but as a principle of truth united with good. He
was in fact God with us, saving us from our sins. Hence he
was the divine principle of good operating by truth in the glori
fication of human nature, so as to provide for all human
redemption and salvation. Thus there was in him the essential
principle of good, which was divine love in its activity, forming
his inmost soul ; and there was in him the truth of this good,
which is the form of this good, hence the form of the divine
love ; and there was in him, or proceeding from him, the sphere
of this divine love or this essential principle of good, operat
ing by the truth, which is the form of it, in the salvation of
men. Hence there were in him these three, good, truth, and
the spirit of truth. Therefore John immediately adds, "For
there are three that bear record in heaven, the father, the word,
and the holy ghost, and these three are one ; and there are three
that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the
blood ; and these three agree, or correspond, with that one."
(V. 7, 8.)
By heaven, here, the apostle meant the Lord's internal man
— that man which appeared to the angels, and to his disciples
when he was transfigured before them ; and by earth, he meant
the Lord's external man— that man which appeared to men
here on earth. And by his saying there are three that bear
record in heaven, he meant that the Lord's internal man was
constituted by divine love, divine wisdom, and the divine sphere

THAT TESTIFIES OF JESUS. 45
of use — meaning the divine love by the father, the divine
wisdom by the word, and the divine sphere by the holy ghost.
These three are the eternal and infinite evidences that there is
a God. For, if there were not a God, there could not be either
love, wisdom, or use. And, conversely, the fact that there is
either love, wisdom, or use, is irrefragable proof of a divine
existence. And the apostle says these three are one, because
they are all three indispensable principles of unity, inasmuch
as they are all three indispensable to any one thing, — as an
essence, a form, and an action, — and because neither of these
divine principles could exist or be any thing without the others,
any more than an essence could exist or be any thing without
a form and an activity. And, as qualities, or properties, or
principles, cannot exist unless they have a subject in which
they inhere, therefore the apostle says these three divine quali
ties, properties, or principles are one because they inhere in and
constitute the one divine person Jesus Christ. For the faith of
the apostles in respect to the Lord Jesus must have been one
and the same ; and Paul says that in Christ Jesus dwells all
the fullness of the godhead bodily ; therefore John must have
held that all the divine qualities, properties, or principles, were
dwelling in Jesus Christ as one divine embodyment or person.
The three divine principles of love, wisdom and use were more
over one in Jesus Christ, because in him there was no such
thing as goodness abstract from truth, or truth abstract from
goodness, or conduct abstract from either truth or goodness.
His words were spirit and life. Every thing he said was but
an outer form or manifestation, of wisdom and of love. Wisdom
was the spirit, and love the life, of his every utterance. And
there was no word of his without the divine intelligence of a
divine wisdom, and without the vital power of a divine love.
Into his speech divine love and divine wisdom flowed simulta
neously, imparting to it all their own divine heat and light, and
producing such a unity of themselves with it as to make Jesus
Christ, in respect to it, as he is emphatically called, the Holy
One of God — so that he spake " as never man spake," and
with an " authority" adequate to the expulsion of all evil and

46 TRUE NATURE OF THE SPIRIT
false spirits, and with a power adequate to the impartment of all
degrees of spiritual and eternal life. The same was true of his
acts. They were the works of the father, or the divine love, in
him. " I speak not of myself, th^ father that is in me, he doeth
the works." " My father worketh hitherto, and I work." " 1
came not to do my own will, but, the will of the father that sent
me." Thus, there was no act of his that was abstract from
the divine love, or the divine wisdom within him. So that he
not only spake as never man spake, but he did works which he
could not have done unless God had been with him. Thus
divine love, and divine wisdom, (for Paul expressly calls him
the "Wisdom of God,") and fhe energy of divine use or opera
tion, (for Paul as expressly calls him the " Power of God,")
made one in Jesus Christ — constituting him (as John also ex
pressly calls him) the Holy One — having the divine love so
fully in him as to be the anointed of the father, "full of grace
and truth;" and having the divine wisdom so fully in him as to
have the spirit given unto him " without measure;" and having
these divine principles so fully ultimafed in his conduct as fo be
the word, which was in the beginning with God and was God,
" made flesh," in him, and constituting him " God with its."
Wherefore, there were these three, divine love, divine wisdom,
and divine use, in him, that is constituting his infernal man,
and testifying, or for ever bearing record, in that man, that he
is the one God. And this is what John means when he says,
in that passage of his Epistle, which we are considering,
"There are three that bear record in heaven."
By the three that bear witness on earth, the apostle John meant
so many corresponding principles in the Lord's external man or
the humanity which he assumed and glorified on earth ; that is to
say, the good of the Lord's precepts, the truth of his doctrines,
and fhe savour of good and truth which was every where per
ceptible in his conduct. The good of the Lord's precepts is the
spirit of the church on earth, the truth of his doctrines is the
water whereby that church is cleansed, and his blood is the truth
and good of his doctrines brought into the rational voluntary con
duct of his disciples, and so giving them spiritual and eternal life.

THAT TESTIFIES OF JESUS. 47
And these three in earth — that is, the spirit, the water, and the
blood — are said to agree with the three in heaven — namely,
the father, the word, and the holy ghost — because the Lord's
external man fully corresponded to his internal man, so that
his external man was so completely transfused with his indwell
ing divinity as to become itself divine. His will, his doctrines,
and his works, were those of the father that sent him. For
Jesus expressly says, " I came not to do mine own will, but the
will of him that sent me." (John, vi. 3 — 8.) — " My doctrine is
not mine, but his that sent me." (John, vii. 16.) — " My father
ivorketh hitherto, and I work" — " the son can do nothing of
himself, but what he seeth the father do : for what things
soever he doeth, these also doeth the son likewise." (John, v.
17, 19.) Thus the Lord's will, doctrine, and works were
those of the father that sent him ; that is, they were the will,
the doctrine, and the works of the divine love, and not of any
merely human love. They were the will, the doctrine, and
the works of the divine love, the divine wisdom, and the divine
sphere of use.
Thus the will, the doctrine, and the works which constituted
the Lord's external man, proceeded from, and made one with,
the three corresponding divine principles which constituted this
internal man. And thus it is that the spirit, the water, and the
blood on earth, agree with the father, the word, and the holy
ghost in heaven.
And as the father, the word, and the holy ghost, in the one
person Jesus Christ, bear record to angels that he alone is
God in heaven ; so the spirit, the water, and the blood, in the
same one person Jesus Christ, bear witness to men that he
alone is God on earth. He has "al! power in heaven and on
earth." He is " Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End,
fhe First and the Last, who was, who is, and who is to come,
the Almighty" — "the same yesterday, to-day and for ever" —
" God our Saviour" — "God over all, blessed for ever" — "the
only true God and eternal life."
And the evidence of all this was, that from him, when on
earth, proceeded the spirit of truth — the life, the practical

48 TRUE NATURE OF THE SPIRIT
operation of truth. , The evidence of all this was, that he did
'^the WORKS of God" — the works of truth itself — the works of
divine love and essential goodness as formed by, and operative
in, divine truth. " The works that I do," says he, (John, v. 37,)
"bear witness of me, that the father hath sent me." And, in
showing that the son of man had power on earth to forgive sins,
— a power belonging to God only, — h,e said to the man sick of
the palsy, " Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee"
— "arise, take up thy bed and go unto thy house." Thus the
Lord Jesus gave the evidence of his divinity when he was on
earth by doing the works of God ; that is, by manifesting the
spirit of truth from a principle of divine love within him. For the
miracles which he wrought, were types of those subjugations
of the principles and powers of evil, and of those purifications,
reformations, and regenerations of universal human nature,
which a principle of divine love alone could effect. And these
miracles, or mighty works, the divine love in him did by means
of the divine wisdom, or by means of truth ; they were, in fact,
the breath or spirit of truth glorifying human nature in him
self, and from himself in universal humanity out of himself.
Hence the works he did were the spirit of truth operating in
him man's salvation, and so bearing witness that He was God
then : and the same spirit, ever proceeding from him as a
divinely glorified hi^manity, so as perpetually to redeem and
save from sin all who go to him in faith, love, and practice, is
constantly testifying that He is God now.
.We conclude, then, that the spirit is truth, proceeding as
vital principle from the Lord Jesus and testifying, by the divine
love, wisdom, and power conspicuous in his life, that he is God.
And this is what John means when he says, "It is the spirit
that beareth witness, because the spirit is truth.''''
Of course, fhe spirit cannot be a person distinct and separate
from Jesus, because truth is not a person distinct and separate
from him. Truth is a principle in Jesus, so that he could say
expressly I am "the truth." And the spirit or life of truth
must proceed from him, because he expressly says I am "the

THAT TESTIFIES OF JESUS. 49
life." Thus the spirit of truth proceeding from him, must be a
principle of life proceeding from him.
And this is further manifest from that property of the spirit
which Jesus himself attributes to it, when he says, "the spirit
of truth shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall
hear, that shall he speak — He shall glorify me : for he shall
receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." (John, xvi. 13,
14.) For this could not be said of a person proceeding from
the father and the son as two other persons with whom he was
co-equal in power and glory; because, in this case, he must
have spoken of himself at the same time that he spoke of them,
and he must have glorified himself at the same time that he
glorified them, otherwise he could not have been co-equal with
them. But the Lord Jesus expressly says, that " he shall not
speak of himself," and " he shall glorify me;" which could not
be done except by something proceeding from Jesus, as a part
or extension of himself, so as to express his quality, as light or
heat, proceeding from the sun, expresses the sun's quality. And
light or heat proceeding from the sun, is a principle of the sun ;
and not a person distinct or separate from it. So the spirit of
truth proceeding from Jesus, is a principle of his nature ; and
not a person distinct or separate from him.
And that the spirit of truth is a principle proceeding from
Jesus, is not contradicted by our text, which says that it pro
ceeds from the father, — "even the spirit of truth, which pro
ceedeth from the father," — because Jesus, in the very , next
verse to those just quoted, (xvi. 15,) says, " All things that the
father hath are mine : therefore said I, that he shall take of
mine and shall show it unto you." And he elsewhere says,
" I and the father are one" — " I am in the father, and the
father in me" — " He that seeth me seeth the father." So that
the spirit, in proceeding from the father, proceeds in fact from
Jesus — just as the light or heat which proceeds from the fire
of the sun, does in fact proceed from its fiame : for there is
precisely the same relation between Jesus and his father that
there is between flame and its fire, because flame is the bright.
ness of fire's glory and the express image of its substance, and
6

50 TRUE NATURE OF THE SPIRIT
this Paul d^lares to be the very relation of Jesus Christ to God.
And thus it is that Jesus sends the comforter, the spirit of
truth, unto his disciples from the father — namely, as the flame
of the sun sends light and heat, with all their enlightening, vivi
fying, fructifying, and so materially comforting influences, from
the fire of the sun to the multifarious objects of its production
and sustentation upon earth. And the spirit of truth testifies
of Jesus just as the heat of light, that is, the heat which light
bears in its bosom, testifies of the sun's flaming properties.
The light alone, as in winter, does not testify any of the
properties of either the sun's flame or its fire. For in win
ter all vegetation is dead* It is only when the light is united
with heat, so as to convey and impart heat as the spirit of it,
that it can make any testification whatever of what the sun is
either in its fire or its flame. It is only summer light that
causes the barren earth to bud, and blossom, and yield fruit.
And when the light with heat in it, or rather when the heat of
light, that is, the life or spirit of light shows what flame is,
— takes of the flame and shows it unto the objects of the
natural world, — it shows at the same time the fire unto them ;
for the flame is but the form and activity of the fire as its vital
essence, so that all things of the fire belong to fhe flame, just
as all things of the essence belong to its active form. And
hence, whatever proceeds from the flame does at the same time
proceed from the fire in the flame ; and, in expressing the
quality of the one, does equally express the quality of the other.
And thus the spirit of truth, in proceeding from Jesus, does at
the same time proceed from the father in him ; and, in express
ing the quality of Jesus, does also and equally express the
father's quality.
The spirit of truth, then, is not a person, because it testifies,
not of itself, but of Him who sends it. It testifies of Jesus, that
he is God, and God alone — God in essence, God in form, and
God in proceeding energy. In other words, it testifies that
Jesus is God in love, God in wisdom, and God in redeeming
and saving power. Therefore, it testifies, not that itself is a
person separate from Jesus, nor that Jesus is a person separate

THAT TESTIFIES OF JESUS. 51
from the father ; but it takes of what belongs to Jesus and
shows it unto his disciples. It takes of the love, and the wis
dom, and the life of Jesus and shows them unto those who take
up their cross daily and follow him in the regeneration. It
takes thus of the divine qualities of Jesus and shows them unto
those who truly learn of him in keeping his commandments.
It expresses only his quality, as being in the father and having
the father in him ; so that they who see him, may in him see
the father. And it shows itself to be nothing but his breath —
nothing but his divine e/Huence and his human irafluence,
breathing into men's nostrils the breath of lives. Thus it
shows most clearly that the spirit of truth is a principle,
and not a person, proceeding from Jesus.
The conclusion to which we have thus come, is clear, not
only from the apostolic testimony which has been advanced,
but likewise from the Lord's own and infinitely more conclusive
testimony, when, in being about to leave his disciples, he told
them that he would send them the spirit of truth, the comforter,
which spirit of truth — testifying of him, and taking of his and
showing it unto them — was to abide with them for ever, so
that they were to know him, and he was to dwell in them and
be in them. For the disciples of the Lord never have known
the holy spirit as a personal individuality distinct from Jesus
Christ : neither could a divme individuality dwell and be in
finite creatures. His disciples received the truth from the
Lord's lips, and they continue to receive it from his Word,
while his influences on their hearts open the eyes of their minds
to see its divine contents. Jesus is the mediator between the
essential divine principle and man ; and the Divine Being, in
and through him, declares to those who believe in and obey
him, the truth which is necessary for their regeneration — the
truth which convicts them of sin, delivers them from evil, sup
ports them in temptation, and comforts them in afHiction. And
thus it is that the father — that is, the essential, invisible and
incomprehensible divine essences-sends the comforter, which
is the holy spirit, in the name, that is, in the quality, the
character, the doctrine, the person, of Jesus Christ, who is that

52 TRUE NATURE OF THE SPIRIT
human nature, and consequent form, which the divine essence
assumed and glorified upon earth.
But, as this divine human nature and form makes one with
the divine principle which is in it, as a soul and essence, hence
fhe Lord Jesus says, " All things that the father hath are mine :
therefore,' said I, that he [the spirit of truth] shall take of mine,
and shall show it unto you." (John, xvi. 8 — 15.) And as this
divine human nature arid form of Jehovah, acts of itself from
the Divinity, as our bodies act from our souls, hence the Lord
Jesus says, also^ " As the father hath life in himself, so hath he
given to the son to have life in himself." — " I lay down my life
that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I
lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I
have power to take it again. This commandment have I re
ceived of my father." And thus, as Jesus had life in himself
as the father or divine essence had life in himself, thus infinite
ly, eternally, and omnipotently, therefore he himself was, and
is, as the apostle John expressly and very emphatically calls
him, eternal life ; — " this is the true God, and eternal life ;" —
and as Paul expressly says that " Jesus Christ is the same yes
terday, to-day, and for ever," therefore, consequently, Jesus
Christ had, and has, and ever will have, " all power, in heaven
and on earth," to impart life to all who will " come unto him
that they may have life." Hence he can impart to all, who
will so come unto him in faith and practice as to open their
hearts for its reception, the life of truth, that is, the spirit of
truth ; which, when it comes unto men, delivers them from
their evil — hence, brings them off conquerors in the spiritual
combats which they have to undergo in consequence of their
evils — thus sustains them in temptation, and comforts them in
those salutary afflictions which the outbreakings of their inbred
corruptions bring upon them for their eternal glory. And
thus it is that Jesus sends unto his disciples the spirit of truth,
as a comforter, from a principle of love in him, which imparts
a corresponding principle of love to them, that, in its pervading*
controlling, cleansing, and rectifying activities, develops in
them the redeeming and saving spiritual and celestial properties

THAT TESTIFIES OF JESUS. 53
of its divine source. So that the divine good of his love be
comes so correspondently active in them as to shine with its
own brightness and thus be in its glory, and to impart to them
its own'image and likeness. And therefore the Lord says of
the spirit of truth, which he was about to send unto his disci
ples from the father, " He shall glorify me : he shall receive of
mine, and shall show it unto you;" which words import, that
the divine truth or wisdom of the divine love, becoming active
in those who receive that truth in obedience, faith, and love, so
brings that love, or its goodness, out into manifest form and
light, as not only to show what that goodness is in all its own
intrinsic resplendency, but also to impart its qualities to those
who keep its commandments — to those who do the truths that
are its form and activity. And to such as thus experience the
good of truth proceeding from the Lord, it is perfectly clear,
that good and truth are absolutely one in him ; so that, when
the truth comes unto them from him, it of course brings along
with it his good ; and, consequently, that the sphere of truth
from him, is at the same time and equally the sphere of good
ness. Thus, finally, it is the same whether Jesus or Jehovah sends
the spirit of truth. In both cases it is truth proceeding from
the Lord, enlightening, vivifying, supporting, and comforting
his disciples, and, by imparting to them his own nature, testi
fying to them concerning him.
Such, then, is the true nature of the spirit. And, therefore,
we say again, the spirit spoken of in our text, is not, as some
suppose, a divine person, equal in power and glory, and co
existent with two other divine persons in the godhead ; but it is
a divine sphere, emanating from Jesus Christ, and containing
and expressing his qua!lities, so as to bear witness of these
qualities in all who, by its influence, receive into themselves
their image and likeness.
In concluding this discourse, we will remark, what ought
never to be lost sight of, that it is not truth merely which
testifies of Jesus to his disciples, but it is the spirit of truth.
It is not truth alone, but it is the life of truth, which bears any
6*

64 TRUE NATURE OF THE SPIRIT
adequate testification of who and what Jesus Christ is. Hence,
the old christian church does not discern the sole divinity of
Jesus Christ ; because that church is principled in faith alone,
and the mere faith of truth is not the spirit of truth. Hence,
there is not, in the old christian church, any thing which can
testify to it of Jesus. Though the christian church has faith
to remove mountains, still that faith is nothing without charity,
and has no power whatever to form in the soul an idea of Jesus
Christ's true character. Charity is the essence of faith, so
that there is no true faith without genuine charity ; and the
life of charity, operating by a true faith, is that spirit of truth
which alone testifies of Jesus to the individual soul and the col
lective church : for charity is itself the Lord's image and like
ness in the soul.
We may, then, learn from our text why men in their natural
state — why men who are actuated by selfish loves and worldly
passions — cannot comprehend the grand truth that Jesus Christ
is God, and God alone. It is because this truth can be seen
only in the light which the spirit of truth sheds — thus in
spiritual light ; and this shines only in spiritual men. Hence
it is because this truth is eminently spiritual, and men in a
mere natural state are as grossly carnal. This truth is em
phatically the mystery of God. And without godliness, that
is, without God-like-ness, it can never be comprehended.
" Without controversy," says Paul, " great is the mystery of
godliness — God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit,
seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up into glory." And no one knows the mys
teries, the deep things of God, unless the spirit of God be im
parted to him. No one can know these mysteries unless he
have, as the apostles had, " the mind of Christ." Thus no
one can understand this greatest of mysteries, the divinity of
the Lord's humanity, except so far as the mind of Christ is in
him by the spirit of truth proceeding from Jesus and testifying
the qualities of Jesus Christ unto him. Before this is the case,
or while man is in a natural state, he sees Jesus Christ, as John
expresses it, " as through a glass, darkly." And it is only

THAT TESTIFIES OF JESUS. 55
when Christ so comes unto us as to make us like him, that we
can see him as he is. And Christ comes to us when he sends
the spirit of his truth unto us in our life of his commandments.
For the Lord says, " he that hath my commandments, and
keepeth them, he it is that loveth me ; and he that loveth me
shall be loved of my father, and I will love him, and will
manifest myself to him."
Thus it is that no one can believe that Jesus Christ is God,
and acknowledge him alone as such, while he is a natural
man, or until he is made spiritual, by the spirit of truth sent
unto him from the father in Jesus Christ, in the actual forma
tion of Jesus Christ in him as " a new creature." And hence
Paul expressly says, " No man can say that Jesus is the Lord
but by the holy ghost." For it is only when a man has the
spirit of truth, proceeding from Jesus Christ and regenerating
him into the image and likeness of the divine love, that he can
see Jesus in himself as the divine flame and form of that love.
And it is the light of the flame of this love, shed from the hu
man heart into the human understanding, which alone displays
Jesus in his true character — throwing around the idea of him
in the mind that light which alone shows what he truly is, as
the Form of God, the Wisdom and Power of God, the Express
Image of God's substance, and thus as God himself made
manifest. Hence Jesus says, " No man cometh unto me ex
cept the father which sent me, draw him."
Thus it is the life or -practice of truth, flowing from the love
of truth, and so proceeding from good, which alone bears true
testimony of Jesus : and thus that which alone truly testifies of
Jesus, is " the spirit of tryth which proceedeth from the father."
And my dear brethren, if this was ever true in the Lord's
first and natural advent, it is more especially true now in this
his second and spiritual coming. Wherefore, it is all in vain
that we seek to proselyte men to our faith by merely preaching
the truth to them. This will never testify to them of Jesus.
It will never show them Jesus in the spirit of his Word,
wherein his second coming most conspicuously is. It will
never show to men around us that the divine love, wisdom, and

56 TRUE NATURE OF THE SPIRIT, &C.
energy are in the spiritual sense of the Word. . It is not
enough merely to teach men who the Lord is, we must also
lead them to him. The mere verbal uttering of the truths of
the Word never presents the divine quality of those truths to
the apprehensions of any. To make these truths known, and
to make men receive them as such, so as by them to bring the
Lord present to the souls of men in the good of them, we our
selves must live them. Then the sphere of those truths goes
forth from us ; and, as the spirit of those truths, does indeed
testify to men around us that Jesus Christ is in them ; and, by
leading them to fhe life of them, does verily bring him present
in a new and second advent to their souls.
Such is the doctrine of our text as to the true nature of the
spirit which testifies of Jesus, and such is the practical conclu
sion we deduce from that doctrine in its application to us as
members of the Lord's new church.
May the Lord, in his mercy, bless what is here dispensed in
his name ; and cause all to redound to his glory in the reforma
tion of our lives, and the eternal good of our souls !

SERMON III.

JOHN, XIV. 28.

" Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away and come again unto
you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto
the father : for my father is greater than I."
Jesus, in sundry places of his Word, speaks of his leaving
his disciples and coming to them again ; of his going away,
and sending the comforter, which is the spirit of truth, unto
them ; and of this spirit of truth's testifying of him, and lead
ing his disciples into all truth — bringing all things to their
remembrance which he had spoken to them when he was with
them on earth. There must, then, be some important spiritual
truth involved in this thing of the Lord's going away from his
disciples and coming to them again, which it may be a matter
of great spiritual moment to have explained. It involves the
necessity, and would lead us to consider the nature and use, of
a twofold advent of the Lord. To this subject the text before
us has explicit allusion — " Ye have heard how I said unto you,
I go away, and come again." Here the Lord sanctions, by
repetition, a previous declaration of his departure after his first
advent, and his prediction of a second advent. It may be well,
then, in this discourse, fo discuss and explain the nature and
necessity of a second coming of the Lord, especially in respect
to the regeneration of the individual man.
But the Lord, in the text, makes a very singular and striking
declaration, which needs, perhaps, more than any other parts
of the word, an explanation by us, because it seems to militate

58 THE NATURE AND NECESSITY OF
agairist our fundamental article of faith, that Jesus Christ is
God alone. It is the declaration of his inferiority to the father.
He is assigning a reason why his disciples, instead of being
grieved in the prospect of his leaving them, should rather
rejoice in that prospect, because, in leaving them, he went to his
father-: and, in giving this reason, he says expressly, "for, my
father is greater than I." Now the opponents of our faith in
stantly say, if the father is greater than Jesus, how can he and
the father be one and the same person ; and therefore, how can
Jesus Christ be, as you say he is, the one and the only God?
This is a specious objection, which ought to be answered ; and
we design to discuss this topic also, in the present discoiirse —
although we must necessarily touch on it rather incidently
and briefly.
In the last discourse we showed, at considerable length, the
true nature of the spirit that testifies of Jesus. And that dis
course was introductory to this, because, in a true idea of
the spirit, and of its proceeding from the father and the son,
there is involved a correct idea of the relation of Jesus to the
father, which, when it is clearly comprehended, enables the
mind to discern, very satisfactorily, not only why it was ex
pedient for Jesus to leave his disciples and go to the father, or
why he must needs go to the father before he could send the
holy spirit unto them as a comfortei and a leader into all truth,
or why it was necessary for him to come unto them himself a
second time ; but also in what sense it is that he is inferior to
the father. And when the mind once gets an accurate, clear, and
distinct idea of what the father is, and of what Jesus Christ is,
and thus of the true relation of Jesus Christ to the father, then
there will be no difficulty whatever in seeing that Jesus Christ's
saying, in our text, that his father is greater than he, does not
at all militate against the truth that he and the father are one,
and that he himself is God alone.
We will now proceed to throw the light of our last text, as it
has been unfolded, upon the distinct subject of our present con
sideration. The first point to be illustrated is, why it was expedient for

A SECOND COMING OF THE LORD. 59
the Lord to go away and come again. This involves the con
sideration of the nature and necessity of the Lord's second
advent. And the clear understanding of this, requires a dis
quisition upon the internal and the external revelation of truth.
As man was originally created, he received truth by only an
inner way. The Lord flowed into his soul with the love of
good ; and from this there was the intuitive perception of all
truth. There was then no written revelation ; for the Word was
then written on the heart. But then, as now, life fl.owing from
the Lord into man appeared to be in him as his own. Hence
the good by which man was actuated, and the truth which he
perceived, were both apparently his. This was the external
appearance. While, however, man remained in his integrity,
he had an inward perception that the good and the truth, which
were his apparently, really flowed into him from the Lord.
He inwardly perceived that he was but the recipient of life from
the Lord, who alone has in himself life underived. And while
he remained in the interior acknowledgment of this truth, his
seeming to have, and his acting as if he had, life in himself,
was not injurious to his spiritual state. The intelligence of
this state is represented in the Word by the garden of Eden,
and his appearing to live — that is, to will good and understand
truth — from himself, while he inwardly acknowledged that he
lived from the Lord, is signified by his eating of the tree of life
which grew in the midst of the garden. This acknowledgment
of the Lord kept the internal of his mind constantly open up
to the Lord, so that life from the Lord could perpetually flow
into his inmost with a perennial stream of divine revelation,
that flowed, like a river, out of his Eden, or his celestial mind,
to water its garden, or his spiritual mind, and parted into foun
tain heads of heavenly intelligence to all his mind's inferior
regions. But from this state of integrity, man ultimately fell. And
his fall consisted in his resting in the appearance that life flow
ing into him from the Lord was in him as his own. For thus
he supposed himself to be a god knowing good and evil.
That is, he imagined that his will of good and his understand-

60 THE NATURE AND NECESSIT'^ OF
ing of truth were really his own — which led him at length to
love himself supremely, and hence to take pride in his own
righteousness and his own intelligence^ This was eating of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And thus ceasing
to acknowledge the Lord in the internal of his mind, that
internal was closed, so that revelation from the Lord could no
longer flow in by the way of his love ; for his love being now
self-love, truth flowing from the Lord through it, would not be
divine or real truth, but only such appearances of truth as
would favor man's loving and honoring of himself: and, conse
quently, he by degrees lost all intelligence of heavenly and
divine things — which was represented by his being driven out
of the garden of Eden ; and was at last filled with the most
direful evils of life and falsities of doctrine, so as to have all
spiritual life extinguished — which was represented by the world's
being destroyed with a deluge.
Then a radical change took place in the genius of man, and
the economy of divine order in respect to him was entirely
altered. The Lord could no longer reveal truth to him by an
inner way, but had to make a verbal and written revelation to
his senses. And this necessity has been entailed on human
nature ever since. Thus, originally, truth was revealed from
the Lord within, through the will, into the understanding. But
now that man has acquired to himself a contrariety to divine
goodness and truth-^has become sunk in selfish, worldly, sen
sual and corporeal loves — it is manifest that truth can be no
longer revealed fo him in this inner way. For, when the divine
love, — which would lead man to prefer others to himself, for it
would lead him to love God above all things and his fellow-men
for God's sake, — flows down by divine goodness into man's
perverted form, it becomes self-love, which manifests itself in a
will to self-gratification, and this in an understanding of all
those false maxims which justify self-indulgence ; and thus
man, from the impulses of this love, prefers himself to others,
and makes others subservient to himself. In this state, man
thinks fhe gratification of self-love good, and the maxims which
favor self-love truth. He thus " calls evil good, and good

A SECOND COMING OF THE LORD. 61
evil, puts darkness for light, and light for darkness ; and puts
bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." (Isa. v. 20.) And
divine goodness and truth being thus altered in their nature as
they flow into him, are not seen in their true light, and, of
course, are not revealed to him. Hence, as man has now be
come evil and false in his nature, there is no possibility of
revealing goodness and truth to him by an inner way. For
the truth flowing into him, and appearing in him as his own,
does not produce real good in him, but is perverted into a
nature similar to his, and thus is changed into what is false and
evil. The truth thus coming into man appears, indeed, to him
to be true, because it favours his love ; but it is really false, be
cause his love is evil.
We say the divine goodness and truth, flowing into man as
a perverted form, are altered in their nature. But this is
speaking according to appearance. What is divine is un
changeable, and hence cannot be altered in its essential quali
ties. But it may be altered in its effects, according as the
forms into which it flows become less and less correspondent.
Now that man's form or nature had, in process of time, be
come so perverted as not to receive and manifest the divine
goodness and truth correspondently, is clearly proved, both by
the Word and by daily experience. Thus the Word declares,
(Ps. xiv. 2, 3,) " The Lord looked down from heaven upon the
children of men, to see if there were any that did understand
and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are altogether
become filthy, there is none that doeth good, no not one." And
the daily experience of all proves that men are now born into
the loves of self and the world, thus with a character which is
contrary to the divine goodness. And hence, now, and ever
since this became the condition of man, the divine truth, not
finding in man a correspondent form, cannot be revealed to him
by an inner way, so as to form the divine goodness in him,
and present to his apprehension an idea of what the divine
goodness is.
Truth is the form and light of goodness. And while man is
in a fallen state, the divine truth cannot pass into him without
7 •

62 THE NATURE AND NECESSITY OF
having its nature changed, so as fo prevent divine goodness
being seen in its own light. Thus, in this fallen state of man,
there is nothing to declare to him what the divine goodness is,
and thus there is nothing to testify to him of Jesus, who is that
goodness in an express image and likeness. The divine quaH-
ties flowing into him are perverted in him into an evil nature,
and the more they flow into him, the more inveterately evil
does that nature become. Hence, that man may be saved from
evil, it is needful that the Lord should go away from him — it
is needful that the divine qualities should not flow into man
internally, but that his internal should be closed. For the
divine truth thus coming to man, while he is in evil, is only his
tormentor, by increasing his evil and of course the punishment
of it. Hence the divine truth must needs go away from man,
that is, must cease to enter into him by an internal way, and
must come again in an external way, so as to alter his form,
and, by a true form, externally or intellectually induced, re
produce a good quality in his will or love. In this way only
can divine truth come to him as a comforter, for in this way
only can his forms be so rectified as to fit him to receive the
influx of the divine love and wisdom without torture to his
spirit. This was a first and second advent of the Lord which
was needed in man's decadency from pristine order. Another
twofold advent is necessary in his restoration.
Man, in his fall, like the earth in its diurnal revolution, has
turned from the sun of righteousness so that its direct rays
cannot reach him. The only way, therefore, in which he can
now receive the Hght of heaven is by reflection. Hence the
faith of truth in his understanding, must, as a moon, reflect the
light of truth to his darkened will, so as to form a new will
from an intellectual ground. Thus the truth must now flow
into man by an Outer way. It must be brought down to a
plane which is below his internal, .nnd be reflected from the
lower powers of his mind. It must be brought to his senses 
to his sight, hearing and touch. In the way it must enter, and
be stored in, his memory. From hence it must enter his un-

A SECOND COMING OF THE LORD. 03
derstanding ; and by means of right forms in his understanding
renew his will.
But, that man's will may be again opened to goodness, the
Lord must again go away from him and once more come
again. He must go away as mere truth, in science, knowledge
and intellection, and come again as truth in practice, truth in
life, thus as the spirit of truth. Then man's internal, that is,
his love, will again be reduced to order, so as once more to
receive the divine truth in a correspondent form. Then the
divine truth can again come into him by an inner way. And
the spirit of truth thus coming to him and transfusing him, will
be to him a comforter, because it will then be in him a principle
that removes his evils and conforms him to good, so that the
divine truth coming into him inwardly, and descending from
within out, is only the truth of good producing in him nothing
but good. Before this, the divine truth flowing in by this way
would have only increased his self-love, and multiplied and
magnified its evils ; but' now it increases his love to God and
the neighbour, and increases indefinitely, and renders indefinitely
more intense, its felicities. Now, therefore, the divine truth is
in him a comforter — being sent unto him by the father, that is,
flowing down from a principle of good in the inmost of his
mind, because it is now the spirit or life of truth flowing from
a love of truth for its own sake, and forming all the qualities of
truth, which are the varied forms of true goodness, in the soul,
so as to give to the soul a conscious perception of what true
goodness is, and thus to give to the soul a true testimony of
Jesus. Thus, by comparing spiritual things with spiritual, so as to
throw the light of our last text upon other passages of Scrip
ture, which are parallel to it, we can see distinctly why the
Lord, having come once, must go away and come again.
Thus we can see the necessity of the Lord's twofold advent.
We can see that mankind, being now fallen, and so in
evil, must first be led by truth to good, and then be led from
good to truth. Hence, in the redemption of mankind, Jehovah
descended to the earth as divine truth, in which, nevertheless.

64 THE NATURE AND NECESSITY OF
the divine goodness was stored up as a germ in a seed. He
came as the word made flesh, yet as the word so in the begin
ning with God that it was still God, and so in the bosom of the
divine essence that it brought that essence forth to view. Thus,
though he came as the divine truth, he did not separate it from
the divine goodness. He came as Jesus saving his people from
their sins ; for he came as " God in Christ reconciling the
world unto himself." Thus he came as good in truth, bringing
men from a state of evil into a state of good by conformity to
that truth. For Jesus, when on earth, told his disciples the
truth — his words are truth, and by his words are his disciples
made clean. He spoke his truth to their ears, showed it by his
conduct to their eyes, and otherwise exhibited it to their senses,
which are the earth or groundwork of the human mind. Thus
the Lord not only descended to the earth, but he spake to his
disciples from the earth. He came as truth down to a bodily
form and a sensible manifestation, and he addressed the higher
faculties of man's mind, by and from its lowest faculty. In
other words, the Lord flowed into the minds of his disciples
with truth from without. ¦ He presented truth fo their mere
knowing faculty.
But the disciples of the Lord, not being in a state of con
formity fo the truth which he taught — not having experienced
it — not having received from him the spirit of it — in fact, being
rather in a state of opposition to it, they could not hear its dic
tates. Its dictates were contrary to all they had previously
¦willed and understood ; and hence it was hard to assent to or
obey them. In their natural state, assent or obedience to the
dictates of truth was an affliction. And to comfort them in
this affliction, it was necessary for the Lord to go away. For,
in order that his disciples might interioriy understand the truth,
it was necessary that they should will it. And they could not
will the truth unless the Lord gave them an interior affection
for it ; that is, affected them inmostly with a love of truth for
its own sake — thus fold them the truth from within. And to
do this it was necessary that he should go away from them ;
that is, as they were in a natural state, it was necessary that

A SECOND COMING OF THE LORD. 65
he should rise above the natural plane of existence, and flow
into them from the spiritual and the celestial planes — it was
necessary that he should ascend to their father and his father,
that he should leave their senses with a visible presentation of
divine truth, and How into, and act upon, their spirits from a
principle of divine love or goodness — should not only tell them
the truth as a matter of thought, assent, and obedience, in
which state it is a cross to their natural man, and so afflictive,
but should give them the truth as a principle flowing from their
love, that is, should give them a love of the truth for its own
sake, in which state, the truth, being an object of their affec
tion, is delightful to them, thus a comforter.
But, the incident of the Lord's going awaj from his disciples
and coming to them again, is susceptible of a more specific
application to the individual member of the church. In view
ing this point, we have to remark, that this incident which our
text brings into view, represents and signifies the following well
known state in the process of individual regeneration. The
first affection developed in the course of regeneration, is the
love of knowing truths of the church and of heaven. From
the activities of this love our memories became stored with
knowledge. In this state the mere knowing of truths is delight
ful. This is the budding and blossoming state, and is a means
whereby truths are made to conduce ultimately to the good of
life, just as the bud and blossom serve to form the incipient
fruit. But this love of knowing is at first stimulated by impure
loves, that is, the loves of self and the world. And hence it
is seen to be necessary, in the Divine Providence, that the
truths thus acquired should presently disappear from the recol
lection, lest they should be profaned by being made subservient
to the defence and gratification of those loves, and man be
brought into eternal condemnation by having those loves
thereby irrevocably confirmed. And hence, in most, if not in
all cases, fhe mere delight of knowing spiritual truths wanes
away, and is succeeded by the delights of sensual, natural,
and moral life. Then the spiritual truths which were at
first vividly in the memory, seem to lapse from the mind.
7*

66 THE NATURE AND NECESSITY OF
The blossoms fall from the tree. The external memory in
which those truths were stored, holds nothing with tenacity
which is not constantly used in the mind's daily operations.
And we can at length recollect, or recal at our will, those
things only which are transferred frofn the external to the in
ternal memory, that is, from the memory of the thoughts to
the memory of the affections.
But what is once in the external memory never in fact leaves
it. Those things that are not recollected become only quiescent.
And hence, when the affections of the love of use flow down
into the external ' memory, they bring to remembrance all its
dormant truths which are correspondent to those affections.
Those truths thus sleeping unseen in the external memory, are
like the obliterated devices impressed on time-worn coins,
which, when the coins are thrown on a red-hot bar and heated
to a red heat, become again visible. And just as a red heat
makes visible the impressions on these ancient coins, so the
affection of use, flowing into the external memory, makes
visible the truths dormant there.
Thus the spiritual truths that are only stored in the external
memory by the mere affection of knowing, go away, and only
come again, when the affection of use in the internal man needs
and seeks them with an end of applying them to life. This,
therefore, is a particular sense, in which the Lord as truth goes
away from his disciples, that he may come again unto them in
the good of that truth.
Thus the Lord first comes as truth to the sense, knowledge
and understanding. Then, that the truth may not be defiled
by remaining in the external man alone, the Lord as truth goes
away to the father or good ; and from good comes again, by
flowing through the affections of good in the internal man into
the truth corresponding to it previously stored up in the external
memory. And when the Lord, from this high elevation of a
principle of good, flows into the wiTls of his disciples, and thus
influences their principle of life — hereby leading them to do the
truth he had previously told them as a matter of knowledge,
4he spirit of truth comes to them ; for the spirit of truth is the

A SECOND COMING OF THE LORD. 67
life of truth ; and the life of truth gives the experience of truth,
which is the seeing truth in its own light. It is the coming into
the hidden essence of truth ; for the life of truth leads to the
good of truth, and good is the essence of truth : and when we
have the essence, we have the form of course. Hence, when
we are in good, we perceive truth intuitively ; for truth is the
form of good. Consequently, when we are in good of any
degree, we from that good discern all the truth which belongs
to that degree of good, as an animal has an instinctive percep
tion of all the science necessary to attain the ends of its
affections. Thus it is that the spirit of truth, when it comes
from the Lord to his disciples, guides them into all truth.
We presume it is clear, from what has now been shown, that
the spirit, in its true nature, is truth proceeding from the Lord ;
and therefore, by the spirit, the comforter, which testifies of
Jesus, is not meant, as is very generally supposed, a distinct
individuality, or a person separate from two other persons in
the godhead, but a spherical emanation from the Lord Jesus,
expressing his quality, as the effluvium of a rose expresses the
quality of that flower, and affecting the minds of his disciples
internally with a love of the truth for its own sake; which
love, flowing into their wills and prompting them to do the
truth, gives them, in the doing of it, an experimental knowledge,
and so an inward perception, of the truth. All which was sig
nified by the Lord's breathing on his disciples and saying,
" Receive ye the holy ghost."
Before we close this topic, we may just observe, that this
subject admits of a somewhat varied presentation. This
spirit of truth proceeds from the Lord and flows into man
in a twofold way: for there is a twofold influx of life from
fhe Lord, that is to say, an immediate and a mediate influx.
The spirit of truth proceeds from the Lord, and flows into
men, by the intermediation of angels, as well as from his own
glorified humanity immediately : for angels are " ministering
spirits sent forth to minister to those who will be heirs of sal
vation." Hence the spirit of truth may now, as well as in
apostolic times, be continually flowing into man through par-

68 JESUS NOT INFERIOR TO THE FATHER
ticular angelic spcieties and by the spirits attendant on him
from thence, as well as immediately from the Lord's divine
humanity in the whole complex heaven. The immediate influx
from the Lord's humanity gives to man a general light to see
spiritual truths as objects of faith in the Word, as well as a
general inclination and faculty to live those truths. And the
Lord's mediate influx through angels and spirits, excites man's
general powers to determinate activity. And when angels and
spirits, as the Lord's agents, acting on what is correspondent
to themselves in man, that is, on his understanding to see, and
his will to do, lead him from motive and precept to act accord
ing to truth, while the Lord himself flows directly into man's
inmost with a love of truth for its own sake, so as to lead him
to do the .truth spontaneously ; then the Lord sends unto man
the spirit or life of truth, whereby he- perceives in his own ex
perience, thus by a light within himself, that the truth which
Jesus Christ uttered when on earth, and now utters in the letter
of his Word, to his knowing and understanding faculty, is in
deed true. Thus it is that the spirit of truth, when it comes
unto his disciples from Jesus, testifies to them concerning him
as " the truth," and brings all things which he had said unto
them to their remembrance. For, when this spirit comes to
man ; that is, when man acts according to the Lord's precepts,
the hfe of these precepts forms the Lord himself in man, so
that man can see in himself the Lord's /brm, which is his trutU,
and perceive the Lord's quality, which is his goodness ; and
thus he receives testification of who and what the Lord is.
We come now, in the second place, to consider the latter
clause of our text, which contains the as-sertion of our Lord,
that he is inferior to the father. This matter will be discussed
more fully hereafter. We shall notice it briefly here, because
the subject which we have now discussed helps fo explain it,
and because a brief explanation of it now is needful to do away
its apparent contradiction of the theme of our first discourse,
that Jesus Christ and the father are one. " Ye have heard
how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If

AS ONE PERSON IS TO ANOTHER PERSON. 69
ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the
father : for my father is greater than /."
Some contend from this that Jesus is not only a distinct per
son from the father, but also a being inferior to him. But the
connection, when properly explained, shows that he did not in
tend to teach any such doctrine. He had before said that he
and the father were one, — that they who saw him saw the
father, — thus asserting an absolute identity between' himself
and the father. Paul also declares, expressly, that, " being in
the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with
God." This expression of Paul confirms the view which we
have taken of the relation of Jesus Christ to the father, namely,
the relation of a form to an essence. For God in his essential
being must be confessedly an invisible and incomprehensible
divine essence, in the bosom of which Jesus Christ dwells as
the son of it — the image, the likeness of it — so as to bring it
forth to view ; that is, a principle of truth or wisdom flowing
forth from it as a principle of love, and showing the quality of
that love in the perfect practice of its precepts. Hence Paul,
in another place, speaking of "the appearing of our Lord Jesus
Christ," says, " which [appearing or appearance] 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, to whom
be honour and power everlasting ; amen — shall, in his own
time, show forth." (1 Tim. vi. 15.) Thus the appearing, the
outward manifestation, or the personal appearance of our Lord
Je.sus Christ is at the same time the bringing forth to view the
otherwise unapproachable and invisible divine essence ; so that
Jesus Christ could say, those who see him see the father, and
that no man cometh unto the father but by him. Wherefore,
the true relation of Jesus to the father is that of a form to an
essence, which is the relation of wisdom to love, or of truth to
good. Hence it is clear that the Lord does not, in the present pas
sage, mean to teach that he as one person is inferior to the
father as another person. He is speaking to his disciples, as

70 JESUS NOT INFERIOR TO THB FATHER
truth personified, and apparently distinct from the love which
was in him as a soul. He was about to leave them, as a visible
doctrinal and sensible presentation of truth, and fo " ascend far
above all heavens, that he might fill all things"; — to " ascend
to their father and his father," " to their God and his God,"
that is, to the essential divine loVe, which is the generator
and so the father of all things, and from which, therefore,
Christ, as a distinctive principle and personification of truth,
was at first begotten. He as "the truth" was about to be more
fully, that is, infinitely, united to the divine good from which he
originally came forth, and so to be " glorified with the glory
which he had with the father before the world (xoo-jkos) was ;"
that is, before the incarnation of the word or divine truth. For,
as to the word, he was from eternity with God and was God-^
the infinite and eternal form of the divine essence. And his
birth in flesh on earth was the enveloping of the divine truth
or the word in an orderly arrangement (xoo-iKos) of all the parts
and principles of human nature ; so that, by conforming human
nature to the divine truth, in fulfilling every jot and tittle of the
word from a principle of divine love, he might take human
nature infinitely up to the divine essence, from which he came
forth into this temporal worid, and of which he had ever been
the form in the eternal world. The divine essence is, as we
have said, the divine love or goodness : and fhe whole of the
Lord's life on earth was a process of glorification, whereby
this love or goodness, his inmost principle at conception on
this earth, was developed in his outward conduct, so as to
make his external man, assumed in time, more and more con
formed to that inmost as his internal man, until his external
on earth should bear the same relation to fhe divine essence or
goodness that he as the word had done before conception, that
is, from eternity. And when Jesus Christ, as this external
man, was thCis more intimately because infinitely united to the
divine goodness, so as to become divine goodness itself in out
ward form, and thus to have all power given to him on- earth
(or his external man) as well as in heaven (or his internal man) ;
then he was to come to his disciples again — not, as before, out-

AS ONE PERSON IS TO ANOTHER PERSON. 71
wardly, in the form of mere truth, as a. form of doctrine or sera-
«6Ze precept, but, inwardly, in the heart's emotion and the will's
determination, as the good of that truth — thus in filling his disci
ples from an inmost ground with the vastly increased powers and
felicities of that good,which, as it is in a higher degree than the
truth that proceeds from it, just as an essence is in a higher
degree than its form, is therefore said to be greater than the
truth. Thus it is that the father, as a principle of good, was
greater than Jesus Christ, as a principle of truth.
And the disciples, if they had really loved the Lord, instead
of loving themselves — if they had loved the truth for its own
sake, instead of loving it on account of its administering in some
way to self-interest or self-gratification — thus, if they had loved
the truth for the sake of the good to which it leads in the
regeneration of their own souls and the souls of all men, they
would have rejoiced, because the Lord said he was going unto
the father ; for they would have seen that the father was greater
than he — they would have perceived that the principle of good
ness was in a higher degree and therefore more important and
more essential to their salvation than a principle of mere truth.
And the thought of his more intimate union with the father,
and his consequent more powerful operation on their spirits
with the spirit of his truth, would have been in the highest de
gree delightful to them ; because this thought and conviction
would have refreshed and strengthened their .spiritual love of
the Lord's essential qualities ; whereas they were in the natural
love of his person, and promising themselves that worldly emi
nence and that earthly comfort which the presence ' and the
influence of his person here on earth would give ; and hence
were feeling sorrowful and desolate in the thought of his de
parture. Thus this passage does not imply a personal inferiority of the
Lord Jesus fo the father. It only implies that inferiority which
exists between truth and good, or between a form and its essence,
or a body and its soul. And it implies this only when the body
is considered distinctively from the soul, or the form from the
essence, or truth from good. Hence it was only said by the

72 JESUS NOT INFERIOR TO THE FATHER
Lord, that the father was greater than he, while he was yet not
fully glorified — while, as divine truth apparently separate, he
was not yet fully, that is, infinitely, united with the divine good,
from which he originally proceeded. In the degree that this
union took place, in the same degree he and the father were
one ; so that all things which the father had were his, and they
that saw him saw the father. Hence it was a ground of re
joicing that, when he left the disciples as to the flesh, he, would,
by a more intimate union with the father or essential divine
principle, be in a capacity to impart infinitely greater blessings
to their spirits.
The consideration which we have given to our subject enables
us, then, to see, that the inferiority of himself to the father, of
which the Lord Jesus speaks, is not the inferiority, of one per
son to another in the godhead, but the subordination of an ex
ternal to an internal principle, which is indispensable to a
perfect unity of all the divine principles in the one divine per
son, Jesus Christ. Such is the clear evidence of his sole divinity,
which the spirit of truth, when its true nature is known, gives,
in its testification of Jesus.
What, then, is the sum of the subjects discussed in this and
the last discourse ? It is, in few words, this : that the spirit
which testifies to us truly of Jesus Christ, is the life of his truth,
proceeding from good in him and leading to corresponding
good in us. It is the life of truth, flowing from the love of
truth for its own sake. This life cannot be lived at first ; for
all men are first natural, and therefore at 'first actuated by the
love of self; but, if we mortify and deny self-love, in obedience
to the divine commands, we shall at length become so spiritual,
that the Lord can send this life unto us. And when this spirit
or life comes to us, it relieves us from the turmoils and deep
temptations consequent on the conflicts between our external
and our internal man — thus gives us internal peace and external
tranquillity, and so is our comforter, guiding us into all the
truth that is correspondent to the love in which we are princi
pled, and making us know, in the lively experience of its effects.

AS ONE PERSON IS TO ANOTHER. PERSON. 73
the good to which that truth leads, so as to testify to us of that
good. If, then, we would know the truth, and the good of it, with
out any possibility of deception, let us put away, by self exami
nation, contrition and repentance, every love which is contrary
to the divine love : then will the divine love flow into us, and
by its own light guide us in true wisdom's ways, which are
pleasantness, and keep us unerringly in her paths, which are
peace.

SERMON IV.

JOHN, XX. 22.
" And when he had said this^ he breathed on them, and said, Receive ye
the holy ghost."
In the first of the two discourses immediately preceding, we
showed the true nature of the spirit which testifies of Jesus,
and in the last, we proceeded to throw the light of that discus
sion upon certain passages of the Word in which the holy
spirit is mentioned, so as to show the nature and necessity of
the Lord's second advent, es well as to explain the sense in
which Jesus Christ asserts his inferiority to the father. The
design of all was, 'to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is one with
the father and the holy spirit — that in him, as one divine person,
dwells all the fullness of the godhead bodily ; and, therefore,
that he is God alone, and the sole object of christian worship.
We shall, in this discourse, pursue this subject, so as still
further to show the identity of Jesus Christ in person, with both
the holy spirit and the father. For it is only in the degree that
we can remove from the common mind the prevalent erroneous
notion of these being three separate and distinct persons in the
godhead, that we can have any hope of introducing the true
idea of their being nothing more than three distinct principles
in the one perison Jesus Christ. On the present occasion,
therefore, we shall still further show from the Word, as the
true and palpable meaning of our present text, that the holy
spirit is not a person separate from Jesus, but a divine sphere
proceeding from him.
Little need now be said in further disproof of the personality

THE HOLY SPIRIT NOT A PERSON. 75
of the holy spirit. For we have shown that the father, the
son and the holy spirit are no otherwise distinct than fire,
flame and a .sphere of heat and light are in the sun. We may
here just say, that they are no otherwise distinct than are soul,
body and conduct in man. We suppose, therefore, that the
holy ghost is the operation of the Lord Jesus from the father
within him. For it is our doctrine, that the father, or essential
divine principle, is the soul of the Lord Jesus ; that Jesus
Christ, or the human principle which the essential divinity
assumed and glorified in time, is the body of the father ; and
thus that the holy spirit is the conduct, or operation of this
body from this soul. It is, then, in the sense of Ihe holy
spirit's being a divine sphere proceeding from the son, that we
suppose the Lord Jesus and the holy spirit to be one : and a
very few passages from the Word will prove this.
But, before we bring forward this proof from the Word, we
must remark upon the term person, and notice the argument
in favour of the personality of the holy spirit from the use of
the masculine pronoun.
Among those who hold to a tri-personal God, there seems
to be, as already intimated, somediversity of opinion as to what is
to be understood by the term person. It is generally defined " an
individual substance of a rational intelligent nature." This is
the common theological definition. And, though some object
to the use of the term person in this sense, in reference to the
trinity, yet it is generally maintained, that " no single term, at
least, can be found more suitable, and that it can hardly be
condemned as unscriptural or improper." Let us see.
In the english translation of the New Testament, the word
person is used in the singular about eight times, and in the
plural, persons, about six times. This word is used more fre
quently in the Old Testament, but never, it is believed, in
express application to the Divine Being. And of the fourteen
times that it is used in the New Testament, it is applied to the
Divine Being, as the father or fhe son, only twice, and as the
holy spirit not once. The instance in which it is applied to the
father is Heb. i. 3 ; where, speaking of the son, it is said.

76 THE HOLY SPIRIT NOT A PERSON
" who, being the brightness of [God's] glory, and the express
image of his person," &c. And the instance in which it is
applied to the son is 2 Cor. ii. 10 — " for if I forgave any thing,
to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it, in the person
of Christ." Of the instances in which the word person is used
not in express application to the Divine Being, take Matt. xxii.
16 ; where the disciplesof the Pharisees and the Herodians say
to the Lord, " Master — we know that thou carest not for any
man ; for thou regardest not the person of men." Paul says,
(1 Cor. V. 13,) "But them that are without, God judgeth.
Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked per
son." Again, (Heb. xii. 16,) he says, " Lest there be any
profane persore, as Esau, who, for one morsel of meat, sold his
birth-right." Peter says, (2 Epist. iii. 11,) what manner of
persons ought ye to be ?" And Jude, in the sixteenth verse of
his Epistle, speaks of " having men's persons in admiration for
advantage." In general, the word person is applied to signify, first, a par
ticular individual man or woman ; second, the outward qualities
and conditions of men ; and, third, sight, name, or authority.
As an instance of this last signification, you have the passage
of Paul which we have quoted from 2 Cor. ii. 10 ; where, when he
says he forgave in Christ's person, he means in the sight, the name
or the authority of Christ. Now by a reference to the original,
we find tliat the greek word which is rendered person, in refer
ence to individuals and to their external qualities, is a-poVasron.
It is this same word which Paul uses when speaking of the
person of Christ in the 2 Cor. ii. 10, en irfim-aTs-ai XpitrTH, as well
as when he speaks, in the eleventh verse of the first chapter
of the same epistle, of " the gift bestowed on the apostles- by
the means of many persons." The word, then, which was
used in the greek language to signify an individual man or
woman, or the outward qualities and conditions of men, or the
name and authority of Jesus Christ, is wpoiru7ro9. And this
word is derived from sr/io;, to, and aip, the eye ; and signifies, in
fhe literal idea, whatever meets the eye. Hence it was used in
greek to signify the visage, the face, fhe countenance, the mien.

fitJT A SPHERE PROCEEDING FROM JESUS. 77
the aspect, or appearance ; as in the phrase xost« ^poTu^n,
before his face, and in the word w^oo-aa-oAijTrTijs, a respecter of
persons ; for these are what meet the eye, when we behold an
individual. From this ground the Grecians employed the word
to signify the mask, which, among them, was used by a perform
er on the stage. And hence it came to signify a character
or a person in a theatrical representation. And in general it
signified a person considered with respect to external appear
ance or circumstances. It is therefore manifest that, when the
word person is used in reference to the Divine Being, it should
mean all that of God which meets the eye. Hence the person of
God is he who is the manifestation of the whole godhead ; it is he
in whom all the fullness of the godhead dwells bodily ; it is the
only begotten son, who is in the bosom of the father and brings
him forth to view. And the word person used in this sense in
express application to the Divine Being, is only spoken of
.lesus Christ, or the son, and never of the father. For in Heb.
i. 3, — the only instance in the Bible in which the word person is
used in reference to God the father, — the greek word which the
english translator has rendered person is uTraVrsso-/;, which never
means person in the greek language, except when applied to per-
soriality as a distinct substance ; and in this sense it surely can
never be applied to the trinity : for to maintain that the father
tire son, and the holy spirit are three distinct divine substances,
worild be to maintain, in the most unequivocal manner, that
there are three gods. And this is against the creed of even
the old church, which holds that, though there are in the god
head three, yet these three are one in substance, power and
glory. The word person, therefore, in any sense in which if can be ap
plied to the Divine Being, that is, the word person as the rendering
of the greek word lef'tKra-rrni , is never used in the Word in re
ference to the father. And hence it is unscriptural to call the
father a person.
The word iwoo-Toens, which Paul applies to God the father, is
derived from u?ro, under, and io-Tijjtt/, to stand ; hence it signifies,
in the literal idea, that which stands under, and was used by
8*

78 THE HOLY SPIRIT NOT A PERSON
the Greeks to mean a basis, foundation, bottom, supporter, or
stay. Hence it signified a ground or motive of action, and the
first principle, cause, or beginning of a thing. And hence, by
a very natural figure of speech, it might be applied to the soul,
in respect to the body. For as the body is formed from the
soul, and all the activities of the body are derived from the soul,
and the body dies when the soul leaves it, hence the soul may
be said to stand under the body, or may be said to be its basis,
foundation, bottom, supporter, or stay.
Now the body is that which meets the eye in respect to the
soul. Hence the body is^the TrpiiraTrot of the soul, and the soul
is the uTrivTairii of the body. As, then, the word w/ioirwu-ov is
by the apostle invariably applied to the son, while the. word
u?i-oTrct(rif is applied to the father, it would seem to be intimated
hereby that there is the same relation between the father and
the son that there is between the soul and the body, or between
an invisible divine substance and its visible form.
The two greek words from which 'uTria-ntirii is derived, namely
vTTo and icrrtifit, are the same as sub and sio in latin; from
which comes our word substance. And, therefore, the proper
rendering of usroo-Tao-jj in english would be substance. Hence
substance is the only proper word to apply to God the father.
And the son is the express image of the father's substance
— the ;^;«(S«xTij/i T!)5 vTroirriiiTeai uvraZ. This greek word, ^»fttx.77jp,
from which comes our english word, character, signifies any
instrument for making an incision or impression ; hence, a die
for coining ; hence, the image on the coin made by the die ;
hence, the engraved image, the portrait, the lineaments, the
features, the form, the appearance, the peculiar disposition and
character of the substance or thing which is brought into form.
The son, then, is the express image, the portrait, the charac
ter, of the father's substance— he is the distinct form, the ex
pressed nature, by which the essential divine substance is
discriminated and brought forth fo view ; thus he is the Trflxruwtt
of God — he is that which makes God meet the eye; hence he
said to Philip, " he that seeth me seeth the father:" and there
fore he is the person of God. And as he only presents God to

BUT A SPHERE PROCEEDING FROM JESUS. 79
view, therefore we say there is but one person in the godhead :
for the holy ghost is never called in any sense the person of
God. We are, therefore, more free to prove, from the Word, what
we advanced, in our last two discourses, namely, that the holy
spirit is a divine sphere flowing forth from Jesus Christ. And
before we proceed to quote texts from the Word in proof of this
position, we shall only stop to draw an argument in favour of
it from the etymology of the expression that is used in the
Word to signify-the spirit.
The greek word in the New Testament for spirit is, TrtcZnx —
ayiov 3-»£uft«, holy spirit or ghost. Now the literal signification
of this greek word is, wind, and, by derivation from this,
breath. Hence, as we live by breathing, it is put for spirit, or
life. Thus holy spirit properly signifies holy life. And hence,
when applied to the. Divine Being, it properly signifies divine
life. Thus the etymology of the term shows that the life or opera
tion of the Lord is meant by holy ghost. Keeping this idea in
our minds, we shall be able to understand all those passages of
the Word where mention is made of the holy ghost, the holy
spirit, or the spirit of truth, without supposing that these terms
mean a person separate and distinct from the Lord. It is called
the spirit of truth, because the Lord, from whom it proceeds, is
truth itself. For he says, "lam the way, the truth, and the
life," (John, xiv. 6 ;) and hence, all that which proceeds from
him must of necessity be the breath, the active operation, or
the spirit, of truth ; and this is the same as truth itself: the only
difference being that of truth in cause and truth in effect.
Hence the holy ghost is effectual truth proceeding from the
Lord. That the holy ghost is truth — thus a principle, and not a
personality or individuality, could not be proved more conclu
sively than it has been in a previous discourse, by that direct
and remarkable assertion of John, (1 Epist. v. 6,) " And it is
the spirit that beareth witness, because the spirit is truth."
It was also shown that, therefore, the holy spirit is called the

80 THE HOLY SPIRIT NOT A PERSON
comforter, because truth proceeding- from the Lord and entering'
the minds of men, is that which supports them in temptation,
strengthens them in weakness, and consoles them in afHiction.
These things being known, we need not be at any loss to un
derstand the Lord where he says, " I tell you the truth ; it is
expedient for you that I go away : for if I go riot away, the
comforter will not come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send
him unto you," (John, xvi. 7.) " Howbeit, when the spirit ef
truth is come, he vifill guide you into all truth ; for he shall not
sp§ak of himself, but whatsoever he sh'all heair, that shall he
speak," (John, xvi. 13.) " He shall glorify me; for he shall
receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that
the father hath are mine : therefore said I, that he shall take of
mine, and shall show it unto you," (John, xvi. 14, 15.) " I will
pray the father and he shall give you another comforter, the spirit
of truth ; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him
not, neither knoweth him : but ye know him ; for he dwelleth
with you and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless,
/ will come to you," (John, xiv. 16, 17.) " When the comforter
shall come, whom I will send unto you from the father, even
the spirit of truth, he shall testify of me," (John, xv. 26.)
This spirit of truth is called the holy ghost in John, xiv. 26.
Now from these passages, explained as they have been on
former occasions, it surely must be manifest, that the Lord, by
the comforter or holy ghost, means himself as to the sphere of
truth which proceeds from him. And this is made evident es
pecially by these clauses , " the world would not know him" —
"but ye know him." For, as we have before remarked, his
disciples had not known the holy ghost as a perstin separate
and distinct from the Lord. It could not have been in this
sense, therefore, that the Lord said they knew him. How then
did they know him ? Clearly in no other way than as truth,
or as a divine spiritual influence, proceeding from the Lord
.lesus. And as the sphere which emanates from a person makes one
with the person himself, hence the Lord, when speaking of
sending the holy ghost to them, said " / will come unto you" —

BUT A SPHERE PROCEEDING FROM JESUS. 81
and " ye shall see me." Thus, when they saw the holy ghost,
they saw Jesus ; for they saw the emanating sphere of Jesus ;
that is, they saw mentally, or inwardly perceived, his sphere
operating on their hearts. And that he himself was present
with them by his holy spirit, he indicates where he says, " Lo !
/ am with you always, even unto the end of the world," (Matt.
xxviii. 20 ;) and " He shall not speak of himself, but he shall
take of mine." Consequently, Jesus Christ and the holy ghost
are one.
But here we come to the main design of this discourse,
namely, to answer the argument which the old church advances
for the personality of the holy ghost from the fact that he is
spoken of in the third person masculine : thus, " he shall not
speak of himself." For this is the only plausible argument
which we have ever heard advanced from the Bible to prove
the holy ghost's distinct personality.
Now, in answer to this argument, we have to observe, that,
in the greek language, the genders have not the same gram
matical power that they have in the english. In the english
language, except in poetic usage, all objects which are not either
male or female, are put in the neuter gender, and take the neu
ter pronoun it. But it is not so in the greek. In that tongue,
the gender of nouns is not determined by sexual distinction,
but on the apparentiy arbitrary principle of the termination of
words. Thus a noun will be masculine because it ends in 05,
feminine because it ends in «, and neuter because it ends in ov ;
and this without any regard to distinction of sex. Hence it is,
that words which signify things impersonal and inanimate, are
in the masculine or the feminine gender.
For the same reason the masculine and feminine pronouns
are put for nouns signifying impersonal and inanimate things,
because the nouns are grammatically in the masculine or femi
nine gender. Thus, when the holy spirit is called the com
forter, — because this word comforter in the greek has a mas
culine termination [0 xafaicAiiTos,] — -the holy ghost is styled he :
but when the words holy spirit [ayici ¦thZ/i.ci] occur, because
the word spirit [T'fVjw] has a neuter termination, the holy

82 THE HOLV SPIRIT NOT A PERSON
ghost is styled it ; as may be seen in John, xiv. 17. So that no
argument for the personality of the holy ghost can be raised
from the use of the masculine pronoun.
It is true that the masculine pronoun lx.tiui, he, is in some
instances used for the neuter noun a-nEuftos, spirit, as in John,
xVi. 13; but this is not conclusive, because it is not uniform.
For, if this masculine pronoun^ was used in this instance ex
pressly to signify that the holy ghost is a person, the evangelist
would have always used it in the same connection. But this he
does not. Thus, in ch. xiv. 16, 17, he says, [y.»i «^AAov!r«p««A«Toii
^airii i/iit,'i]i» fiivri ficS.' iftSt hi tok atSva. Th TrvtUfLO, rrn aM^itai,
o.'o xoF/ioi cu S'ovccrcci }\x^iiv 'in oi .S-eapei avTo, oaai yi\aa-y.,ei avTO.
YfteiS J'c y(VftIirx£T£ avro, 'on 'Tnx.p' iyj' /^hii) x«< f" ifnf er»i.j
"And I will pray the father, and he shall give you another
comforter, that i* may abide with you for ever; the spirit of
truth ; which the world cannot receive, because it seeth it not."
In the common english version, it is said, " whom the world
cannot receive, because it seeth him not ;"¦ but, in the original,
these are neuter pronouns 3 and «uto, agreeing with the neuter
noun TTtieu/iec, and should be rendered which and it. So that,
admitting that the use of the masculine pronoun he, in one
place, in reference to the holy ghost, proves his personality ;
we have just as good grounds to argue that the use of the neu
ter pronoun it, in another place, proves that the holy ghost is
not a person. And thus the arguments drawn from the gram
matical structure of sentences, confute one another.
Besides, there are instances in which pronouns, or pronomi
nal adjectives, are used in the masculine gender for words in
the neuter gender, which obviously cannot signify persons.
Thus, John's 1 Epist. v. 8, [Ka/ rpui ho-iv oi /^.apTvpo'SvTsi h T»| yT),
TO 7rveuft,a, aai to tl^ap, xa] to aiiio,.] " And there are three that
bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood."
Here the pronominal adjective rpili and the article ii ave in
the first person, plural, masculine gender, relating to the neuter
nouns, TO TTviuna, TO 'liS'ap, and to ai^ux. And hence, if the
use of the masculine pronoun Uclm in reference to the neuter
noun TO irtsZfici proves that to be a person, so the use of it

BUT A SPHERE PROCEEDING FROM JESUS. 83
«•/>£»« in this instance proves that to 'u^ap and to «(;«,« are
persons. The truth is, that nothing can be more futile than an argu
ment of this kind. On the same grounds you might prove the
personality of a thousand shapeless and inanimate things which
are expressed in greek by words of masculine termination.
The genius of the ancient languages is essentially different
from the english in this respect. The genders of their nouns
and pronouns were not determined by a regard to sex and per
son ; and hence the use of pronouns in a particular gender,
proves nothing with regard to personality. In the hebrew
language, as also in some modern languages, the french, for
instance, there is no neuter gender at all : and hence, in those
languages, all objects are either masculine or feminine, and
require the masculine and feminine pronouns. Thus, in the
french, the nose [le nez'] is masculine, and the mouth [la bouche]
is feminine ; and the Frenchman would say of the one he, and
of the other she. Now an argument upon which so important
a doctrine as the personality of Deity is grounded, should ap
ply with equal force in all languages : but what argument
would it be to the Frenchman that the holy ghost is a person
because it is called he, when the Frenchman calls the nose in
his face he I This argument then avails nothing in proving
the personality of the holy ghost.
To return, then, to our proof from the Word, we may ob
serve, finally, that there are many other passages which go to
show that the holy ghost is not a person distinct from the father
and the son as two other persons. Let these few suffice. "The
holy ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not glorified,"
(John, vii. 39.) With the idea that the holy ghost is ai person
separate from the father and the son, of equal power and glory,
very and eternal God, this passage, especially when taken in
connection with Matt. i. 20, where the Lord's humanity is said
to be conceived of the holy ghost, is totally unintelligible; but its
meaning is comprehensible enough, if by the holy ghost we
understand the divine truth proceeding from the Lord's glorified
body.

84 THE HOLY SPIRIT NOT A PERSON
Again, and very especially, in our text, after the Lord's
glorification, it is said, "he breathed on his disciples and said,
receive ye the holy ghost." From this it is perfectly manifest
that the holy ghost is not a person, for hdw could the Lord
breathe a person on his disciples ? or how could his disciples re
ceive a person in his breath? If it be said, that the holy ghost
as a person might have existed invisibly in the Lord's breath ;
we ask, in reply, how could the holy ghost, who is supposed to
be coequal with the Lord, be less visible as a person than the
Lord himself? Let it be borne in mind, in thife connection, that
the scripture signification of the word person, or ¦nrpio-uTcov, is,
that which meets fhe eye ; and then let it be told us, how the
holy ghost, or any thing else, can be a person, when it is in
visible. Surely, it must be perfectly plain, from this text, that
the holy ghost is nothing else but the Lord's proceeding sphere
or influence.
Again, John (Matt. iii. 11) says, "I indeed baptize you
with water ; but he that cometh after me shall baptize you with
the holy ghost." Now you might just as well suppose that
the water with which John baptized was a person distinct from
John, as to suppose that the holy ghost with which the Lord
baptizes is a person distinct from the Lord.
But enough. We cannot believe there is any one who, after
a deliberate and candid investigation of the texts of Scripture
which have been cited, will still maintain the distinct individu
ality of the holy ghost. .Tesus Christ and the holy ghost, then,
are one. And as he and the father are one, we come to the
conclusion, that Jesus Christ is a complex of the father, theson,
and the holy ghost.
With what peculiar propriety and force, then, does Paul say,
" In Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the godhead bodily''^!
(Col. ii. 9.) And how fully is the new church justified, both on
rational and scriptural grounds, in maintaining that the trinity
is in Jesus Christ !
We will close this branch of our subject with some senten
tious reflections. If Jesus Christ and the father are one and
the same person, what becomes of that system of theology

BUT A SPHERE PROCEEDING FROM JESUS. 85
which rests on the idea that there are three separate and dis
tinct persons in the godhead ? — like the baseless fabric of a
vision, it vanishes, and leaves not a wreck behind I If there
is no son begotten from eternity, — very God, equal in all respects
with the father, and yet separate and distinct from the father —
how could such a son descend, assume our nature and be " cruci
fied, dead and buried, to reconcile his father to us, and to be
a sacrifice both for original guilt and for actual sins of men" ?
If there is not an infinite and eternal being separate and
distinct from the father, how can it be said that such a
being has rendered an infinite sacrifice for sin ; and, by thus
satisfying the infinite justice of the father, and atoning for
the infinite transgression of finite man, has made his sal
vation possible without a conformity to the divine law ?
If Jesus Christ and the father are one and the same being,
how can the father, as a separate being, impute /ms right
eousness to man ? If Jesus Christ is God himself, how can
his righteousness be imputed ? How can that which is di
vine be imputed to a finite being? The Lord's righteousness
consists in that process by which he wrought out redemption.
But this was a divine work. His redemption, then, or his
righteousness, can no more be imputed to man than creation, or
any divine attribute. If, moreover, we cannot be saved by the
righteousness of a second person in the godhead, imputed to us,
what becomes of faith alone, and the imputation of faith, and
all that concatenation of doctrines which teach that man may,
and must be saved, without an actual conformity to the divine
law ? — which teach that we are saved by the passive reception
of divine grace, instead of an active co-operation with the
Lord's spirit, operating in and by us ? — which, in a word, teach
that we are saved by believing right, instead of doing right ?
Admit that the godhead is in one person, — that in " Christ
dwelleth all the fullness of the godhead bodily," — and these
dogmas fall to the ground. Yes ! that chain of false principles
— dependent from a tri-personal god — which has shackled
and cramped fhe human mind for centuries, and still binds it
9

86 THE HOLY SPIRIT NOT A PERSON.
down in adamantine bonds, is fused and scattered tp the winds
by this electric truth, Jesus and the father are one !
Finally, if the father is in Jesus Christ, we can only ap
proach the father through him. Is it not then a lamentable
fact, that many- — alas, loo many ! — ^of those calling themselves
Christians, are looking for the father out of him? How many
consider Jesus as a mere messenger sent from God! And
though he expressly says, " Np man cometh to the father but
by me;" though he.avers explicitly, " I and my father are one,"
" he that seeth me seeth the father," " I am in the father and
the -father in rae" — how raany ai^e forming to themselves no
tions of the father as a being out of and separate from the
Lord, and, by addressing their prayers to the father as a being
distinct from the Lord, are thus passing by him and going to
the father direct! Oh, let us devoutly pray, that all such
may take care that they come not under the description , of
persons who enter not in at the door, but, climbing up some other
way, are thieves and robbers !

SERMON V

JOHN, I. I, 4, 14.
" In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the
word was God, — In him was life, and the life was the light of men. —
And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his
glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father,) full of grace and
truth." In former discourses we have shown that Jesus Christ and
the father are one person ; and that the holy ghost is not a per
son, but a sphere of truth, proceeding from Jesus Christ and
the essential divinity within him, and teaching that Jesus Christ
is God alone. Thus we have subverted the idea of three divine
persons in the godhead, at the same time that we have affirmed
the doctrine of a trinity of principles as constituent of the one
God. We are now to inquire what are the three constituent prin
ciples of Deity. We have shown that, in all things which
exist around us, there is an inmost, a middle, and an outer
most — that is, an active principle, a reactive principle, and the
result of these, which is a spherical, an operative, or an
influential principle. And, reasoning from nature up fo nature's
God, we have concluded that there must be in the Divine Being
also, an active, a reactive and an influential principle. But it
may be asked, what are these distinctive principles in the
Deity ? This can be answered only by the revelation which
he has made of himself. For it is not possible that any created
being can know who or what God is, unless God informs him.
Now the Divine Being has revealed himself in his works and
his Word. For his " eternal power and godhead are clearly

88 WHAT ARE THE THREE
seen, being understood by the thingsihat are made," (Rom. i,
20.) And his written Word must manifestly present a de
claration of his being and a portraiture of his character. Let
us then see what evidence, bearing upon the question before us,
is furnished by these two witnesses.
There is no one of fhe Creator's works which so entirely
and vividly reflects himself as man. Indeed, man is asserted
to be a world in miniature, and hence he must present all the
scattered reflections of the Deity, which are to be seen in the
whole of his other works, in one focal image. It is moreover
expressly asserted in the Word that God created man in his
own image and likepess. Wherefore, by seeing what are the
constituent principles of man, we are to understand what are
the constituent principles of God. But our understandings are
not left to inductions from the evidence of our senses solely.
Our spiritual-rational faculty is addressed and enlightened by
truth revealed in an intellectual form in the Sacred Scriptures.
In pursuing our present inquiry, therefore, we shall at the same
time bring forward the documents of Holy Writ, as well as the
evidence furnished by our own internal consciousness.
The first point of our inquiry is, what is the active principle
o£ God? And here we must remark, that we can have no
adequate conception whatever of the Deity as he exists in his
essential substance and form, because that which is finite cannot
grasp that which is infinite. We do not, therefore, presume
to say what any divine principle is as such ; for this is totally
incomprehensible. We merely profess to show the constituents
of the divine nature only as they can be apprehended by our
finite capacities. Nor is it necessary that we should be able to
comprehend the Divine Being fully : for this is not required
by the ends of our creation. All that is necessary is, that we
should have such a conception of him as will enable us to enjoy
eternal life in conjunction with him. Now, the only way in
which we can conceive of his properties, is by attending to our
consciousness of the corresponding properties in ourselves
¦w^ich exist by influx from him. Thus we can form no idea of
the divine active principle unless it be as something similar to

CONSTITUE-WT PRINCIPLES OF DEITY ? 89
the active principle in us. We must suppose that God is that
in an infinite form which we perceive ourselves to be in a finite
form. We must suppose, therefore, that that which is the ac
tive principle in us finitely is the active principle in him infinitely.
And we must call this property in him by the same name which
we attach to the corresponding property in ourselves, and
signify all that which we cannot comprehend in his property,
by the qualifying adjective, divine.
W^hat, then, is the active principle in ourselves ? A strict
scrutiny of the human constitution will show that the active
principle of man is love. By this wo mean not a mere plea
surable emotion of our heart, but the all-pervading conatus or
tendency of that inmost organized spiritual substance which
constitutes our soul. This conatus is the effect of the divine
life flowing as heat into the inmost forms of our soul, and is
perceived by us as an all-prevading end of action. Thus, if we
are in our state by nature, our love is love to self, that is an
all-prevading end of self-gratification. But, if we are regene
rated, our love is love to God and the neighbour ; that is, an end
incessantly proposed to ourselves of doing what God would have
us do for the good of our fellow-men. Such is man's inmost
principle or love. It is this that prompts to action ; in this are
all our motives of action ; and according to the intensity and
permanence of this are our efficiency and continuance of ac
tion. We conclude therefore, that love is the active principle
in fhe Divine Being. In other words, we conclude that the
active principle in God is an infinite conatus, endeavour and
effort to make, sustain and bless beings formed out of himself,
by imparting to them gratuitously from himself all that is
suited fo make them eternally happy in conjunction with him
self from reciprocal affection. This principle undoubtedly
prompts all the divine action. And, therefore, we mean this
principle, when we say the active principle in God is love.
Again, our love is that principle in us which generates all
our affections and thoughts, and all the activity consequent on
these. The whole mind and body are a complex of faculties
and forms of use produced from the love and so reacting upon
9*

90 WHAT ARE THE THREE
it as to serve and gratify it in the attainment of its ends. Thus,
as our love produces all things of our activity, it may be con
sidered, and virtually is, the fa,ther in respect to the other
principles of our being. Therefore, we suppose that love is the
generative principle in God. And thus we conclude that the
divine love is the principle in the Divine Being, which, in the
Sacred Scriptures, is called the father.
The word of God properly so called — that is, the word which
Jehovah himself uttered by fhe mouths of his prophets and by
the mouth of his own truth incarnate — cannot be supposed to
say, in just so many conventional terms, that his active princi
ple is love. This is precluded by the peculiar style in which
the Word of God is written. This style, requires that spiritual
and divine things should be expressed by correspondential forms
and sensible images. Therefore, we cannot expect to find
truths taught in the Word dogmatically. But dogmatic truths
must be deduced from its literal sense as seen in the light of its
spirit. For the Lord's words "are spirit, and are life;" and
therefore, we can see their true literal meaning only when we
understand them from their spirit and life. Hence to ascertain
from the Word what the essential divine principles are, we must
look through its letter up to its spiritual sense. Now, accord
ing to this sense, we can learn what are the divine constituent
principles from our text.
In our text we learn that, in the beginning was the word, and
the word was God, and in him was life. Thus we see that
there are two distinct principles — the word, and the life within
him. It is also said in the context, that by the word all things
were made, and without him was not any thing made that was
made. Now, if there was life in the word, and the word made all
things, the word must have made all things from the life with
in him. Thus the hfe must be the active principle of the word,
and the word was God. From our text, therefore, it appears
that the active principle of God is life.
Recollect, now, that in the Sacred Writings the form is used
to signify the essence, the effect to signify the cause, that which

CONSTITUENT PRINCIPLES OF DEITY? 91
is produced- to signify that which produces, and you wilt under
stand by the term life that which is the essence or producing
cause of life. Now what is the essence or producing cause of
life, if it be not love ? Love is the essence of our life, why
then is it not the essence of the divine life ? We suppose that
it is ; and therefore conclude from our text that the active prin
ciple of God is love.
This conclusion is confirmed by John, in his First Epistle,
iv. 16, where he expressly says, " God is love ; and he that
dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him." The
active principle of the Deity, which in the Sacred Scriptures is
called the father, is, then, divine love.
Thus we prove from the Sacred Scriptures themselves that
the term father which they use in speaking of the Divine Being,
does not denote a divine person, but a divine principle, namely,
the principle of divine love, which, as being an infinite and
eternal end to action in him, is consequently the active principle
of God.
What now, in the second place, is the divine reactive prin
ciple ? A principle is called reactive because it so reciprocates
the energies of an active tendency within it, as to bring tho pur
poses of that active tendency into effect. The acting ^Drinciple
is an endeavour or a tendency to action, and the reacting prin
ciple is a plane, or form, which furnishes to this tendency the
means of coming into action. Thus steam is an active power,
and the resistance of machinery is a reactive power. Steam
is an expansive energy, and the machinery of a steam engine
is a mechanical form so reacting on that energy as to give to
it a propulsive effect. Again, the whole body of man is a human
machine, so reacting upon his moral and mental faculties as to
effectuate the purposes of his will. Thus the arm is a form so
reciprocating the tendencies of the will as to write, to sew, and
to perform all those manual operations which are necessary to
the various purposes of life. The reactive principle, then, is
that by which the active principle operates. Hence, in our
selves, it is that by which our love operates : and this, in gene
ral, is our thought, our intelligence and our wisdom, or, in one

92 WHAT ARE THE THREE
word; the form qf our will. We reason, therefore, that the
divine reactive principle is divine wisdom, or the form of the
divine will.
This rational deduction is supported by the Sacred Scriptures.
For the heavens and the earth are the handy- work of God ; and
(Ps. civ. 24) it is said, " In wisdom hast thou made all thy
works." — (Ps. cxxxvi. 5,) " To him that by wisdom made the
heavens." — (Jer. x. 12,) " He established the world by his wis
dom." — "The sea is his, and his hand formed the dry land,"
(Ps. XCV. 5.) — " Before me there was no God formed, neither
shall there be afler ipe," (Isa. xliii. 10.) — " God himself/ormerf
the earth — 'Reformed it to be inhabited," (Isa. xiv. 18.) — " God
hath in these last days spoken unto us by his son, whom he
hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the
worlds ; who is the brightness of his glory, and the express
image of his substance," (Heb. i. 2, 3 ;) and " who, being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,"
(Phil. ii. 6 ;) " in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge," (Col. ii. 3) — so as to be emphatically " the power
of God, and the wisdom of God." (1 Cor. i. 24.)
Thus the reactive principle in the Deity is wisdom or the
form of the divine substance, which is the divine essence, or
the divine will.
Now, our wisdom is formed by the truth we know and
practise. Thus our wisdom is truth. Hence, we conclude that
the divine wisdom is divine truth.
This conclusion is supported by our text. " In fhe begin
ning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word
was God." — " All things were made by him," (v. 3.) Thus, as
it is here said by the word were all things made, and it is
elsewhere said that the Lord by wisdom made his works,
hence the Lord's word and wisdom are synonymous. But the
Lord Jesus, in addressing the father, (John, xvii. 17,) says,
" Thy word is truth." Wherefore, God's wisdom is his truth.
And thus truth is the divine reactive principle. Hence it is the
same whether we say the divine reactive is wisdom, or the
word, or truth.

CONSTITUENT PRINCIPLES OF DEITY? 93
Again, we may remark that the effect of truth is light. By
truth the mind is enabled spiritually to see. And that which
enables us to see, we call light. Hence, as the effect is used
in the Scriptures to signify the cause, light is used to signify
truth. Thus in our text it is said, in the word was life, and
the life was the light of men. Where, by light, truth is mani
festly meant. For it is most plain that men are enlightened
by truth.
On this subject the New Jerusalem teaches this express doc
trine : — " The divine sphere which proceeds from the Lord,
and which is called divine truth, is universal, filling the uni
versal heaven and constituting the all of life therein. It
appears there before the eyes as light, which not only
illuminates the sight, but also the mind. It is the same sphere
likewise which constitutes the understanding appertaining to
man." (A. C. 9407.)
Thus the effect or sphere of the divine wisdom is light. The
life of the divine wisdom, it will be recollected is divine love ;
and the effect or sphere of the divine love is heat. This is the
cause of heat in heaven and in angelic minds. Love is the
cause of heat in men too. For it is clearly seen that they
grow hot or cold according to the presence or absence of love.
And all love has its ultimate source in the divine love. Hence
men have heat and consequent life from the divine love. This
love, flowing into the souls of men, quickens them and gives
activity to all their powers. And this activity is always pro
portioned to the intensity of the exciting cause. Thus, in
proportion to the exciting influence of love, the understanding
of man is active. When the love is quiescent, the understand
ing does not think at all ; and the clearness and purity of its
thought is always in the ratio of the intensity and purity of its
affection. This then is what is meant by the life being the
light of men : when the affections of men are purified and
vivified by the quickening influences of divine love, they have
a clear intellection and perception of truth. Hence the new
church teaches, that, " When man is in good, and from good
in truth, then he is elevated into that divine light which is

94 WHAT ARE THE THREE
divine truth proceeding from the Lord, and more interiorly
according to the quality and quantity of good." (A.' C. 9407.)
Here then we clearly see what is the divine active, and what
is the divine reactive. The divine active is life, that is love ;
and the divine reactive is light, that is wisdom. Hence it is
that John says, in his First Epistle, i. 5, " God is light." You
will recollect he says, in the passage already quoted from the
same Epistle, (iv. 8, 16,) " God is love." In these two declara
tions he evidently alludes to two fundamental constituent prin
ciples of God : for the constituent principles of God are God
himself. Hence two of the constituent principles of God are
love and light : or, as light is truth and truth is wisdom, they
are love and wisdom.
Now, as we have seen, our wisdom is generated by our love ;
because the life is the light of men. Hence our wisdom has
its quality and nature determined by our love ; reflects and re
presents our love ; and is the express image of our love. Our
wisdom is an intellectual form, which, existing from our love as
an essence, may be said to be in the bosom of our love, and,
by manifesting its nature and its qualities, brings it forth fo
view. Thus our wisdom is a propagated form of our love, or
is an image and likeness of our love begotten from itself.
Hence our wisdom is the son of our love. We conclude,
therefore, that the divine wisdom is that principle in the Divine
Being which the Sacred Scriptures call the son. Indeed, there
can be no doubt of this. For the word, which is the same as
the divine wisdom, was made flesh and dwelt among us, and
we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
father. And John expressly " bare record that this is the son
of God." (verse 34.)
Having, then, ascertained the divine active and reactive prin
ciples to be love and wisdom, it follows that the third divine
principle is the sphere or influence of these two. It is the sphere
of the divine operation. It is the breath of Jehovah breathing
into the nostrils of man the breath of lives. It is the life of
divine love manifesting itself by divine wisdom in the works of
creation, preservation, providence, redemption, and salvation.
And this may be called divine use. It is in fact the divine ac-

CONSTITUENT PRINCIPLES OF DEITY ? 95
tion, and therefore is the breath, the life, fhe spirit of God.
And hence it is called, in the Sacred Scriptures, the holy ghost
or spirit. For the greek word which is rendered ghost or spirit,
means wind and breath ; and the divine breath is the proceeding
divine sphere, which is God's spirit.
The breath of God in the natural or material world is evi
dently the air or wind, as composed of the atmosphere and its
currents. For this is that in the material world which cor
responds to his breath in the spiritual world. From the
sun's three atmospheres, and from the earth's three atmo
spheres thence proceeding, in indefinite combinations, all
material things are produced, comparatively as water is
formed from the combination of oxygen and hydrogen
gasses. And this is proved by the fact that all material sub
stances, when decomposed by the compound blow pipe, pass up
and off into vaporous, aerial, etherial, or aurial substances.
Thus the breath of God as the air or atmosphere, produces all
material things. And when we see how necessary to material
existence are the currents in the atmosphere — when we see that
stagnation of the air, as a calm on the sea, leads to putrescency
in the sea's waters, for want of the motion which is necessary
to their sweetness, and which motion is produced by the agita
tions of the wind — when we see that stagnation of the air, undis
turbed by the concussive effects of thunder and hghtning, leads
to the death of all animal and human existence, by the noxious
miasmata and pestilential vapours thence produced — when we see
how the life of our bodies, and all animal life is sustained by
the oxygen of fhe air — how combustion is kept up by it,
whereby the elaborations of science, art, manufacture and culi
nary work are carried on for the varied use, support, comfort
and delight of man — when we, see too that this oxygen imbibed
by vegetable forms and given out in day time, compensates for
the destruction of the vital principle of the air which combus
tion and human and animal respiration is incessantly producing
— when, I say, we see all this, we must surely discern that that
which gives life to the material world is the breath of God^s
wind breathed from his divine mouth into the nostrils of the

90 WHAT ARE THE THREE
material creation and imparting to it the breath of its lives.
And thus we see, in an image, the law of sustentation for the
spiritual creation, namely, the breath of Jehovah, as divine
truth, with divine good in it, coming dovcn from heaven, and
giving life unto the world. The descent on the day of Pente
cost was " as a mighty rushing wind" — corresponding in the
spiritual world to those gusts of wind which purify the air and
give material life and health to the material world. It is highly
probable that the saxon -wordghost [sipc from jaj'C] originally
signified gust ; and therefore the term holy ghost, as applied to
the Divine Being, would literally mean the holy gust — the
afllatus of God's divine breath, by which reformation and re
generation are conveyed to the soul, and thus spiritual vitality
and health are given to the spiritual and moral universe.
Moreover, truth is that which proceeds from good and is
operative in the regeneration and salvation of man. Therefore,
(Ps. Ivii. 3,) it is said, " God shall send forth his mercy and
his truth." — " Mercy and truth shall go before thy face." (Ps.
Iviii. 14.) — " Send out thy light and thy truth, let them lead
me." (Ps. xliii. 3.) — " All his works are done in truth." (Ps.
xxxiii. 4.) And that truth, as the operative principle of God in
the regeneration and salvation of men, is, every where in the
New Testament, called the holy spirit, has been very fully
shown in our former discourses.
The third principle in the Deity, then, is the operation of
truth from good, or wisdom from love, in the works of creation,
redemption and salvation. And this is divine use.
Wherefore, the three principles which are in and constitute
the one God, are, divine love, divine wisdom and divine use.
Love acts, wisdom reacts, and the result of this action and re
action is use, which is a creating activity that produces all
inferior existences. And as all existences bear the impress of
the hand which made them, hence every existence has fhe three
fold principle of action, reaction and eflScient result. In the
divine love are ends, in the divine wisdom are causes, and in
the divine use are effects. And this is the reason that there are
in every existence which meets our observation, end, cause and

CONSTITUENT PRINCIPLES OF DEITY 1 97
effect. And as end, cause and effect are one, or as essence,
form and odour are one, or as soul, body and activity are one —
so are divine love, divine wisdom and divine use one : and as
end, cause and effect are distinct, so are divine love, divine
wisdom and divine use distinct. So too, and in no other way,
are the father, the son and the holy ghost distinct. And as no
one created thing can exist without its three constituent princi
ples of end, cause and effect, so neither can the one God exist
without his three constituent principles of love, wisdom and
use. For take away either of these, and the others would be
nonentities. These three constituent principles may be called the essen
tial qualities of the Divine Being. And as in created being
quality cannot exist out of a subject, so we reason that in un
created being divine quality cannot e.xist out of a divine subject.
And the subject in which the divine qualities inhere is the per
son of God. And the three essential qualities of love, wisdom
and use inhere in and constitute the one person of God, just as
the three essential qualities of will, understanding and activity
inhere in and constitute the one person of man. In the
next discourse of this series we shall show that these three
essential qualities of God are in the person Jesus Christ.
We have thus, in our peculiar way, illustrated the scripture
doctrine of the trinity. And whatever else may be said of it,
we are persuaded it cannot be thought obnoxious to the charge
of irrationality. Indeed, we never yet have met a candid per
son, of any denomination, who, on having this doctrine thus
presented to him, did not acknowledge it to be highly rational
or plausible. Why then is it not adopted 1
One would think that those who have been taught to believe
in the doctrine of a trinity, and yet have never been able to
understand how three could make one, would be glad to have
this matter cleared up to them: more especially, when their
church has been so heavily and so successfully assailed on this
point by Unitarians. Yet, on hearing it, they either reject it at
once, simply because it was not suggested by themselves ; orj at
10

98 WHAT ARE THE THREE
first admitting if, they afterwards give it up, when they discern
the consequences to which it leads.
The truth is, as we said on setting out, that the whole of
theology and religion rests on the idea which is conceived of
God. And hence, to alter essentially the idea of God, is to
subvert the whole theological system which is based upon it.
Now the whole of the most prevalent theology of the present
day is founded upon the notion of God as three separate and
distinct persons. Consequently, the idea which we entertain of
God as one person must be subversive of that theology. Hence
our doctrine of the trinity — though so consonant with Scripture,
reason and common sense — is pertinaciously rejected. How
ever readily this truth is assented to at first, it is at length seen
that it militates against some darling distinguishing tenet, which
cannot be given up on any account. It is seen, for instance,
that, if God be only one person, then the second person could
not die in man's stead to appease the wrath of the first person ;
and thus the whole system of a vicarious sacrifice falls to the
ground : and to give up this, would be to relinquish all the
hopes which the natural man so fondly cherishes of getting to
heaven without the sacrifice of his natural loves in keeping the
the commandments from spiritual affection. Any one who has
experienced any thing of the nature of true self-denial, knows
how difficult it is to give up self in our religious opinions as
well as in our personal and worldly pleasures. It is indeed like
plucking one's heart out. Hence we do not wonder that our
doctrines are so reluctantly embraced by those who have been
initiated and partly confirmed in the doctrines of the old church.
Nay, it is much more a matter of surprise that so many em
brace them as do. " No man can enter into a strong man's
house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man,
and then he will spoil his goods." The strong man is the un
derstanding of the false, and the house of this man is a will and
practice conformed to this understanding. The man who is 'to
enter this house and spoil this strong man's goods is the Lord
as to truth, who cannot enter into the will of man, and bring it

CONSTITUENT PRINCIPLES OF DEITY ? 99
and all its principles into subjection to himself, until the precon
ceived opinions, the false persuasions, and the darling tenets of
his understanding, are given up and renounced. How little
likely is it, then, that the Lord in his new church can be readily
received by those who are confirmed in the doctrines of the old
church !
But still, the truth must be preached, whether men will hear
or whether they will forbear. We cannot, on the peril of our
souls, do any thing but preach the truth, and leave it to do its
own peculiar and thorough work — to divide between the joints
and the marrow, and to search the thoughts and intents of the
heart. And happy shall we all be, if we are in that state indi
cated by the Lord when he says, " Blessed is he whosoever shall
not be offended in me."

SERMON VI

MATT. XXVIII. 18, 19.
« And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto
me in heaven and on earth ; go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, an(l of the son, and
of the holy ghost."
In the preceding discourse, we endeavoured to show, both
from the Word and from reason, what are the three divine
principles, or the trinity, which constitute God. Our course of
reasoning was briefly this. All things have been created by
God, and bear in some degree his image and likeness. This
is especially the case with man, who, being a microcosm, is
a miniature of the whole material creation. Therefore, the
essential principles of man's being are in an infinite degree the-
essential principles of the Divine Being. Now, as far as our
knowledge extends, all things, including man, have three con
stituent principles of their existence, namely, an active principle,
a reactive principle, and the result of these, which is a spheri
cal principle : and we proved, from Scripture and from reason,
that the divine active is love, the divine reactive is wisdom, and
the divine sphere is use. Hence we inferred that divine love,
divine wisdom and divine use are signified in the Sacred Scrip
tures by the terms father, son and holy ghost.
The next point in the new-church view of the Lord to which
attention is to be directed, is, that these three divine principles
are in the one person, Jesus Christ, so as to constitute him God
alone. This is the most peculiar doctrine of the New Jerusalem,
which runs through and characterizes her whole theology, and
which most especially distinguishes her from every other church.
It is meet, therefore, that we should discuss this doctrine fully.

THREE PRINCIPLES OF DEITY IN JESUS CHRIST. 101
It is usual to prove the divinity of Jesus Christ by demon
strating that the attributes of God are ascribed to him in the
Sacred Scriptures. This, perhaps, is proper as a popular mode
of proving this fundamental truth ; and we shall adopt it in our
next discourse. We shall therein show that Jesus Christ is
God alone, because there are ascribed to him the divine at
tributes of life in himself, unchangeableness, infinity, eternity,
omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence, together with the
creation and sustentation of all things.
But the attributes of God are not God himself. God himself
is constituted by his substance, his form and his work. His
substance is his active principle, his form is his reactive prin
ciple, and his work is his spherical or influential principle.
His substance is love, his form is wisdom, and his work is use.
His substance is the father, his form is the son, and his work is
the holy ghost. And the complex subject or bodily manifesta
tion of these three divine principles, is the sole person of Deity,
and therefore the only God.
In order, therefore, to show that Jesus Christ is this only
God, we must show from the Scriptures that these three con
stituent divine principles are in him ; which we shall do by
showing that he is synonymous, in name and person, with the
three terms father, son and holy ghost, and with what is signi
fied by them.
This is clearly inferable from our text. You will observe,
from the context, that " the eleven disciples went away
into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them.
* * * And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying. All
power is given unto me in heaven and on earth, go ye, there
fore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost.
Now, in commenting on this passage, we wish you to observe
particularly what meaning there is in this word therefore. But,
to feel the force of this word, we must discern somewhat of
the spiritual sense of the passage.
Bear in mind, what has been remarked heretofore, that the
10 *

102 THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF DEITY
Lord's words were uttered, not merely to give verbal com
mands, — though, in their natural sense, they ought to have the
utmost force of such commands, — but also to enunciate and to
give form and fixedness to spiritual and eternal truth ; and you
will then see that whatever the Lord says, is a declaration of
what eternally is as regards himself, and of whatever is or will
be with regard to man. Now the Lord assumed human nature,
and was manifest in the flesh, to redeem and save mankind.
To do this, he had first to redeem and save man's nature in
himself, from theevils into which man had fallen, and then to
make it the medium of imparting to man a regenerated nature.
Therefore, by a process of glorification, which is the type of
man's regeneration, he made human nature in himself divine;
that is, he made it the unmodifying subject and fully corre
spondent medium of the divine attributes. By this process, the
human nature which Jehovah assumed, became the living tem
ple of the living God. Hereby the living God was made mani
fest. And now and ever " 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," is shown to us, just, in the de
gree, and only in the degree, that the Lord Jesus Christ, by his
appearing in our hearts and lives through regeneration, " shows
us plainly of the father," (John, xvi. 25.) Thus, by that pro
cess of glorification whereby the human nature of Jehovah was
made divine, the whole godhead, the three essential principles
of Deity — the father, the son and the holy ghost, were made
to dwell in the Lord Jesus Christ bodily. And when this pro
cess of glorification was completed by his " ascending up far
above all heavens, that he might fill all things," (Eph. iv. 10,),
then the way was opened for the descent of divine influences
to men. For the operation .of divine love and divine wisdom
in redeeming and saving men is the holy ghost ; and it is said^
(John, vii. 39,) " the holy ghost was not yet given, because
Jesus was not yet glorified." Hence, when Jesus was glorified,
the holy ghost was given. And it should be well noted, that
these words were spoken in reference to that " spirit which they

ARE IN JESUS CHRIST. 103
who believe on him should receive :" thus showing, both that
the holy ghost is that spirit which, is received from Jesus Christ,
and that it could not be received, — of course could not be
given, — ^until it proceeded from him. But when it was so
given and received, it was a comforter which Jesus sent unto
his disciples, which received of his and showed it unto them,
and which thus led them into all truth.
Hence it appears that the spirit of truth is in and proceeding
from Jesus Christ. And as this spirit of truth manifests to his
disciples Jesus who is " the truth," it must also show, in him,
to his disciples, the ^ood, for good dwells in truth as an essence
in its form, and truth presents good to view as a form brings to
view its essence. Thus when the holy spirit shows Jesus as the
truth to his disciples, it also shows to them the father, for good
is the father of truth as an essence is the father of its form.
Hence when Philip (John, xiv. 8) said to the Lord, " show us the
father and it sufficeth us, Jesus said unto him. Have I been so
long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?
he that hath seen me hath seen the father." Wherefore, when
the holy ghost opens the hearts of men to call Jesus Lord, — to
see that he is the son, the truth, — it also enables them to per
ceive that he is the father, the good : for through him, as the di
vine truth, the divine goodness is manifested in their hearts :
and thu^ the son, who is in the bosom of the father, brings him
forth to view. Wherefore, when Jesus was fully glorified, the
father, the son and the holy ghost were all in him, and the way
was opened for those divine principles lo descend from him to
men ; and, by gradually restamping upon them the divine
image and likeness, to save them from their sins.
Now the Gospel by Matthew, as well as by the other evange
lists, is a book in which this process of glorification is described.
The close of the book treats of the close of the work. And, there
fore, the words of our Lord in the text are, spiritually, an enuncia
tion of the state of things incident and consequent upon his entire
glorification. For when the human nature of Jehovah was
fully glorified, it was entirely one with himself; it was his right
arm; it was the body in which he dwelt and by which he acted-

104 THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF DEITY
He, therefore, did not give the spirit by measure unto it.
Wherefore, it was full of the spirit of might, majesty and do
minion. Hence, in the conclusion of that book which describes
his glorification, Jesus comes to his disciples in Gallilee, — in a
gentile state, in which the mind is not perverted by false doc
trines, but is in a state of simple and teachable good, — ^and
speaks unto them, saying, "All power is given unto me in
heaven and on earth ;" thus declares the fact that he was so
fully glorified as to have in him the divine attribute of omnipo
tence: and, as a consequence of this, commands them to go and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost: which com
mand spiritually signified, that Jehovah, by the assumption and
glorification of humanity, had acquired all power to impart
spiritual truths to mankind for their regeneration in all the three
discrete degrees of the human mind. In other words, it de
notes that in consequence of the Lord's full glorification, the
divine influences of love, wisdom and use are to be imparted
from him through the truths, which his apostles represented and
taught, to well disposed men of all names and professions.
Hence, after announcing that all power is given unto him in
heaven and on earth, he says, "Go ye, therefore, and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
father, and of the son, and of the holy ghost; teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." By
observing whatsoever things he had commanded them, they
would conform themselves to his commandments ; and by such
conformity they would receive from him the influences of the
divine love, the divine wisdom and fhe divine sphere of use
fulness — which three divine principles are personified in the
Word as fhe father, the son and the holy spirit: and thus they
would be baptized in the name, that is, in the quality of those
three divine principles, and so cleansed from all contrary de
filements. The apostles, to whom the Lord gave the command of the text,
represented all the truths of his church in the complex. These
truths, when received and practised in spiritual faith, form the

ARE IN JESUS CHRIST. 105
image and likeness of Jesus Christ in the soul — so that the soul
reflects, as in a mirror, his love, his wisdom and his usefulness.
And thus when truths come tp us from the Lord in the doctrines
of his church, they baptize us into the Lord's death and
raise us again from the dead into his life, so as to ingenerate
in us the quahty of the Lord's internal, interior and ultimate
principles, which are called in the Sacred Scriptures the father,
the son and the holy spirit.
Hence the Lord's commandirig his apostles to baptize all
nations in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the
holy spirit, as a consequence of all power having been given
unto him in heaven and on earth, is an evidence that all the
divine principles which are signified by the terms father, son
and holy spirit are dwelling bodily in him, so as to constitute
him one divine person, and invest him with all the properties
of Deity.
Now, our argument from this passage of the Word is, that
the apostles to whom the Lord addressed it, must have under
stood what the Lord meant by the terms father, son and holy
ghost ; and, if they had understood him to mean by those
terms three separate and distinct persons in the godhead, that
they, in obeying his command, would ha-ve baptized into the three
separate and distinct names of father, and of son, and of holy
ghost. But, in fact, although the Lord had expressly command
ed them to baiptize in those three names, still there is no record
of their ever having baptized in any other name than simply
.Tesus Christ.
Wherever the rite of baptism is spoken of in the Acts of
the Apostlefe, we see the truth of this assertion. For example, in
the second chapter, verse thirty-eight, " Peter said. Repent, and
be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ."
So, in the nineteenth chapter, verse five, it is said, certain disci
ples at Ephesus "were baptized in the name of the Lord
Jesus." When the people of Samaria, who had been bewitched
by Simon the sorcerer, had " believed the apostie Philip preach
ing the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name
of Jesus Christ," and were in consequence "baptized both men

106 THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF DEITY
and women," it is said " the holy ghost was fallen upon none
of them : only they were baptized in the name of the Lord
Jesus .•" but " they received the holy ghost" when the apostles
" laid their hands on them." (Acts, viii. 12 — 17.) Peter com
manded the Gentiles whom he had converted " to be baptized in
the name of the Lord." (Acts, x. 48.) And Paul speaks (Rom.
vi. 3) of being "baptized into Jesus Christ."
Hence we conclude, that the apostles did not understand the
Lord to mean by the three terms father, son and holy ghost,
so many persons ; but, on the contrary we conclude that in their
view the one name Jesus Christ was entirely synonymous with
those three terms ; and that, as the one name Jesus Christ in
cluded the three names father, son a,rid holy ghost, so the one
person Jesus Christ is an individual embodyment of all the
divine principles or properties which those three names signified.
For names are given to express qualities ; and hence the fact
that the apostles substituted fhe one name Jesus Christ for the
three names father, son and holy ghost, makes it clear that
they must have regarded the person Jesus Christ as possessing
all the divine qualities of the " Everlasting Father," of " the Son
of God," and of " the Spirit of Truth."
Wherefore, we conclude, from this text, that the three essential
qualities of God, namely, the divine active, the divine reactive
and the divine spherical principles, are in, and constituting, the
one divine person, Jesus Christ : and, of course, that Jesus
Christ is the only God.
Hence we can see with what strict propriety the angels could
direct that Jesus, as the word made flesh, should be called God-
with-us. We can see with what propriety John, too, could say
that in Jesus was life, ihat is, divine love ; and that he was
"the light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the
world," or the divine truth or wisdom: hence that he was full
of "grace and truth;" for fullness of grace is infinity of love,
and fullness of truth is infinity of wisdom. And we can see,
moreover, with what truth John could say, (in iii. 24,) that
" God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him" — thus that
Jesus has in himself the spirit in an immeasurable and so in

ARE IN JESUS CHRIST. 107
an infinite degree. Moreover, we can see why Jesus, when,
as it is recorded in John, xx. 22, " breathed on his disciples,"
said, " Receive ye the holy ghost," — thus clearly indicating that
from him, as the truth itself, proceeds the sphere of truth,
which is the spirit of truth, or the holy spirit. For all these are
only so many confirmations of the truth which we have de
duced from our present text, that in Jesus Christ is divine love,
which is the father — as well as divine wisdom, which, is the
son — and that in and proceeding from him is the truth, and the
spirit of it, which is the sphere of divine operation, or divine
usefulness. The same doctrine is strikingly confirmed by that remarkable
saying of Paul, which we have before quoted, that " in Christ
dwelleth all the fullness of the godhead bodily;" for this most
expressly asserts that all divine properties whatsoever are in
him, so that he must of course possess the three essential prin
ciples of Deity. Paul expressly calls him, too, the power of
God and the wisdom of God," (1 Cor. i. 24) — asserting, in
just so many words, that, " being in the form of God, he thought
it not robbery to be equal with God," (Phil. ii. 6) — that he is
"the express image of God's substance" (Heb. i. 2,) and
says, that " by him were all things created..fhat are in heaven
and that are in earth, visible and invisible — all things were
created by him and for him-^— thus asserting that Jesus Christ
was not only the instrumental cause, but also the end, of crea
tion. In declaring then that Jesus Christ had in him all the
fullness of the godhead, that he was the power and wisdom of
God, that he is the form of God and the express image of his
substance in such a degree as to be equal with God, and that he
is both the cause and the end of creation — how clearly does
Paul show that Jesus Christ is God himself! Well, then, might
he speak of him as " the same yesterday, to-day and for ever,"
(Heb. xiii. 8 ;) and well might he call him " God over all, blessed
for ever," (Rom. ix. S :) for he must have known that Jesus
Christ himself had said, " Before Abram was I AM" (John, viii.
58)  thus had an essential and eternal existence ; and of course
is God.

108 THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF DEITY
The truth, that Jesus Christ is God, because ho is possessed
of the three essential properties of Deity, we shall consider aa
established. We might prove it further by the most abundant
testimony from all parts of the Word. But this one passage
makes this point of our faith clear enough, and were we to
bring forward a too great multiplicity of corroborative pas
sages, we should but darken it with excess of light. In our
next discourse, we shall go on fo prove the same truth, by
showing that Jesus Christ is possessed of all the divine attri
butes, and will now call your attention to two particular texts
of Scripture which seem to us very forcibly to controvert the
far too prevalent notion that Jesus Christ is a mere man.
In former discourses, we have more particularly traced the
difference between the Newjerusalemites and the Trinitarians,
as to the doctrine of the Lord. In this and the last discourses,
you have seen how entirely and widely we differ from the
Unitarians. There is not time now to state specifically what
are the distinct and the distinguishing points of the unitarian
faith. Indeed it would be difficult to do this, if we had ever so
much time. For Unitarians are much more remarkable for
what they do not believe, than for what they do. They are far
more acute in discerning the absurdities of the trinitarian faith
than in presenting convincingly the truths of a contrary faith
of their own. They are far more powerful in demolishing the
strong holds of trinitarian error than in building up any pecu
liar temple of unitarian truth. The common bond that seems
to hold them together is, opposition to some other sect, or ne
gation of some other faith. When they come to consider what
tenets of positive faith there are which all Unitarians as a com
mon body are bound to admit and hold, there appears to arise
division among them. There are no articles or confessions of
faith which Unitarians are required fo subscribe, or to make, on
penalty of exclusion. The Bible in its mere literal sense is
their only rule of faith and catechism ; and every one is left
free to interpret it for himself. Hence a good deal of diversity
of opinion prevails among persons of that denomination. But
the most general division of them is info Arians, who hold that

ARE IN JESUS CHRIST. 109
Christ is a super-angelic, though still a created, being, and So-
cinians, who maintain that he is a mere man, in no respect dif
fering from other men, except that he is more highly gifted of
God. Now this position, that Jesus Christ is only a super-angelic,
or a mere, man, is the very antipode of our faith. And the
first argument against this position, which we shall now present
to your consideration, is derived from John's hesitation to bap
tize Jesus Christ when he had come to him to be baptized.
John was too well aware of the character of Jesus to regard
him as a mere man. He knew that " He who cometh from
above is above all," (iii. 31.) Knowing, in fact, that he was
God-with-us, how could he do. otherwise than hesitate to baptize
him ? And the fact that he did so hesitate, is as direct a testi
mony as he could give to the divinity of Jesus Christ. For had
Jesus been a mere man, a prophet, or a messenger sent from
God, then John need not have hesitated to perform upon him
the rite of baptism : since, of this same John, Jesus says, (Matt.
xi. 9,) "But what went ye out for to see ? A prophet ? Yea,
I say unto you, and more than a prophet." And, again, (verse
11,) "Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of
women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist."
Hence, as John the Baptist was more than a prophet, and
wreater than any born of women, he need not have hesitated to
baptize a prophet, or any mere agent or messenger of God that
was born of a woman. The fact, therefore, that John did hesi
tate to baptize Jesus, proves that he was more than a prophet,
or a messenger sent from God, or a mere man.
John, moreover, expressly says of Jesus, (Matt. iii. 11,) "He
that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not
worthy to bear" — (whose shoe-latchets I am not worthy to un
loose, John, i. 27) :— and if John is more than a prophet, and
greater than all born of women, and yet is not worthy to un
loose the shoe-latchet of the Lord Jesus, how, then, can the
Lord Jesus be a mere man, a mere prophet, or a mere messen
ger sent from God ? Does not all this show that he is, as John
asserts, in a peculiar and an emphatic sense, the Son of God
11

110 THE THREE PRINCIPLES OP DEITY
(ch. i. 34) ? Does it not prove that he is " the word which
was with God, and was God" ? and which, being made flesh,
" dwelt among us" ? And thus, does it. not prove that he is God
with us ? Hence, as the Divine Being is one and indivisible,
that he is God himself, the very and the only God ?
The second passage which we would advance to rebut fhe
position that Jesus Christ is only a super-angelic being, or that
he is nothing more than a man, is John, vi. 62, where our Lord
says, "What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up
where he was before ?" Jesus put this question to some of his
disciples when they had murmured at his saying, "I am the
living bread which came down from heaven:" and therefore he,
by this interrogatory, implied that he was originally in heaven
before his coming down to earth. How strong a proof is this,
then, that Jesus in his conception was not a mere man ! The
Socinian asserts that Jesus was only the son of Joseph the car
penter. If this were true, then the beginning of his existence
was in the moment of his conception ; and the highest point to
which he could ascend towards the origin of his being would be
to his state in that conception. But it is clear that heaven could
not have existed in the soul of Joseph the carpenter; and if the
Lord had been only the son of Joseph, his soul would have been
only the transcript of Joseph's soul. But, as the Lord declares
that he had an existence in heaven before his conception on
earth, therefore he must have had an existence prior to his con
ception, and, consequently, could not have been in his origin a
mere man.
And that Jesus Christ was more than merely super-angehc,
was in fact divine, in his origin, is clear from his intimating, as
he does in chapter xvi. 27, 28, "that he came forth from God;"
atid from his expressly saying, " I came forth from the father,
and came into the world; again I leave the world, and go to
the father." These passages show that the Lord not only had
an existence before he came into the world, but that the origin
of his existence was so far above that of the angels, as to be in
the very divine emanating sphere of Jehovah. Hence he had
his origin in God himself; so that John could say that he, in

ARE IN JESUS CHRIST. Ill
his beginning, was not only the word which was with God, but
the word which was God. The emanating sphere of Jehovah,
descending as an operative divine energy into the virgin, Mary,
upon earth, was that holy spirit from which Jesus was begotten
a material embodyment of all latent divine properties — so that,
when born into this world, the " holy child Jesus" could be
" the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,"
upon whose shoulders the government of the whole universe
might depend. On this account it was that the Magi worshiped
him, though a child, as God, and, in the gifts which they gave
him, ascribed to him, correspondentially and representatively,
the possession and source of all divine things.
Hence it is manifest that Jesus Christ had an existence prior
to his conception on earth, and that his origin was not mereh
super-angelic, but divine. And hence we can see with what
propriety Paul should say of Jesus Christ that he is " the same
yesterday, to-day and for ever" — which he could not have said,
with any kind of propriety, if Jesus had not had an existence
prior to his conception and birth in time and space, or if he had
not existed " from everlasting to everlasting." But this truth
is resistlessly set forth by those words already quoted, " Jesus
said. Verily, verily, I say unto you. Before Abraham was, I AM"
— than which there cannot be a more direct and unequivocal
assertion of the eternity and divinity of the being of Jesus
Christ. Wherefore, the notion that Jesus Christ is a mere man, or a
mere super-angelic being, is false : and it becomes the whole
christian world to regard him as a divine man, as God-Man ;
and to ascribe to him as such, "the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory for ever." For he is the arm of Jehovah, and
has, therefore, "all power given unto him in heaven and on
earth," so that he can in truth be called "the Almighty." (Rev.
i. 8.) He is " the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of
the world" — that principle of divinely human innocence, which,
so far as it is received by us, in our becoming regenerated into his
image and likeness, takes away all the evils and falses of our ut
terly corrupt hereditary nature. And therefore we, in the words

112 THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF DEITY
of Holy Writ, should incessantly ascribe " Blessing, and honour,
and glory, and power, unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and
unto the Lamb for ever and ever" — for there has been " given
him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, na
tions and languages should serve him:" and "his dominion
is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his
kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." To which the
New Jerusalem especially sends up, in reverberated echoes
from all her walls, the glad and glorious response — " Amen and
Amen."
Such is our proof from the Word that Jesus Christ is the
embodyment and radiant form of the three essential divine prin
ciples, so as to be the only God. And if he is the only God,
then he should be the sole object of all christian worship.
Why, then, is not he alone worshiped by all Christians as their
God? In closing our last discourse, we animadverted rather freely
upon Trinitarians on account of their rejecting the rational doc
trine of the trinity which Ihe new church teaches. And we
have here and elsewhere contrasted our views of the Lord with
those of the Unitarians, as some may think, disparagingly. But
let it not be supposed that we wish to attack and vituperate the
views of others in propounding and defending our own. For
whenever we point out the errors of others, it is merely for the
purpose of presenting our own views in such bold relief, that our
hearers may more distinctly see what it is we believe. Heaven
forbid that we should even desire to take from any others, that
most precious privilege, which we claim to ourselves, of freely
adopting, and honestly maintaining, what they sincerely believe
to be the truth. And our religion, so far from teaching us to
condemn all who do not agree in faith with us, expressly teaches
us that the good of all denominations will be saved, and that, too,
even by their false doctrines, provided they innocently beheve
those doctrines to be true. For the new church teaches, that,
"whilst man is regenerating, he is let into combats against
falses; and in this case he is kept by the Lord in truth-^but in
that truth which he had persuaded himself to be truth, and from

ARE IN JESUS CHRIST. 113
this truth combat is waged against the false. Combat may be
waged even from truth not genuine, provided it be such that by
any means it can be conjoined with good ; and it is conjoined
with good by innocence, for innocence is the medium of con
junction. Hence it is that they within the church may be
regenerated by means of any doctrine whatever, but they espe
cially who are in genuine truths." (A. C. 6765.)
Hence, though we may believe the doctrines of all the pre
vailing sects of the old church to be false, yet we can and do
admit that there are many good people in all of them who
honestly embrace those doctrines as the true ones. And while
duty may compel us to expose their principles, still we leave
them in the hands of Him whose tender mercies are over all his
works — who well knows our frame, and who remembers that
all, even the best of us, are but dust, are but the frail and erring
subjects of sinful mortahty.
In the sight of God we are all nothing but sinners, and hence
are all more or less in error. Even those who have the truth,
see it but imperfectiy, and too often mix it up and defile it with
their inbred corruptions. It becomes none of us arrogantly to
say to his fellow-man, stand aside, for I am holier than thou ;
but it becomes all humbly to acknowledge our ignorance and
unworthiness, and to commend ourselves, as well as those who
differ from us in opinion, to the care and guidance of Him in
whose light alone we can see light, and whose life is that true
light which enlightens every man that cometh into the world.
He breaks not the bruised reed and quenches not the smoking
flax — neither should we. Like him, we should not seek to
force the conviction of unsuitable truth upon any, however great
their errors, however low their state.
Still, it is no charity in us to blind our eyes to errors because
good people may be innocently in them. It is no part of true
charity to confound error with truth, because error may be
embraced innocently. True charity would lead us to discrimi
nate error and falsehood from truth, and to expose error and
falsity for the good even of those who may be the innocent sub
jects of them. But when we have seemed to attack the views of
n *

114 THE THREE PRINCIPLES OF DEITY
Others, our only aim has been, to guard ourselves from their er
rors ; and though we would not be insensible to their good, and
henee would not. refuse to expose their errors for their good, still
we would not rashly take away their errors before we are sure
they are in a state to receive higher and truer views than those
they now possess. «
While, therefore, we guard ourselves from the false principles
of the well meaning professors of religion in the old church, we
charitably leave those professors themselves in fhe hands of the
Great Physician, who, mercifully regarding their infirmities,
has placed them for a time in the faith which they now hold,
as a spiritually dark chamber, that he may kindly temper fhe
light of heaven to their diseased eyes. If the eye be evil, as it
is when the understanding is consciously and rationally con
firmed in self-love and love of the world as principles of action,
then indeed the whole body will be full of darkness which no
light can dispel : and it was to those who possess such an eye,
Ihat we alluded in the conclusion of our last discourse.
But an eye not evil may be unable to see in consequence of
darkness arising from the mists of ignorance and the honest
prejudices of erroneous education. And we hope there are
many more than we are aware of, among all the existing sects
of Christendom, who have an eye that is thus not evil. Upon
all such, we doubt not that the Lord will, in his own good time,
cause abundant light to arise, if, though they are thus sitting
even in the valley of the shadow of death, they are nevertheless
sincerely seeking and ardently desiring the truth. Most cer
tainly we do not doubt that all who really wish to go right, will
be led right. There are many wayward children, wandering
from their Heavenly Father like lost sheep : but he has come to
seek and to save that which was lost, and all who are inwardly
good children will, though they may now be lost, find their way
home to him at last.
Therefore, however few there may now be, who are prepared
as yet to embrace this doctrine of the Lord which we preach ;
still, as we are taught from heaven that it is true, we doubt not
it will uhimately be embraced by all the good. Hence we are

ARE IN JESUS CHRIST. 115
not disposed to quarrel with those who differ with us. We
know that the truth is hid from those who are not in a state to
embrace it ; and we are fully aware that we cannot fight them
into a better state. The holy spirit from on high alone can
give sight to the blind and raise the dead to life. And as all
who can be healed will be, we doubt not that, in the coming
world, if not in this, there will be some of all nations, and kin
dreds, and people, and tongues — some of every denomination
of religionists — who, clothed with white robes, and palms in
their hands, will be heard saying, " Salvation to our God which
sitteth on fhe throne, and unto the Lamb :" for " Thou art
worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power ; for
thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure, they are and
were created" ! Amen.

SERMON VII.

MATTHEW, XXVIII. 18.
" And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto
me in heaven and on earth."
We are now to prove from the Word, that Jesus Christ is
God alone because he has ascribed to him the divine attributes.
The attributes of Deity are, Hfe in himself, eternity, infinity,
omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence, together with the
creation and sustentation of all things. Now it will be con
ceded by all, that these attributes belong to the father, or the
essential divinity : but the Lord Jesus says, (John, xvi. 15,)
" All things that the father hath are mine." Therefore the at
tributes of the father must be those also of Jesus Christ. — In
John, i. 1 — 4, it is said, " In the beginning was fhe word, and
the word was with God, and the word was God. The same
was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him ;
and without him was not any thing made that was made. In
him was life ; and the life was fhe light of men :" this light
John came to bear witness of, and says that " he was in the
world, and the world was made by him :" and afterwards that
the " word was made flesh and dwelt among us :" and he bare
witness of him, and cried saying, " This was he of whom I
spake. He that cometh after me is preferred before me ; for he
was before me ;" — thus clearly showing that Jesus, who came
after him, was the word that was with God and was God, by
whom all things were made, in whom was Ufe, who was in (he
world, and who made the world.
Hence, according to John, Jesus Christ has life in himself, is
the creator of all things, and is God. At least John expressly

THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES ASCRIBED TO JESUS CHRIST. 117
ascribes to him the divine attribute of creation : for he says all
things were made by the word.
Paul also ascribes creation to Jesus, in Col. i. 16, " For by
him," says he, " were all things created that are in heaven, and
that are in earth, visible and invisible ; whether they be thrones,
or dominions, or principalities, or powers : all things were crea
ted by him and for him."
The Lord himself expressly says, too, (John, v. 26,) "as the
father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the son to have
life in himself." There is no difference, the son, or humanity,
has life in himself as the father, or essential divinity, has life in
himself. From these passages of Scripture it is sufficiently clear that
the attribute of essential life is ascribed to Jesus Christ. And
as creation also is ascribed to him ; and as he is by fair impli
cation proved to be the word which was God ; he himself,
therefore, is God. And if God, he possesses of course all di
vine attributes.
But his eternity is expressly asserted by himself in John, viii.
58 : "Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, lam."
He thus assumed the title of Jehovah, who calls himself the
I am. It should be observed, too, that the Jews took up stones
to stone him for this saying : thus evidencing that they under
stood him to assume to himself this divine attribute of Jehovah.
Paul also ascribes to him eternity and unchangeableness in
Heb. xiii. 8, where he says, " Jesus Christ, the same yester
day, and to-day, and for ever." His omnipresence is shown
by his own words, (Matt, xviii. 20,) " For where two or three
are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of
them:" and (xxviii. 19, 20,) " Go ye, therefore, and make dis
ciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all things what
soever I have commanded you : and lo, 1 am with you always,
even unto the end of the world." His omniscience may be
inferred from the fact "that he knew all men, and needed not
that any should testify of man; for he knew what was in man."
(John, ii. 25.) Also by its being said in John, i. 47 — 49, "Jesus
saw Nathaniel coming to him, and saith of him. Behold an

118 ... ALL THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES
Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile ! Nathaniel saith unto
him. Whence knowest thou me ? Jesus answered and said
unto him. Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under
the fig-tree, I saw thee. Nathaniel answered and saith unto
him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God." You see the true import
of the Lord's saying, from the effect which it had on Nathaniel.
Doubtless divinity beamed from his eye and glowed in his coun
tenance as he spake. And his overpowering omniscient sphere
wrested from the at first wondering but now adoring Nathaniel,
the confession, " Rabbi, thou art the Son of God !" That Jesus
is possessed of omniscience may be further gathered from the
account of his appearing fo the doubting Thomas, recorded in
John, XX. 19 — 28. You will observe that, when the Lord ap
peared fhe second time, he immediately, without any previous
information derived from the other apostles, began to satisfy
Thomas's doubts. Now how could he have known the doubts
expressed by Thomas eight days before, and retained in his mind
since, unless he had been omniscient and omnipresent ? That
Thomas believed him possessed of these attributes, is evident
from his exclamation, " My Lord, and my God !" Is it not
evident from this that even fhe most doubting and external of
the apostles, had an ocular, sensible, perceptive demonstration of
the divinity of Jesus Christ ? — a demonstration which no powers
of reasoning could resist, and which constrained even the most
sensual to cry out, My Lord — my God ! This passage proves,
beyond a reasonable doubt, that the humanity of the Lord is
itself divine : for, otherwise, such effects could not follow its
mere presentation. Jesus Christ, then, is Lord and God, and
as such must possess every divine attribute.
But the Lord's own language in the Apocalypse, indicates,
if possible, still more clearly, that he has all the attributes of
God. He there says, (ch. i. 8,) " I am Alpha and Omega, the
Beginning and the End : which is, and which was, and which
is to come, the Almighty." Here he, if not in express language,
at least in language which can bear no other import, claims to
himself eternity, infinity, omnipresence, omniscience and omni
potence. You are aware that alpha and omega are the first

ARE ASCRIBED TO JESUS CHRIST. 119
and last letters of the greek alphabet. Taken in the above
connection, therefore, they must signify what is absolutely first
and last : that is, absolute being through all its gradations.
Now Jesus Christ is first and last in this sense, because Jeho
vah, or the essential divinity, is in him as a soul in a bodily
form. For the essential divinity being in him as a soul, he has
within him all first principles : and all ultimate principles being
congregated in the bodily form of this soul, he has likewise in
him all last principles. His essence is God, his form is man.
And as the form can have nothing but what it derives from the
essence, and is of a nature altogether correspondent to the es
sence, be is also God in ultimates as well as God in intimates.
He is thus essential and actual being — lives in all life and ex
tends through all extent — is very and eternal God. He is the
Beginning and the End — which is, and which was, and which
is to come, the Almighty. These words need no comment.
The commonest minds must understand their meaning and feel
their force. They imply infinity; for such must be the mean
ing of beginning and ending when taken in an absolute sense.
They imply eternity, for such is the manifest meaning of all
time — present, past and future. They imply omniscience and
omnipresence ; for these are the consequence of infinity and
eternity. And they expressly assert omnipotence ; for they say
he is the Almighty.
Nor can there be any doubt that it is Jesus Christ, or the
Divine Humanity, which is speaking. For John afterwards
describes his person, as " one like unto the Son of Man,"(ch. i.
13 ;) and then says, (ch. i. 17,) " when 1 saw him, I fell at his
feet as dead : and he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto
me. Fear not ; / am the first and the last." It was, then, this
person, in a human form, like unto the Son of Man — all the
principal parts of which form are described — who said, in the
verse we first quoted, and again in the eleventh verse, " I am
Alpha and Omega." Now it is this divine human form which
we are to understand by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, then, is
Alpha and Omega.
There can be no doubt that John understood it thus : for in

120 ALL THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES
the first verse of the first chapter he says, " The revelation of
Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his ser
vants things which must shortly come to pass ; and he sent and
signified it by his angel unto his servant John." Now some
minds may apprehend that John makes a distinction in this
verse between Jesus Christ and God ; and to such it may seem
a matter of doubt whether Jesus Christ or God sent his angel
unto John. But if we compare the sixth and sixteenth verses
of the twenty-second chapter, doubt on this subject will vanish.
In the si.xth verse are these words : " And the Lord God of the
holy prophets, sent his angel to show unto his servants the
things which must shortly be done :" and in the sixteenth, " I
Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in
the churches." From these two verses taken together, it is
evident that Jesus and the Lord God of the holy prophets are
one person ; and it amounts to the same thing whether God
sent his angel or Jesus sent his angel.
Observe too, in the seventh verse, immediately after the
words, " And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his an
gel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be
done" — these words, " Behold I come quickly :" which, evi
dently, in this connection, refer to the Lord God of the holy
prophets. Then glance your eye to the twentieth verse, and
read, " He which testifieth these things saith. Surely I come
quickly;" and hear John add, "Amen, Even so come. Lord
Jesus" — and you can have no doubt that John identified the
Lord Jesus with the Lord God of the holy prophets, and hence
must have regarded him as the Alpha and the Omega. Jesus
Christ, therefore, is possessed of all divine attributes ; and,
consequently, is very and eternal God.
Now we presume there cannot be a doubt in the mind of any
truly rational man, that the conclusion to which we have come
is fairly deducible from the texts of Scripture brought forward ;
and, therefore, that Jesus Christ has ascribed to him all the di
vine attributes in general. This point then is settled. And
here we might leave it. But we will detain you with a remark

ARE ASCRIBED TO JESUS CHRIST. 121
or two upon our text ; in which the same doctrine is clearly set
forth. " And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying. All power is
given unto me in heaven and on earth." Here the omnipotence
of Jesus Christ is unequivocally shown ; and with it every other
divine attribute. For divine attributes are inseparable; and the
possession of one implies the possession of all the rest. He has
all power in heaven and on earth. He has therefore the power
of seeing all things and of being every where. Thus he has
omniscience and omnipresence ; and of course every other
characteristic of God.
We are aware that the word given in this passage seems fo
imply that there is a power superior to Jesus ; and hence that
his power is but delegated. But this is only an appearance,
similar to many others in the Word, where Jesus is represented
as separate from God. This subject, however, is particularly
discussed on another occasion ; and we will not dwell upon it
now. We will here only remark that the diflSculfy arises from
attaching to the word given a natural idea, that is an idea de
rived from time and space ; which supposes distinct personality
in the giver and receiver, and a separation between him that
gives and him that receives. But all this difficulty vanishes
when we attach to the word given a spiritual ideaj According
to such an idea Jehovah gives all power to Jesus, in the same
sense that my soul gives all its power to my body, or an essence
gives all its power to its form, or a cause gives all its power to
its effect. And you might just as well argue that my body is
separate from my soul, or a form is separate from its essence,
because the power of the one is given to it by the other, as argue
that Jesus is separate from Jehovah, because all power is given
to him by Jehovah. Every interior principle is full and perfect
in its ultimate ; and has no power without its ultimate. Thus
my soul has no power without its body ; affection has no power
without thought ; will no power without understanding ; virtue
no power without wisdom : and these spiritual principles to
gether have no power without a bodily organization in which
they are ultimated, and by which they manifest themselves. So
12

122 ALL THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES
the divine essence has no power without its form ; Jehovah has
no power without his body. But the essential divine principle
is full and perfect in its ultimate, and has all power by its ulti
mate. Thus the divine soul gives all power to its body. And
thus Jesus, the body of Jehovah, has all power given unto him
in heaven and on earth.
But we waive this subject. It is not relevant here. The
question before us is, whether the humanity is divine — not how
it became so. The question is, whether the humanity possesses
the divine attributes : there can be no question that the divine
essence does. Now it seems to us there could not be a passage
more perfectly in point than our text. " Jesus came and spake"
— they saw him and heard him. It was not an impalpable, in
comprehensible, inconceivable, unseen and unknown being; it
was some thing that came and spake : it was a divine human
form which came and spake unto them, saying, " all power is
given unto me in heaven and on earth." The form that spake
possessed all power. Jesus possessed all power. And as " Jesus
is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever," he, therefore,
possesses all power now. Hence it is perfectly manifest that
the humanity has all power. Thus it is clear that Jesus is
omnipotent. It is no matter how he became so, or when he
became so. That is not the question. The question is, is the
human possessed of divine attributes now. This is setUed.
Jesus is omnipotent. And if omnipotent, then he is possessed
of all divine attributes : and if possessed of divine attributes,
then he is God : and if God — should be worshiped. Hereafter
we shall proceed to show that he was actually worshiped when
on earth, and that he is now worshiped in heaven.
We shall conclude this part of our series with two reflections.
First, If Jesus Christ has all power in heaven and on earth —
is hence God, and ought to be worshiped, then we ought to ad
dress our prayers to him directly. When, in your worldly
vocations, you want any favours, do you not go to those who
are able to give them to you and ask them for them ? If, now,
Jesus Christ has all power in heaven and on earth, he is able
to give you whatever you want, or can ask for, in heaven or on

ARE ASCRIBED TO JESUS CHRIST. 123
earth. Should you not then ask him for what you desire ?
thus should you not pray to him ?
But you say, we are commanded to pray to the father, and
to supplicate him to have mercy on us for Jesus Christ's sake.
It is true the Lord has said, " whatsoever ye shall ask the father
in my name, he will give it you." But the name of Jesus in
this passage means Jesus himself — his name is his quality, his
state ; and we ask in his name, when we ask from a quality
and state similar to his — when we ask from his spirit abiding
in us and dictating to us what we shall ask. And the father
will give us whatsoever we ask from this spirit, because it will
be according to his order to grant it. But if we were to ask
from our own spirit, that is in our own name, the father could
not grant it because it would not be good for us.
Again, the name of Jesus means Jesus himself; and Jesus is
the form, the body, the express image of the father. Hence, we
pray to the father in fhe name of Jesus when we pray to Jesus
himself as the personal manifestation of God. For the father
is in Jesus, and we come to the father in him and through him.
He does not mean that we should put up verbal petitions to the
father as a separate being, in the mere words Jesus Christ.
This is taking in a far too literal sense the Lord's words,
which he elsewhere says are spirit and are life. And how are
we to come to the father, unless we come to him in Jesus Christ ?
and how are we to pray to him unless we pray to him in Jesus
Christ ? Where is he? What is he? How can you conceive
of him ? How can you think of him ? You may pray to
something out of Jesus Christ, which you call the father : but
it is a thing of your own imagination. It is not really the
father; and when you pray to it, you do not pray really to the
father, you only pray to your own imagination of the father.
Jesus says, " / am the way, the truth, and the life : no man
cometh unto the father but by me." Now by coming to the fa
ther, he does not mean walking up to him with our bodies. He
means approaching him spiritually, mentally ; that is, coming
to him in thought ; and this we do in prayer. No man, there-

124 ALL THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES
fore, prays to the father unless he prays to Jesus Christ in his
proper person. No man prays to the father, unless he thinks
of Jesus Christ at the same time that he thinks of the father.
Again he says, " I and the father are one ;" " I am in the father
and the father in me ;" " he that hath seen me hath seen the
father." Now by seeing he does not mean corporeal sight, but
spiritual or mental sight. Therefore, he that mentally sees
Jesus mentally sees the father. That is, he who thinks of Jesus,
has, in so far, the father in his thought at the same time : be
cause Jesus is " the form of God" and the " express image of
his substance :" so that he who sees Jesus must at the same
time see the father in the only way in which he can be seen.
For no man has at any time seen God in his essence, and no
man can so see him and live. But to see Jesus in thought is
to see the father in him, as a divine essence in its appropriate
divine form. Now this mental sight is exercised in prayer.
Hence praying to Jesus is praying to the father. And hence
to pray to the father in the name of Jesus is, in one sense, to
pray fo the Divine Being in that divine human form by which
he has manifested himself. Thus it is to pray to Jesus Christ
himself. Wherefore, we are not required by the Lord's command to
pray to the father as a being out of Jesus Christ, and to sup
plicate of him spiritual favours for the sake of Jesus Christ as
a being distinct from him. And, consequently, it is a direct
inference from our text, that, if Jesus Christ is God, we should
offer up our prayers to him directly.
Secondly, As Jesus Christ is God, he should be the object
of our highest reverence and love.
We should reverence him, because he is the source of all
truth ; and we should love him because he is the source of all
good. He says, " I am the way, the truth, and the life." He
is the word which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world. He is, therefore, the great fountain of wisdom, and the
source of all human intelligence. And as he has " all power
in heaven and on earth ;" and as " a man can receive nothing

ARE ASCRIBED TO JESUS CHRIST. 125
except it be given him from heaven ;" therefore, a man can
receive nothing except it be given him from Jesus Christ : who
is thus the " giver of every good and perfect gift." ^
Now we are accustomed to reverence and love men for their
wisdom and virtue. Those who are learned, experienced and
sage, we ever treat with deference. We have respect to their
opinions, and treasure up their sayings. We seek their advice
and regulate our conduct by it. We hold them in honour, rise
in their presence, and are silent while they speak. But if all
this is due and paid to men noted for their wisdom, how much
rather ought it to be paid fo Him who is wisdom itself. But
you ask how are we to reverence him ? We answer by at
tending to, and paying deference to what he says in, his Word.
The wise man lives and speaks in his writings, when bis body
has left our sight and is mouldering in the dust. In them are
contained his choicest thoughts, his deepest reflections, his most
deliberate judgments, the sums total of his knowledge, the
results of his experience, and his wisest maxims. If we were
wont to reverence him, we reverence these his writings. We
procure them with avidity, preserve them with care, peruse
them with attention, and carefully reduce to practice the maxims
they contain. So too, our Lord, though he has left the earth,
so as not to be visible to our bodily eyes, yet he lives and speaks
to us in his Word. If, then, we would reverence him, we will
reverence his Word. We will procure it, if we have it not ;
we will value it above price ; we will read it with the most pro
found attention ; and we will most scrupulously practise its
precepts. For " the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the
soul : the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the sim
ple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart :
the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments
of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be de
sired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold : sweeter
also than honey and the honey-comb." (Ps. xix. 7 — 10.) And
the Lord has said, " Search the Scriptures, for they are they
which testify of me." 12 *

126 DIVINE ATTRIBUTES ASCRIBED TO JESUS.
Therefore, if we would honour the Lord, we shall study dili
gently his Word, and regulate all our conduct by its precepts.
And in like manner shall we express towards him our love.
For he says, " He that hath my commandments, and keepeth
them, he it is that loveth me ;" and " if a man love me, he will
keep my words : and my father will love him, and we will
come unto him and make our abode with him." " Amen.
Even so, come quickly. Lord Jesus," and take up in us thy
everlasting abode I

SERMON VIII.

PSALM n. 10.
«' Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when his
wrath is kindled but a little."
In discussing the doctrine of the Lord, we come now, in the
series which has been proposed, to the consideration of the
proper object of christian worship.
Both of the principal divisions of the old christian church,
namely the Trinitarians and the Unitarians, with whose views
we have been comparing and contrasting the views of fhe new-
jerusalem church, regard God as an invisible and incomprehensi
ble divine essence. The Unitarians, especially, think it essential
idolatry to conceive of God as existing in form. Therefore
they, in worship, approach the Deity as a mere principle of
goodness, mercy, wisdom, or power, which is inconceivable in
any embodyment appreciable to human thought or to any hu
man faculty.
The Trinitarians, too, expressly define God as a being
" without body, parts or passions ;" and, in the thought and
feeling of their worship, endeavour to approach directly the
unembodied divine essence. Thus they pray to the father di
rectly, and implore him to grant them divine favours for the
sake of the son.
Hence both Trinitarians and Unitarians regard the essential
divinity as the proper object of worship. They worship directly
the active principle of the godhead.
But the new-jerusalem church, on the contrary, looks to
the reactive principle of the godhead as the appropriate object

128 THE SON OR REACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF DEITY
of her worship. That is, she regards the active only in the re
active. She worships the son as the image, the likeness, the
glory, the wisdom, the power, and thus the full embodyment of
the father. She does not, indeed, regard the form or person of
God as God himself, but she does not attempt to conceive of
God except in and through his form, and does not attempt to
approach to God in thought except through his person. She
does not therefore worship his person, but his qualities in his
person. She worships his love and his wisdom in their appro
priate manifestation. Hence, as Jesus Christ is the full and
most appropriate manifestation of divine love and divine wisdom,
she regards him as the proper object of worship : that is, the
new-jerusalem church believes that Jesus Christ should be the
object of thought whenever the human mind endeavours to form
any conception of what the divine love or the divine wisdom is,
and that the divine love and fhe divine wisdom should be re
garded and loved in his person as well as received into our
souls by the regenerating influences of the divine sphere which
incessantly proceeds from his person as a glorified divine-hu
man essence. In short, the new-jerusalem church teaches that,
whenever wo think of God, we must think of Jesus Christ ; and
whenever we think of Jesus Christ, we must think of God.
This chief tenet of her faith, as well as all others of minor
consequence, the new church founds upon the Word. And
among the passages of the Word by which this tenet may be
confirmed, our present text stands forth conspicuous.
" Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way
when his wrath is kindled but a little." In discoursing upon
these words, we intend fo show, first, that the son ought to be
worshiped ; and, secondly, that the son whom we are here com
manded to worship, is Jesus Christ.
In the first place, the son is the proper object of worship.
This follows from the spiritual signification of fhe verse from
which our text is taken. For, " Kiss the son," signifies con
junction with the Lord by love. " Lest he be angry, and ye
perish in the way," signifies, lest evils invade you, and ye be
condemned : for to be angry, when it is said of the Lord, signi-

THE PROPER OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 129
fies the aversion or turning away of men from him, conse
quently their anger and not the Lord's ; and evils [that is the
passions and conduct which flow from self-love and love of the
world] are the things which cause men to avert themselves, and
afterwards cause them to be angry. "Because his anger will
kindle shortly," signifies the last judgment, and the casting
down of the evil into hell. "Blessed are all they that put their
trust in him," signifies salvation by love and faith in the Lord.
(Ap. Ex. 684.)
Hence when we are commanded to kiss the son, it is mani
festly signified that we should worship him. For the kiss is a
sign of love; and hence the act of kissing denotes conjunction
from love. Therefore to kiss the son signifies conjunction with
him from love. Now conjunction from love implies every kind
and degree of worship. For, as Paul says, " love is the fulfil
ment of the law ;" and the law, which is the divine truth,
embraces every formulary of faith and worship. Love implies
the keeping the Lord's commandments ; for Jesus says, " He
that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that
loveth me :" and this implies conformity to all the requisitions
of the Gospel, wherein prayer, and its modes, the ordinances,
and all the observances of the christian church, are set forth and
enjoined. Thus conjunction from love implies every kind and degree of
worship. Hence to kiss the son implies the worship of the son.
It does not imply merely the verbal ascription of honour fo him,
by saying that he is God, and thinking him equal with the
father ; but it implies the actual rendering of honour to him as
God himself — to him as the sole or only God : for it implies
that we should give him our love, whereas it is expres.sly com
manded that we should " love the Lord our God with all our
heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind." Hence,
as we are commanded to kiss the son, that is, to love and serve
him, the son must be the Lord our God.
And if we are to be conjoined to the son from love, and this
implies all worship, then we are to love and worship him alone i

130 THE SON OR REACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF DEITY
for it is written, " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and
him only shalt thou serve."
Thus we are to worship the son as God alone, and we are to
serve him only. We are to pray to him alone ; for to pray to
another, would be to worship that other : and we pray to another
than the son, when we pray to the father out of the son. Hence
we are not to pray fo the father for the sake of the son. For
we are commanded to kiss the son, not to kiss the father.
We are commanded to " honour the son, even as we honour
the father;" and " he that honoureth not the son, honoureth not
the father who sent him." Hence we are to pray to the son ;
for this is to honour him: and he that prayeth not fo the son,
prayeth not to the father.
All who are heavily laden are to come unto the son for rest.
To him " everj- knee is to bow, of things in heaven, things in
earth, and things under fhe earth ; and every tongue is to confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father :" for un
less we bovi' the knee and confess to the son, we cannot worship
the father, or render glory to him ; because the father and the son
are one ; the father is in the son and the son is in the father ;
and no man can come to the father but by the son. Hence the
son must be approached directly.
The son is the door by which we are to enter to the father ;
and he that climbs up any other way is a thief and a robber.
Hence we are not to make fo ourselves any graven image of
the father — we are not to devise in our own minds any general,
indistinct, or bodyless notions of divine goodness, excellence,
or perfection ; thus we are not to form in our imagination any
conceptions of the father as a being separate from Jesus ; but
we are to go to the father in Jesus — we are to know what di
vine goodness is by studying what is good in him, and to know
what is good in him we must have him formed in us by re
generation. For he is the express image, the bodily manifes
tation, of the father's substance — he is in the bosom of the
father and by his character brings him forth to view ; and by
regeneration from him we have our sins wiped away, and, being

THE PROPER OBJECT OP CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 131
made new creatures in Christ by having Christ formed in us
the hope bf glory, we know who the father is by thus knowing
Christ. We must go, therefore, to the son to have our sins forgiven :
for though we know that no one can forgive sins but God only,
yet we also know " that the Son of Man hath power on earth
to forgive sins ;" and hence we must go to the Son of Man to
have our sins forgiven. And we must go to the Son of Man
alone. We must not go to the father out of the son. For if
the father out of the son forgives sins, and the son himself also
forgives sins ; then there are two beings who forgive sins ; thus
there are two Gods : because God only forgives sins. But
" the Lord our God is one Lord." (Deut. vi. 4. — Mark, xii. 29.)
And " to the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses."
(Dan. ix. 9.) And the son of man hath power to forgive sins.
Thus the son of man is the one Lord, who is fhe Lord our God,
to whom belong mercies and forgivenesses ; and to whom alone,
therefore, we are to go to have our sins forgiven. And thus
there are not two beings who forgive sins : and hence we are
not to go to the father out of the son, by praying to him to for
give our sins for the sdfi's sake ; but we are to go to the father
In the son, and to pray to the son himself, as " the Mighty
God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace, who
hath fhe government upon his own shoulders," and pray to him
to forgive us our sins, " for his own name's sake," (Jer. xiv. 7,)
and " for his mercies' sake." (Ps. vi. 4.)
All things whatsoever we ask in the son's name, that the
son will do : or whatsoever we ask the father in the son's name
— that is, in the son's person and character — that the father
will do. For all things that the father hath are the son's also.
Hence, all worship is to be paid to the son, and only through
the son to the father. " Whosoever denieth the son, the same
hath not the father : but he that acknowledgeth the son hath
the father also." (1 John, ii. 23.) For the father dwelleth in
the son ; since in him " dwells all the fulness of the godhead
bodily :" and is manifested only by and through the son ; since
" no man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten son,

132 THE SON OB REACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF DEITY
which is in the bosom of the father, he hath declared him."
" No man," therefore, " cometh unto the father but by the
son." (John, xiv. 6.) Hence, no man can worship the father,
except he worship the son. The son, therefore, is to be wor
shiped. Wherefore, " Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and ye
perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little."
But, in the second place, let us inquire, who is this son,
whom we are commanded-fo worship upon so heavy a penalty ?
Some, as we have before stated, hold that he is a son born from
eternity, who is equal in all respects to the father, and who
descended and assumed human nature upon earth. And hence
this son of God from eternity is the divine nature of Christ,
from which his human nature was begotten. Hence they seem
to maintain that there are two sons of God — one begotten from
eternity, and the other begotten in time. And, as has also been
said, they make such a distinction between the divine and hu
man natures of Christ, that the human is not an object of wor
ship ; for they make his human to differ in no respect from that
of a mere man.
But we maintain that. the son alluded to in the text is the son
born in time, and not a son born from eternity. We maintain
that it is the human nature which Jehovah himself assumed and
glorified upon earth. In other words, by the son is here meant
the Divine Humanity, which is called Jesus Christ. This is
evident from the fact that John, speaking of the word made flesh,
calls him the only begotten of the father, (ch. i. 14.) And that
the word made flesh is Jesus Christ, is manifest : for John says,
(verse 14,) "The word was made flesh and dwelt among us,
full of grace and truth." Yet he says, (verse 17,) " but grace
and truth came by Jesus Christ." Jesus Christ, then, and the
word made flesh are one and the same. Again, (verse 15,)
John bare witness of him, (that is, of the word made flesh,) and
cried, saying, " This was he of whom I spake. He that cometh
after me, is preferred before me ; for he was before me." And,
(verses 29, 30,) " The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto
him, and saith. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away
the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said. After me

THE PROPER OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 133
cometh a man, which is preferred before me : for he was before
me :" — thus expressly and completely identifying Jesus with the
word made flesh. But Jesus and fhe word made flesh being the
same, and the word made flesh being the only begotten of the
father, Jesus, therefore, is the only begotten of the father.
This may be stfll further confirmed. For, in Matt. iii. 16,
17, it is said, " when Jesus was baptized, and went up out of
the water, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the
spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him.
And lo, a voice from heaven, saying, this is my beloved son,
in whom I am well pleased." And John, (i. 32, 34,) bare re
cord of Jesus, " saying, I saw fhe spirit descending from heaven
like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I saw and bare
record that this is the son of God." But he had said (verse 18,)
" No man hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten son,
which is in the bosom of the father, he hath declared him."
Now it appears from this, that there is but one son begotten
of God. And Jesus is shown to be the son of God, both by
the voice from heaven, and the express declaration of John his
forerunner. Jesus Christ, therefore, is the only begotten son
of God. So when Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and
John, (Matt. xvii. 1 — 5,) a voice out of the cloud said, " This
is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased ; hear ye him."
In this passage there cannot be a question that Jesus is desig
nated as the son of God.
But Jesus himself settles this point, by what he says in John,
(ix. 35 — 37,) to the man born blind, to whom he had given
sight, " Dost thou believe on the Son of God ? He answered
and said. Who is he. Lord, that I might believe on him ? And
Jesus said unto him. Thou hast both seen hira, and it is he that
talketh with thee :" — thus directly asserting that he was the
son of God. Now compare this with the eighteenth verse of the
first chapter of John already quoted, " No man hath seen God
at any time, the only begotten son, which is in the bosom of
the father, he hath declared him :" and you cannot for a mo-
13

134 THE SON OR REACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF DEITY
ment hesitate to admit that Jesus Christ is the only begotten
son of God.
You may gather this, too, from fhe First Epistle of John.
For instance, in ch. iv. 9, " In this was manifested the love of
God towards us, because that God sent his only begotten son
into the world, that we might live through him." And in verses
14, 15, " we have seen and do testify, that the father sent
the son to be the saviour of the world. Whosoever shall con
fess that Jesus is the son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he
in God." He had before said, too, in the second verse,
" Hereby know ye the spirit of God : every spirit that confess-
eth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God." Now
put these things together, and you cannot resist the conclusion,
that Jesus Christ is not only the son, but is the only begotten son
of God.
We feel warranted in asserting, then, that the idea of a son
of God born from eternity is no where held forth in the Word.
If you examine the Word attentively, you will find there is but
one son of God — an only begotten son, namely, the word
made flesh, which was a son begotten in time, and was called
Jesus Christ.
We admit that a son of God has existed ever since creation,
namely, the divine truth, which is the form and manifestation
of the divine goodness, and which is the word that was in the
beginning with God and was God, by whom every thing was
made that was made. And in the sense of proceeding from,
this son may be said to be born, from eternity. But it cannot
be said to be begotten, because this term implies a beginning to
exist. Nor can it be said to be born, so far as born and begot
ten are synonymous in this sense. For it is manifest that this
son was not born in this sense from eternity, because it is said
" In the beginning was the word," and eternity has no begin
ning. In fact, it is not possible that there could be any son of
God before creation ; because, according to this sacred record
itself, the son is he by whom all things were made : in other
words, the son is that emanation of the Divine Being which

THE PROPER OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 135
produces creation as an inevitable result. Thus the son can
no more exist without creation than a cause can exist without
its effect. The son is " the wisdom of God and the power of
God ;" and you see clearly that the wisdom and the power of
God cannot possibly exist but in his divine acts or operations,
which are the manifestations of his power and wisdom, and
these are creation. So that, as the wisdom of God and the
power of God can have no possible existence without the mani
festations of divine wisdom and power, thus without the works
of creation — just as, comparatively, the concussion of the atmo
sphere cannot exist without sound, or any other cause cannot
exist without its effect — in like manner the son of God could
have no possible existence without creation. And, therefore,
there could not possibly be a son of God born from eternity ;
because creation must take place in time. Hence we maintain
there is but one son of God — an only begotten son, namely the
word which was a son begotten in time. In the very begetting
of this son of God, time commenced. And hence it is said " In
the beginning was the word." And it is manifest that this son
of God, which was in the beginning, and Jesus Christ are the
same. For Jesus Christ was this very word made flesh.
Hence Paul speaks of Jesus Christ as " the same yesterday,
to-day and for ever." And John (1 Ep. iv. 3) says, " every
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh,
is not of God" — thus intimating that Jesus Christ had an exist
ence before he came in the flesh ; and of course w.as the son
of God that was in the beginning with God and was God. But
there is a distinction between a son existing or proceeding in
the beginning with God, and a son born or begotten of God.
The son existing in the beginning is the first or inmost mani
festation of the Divinity, that is, the most proximate sphere of
the divine essence ; and the son born, or, as Paul expresses it,
" the first begotten brought into the world," is the last or outer
most manifestation of the Divinity. The one is the Alpha, the
Other is the Omega. And as we cannot suppose a state of di
vine inaction ; hence must suppose creation infinite, and thus
as far as our conceptions go, eternal, there must have been, in

136 THE SON OR REACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF DEITY
one sense, a son of God existing from eternity — that is, there
must have been a son of God in every point of time : thus a
son of God has existed throughout all time ; and all time is to
us eternal time. But the son of God was born in one point of
time ; and of course was not born or begotten from eternity.
Hence it is said that the word which was in the beginning was
made flesh, and dwelt among us : that is, the divine truth came
into a state and form accommodated to our perceptions ; and thus
the infinite was finited for our salvation.
There is, then, clearly a distinction between a son horn or
existing from eternity and a son born or begotten from eternity.
And though, in a certain sense, we may suppose a son of God
to have existed from eternity, yet it is totally absurd to suppose
a son of God begotten from eternity. The truth is that the son
of God existing from eternity, was born in time. And thus the
son existing and the son born are the same. Wherefore, we
say there is but one son of God. And we say there was an
only begotten son, namely, fhe word made flesh. For the son
which is in the beginning, that is, the word itself which was
made flesh, was not also the begotten son of God ; because
John expressly says " the word was God." Hence God him
self was made flesh ; and for this reason the child which was
conceived of the holy ghost and born of the virgin, was called
Emmanuel, God-with-us. This child was also called Jesus be
cause he saves his people from their sins ; and Jesus Christ,
because in him dwells all the fulness of the godhead bodily :
and these two terms signify that fulness, Jesus signifying the
divine good, and Christ, the divine truth.
.lesus Christ, then, or the son born in time, or the divine hu
man nature of Jehovah God, which he manifested and glorified
upon earth, is the son referred to in our text. And hence our
text, at the time it was written, had a prophetic bearing, and
referred fo the Messiah who was then to come, and not to a
son who had existed from eternitj^
Paul also shows this clearly and unequivocally in his Epistle to
the Hebrews, in which he quotes a passage of this very Psalm,
and applies it expressly to Christ — as you will find in the fifth

THE PROPER OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 137
chapter at the fifth verse. " So also Christ glorified not himself
to be made a high priest ; but He that said unto him. Thou art
my son, to-day have I begotten thee." Thus he shows, without
a shadow of doubt, that the son alluded to in our text is Jesus
Christ, and not a son who had been born from eternity and who
had an individuahty distinct from the father. For he not only
in express language identifies Christ with the son mentioned in
our text, but says he " glorified not himself:" whereas, if he,
as to his divine nature, had been an individuality distinct from
the father and yet equal with the father, he would have glori
fied himself by his own proper power.
Here we may observe, by the way, the fallacy of those who
ground salvation upon a righteousness wrought out by the son
to appease the father. For the righteousness of the son must
have been his glory. And hence the righteousness which he
wrought out must have been the glorification of himself. Yet
he did not glorify himself by any distinctive power. But the
father glorified him. The same doctrine is taught by the Lord
where he says, (John, xii. 28,) " Father glorify thy name :"
and again, (John, xiii. 31,) " Now is the Son of Man glorified,
and God is glorified in him." Hence the righteousness of Jesus
Christ is the righteousness of the father in him. And it is ab
surd to suppose that the father wrought out a righteousness to
appease his own wrath.
But, to return, if now Christ was the son of God alluded to
in the text, and he had not a divine self-hood, that is, an appro
priate divine nature distinct from the father, but was divine by
virtue of the glorification which the father wrought in him —
then the son of God to which the text alludes, is not a distinct
divine individuality born from eternity. This view Paul con
firms, when he says, in the beginning of the epistle, " God, who
at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets, hath, in these last days, spoken
unto us by his son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the worlds ; who, being the brightness
of his glory, and the express image of his substance, and up.
holding all things by the word of his power, when he had hy
13*

138 THE SON OR REACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF DEITY
himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
Majesty on High, being made so much better than the angels,
as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than
they. For unto which of the angels said he at any time. Thou
art my son, this day have I begotten thee ?" And again, " I
will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son ?" And
again, " when he bringeth in the first-begotten into the world,
he saith. Let all the angels of God worship him." (ch. i. 1 — 6.)
Could any thing be more to the point than this quotation?
Here Paulmentions God's speaking to us in these last days by
his son : thus showing that the son is the humanity which was
born in time.
But especially mark these words: "When he bringeth the
first-begotten into the world, he saith. Let all the angels of God
worship him." By this passage all we are contending for is
established. For it shows that the fir st-hegotten was brought
into the world . of course, he was not begotten from eternity.
This term first-begotten, may signify, either that which was
begotten in the beginning now brought forth in this particular
point of time, or what is now begotten for the first time. But
in either case it must allude to only one begotten. For if it
does not, and if it alludes to priority of birth in one among
several, then it would follow that there are more than one be
gotten. But it has been clearly shown that the son of God is
his only begotten son. The first and only begotten son, then,
was the son which was brought into the world. Consequently,
there could not have been a son begotten from eternity.
Moreover, the angels of God are expressly commanded to
worship t\i\s son which was brought into the world. For it is
said, " Let all the angels of God worsship him." Now, if the
angels of God are to worship this son, surely he ought to be
worshiped by men.
Thus this single passage of Paul proves the two points for
which we have been contending, namely, that there is not a son
born from eternity, but a son born in time ; and that the son
born in time, that is the human nature of the Lord, ought to be
yy:orshiped. And in the fourth chapter, at the fourteenth verse^

THE PROPER OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 139
we find Paul saying, " we have a great high priest that is passed
into the heavens, Jesus, the son of God." Here he most
clearly identifies Jesus with the son of God. Wherefore Jesus
is the first-begotten who was brought into the world, whom
angels were commanded to worship, and whom consequentiy
men ought to worship.
Thus, then, is it established that Jesus Christ is the son re
ferred to in the text, and therefore is the legitimate and sole
object of christian worship. On another occasion we shall
show that Jesus Christ was worshiped when upon earth.
The remainder of our text suggests so much matter of the
most important consideration that our time will not allow us to
dwell upon it. We will therefore conclude by illustrating it
with one or two familiar comparisons.
It is conceded on all hands that the Creator of the Universe,
"who only hath immortality, dwells in light which no man can
approach unto." Hence, in his essential nature, he is a being
" whom no man hath seen, nor can see." Yet, as he is the
source of all life and blessedness, it is manifest that man can
not enjoy the felicities of eternal life without conjunction with
him. If, then, the great and glorious Jehovah did not descend
from his essential and hidden nature, and, by an accommodated
presentation make himself approachable and apprehensible by
man, it is perfectly clear that man could not possibly enjoy the
blessedness of eternal life. Now, to render himself approach
able and apprehensible by man, Jehovah must make himself the
subject of man's thought and affection. For the whole of man
is referable to two universal principles of his being, namely,
his love and his wisdom. Love is his essential life, and wisdom
is^the form which that life acquires to itself by the reception and
appropriation of truth. From love comes will and perception :
from wisdom comes understanding and thought. Love feels,
wisdom sees. The object of love is good: the object of wisdom
is truth. Truth is the form of a thing, good is its quality.
Truth, abstractly, is form, in which good inheres as quality.
Hence fhe love of man perceives, that is, feels good, and the
wisdom of man understands, that is, sees truth. The thought

140 THE SON OR REACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF DEITY
of man is nothing more than his mental cognizance of some
form in his imaginative faculty. And when his thought is the
mental cognizance of the entire form of a thing, he is said to un
derstand ihat thing. And the form of a thing thus taken cog
nizance of by the mind's seeing faculty, is a medium whereby
the affection of the love perceives, feels, and delights in the
good of that thing, which is its essence manifesting itself as the
quality of its form. And it is perfectly clear that nothing can
approach, or come into man, which does not thus enter by his
thought into his affection. For, although good may flow from
the Lord immediately into the will and its affections, still, if there
were not truth in the understanding, or knowledge and science
in the life, to react upon it, it would pass off unperceived, and
without any abiding place.'
Now it is self-evident that an essence cannot exist out of its
form ; and therefore cannot be perceived out of its form. But,
from what has been said, it is clear that the quality of a form
cannot be perceived, until the form itself is a subject of thought.
Hence, if an essence does not present itself in form, so that its
form can be seen in thought, it is totally impossible that man can
ever know any thing about, or be aflected with, that essence.
This is universal. And hence unless Jehovah, who is the Es
sence of all essences, presents himself in form so that his form
also can be seen in thought, it is totally impossible that man
can ever know any thing about, or feel any affection for, him.
Now the form of Jehovah is the wisdom, or the word, or the
truth of God ; and this form is presented to fhe thought of man
in Jesus Christ, who is the word made flesh. Hence, if man
does not think of Jesus Christ as God, it is totally impossible
for him ever to know any thing about, or to feel any affection
for, God. And therefore, if he rejects Jesus Christ as God,
he must sink in endless perdition. For there is " no other
name given under heaven whereby we can be saved." This is
the reason that we are commanded to kiss the son. And this is
the reason why, if we do not kiss the son, we must perish !
The case, then, is this : Jehovah in his essential nature is
invisible and unapproachable by man. But man cannot be blest

THE PROPER OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 141
unless he does in some measure see, approach and become con
joined to Jehovah. And man cannot spiritually see, approach
and become conjoined to Jehovah, unless Jehovah so presents
himself in form that he can be an object of man's thought and
affection. In order, therefore, to save and bless man, Jehovah
has actually so presented himself in form in the person of his
only begotten son. If, then, man denies and rejects this son,
he must inevitably be lost.
The fact is, that man is fallen. By a perversion and abuse of
his faculties he has so estranged himself from his Heavenly
Father that he is utterly unfit for conjunction with him, and
unless his nature is changed, he must plunge into remediless
ruin. Now in this his deplorable condition, Jehovah, — who is
a being of infinite love and mercy, who desires not the death
of a sinner, but had rather he would turn from his wickedness
and live, and whose bowels of tender mercies yearn over his
fallen creatures with infinite compassion, — descends to earth,
and so accommodates himself to man that he can communicate
with him, and, by imparting to him his divine life, can raise
him from the defilemeiits in which he is immersed to the purity
and bliss of heaven. This is the way which Jehovah has ac
tually adopted. And we are to presume that this is the only
way in which man can be redeemed or saved. For, as we have
said on another occasion, it is clear that infinite wisdom can take
but one course to attain the ends of divine love — namely, the best
course : and, therefore, the way which infinite wisdom actually
does point out for man's salvation, is the only way in which he
can be adequately saved. Consequently, if man neglects this
way — if he will not come unto his God thus manifested, that he
may have life — if he perversely marks out for himself some
other way than that which has been indicated by Him who is
"the way, the truth, and the life," what alternative can there
be but that he must perish !
To feel the force of the latter clause of our text still more
strongly, we may use the following illustration. Suppose all
men were labouring under an epidemic disease, which so pros
trated their strength, and paralysed their faculties, that they

142 THE SON OR REACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF DEITY
could neither devise a remedy for themselves, nor apply one
when devised. And suppose a spiritual agent was to enter into
a body like to theirs, undergo himself the disease, and by con
formity to the rules of the most perfect medical skill, cure his
own body and gain that sensible experience of the nature of
the disease which would enable him to prescribe for the cure
and restoration to perfect health of those who were dying around
him. But suppose, because he appeared to be a weak mortal
like themselves, they were to despise him, scorn his prescrip
tions, and, in the dehrium of their disordered imaginations, were
to eat and drink those things which were most palatable to their
diseased appetites: would not death be the inevitable consequence,
and a death aggravated by pains and torments proportioned to
the indulgence of their morbid propensities?
Now this is precisely what results in a spiritual way to those
who reject Jesus Christ as the manifested Jehovah healing the
body of human nature which he assumed in the womb of the
virgin, and who imagine salvation to consist in any thing but a
life according to his commandments. This natural picture por
trays most accurately the present spiritual condition of the world.
We have estranged ourselves from God. We have degene
rated from the purity, and lost the bliss, of angelic perfection.
We are spiritually diseased. Our moral strength is prostrated,
and our spiritual faculties are paralyzed. And though we think
we live, and are glorying and boasting in our strength, it is
nothing but feverish excitement, and the ravings of delirium.
We are sunk in selfishness and worldly-mindedness. " The
whole head is sick, and the whole heart is faint. From the
sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it;
bul wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores : they have not
been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment."
(Is. i.) And in this our state of utter helplessness, Jehovah
himself has descended. The Great Physician of Souls has
visited us. He has taken upon himself our diseased body. By
conforming to the prescriptions of divine truth, he has restored
it to perfect health. And by and through the mode of treat
ment in this his own case, he has left us such a curative

THE PROPER OBJECT OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 143
formulary — such rules of life — as will, by his continued assist
ance, enable us, in like manner, to attain to spiritual health.
He has himself overcome "the world, the flesh and the devil,"
and has commanded us to deny ourselves, to take up our cross
daily, and to follow hira. He has commanded us to mortify
our selfish propensities, to renounce the world, and to love God
supremely and our neighbour as ourselves. For without this
love, we can never enjoy conjunction with him, nor consociation
with angels in heaven, but must die the second death.
But mankind, too generally, are not willing to give up them
selves and the world. They maintain that self-love is natural
to us, and therefore allowable. And, instead of following the
Lord's example, and pouring out their " soul even unto death"
— instead of being willing to " lose their life for the Lord's sake,
that they might find it" — instead of being willing " to lay down
their life for the brethren" — they set about refining the princi
ple of self-love, and maintain that, when properly regulated, it
is the fountain head of virtue. Thus they take their cure into
their own hands ; and in their fancied strength and superior wis
dom, they despise the humiliating prescriptions of the meek and
humble Jesus. They " will not have this man to rule over
them." They make to theraselves a god, whom they worship,
and whom they can worship, without giving up self. They
pass by and slight the appointed mediura of their salvation — turn
frora Him who " giveth that water which would be in them a
well of water springing up into everlasting life," and " hew
out to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, which will hold no
water." They create for theraselves imaginary heavens in the
delights of forbidden loves, and so confirm themselves in the
principles which justify these loves and make them seem allow
able, as to render their minds impervious to the light of heaven,
and their hearts callous to its sanative effects. In vain, then,
does the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings :
for the morbid state of their affections turns his genial influences
into effects of a contrary nature, and their imraortal souls perish
as to all that is good, and exist only as loathsome forms of
spiritual putrescence. Love to God — that heavenly flame which

144 THE SON THE PROPER OBJECT OF WORSHIP.
warms and dilates angelic hearts — becomes in their breasts
the love of self. And this principle with all its appearances of
life, is death. Yes! refine it, gild it, polish it as you may, it is
nothing else but death ! For it is death to the Lord's life: and
therefore it is death to heaven — death to angelic consociation
and angelic bliss !
This is the death which man inevitably dies when he goes
away from the Lord Jesus Christ to any other as having the
words of eternal life. For God hath given to him a name which
is above every name. The divine essence which was in Jesus
by conception, has by its full development in his character,
given him the quality of divine truth and divine goodness. And
that soul whose knee bows not at fhe name of Jesus, or whose
tongue confesses not that he is Lord — that soul whose under
standing does not bend its own intelhgence, and see and receive
truth as it is in Jesus, and whose will and affections do not
perceive that the good which is in Jesus is the divine good, and
do not appropriate that good to themselves, and thus do not be
come good as he is good — that soul whose knee does not thus
bend at the name of Jesus, and whose tongue does not thus
confess that he is Lord ; that soul, I say, does not and cannot
" with the heart believe unto righteousness, and with the mouth
make confession unto salvation" — that soul does not and cannot
swell with the heavings of divine benevolence, and thus live in
the activities correspondent to divine beneficence, but must die
the death of .sordid and unmingled selfishness !

SERMON IX.
MATTHEW, XXVIII. 9.
" And they came and held him by the feet, and worshiped him."
In our last discourse we showed conclusively that the son is
to be worshiped ; and as conclusively that by this son, is not
meant a son born from eternity, but a son begotten in time —
that is, a human nature and form manifested by Jehovah God
himself upon earth, and called Jesus Christ. Hence we have
shown upon scriptural authority, that Jesus Christ ought to be
directly worshiped. And we have now to prove that he was
actually worshiped when on earth.
A preliminary question here naturally presents itself — what
is worship ? Worship consists in two things, an internal feel
ing and an external act. It is a feeling of reverence, awe and
profound humiliation proceeding from fear or love, and accom
panied by a correspondent bodily prostration. The Divine
Being is the only proper object of this feeling, and before him
alone should we thus prostrate ourselves. For he only is
possessed of those perfections which deserve our supreme love.
He is all-good, all-wise and almighty ; and all goodness, wis
dom and power in others are derived from him. Hence be has
expressly commanded, " Thou shalt have no other gods before
me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any
likeness, of any thing in heaven above, or that is in the earth
beneath, or that is in the water under the earth : thou shalt not
bow down thyself to them, or serve them." (Exod. xx. 3 — 5.)
And again, " Thou shalt worship fhe Lord thy God, and him
only shalt thou serve." (Matt. iv. 10.) But men, having be-
14

146 • THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
come estranged from God, in their ignorance, their weakness
and their wickedness, have " worshiped and served the creature
more than the Creator." They actually worship whatever they
love or fear. And when they know nothing of the true God, or
do not love him, they attribute what is divine to the objects
which they do love or fear, and pay them that honour and
reverence which is due to God only.
By superior knowledge, greater power, or in some other way,
some men can command the lives and property, or control the
welfare of others ; and thus become the objects of love or fear
to those who are in this way subject to them. And when this
love or fear is in activity, it produces a greater or less prostra
tion of the body, according to the' intensity of the feeling.
Hence a subject prostrates himself before his king — a captive
before his conqueror — a lover before his mistress — the suppliant
of mercy before the highwayman who is about to take his life.
This is the reason that we incline our bodies in bowing to those
whom we respect or love, or whose favour we wish for any
reason to conciliate. This is the deference which we invariably
pay to goodness, or wisdom, or power. And it is a deference
paid fo men on account of those qualities which, when consi
dered abstractedly from them, are divine.
So far as this deference is paid to the qualities of goodness,
wisdom, or power themselves as divine, and to men for the
sake of them, so far it is proper : for it is the worshiping the
Creator in the creature as his legitimate representative. For
this reason, reverence and respect paid to a king, or other chief
ruler, a governor, a judge, or a priest, are proper : because the
principles of royalty, justice, judgment and priesthood are in
themselves holy. Hence Paul says, " Let every soul be subject
unto the higher powers ; for there is no power but of God ; the
powers that be are ordained of God." (Rom. xiii. 1.) " Ren
der, therefore, honour to whom honour is due." (verse 7.)
' ' Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double
honour." (I Tim. v. 17.) And Peter says, (1 Ep. ii. 17,)
" Horiour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour
the king."

WAS WORSHIPED WHEN ON EARTH. 147
But so far as this deference is paid to men themselves on ac
count of these qualities as their own, so far it is wrong: be
cause it is attributing what is divine to men, and is thus idolatry.
Hence, when Herod, as recorded in Acts, xii. took to himself
the honour due to God, "the angel of the Lord smote him be
cause he gave not God the glory : and he was eaten of worms,
and gave up the ghost."
This distinction it is important we should keep in mind. Let
us, therefore, repeat it. Reverence paid to men on account of
what is good and true as divine in them, is the worship of God
in them : but reverence paid to men themselves, on account of
what is good and true as their own in them is the worship of
the creature instead of the Creator, and is idolatry.
From what has been said, it follows, that divine worship is
reverence paid to a being on account of divine virtues supposed
to be in him as his own. It is perfectly evident that this wor
ship can be legitimately rendered to none but God ; for he alone
has divine virtues in him as his own. Reverence paid to those
who have divine virtues delegated to them by him, is not the
worship of them, but of him in thera. It is hke the respect paid
to the ambassador of a king ; which is not paid to him in his
proper person, but to him as the representative of his sovereign.
In order to show, then, that Jesus Christ was worshiped when
on earth, we must make it appear that he was reverenced on
account of divine virtues supposed to be in him as his own.
That Jesus Christ was thus reverenced, appears from two
facts : first, that he had divine virtues in him as his own ; and,
second, that people paid him adoration on account of them.
That the Lord had divine virtues as his own, appears from
his own words. Life in itself is divinity ; and of course is the
fountain of all divine virtues. But Jesus says, (John, v. 26,)
" As the father has life in himself, so hath he given to the son
to have life in himself;" thus Jesus, who is the son, has life in
himself; which implies the possessing, and the power of impart
ing, every divine virtue. John, too, speaking of him, says,
" In him was life, and the life was the light of men." (i. 4.)
Jesus again says, (xi. 25,) " I am the resurrection and the

148 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
life." And that he is the source of this life to men, he inti
mates (v. 4) where he says to the Jews, " ye will not come to
me, that ye might have life." That this life is in him as his
own, is moreover manifest from what he says in chapter x. 17,
18, " Therefore doth my father love me, because I lay down
my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from
me, but I lay it down of myself: 1 have power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it again." And there can be no
doubt that he assumed to himself this as a divine attribute, as
any one will be convinced, if he reads on in this chapter. For
when he had said in verse 30, " I and my father are one,"
the Jews took up stones to stone him, because "he, being a
man, made himself God." (verse 33.)
Again, the forgiving of sins is a divine virtue. It is the ex
ercise of a power which belongs to God only. Yet Jesus
assumed to himself this power, and actually did forgive sins ;
as appears from Mark, ii. — where he says to the sick of the
palsy, " Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." And when certain
of the Scribes reasoned in their hearts " Why doth this man
thus speak blasphemies ? who can forgive sins but God only?"
he, by an ocular demonstration of divine power, showed them
that " the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins."
Thus by his own express declaration it appears that he had
the divine virtue of forgiving sins.
And that the Lord possessed all divine virtues, is summarily
declared by him in these words, (John, xvi. 15,) "All things
that the father hath are mine."
We might go on to show that Jesus had divine virtues in
him as his own, by many other declarations of his ; but these
will suffice.
That the Lord had divine virtues in him as his own, appears
also from his acts. It is a divine virtue to raise the dead. But
this he did, in the cases of Lazarus and the widow's son. It is
by the exercise of divine virtue that the sick are miraculously
healed, the lame are made to walk, the deaf to hear, those born
blind are restored to sight, and devils are cast out; but all
these things Jesus did in ways and instances so numerous, that

WAS WORSHIPED WHEN ON EARTH. 149
it would take hours to repeat and comment on them. And that
he did these from himself, is evident from the fact that when
the Jews threatened to stone him because he assumed to him
self this power, he justified himself by asserting that he and
God were one — that the father was in him, and he in the father.
Had he been a mere man, and hence acted by a delegated divine
power, he would have been anxious, as a good man, to do away
even the appearance of assuming the power and the glory to
himself: and, especially as the Jews accused him of blasphemy,
he would have strenuously denied that he took any honour to
himself, and would have expressly ascribed the power and
given the honour solely to God. Instead of this he did not
attempt to undo the impression in the minds of the Jews that
he, though to appearance a man, made himself God ; but goes
on to reason with them, and show, that there was an absolute
unity between him and God, and thus that he had divine power
in himself. He even made it a requisite or a condition of ira-
parting these divine influences, that they should believe he had
the power. Thus, when the two blind men followed him, cry
ing and saying, " Son of David, have mercy on us," he " saith
unto thera. Believe ye that / am able to do this ? They said
unto him. Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying,
According to your faith be it unto you." Now if this was not
acting in his own strength, and if it was not taking to himself
the praise of it, we are utterly at a loss to know what could be.
It is true that the Lord elsewhere says, " I can of mine own
self do nothing." (John, v. 30.) "The father that dwelleth in
me, he doeth the works." (xiv. 10.) But this he says, not to
disclaim the power he exercised as his own — not to show that
he was a mere man, and thus a mere passive agent of God,
like a prophet or an apostle ; but to show that he was not an
individuality distinct from the father, but did the works from
the father in him as a soul ; thus to show his absolute unity
with God, and that he had power to do what he did by virtue
of divinity in him as his own. For, in the context, he had
said that he himself is the father, and he utters these words to
confirm that assertion. Therefore these words of his taken in con-
14 *

150 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
nexion with what goes before, evidently mean that he, as a mere
human being, without the father, would have no life or existence
at all, and thus no power whatever, just as a body would have
no life without its soul . because he and the father are so inti
mately united as to be one, just as the soul and body of man
are one.
To see this, it is only necessary to read the context. The
Lord said to Philip, " If ye had known me, ye should have
known my father also : and from henceforth ye know him and
have seen him." When Philip could not conceive how he had
seen the father as he had only seen Jesus, and begged the Lord
to show them the father because that would be enough, Jesus
proceeds to say unto hira " Have I been so long time with you,
and yet hast thou not known me, Phihp ? he that hath seen
me hath seen the father. Believest thou not that I am in the
father, and the father in me?" Then follow the words we
quoted above, "The words that I speak unto you, I speak not
of myself: but the father that dvifelleth in me, he doeth the
works. Believe me that I am in the father, and the father in
me : or else believe me for the very works' sake." Hence it
is evident that he says this to show, not that he is a mere man,
but that he is God, and that there is no more distinction be
tween him and God, than there is between a manifested form
and its hidden essence, or between a soul and its body. And
as they could not yet believe him on his assertion — because
the appearance of his being a mere man was yet so strong — he
refers them to the works as an incontrovertible evidence of the
truth of what he says. He says that he is the father — not sent
by the father, or the accredited agent of the father — but the
father himself. And the evidence he gives is, that he does the
works of the father. Now, if he did not do the works himself,
from the father as a soul in him, but the father, as a separate
person, did the works by him as an agent ; then the works
would be no evidence 'that he was the father, but only that he
was the agent of the father. But as he asserts that he is the
father, and gives the works as an evidence of the fact ; he evi-
dentiy asserts that he does the works himself by a power which

WAS WORSHIPED WHEN ON EARTH. 151
is in him as his own, and not by a delegated power : that is,
that he does the works from the father dwelling in him ; and
not from the father dwelling above him, and acting on him, as
would be the case were he a mere man, acting by a delegated
power. It was necessary, too, that the Lord should have shown his
absolute unity with the father by saying " I can of mine own
self do nothing" — " the father that dwelleth in me he doeth the
works:" because, as he invariably did these works of himself,
and thus by a divine power in himself, if he had not shown his
oneness with the father, he would have countenanced the idea,
now so generally prevalent, that he had a divinity in him sepa
rate and distinct frora fhe father. For, as he invariably assumed
to himself divine power, and acted from a power avowedly his
own, if this power had not been shown to be identical with the
father's, then the conclusion would have been that there are
two divine powers — thus two gods : or, at, least, that there are
two persons, of distinct, and separate, and equal power, in the
godhead. But by thus identifying his power with the father's,
and himself with the father, he completely subverted the idea of
distinct duality in the godhead, which he, doubtless, in his
omniscience foresaw would exist, and left no scriptural founda
tion for this thing of mere human devising.
The acts of Jesus Christ, then, show that he had divine vir
tues in him as his own. The acts themselves were divine ;
and, as he did them himself, he gave them as an evidence that
he was God. Hence, when John sent two of his disciples to
Jesus to know whether he were the true Messiah, Jesus com
manded them to go and show John again the things which they
heard and saw, thus to show his works, as the evidence of his
messiahship. And the Lord invariably spoke and acted, as we have said,
from a power avowedly his own. Thus, when he raised, the
widow's son, "he said. Young man, I say unto thee arise."
He did not command him to arise in the name of the father,
as the apostles did in his name afterwards, but, without even

152 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
mentioning the father, or alluding to the father, he himself
commanded him to arise : thus clearly showing that he raised
the young man from the dead, by a power which was his own.
So, too, at the grave of Lazarus, " he cried with a loud voice,
Lazarus, come forth" — without mentioning the father's name.
It is true, that he previously addressed fhe father : but this he
did, as he expressly said, for the sake of those who stood by,
that they might know that the father had sent hira — that is, that
he proceeded from the father as a sphere from its essence — that
the father was in him as a soul — that he was born from the father
—that he acted from the father's power in him as his own, thus
from a divine power, thus, that he was not a mere man, but a
divine man. So, again, when he commanded the sick of the
palsy " to arise, take up his bed, and go his way into his house,"
he did not fake care to inform the by-standers, as he should
have done, if he had been a mere man, that he was exercising
merely a delegated power from the father ; but he did it expressly
to show that he himself had power on earth to forgive sins,
which he knew that they were aware was a power which God
alone could exercise.
Thus the Lord invariably acted by his own authority and in
his own strength. And herein he differed from the apostles,
and all others who are stated, in the Bible, to have manifested
miraculous powers. For the apostles invariably performed
miracles in the name of Jesus, as is abundantly seen in the
record of their acts ; and they always utterly disclaimed honours
on account of these acts as their own. So Moses performed
signs and wonders in Egypt in the name of Jehovah, and at
his express command. And all know that Moses and Aaron
were not permitted to enter the promised land, because they did
not " sanctify the Lord in the eyes of the children of Israel,"
when they brought water for them out of fhe rock.
Thus, then, it appears, both from his words and his acts, that
the Lord Jesus Christ had divine virtues in him as his own.
But, secondly, it appears that Jesus Christ was worshiped
when on earth, from the fact that people paid him adoration on

WAS WORSHIPED WHEN ON EARTH. 153
account of these divine virtues in him as his own. To show
this fact, all we have to do, is to present those passages of the
New Testament, in which it is said he was worshiped.
It will be recollected that the conception and birth of Jesus
was altogether miraculous. The proceeding divine sphere
overshadowed fhe virgin ; and, therefore, that which was con
ceived in her was of the holy ghost. The angel of the Lord
dictated to Joseph the child's name; and he was called Jesus
because he was to save his people frora their sins. Jehovah by
bis prophet had himself foretold this event, in these words :
" Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son,
and they shall call his narae Eraraanuel, which, being interpreted,
is, God-with-us." Thus Jesus in his very conception and birth
was divine. He was not born of a mere human parent, and
thus frora a mere man at first afterwards made divine : but he
was divine in the very beginning, and from the instant he was
brought into the world he was God with us. And his subse
quent life on earth was not an acquisition, but a development
of godhead. Hence, when the wise men from the East, —
miraculously conducted from Jerusalem to Bethlehem where
the young child was by a star, — had come into the house and
seen the young child with Mary his mother, they fell down and
worshiped him : and when they had opened their treasures,
they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and
myrrh." (Matt ii. 11.) Here you see there was profound
reverence paid to Jesus, and paid to him as God. The wise men
did not say any thing about the farther — they did not say any
thing about Jesus as the accredited messenger of the father —
they did not worship the father for his sake; but they "wor
shiped him." And they came, propelled by a spiritual in
fluence, and led by a miraculous guide, for the purpose of
worshiping him. They came " from the East to Jerusalem,
Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we
have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him."
(ii. 2.) And they came fo worship him as God with us — as
Jesus, who was to save his people from their sins. Thus they
worshiped him on account of his saving power, which was a

154 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
divine virtue in him as his own: because Ae was to save Ais
people. Thus do we establish the divinity of Jesus Christ upon
the letter of his Word.
Again, in Matt. viii. 2, 3, we find these words : "And behold
there came a leper, and worshiped him, saying^ Lord, if thou
wilt, thou canst make rae clean. And Jesus put forth his hand,
and touched him, saying, / will ; be thou clean. And imme
diately his leprosy was cleansed." Here you see an exercise
of divine power, proceeding from his own will, without any
mention of the father. And you behold the prostrate adoration
of the leper, who worshiped hira on this account. He wor
shiped him, because he believed he could heal him if he would.
It was evidently an act of divine adoration, and it was paid to
Jesus in his proper person. The man evidently meant it as
such ; and Jesus as evidently received it as such.
In Matt. ix. 18, it is said, " Behold there came a certain ruler,
and worshiped him, saying. My daughter is even now dead :
but come and lay thy band upon her, and she shall live." Here
reverence was paid to the Lord, because it was believed he
could raise the dead to life, which is a divine power. And as
there was no mention made of God as distinct from .Tesus, either
by the ruler or by Jesus, it is evident that this reverence was
paid to Jesus himself, on account of this divine power.
In the fourteenth chapter of Matthew, is this remarkable re
lation : "And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to
ifet into a ship, and to go before him unto fhe other side, while
he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the mul
titudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray : and
when the evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship
was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves : for the
wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of fhe night,
Jesus went unto thera, walking on the sea. And when the dis
ciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying.
It is a spirit : and they cried out for fear. But straightway
Jesus spake unto them, saying. Be of good cheer: it is I ; be
not afraid. And Peter answered him and said. Lord, if it be
thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said. Come.

WAS WORSHIPED WHEN ON EARTH. 155
And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on
the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boiste
rous, he was afraid ; and, beginning to sink, he cried, saying.
Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his
hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith,
wherefore didst thou doubt ? And when they were come into
the ship, the wind ceased. Then they that were in the ship
came and worshiped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son
of God." This passage needs no comment. There can be no
doubt, that, whatever we at the present time may think of
Jesus, they, at that day, worshiped him as a divine being.
In the fifteenth chapter, is the account of a woman of Canaan,
who came unto Jesus, saying, " Have mercy on me, Lord, thou
son of David ; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.
But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came aud
besought him saying. Send her away ; for she crieth after us.
But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. Then came she, and worshiped him,
saying. Lord, help me." And after her great importunity had
drawn from the Lord the exclamation " O woman, great is thy
faith !" he said, " be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her
daughter was made whole from that very hour." Here you see
the Lord supplicated for mercy, which is a divine gift ; and
adoration paid to him on account of his power of casting out
devils : a power exercised in this case without the bodily pre-
.sence of the person frora v/hom the devil was cast out. Which
circumstance strikingly evinces the divine power of the Lord,
and, together with other instances, peculiarly distinguishes his
acts from the miraculous operations of mere human agents.
For this circumstance shows that bodily presence was not ne
cessary for the exercise of his power ; and thus indicates his
omnipresence. As to the Lord's being sent unto the lost sheep of the house
of Israel, we are not to infer from this any separation of indi
viduality ; because this word sent is to be understood in a
spiritual sense. We are to suppose that the father sends the
son, not as one person sends another person, from one part of

156 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
space to another, but as a cause sends its effect — thus as the
soul forms to itself a body, or as affection sends thought, and
thought speech. In fact, theson is an emanation of the hidden,
the invisible and the unapproachable divine essence, by which
that essence is brought forth and made apprehensible and per
ceptible to human minds. Hence the father sends the son as
any emanating body sends its emanation — thus as a luminous
body sends light. And in spiritual language, Israel represents
the spiritual church, that is, the church as to the love, tinder-
standing and life of truth. House signifies good. Thus house
of Israel signifies the good of the spiritual church. Sheep sig
nifies innocence. Lost sheep, one who is in error or false
principles innocently — thus one who is in a fallen state by
hereditary transmission without known, voluntary and actual
transgression. Therefore, the Lord's being sent to the lost
sheep of the house of Israel, means an out-birth of the divine
essence, whereby the essential divine qualities of goodness and
of truth were accoraraodafed to the good or well-disposed of
the spiritual church, who were in a fallen state. And hence,
when the Lord Jesus says, he was sent, it does not iraply that
he is separate frora the father.
Wherefore, when the woman, crying for mercy, worshiped
Jesus, she evidently regarded him as the fountain of mercy,
thus as one with God. Mercy is a divine virtue. The woman
supposed this virtue to be in Jesus. And therefore she wor
shiped him. Thus it is seen by this example that Jesus was
worshiped on earth on account of a divine virtue supposed to
be in him as his own.
Having read to you the chapter frora which our text is taken,
I need not repeat to you the context. Considering the view
which his followers had had of his character — considering that
they had heard him speak as never man spake — had witnessed
his performance of acts which a divine being alone could per
form — had heard his express declarations that he was one with
the father, and, of course, was God — had beheld the dazzling
splendour of his divine countenance when transfigured on the
mount — had seen the veil of the temple rent, the heavens hung

WAS WORSHIPED WHEN ON EARTH. 157
in black, the sun turned to blood, and the quaking earth by its
convulsions bearing trembling testimony to the awful consum
mation of his crucifixion — considering all this, need we wonder,
that, on beholding him again, risen from the dead, and, doubt
less, beaming fuller divine majesty from his disencumbered
body, they should prostrate themselves in the profoundest
veneration ? And while we behold them clasping his feet, can
we doubt that they are worshiping hira as God?
It is said, in the seventeenth verse, that the eleven, having
gone away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had ap
pointed them, when they saw him, worshiped him : but some
doubted. It does not say of what they doubted — whether it
was of the reality of his existence or of his being the divine
person which they supposed him to be. The fact of his ascen
sion from the dead might have appeared to them an illusion.
They might have supposed his appearance an apparition. Or
supposing hira to be really alive, the appearance that ho was a
mere man being still so strong, they might have doubted that
he was the divine being which his whole life on earth, and even
the circumstances attending his crucifixion, had declared him
to be. Probably they doubted in both these respects. And
without question, the unbelieving Thomas was among the some
who doubted here. But, if we turn to the twentieth chapter of
John, we shall see how effectually his doubts were removed.
" And, after eight days, again his disciples were within, and
Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut,
and stood in the midst, and said. Peace be unto you. Then
said he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my
hands ; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side :
and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and
said unto hira. My Lord, and ray God." Mark Thomas's an
swer — " My Lord, and my God." Can there be any question
now that Thomas considered Jesus Christ as God 1 And hence
can there be any question that the other disciples, who were
less unbelieving than he, when they worshiped Jesus worshiped
hira as God? When, therefore, Luke says, (xxiv. 52,) " And
15

158 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
he led them out as far as Bethany; and he lifted up his hands
and blessed them — And it came to pass, while he blessed them,
he was parted from them, and carried up info heaven — And they
worshiped him;" we are to understand that they paid adora
tion to him as a divine being.
The last instance, which we shall notice, in which it is
expressly said that Jesus was worshiped, is in John, ix. 38.
Nearly the whole of the chapter is, taken up in giving an
account of his restoring to sight a man who was born blind,
and the fermentation which this produced among the Jews.
They tried to prevail upon the man to " give God the praise,"
by denying that Jesus had wrought this miracle upon him. But
he persisted in thinking, and argued to convince them, that
Jesus was the Christ ; until, indignant at the thought that he,
" who was altogether born in sin, should presume to teach
them," they cast him out. And when Jesus heard that they
had cast him out, and had found hira, he said unto him, " Dost
thou believe on the Son of God ? He answered and said. Who
is he. Lord, that I might believe on him ? And Jesus said unto
him. Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with
thee. And he said. Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him."
This instance furnishes direct and incontrovertible evidence
that Jesus Christ was worshiped when upon earth. For the
worship in this case was reverence paid to him not as a mere
man, or as a prophet, or as a man highly gifted of God ; for
he that had been blind believed Jesus to be all this before he
revealed himself to him as the Son of God ; but it was reve
rence paid to him as the Son of God, that is, as the brightness
of God's glory, the express image of his substance, the bodily
manifestation of his whole godhead; thus as one with God, as
God himself. When, then, this man worshiped Jesus, he paid
him divine adoration, on account of divine virtues in him as bis
own. Thus it appears conclusively, that the Lord Jesus Christ was
worshiped when on earth ; both from the fact that he had divine
virtues in him as his own, and from the fact that adoration was

WAS WORSHIPED WHEN ON EARTH. 159
paid to him on account of them. And thus we have shown,
on scriptural authority, that Jesus Christ ought to be worshiped,
and that he was worshiped when on earth.
Since, then, Jesus Christ was worshiped directly when on
earth, we cannot be far wrong, who worship him now he is in
heaven, and has, as he expressly assures us, " all power in
heaven and on earth." But let all those who worship the
father directly, by praying to him out of Jesus Christ, instead
of worshiping the father in Jesus Christ, by praying to Jesus
Christ himself as the father — beware lest they perish because
they kiss not the son. And especially let those who are de
grading the Lord Jesus to the level of a mere man, see well to
it, that they are not committing that sin which can never be
forgiven, either in this world or that which is to come !

SERMON X .

KEV. V. 13.
=• Blessing, and honour, and, glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever."
Having proved from the Word that the three essential con
stituents, of God are in Jesus Christ, that all the divine attri
butes are ascribed to him, that, therefore, he is the proper ob
ject of christian worship, and that he was actually worshiped
when on earth, we come now, in the regular course of our
series, to show that he is worshiped in heaven, and, conse
quently, must be presumed to have been the object of apostolic
worship. For as Paul, the chief of the apostles, was caught up
into the third heaven, he must have had his views of the proper
object of his worship on earth, very much, if not wholly deter
mined by what he saw in the heavens. Hence, if Jesus Christ
is worshiped in the heavens, and Paul was permitted to see and
to knovi' that fact, it is most presumable that his worship on
earth would be after the pattern of that heavenly worship which
he had seen, as it were, upon the mount. And it cannot be
doubted that his views and practices in this respect, would be
those also of the other apostles. Besides, as they that live and
worship in heaven, once existed on earth,* and have carried
with them the ideas of God by which their earthly character
was formed, and the essential principles of worship whh which
their earthly life was replete, hence those that worshiped the
Lord on earth will of course worship him in heaven ; and, there-
* " The angel which showed me these things, then sailh unto me. See
thou do it not : for / am thy fellow-servant, and of thy hreihren the prophets."
(Rev. xxii. 8, 9.)

JESUS CHRIST IS NOW WORSHIPED IN HEAVEN. 161
fore, the fact that Jesus Christ is now worshiped in heaven
must go hand in hand with the other fact that he was worshiped
when on earth ; and the fact that he was both worshiped on
earth and is worshiped in heaven must he inseparably connected
with the supposition that he was the God of the apostles.
Hence the proof of either of these positions will be but the con
firmation of the others. And hence we shall now blend these
topics in some degree together.
Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, (i. 6,) quoting from the
Word of the Old Testament, most fully ascribes a divine cha
racter to the Lord Jesus, and, in express reference to him,
represents Jehovah, when bringing the first begotten into the
world, as saying, " And let all the angels of God worship him."
This proves that Jesus Christ is the object of angelic worship.
and therefore renders more intensive the argument that the
reverence paid to Jesus when on earth was divine adoration.
We have, then, the greater boldness in assuming and maintain
ing that the attitude of adoration was assumed before Jesus
Christ on earth because of his manifestation of a divine cha
racter, and not, as some in the present day pertinaciously main
tain, because that was the attitude of respect to superior power
and excellence ordinarily assumed by the people of eastern
countries in ancient times. And the best proof of this is that
the Lord Jesus always received the divine honour of worship
as paid to himself without referring it to any superior being.
In not one of the many passages which we have heretofore
cited from the Word to prove that he was worshiped when on
earth, did he forbid the prostration of the body before him, or
any other act of worship, although he well knew the express
command of .Jehovah fo be, "Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,
or any likeness of any thing in heaven above, or that is in
the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth :
thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them."
(Exod. XX. 3 — 5.) And again, " Thou shalt worship the Lord
thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." (Matt. iv. 10.)
Hence he could not have permitted these acts of worship, if,
15*

162 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
as some suppose, he had been a mere man, or if he had been
any other than fhe very God. For admitting — and from the
passages cited there can be no doubt — that this worship was di
vine adoration, he, as a messenger sent from God, or as any
being subordinate to God, could not have received it, and yet
be a good man.
It matters not to say that the prostration of the body by per
sons of inferior rank when they approached persons high in
authority or conspicuous for their dignity and virtue was an
eastern custom prevalent in our Lord's day, because, except in
cases of idolatry, this prostration was not considered as divine
honour, while in the case of Jesus there was none of that dig
nified elevation of worldly rank, those trappings of royalty, or
that pomp of circumstance, which would command ceremonial
reverence. He was a despised Nazarene — a man of low estate
— reputed a carpenter's son ; and it was only the display of
divine virtue, which emanated from his person and beamed from
his character, which prostrated before him the healed, the
blessed and the gladdened subjects of his miraculous power.
Hence this attitude was assumed before him as divine adoration.
This distinction should be attended to. It is true, that, in
eastern countries, subjects did then, and do still, prostrate them-
¦ selves in the presence of their sovereigns or those high in power
and authority. But, except in cases of gross ignorance, this
honour was not paid to the sovereign, or other dignitary, on
account of any divine excellence supposed to be his own. And
we see that, in the case of Jesus Christ, this honour could not
have been paid to him for the same reason that it was paid to
eastern potentates, or others high in power or station, because,
as he himself expressly says, his kingdom is not of this world.
Therefore the honour paid to him must have been on account
of divine virtues in him as his own, and thus to him as a divine
being. Here, then, is the difference : prostration of the body
as an 'eastern custom was a deference paid to rank without any
reference to an exercise of divine power ; but in the case of our
Lord this attitude was assumed before him because " he spake
as never man spake," and " did works which he could not have

IS NOW WORSHIPED IN HEAVEN. 163
done unless God had been with him." And as Jesus did not
refer to a superior being the honour thus paid to himself, it is
evident that it was paid to him himself, and received by hira as
God. This distinction is clearly seen in the Sacred Scriptures
throughout. Wherever the prostration of one man before an
other is mentioned in the Word, it is manifest from the context
that this is not honour paid to hira as God. Thus, although it
is said in Daniel, (ii. 46,) that " the king Nebuchadnezzar fell
upon his face and worshiped Daniel," yet it is evident that this
worship was not paid to Daniel as God ; for it is said, in the
next verse, by the king, " Of a truth it is that your God is a
God of gods and a Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets, see
ing thou couldst reveal this secret." Thus the honour was
expressly referred to Daniel's God, and therefore not paid to
Daniel hiraself. It was paid to Daniel because he was a repre
sentative person — was sustaining that prophetic office by which
the Word of Truth, which is the Lord, was brought down to
men — thus was in the Lord's place, that he permitted the pros
tration of the body before him. He allowed it as a becoming
deference to the divine truth, which he represented. But when
ever worship was about to be paid to mere men as divine
adoration, we find that they invariably forbade it. Thus in
Acts, x. 25, 26, when tho devout Cornelius, — comraanded by
an angel to send for Peter, " as Peter was coraing in, — met him,
and fell down at his feet, and worshiped :" it is said, " Peter
took him up, saying. Stand up; I myself also am a man."
In this case, Peter evidently discovered that Cornelius was
paying him adoration on account of some supposed divine vir
tue ; and conscious that he was but a man, or an apostle, he
could not allow that reverence to be paid to him which was due
only to God. Had it been only a mark of respect for his office,
he might have permitted it as Daniel did. But he discovered
more than mere respect : he perceived religious veneration.
And hence he bade him " Stand up:" reminding him that he
also was a man.
And here you see the contrast between Peter and the Lord.

164 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
In no case did Jesus Christ forbid the worship which was paid
to him : though there can be no doubt that it would have been
as improper for him to have permitted it, as for Peter, if he had
been a mere man ; for there cannot be a shadow of doubt that
the worship which was paid to Jesus was at least as much di
vine worship as this which was offered to Peter.
All must recollect, too, the case of Paul and Barnabas, as
recorded in Acts, xiv. 8 — 15.
In this case the worship was manifestly about to be offered
to Paul and Barnabas as gods. And these apostles, so far from
allowing it, discountenanced it with the most violent demonstra
tions of disapprobation — " They rent their clothes, and ran in
among the people crying out" to them and dissuading them from
doing sacrifice to thera who were men of like pas.sions with
themselves. How different this conduct from that of the Lord
Jesus ' who not only did not prevent those who prostrated
themselves before him as God ; but, when the Jews accused
him of blasphemy, because he (in their estimation) being a
man, made hiraself equal with God, began to justify himself by
showing his unity with the father, and thus his identity with
God. Nay, he even allowed himself to be crucified by the
Jews on this very charge of blasphemy, because he called him
self the Son of God, that is, the visible manifestation of God, —
and predicted that they would see him, as the Son of Man, sit
ting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of
heaven," (Matt. xxvi. 65) — that is, possessing the omnipotence
of divine love in and through the spirit of truth in the letter of
his Word.
Take, as another example, the case of John, in the Apoca
lypse, who fell at the feet of the angel to worship him, under
the impression that he was God. And fhe angel said unto him,
" See thou do it not : I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy
brethren that have the testimony of Jesus : worship God."
(Rev. xix. 10.) You here see that an angel, a commissioned
messenger of the Lord to his beloved apostle, would not receive
that honour which was due to God only : while it is remarka
ble that when this same John fell at the feet of the Son of Man,

IS HOW WORSHIPED IN HEAVEN. 165
(i. 17,) who manifestly was the Lord Jesus Christ, he did not
forbid this act, and tell John to worship God, as a being
separate from himself; but, laying his right hand upon him,
said unto him, " Fear not ; / am the First and the Last :" thus
receiving the worship ; and directiy asserting that he was God.
Seeing, then, that an angel as a coramissioned messenger of
God, would not permit John to prostrate hiraself before him,
and yet that Jesus did allow this prostration before him, it fol
lows that Jesus was more than a messenger of God — was God
hiraself in an ultimate form. Wherefore, we presume it is evi
dent to every reflecting mind, that the veneration which was
paid to Jesus Christ when on earth was divine worship. And
therefore it is clear that Jesus Christ was worshiped as God
when on earth.
Now a reference to the Apocalypse will prove as clearly that
he is also worshiped in heaven. The instance just cited, in
which John in spirit fell prostrate before him as dead, goes to
prove this. In the fourth chapter, John describes the throne of
God in heaven and one sitting on it. He speaks of four and
twenty seats round about the throne, and of four and twenty
elders sitting thereon ; which we may suppose to be a represen
tative form of all who are in the heavens. And, in the conclu
sion of the chapter, he says that these " four and twenty elders
fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him
that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the
throne, saying. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory,
and honour, and power ; for thou hast created all things, and
for thy pleasure they are and were created." (verses 10, 11.)
Now who was this one that sat upon the throne of God ? In
John, i. 18, it is said, " No man hath seen God at any time ;
the only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father, he hath
declared him." And Jesus himself says of the father, (John, v.
37,) " Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen
his shape." But on another occasion, when Philip had asked
him to show them the father, he replied, " He that hath seen
me, hath seen the father." (John, xiv. 8.) And John in this
vision saw the shape of him that sat on the throne. He that

166 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
sat upon the throne, then, was Jesus Christ, the only begotten
son who manifests the father. Paul, too, in his Epistle to Timo
thy, (vi. 15,) speaks of " our Lord Jesus Christ," as of him,
who, " in his times, shall show who is fhe blessed and only
Potentate, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords ; who only
hath immortality, dwelling in fhe light which no man can ap-
proach unto ; which no man hath seen, nor can see." Thus he
shows that Jesus Christ is he who manifests the invisible and
unapproachable God. And hence it is clear that he who sat
upon the throne of God was Jesus Christ; and thus that Jesus
Christ was worshiped by the four and twenty elders, who repre
sented all who are in the heavens.
This is clear, too, from its being said that they " worship
him that liveth for ever and ever." For the Son of Man, who
is manifestly Jesus Christ in his glorified body, says to .John,
(i. 18,) " I am he that liveth and was dead ; and behold, I am
alive for evermore." And still more clear from its being said
by the elders to him who sitteth on the throne " for thou hast
created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were crea
ted." For Paul, in his Epistle to the Colossians, says expressly
of Jesus Christ, " by him were all things created that are in
heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether
they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers ; all
things were created by him and for him." Thus he that sat
upon the throne and Jesus Christ are clearly identified. Hence,
when the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sit
teth upon the throne, and worship hira that liveth for ever and
ever, they worship the Son of Man, who is Jesus Christ.
Again, in the chapter that contains our text, John, after say
ing, in the sixth verse, " And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of
the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst of fhe elders,
stood a Larab as it had been slain," &c. — says in the thirteenth
verse, " And every creature which is in heaven, and on the
earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all
that are in them, heard I saying, "Blessing, and honour, and
glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and
unto the Lamb for ever and ever." Now by the Lamb in this pas-

IS NOW WORSHIPED IN HEAVEN. 167
sage is evidently meant Jesus Christ as to that human nature, or
in that character of divine human innocence, in which he was
rejected by the church on earth : for it is said " a Lamb, as it
had been slain:" and .Tesus is expressly styled by John the
Baptist, " the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world." (John, i. 29.) And thus it is clearly seen that the uni
versal heavens worship Jesus Christ. For they ascribe bless
ing, and honour, and glory, and power unto the Lamb.
It may be asked, why the Lamb is mentioned as distinct
from him who sat upon the throne, and if he that sat upon the
throne signifies Jesus, how is it that the Lamb also signifies
Jesus ? Does not he that sat upon the throne signify the father
and the Lamb represent Jesus as distinct from him ? Even ad
mitting this ; still it is seen that the Lamb is worshiped equally
with him who sits upon the throne. And thus our position is
proved that Jesus Christ is worshiped in heaven. But we have
shown that he who sat upon the throne could not signify the
father ; because he was seen by John, and no man hath seen
the father, and no man can see him in his essence, and live.
But the father may be seen in his form ; and he is seen in
Jesus Christ, for he is the " form of God," thinking it " not
robbery to be equal with God," because he is the " express
image of his substance." It was, therefore, Jesus Christ, the
son who reveals the father, that sat upon the throne. And the
Lamb which was seen in the midst of the throne, did not repre
sent a being or person separate from Jesus, but a part of his
complex nature, considered abstractiy for the sake of the illus
tration and instruction of John, and of the church through hira.
The Lamb here was a kind of hieroglyphical or representative
imaging of the human nature of Christ, considered abstractly
or distinctively frora his divine nature, which was represented
by him who sat upon the throne. It was not that there is in
fact any separation of these natures in Christ ; but it was only
a distinct consideration of these natures, as we have said, for
illustration and instruction : just as, comparatively, the length
of a room is considered as separate frora its breadth and depth
in an algebraic process for fhe determination of its solid contents.

168 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
In that case the length is only a property of the room con
sidered abstractly from its other properties. Just so in the case
before us, the Lamb represents a property of the Lord's nature
considered abstractly from his other properties. It represents
his human nature considered abstractly from his divine nature.
But this representation no more signifies that his human nature
exists separately from his divine nature, than the mere abstract
consideration of its length would imply that the length of the
room exists independently of fhe room itself. And the divine
and human natures together — thus He that sitteth upon the
throne and the Lamb^form the one person of the one God,
just as the length, breadth and height of the room form together
the common properties of the room, and are inseparable from
the room itself. Thus, then, "when it is said, "Blessing, and
honour, and glory, and power be unto Him that sitteth on the
throne, and unto fhe Lamb, for ever and ever," it is an ascrip
tion of divine honours to both the divine and human natures of
Christ — that is, to the divine in his human nature ; and thus
an entire and a full worship of him. And as this is said to be
rendered to him by all in all the heavens, it is seen that the
prophetic command of Jehovah as quoted by Paul is accom
plished — " Let all the angels of God worship him."
This comraand was uttered by Jehovah in reference mani-
festiy to Jesus Christ, because he undoubtedly was " the first-
begotten into the world." And as Jesus Christ is worshiped by-
all the angels of God, it is only expressing the same thing in
other words to say he is worshiped in heaven. Wherefore, we
deem ourselves justified on scriptural grounds in asserting, not
only that Jesus Christ was worshiped when on earth, but also
that he is now worshiped in heaven.
And now as to the fact that Jesus was worshiped by the
aposties. We shall discuss this topic more at length in a sub
sequent discourse. And in introducing the subject here, we
will recall attention to the remarkable instance of Thomas, who
was one of the eleven, in that memorable exclamation of his —
" My Lord, and my God !" This puts it beyond any question
that Thomas, at least, considered Jesus Christ as God. The

IS NOW WORSHIPED IN HEAVEN. 169
answer to this argument which is made by some, that Thomas
herein only expresses his surprise and wonder at seeing the
Lord alive after he had supposed him dead, is foo futile to need
refutation. Such expositions of the Word of God are too mani
festly paltry fo deserve notice. It is very clear from all the
circumstances that Thomas was aroused frora a state of doubt,
and hereby makes a declaration of his faith, that Jesus Christ
is God. And what right have we to suppose that he was the
only one of the Lord's chosen apostles who so regarded him ?
Nay should we not reason from their being less unbelieving
than Thomas, that the other disciples had a clearer perception
of the Lord's divinity than he, and hence were more ready to
acknowledge him as the Divine Being ? And consequently,
when it is stated in the Scriptures that they worshiped Jesus,
must we not suppose that they worshiped him as God ? When,
therefore, Luke says, (xxiv. 52,) " And he led them out as far
as Bethany ; and he lifted up his hands and blessed them —
And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from
them, and carried up into heaven — And they worshiped him;"
we are to understand that they paid adoration to him as a
divine being. And thus we conclude that the Lord's eleven
disciples considered him as their God.
We might argue that the apostles regarded Jesus as God from
the fact that they performed miracles in his name. For who
ever heard of real miracles being performed in any other name
than that of God ? But we will say nothing about this, and
will advert on the present occasion only to the case of Stephen,
who was stoned to death as recorded in the seventh chapter of
Acts. It will be recollected that Stephen was one of the seven
deacons appointed for the daily ministration of the temporal
concerns of the church, and that he was "a raan full of faith
and of the holy ghost." Hence his example is equivalent to
that of the apostles. It will be recollected also that he foiled
certain persons of the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cy-
renians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia, and of Asia,
in disputation ; that they suborned men to accuse him falsely
of blasphemy ; that, in defending himself against this charge,
16

170 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
he reprehended them for their rebellion and for murdering
Christ : whereupon they stoned him to; death. " When they
heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed
on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the holy ghost,
looked up steadfastly info heaven, and saw the glory of God,
and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said,
Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing
on the right hand of God. Then they cried out with a loud
voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one ac
cord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him : and the
witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose
name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God,
and saying. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled
down, and cried with a loud voice. Lord, lay not this sin to
their charge ! And when he had said this, he fell asleep."
Now you will observe it is said, in verse 59, " they stoned
Stephen calling upon God." But the word God is not in the
original. It is evident that he was calling upon the being whom
he saw, and to whom he spoke, namely, fhe Lord Jesus. It
was the Lord Jesus then, to whom he kneeled down and
prayed not to lay this sin to their charge : thus showing that
he regarded Jesus as the being who remits sins, which God alone
can do. And he expressly calls on the Lord Jesus to receive
his spirit. And who can receive the spirit but God, who
gave it ?
Compare this passage with Psalm xxxi. 5, " Into thine hand
I commit my spirit : thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth."
Here you see the psalmist, who speaks in prophetic allusion to
the Lord Jesus, comraits his spirit into the hands of " the Lord
God." The fulfilraent of this prophetic allusion is recorded in
Luke, xxiii. 46, " And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice,
he said. Father, into thy hands I coramend my spirit." But
this needs some explanation. For it may be asked, if Jesus
Christ committed his spirit into the hands of the Lord God, how
then can he himself be God? And to explain this matter, we
must anticipate the contents of a future discourse.
Jesus, when on earth, was continually engaged in combating

IS NOW WORSHIPED IN HEAVEN. 171
the false and evil principles of the human nature which he had
assumed from the mother Mary. And when he was in that
human nature,— that is, when he was thinking and feeling in
the external plane of his mind, — he would address his internal,
or the father, as a being separate frora himself; when, never
theless, his internal was intimately connected with his external,
and was that divine energy of love and wisdom which at all
times enabled him to overcome the false thoughts and evil feel
ings of his external raan.
The case is similar with an ordinary man. He has an exter
nal and an internal. In his internal are those feelings of re
ligious love and those motives of wisdom and virtue by which
he regulates his speech and actions, which are his external.
And it is often the case, when he is in his external, that is, in
the sphere of mere bodily or animal thought and feeling, he is
tempted to say and do those things which are contrary to the
dictates of the wisdom and virtue that form 'his internal. How
often is it the case that a raan in the excitement of mere natural
feehng, says and does things, for which he is sorry in his cool,
rational moments. In this case his internal appears to be sepa
rate from him : when, in fact, it is now more present with him
than ever. For, if his internal principles were not acting on
hira as a conscience of right and wrong, he would, like a mere
animal, go on in the indulgence of his sensual appetites without
any compunction. And when his internal thus appears to be
separate from him, he often addresses it as if it were another
person. Hence we hear David addressing his soul as a being
separate from him — " Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and
why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God ; for I shall
yet praise him, the help of his countenance." (Ps. xiii. 5.) And
how often do we find ourselves, in a burst of strong feeling, ad
dressing our heart, in some such way as this, "Oh my heart,
thou hast deceived me !" Or when a man makes a miscalcu
lation, how prone is he to say, "My head missed it that time !"
These observations are made to show, that, though the Lord
Jesus addresses the father as a being separate from him, it is only
an appearance resulting from the circumstances of trial in which

172 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
his mere human nature was then placed. For, in the nature of
things, the human nature appeared to have life in itself, without
any distinct vision of the inward divine life from which it was
begotten, and by which it was continually sustained, in all its
temptations, until its full glorification with that glory which it
had with the father before the world began. For it is a law of
order that internal life shall seem to be in the external form of
it — the efficient cause of life shall seem to be in the instrumental
cause of it; and hence the human nature of the Lord, while it was
undergoing temptations, seemed to be left alone in its com
bats with the powers of evil — though in fact the divine nature
was then most intimately present in it, giving it strength to
conquer, and becoming so corapletely united with it in its con
quest as to becorae distinctly one with it, and transfuse it with
its own glory, gift it with its own life and deify it with all its
own divinity. Thus, although the huraanity of Jesus Christ
seemed at times to be separate from the divinity within it, and
to be subordinate to that divinity, still this was only an appear
ance ; for, in reality, it was so completely one with the divinity
as to be itself divine. Hence the Lord Jesus hiraself says, " I
and my father are one." — " As the father hath life in himself
so hath he given to the son to have life in himself." — " There
fore doth my father love me, because / lay down my life, that
I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but / lay it
down OF MYSELF. I havc power to lay it down, and I have
power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my father." (x. 17, 18.) These passages show clearly that
there was divine life and power in the humanity itself, and that
its human infirmity, inferiority and subordination to divinity
was but an appearance incident fo the state into which divinity
had voluntarily come for human redemption and salvation —
incident to that state into which it had come to be a type or en-
sampler of man's regeneration and salvation. For the Lord's
humanity was glorified just as a man's external is brought into
order. A man's external, — that is, his speech and actions, —
is reduced to order by putting off or desisting from all that is
contrary to the dictates of wisdom and virtue. So the Lord's

IS NOW WORSHIPED IN HEAVEN. 173
humanity was glorified by his putting off or desisting from all that
was corrupt in mere human nature, and by his acting from the
dictates of divine love and divine wisdom, which were the father
within him. It was this corrupt human nature, with its corporeal
body, which died on the cross, and not the divine body of the
Lord, which was in it, and which was seen at his transfigura
tion on the mount — that could not be crucified or die because
it was divine. And this corporeal body died, and with it all
the corrupt principles of human nature were put off, that the
Lord might exist fully and solely in his glorified body, which
was afterwards seen and worshiped by his disciples as his di
vine human form. But, before this corporeal body or corrupt
humanity was put off, there was contrariety between it and the
Lord's internal principles of love and wisdom, which were the
father within him ; and while the Lord was still thinking and
feeling in this corrupt humanity, his infernal principles, or the
father, appeared to be separate frora him ; and under the strength
of this appearance he addressed the father as a separate being.
But the father was, in fact, no more separate from him than
David's soul was from David, or my heart and head from rae.
Hence, when the Lord gave his spirit up to the father, it was
his human consciousness yielding itself entirely up to his divine
consciousness ; and by that act it was signified that there was
an entire conjunction between the divine and huraan natures of
Christ, because all that was contrary to the divinity being put
off, the humanity becarae entirely one with the father, and was
thus an unresisting and unperverting medium of divine love and
divine wisdom.
When, then, the mere humanity of the Lord gave up its
spirit to the father, it was shown that the father is the being to
whom the spirits of men are to be commended : and hence
that God only is the being who can receive the spirits of men.
Wherefore, when Stephen called upon the Lord Jesus to receive
his spirit, it is clear that he considered him as the father ; con.
sequently, as God. And thus it is manifest that Stephen wor.
shiped the Lord Jesus as his God. And this proves collaterally
that Jesus Christ was the God of the apostles.
16 »

174 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
But it may be objected here, that Stephen saw the glory of
God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God : which im
plies that Jesus was separate and distinct from God, and of
course could not be God himself. In answer to this, we can
only observe, as heretofore, that Stephen saw with his spiritual
eyes opened ; and hence that which he saw was a representa
tion in the spiritual world, similar to those representations
which John saw in vision, and which he has described in the
Apocalypse. For Stephen saw " the Son of Man standing on
fhe right hand of God." And John (Apoc. iv. 2) beheld a
throne set in heaven, and one sitting on the throne, who was
evidentiy the same whom he had before described as " one like
unto the Son of Man standing in the midst of the seven golden
candlesticks." (i. 13.) Hence it is clear that this representation
to the eye of Stephen is to be explained in the same way that
those are which were seen by John. And as, from the representa
tion made to John of one sitting on the throne with a Lamb in
the midst of the throne, we are not to suppose that He who sat
upon the throne and the Lainb are separate and distinct beings ;
so neither are we, from this representation to Stephen of Jesus
standing on the right hand of God, to suppose that Jesus and
God are separate and distinct beings.
That this was but a mere representation, is clear from its
being said that Stephen saw the Son of Man standing on the
right hand of God : which, if supposed to be a presentation of
a real truth, would imply that he saw God, on the right hand
of whom the Son of Man stood. But it is elsewhere said, " No
man hath seen God at any time." It was not, then, really God
whom Stephen saw. And, of course, it was not really the Son
of Man whom he saw standing on fhe right hand of God.
Consequently it was only a representation of God and of the
Son of Man. And of the meaning of this representation
Stephen doubtiess had an intuitive perception. He, without
doubt, perceived that the right hand represents power, because
man's right hand is fhe member by which his power is exer
cised. Hence he perceived that the right hand of God signifies
the power of God ; and of course that the Son of Man standing
on the right hand of God signified that Jesus, who was repre-

is NOW WORSHIPED IN HEAVEN. 175
sented by the Son of Man, had the power of God : which is
" all power in heaven and on earth." Thus he perceived, from
this representation, that Jesus was God himself And hence he
called upon him and said, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
In this vision, we should particularly observe, that Stephen, in
his prayer, did not address the glory, but the Son of Man which
was standing on the right hand of the glory: thus he addressed
the Lord Jesus directly, and prayed to him to forgive his per
secutors this sin. From which it follows that the Lord Jesus
had the same relation to Stephen in his prayer, which the father
had to the Lord's humanity in his prayer on the cross. And
hence that the Lord Jesus was the father in the view of Ste
phen. But, to say nothing of that, it is clear that Stephen prayed
to the Lord Jesus to forgive his persecutors their sin. And
hence, as no one can forgive sins but God, it is clear that he
worshiped the Lord Jesus as his God. Thus this single ex
ample will of itself suffice to show from the Acts of the Apos
tles that Jesus Christ was the God of the apostles.
We might also prove frora ecclesiastical history, that the
early Christians in general were in the habit of addressing
prayers, and singing hyrans, and offering up all their acts of
public worship to Jesus Christ as God. For it is well known
that some of them suffered persecution and martyrdom on this
very account. But this does not come within our present plan.
And we shall only further confirra the truth we have now es
tablished by adverting in our following discourses to the Episties
of the Apostles ; all of which, we doubt not, will show that the
apostles regarded Jesus Christ as their God.
We have not firae now to indulge in any refiections upon
this iraportant subject. And we will only beg you to mark
attentively that Stephen called on the Lord Jesus fo receive his
spirit. There was the glory of God, and the Son of Man
standing on the right hand of it. Yet Stephen did not address
himself to God as the glory, but prayed to Jesus himself. And
while you are reflecting upon this most important fact, we will
conclude with simply this solemn injunction — " Go, and do
thou likewise !"

SERMON XI.

ISAIAH, XLV. 23.

" I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righte
ousness, and shal! not return. That unto me every knee shall bow, every
tongue shall swear."
In our last discourse, we showed, from the recorded acts of
the aposties, as exemplified in the case of Stephen when about
to be stoned to death, that they paid to Jesus divine adoration.
For it was to be inferred from this instance of " a man," ac
knowledged to be " full of faith and the holy ghost," praying
directly to Jesus as a divine being, that the apostles also, by
whose instructions and instrumentality this man had been
brought into the church, must have regarded Jesus in the same
light, and thus must have worshiped hira as God. It remains
for us, in this and the following discourse, to discuss this topic
at length. The drift of our argument will be, that the apostles
have used language in their Epistles, in reference to the Lord
Jesus, which they could not have used unless they had con
sidered him as God.
But it must be admitted that, in arguing this point, we have
to encounter difficulties. It cannot be denied that the apostles
so speak of Jesus Christ in connection with the father as if they
considered them personally separate. It is undoubtedly true,
that they make a distinction between Jesus and the father.
And though, by pointing out the grounds and nature of that
distinction, we should show clearly that it did not conflict with
the idea of Jesus and the father being one person, yet still the
question might arise in the minds of some, if the apostles had
this idea in their minds, why did they not state it plainly ?

JESUS CHRIST WAS THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 177
Admitting, then, that the apostles in some passages of their
writings clearly indicate that they considered Jesus Christ as
God, an answer must be given to the inquiry, why do they not
state this in express language, and why do they in other parts
of their writings speak of him as a man to all appearance per
sonally distinct from the Lord God?
In the conduct of this discourse, therefore, it is our intention
to make cursory quotations frora the Epistles of all the apostles
except John — to explain the ground and nature of the apparent
distinction which the aposties make between Jesus and the
father — to suggest the probability that they meant by the terms
father, son and holy ghost a distinction of principles in the
godhead — and finally to answer the question, why they did not
speak plainly of the Lord's unity with the father, when they
themselves saw it cleariy.
The limits of one discourse will not allow us to quote all the
passages in the writings of the apostles which go to show that
they regarded the Lord Jesus as their God. We shall there
fore select sorae of the most prominent.
In writing to the Romans, Paul has these words, (ch. ix. 5,)
" Whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh,
Christ came, who is over all, God, blessed for ever." Here is
a direct assertion that Christ is God. We are not then sur
prised when Paul ascribes to him the attributes of God, as he
does in his Epistle to the Colossians, (i. 16, 17,) where he says,
" For by him were all things created that are in heaven, and
that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones,
or dominions, or principalities, or powers ; all things were
created by him, and for him ; and he is before all things, and
by him all things consist." So in Heb. i. 3, " who upholds all
things by the word of his power." Thus Paul ascribes to Jesus
Christ the creation and sustentation of all things ; which are
manifestly the attributes of God. Again, in bis Epistle to the
Hebrews he says, (xiii. 8,) " Jesus Christ fhe same yesterday,
and to-day, and for ever." Here be ascribes to hira unchange
ableness, which implies infinity and eternity ; and these are the
well known attributes of God. Hence Paul swears by him.

178 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS
(Rom. xi. 1,) " I say the truth in Christ, I lie not." Now
swearing is an act of worship ; a solemn appeal in important
cases to the omniscient God as our witness that what we say
is true. As then Paul solemnly appeals to Christ in this case,
he shows that he considered him as God.
That Paul supposed Jesus Christ to have something more
than a mere superangelic origin, and regarded him as an
emanation of the essential divinity, is plain from what he says
of him in Hebrews, i. where he styles him the brightness of
God's glory and the express image of his substance, and speaks
of his being made "so much better than the angels," as to be
the very son begotten of the father, whom the angels of God
were to worship, (verses 4, 5, 6,) and whom (ii. 16) he ex
pressly speaks of as not " taking on him the nature of angels."
In this and what follows Paul most evidently intimates that
Jesus Christ had an existence anterior to his incarnation ; for
he speaks of his " taking on the seed of Abraham ;" and how
could that which did not exist take on any thing ? To have
taken on human nature in the seed of Abraham, it is plain that
Jesus must have had prior being as an active agent. And that
Paul regarded him as such an active agent above the plain of
all angelic being, is quite manifest from his saying that he took
not on him the nature or being of the angels. Consequently
he must have regarded him as divine in his origin. Hence he
speaks of hira (Phil. ii. 6) as being so in the form of God as tp
be equal with God.
A very striking confirmation of this view may be seen in the
Epistle of this apostle to the Ephesians, iv. 9, 10, where he
says, " Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also de
scended first into the lowest parts of the earth ? He that
descended is the same also that ascended _/ar abome all heavens,
that he might fill all things." This passage most clearly
shows that Paul regarded the origin of Jesus as divine ; for how
else could Jesus in ascending up fo where he was before have
gone so high as to rise to omnipresence ? Water rises as high
as its source ; and therefore the height to which Jesus as
cended, shows that the source of his being was divinity itself.

THE GOD OP THE APOSTLES. 179
This declaration of Paul compared with the Lord's own de
claration that he is Alpha as well as Omega — the Beginning as
well as the End — the First as well as the Last, must make it
plain that the apostle regarded Jesus in his origin as no less
than God, who, as he descended from the highest principles of
the godhead, could descend to the " lowest parts of the earth ;"
and in again ascending from the lowest parts of the earth,
would rise again to the highest or first principles of Deity, so
as to be in his exaltation God himself.
If the above had not been Paul's view of Jesus Christ, how
could he have said, as he did to Timothy, (1 Ep. iii. 16,) " God
was raanifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels,
preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received
up into glory V Mark, he says " God was manifest in the
flesh, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world."
And did not Paul preach Christ and him crucified ? and was
not Christ, when so preached, believed on in the world ? There
fore, when Paul says God was received up into glory, is it not
clear that he raeans that Christ was so received up ? — thus that
Jesus Christ in his descent, as well as in his ascent, was God ;
and so was in his origin, as he is now in his final existence,
divine ?
See, in this connection, Paul's Epistle to Titus, i. 3, where
he says, " But hath in due times manifested his Word through
preaching, which is committed unto me, according to the com
mandment of God our Saviour." Now who was it gave com
mandment to Paul to preach ? Turn to the ninth chapter of
the Acts, and you will see that it was Jesus Christ. It is plain,
then, that he considered Jesus Christ as " God our Saviour."
Indeed, in the next verse he expressly says, " Grace, mercy
and peace from God the father, and the Lord Jesus Christ our
Saviour." It is clear, then, that Paul considered Jesus Christ
as God our Saviour. Hence there can be no doubt about the
person to whom he alludes in the second chapter of this same
Epistle to Titus, where he enjoins it on him to exhort servants
to a faithful performance of their duties, " that they may adorn
the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things," (verse 10) : add-

180 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS
ing, " For the grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath
appeared to all men, teaching us, that, denying ungodliness
and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and
godly in this present world : looking for that blessed hope, and
the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus
Christ," (verses 11 — 13): thus clearly intimating that Jesus
Christ our Saviour is the great God.
It is not surprising, then, that Paul should say, (Rom. xiv.
10 — 12,) " for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of
Christ. For it is written. As I live, saith the Lord, every knee
shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So
then every one of us shall give account of himself to God." It
would indeed have been surprising and unaccountable if he had
said this and not considered Christ as God. For he says we
shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ — of course, to
give account to Christ. But he says " every one of us shall
give account of himself to God." Clearly, then, he must
have considered Christ as God. For he asserts that Christ will
be our judge, and to prove it quotes our text, in which Jehovah
says " every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall con
fess to God :" thus leaving us to make the plain inference that
Christ, who is to be our judge, is the same with Jehovah, and
is God. Since, then, it is clear that Paul considered Jesus Christ as
God our Saviour, we need not be at a loss to understand these
words of his in the third chapter of his Epistle to Titus, verses
4 — 6, " But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour
towards man appeared, not by works of righteousness which
we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the
washing of regeneration, and renewing of the holy ghost;
which he shed on us abundantiy, through Jesus Christ our
Saviour." This apostle here seems, indeed, to make a distinc
tion between "God our Saviour" and "Jesus Christ our
Saviour." But is it not manifest that by " God our Saviour"
he means the divine essence which dwells in Jesus Christ as a
soul in a body? If he does not, and makes a personal distinc
tion between thera, then we have two saviours. But this is

THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 181
evidently not the case. For it is said in Hosea, (xiii. 4,) " I
am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt
know no God but me : for there is no saviour besides me."
Manifestly, then, " God our Saviour" and " Jesus Christ our
Saviour" are one and the same. And hence Jesus Christ is
God our Saviour.
Thus, by these passages of Paul's writings, we may see that
he ascribes to Jesus Christ the attributes of God. For he as
cribes to him the divine attribute of the creation and sustenta
tion of all things; speaks of him as " the same yesterday, and
to-day, and for ever;" asserts that every knee should bow to
him, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under
the earth, thus that he should be fhe object of universal wor
ship ; and expressly calls him God our Saviour, and God over
all blessed for ever.
Now it is perfectly evident that Paul could not have used
this language in reference to the Lord Jesus unless he had con
sidered him as God. And if there is but one God, as be ex
pressly says there is, (Ephesians, iv. 6,) then Jesus Christ was
in his estimation that one God. It is true that Paul makes a
distinction between Jesus and the father, and seems to speak of
them as if they were separate: but we shall presently point out
the grounds and nature of that distinction, and show, we trust
clearly, that it does not militate against the idea that Jesus and
the father are one person.
In order to confirm this position, let us now advert to one or
two passages in the Epistles of the other aposties. We shall
find that they too use language in reference to Jesus which is
only applicable to the one supreme God. Thus James, in his
Gen. Epist. ii. 1, says, " My brethren, have not the faith of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of per
sons." Now how could he call Jesus Christ the Lord of glory
if he did not regard him as a divine being ? For who is the
Lord of glory ? Is he not the King of glory? And who is the
King of glory? We are informed in the twenty -fourth Psalm,
tenth verse, " The Lord of hosts, he is King of glory." Ac
cording to James, then, Jesus Christ is the Lord of hosts, who
17

182 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS
is the supreme and only God. Compare this with Rev. xvii.
14, and xix. 16, where Jesus Christ, — who is the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sins of the world, (John, i. 29,) and the
Word, which was God made flesh, (verse 14,) — is expressly
called " King of kings and Lord of lords."
Again, Peter, in his First Epistle, i. 10, 11, says, "of which
salvation the prophets have inquired, and searched diligently,
who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you ;
searching what, or what manner of time the spirit of Christ
which was in them did testify, when it testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow."
Here Peter speaks of the spirit of Christ being in the prophets :
while in his Second Epistle, i. 21, he says, " prophecy came
not in old time by the will of man ; but holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the holy ghost." Hence, according to
hira, the holy ghost and the spirit of Christ are the same. Now
how could he have spoken of Christ in this way, if he had re
garded hira as a mere raan, or if he had not regarded him as
God? For compare this with Luke, i. 68 — 76, where Zacharias,
filled with the holy ghost, prophesies, saying, " Blessed be the
Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his peo
ple, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house
of his servant David ; as he spake by the mouth of his holy
prophets, which have been since the world began." Here it is
said the Lord God of Israel spake by the mouth of his holy pro
phets. Hence the spirit of Christ must have made one with the
Lord God of Israel. And Christ and his own spirit are evi
dently one. According to Peter, then, Jesus Christ made one
with the Lord God of Israel.
See, also, the conclusion of the Epistie of Jude, in which he
ascribes glory and majesty, dominion and power, " to the only
wise God our Saviour." Here he evidentiy alludes to the Lord
Jesus, and hereby shows as clearly that he regarded him as
God. So John (1 Epis. v. 20) speaks expressly of Jesus Christ
as the " true God and eternal life." Wherefore, we may conclude
that Jesus Christ was considered as God by all the apostles.
It is true, as we have already admitted, that both in the Acts

THE GOD OP THE APOSTLES. 183
and in the Epistles of the Apostles, there is a very manifest
distinction made between the father and the Lord Jesus. The
most remarkable instance in the Acts is recorded in the fourth
chapter, verses 24 — 30. Here there is a prayer addressed to
the Lord God as a being distinct from his " holy child Jesus."
This, it is believed, is the only instance recorded in the Bible
of a direct address, made by the apostles or their disciples, to
the Lord God, without going to him through the person Jesus
Christ. In the case of Stephen, as remarked in our last dis
course, the prayer was addressed directly to Jesus and not to
God as the glory. But here the prayer is addressed to the Lord
God, as the father of the child Jesus whom he had anointed.
It may be that the apostles, like other men, were liable to fluctua
tions of state. They could not, any more than we can now, be
made spiritual at once. They must, therefore, have frequently
relapsed into the states peculiar to them as natural men. (See
Rom. vii. 8 — 25.) Hence, as the ark rose and fell before it rested
on Ararat, so they were, probably, at first, in alternate states of
light and obscurity respecting the Lord's true character. When
they were opposed, persecuted and afflicted, and hence were
brought into a desponding state, they would see less clearly the
identity of Jesus and the father, and rest raore in the apparent
distinction between them : for they would be now in a raore
sensual and corporeal state of thought and affection ; and there
fore in a greater state of obscurity as to spiritual and divine
things : because the opposition, persecution and affliction which
the Lord permitted thern to suffer, were doubtless consequences
of sorae low state, and designed in the divine mercy as means
of elevating them out of it. Thus, after Peter and John had
healed the cripple at the beautiful gate of the temple, and,
having taught the people to ascribe the power and glory of
their act to Jesus, because " his name, through faith in his
name, had made the man strong," had consequently drawn
upon themselves and their brethren the severe rebuke of the
high priest and his council, the apostles must necessarily have
been affected by the state of their accusers. Therefore they
must have spoken in accommodation to their state, when speak-

184 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS
ing of Jesus. Hence they must have spoken both to and from
a more or less sensual and corporeal state. And hence their
view of Jesus, at the time, must as necessarily have been an
obscure one. Therefore, in praying from this state, they would
of course pray obscurely to him as one with the father. But
when, like Stephen, they became wrapped in beatific vision, or
were strongly under the influence of potent heavenly associa
tions, their views of the Lord's true character would be clearer ;
and then they would, as Stephen did, regard Jesus as one with
the father, and pray to the father only in and through him.
Such may be one way of explaining this discrepancy in the
apostolic mode of addres.sing the Divine Being in prayer. But
I rather think it is a strong case of discrimination between the
Lord's divine and human natures, in which fhe thought reverts
to the human nature, before its glorification and full unition
with the Divinity. The expres.sion " holy child" indicates
this — especially when compared with the thirty-sixth verse of
the preceding chapter, where the apostle had said, " Therefore
let all the houise of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made
that same Jesus, ichom ye have crucified, both Lord and
Christ.'' Here Jesus is distinctly presented to fhe mind in a
two-fold character, as one who could be crucified by the Jews,
and therefore not the Divine Being ; and as one who was made
to becorae Lord as well as Christ, and therefore God hiraself.
Why, then, is it notpresuraable that when Peter in the next chap
ter prays to the Lord God, — as, doubtiess, he and John both
did, with the rest of " their own corapany," — he in reality
prays to hira who was made " Lord and Christ" ; thus to Jesus
Christ hiraself in his divinity; and only alludes to "the holy
child Jesus ;" as the huraanity, contradistinguished from that
divinity, as its bodily form in a yet subordinating state ? The
whole connection shows to my mind that the thought of the
prayer, in respect to Jesus as the humanity or form of the
divine essence, is retrospective.
But, be this as it may, it is certain that there is every where
manifest a clear distinction between Jesus and the father in the
minds of the apostles. Thus James styles himself' " a servant

THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 185
of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ." Peter speaks of " the
God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ." .lude, too, ad
dresses his Epistle "to them that are sanctified by God the
father, and preserved in Jesus Christ." So Paul speaks of God
our Saviour as saving us through Jesus Christ our Saviour —
as if God our Saviour and Jesus Christ our Saviour were two
persons. Hence it may be asked, how can we suppose the
apostles considered Jesus Christ as God, -(vhen they thus speak
of him as separate from God ? How, it may be asked, can it
be said that God our Saviour saves us through .Tesus Christ our
Saviour, if Jesus Christ is himself God our Saviour ? Is not
this as much as to say Jesus Christ saves us through himself?
In order to answer these questions we must here again antici
pate the subject of a future discourse, and lay open the grounds
of the apparent distinction which the apostles make between
Jesus and the father.
There is in the one person of Jesus Christ, a two-fold nature
— a divine and a human nature. But these natures are not
separate in Jesus Christ : for his human can no raore exist
separately from his divine nature, than an effect can exist
separately frora its cause, or a form from its essence, or a bodv
from its soul. But the human and divine are distinct in him,
just as an effect is distinct from its cause, or a form from its es
sence, or a body frora its soul. And, for the sake of distinction,
they are soraetimes spoken of as separate, and in the spiritual
world are sometiraes represented as separate. Thus the divine
and human natures of Jesus Christ were represented to John bv
" One sitting on the throne of God, and by a Lamb in the midst
of the throne :" and the same was represented to Stephen by
the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God. And it is
in reference to this distinction that the apostles speak of Jesus
in connection with the father. For the speaking of Jesus in
connection with the father, is the same, in an intellectual point
of view, as the representing him standing on the right hand of
the glory of God, is in a sensual point of view. Thus grace,
mercy and peace are no less than twenty times implored of
Christ together with the father. For example, Paul, in his
17*

186 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS
Epistle to Titus, says, " To Titus mine own son after the com
mon faith, grace, mercy and peace from God the father, and
the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour." Now here it would seem
that God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour are
two separate beings. But this cannot be. For grace, mercy
and peace are the gifts of God only. And hence, if they are
derived from two separate beings, there must be two Gods —
which is impossible. But there is certainly a distinction made
between them by the apostle. And it becomes a question what
that distinction is. This can be determined only by a reference
to other passages of his writings.
In Colossians, i. 15, this apostle says, Jesus Christ " is the
image of the invisible God ;" and, in another place, that he is
"the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his sub
stance." (Heb. i. 3.) The relation of Jesus to the father, then,
is that of brightness to glory, or of image to substance, which
is the same as forra to essence. When, then, Paul speaks of
God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ, he alludes to the di
vine essence and the divine form, which together make one
God. Thus he does not allude to Jesus Christ as a being
separate frora God, but to a principle in the one God, in con
tradistinction to another principle in the one God — to the
external man of Deity as distinguished from his internal man —
to the visible forra as distinguished from the invisible essence.
So in the terras " God our Saviour" and " Jesus Christ our
Saviour," he alludes to the hidden essence and the manifested
form of God. And as the form has nothing but what it derives
from the essence — as the effect has nothing but what it derives
from the cause — hence the form is one with the essence. Con
sequently, as the essence is divine, so also is the form. Thus,
as fhe father is God, so also is Jesus Christ God. And thus,
as the father is Saviour, so also is Jesus Christ Saviour. When,
then, it is said that God our Saviour saves us through Jesus
Christ our Saviour, it is meant that the Essential Divinity saves
us through the mediura of his manifested form ; and not that
God in one person saves us by the mediation of God in anotbej-
person.

THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 187
Thus, then, when the apostles speak of Jesus Christ in con
nection with the father, they merely allude to what is external
and internal in the one God. And hence, whether they say
" God the father," or " Jesus Christ the Saviour," they equally
mean the one, only, living and true God.
Therefore, when Paul says God our Saviour, according to
his mercy, saved us by the washing of regeneration, and
renewing of the holy ghost, which he shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Saviour, he means, that God the
father saves us by that regenerative process which he himself
works in us through the raedium of the human form and cha
racter by which he manifested himself upon earth. Thus he
saves us by the mediation of Jesus Christ, who is " the image
of the invisible God," and who has dwelling in him "all the
fulness of the godhead bodily." In other words, God the
father, as the soul and mind of Jesus Christ, saves us by the
doctrines, precepts and divine spiritual influences of Jesus
Christ — who is thus a mediator between God and raan, just as
my body is a mediator between ray soul and you. And in this
light it is, that Paul says, (1 Tim. ii. 5,) " There is one God,
and one raediator between God and man, the raan Christ Jesus :"
— not that the raan Christ .Tesus is a separate person, or an in
dividuality distinct frora the one God, but is that huraan prin
ciple, nature and form which the one God has taken to hiraself,
or by which he has brought himself down to the sense, thought
and affection of man — through which he thus communicates
with man, and which, in a sense, he has in common with raan.
The man Christ Jesus is the external man of Jehovah himself
— is the manifestation of his glory — is the express image of his
substance ; and hence he is not a person distinct frora .Tehovah.
Jehovah is the invisible divinity which resides within hira as a
soul in its body, or as fire in its flarae, or as an essence in its
form. And as the invisible Jehovah God can be approached
only through the form by which he manifests himself, hence
that form is a raediator between him and man : and thus it is
that the man Christ Jesus, who is the form of Jehovah, is the
mediator between God and man. Hence, when Paul says

188 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS
" there is one God, and one mediator between God and man,
the man Christ Jesus," it is as if he had said illustratively,
there is one sun, and one mediator between the sun and the
earth, the light which proceeds from the sun. And the man
Christ Jesus is no more separate from the one God, than the
light which proceeds from the sun is separate frora the sun.
Jesus Christ is actually, too, the " true light which enlight
eneth every man that cometh into the world." (John, i. 9.) And
comparatively in the same way that light proceeds from flame,
does Jesus, who is the light of truth, proceed from God the
father, who is the flame of love. For " in the beginning was
the word, and the word was with God, and God was the word
— and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us." The
word was the divine wisdom or truth, which was with God,
because it was the form of divine love or goodness. And the
divine wisdom or truth, descending from the divine love or
goodness, manifested itself upon earth through a material body,
with which it clothed itself and was thus made flesh, as light
proceeds from the sun's flame, and, descending into the atmo
spheres of this earth, manifests itself in the various material
existences of nature. This body, through which the divine
truth manifested itself, was called Jesus Christ. And thus
Jesus Christ was the true light, because divine truth from divine
goodness was in him as an aniraating soul, and beamed from
his life and conversation, as a wise and virtuous soul shines in
a good man's speech and actions.
Now, from what has been said, it results that there is fhe
same relation between Jesus and the Essential Divinity that
there is between the light of the sun and the flame or essential
fire which constitutes the sun. And, if we keep this idea in our
minds, it will enable us to apprehend rightly the distinction
which the apostles make between Jesus and the father, when
they mention them together. For the word was with God,
that is, with the essential divine principle, or divine goodness,
as light is with the sun's flame : and the word was God, that is
divine truth made one with the divine good, or the divine under-
derstanding made one with the divine will, as the sun's light

THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 189
makes one with the sun's flame. Hence, when it is said, " In
the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and
God was the word — and fhe word was made flesh," we may
imagine it is something similar to its being said, in the begin
ning there was light, and the light was with the sun, and the
sun was the hght, and the light was raade raatter.
Thus, then, there is no other distinction between Jesus Christ
and God than there is between light and flame, brightness and
glory, form and essence, or the visible image and the invisible
substance. And Jesus Christ is no otherwise separate frora the
father than the light which proceeds from and manifests the
sun is separate frora the sun. He is " the glory as of the only
begotten of the father" — " He is in the bosom of the father,
and hath brought him forth to view" — " He came forth from
the father," and hath shown him unto us. And thus those that
see him see the father. For " all things that the father hath
are his;" and "he is in the father, and the father in him."
Hence " he and fhe father are one." Consequently, we may
conclude, that the apostles, as they were filled by his spirit, —
though they speak of him as if separate frora the father, —
must, nevertheless, have regarded him and the father as one.
And this accounts for the fact that they ascribe to him the attri
butes, the perfections, and the acts of the father ; implore frora
hira together with the father, grace, mercy and peace ; perform
miracles, and pronounce benedictions in his narae ; expressly
call hira the Lord God of the holy prophets, (Rev. xxii. 6, 16,)
and in all respects regard and worship him as God.
This enables us to understand, too, why Paul, though he
often names Jesus in connexion with the father, seemingly as
if they were separate, nevertheless expressly calls him God
our Saviour, and God over all, blessed for ever. It is evident
that he makes no other distinction between him and the father,
than between what is visible and what is invisible, or the divine
essence and its manifested form. Hence in Philippians, ii. 5, 6,
he says, " Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ
Jesus : who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God." Mark, he here expressly says Christ

190 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS
Jesus is in the form of God, and implies that he is equal with
God. Now in what sense can he be the form of God, unless
as divine truth is the form of divine goodness ? Supposing this
to be Paul's meaning, then this passage runs parallel with the
passages from John above quoted and illustrated, Thus he is
the form of God, and is equal with God, because he is the word
which was in the beginning with God, and was God.
But Paul proceeds to say, (verses 7, 8,) that, notwithstand
ing this his high estate, he "made himself of no reputation, and
took upon him the forra of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men ; and, being found in fashion as a man, he
humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross." Now it is utterly inconceivable to me
how any one, on reading this passage of Paul's writings, could
doubt that he regarded Jesus Christ as God. Most certainly it
is evident, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Paul did not,
like the Socinian, regard Jesus as a mere man. For he speaks
of his taking upon him the form of a servant, which shows that
he had another form before he took upon hira that of a servant.
And as Paul says he was in the form of God, it follows that he
was God before he appeared on earth as raan. Thus it is
manifest that Paul did not regard him as a mere man, but as
God. And the Socinian, who, judging from mere appearances,
mistakes Jesus Christ for a mere raan because he, to effect the
purposes of his mercy, took upon hiraself the form of a ser
vant, is like a clown who should mistalie a king for a peasant
because he had assumed that disguise in order to become ac
quainted with, and to relieve, the actual condition of his sub
jects. But Paul was no Socinian. His spiritual discernment
was too acute to be deceived by mere appearances. Beneath
the habiliments of the despised Nazarene, he could see the royal
robes of the King of kings. And though he calls him the man
Christ Jesus, he was not therefore ignorant that he is also the
Lord of lords. Hence he speaks of him as being found in
fashion as a man, as humbling himself, and as becoming obe
dient unto death, even the death of the cross. Which is equi
valent to the word's being made flesh and dwelling among us :

THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 191
and implies that the divine truth assumed our nature with all
its corruptions — that is, assumed a huraan free agency disposed
to all evil, without destroying its appropriate life by a too
powerful influx of the divine life, and experienced in it all the
consciousness of human nature as it was then defiled ; and by
acting in this nature as another man, except that he acted from
a divine impulse, dictate, or influx, he submitted to those trials
and conflicts — even to death on the cross — which were neces
sary to purify and glorify this nature until it became divine.
And when the divine nature of Jesus Christ had entirely broke
the bonds of evil hereditarily accumulated in the human nature
which he assumed upon earth, had entirely conformed himself
to the laws of divine order, and had thus " by himself purged
our sins," " he then ascended up on high leading captivity cap
tive and receiving gifts for men." " He sat down on the right
hand of the Majesty on High ; being made so much better than
the angels as he hath by inheritance obtained a raore excellent
name than they." For Jesus came forth from the father, and
came into the world, and again he left the world, and went to
the father. And the father glorified hira vrith the glory which
he had with hira before the world was. " Wherefore God also
hath highly exalted him, and hath given him a name which is
above every name ; that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things
under the earth ; and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the father." All
which implies that Jesus Christ was the manifested form of
Jehovah upon earth — that the divine essence which was in him
as a soul enabled him to purify himself until he became one with
that divine essence, and thus became himself God — and that
now he is to be worshiped directly as God, to the glory of the
divine essence of which he is the manifested form. So " that
all men should honour the son even as they honour the father."
And " he that honoureth not the son, honoureth not the father
which hath sent him."
Now was it possible for Paul thus to hold up Jesus Christ as
the being before whom all created intelligences should prostrate

192 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS
themselves in adoration, and yet not regard him as God ? For
our part, we think this last passage alone conclusive ; but when
it is added to the other passages which we have brought for
ward from his epistles as well as those of the other apostles,
there is an accumulated weight of evidence that they considered
Jesus Christ as God which cannot be withstood. And therefore
we conclude, that, though they speak of Jesus as if he were
separate from the father, yet they saw clearly that he and the
father are one person, and consequently must have considered
him as God.
Indeed all difficulty on this subject would vanish if we were
to apply the principles of our preceding discourses, and suppose
that the apostles, by the terras father, son and holy ghost, un
derstood a distinction of principles in the godhead.
Peter, when he addresses his First Epistle to the " elect ac
cording to the foreknowledge of God the father, through sanc
tification of the spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the
blood of Jesus Christ," does indeed seera to imply that the
father, the spirit, and Jesus Christ are three separate beings.
But may not this be a mere appearance ? May we not suppose
that he considered these three as the distinct constituents of the
one God ? In short, may we not suppose that all the apostles
considered God the father as the essential divine principle,
which in itself is incomprehensible and unapproachable by raan ?
— Jesus Christ as this essential divine principle in a manifested
form ? — and the holy ghost as the spirit and influence of Jesus
Christ ? The more we consider this matter, the more are we
convinced that the above suggestion is probable. The essential
divine principle is love ; the manifested form of this is light, or
wisdom, or the word, or the truth ; and the spirit of truth is
truth operating in and sanctifying the hearts of men. May it
not have been, then, in reference to these principles that the
apostles spoke, and not to any separate individualities in the
godhead ? At least, will not their language bear this construc
tion ? And will not their language thus construed be less
exceptionable, more consistent with reason as well as the
Sacred Scriptures, and less liable to the charge of tritheism in

THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 193
ascribing to the father, the son and the holy ghost, each as a
separate person, the incoraraunicable attributes of God? We
have seen that, in speaking of Jesus, they use language which
is only applicable to the supreme and only God ; and it is
utterly inconceivable how he can possess divine properties, and
yet be an individuality separate from God the father, without
supposing there are two beings possessing divine properties,
which is to suppose there are two gods. But supposing that he
is only the manifested form of God the father, and that there is
no more distinction between him and the father than there is
between a form and its essence, or a body and its soul, then all
becomes plain and rational. For, in this case, it is no more
absurd and improper to ascribe divine attributes to Jesus Christ
than it is to ascribe the energies of a man's soul to his body.
The essence and the form make one : for the essence cannot
exist without its forra, and the forra cannot subsist without its
essence. Hence what belongs to the essence belongs to the
form, and what is ascribed to the essence may be ascribed to
the form. Supposing, then, that Jesus is the form of God as a
hidden divine essence within him, all that belongs to the divine
essence may be ascribed to him ; because all that belongs to
the divine essence belongs also to him. And that this really is
so, may be gathered from the Lord's own words in John, xvi.
15, " All things that the father hath are mine." And again,
ch. xvii. 10, " all mine are thine, and thine are mine." And,
therefore, supposing the apostles to regard hira as holding this
relation to the essential divine principle, or God the father,
there would be no impropriety in their ascribing to him the
attributes of God the father. Since, then, this view so satisfac
torily explains their language, why raay we not suppose they
entertained it ? And hence, when they speak of God the father,
why may we not suppose that they allude to the principle of
divine love, and not to an individual being or person called the
father ? — and when they speak of Christ, why may we not sup
pose that they allude to the principle of divine wisdom, or truth,
in a human form, and not to another individual being, or person,
called the son ? — and when they speak of the holy ghost, why
18

194 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS
may we not, in like manner, suppose that they allude lo the
proceeding influence or spirit of Christ, instead of a third
separate or distinct personality ? The view of three separate
or distinct personalities is clogged with insuperable difficulties,
but that of three essential principles in one divine person is
highly rational ; and while it enables us to account for the
threefold distinction which the apostles every where in their
writings make, it also enables us to account for their ascription
of the incommunicable properties of God to the man Christ Je
sus. For, according to this view, they regarded the raan
Christ Jesus as nothing more than fhe outward form of the
essential divinity dwelling within him.
And we are not left to conjecture on this point : for Paul ex
pressly says that Jesus Christ was in the form of God — that
he is the express image of God's substance, and the brightness
of his glory : and thus the Lord Jesus can no more be a person
separate or distinct from the father, than brightness is a person
separate or distinct from glory, or the form of God a person
distinct from the essence of God.
John also, as we have shown before, and as we shall show
more fully in our next discourse, speaks of God as love, and
God as light. And it is very manifest to those who study his
Epistles in connection with the Gospel written by hira, that he
identifies Jesus Christ with God as light. Supposing, then, that
he alluded to the father, or essential principle of Deity, when he
speaks of God as love, we have it clearly indicated that he dis
tinguished between Jesus Christ and the father, as between the
two principles light and love.
Jesus Christ is, moreover, clearly identified with the second
or formative principle in the godhead mentioned above, viz.
the hght, the divine wisdom, the word, or the truth. For Paul
expressly calls hira "the wisdom of God." (1 Cor. i. 24.) John
shows that he was " the word made flesh, and the true light
which enlighteneth every man that cometh into fhe world."
(John, i. 1, 14.) And Jesus himself asserted that he is "the
truth." (John, xiv. 6.)
We conclude, then, that the apostles, when they speak of

THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 195
Jesus as distinct from the father, regard him as no otherwise
so than a form is distinct from its essence. And as the form
of a divine essence must be divine as well as the essence,
hence, that they ascribed to hira divine attributes and considered
him as their God.
We have now seen, by quotations from the Epistles of all the
apostles except John, that there is language used in reference
to Jesus Christ which can only be applied to God. We have
reserved our quotations from the Epistles of John to the last,
because they contain a passage which we wish to consider
somewhat minutely.
And now, in conclusion, we are to answer the question, why
the aposties, when they saw clearly that the Lord Jesus and
the father are one person, did not utter this truth plainly. The
reason we have to give why the apostles did not state in express
language that Jesus Christ and the father are one person, is
because this was too spiritual a truth for the incipient state of
the church. It was in express reference to this point that we
introduced the second sermon of this series, the main object of
which was to show the great spirituality of the truth that Jesus
Christ is God alone, and the consequent difficulty of its recep
tion by natural men. Hence the low natural views of the first
Christians did not allow them to comprehend this truth. It is
a truth which the spiritual mind alone can in any degree com
prehend. The merely natural mind cannot conceive hov/ God
can be man. It cannot conceive how the infinite, the eternal,
the omniscient, and the omnipresent God can be at the same
time in heaven, and in a circumscribed bodily form upon earth.
All the ideas of the natural mind are derived from time and
space ; and therefore time and space must enter into the idea
which this mind forms of the Divine Being. Thus its idea of
the Divine Being is as duration without beginning or end and
space without limit. For these are the eternal and infinite of
time and space. And as it is impossible for the mind fo form
any conception of time without beginning and end, or of space
without limit, hence it is impossible for the natural mind to
conceive of the Deity as existing in form. For in the idea of

196 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST W.4S
the natural mind, form is limited in space. Consequentiy, it
would be impossible for the natural mind to conceive of the
Divine Being as existing in a human form, thus as existing in
Jesus Christ. This is one of those deep arcana of heaven, one
of those things of God, which Paul says are foohshness to the
natural man, and which must be spiritually discerned. " Great"
says he, " is the mystery of godliness : God was manifest in
the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto
the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory."
(1 Tim. iii. 16.) These words have reference to the assumption
and glorification of huraan nature by the Divine Being: and this is
called a great mystery. Is it, then, to be supposed that the natural
mind can comprehend it. Surely not. And hence we may see
why Paul says, in another place, " no man can say that Jesus is
the Lord, but by the holy ghost." (1 Cor. xii. 3.) Hence, that
Jesus Christ is God and God alone, is a truth which the mere
natural mind cannot conceive and admit. And hence Paul,
though he might have had a very clear idea of this truth him
self, — as he had been caught up into the third heaven and had
seen unutterable things, — was under the necessity of being cau
tious how he uttered this truth plainly when he was addressing
natural men.
But it may be asked what evidence have you that this was
the character of the first Christians? We reply, does it not
stand to reason,- that, in that period of the world in which it
was necessary for the Divine Being to descend to earth to re
deem men from perdition, all men must have been in the most
gross and grovelling condition ; and was it possible to raise
thera instantly from this to a state of spiritual perception ? It is
said that the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard
seed — small in its beginning and gradual iri its growth. Must
not, then, the church, which is the kingdom of heaven upon
earth, be of a similar nature ; and thus must not those who first
constitute the church be in a lower state than those by whom
it is subsequently and finally constituted? That the character
of the Lord's disciples, and of course of the first Christians,
was merely natural, is evident from the fact that they so often

THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 197
understood him in a natural sense when his words had a spiritual
import ; and from the fact that he so frequently had occasion
to explain to them the meaning of what he had uttered.' That
this was their character is plain, too, from his expressly say
ing, " I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot
bear them now." (John, xvi. 12.) And again, " These things
have I spoken unto you in proverbs ; but the time cometh,
when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall
show you plainly of the father." (verse 35.) These words of
the Lord show clearly that the state of the first Christians was
more obscure than that of the church at sorae future day would
be. And we may gather that it was an obscurity as to percep
tion of the truth that he was fhe very father.
That Paul, too, considered the first Christians in a low na
tural state, and on this account did not speak more plainly of
Jesus as identical with the father, must be manifest to any
one who attentively reads his Epistles. See, for instance,
what he says to the Corinthians, in his First Epistle, iii. 1 — 3,
" And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual,
but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed
you with milk, and not with meat : for hitherto ye were not
able to bear it ; neither yet now arc ye able. For ye are vet
carnal." This language is express with regard to the Corin
thians, showing thera to be in the lowest natural state as Chris
tians, or only on the verge of spirituality. How then could
he speak to them plainly of a truth which is so highly
spiritual and mystical in its character that even the angels
desire to look into it? (1 Pet. i. 12.) And wo may con
clude, from the tenor of his Epistles to the Christians of other
churches, that they were in a state little if any superior to that
of the Corinthians. See his Epistle to the Gallatians, i. 6, and
iii. 3. Also, Ephesians, iv. 14 ; and his Epistles throughout.
Turn especially to the fifth chapter of his Epistle to the He
brews, which is directly in point. For in that chapter he is
speaking of Christ. And " of whom'' he expressly says,
(verse 11,) " we have many things to say, and hard to be ut
tered, seeing ye are dull of hearing. For when, for the time,
18*

198 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS
ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again
which be the first principles of the oracles of God ; and are
become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat."
Here all we are contending for is uttered in so many words.
For Paul says explicitiy, that he had many things to say of
Christ, which he could not say on account of the low state of
those to whom he addressed himself. They were only in
the first principles of Christianity, and therefore could not bear
the plain enunciation of its sublimest truth, that Jesus Christ
and the father are one and the same person. In their mere
natural views of things they were prone to regard Jesus as a
mere man like themselves ; and to have told them in direct
terms that he and the father are absolutely identical, would
have been uttering to them a hard saying, which they could
not have borne. He was obliged, therefore, to accommodate
himself to their state, and to speak as unto babes. He, there
fore, spake according to the appearances of things, and seemed
to speak of Jesus as if he were separate from the father : just
as an earthly parent must speak, according to appearances, to
his infant children in relation to the things of this world. Be
cause, if a parent were to talk to his children in philosophical
language, it would be perfectly impossible for thera to under
stand him. Thus he must speak of the sun's rising and setting
 though it is philosophically true that the sun is stationary,
and the appearance of its rising and setting is produced by the
earth's rotary motion on its axis. For a child's mind being
as yet formed by the appearances of truth only, he is not able
to apprehend the philosophical truth. And if you talk to him
about the fact as it really is, the appearance in his mind is so
contrary to what you say, that he cannot believe you. So had
Paul spoken to the early Christians in plain terms about the
identity of the Lord Jesus and the father, his doctrine would
have been so contrary to appearances in their natural mind,
that they would have rejected it wholly. And thus, that they
might receive this most important spiritual truth in any degree,
he was obliged to clothe it in a natural form suited to their na
tural state. Hence he spoke of Jesus in connection with the

THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 199
father, and ascribed to him divine attributes ; thus intimating
that he was in some sense divine, and hereby leading them to
regard him with religious veneration, without e.xpressly assert
ing his identity with the father. This statement of the truth
was explicit enough for that state of the church. It was as
full a disclosure of the divine character of Jesus Christ as the
minds of men at that time would bear. And it enabled the
natural Christian to understand the truth in his degree, while
the spiritual Christian could understand it in his : just as the
usual custom of saying the sun rises and sets is accomraodated
to the apprehension of the illiterate raan, while it does not pre
vent the philosopher from understanding the truth philosophi
cally. Thus we may discern why Paul, — though he himself saw
clearly, as every Christian who arrives at his state of spiritual
discernment, will, that Jesus and the father are one and the
same person, — yet does not, in his Epistles to the first Chris
tians, state this truth plainly.
But although Paul does not say in so many words that Jesus
Christ and the father are one person, he speaks of him in such
a way as clearly to intimate that this is the truth. He uses
such language in relation to Jesus that it is impossible for the
mind to conceive of the truth in any other way, without an
idea of two divine beings or of two gods.
Notwithstanding, then, the apparent distinction between
Jesus and the father in the Epistles of Paul, it is evident that
this apostle considered Jesus Christ as God. Hence we con
clude that Jesus Christ was the God of Paul ; and, of course,
of all the aposties.
To Jesus Christ, then, be glory and dominion, for ever!
For " there is given hira dominion, and glory, and a kingdom,
that all people, nations and languages should serve him — his
dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass
away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."
(Dan. vii. 13, 14.)

SERMON XII

ISAIAH, IX. 6.

" For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given : and the government
shall be upon his shoulder : and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of
Peace." In our last discourse we made quotations from all fhe Epistles
except those of John. And we trust it was proved satisfactorily.
that the authors of those Epistles, though they speak of Jesus
Christ as if he were separate from the father, nevertheless
really considered him as one with the father, and thus as God.
We pointed out the grounds and nature of the distinction
which the apostles make between Jesus and the father, sug
gested the probability of their understanding by the terms father,
son and holy ghost three distinct principles in the godhead,
and showed that the reason why they did not say plainly that
Jesus and the father are one person, was, because the church
in their day was not in a state fo see and admit a truth so
highly spiritual. We now bring forward the testimony of John
also, that Jesus Christ was the God of the apostles.
Glancing our eye over the Epistles of John, we every where
discern that he speaks of Jesus Christ as the son of God ; and
by this term, it is very evident that he understood, as we have
heretofore explained it, an embodied presentation of the divine
essence. A son of any thing, in the sense in which the Scriptures use
this term, is that which proceeds frora it and presents an image
of it in another degree. Thus a plant is the son of the vege
table soul that flows into the elements of nature and clothes

JESUS CHRIST WAS THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 201
itself with a correspondent form. Certain mineral substances,
if their minute parts are suspended in a suitable solvent and
are left free to obey the laws of attraction flowing in from the
spiritual world, invariably arrange themselves into certain crys-
talhne forms. Thus the carbonate of lime, or limestone, crys
tallizes in the forra of a rhomboid ; common salt in the form of
a cube ; and silex, or quartz, in the form of a six-sided prism.
Now this prismatic form is the son of the spiritual principle which
so flows into and clothes itself in the natural world. And by
seeing the form of the crystal, we know the quality of the
spiritual principle which produces that forra. Just so Jesus
Christ is the son of God. And hence Paul calls hira the ex
press image of God's substance. So that when we see hira,
we see the image of the divine essence; and by seeing his
forra raay know the quality of that essence. Wherefore, he
himself says, " He that seeth me seeth the father." It is
evidentiy in this sense of an erabodied presentation of the di
vine essence, that John speaks of Jesus Christ as the son of
God throughout his Epistles ; and therefore, by virtue of Jesus
Christ's conjunction with the Eternal Divinity, regards him as
a divine principle which existed antecedent to the incarnation.
Thus he says, (1 Ep. v. 5,) " who is he that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the son of God ?" So
throughout the chapter, in which he evidently ascribes to Jesus
divine properties, and makes him one with God the father.
For he says " there are three that bear record in heaven, the
father, the word and the holy ghost : and these three are one."
(verse 7.) It is clear that the word in this passage is iden
tical with Jesus, as will be seen by coraparing it with the Gos
pel by John, i. 1, 14. "And," again, "this is the record that
God hath given to us eternal life ; and this life is in his son."
" He that hath the son hath life ; and he that hath not the son
of God hath not life." (verses 11, 12.) Here eternal life is
ascribed to Jesus Christ, and is said to be in him : and this is
ascribing to him a divine property which is absolutely incom
municable from one person to another.
So in chapter iv. 2, 3, he says, " Hereby know ye the spirit

202 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS
of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come
in the flesh, is of God ; and every spirit that confesseth not
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God." Here
he speaks of Jesus Christ coming in the flesh, as if he existed
before he came in the flesh — thus intimating that Christ is a di
vine principle.
Compare, too, the first and sixteenth verses of the third chap
ter : " Behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed on
us, that we should be called the sons of God" — " Hereby per
ceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us."
Now it is manifest that Jesus laid down his hfe for us : how,
then, could John say that Gsd laid down his life for us, if he
did not consider Jesus Christ as God? See in connection with
this. Acts, XX. 28, where Faul, speaking to the elders of the
church at Ephesus, says, " Take heed, therefore, unto your
selves, and to all the : jck over the which the holy ghost hath
made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath
purchased with his own blood." We presume there cannot be
a doubt in any :nind that Paul alludes here to Jesus Christ ;
and therefore, Lc expressly calls him God. Thus we may con
clude from ty.G express language of both Paul and John, that
they considered Jesus Christ as God.
But it is likewise true that John, with the other apostles
makes a distinction between Jesus and the father. Thus (1 Ep
i. 3) he says, " And truly our fellowship is with the father,
and with his son Jesus Christ." But if any one has read atten
tively the sermons of this series, we think he will say it is per,
fectiy raanifest that this distinction, as it existed in the mind of
John, was nothing more than a distinction of divine principles.
For, in chapter iv. 8, he says, " God is love :" this is the
father. And, in chapter i. 5, he says, " God is light :" this is
the son. For turn to his Gospel, i. 1,9, and you will find him
saying, of the word which was in the beginning with God and
was God, that he " was the true light, which lighteth every
man that cometh into the world:" and afterwards, (verses 14,
34,) of this word made flesh, or Jesus, you will find him say
ing, " And I saw and bear record that this is the son of God."

THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 203
Thus the distinction between the father and the son is as
of love and light : or as of love and wisdom ; because light is
truth and truth is wisdom. And Jesus Christ is the son, be.
cause he, as the fight, is the embodied presentation of the flarae
of divine love ; or because he, as " the truth," is the erabodied
presentation of the divine goodness, and thus is, to use the
words of Paul again, " the brightness of the father's glory."
Therefore, the distinction between Jesus Christ and the father
is the sarae as that between truth and goodness or wisdora and
love : thus is a distinction of principles, and not of persons.
When, then, John says, " our fellowship is with the father, and
with his son Jesus Christ," he means that our fellowship is with
the divine love or goodness, and with the divine wisdom or
truth, which is the manifested form of the divine love or good
ness, and is thus the only begotten son of the divine love or
goodness. And this distinction does not so destroy the unity of the father
and the son as that he might not say, as he does in chapter v.
7, they are one. For the father and the son, though they are
distinct, make one as love and wisdora raake one ; or as will
and understanding, or thought and speech, make one. That
this is the distinction, and this the unity, between the father
and the son, which were conceived in the mind of John, is very
raanifest from what he says in chapter ii. 20, " But ye have an
unction from the Holy One" — and in verses 22, 23, " who is a
liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? he is anti-christ
that denieth the father and the son. Whosoever denieth the
son, the same hath not the father." Here he calls Jesus the
Holy One, and implies that he who denies Jesus denies the
father also : for he says he is anti-christ who denieth the father
and ihe son : which is the same as saying he that is against
Christ is against both the father and the son ; inasmuch as to
deny one is to deny the other. Thus it is plain that he con
sidered the son and the father one, and only distinct as truth
and goodness are distinct. For whosoever denieth the truth
denieth the good of which i( is the manifested form. And as
there can be no distinction between Jesus Christ and the truth

204 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS
which he utters, hence he that denies the truth denies Jesus
Christ. And as Jesus Christ is " the truth ;" and as the truth
comes forth from, thus is the manifested form, or the son, of
the divine goodness or father ; and he that denieth the truth
denieth the good which sent it ; hence he that denieth Jesus
Christ denieth the father that sent hira.
By denying Jesus a man renounces fhe doctrines and the
precepts which Jesus when on earth uttered, and which his
Gospel now contains ; and by renouncing these doctrines and
precepts, or by not living according to these doctrines and pre
cepts, he is without the good frora which they came forth in the
divine mind of Jesus, and to which they lead in the human
mind of every one who faithfully and perseveringly reduces
them to practice. And thus " whosoever denieth the son, the
same hath not the father." Hence John says, in the next verse,
the twenty-fourth, " Let that therefore abide in you which ye
have heard from the beginning. If that which ye heard from
the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the
son, and in the father." Now what did they hear from the
beginning but the truth? and how could this remain in them
but by their practising it ? In the degree that they practised fhe
truth, they continued in the truth ; and in the degree that they
continued in the truth, they continued in the son, that is Jesus
Christ, for he is " the truth," (John, xiv. 6 ;) and in the degree
that they continued in the son, they continued in the good to
which the truth he utters leads— -that is, they continued in the
father. Hence it is that John said to them to whom he wrote,
that if what they had heard from the beginning remained in
thera, they should continue in the son and in the father. And
hence the Lord himself said to his disciples, (John, xiv. 23,)
" if a man love me, he will keep my words : and my father will
love hira, and we will corae unto him, and make our abode
with hira." For, in the degree that a man loves the truth, he
does it ; and in the degree that he does the truth, his mind is
opened to the influences of divine love — thus the father loves
hira; and in the degree that the divine love is shed abroad in
a man's heart, with all its sanctifying and perfecting influences.

THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 205
he has a clearer and fuller internal perception of goodness and
truth, even the same truth which he before had seen only intel
lectually: thus both the father and the son " come unto hira;"
and in the degree that he, from the delight of this perception,
more thoroughly and effectively reduces these principles to
practice, so that they become a matter of habit with him, they
acquire within hira a fixed habitation, and thus both the father
and the son " raake their abode with hira."
To the same purport, the Lord says, (John, xv. 7 — 10,) " If
ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what
ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my father
glorified, that ye bear much fruit. — If ye keep my command
ments ye shall abide in my love." " He that hateth me, hateth
my father also. If I had not done among them the works
which none other man did, they had not had sin : but now they
have both seen and hated both rae and my father." (verses 23,
24.) Now it was impossible for them to have seen and hated
the father in any other sense than as divine goodness mani
fested in his speech and actions. For the Lord says, on an
other occasion, (John, v. 37,) they had neither heard the father's
voice at any time, nor seen his shape. And John (i. 18) says,
" No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten son
which is in the bosom of the father, he hath declared him :" by
which he raeans that no man has had presented to his outward
vision, or fo his mental perception, the essential divine principle
or divine love, except so far as that principle is manifested in
the person and character of Jesus Christ. For in 1 Ep. iv. 2,
he uses the same words, " No raan hath seen God at any time;"
and proceeds, " If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and
his love is perfected in us:" and afterwards, (verse 16,) " God
is love ; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and
God in him :" thus showing that God is a principle of love, and
that God is in us in the degree that that principle operates in
us and produces the activities of love to one another.
Now that this principle of divine love is most fully mani
fested in Jesus Christ, John leaves us to infer from these words,
(verse 15): " Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the son of
19

206 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS
God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God :" for to confess that
Jesus is the son of God, is to believe that he came forth from
God so as to be God in form — that is, that he came forth from
divine love so as to present the divine love in form — thus that
he is the outward form of the divine essence. Or, in other
words, it is to believe that he is the divine truth manifesting the
divine goodness — for nothing but a divine form can adequately
present to view a divine essence, and. the form of the divine
essence is truth itself. Hence the idea of Jesus Christ as the
son of God, implies nothing less than that he is that very truth
itself, or that divine truth which manifests the divine goodness.
And to confess that Jesus is the son of God in this sense, is not
only to make a verbal asseveration of belief in the proposition
which asserts that such is his divine character, nor to raake a
mere intellectual assent to that proposition ; but the confession
to which the apostle here alludes consists in an internal ac
knowledgment, or a full assent of the will, that such is the
Lord's character ; and this acknowledgment or assent, if sincere
and abiding, leads inevitably to the practice of his precepts.
In short, the true confession of the Lord, is simply the keeping
of his commandments. For Paul says, " with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is
made unto salvation." (Rom. x. 10.)
And if Jesus Christ is the divine truth, or the form of divine
goodness, his precepts, embracing as they do his truth, must be
the dictates of the truest wisdora, which point out the way to
eternal life, and which, therefore, in the conformity of the will
to them produce the only true righteousness, and in the regu
lation of the life by them lead to the only sure salvation.
Hence, to believe, that is, to acknotvledge from the will, that
Jesus is the son of God, or the divine truth, brings us under the
necessity of obeying his precepts, as much as a sick man's be
lieving that a physician can cure him, brings him under fhe
necessity of taking his prescriptions. But, as the precepts of
.Tesus are practised, the character of him who practises them
becoraes, as we have said, perfected in the internal perception
and the outward exhibition of all that is good and true; which

THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 207
is to have the love of God shed abroad in the heart. And thus
it is that fhe love of God is shed abroad in the heart, that is, in
the will and its consequent conduct, so as to have God himself
dwelling in the man who is thus perfected.
Thus, then, it is because the belief of the Lord's divinity,
with the consequent practice of his precepts, brings men into
the slate in which they perceive the divine love in their hearts,
that John says, " Whosoever shall confess [that is, show by his
life] that Jesus is the son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he
in God." And, consequently, this apostle clearly shows that
Jesus Christ, being the visible manifestation of divine love, is
the " only mediator" between the divine love and men; and
that he makes one with the divine love as a form makes one
with its essence.
Hence we can clearly see what John means when he says,
(1 Gen. Ep. v. 20,) " We know that the son of God is come."
For the word, or the truth, is God ; because " the word was in the
beginning with God, and God was the word ;" and the son of
God is the bodily presentation of this word, or truth, in a lower
degree ; and the true disciples of the Lord are those who so
learn of him as to have the truth, which is the son of God,
that is, a bodily presentation of the Lord's truth or command
ments formed in their lives by regeneration from him. And
therefore when any are so far regenerated from the Lord as to
have his truth not only acknowledged in their wills, but also
presented bodily in the lower degree of their outward lives, then
they know that the son of God is come. They see, they feel, they
have the vital experience of the truth of good in their own re
generated lives. This is what John meant when he said " We
know that the son of God is come." And that such is really
the meaning of these words, must surely be plain to every
spiritually-minded person who duly considers what follows —
" and hath given us an understanding that we may know him
that is true : and we are in him that is true, in his son Jesus
Christ — This is the true God, and eternal life."
To clearly understand these latter clauses of this passage,
we have only to bear in mind the remarks which have already

208 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS
been made upon the passages just quoted frora the writings of
the same apostle. If our minds have dwelt profitably upon
those passages, and have heeded well the remarks which have
been made upon them, we have clearly discerned that John
calls the word which was in the beginning with God, and was
God, and which was made flesh and dwelt among us so as to
be " God-with-us" — the son of God. He also calls this word
made flesh " the true light,'' and says, in another place, that
" God is light." From which we may conclude that this word
made flesh is divine truth made manifest ; because truth is spirit
ual light. And hence the son of God is divine truth proceed
ing frora and manifesting divine goodness or love. For John
says that God is love, and the son of God must be the mani
fested form of God. Hence the son of God is the manifested
form of love. And it is perfectly clear^that Jesus Christ is this
son of God : for he is the word made flesh and "the truth."
When, then, John said, " we know that the son of God has
come" he raeans that divine truth, which is the form of divine
love, had been raanifested in the character of Jesus Christ, —
and that they his disciples, had had a perception of this divine
truth in their own minds, by having the image and likeness of
that character stamped on their souls by regeneration. Hence
he says, " And hath given us an understanding that we may
know him that is true" — that is, the divine truth in and through
Jesus Christ has opened our understandings, and has elevated
our mental perceptions, so that we can see the truth.
The word in the original, which is rendered " him that is
true," is rot «A;)Jjvo>, a raei-e adjective, without any substantive
which it qualifies, and thus raay be taken in a substantive sense
to signify truth in the abstract, that is, the principle of truth.
And hence this clause signifies that the Lord Jesus has given
us an understanding whereby we can understand the truth.
This is in fact, too, what Jesus Christ did. For, in Luke,
xxiv. 45, we read that he " opened the understandings of his
disciples that they might understand the Scriptures." So,
while journeying with the two who were going to Emmaus, he
" beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, expounded unto

THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 20U
them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." And
after he had vanished from their sight, " they said one to an
other, did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us
by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures 7"
This, then, is the sense in which we are to understand John
when he says the son of God " hath given us an understand
ing that we may know him that is true:" he hereby implies
that Jesus Christ has elevated our spiritual state, so that we
can understand the truth.
" And we are in hira that is true, in his son Jesus Christ."
This clause, too, if literally rendered, would imply that we are
in the principle of truth, and the son of it, that is, the sensible
or bodily presentation of it jn a still lower degree. For hira
that is true, signifies, as we have seen, abstract truth, or the
principle of truth, as the son of God, and hence the son of him
that is true is a bodily manifestation of this essential truth to the
senses or the lowest perceptive faculty of man. And such a bodily
manifestation of divine truth was Jesus Christ. For he was the
word made flesh. These words, therefore, imply that we are
the disciples of Jesus Christ — that is, those who believe in him
and practise his precepts. For in the degree that we believe
in Jesus and practise his precepts, we are in the principle
which proceeds from him, and this is the truth : because " in
hira is life, and the life is the light of men" — he is " the way,
the truth, and the life" — and the words he " speaks unto us are
spirit and are hfe ;" and John says " the spirit is truth." And
the Lord plainly shows what it is to be in hira, to abide in him
and to be his disciples, (John, xv. 5, 8,) where he says, " He
that abideth in me, and I in hira, the sarae bringeth forth much
fruit ;" and " herein is my father glorified, that ye bear much
fruit — so shall ye be my disciples ;" and again " ye are mv
friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." (verse 14.)
Thus, we are in him that is true, when we are in a rational
conviction of truth, and in the son of him that is true, when our
characters are formed according to that rational conviction.
For the life of a rational conviction of truth, or the life of truth
in the abstract, is a bodily presentation of that truth in a lower
19*

210 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS
degree, thus is the son of that truth. And as Jesus Christ was
the most perfect, the infinite life of truth in the abstract, that is
of the Word of God, and his Gospel is the record of his life,
hence we are in him that is true, and in the son of him that is
true, when our understandings are enlightened, when our wills
are rectified, and when our lives are formed by the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. When, then, the disciples of the Lord are re
generated from him, and thus have "the old man put off, which
is corrupt after the deceitful lusts of the flesh, and have the
new man put on, which is created after God in righteousness
and true holiness," they know that the son of God has come,
they see him reflected in their own mind as in a mirror. And
they perceive that this son of God has given them an under
standing, by which they are enabled to see the truth in rational
light — thus to know him that is true ; and to appropriate this
truth into their wills — thus to be in him that is true ; and to
bring this truth into their lives — thus to be in the son of him
that is true.
Now when any are in fhe son of him that is true, that is,
when they are in the life of rational truth, they perceive that
the perfect life of that truth is divine. Thus they are enabled
to perceive that Jesus Christ, who is the perfect, the infinite, life
of divinely rational truth, is divine. And hence they are en
abled to say. This, — that is, the perfect life of divine rational
truth, which is the Divine Humanity of Jehovah, which is Jesus
Christ, — this is the true God and eternal life !
Thus you see that John confirms the doctrine that the Lord
as to his human nature is divine ; and that he clearly inculcates
that Jesus Christ, the Divine Humanity of Jehovah God, is the
true God, and therefore the proper object of christian worship.
We know, there are those who quibble about the antecedent
to the pronoun this; and say that it refers to God, and not to
Jesus Christ as the son of God. We cannot, therefore, better
conclude this discourse, and our whole subject, than with a
cursory argument on this point.
It would seem, from the tenor of the Epistles of John, that
the minds of the early Christians were unsettled by heretical

THE GOD OF THE APOSTLES. 211
opinions, already broached in the church, with regard to the
incarnation of the divine truth. It was probably held that
the divine truth had been manifested ; but it was perhaps sup
posed that it had been by means of a vision only, and not by
an actual incarnation. Hence, that there was such a being as
Jesus Christ ; but that he had existed only in an ideal and not
in an actual corporeal form. To combat this heresy, therefore,
appears to be the drift of John in his Epistles. Thus he con
demns those as anti-christ who deny that Jesus had corae in
the flesh. And by all the force of his authority raaintains that
the divine truth, or the son of God, had actually assumed a
human form upon earth; and clearly, unequivocally and em
phatically asserts, that Jesus Christ — who was the divine truth
so raanifested — is the true God and eternal life.
This was the grand object of the apostle's design — to show
that Jesus Christ, he whom they had known on earth, with
whom they had been frora the beginning, from whose own lips
they had received command to preach the gospel, whose gospel
had been preached and received, and by the knowledge and
practice of whose precepts his disciples had been formed as a
body from him its head — it was the main object of the apostle's
design, I say, to show that this Jesus was not merely an ideal
but an actual manifestation of divine truth, and thus was him
self the very and eternal God, the fountain and stream of
eternal life. Hence we see the error of those who argue that
the pronoun this does not refer to Jesus Christ as its antecedent,
but to the father understood. For who doubts, or ever doubted,
that the father is the true God. The first Christians had wor
shiped Jesus Christ as God ; and this was the matter which
had now come into doubt. John was writing about the true
object of worship, and cautions those to whom he writes to be
ware of idols. In order to show them the true object, it was
not necessary for him to say that the father is the true God ;
for this they all knew as well as he did. The only question
was about the son. Some were for rejecting the son, and for
going to the father direct without him. They denied that the
son had come. And it was for the express purpose of combat-

212 THE LORD JESUS CHRIST WAS
ing these notions that John writes. Thus it was his design to
show that the son is the true object of worship ; and that it is
impossible to worship the father without worshiping the son.
Hence he says, " Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus
is the Christ? He is anti-christ that denieth the father and the
son. Whosoever denieth the son, the same hath not the father."
Thus, in answer to those who were for rejecting the son, and
for worshiping the father out of the son, he directly asserts that
they who have not the son have not the father : of course, inti
mates that they who do not worship the son cannot worship the
father who is in hira, and whom he manifests. And, in an
swer to those who denied that the son had come, he as directly
asserts, that " every spirit which confesseth not that Jesus
Christ is corae in the flesh, is not of God. And this is that
spirit of anti-christ whereof ye have heard that it should come."
Again, he says expressly, " we know that the son of God is
come ; and hath given us an understanding that we may know
him that is true : and we are in him that is true, in his son
Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life." Thus
he completely rebuts the idea that the son had not come, and
that the son was not to be worshiped, by directly asserting that
they could not have or worship the father without the son, and
by unequivocally declaring that the son had corae, and that the
son is the true God and eternal life.
That John refers to Jesus Christ when he says " this is the
true God and eternal life," is confirraed by the eleventh verse,
where he says, " And this is the record, that God hath given to
us eternal life; and this life is in his son." For if eternal life
is in the son, then the son may be called eternal life. And,
therefore, John must have had reference to the son, when he
said this is eternal life. Moreover he that hath eternal life in
him, and may be called eternal life, is the true God. Jesus him
self also says, " As the father hath life, in himself, so hath he
given to the son to have life in himself." And as none can
have life in himself but God, therefore the son is God. And
hence John meant the son when he said, " This is the true God
and eternal life." Again, the son is expressly called God in

THE GOD or THE APOSTLES. 213
Ps. xlv. 6, and in Heb. i. 8, as well as in this verse of John —
" But unto the son he saith. Thy throne, O God, is for ever and
ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom."
But nothing can be more directly fo the point than the express
and emphatic words of our text : " Unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God, Hero,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." From this passage,
there cannot be a shadow of doubt, that there was the best au
thority for calling the son, God. And hence we are not under
the necessity of supposing that the term God must in all cases
refer solely to the essential divine principle or to the father.
And let it be well remarked that it is the child who is born unto
us, that is to be called God. For then it will be most clear
that it is Jesus Christ who is to be called God. And moreover,
call to raind the words quoted in our last discourse from Paul,
" It was commanded that all the angels of God should worship
the son." Thus it is clear that the son is the object of angelic
worship ; "and He whom angels worship, ought surely to be
worshiped by men. Yet no being ought to be worshiped besides
the true God. Therefore, John was justified in calling the son
the true God, and in holding him up as the proper object of
worship. And hence we may concjude that he does call him
" the true God and eternal life;" and, of course, that John
considered Jesus Christ, who is the only begotten son of God,
as his God.
Wherefore, Jesus Christ was the God of the apostles ; and
is, both now and for ever, the only true object of all christian
worship. And therefore, if any are worshiping any other God
than hira — if any can think of the one, ever living, and true God
without at the same time thinking solely of Jesus Christ, or
think of Jesus Christ, without at the same time thinking solely
of the one, ever living, and true God — they are guilty of idola
try ! and it greatiy behooves them, in view of any other notions
of God which they may have formed, to take heed to this
apostle's closing and most solemn injunction — " Little children,
KEEP YOURSELVES FROM IDOLS !"

SERMON XIII.

MATTHEW, XXVII. 46.
" And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli,
Eli, lama sabachthani'! that is to say. My God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me V
In heretofore discoursing upon the nature of the godhead, we
have illustrated, it is presumed, with sufficient clearness, how
there is and must be a trinity in the one God. We have shown
fhe nature of the word which was in the beginning with God,
and was God. We have shown how this word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. The perfect unity of the humanity and
divinity has been demonstrated. So that in Jesus Christ God
is seen as man and man as God, as a divine essence in a hu
man form, or a divine soul in a human body, and thus one as
a soul and body are one — one God in one person, the only
proper object of all christian worship — " God over all blessed
for ever" — " the only true God and eternal life."
But there is no subject so difficult, in the nature of things,
for the sensual mind to conceive, as the unity of God and man
in one person. And appearances in the letter of the Word are
so much against the idea, that, while the sensual mind rests in
those appearances, the difficulty of its conception is increased.
Hence it is almost impossible to explain this matter to such a
mind. To appearance, man is a determined forra, liraited and fixed
in firae and space, and, though possessed of powers of almost
indefinite variety and extent, yet essentially ignorant, weak,
dependent and erring ; while God is supposed to be all that is
opposite to these qualities — formless, unlimited mind — infinitely

UNITARIAN DIFFICULTIES. 215
above time and space, yet omniscient and omnipresent — totally
independent of all beings — in himself possessed of life — eternal,
infinite, all wise and all powerful in his being and attributes,
and absolutely unerring in all his operations. To conceive a
union of such opposites, therefore, is impossible. And hence,
to speak of a divine huraan is, to some minds, a solecism — is
sneered at as a contradiction in terras. And to them, the as
sertion that Jesus Christ is God, is equally so. His own
declarations that he and the father are one, and they that see
him see the father — that he is in the father and the father in
him^that he has life in hiraself as the father has Hfe in hiraself
— that he has all power in heaven and on earth — that he is the
Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and
the Last, who was, who is, and who is to come, the Almighty,
are interpreted to mean any thing but what they really do
mean — his individual unity and identity with the whole god
head. These declarations are supposed to have a figurative
meaning — to mean that he, as the first and highest, though
subordinate, agent of the Divine Being, is gifted with those su
preme titles on account of his delegated divine functions — that
he is called God as angels, to whom the word of God came,
were so called. They contend that it would have been arro
gant and blasphemous in the extreme for him to have claimed
those titles to himself as expressing qualities inherent in hira as
his own ; and they prove, to their own satisfaction, that he used
thera in relation to himself only in sorae modified, conditional,
relative or derivative sense. And they feel themselves fully
borne out in their view by the letter of the Sacred Scriptures.
Hence, when, from these his own declarations, you argue for
his unity with the Essential Divinity, their minds instantly re
vert to those other sayings of his in which he confesses his
inferiority to the father, or his subordination to hira, — as where
he declares, " My father is greater than I" — " I speak not of
myself, but the father that is in me, he doeth the work" — " I
ascend unto your father and my father, to my God and your
God," and, in our text, " My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken rae !" — and they reply, how can Jesus Christ be one

216 DIFFICULTY IN CONCEIVING HOW
and the same God with the Essential Divinity when he ex
pressly addresses that Divinity as his God ? And when he
calls himself the father, and says he is one with him, how can
he literally mean what he says, when he elsewhere positively de
clares his inferiority to the father? It is, indeed, a strong case
for them as well as for us. Both of us are justified in our
views by the mere letter of the Word. The flaming sword of
the cherubim turns every way. The Lord does indeed say as
positively in the letter that the father is greater than he, as he
positively says that he and the father are one, and that they
who see him see the father. So that, if we stick in the mere
letter, the Lord apparently contradicts himself. Hence, those
who look upon him only as a man, reconcile his words by sup
posing him, when he asserts his identity and unity with the
father, to speak figuratively ; and to speak literally, when he
asserts his inferiority to him. And they explain those his
figurative expressions, so as to raake them harmonize with
these which they deem the literal truth.
The reason why they suppose those to be figurative, of
course, and these literal is, because it is contrary to all appear
ance that Jesus as man should be God, and they rest in
appearances. It was so with the Jews, who when he asserted
his divinity took up stones to stone hira, because " he, being a
man, made hiraself equal with God." The Jews, in this case,
judged according to appearance, and the appearance to them
was indeed such as to justify their judgment. And nothing
was more contrary to the appearance than the Lord's assertion
to Philip, "He that hath seen me hath seen the father." If he
had been to appearance the father, Philip would not have asked
him to show them the father, and he need not have asserted his
and the father's identity with so much asseveration. Thus, if
he had manifestiy appeared to be the father, he need not have
said to Philip, " Have I been so long time with you, and yet
hast thou not known me, Philip?" For Philip would of course
have discerned him to be the father, if he had appeared such to
Philip. Hence we say his assertion fo Philip was contrary to
appearance ; and, consequently, those in the present day who

GOD AND MAN CAN BE ONE PERSON. 217
rest in appearances, and suppose things as they appear to
them, to be alone really true, suppose the Lord's words to
Philip to be figurative expressions, and explain them accord
ingly to mean something other than their literal import, namely,
that he and the father are one God as a body and soul are one
person ; so that when we think of him we should think of God,
and when we think of God we should think of hira : for if
Philip saw the father when he saw Jesus in person, we must
think of the father when we think of Jesus, because thinking of
any one is seeing hira in spirit.
But, to the sensual raind, God did not when he was on earth,
and does not now, appear fo be in Jesus ; and, thinking as
that mind does according to appearance, it, consequentiy, can
not think of God when it thinks of Jesus ; but thinks of God as
a formless, unlimited, infinite, eternal and omnipotent spirit,
separate and distinct from Jesus Christ ; and only thinks of
Jesus Christ, as he appeared on earth, to be " a raan of sor
rows and acquainted with grief." (Isa. Iiii. 3.) And hence, as
we have said, it is exceedingly difl[icult, if not irapossible, for
this mind to conceive of God and man as existing in one per-
.son. And all our attempts to explain this unity to the sensual
man are abortive, because no explanation of ours can ever
raake it true according to appearance, that is, true as things
appear to him.
In fact, the subject is not to be brought down to the sensual
mind, but the sensual mind is to be brought up to the subject.
The sensual and natural man must, by regeneration, be raised
out of the region of mere sensuous appearances, that is, be
raised, in mental perception, above the mere natural plane of
being, and be raade by regeneration to see things as they ap
pear in the spiritual plane, before he can see Jesus as God and
God as Jesus. There must be, as we have fully shown on an
other occasion, a renewing and transforraing of the natural
man's spirit by the spirit of God, sent unto him by Jesus Christ
from the father, before he can have any such testimony to the
character of Jesus Christ in his soul. And this we may con
firm, more particularly than we did on that occasion, by Paul's
20

218 DIFFICULTY IN CONCEIVING HOW
assertion, that " no man can call Jesus Lord but by the holy
ghost." To call Jesus Lord is to see and acknowledge him to
be Jehovah in form or person. For Jehovah himself expressly
says, (Isaiah, xiii. 8,) " I am the Lord, that is ray narae, and
my glory will I not give to another." The name of Jehovah
could not therefore be given to Jesus, if he were another than
Jehovah, without making Jehovah himself utter an untruth,
which the holy ghost, or the spirit of Jehovah, certainly could
not do. Yet the holy ghost would do this, if it gave unto any
one fo call Jesus Lord, while Jesus were a separate and dis
tinct person from Jehovah ; for then Jehovah, by his own spirit,
would, contrary to his express declaration in Isaiah, have given
his name, and so his glory, to another. But this is impossible ;
and therefore, we say, when the holy ghost gives unto any one
to call Jesus Lord, it gives unto him to see and acknowledge
that Jesus and Jehovah are one person, and so one God. But,
until the sensual or natural man is so operated upon by the
holy ghost aa fo be raised above the sphere of sensuous appear
ances, he cannot see and acknowledge this identity and unity
of Jesus and Jehovah ; and thus the sensual and mere natural
man must continue to think of Jehovah as God and Jesus as
man, separate and distinct the one from the other, notwith
standing all our efforts to explain their real unity and identity.
Still such men are perpetually calling upon us for explana
tions of this to them inexplicable truth. When we speak of,
and demonstrate from one class of scriptural quotations, the
unity of Jesus and the father, they fly into the citadel of some
certain passage of Scripture favouring their views, and defy us
to dislodge them. Their minds pertinaciously adhere in those
other scripture sayings, spoken according to mere appearances
in the sensual mind, in which Jesus is represented addressing
the father as a person separate frora and superior to him, and
they exclaim with seeming triumph, " Well, what do you make
of these passages, then !" And foremost among these passages
is our text, wherein Jesus on the cross is represented as address
ing the father and exclaiming, just previously to his giving up
the ghost, " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me 1"

GOD AND MAN CAN BE ONE PERSON. 219
It behooves us, then, to show how this apparent separation of
Jesus and the father can consist with the idea of their real unity
and identity.
We shall first declare the doctrine of the new church on this
subject, and then atterapt its explanation.
The faith of the new church comprehended in one universal
idea is this, that the Lord frora eternity, who is Jehovah, came
into the world to subdue the hells and glorify his huraanity;
and that without this, no flesh could have been saved ; and that
those persons will be saved who believe in him.
" It is called a universal idea, because this is the universal of
faith, and the universal of faith is that which enters into all the
particulars and every particular of faith. It is a universal of
faith, that God is one in person and in essence, in whom there
is a trinity, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is that God. It is a
universal of faith, that no mortal could have been saved unless
the Lord had come into the world. It is a universal of faith,
that he came into the world to glorify the humanity which he
assumed in the world, that is, to unite it with the all-begetting
divinity, from which are all things : thus having subdued hell,
he keeps it in order, and under obedience, to eternity. Now as
neither of these could have come to pass except by means of
temptations, even to the last and most extreme of all, which
was the passion of the cross, therefore he endured it. These
are the universals of faith concerning the Lord." (Apoc. Rev.)
A more particular statement may be gleaned from the follow
ing heads of doctrine that are treated at large in the new-church
writings but expressed here mainly in our own language for the
sake of brevity and adaptation.
"Jehovah in the Word of the Old Testament, is the Lord him
self." By the term Lord is here meant the godhead, in a
human forra, and named Jesus Christ. The most ancient
church, which was before the flood, and the ancient church,
which was after the flood, understood by Jehovah no other than
the Lord. In the Lord there is a trinity ; naraely, the divinity
itself, the divine humanity, and the divine holy proceeding ;
and these three are one. The whole trinity in the Lord is

220 NEW-CHURCH DOCTRINE OF THE LORD
Jehovah, and all and singular things in him are Jehovah. The
Lord is one with the father, and no other is meant by the father
in heaven. The Lord constitutes the universal heaven, as being
the all and all of it; for frora him is the all of innocence, of
peace, of love, of charity, of mercy, of conjugial love, in short
all good and all truth. Hence Moses and the Prophets, conse
quently the whole Word in all its particulars, have relation to
him, and all the rites of the church represented him. In the
Lord, when on earth, there was, as in us, an internal and an ex
ternal man : his internal was Jehovah, and his external was a
form of goodness and truth thence derived. This external form
of goodness and truth, when made fully correspondent to the
divine essence or Jehovah within, was said to be glorified with
the glory which it had with the father before the world was,
and is what is now meant by the term divine humanity. This
Jivine humanity of the Lord was not only conceived , but was
also born, of his divine essence, which is Jehovah. Thus the
Lord as to his humanity was made Jehovah, that is divine
good itself, in form and activity, so that his humanity had life
in itself just as his divinity had life in itself; for the power of
the divinity was given to the humanity, so that the humanity
had " all power in heaven and on earth," was filled with the
divine spirit " without measure," that is, infinitely, and hence
could of hiraself lay down his life and take it again, as well as
perform all other acts of divinity.
That the Lord was from eternity, manifestiy appears from
the Word, and especially frora his saying " before Abraham
was I AM ;" and that David called him, who was as to the flesh
his son, in spirit Lord. Hence he himself spake by Moses
and the Prophets ; he himself appeared to many in an angelic
human form, and it is on those occasions said that be was Je
hovah. Hence it is that Paul speaks of" Jesus Christ as " the
.same yesterday, to-day, and for ever;" and John speaks of him
as coming in the flesh, thus cleariy intimating that he had an
eternal existence before he so came.
But the greatest of all mysteries, which even the angels have
desired to look into, cannot be revealed to any except fo those

STATED AND ILLUSTRATED. S2l
who are in celestial perception, as were the men of the most
ancient or celestial church. From the men of that church it
has now been revealed, that Jehovah himself was the Lord as
to the divine humanity, when he descended into heaven, and
flowed into men through heaven ; for heaven represents a man
as to all his members, and therefore is called the greatest man,
or man on the largest scale and in the largest form. The divinity
itself in heaven, or in the greatest man, was the divine hu
manity, and was Jehovah himself thus clothed with humanity.
This humanity it was that, in descending to earth and acting
in men as rational free agents so as to mould men to itself, pro
duced in men on earth a truly human form and activity. But
when mankind became such that the divinity itself clothed
with the heavens as the divine humanity, could no longer
affect thera correspondently to itself, that is, when Jehovah could
no longer come to man, because he had so far removed himself
from the divine forra and activity by degenerating into a con
trary state, then Jehovah, who is the Lord as to the divine es
sence, transcended the heavens, and himself descended to the
earth, by clothing that essence in matter, through conception
in and birth from a virgin, so as to take upon it a natural hu
manity, as to external form and quality just like that of other
men on earth. But all of this external humanity which was
derived from the virgin, he expelled by divine means, and sub
stituted an external humanity which was purely divine, by-
production from the divine essence.
This production is to us, aud must ever remain to all finite
minds, an inexplicable operation. So incomprehensible is it
thought to be, that some presume to pronounce the supposition
of it absurd. We cannot undertake to explain it ; we can only
essay to vindicate the supposition of such a thing from the
charge of absurdity. At least, we can conceive that fhe Lord's
material humanity was expelled, and another huraanity substir
tuted in its place, just as, in the petrifaotion of wood, stony
particles are made to take the place and assume perfectly the
forra of the woody particles which pass off in the process : so
that, as a whole tree, not only as to general form of trunk,
30 *

222 NEW-CHURCH DOCTRINE OF THE LORD
branches, twigs and external bark, but also as to the internal
barks, and the very grain and fibrous texture, is, by petrifac-
tion, made to exist a perfect stony fac-simile of the previous
woody structure, so, by glorification in fhe Lord, a perfect di
vine external human substance, form and activity, was made
to exist instead of the humanity which he assumed from the
virgin. Hence, as the new church expressly teaches, " with
the Lord, the former forms, which were from fhe maternal
principle, were altogether destroyed and extirpated, and divine
forms received in their plape ; for the divine love does not agree
with any but a divine form ; all other forms it absolutely casts
out : hence it is, that the Lord, when glorified, was no longer
the son of Mary." (A. C. 6872.)
Thus the divine essence descended into an ultimate form, so
as to be the very omega, the very last, the very end of its
whole creation. And in, by and frora this ultimate forra, the
divine essence spread a sphere of its own quahty, so as to fill,
not only the heavens as before, but also the earths, with a
saving eflScacy. For infernal spirits could not abide the sphere
of a quality so totally contrary to theirs, and were obliged to
recede from it into outer darkness ; and by this recession the
heavens, which they were infesting, and the bodies of men,
which they had possessed, were freed frora their influences, so
that both angels and mon were made free to reject the influences
of hell, and once more to act correspondently to the influences
of the divine essence through heaven, so as to be capable of
living the life and enjoying the felicities of heaven, which is
salvation. Hence the Lord when on earth said, " Now is the
judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be
castaut." (John, xii. 31.) And it is recorded in sundry places,
that he actually expelled evil, false and unclean spirits frora the
bodies of those whom they had possessed. And, moreover, the
seventy disciples, whom he sent forth clothed with his power,
returned saying, " Lord, even the devils are subject unto us
through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as
lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power to
tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the

STATED AND ILLUSTRATED. 223
euemy ; and nothing shall by any means hurt you." (Luke, x.
17 — 19.) And, further, the apostles were endued with power
from on high to dispossess men of magical spirits, and to heal
diseases which evil spirits had through man's perverse volitions
induced. Thus Jehovah, who is the Lord as to the divine es
sence, having descended and taken upon him humanity, by
divine conception, and by birth from a virgin like another raan,
but having expelled by divine means all that he received from
the virgin, and having substituted a divine_ huraan form and
activity, so as to spread therefrom all that is holy, he existed
a divine humanity, which was an essence or life in itself, filling
the universal heaven and the universal earth, and effecting sal
vation with those who before could not be saved. And this
divine huraan forra, existing and active in ultiraates, is now the
Lord, who alone is raan, and from whom alone mortal men
have that goodness and that truth which constitute them truly
men, in making them like himself; and thus the Lord saves
thera from their sins, by removing out of sight all evil forms,
and inducing on them from himself all those forms of good,
which in the complex present that forra which is truly huraan.
Thus " liberation frora hell by the Lord was accomplished
by his assuming humanity, and thereby subjugating the hells
and reducing to order all things in the heavens, which could
not have been done by any other means than by a humanity
so assumed ;" for the Divinity operates from first principles to
ultimates, thus from himself by those things which proceed
consecutively frora himself and exist in connection with him
self in ultimates, which things, existing in a complex and con
centrate ultimate form, constitute his humanity. This is the
operation of the divine power in heaven and the world. Hence
the humanity of Jehovah is called his right arm, because the right
arra is expressive of power; and hence Jesus Christ, as being the
humanity of Jehovah and possessing his power, is represented as
sitting on the throne of God, or standing on the right hand of
God, and is said by Paul to be the " power of God." He, as the
power and wisdora of God, is the form and order of divine love
impressed upon, or spread through, universal huraan nature in

224 NEW-CHURCH DOCTRINE OF THE LORD
the lowest as well as the highest planes of being. And, ac
cording to this order, they who are of the spiritual church can
now be elevated into heaven, and enjoy eternal blessedness,
who could not have been saved according to the order which
prevailed before " Christ came in the flesh." For the Lord,
before his advent, arranged all things by or through heaven,
into the confines of which evil spirits had ascended, so as to
intercept and pervert his influences in their descent to men on
earth, so that rnen on earth could not be raised up to spiritu
ality of life. But, afterwards, he arranged all things by or
through his own humanity, which he glorified and made divine
in the world ; by which there was such an accession of strength,
that evil spirits from on all sides receded and were shut up in
their hells, and those were elevated into heaven who before
could not be elevated. (A. C. 7926.)
Now the Lord, " as to the external man in respect to Jehovah,
is called the Son of God, but, in respect to his mother, is called
the Son of Man." And " the Lord's human essence [consi
dered distinctively from his divine essence] is what is called the
Son of Man." Or " by the Son of Man is signified the essential
truth, and by the Son of God the essential good, which apper
tain to the Lord's human essence when made -divine." (A. C.
2159.) But, in respect to his divine essence, " the Lord, in the
Word, is called Jehovah as to the divine good, for divine good
is the very Divinity, and he is called the Son of God as to
divine truth, for divine truth proceeds from divine good as a son
from a father, and is also said to be born. Hence while the
Lord, on earth, had, in the process of glorifying fhe natural
humanity which he had assumed, made this humanity only
divine truth, or while he as to his external form and activity,
was as yet only divine truth, he called fhe divine good, which
was Jehovah within him, his father, since, as was said, divine
truth proceeds and is born from divine good ; but after that fhe
Lord fully glorified his external form, which was done when he
endured fhe last of temptations on the cross, he then made his
humanity divine good also, that is, Jehovah ; and, in consequence
thereof, the very divine truth proceeded from his divine or glo-

STATED AND ILLUSTRATED. 225
rified humanity. This divine truth, thus proceeding, is what is
called in the Word the holy spirit, and is the holy principle
which ever proceeds solely from the Lord's humanity glorified."
(A. C. 7499.) Hence it was said that " the holy ghost was
not given because Jesus was not yet glorified ;" and hence it
was that the holy ghost could be imparted by Jesus merely
breathing on his disciples.
Such is the doctrine of the now church concerning the Lord
in a more particular form. And from it we may deduce the
following points : 1 . That the Lord is one with the father.
2. That the Lord was from eternity. 3. That the Lord rules
the universe. 4. That he had when on earth an external with
an internal, which was as a forra of truth with an essence of
good in it. 5. That the Lord in his essence is now nothing
else but divine good, and this as to each principle, namely as
to the essential divine principle and as to the divine huraanity.
But " whereas divine truth is not in divine good, but from it,
for so the divine good appears in heaven ; and whereas divine
good appears as divine truth ; therefore, for the sake of man's
apprehension, the Lord's divinity is distinguished into divine
good and divine truth, and divine good is in the Word called
the father, and divine truth is called the son." (A. C. 3704.)
This universal and particular view of the new-church faith
respecting the Lord, will enable us to understand what she still
more particularly teaches concerning his alternate states of hu
miliation and glorification during the progress of his life on earth.
And the right understanding of this can alone enable us to see
why he should in some parts of the letter of the Word speak of
himself as inferior to the father, and in others as equal with him.
It has been shown that the Lord possessed both divinity and
humanity^divinity from his father, Jehovah, and humanity
frora the virgin, Mary. Hence he was both God and raan,
having a divine essence and a human nature — a divine essence
from the father, and a human nature frora the mother, whence
he was equal to the father in respect to his divinity, but inferior
to the father in respect to his humanity. This was his condi
tion on earth. Now this humanity derived from the mother.

226 NEW-CHURCH DOCTRINE OF THE LORD
evidentiy could not be transmuted into the divinity ; for it was
not only finite, but corrupt, and finity and corruption cannot be
transmuted into infinity and incorruption. This is so manifest
that it is admitted by all, and is expressly taught in the athana-
sian creed. And it is so admitted and so taught because every
mind that is at all rational perceives in an instant that any
transmutation or coramixtion of what is finite and what is in
finite is impossible. But still the Word throughout teaches, and
therefore the creed of Athanasius also teaches, that the essential
divinity did take fo itself humanity, and did, in some way in
scrutable to mortals, so unite humanity to itself, as to make
even that huraanity divine frora itself. And that this union
was as of a soul with a body ; so that fhe soul and the body,
although distinct, were nevertheless one divine person, who was
divine even as to the body; so that the very body of this person
rose, unlike the body of any other man, and, ascending far
above all heavens, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty
on High, that is, became intimately united to and one with the
inmost principle of divinity : so that the Lord, even in respect
to his humanity, is called, by the Prophets, Jehovah and God ;
and, by the Evangelists, is called the Lord, God, Messiah or
Christ, and the Son of God, in whom we must believe, and by
whom we must be saved. There can be no doubt of this with
any one who studies the whole Word dispassionately and with
a sole desire to know the truth frora the love of truth for its
own sake. And we could confirra it by a volume of quotations
frora all parts of the Word, if this were the proper place.
Now, if these two positions are true, naraely, that the Lord,
who was Jehovah as to essence, took by birth from a virgin a
humanity, which was finite and corrupt, and which therefore
could not be united to divinity, but yet, nevertheless, did form
to himself a huraanity which was divine, with which " he as
cended far above the heavens that he might fill all things," then
it follows necessarily that he must have put off entirely the
humanity which he had from the mother, and have put on a
humanity by production of substance and form from the divine
essence within him.

STATED AND ILLUSTRATED. 227
How this process took place, is certainly, as we have already
confessed, a divine mystery which no finite mind can compre
hend, yet it is a truth so unequivocally revealed in the Word,
that it cannot be denied without denying the Word itself. And
yet, though this process cannot be comprehended, still the sup
position of it may be seen to be not absurd. For there are
images and likenesses of it every where in the creation, which
God has raade, and which constantly gives some reflection of
its maker, so that the invisible things of his eternal power and
godhead may be known thereby. Hence we have tried to illus
trate it by the process of petrifaction, in which precisely the
same form is raade to exist frora an entirely different substance.
And, frora this siraile, we may see that it is not impossible or
absurd to imagine, that a divine substance might have been
made to assume precisely the forra of the Lord's humanity, by
displacing and exactly replacing the material substance of
which it was previously composed : so that, when the Lord
was risen as to the body, he would appear, to the spiritual eye
of his disciples, in precisely the same body with which their
natural eye was familiar on earth. And that this is not mere
conjecture is proved from the fact of his transfiguration on the
mount, where he appeared to Peter, James and John in his di
vine body, by such an opening of their spiritual sight that they
could see through his material enveloping and behold the divine
form and substance that were being formed and residing inti
mately within it. There was a perfect identity between the two
bodies, so that the disciples knew it to be still Jesus, though his
countenance did shine as the sun in his strength, and his rai
ment did glitter as the light. Hence it is evident that the Lord
had a divine body, in a process of formation on earth, and
ultimately fully formed, in his material body, a perfect fac
simile of it, and yet constituted of a substance totally distinct
from it. And we can conceive that this process was going on
gradually in this world, by the displacing of material particles
and the replacing of corresponding divine particles, just as, in
petrifaction, particles of stone are made to take the place of
particles of wood, as these particles of wood pass off by decom-

228 NEW-CHURCH DOCTRINE OF THE LORD
position. And we can conceive that the divine particles might
retain the same form as fhe material particles which they re
placed, — only in a more perfect and resplendent degree,— just
as the stony particles preserve the general shape, intimate tex
ture, and aUogether similar resemblance of the woody particles
which they have replaced.
The foregoing illustration is perfectly conceivable. But our
own bodies, perhaps, furnish a truer image of the same process.
We know that the particles of matter which now compose our
bodies are incessantly passing off, by insensible as well as sen
sible perspiration, and by other modes of evacuation more or
less obvious, so as to form a perfect sphere of our quality
around us. It is this sphere of a man's quality, not only emanat
ing from his body, but lodged in his clothes and stamped on
the very prints which his shoes have left in the dust of the
earth, which enables his dog to trace him out and know him
amidst ten thousand other men. And as these particles pass
off, we know that they are incessantly replaced by other parti
cles of matter, which are made to assume the same form, so as
to preserve perfectiy a man's identity, however much his
quality may alter. All of you have probably seen the
marks of anchors, and other images, made on sailors' arms,
during youth, by pricking Indian ink into the skin with a needle.
These images never disappear, although the matter of the arm
is, as we have seen, continually changing. The reason is, that
the particles of matter which replace those that are passing off,
come into precisely the same forra, so as to preserve that form
unchanged although the substance is different. And this change
of matter is not confined merely to the skin, flesh and fluids
of the body, but takes place also in the solid and earthy struc
ture of the bones. The experiments of Sir Charles Bell on
fowls has fully proved this. He fed fowls with madder, and
found, ori killing them after some time, that this dye stuff had
entered into their very bones, and tinged them red. Then he
discontinued giving thera madder in their food, and killing and
examining them at certain determinate intervals of time, he
found their bones to become less and less red, until they assumed

STATED AND ILLUSTRATED. 229
again their natural colour. Now this could not have been,
unless the particles of bone coloured with madder had passed
off, and had been replaced by other particles of bone fresh
formed from the blood : which proves that the matter which
forms even our bones is constantly changing. Hence all the
matter of our bodies is incessantiy passing off and being replaced
by fresh matter. And it is calculated that a thorough change
of matter takes place in every one's body about once in seven
years. It is on this principle that medical men ground the
necessity of revaccination every seven years. For my part,
if I may be allowed to express an opinion on a subject that
comes so little within ray own province, I would say, I do not
think their doctrine true. For I hold that, since the Lord's ad
vent, disease is in the forms, not in the substance, of the body ;
and, as we have seen, the form of the body remains, however
much its substance has changed. Hence I believe that the vac
cine form, when once induced, always remains, notwithstanding
any periodic changes of substance which the body may undergo.*
* The fact that vaccination loses its power is owing-, I apprehend, either
to a spurious virus being used, or to the vaccine matter becoming modified
by passing successively through many human bodies. It is manifest that
the vaccine matter must lose some of its salutary power every time it passes
through a diseased human body: for inoculation with the scab from this hu
man body must have a less sanative effect than the infection taken by dairy
men immediately from their kine; and this effect must be less and less in
proportion to the number of the diseased human bodies through which the
virus has passed. But I presume the effects of the vaccine matter must also
be weakened by passing through a healthy human body. For a human body
made relatively more healthy by regeneration, and especially the body of an
innocent child, must modify the vaccine matter in the same way that the or
derly body of a cow modifies the human small pox. The reason why the
same disease is lighter in an animal than in a human subject must be, that
mankind have perverted the order of their nature, which tlie subjects of the
mere animal kingdom have not; so that, when a disease, generated by hu
man corruption, is made, in the divine economy, to pass through an animal
body, the virulence of that disease is abated. And when the matter of this
disease, so modified by the orderly animal body, is introduced into the human
body, prone as this is by hereditary taint to disorder, it cures, or prevents, or
causes to appear in a milder form, the similar and more virulent human
disease by substitution. But, as the orderly animal body modifies the human
disease, so must the healthy and relatively innocent human body modify,
that is, weaken by a kind of dilution, the vaccine matter. For every time
the vaccine matter passes through the human body, it becomes more assimi-
21

230 NEW-CHURCH DOCTRINE OF THE LORD S
In the sarae way the forms of baptism and the holy supper, and
all other religious forms of faith and practice, remain in the
spiritual body of man, although his material body is decom
posed and wholly merged in elemental nature.
Now we must presume that fhe Lord's body, when on earth,
was subject to the same law. And therefore we may conceive,
that, as the particles of his material body, even to the bones,
passed off, in the progress of his divinely spiritual-natural life,
they, instead of being replaced as ours are by other material
particles, were replaced by particles of divine substance; and
these divine particles, coraing into precisely the same relation
to one another which the material particles before them had
held to one another, would necessarily preserve the same form,
although they were of a totally different substance ; and thus
they would form to the Lord's divine essence a body, even to
the very bones, altogether like that which they had replaced :
so that, when appearing to his disciples after his resurrection,
he could say to them, " Behold my hands and my feet, that it
is I myself: handle rae and see ; for a spirit hath not flesh and
hones as ye see rae have." And this explains the fact that he
could live for many days without eating material food, as his
disciples were under the necessity of doing, because he had
" raeat to eat which they knew not of." For he received gradu
ally a divine substance, which supplied and satisfied his body
in the daily wastage of its material particles, while the bodily
wants of his disciples had to be satisfied with fresh supplies ot
material substance. Hence he could live and act in a divinely
natural sphere of use, without feeling the sensations of material
hunger and thirst, which ordinary men must needs feel and
satisfy while inhabitants of this terrestrial sphere.
This illustration will, I presume, enable you to see that it is
lated to the human form, so as to lose its properties of a distinctive animal
disease. And if vaccination is to be kept efficient, each human subject must
be vaccinated with matter directly from the cow, and not by matter which
has been made to pass through an indefinite number of other human subjects.
This custom of vaccinating children with matter taken from other children is
also exceptionable, because, as I imagine, a more healthy child may, in some
cases, be incommoded by scrofulous and other morbid forms derived frpm a
less healthy one.

STATES OF HUMILIATION AND GLORIFICATION. 231
not absurd, but highly rational, to suppose the Lord did in
fact, when on earth, put off a material, and put on a divine,
humanity. And in a clear discernment of this fact, we have a
groundwork for an explanation of the whole diflaculty before us.
For it can now be seen, at a glance, that, while this process of
putting off the one and putting on the other was going on in the
Lord, he was subject to alternate states, which would give rise
to very different appearances ; and a due consideration of these
appearances, will satisfactorily account for all the relations of
his human infirmity and inferiority to the father which the Bible
contains, without invalidating the position, that he is, notwith
standing, the very and the only God. Hence we have dwelt,
at considerable length and with some minuteness, upon this
subject, reserving for another occasion our application of it to
the removal of the difficulty in question.
But, byway of transition to our next discourse, we will, in clos
ing this, just observe briefly, that, " in consequence of the Lord's
having at first a humanity from the mother, which he put off
by successive steps, the Lord, during his abode in the world,
was alternately in two states ; the one a state of humiliation, or
exinanition, and the other a state of glorification, or of union
with the divinity which is called the father." He was in the
state of humiliation at the time and in the degree that he was
in the humanity from the mother; and he was in the state of
glorification, at the time, and in the degree, that he was in the
humanity from the father. In the state of humiliation, he
prayed " to the father, as to a being distinct frora himself; but in
the state of glorification, he spake with the father as with him
self. In this latter state the Lord said that the father was in
him, and he in the father, and that the father and he were one ;
but in the other state he underwent temptations, and suffered the
cross, and prayed the father not lo forsake him ; for the divinity
could not be tempted, much less could it suffer the cross."
(Doc. of Lord, 35.)
It was, therefore, in this last state — his state of deepest
humiliation, that is, this state of fullest conformity of his exter
nal humanity to his indwelling divinity, that he exclaimed in

232 THE lord's alternate STATES.
our text, "My God! my God I why hast thou forsaken mel"
The Lord, thinking and feeling in infirra humanity, was tempted
to believe that he was not one with the Divinity. It was the
deepest temptation, because it was a consciousness in the lowest
corporeal principle. But at the very time the Divinity within was
putting off the last vestiges of material huraanity, and as these
vestiges passed off, it seemed to the Lord's consciousness in that
huraanity as if the life within was deserting it, when in reality
it was leaving the life within, by ceasing to have any further
connection with it. But as the Lord's consciousness in infirra
humanity ceased by the last vestiges of that humanity passing
away, he came into a fuller consciousness of life in another
and purer humanity, which was fully correspondent to his di
vine essence. And as he came into this divine huraan conscious
ness, which could not be terapted with any further doubts as
to his entire divinity, he perceived his trials were completed;
and, perceiving this, he cried again with a loud voice, " It is
finished, and, bowing his head, gave up the ghost." Thus
passed away his mere natural life. But his dying to mere natural
life, was his rising fo divine natural life. Yet, though he be
came more truly alive, still the appearance was that he died ;
and the scoffing crowd railed at the apparent fallacy of all his
claims to, and professions of, divinity, and exulted in the feel
ings of self-justification which his apparent death produced—
" Now Satan triumph'd ; ' now,' he cried,
* Who shall my power oppose 1'
But when the Son of Mary died.
The Son of God arose.
" He finish'd with his dying breath
Redemption's grand design ;
His human bore our sins to death.
And then arose divine."

SERMON XIV.

JOHN, X. ir, 18, 19.

" I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from
me, but I lay it down of myself: I have power to lay it down, and I
have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
from my father."
The Lord spake these words in reference to the life which
was distinctively his own as the human forra of God. They
denote that the human nature of the Lord acted of itself, or by
its own power, frora the divine nature within it. For the Lord
says, " This coraraandment have I received yVowi my father.'^
They imply that the Lord put off the raaterial humanity which
he derived from the virgin mother, and put on a divine
humanity frora the divine essence, which was the father within
hira, by his own proper power. The laying down his life de-
notes his putting off the huraan propriura which he had received
in hereditary transraission from the mother ; and his taking his
life again denotes his putting on a huraan propriura frora the
divine essence. The one process constituted his various states
of hurailiation or huraan inanition ; the other, his various states
of glorification or divine irapletion. This text, therefore, leads
directly to a renewed consideration of the topic with which we
closed our last discourse.
In our last discourse, we took a universal and particular
view of the /new-church doctrine concerning the Lord. We
especially regarded this doctrine in its respects to the Lord's
putting off the infirm humanity which he had assumed from the
virgin Mary, and putting on a divine humanity by production
from the divine essence within him.
21*

234 UNITY OF JESUS AND THE FATHER
« We endeavoured to illustrate that mysterious process by a
striking operation of nature, namely, petrifaction ; and by the
constant change and reproduction of raatter in our own bodies.
We are aware that this was but a very faint and exceedingly
imperfect illustration of so divine and therefore inscrutable a
work. But we did not design to attempt lo make clear the
divine process itself; for this, being a divine thing, can never
be comprehended by mortal minds. We only strove to show
that the supposition of such a process, when revealed in the
Word, or to the church, is not so absurd a thing as some theo
logians would have us think. And we presume the rationality
of the doctrine that Jehovah did actually take to himself a ma
terial humanity, and, on the gradual exinanition of this, did
actually clothe himself with a divine humanity, in the person of
Jesus Christ, was fully or satisfactorily shown.
Our object in this was to make way for a clear presentation
of the new-church view of the Lord's alternate states of humi
liation and glorification while he was on earth. For this view
explains why he sometimes spake of himself as inferior to the
father, and at other times as one and equal with hira. And
this explanation is the only solid answer that can be given to
the objections to the doctrine of the sole and exclusive divinity
of Jesus Christ.
We now purpose to present again and raore fully, the view
of our church in respect to these alternate states of the Lord,
and then proceed to such explanations of the raain subject
before us as it may suggest.
It has been shown, that the Lord, when on earth, had, like
another man, an internal and an external. In respect to an
ordinary man, " there is a difference between what he receives
from his father and what he receives from his mother. Man
receives from his father all which is internal, that is, his very
soul or life, but he receives from his mother all which is exter
nal. In a word, the inferior man, or the real spirit, is frora the
father ; but the exterior man, or the body, is from the mother."
(A. C. 1815.) Now "the Lord was as another man in every
respect, except that he was conceived of Jehovah ; nevertheless,

EXPLAINED BY NEW-CHURCH VIEWS. 235
he was born of a woman, a virgin ; and consequently, by such
nativity, he derived infirmities from the virgin mother, such as
are comraon to other raen. These infirmities were of a cor
poreal nature, from which he receded, in order that things ce
lestial and spiritual might be presented to his view. There
are two hereditary principles which are connate in man, one
derived from the father, the other from the mother. The
Lord's hereditary principle which was derived from the father
was divine, but that which was derived frora the raother was
huraan and infirra. This infirra part or principle which raan
derives hereditarily frora his raother, is soraewhat corporeal,
which is dispersed during regeneration ; but that which a raan
derives from his father remains to eternity. But the hereditary
principle of the Lord derived from Jehovah, was, as just ob
served, divine. And moreover the Lord's humanity also was
made divine, by production frora the divine essence, and sub
stituted instead of the infirm maternal humanity, which was en
tirely expelled. In the Lord alone was there a correspondence
of things which belong to the body with the Divinity, and such
a correspondence as was most, or rather infinitely, perfect.
Hence there was in hira a union of things corporeal with divine
celestial things, and of things sensual with divine spiritual things.
Thus the Lord is the perfect man; and the only real man."
(A. C. 1414.) For man is not man on account of his bodily
shape and powers, but on account of his love and his wisdom,
or of his will and his understanding ; and so far as these inter
nal forms and qualities are conspicuous and potent in his body.
And the love and the wisdora are conspicuous and potent in the
body so far as corporeal and sensual things are raade corre
spondent with the love and wisdora. Hence, as the Lord's
corporeal desires and sensual perceptions were alone made
correspondent with the divine love and the divine wisdom,
therefore he only was made really, because divinely, man.
He was made raan, indeed, as to the very ultiraates of nature ;
whereas ordinary raen can be raade such only as fo their
spirits, and not as to their bodies. For the sensual and corpo
real principle in man is utterly depraved by the fall, and can

230 UNITY OF JESUS AND THE FATHER
never be regenerated. The mere natural part of men is brought
into quiescence, and their spiritual part alone is purified and saved
by the formation of a new will in the intellect over and above
the old will depraved by nature. Hence an ordinary man ap
proximates to true manhood only so far as he is raised out of
the body ; that is^ so far as his mind is raised out of corporeal
affections and sensual thoughts.
But with the Lord it was different, for the Lord's glorification
commenced in his interior, middle or rational part by the
knowledge of truth from the Word. For " the rational princi
ple is that in which the human principle commences, and thus
from which and by which the huraan principle is." (A. C. 3704
— also 2194.) And his glorification ascended just in the de
gree that it descended ; that is, the Lord became intimately
united to the divine essence, which is divine love, just in the
degree that he became ultimately conformed to fhe truth of the
good of that love. The Lord's external was united to Jehovah
precisely as another man is united to him, namely by fhe
knowledge and practice of truth. The only difference was that
the Lord was united to Jehovah infinitely, but other men finite
ly : but this is a difference as to degree and not as to manner.
The Lord, like other men, was born in ignorance, and acquired
the knowledge of truth from infancy to adult age, in subjection
to his ostensible earthly parents, and by instruction frora the doc
tors of the Jewish church. His rational mind was first purified
and formed by the understanding and will of this truth from the
Word, and then his external man was also purified and formed
by the practice of it, even to the fulfilling of its every jot and
tittle. As his rational mind was thus rectified by the divine
truth, and his external man conformed to it, his external man
ascended to the divine essence ; that is, came into a state of form
and activity homogenious with the divine love ; and in this degree
the good of that love descended into, was manifested in, and
appropriated to, his external man. Thus by truth, or the prac
tice of it, the Lord's external form was lifted up to and united
with the divine essence ; and by the good of that truth the
Lord's infernal, or the divine essence, descended into and was

EXPLAINED BY NEW-CHURCH VIEWS. 237
united with his external form. The ratio of descent was pre
cisely equal to that of the ascent : so that, just in the degree
that he ascended, in the same degree he descended ; till, in ris
ing far above all heavens to the very Divinity, he also de
scended infinitely to the very limits of creation, so as " to fill
all things." Hence, unhke all other men, he glorified his very
body, and therefore had a more perfectiy ultimate external man
than they.
On this subject, the new church holds the following doctrine ;
" It is scarcely known at this day what the external man is;
for it is generally supposed that the things appertaining to the
body alone constitute the external man — as his sensual things,
namely, the touch, the taste, the smell, the hearing, the seeing,
and also appetites and pleasures ; but these constitute the outer
most man, which is merely corporeal. The external man
properly so called, consists of and is constituted by scientifics
appertaining to the memory, and by affections appertaining to
the love in which raan is principled ; and also by the sensual
things proper to spirits, together with the pleasures which like
wise appertain to spirits. The body is only as a covering or
incrustation, which is dissolved, in order that man may truly
live and that all things appertaining to hira may becorae more
excellent." This is the case with man now since the fall : and
hence, now, his body has to be laid aside, or his raind has to be
raised above his body, in order that he may converse with
spirits and angels. And bis mind must be raised above the de
lights of the body, such as eating, drinking and the like, before
he can be made capable of enjoying here spiritual or angelic
delights. Hence it is a coraraon observation, that men who
are addicted to the gratification of mere sensual appetites, are
remarkable for their mental obtuseness and their moral pravi-
ties. It is well known, too, that no high attainments are made
in purely intellectual pursuits without great self denial in
respect to the bodily appetites. And the constant proneness of
men to break through restraints on these appetites, and give
way to, at least, occasional excessive indulgences, is manifest
proof that man's corporeal principle is now irrevocably depraved.

238 UNITY OF JESUS AND THE FATHER
Before fhe fall, however, that is, in the most ancient or celes
tial church, man had his material body so fully correspondent
with his spirit, that he could see angels, and converse with them,
although he was existing on earth. At that time, indeed, he
had no external respiration, and no external or audible speech.
He respired with the atmosphere of heaven, not with the atmos
phere of this world ; and his speech was tacit, consisting in a
sort of pantomimic action of the muscles of the mouth and face.
Hence there were muscles of the mouth existing then, which
are not developed in men at the present day, and the material
bodies of men, were then so fully correspondent to their spirit
ual bodies, that tliey did not intercept at all the perceptions of
the spiritual mind, but this mind looked intuitively through all
natural objects to the corresponding spiritual things in heaven
which cause thera to exist on earth. Their material bodies
being thus correspondent with their spiritual bodies, they
were put off vvilhout any disorders, pains, or convulsions of dis
ease — probably by some kind of gradual exsiccation, and death
was but a sweet sleep, frora which the spirit woke into the spiri
tual plane, instead of the material plane, as before, and, without
a struggle or a pang, left the body on earth a mere exuvium.
But since the fall, the spirits of men have become gross and
sensual, so as to be unable to feel out of the body, or think out
of the senses. Hence they can now no longer converse with
spirits or angels ; and to enjoy the delights of a purely spiri
tual state, they must not only have their bodies laid aside, but
they must also have all their memory of natural things brought
into entire quiescency. With the Lord, however, all is Jehovah,
not only his internal and interior raan, but also his external
man, and his very body. Wherefore he is the only one who
rose up into heaven with the body also, os plainly appears in
the Evangelists, where they speak of his resurrection, and es
pecially from his own words in Luke, xxiv. 39, "Behold my
hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me and see; for
a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have."
That the Lord arose with his body into heaven, is confirmed
by the vision of the martyred Stephen, who, in seeing the hea-

EXPLAINED BY NEW-CHURCH VIEVyS. 239
vens opened, saw him standing on the right hand of the glory
of God; and by the declaration of Paul, who says, (Eph. iv.
10,) "He that descended is the same that ascended up far
above all heavens, that he might fill all things;" and again,
(Heb. i. 3,) " When he had through hiraself purged our sins,
sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on High ; being made
so much better than the angels as he hath by inheritance ob
tained a more excellent narae than they." Thus he ascended
above the abodes of the angels ; and, as he himself expressly
says, " went back to the father from whom he had come forth
into the world" — " I came forth frora the father, and ara corae
into the world ; again, I leave the world and go to the father."
Hence he ascended to the very divine essence, and, of course,
above the heavens of angels, for he was begotten of Jehovah,
so as to be the son of God, that is, the continuous proceeding
from the divine essence ; and therefore, in having gone back to
that essence, he is now sitting on the heavens as the throne of
God, for ever swaying a sceptre of righteousness as the sceptre
of his kingdora, and from the right hand of Jehovah commis
sioning the angels as the ministering agents of his salvation to
men. Hence it is clear that the Lord's body arose, not only
into, but above, the heavens ; and that it is not confined there,
but fills all things, even the material universe, so that a light
could shine from it on Paul even on this earth for his conver
sion. That the light of the Lord's presence, in Paul's conver
sion, did actually shine into this earth, so as to affect the raatter
of it, is proved by the fact that it scorched the cornea of Paul's
raaterial eyes, and made them for a time blind. Hence the body
of the Lord pervades with its presence, and its consciousness,
and a sphere of its quality, even the earths, so as to keep ex
pelled from matter, and hold chained for ever in hell, the infer
nal crew who were wont in olden times to possess the bodies of
men. Thus it is that the Lord, by the presence of his divine
humanity even in matter, redeems and saves man to eternity,
by keeping the devils so far away from his body and its invo
luntary muscles, as that they can never destroy again his free
will and rationality in spiritual things.

240 UNITY OP JESUS AND THE FATHER
Thus the Lord has an embodyment which spirits have not,
because he has a body present and conscious throughout the
natural world ; whereas spirits have only a body which is ex
tant and conscious in the spiritual world. Hence the Lord said
to his disciples that a spirit hath not flesh and bones as they
saw he had. Mark, he did not say, that a spirit has no flesh
and bones ; but that a spirit hath not flesh and bones as he has,
that is, such flesh and bones as his. Doubtless spirits have
substantial flesh and bones, but they are spiritual, whereas the
Lord's were divinely natural.
Thus it is evident that the Lord had an external and an in
ternal. His internal was Jehovah, that is, I AM, or essential
being, or divine love, which is the only thing that is, and the
only fountain of all ea;istence. And the Lord's external which
he assumed upon earth, was just like that of another man, ex
cept that it was an enveloping of divine love in materiality :
but, in process of tirae and state, this external was wholly put
off, and an external fully correspondent to his divine internal
was put on. The external that was put off, was not the infirm
and corrupt humanity of any one particular man or nation, but
the entire humanity which mankind in the whole complex, frora
the creation till the Lord's advent, had made their own. The
external that was put on, is the huraanity which the Lord,
by his own proper power, acquired to himself from the im
pulses of the divine love within him : for, according to the hu
man economy, " the activity of man does not proceed from his
soul by bis body, but out of his body from his soul." (T. C.
R. 188.) This was especially true of fhe Lord. Hence his
external acted of itself from his internal. Therefore we say,
the Lord acquired to hiraself a humanity from the divine love
within hira, by his own proper poioer. And our authority for
saying so is the divine truth of our text, in which the Lord
declares, " I lay down ray life that I might take it again. No
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. - / have
power to lay it down, and / have power to take it again."
Now this putting off of the infirm humanity, was a state of
gradual and progressive humiliation. Humiliation consists

EXPLAINED BY NEW-CHURCH VIEWS. 241
in the prostration and consequently entire subjection of on8 to
another. Hence the Lord's humiliation was a prostration, or a
bowing down, of his infirm external before his divine internal,
until this internal, by the production frora itself of an external
fully corresponding to itself, so corapletely subdued that infirm
external as at length to put it under its feet and shake it off like
dust. But while that infirm external existed, it obscured and blunt
ed the influences of divine love and wisdom from the Lord's
internal, so that those influences could not shine out and be
active in ultimates in any thing of a degree at all adequate to
their intrinsic infinite brilliancy and power. Hence, while the
Lord was in his infirm external, the glory of his divine internal
could not appear. But so far as, by his hurailiation in it, he
put that external off, and produced from within an external
more correspondent to his divine internal, this internal shone
forth and came out in its glory even in ultimates. This glory
becoming the Lord's in his ultimate form, — because the Lord,
as we have shown, acquired to hiraself a humanity by his own
proper power, — he, therefore, was himself glorified in his ulti
mate form, just in the ratio of his humiliation in his infirm ex
ternal. The Lord's putting on an external corresponding to
his divine internal, was, therefore, his state of gradual and pro
gressive GLORIFICATION.
These two states of humiliation and glorification were
alternate in the Lord, precisely as states of good and evil, or
truth and falsity, are alternate in man when he is undergoing
regeneration : for the glorification of the Lord is the type of
man's regeneration.
We may say, then, in the words of the new church, " That
the Lord put off, by successive steps, the huraanity frora the
mother, and put on a huraanity from the divinity in hiraself,
which is the Divine Huraanity and the Son of God ;" and, that
thus " God became raan in ultimates as he was before man in
first principles."
Such is the doctrine of the new church respecting the Lord's
alternate states of humiliation and glorification. And in ap-
22

242 UNITY OF JESUS AND THE FATHER
plyftig this doctrine to the explanation of the subject before us,
namely, how the Lord, although one and equal with the father,
should nevertheless sometimes speak as though lie was inferior
to him, we have only to take her own words in the following
extract somewhat modified by our interlarded explanations.
" To fall on the face was a ceremony of adoration in the
most ancient church, and thence was adopted by the ancients,
by reason that the face signified the interiors, and the state of
their humiliation was represented by falling on the face : hence
this became a usual ceremony in the Jewish representative
church. True adoration, or humiliation of heart, is attended
with prostration on the face to the earth before the Lord, as a
gesture naturally flowing from it. For in humiliation of heart
there is an acknowledgment, on man's part, that he is mere
filthiness ; and at the same time an acknowledgment of the in
finite mercy of the Lord towards such a being. And when the
mind is left in these acknowledgments, it lets itself down to
wards hell and prostrates the body. Nor does it elevate itself,
but remains prostrate, until it is elevated by the Lord. This is
the case in all true humiliation, accompanied with a perception
of elevation by the Lord's mercy. Such was the hurailiation
of the members of the most ancient church. That the Lord
adored, and prayed to, Jehovah his father, is known from the
Word in the Evangelists ; and that he did this as to a being
different from himself, although Jehovah was in him. But the
state in vchich the, Lord was at such times was his state of
humiliation, when he was thinking and feeling in the infirm
humanity derived from the mother. But so far as he put off
that huraanity, and put on a divine humanity, he was in a dif
ferent state, which is called his state of glorification. In the
fbrmer state, he adored Jehovah as a person different from him
self, although, in reality, Jehovah was in himself; for his inter
nal was Jehovah : but in the latter, namely, the state of glori
fication, he discoursed with Jehovah as with himself; for he
was Jehovah hiraself. Bul how these things are cannot be
conceived, unless it be known what the internal is, and how
the internal acts on the external; and, further, how the infernal

EXPLAINED BY NEW-CHURCH VIEWS. 243
and external are distinct from each other, and yet are joined
together in one. This, however, may be illustrated by the in
ternal appertaining to man, and its influx into, and operation
upon, his external. The internal of raan is that principle by
virtue of which man is raan, and by which he is distinguished
from brute animals. By this internal he lives after death and
to eternity ; and by this he is capable of being elevated by the
Lord araongst angels :" it is the very first or raost intimate
seminal form by virtue of which he becomes, and is, a man.
By this internal the Lord is united to man. The heaven
nearest to the Lord consists of these huraan internals : this
heaven, however, is above the inmost angelic heaven. Where
fore these internals are the habitations of the Lord himself
The whole human race is thus most intimately present under
the eyes of the Lord. " In the sublunary world there appears
distance ; but there is none in heaven, much less above hea
ven. In heaven apparent contiguity in space, is nothing else
but similarity of state, so that those who are in similar states
are together, and those who are in dissimilar states are asunder.
The case is the sarae with the spirits of men." Hence, as the
internals of all men are in a similar state, because these are
the Lord's presence with all men alike, in his own love and
mercy, giving them the universal and essential principles of
their existence, therefore the internals of all men are essentially
alike, having a comraon likeness to the Lord ; and consequently
there is no separation or contiguity of space in respect to them ;
and therefore all are immediately in the inspection of the
omniscient and omnipresent God.
But these internals of men are not God himself, though they
are the direct effects of his most proximate presence. Hence
they have not life in themselves, but are forms recipient of the
life of fhe Lord. In proportion, then, as man is in evil, whether
actual or hereditary, he is, as it were, separate from his own in
ternal, which belongs to the Lord, and which is the Lord with
him ; consequently he, in the same proportion , is separate from the
Lord himself; for although this internal be adjoined to man, and

244 UNITY OF JESUS AND THE FATHER
inseparable from him, still, as man recedes from the Lord, that
is, comes into a state dissimilar to his, in the same proportion
he, as it were, separates hiraself from his own internal. This
separation, however, is not an evulsion, or plucking asunder
from it ; for man would then be a beast, and no longer capable
of living after death ; but it consists in a dissent and disagree
ment of those faculties of man which are beneath it, or external
to it ; that is, it consists in his rational and natural part coming
into a state of contrariety to it. In proportion to this dissent
and disagreement, or contrariety of state, there is a spiritual
disjunction of man's external from his internal ; but in propor
tion as there is no dissent and disagreement, or no contrariety
of state, man's external is joined to his internal, and by his in
ternal is conjoined with the Lord. This conjunction is effected
in proportion as man is principled in love and charity ; for love
and charity are what conjoin.
Such is the case in respect to rnan. But in respect to the
Lord, his internal was Jehovah himself, inasmuch as he was
conceived of Jehovah himself, through the overshadowing of a
virgin by the holy ghost : and Jehovah cannot be divided and
become another's, as the soul or internal of man can, in fhe
case of a son who is conceived of a human father : for what
is divine is not capable of division or propagation, like what is
huraan, but is one and the sarae, and is perraanent. Hence the
Lord's, internal could not be distinct from the father or Jehovah,
as man's internal is, and much less separate from Jehovah,
inasmuch as Jehovah, in conceiving the Lord, could not be
distinct and separate from himself, but became hiraself, in all
his fullness, the Lord's soul. Whereas, in creating a raere
man, Jehovah conceives him through his human father as a
medium. Hence a mere man has a human soul, which is a
recipient form of the divine life, existing discretely from it ; but
the Lord, having had no human father, could have, of course,
no huraan soul, and therefore had not an internal discrete from
the divine life, but an internal continuous with it. Thus he
had no other soul but Jehovah himself. Jehovah alone, and in

EXPLAINED BY NEW-CHURCH VIEWS. 245
all his fullness, therefore, was the Lord's internal ; so that Paul
could say, " in Jesus Christ dwells all the fullness of the god
head bodily."
With this internal the Lord united his external as a corre
sponding form with its essence ; so that his external form, or
human essence, became altogether one in quality and degree
with his internal divine essence. Thus as the internal of the
Lord was Jehovah, it could not be a form recipient of life,
as the internal of raan is, but was life itself. And his human
essence, by union with his divine essence, was also made life
itself. Wherefore the Lord said, " As the father hath life in
himself, so hath he given to the son, to have life in himself."
(John, V. 36.)
Thus man has an internal and an external ; and when man
is in a mere, which is an evil, external state, he appears dis
joined from his own internal. And as there was a perfect
parity between the Lord and raan in this respect, therefore, in
proportion as the Lord was in the humanity which he received
hereditarily from the mother, and which was infirm, finite, false
and evil, he was in states of contrariety to his own divine in
ternal or .Jehovah, so as to appear distinct from him ; and in
these states adored Jehovah as a being different frora hiraself :
but in proportion as he put off this huraanity, the Lord came
into states which were not contrary to his divine internal ; and
as his external states became fully correspondent to his internal,
he no longer appeared distinct from Jehovah, but appeared as
he really was, one with him, and spake with him as with him
self (A. C. 1999.) The formerstate, as remarked above, was
the Lord's state of humiliation, which was temporary and
passed away ; but the latter was his state of glorification,
which is eternal. Consequently, though the Lord did, at certain
times, speak as though he was inferior to the father, yet,
nevertheless, he in reality was, is now, and ever will be, equal
with him ; as Paul says, " the same yesterday, and to-day, and
for ever" — the one " God, over all, blessed for evermore."
Thus the whole new-church view of our subject is distinctiy
before us. What has the Unitarian to object ? Why he will
22 *

246 ROOT OF THE UNITARIAN DIFFICULTY
say. What evidence have we that man has such an infernal as
you speak of? Who sees, who knows any thing about such
an internal in himself? And if a man be not conscious of an
internal in himself, how can one be there ? What illustration,
then, does the example of such an internal give of the Lord's
internal which you say was Jehovah^ And as for your hu
miliation of a divine external before a divine internal, I know
nothing of it. I can pniy conceive of Deity as an all extended
essence, or divine mind^— as an infinite, eternal, omnipotent,
omniscient, omnipresent, and therefore limitless, indeterminate
and formless unity — a mere principle of benevolence, wisdom
and beneficence. And to my mind it is not only absurd, but
impiously and most criminally profane, to attempt to think of
such a being in a form or under an idea comprehensible to a
finite mind. It is therefore to me the height of impiety, as
well as absurdity, to speak of an external to Deity, or of God
being a man ; and your talk of God's putting off one external
and putting on another external is to me nothing else than
theological gibberish.
Such, or something like it, I should imagine would be the
answer of a Unitarian to the explanations of our church now
given. The root of the difficulty, then, seems to be the sensual
man's inability to discern spiritual things ; and this root has
two raain radicals : first, the sensual man's inability to conceive
that there is any internal man, and therefore how there could
have been a divine internal in the Lord ; and second, his ina
bility to conceive how a divine internal could have a divine ex
ternal, or a divine essence have a divine form.
The first of these difficulties it is irapossible to remove, be
cause it is inherent in the very nature of the sensual mind. For
the sensual mind is formed by the appearances of truth, that is,
truth as it appears to the senses; and the existence of an in
ternal man is contrary to appearance. Most men do not know,
and if they be told it, do not believe, that there is an internal
man ; because they live in corporeal and sensual principles,
which cannot possibly see what is of an interior nature. " In
terior things are capable of seeing what is exterior, but exterior

IN CONCEIVING JESUS AND THE FATHER ONE. 247
things are not capable of seeing what is interior ; as in the case
of vision, the internal sight can see what the external sight
does, but the external sight cannot see at all what the internal
sight does : or, what is similar, the intellectual and rational
principles can perceive the nature and quality of the scientific,
but the scientific principle cannot perceive the nature and quali
ty of the intellectual and rational. A further reason why men
do not know, and if they be told it, do not believe, that there is
an internal man, is, because they do not actually believe that
there is a spirit which is separated from the body at death, and
scarcely that there is an internal life which is called the soul :
for when the sensual and corporeal man thinks of separating
the spirit frora the body, it occurs to hira as an impossibilitj-,
by reason of his making all life to reside in the body ; in which
idea he confirms himself by several considerations drawn from
raere appearances in this world." " But the chief cause why
the greatest part of mankind, and the most learned more than
the simple, are influenced by incredulity respecting an internal
man, or respecting a spiritual world, and spiritual things in
general, is, because almost all men are immersed in self-love
and the love of the world, which are diametrically opposite to
celestial love ; that is, love to the Lord, and spiritual love,
which is love to the neighbour." (A.C. 1594.) For love to the
Lord and the neighbour is spiritual, while love of self and the
world, is natural, sensual and corporeal. And while a man is
in the latter, he cannot conceive of the existence of the former.
A single fact proves this, namely, the fact that there is among
sensual men so much disputing whether there be any such thing
as disinterested benevolence. If a man were spiritual, he could
have no doubt or dispute on this subject ; but the man who is
principled in self-love, cannot conceive of any principle of ac
tion but an ultimate regard to one's own interest ; and therefore,
in his view, there can be no benevolence which is disinterested.
It is irapossible to conceive of any purely disinterested action,
until a man is raised out of self-love into the love of fhe Lord.
For a man can never know what he has never seen or has
never been. And no one can be purely disinterested but the

248 ROOT OF THE UNITARIAN DIFFICULTY
Lord and he who is made like him by regeneration. And " no
one knoweth the things of God, but the spirit of God, and he
unto whom God reveals thera by his spirit." (1 Cor. ii.) There
fore a selfish man cannot know or conceive of a disinterested
action. In like manner every thing spiritual is hid from his
eyes ; because " the natural man receiveth not the things of
the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto hira, neither can
he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." Now
the internal of man, of which we have been speaking, is most
intiraately spiritual, and is in fact nothing else but love ; for,
as has been shown, man is not bodily form merely, but love
and wisdora in a bodily form ; therefore the essential man is
the love. Consequently, the true and genuine man is the love
of God in us, which is mutual love. Wherefore mutual love is
emphatically the internal man. But self-lovC is opposite to
mutual love ; hence it is that they who are principled in self-
love cannot conceive of the internal man.
" The spirit of man, or the soul, is the interior man, which
lives after death, and is an organized spiritual substance, being
within the body during a man's abode in this world. This in
terior raan, or raan's soul, or spirit, is not the internal man,
but the internal raan is in it, when mutual love is there. The
things appertaining to the internal man are, as we have shown,
of the Lord in man, so that it raay be said that the internal man
is the Lord ; but as the Lord grants unto angels and men, whilst
they live in mutual love, to have a celestial selfhood, so that it
appears to them as if they did good of or from themselves ;
hence we speak of the internal man, as if it were a part of man
hiraself. But any one who is principled in mutual love acknow
ledges and believes that all goodness and truth are not his, but
the Lord's, aud that the ability to love another as hiraself, and
especially like the angels, to love another more than himself, is
the continual gift of the Lord ; frora which gift and its happi
ness, man recedes in the proportion that he recedes from the
acknowledgment that that gift is the Lord's, (A. C. 1594,) and
comes into the appearance that his good and his truth are his
own; that is, recedes from an internal and comes into an ex-

IN CONCEIVING JESUS AND THE FATHER ONE. 249
ternal state, which is the same as receding from love to God
and coraing into self love. Thus it is that they who are cor
poreal and sensual, as all are who are principled in self love,
cannot conceive of an internal man that is the Lord, and hence
cannot conceive how the Lord could have had an internal raan
which is Jehovah. As the great mass of raen in the present
day are so principled, it is consequentiy difficult, nay impossi
ble, for us to convince thera by argument of this point of our
doctrine. Still it is nevertheless true, although there is no way
of making them see its truth, until they cease to be sensual and
become spiritually rational men. And " whether men will hear,
or whether they will forbear," the doctrines of truth must be
preached. We see, then, that the sensual mind's inability to conceive
that there is any internal man, is an obstacle in the way of re
ceiving the doctrine which teaches a personal unity of .Tesus
Christ and the Essential Divinity within hira. And this is an
obstacle which cannot be reraoved by raere argument. The
natural raan may give a raere intellectual assent to the truth
that Jesus and Jehovah are one ; but this truth never can find
in him that vital reception which alone constitutes the church
in spirit. This truth being, as we have fully shown, erainentiy
spiritual in its character, it cannot be truly seen, or effectively
received, until men, by the life of the doctrines which teach
and enforce it, corae into fhe degree of spiritual discernment
requisite for its perception. All attempts, therefore, to propa
gate this truth by argument will be vain. Before spiritual life is
formed by the doctrine of spiritual truth, there is always some
latent natural passion, which, often unconsciously to the man
himself, so obscures his mental vision, as to prevent his seeing
such truth, however clear the light in which it may be pre-
.sented; and causes him to negate it spontaneously, on account
of its opposition to the ends of natural life. And we may rea
son till doorasday with raen who are in the negation of spirit
ual truth, without ever advancing thera one step towards its
rational perception or its vital admission. Hence, Unitarians,
to receive our doctrine of the Lord, must cease to be such ; for

250 ROOT OF TIIE UNITARIAN DIFFICULTY.
I hold all distinctive Unitarians to be nothing else than natural
moral men, who are in the negation of spiritual truth.
The difficulty before us, therefore, is not to be removed by
argument, but by change of internal state, effected, in the Di
vine Providence, through the aflliction of natural loves conspir
ing with remains of good and truth stored up in infancy.
Still rational argument is of use in illustrating the willing or
affirmative mind, preparatory to the vital reception of true doc
trine; and it is more than all of use in confirming the rational
mind after the doctrine of truth has begun to be vitally received.
Although, then, we cannot hope to convince confirraed Uni
tarians, or negators, by rational arguments for our doctrine of
the Lord against their views, yet we may thereby defend our
selves from doubts respecting the truth of our own views, which
opposing spheres may infuse into us during our daily business
or social intercourse with mankind around us ; and wc may
confirm ourselves in the rational and vital reception of this
most essential principle of our faith by seeing it more distinctly
in vivid contrast with its opposite.
Therefore, as it would detain you too long now, we shall, on
another occasion, consider the other radical branch of the uni
tarian dilTiculty in conceiving of the sole and supt'crnc divinity
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

SERMON XV.
ISAIAH, LIX. 16.
" Therefore his own arm brought salvation unto him."
In the Gospel according to John, there occur the following
passages : " I and my father are one" (x. 30.) — " Therefore
the Jews sought the raore to kill hira, because he had not only
broken the sabbath, but said also, that God was his father,
making himself Mav ki, with God" (v. 18.) — " If ye loved me,
ye would rejoice because I said, I go unto the father : for my
father is greater than I" (xiv. 28.) — " The son can do
nothing of himself but what he seeth the father do'' (v. 19.) —
" I speak not of myself; but the father that dwelleth in me, he
doeth the works." (xiv. 10.)
These passages bring fully into view the subject which we
have been discussing. They show an apparent contradiction
between the Lord's words, where he asserts his unity and
equality with the father, and where he also asserts his in
feriority to him. We of the new church explain this apparent
contradiction by saying, that when the Lord speaks of himself
as inferior to the father, he does so in respect to that infirm
humanity which he assumed from the mother and which he
subsequentiy put off; but when he speaks of hiraself as one and
equal with the father, he does so in respect to that glorified hu
raanity which he produced from the divine essence. Hence
we say, that when he speaks of hiraself as inferior to the father,
he speaks only apparent truth, because he speaks in an exter
nal natural state, in which things are seen only according to
appearance ; but when he says he is equal with the father, he

252 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UNITATIAN AND
speaks the real truth, because he speaks in an internal or di
vinely spiritual state, in which things are seen as they really
are. But, on the other hand, they of the unitarian church say,
that Christ speaks the real truth when he says he is inferior to
the father ; and that he speaks figuratively, when he says he
and the father are one. It may be seen, then, that the difference
between us and the Unitarians is as wide as the poles. And
this difference runs as it were in parallel lines between our ideas
of God, of manhood, and of every thing which might be brought
to elucidate the true relation of the Lord to the father, or to re
move the natural difficulties which are inherent in the appre
hension of the Lord's absolute unity with hira.
The true reason why there is so wide a difference between us
and the Unitarians in our views of the Lord, is, because the
unitarian doctrine of the Lord is drawn from the natural world,
and ours from the spiritual world. Unitarian doctrines are
drawn from the mere letter of the Word, explained by mere
natural science; but fhe doctrines of the new church are drawn
from the letter of the Word as it is understood by angels, and
are confirmed bythe letter illustrated by the light of its spiritual
sense. The doctrines of the Unitarians are drawn from the
Word by men in the exercise of the ordinary natural-rational
powers of the mind ; but the new-church doctrines were drawn
frora the Word by one in the exercise of peculiar spiritual-
rational powers, because his spiritual eyes were opened to see
and converse with angels, and to see and reveal the facts and
laws of the spiritual world ; and because he was otherwise
especially filled with the Lord's spirit to teach those doctrines
from hira. Hence, as unitarian doctrines come from a man's
own natural intelligence formed frora the knowledge of truths
as seen here in this world, therefore the Unitarian stands on
the earth and looks at the Lord from without ; but as the doc
trines of the new church come from the Lord himself through
heaven, and come frora a spiritual intelligence not man's own,
but formed from the knowledge of truths as seen in the spirit
ual world, such Newchurchmen as fully embrace those doc
trines and adequately understand them, stand as it were in hea-

NEW-CHURCH VIEWS OP THE LORD. 253
ven and look to the L'ord from within. Consequently, these two
views of the Lord will be as variant as the natural man and the
spiritual man : and these, as is well known, are antagonists.
Hence the Unitarian must, from the very nature of his mind,
experience insuperable difficulties in comprehending or receiv
ing any explanations which the new church may have to give
of the Lord's apparent contradiction of himself when he at one
time says he is equal with the father and at another says he is
inferior to hira. Thus when, in explanation of this subject, she
teaches the doctrine of an internal, which is the Lord's abode
with every man, giving hira the universal and essential princi
ples of his being, — hereby distinguishing him from the brutes
-and consociating him with angels, — and that this internal in the
Lord was Jehovah himself; the Unitarian objects that we have
no evidence of the existence of such an internal in ourselves,
and therefore the supposition of its existence does not explain
how Jehovah could have been Christ's internal. Again, when
the new church teaches that Jehovah himself clothed himself
in material huraanity by conception and birth in the womb of
of a virgin — that the Lord Jesus Christ so existing from Jeho
vah, put off, by his own proper power, this material humanity,
and put on another which was an external divine form perfectly
correspondent to Jehovah as an internal divine essence — that
while the Lord was thinking and feeling in his material hu
manity, he was in a state of contrariety to his internal which
was Jehovah, and, as contrariety of state produces apparent
separation in space, therefore appeared distinct from hira ; so
that, in that humanity, he prayed to Jehovah, his father, as a
¦separate being, and spoke of hiraself as inferior to him — but
that the Lord, as he expelled his raaterial humanity, and put on
a divine humanity by production from his divine essence, so as
to corae into a state of perfect correspondence with Jehovah,
and therefore to do away the appearance of separation from
him, then spake to him as to himself and said, that he and the
father wore one ; the Unitarian objects to all this that he
cannot conceive of God as having, or coming into, an
external form — he cannot conceive of a divine essence as
23

254 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UNITARIAN rAND
having a divine form, which is man — he cannot conceive
how God can be man, or man God — he cannot conceive
of the Infinite, or the Eternal, or the Omnipresent, or the
Omniscient, or the Omnipotent Divine Mind, as being liraited or
finited in human shape : and he not only cannot conceive such
a thing, but he is shocked at the thought of any such concep
tion as the most heinous profanity. He thinks of the Deity
as a spirit — the idea of which in his mind is as air or ether.
He regards God as an abstract divine essence without any form
— as a mere principle of goodness, and wisdom, and power,
without any distinct or conceivable divine embodyment what
ever. And he so fortifies himself in these objections by natural
and sensual appearances, both in the world and the letter of
the Word, that it is irapossible to dislodge him from these his
strong holds while he remains a natural or a sensual man.
The Unitarian and the Newjerusalemite, therefore, so far
from being the sarae, are the most entire antipodes. And, what
is more, the natural and sensual principle is so strong in all
of us, and, the natural-rational arguments drawn from natural
and sensual appearances are so cogent, and so subtilely insinuate
theraselves into our external raan, that the acute and learned
Unitarian, especially if he be also a good natural man, has
great power, so far as we come into his sphere, of infesting
our spiritual mind, by secretly infusing doubts, which disturb
and unsettle our clear rational convictions of spiritual truth.
Hence it is needful, that such of us as mingle much in promis
cuous, society, should be armed at all points, and especially have
our rational mind fortified against these subtile influences.
Doubtless the best protection against this and all Spiritual
dangers, is the sphere of a good life ; but good, mere good, is
powerless without truth ; and a good life is protective only be
cause it is a flame which sheds a rational light for its own pro
tection, and of course for the protection of any who are
principled in it. This rational light is the form itself of good,
and is the truth of good, which, as a covering of coraraon sense
and intuitive spiritual perception, serves good as a coat of mail,
and a whole panoply of defence against the fiery darts of its

NEW-CHURCH VIEWS OF THE LORD. 255
enemies. But few men in the present day are in this good, into
which no one can come without reformation and regeneration.
While men are not in good, there is no way of protecting them
frora the inevitable conquest of evil by its false principles, unless
truth is first received as mere science. Truth thus received
into an understanding made dispassionate by the quiescency of
evil loves, may be instrumental in eradicating evil and implanting
good. And as good is implanted by truth, and grows, it again
forms truth around itself for its defence and further propagation.
Thus good has no power either to e.xist or subsist without truth.
We must therefore have truth united with our good, or the life
of our good will have no power to protect us. Hence it is so
often the case that persons in simple good, not only endanger
themselves, but jeopardize whole communities by their well
meant but indiscreet acts. In short, truth is the sword of good,
by which it protects itself from the assaults of falses that would
unsettle and destroy it. And the doctrine of truth is the scj thed
chariot which carries good to the conflict, and mows down the
serried ranks of its enemies, while truth, as a falchion in the
hand of man as good, waves and glitters in the light -of heaven
above. The doctrine of truth for the new church is represented as
a man-child, born of the woman in the wilderness, which is to
rule the nations, and break them in pieces, as a potter's vessel,
with a rod of iron. This rod of iron in the hand of a man-
child denotes the doctrine of spiritual truth made potent against
evils and falses by the aids of illustration from natural science.
We must therefore defend ourselves from unitarian doubts, and
strengthen ourselves against all the evils to which our natural
minds are prone, by such aids. And hence we must be so fur
nished as to be able to give fo the spiritual truthsof our church
the equipment of every requisite, or appropriate, natural-rational
illustration. We must, as the apostle says, be able to give a
reason for the hope that is in us. For although it is not admis
sible to enter into the faith of spiritual things by reasonings
from natural things, yet when spiritual things are admitted on
a ground of faith and obedience, then it is admissible to confirm

256 SECOND GROUND OF DIFFICULTY IN RECEIVING
those .things by rational arguments drawn from the natural
world, Hence we have been engaged in illustrating our doc
trine of the Lord, which is fundamental to all our theology and
to all our religion ; and in maintaining it, in our own minds,
against unitarian objections, by rational illustrations drawn
from natural science.
In our last discourse, we resolved the whole root of the dif
ficulty, which the Unitarian encounters in adraitting or receiving
our explanations of the subject before us, into two main radi
cals ; namely, the sensual man's inability to conceive of the
internal man as we do, and therefore to conceive how there
could have been a divine internal in the Lord ; and his inability
to conceive how a divine internal could have a divine external,
or a divine essence have a divine forra.
The first of these radicals we discussed then, and reserved the
second for this occasion. Let us now, then, in the last place,
scrutinize this second ground of difficulty, naraely, the sensual
man's inability to conceive of a divine essence in a divine form.
This latter difficulty is more accessible to natural reason than
the former ; for although, like the other, it is a mere fallacy of
sense, still it is a fallacy which can be more readily shown to
be such. It arises out of a false idea of God, which the testi
mony of his own works will correct; since "the invisible
things of the Creator, even his eternal power and godhead, are
clearly seen from the creation, being understood frora the things
that are made."
This false idea of God is, that he is a simple oneness of being.
On the contrary, the true idea of God is, that he is a trine of
divine principles in one divine person. Now it can be demon
strated, and I flatter myself it has been already fully demon
strated heretofore, that in the things which God has made, or
in the world of nature, there is no such thing as a simple one
ness of being, that is, a mere abstract principle of goodness, or
power, or of any sort : but every principle inheres necessarily
in some subject, as an essence for instance in its form. There
fore, " looking through nature up fo nature's God," we con
clude that all divine principles must necessarily inhere in some

NEW-CHURCH VIEWS OP THE LORD, 257'
appropriate divine subject. And the subject in which all the
divine principles dwell bodily, is what we hold to be the person
of God.
The ground of unitarian error in conceiving of God, lies in
an undue exercise of a peculiar property of the human mind
called abstraction. The human mind can abstract colour from
cloth, the countenance from the bony and fleshy visage, intel
ligence from the eye, affection frora fhe thought, and the whole
mind of man from its spiritual or material erabodyment; but in
fact these things do not and cannot exist abstractly. The hu
man mind has the power of abstracting in thought the attributes
and qualities of things from the things in which they inhere ;
but in nature, or in fact, no such abstraction exists. Thus the
human mind can in thought abstract length and breadth from a
superficies, or length, and breadth, and depth, from a cube ;
but in fact length, or breadth, or depth, no where exists ab
stractly from the matter in which it inheres. So, universally,
there is no such thing as an abstract principle. Such a prin
ciple is a mere thought, idea or notion of the mind in its appre
hension of the attributes and qualities of natural things. For
instance, there is no such thing as an essence abstracted from
its form, or a cause abstracted frora its effect, or an end ab
stracted from its cause, or a mind abstracted from a natural
or spiritual body: yet the human mind can give an ideal exist
ence to its own abstractions, and its imaginative faculty con
sists in this. Hence the mind can conceive of essence abstractly
from form, or cause from effect, or end from cause, or raind
frora body. And hence it is, that it can conceive of an abstract
divine mind ; can conceive of a divine essence abstractly from
a divine form, though in the nature of things no such abstrac
tion ever did or can exist. For no such thing ever did or can
exist as divine goodness out of divine wisdom ; or such a thing
as either or both of these out of sorae divine or operative agent.
To suppose this, is to suppose that divine ends could come into
effect without divine means. Hence all things were made by
the word, and without the word was not any thing raade that
was made. The word is the universal agent of God, which is
23*

258 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UNITARIAN AND
with God in the beginning of every created work, and thinks it
not robbery to be equal with God. God is the divine essence,
the word is the divine form. Hence any thing is made, not by
the divine essence abstractly, but by the divine essence in the
divine form ; that is, by the divine forra from the divine essence,
or by the word from God. Now Jesus Christ is fhe word of
God, that is, the son of God, the form of God, the wisdom of
God, the power of God, the express image of his substance,
" by whom," as the apostle Paul expressly says further, " he
made the worlds." Therefore, the divine essence no where
exists out of the divine forra ; consequently, the divine essence,
or God, exists in Jesus Christ and no where out of hira. And
fhe unitarian conception, that God the father exists, as a siraple
principle of unity, out of Jesus Christ, is a raere exercise of the
human mind's power of abstracting in thought an essence frora
a form, which no where exists so abstracted in nature or in
fact. And I hesitate not to say, that all the theological errors
of the christian world — pregnant as that world now is with
errors — may be traced to this power of abstraction in the hu
man mind. Or, what is the same thing, these errors originate
in sensual appearances. For the abstractions of the human
mind are such appearances realized in the mind's imaginative
faculty. For il appears to huraan sense as if God did indeed
exist no where in form, although, in real truth, every forra that
exists is full of hira, or rather derives its form from the influx
of his form. This arises out of that law of the divine economy
which grants unto any and every subject of life, the appearance
of living in itself, instead of the appearance of living from the
divine essence which is discretely within it. This appearance
is necessary to the distinctive or appropriate life of any created
thing ; and without it there would be nothing but God ; for
God could not appear manifestly in every thing, unless every
thing existed continuously from him; and such continuous ex
istence would be absolutely himself. But when things exist
discretely from him, as the body does from the soul, or the
speech from the thought, or the tone from the affection, and
wheti he gives to each thing the appearance of hving or exist-

NEW-CHURCH VIEWS OF THE LORD. 259
ing in itself, as the body appears to live in itself, or the speech
or tone to exist of itself, then every thing can have a proprium,
or a life seemingly its own, which gives to it an existence that
is distinctive from the divine existence ; for then God does not
manifestly appear in any thing, although that thing has no life
but from him, just as the body has no life but from the soul,
and the speech no existence but from the thought, or the tone
no existence but from the affection. Thus, although every
thing that exists appears fo have a distinct and independent
existence of its own, still it is the dictate of sound human rea
son, that God does exist every where, and that nothing can
exist without him. And yet, as God exists no where in ap
pearance, when human reason rests in appearances, it imagines
that God is an all extended invisible and formless essence, a
mere spirit or abstract mind, " without body, parts or passions."
Hence this idea of God originates in the mere appearances of
natural things ; and is therefore a sensual or natural idea.
And that this is but a natural idea of God, is evident frora the
savages of our forests conceiving hira to be a great invisible
spirit. But it does not follow that God has no form, because his
form does not appear to us in our natural state : and although
he does not appear in common natural, and in ordinary
human, forms, yet he raust exist in an appropriate divine
form; because, in the nature of things, no essence whatever
can exist without a form ; and therefore because a divine
essence without a divine form would be a divine nonentity. He
may have a divine body as invisible to our natural eyes as the
glorified body of the Lord was invisible to the natural eyes of
his disciples when he existed in a material body on earth, but
as visible to our spiritual eyes as was his divine natural body
fo the spiritual eyes of his disciples in his transfiguration on
fhe mount.
, Hence the notion that God as a divine essence exists without
a divine form is a fallacy of human sense. And as the Word
of God expressly declares that God made man in his own image
and likeness, therefore the forra of God is man — that is, a di-

260 RATIONAL EXEMPLIFICATION OF THE
vine man is the appropriate form of the divine essence. And
as Paul expressly says the fullness of the godhead dwells in
Jesus Christ bodily, therefore we may conclude that the
unitarian notion of God, as a divine mind out of, or abstract
from, the divine man Jesus Christ, is grounded in a mere fal
lacy of human sense, and is itself utterly fallacious.
But the points which we have thus brought distinctly to view
in the light of the new church, are susceptible of sorae exem
plification by the principles of philosophy and natural science;
and it is the especial purpose of this discourse to make such an
exemplification. Recollect that there is but one point which we wish to be now
kept distinctly before the view, naraely, that the divine essence
must have a divine form to effect either creation, or redemption
and salvation. To show this we need advert to but two philoso
phical principles. The first principle to which we shall advert, is
expressed in these words of the new church : " Every active
principle has its reactive or reciprocal principle that any effect
may be produced ; and the active principle is the cause, and
the reactive is the thing daused : therefore reactivity is also of
the active principle, as the thing caused is of the cause, for all
energy in the thing caused is frora the cause. This is the case
with reaction, in singular the things of universal nature." (A.
C. 6262.) The other philosophical principle is, that the form
determines the quality of the influent life. Thus the form of
the plant determines the quality of life flowing in from the sun.
The form of a peach tree determines the influences of the sun
to the production of a peach, the forra of an apple tree to an
apple, of a plura tree fo a plura, and so on. Just so the form
of raan determines the quality of life flowing in from the Lord,
who is the Sun of Righteousness in heaven. Hence the be
nevolent man determines the Lord's influences to benevolence,
the avaricious man to avarice. The selfish man determines
the influx of divine love into self love, the worldling into love
of the world. This principle is the groundwork of the law
that life appears to be in the subject of it. Thus that life ap
pears to be in the tree, and not in the sun ; or in man and not

NEW-CHURCH VIEWS OF T.1E LORD. 2G1
in God. And it is the groundwork of that other law to which
we adverted in our last discourse, namely, that " the activity
of raan does not proceed from his soul by his body, but out of
his body from his soul." (T. C. R. 188.) For the soul acts
upon the body, as the sun's rays act upon the plant, that is,
discretely. Hence the body determines the influences of the
soul, as the plant deterraines the influences of the sun. Hence
idiocy or insanity of the mind results from malformation or
lesion of the brain; and hence the necessity of a sound body to
the adequate manifestations of a sound mind.
These two principles we take to be ultimate facts, which are
ascertained by observation of things as they exist. Why God
has made things so, it is not our province to determine, nor is it
in our ability to see. The counsels of the Almighty are past
knowing, and his ways past finding out. All we have to do, is
to take these facts, and reason from thera to the nature of Him
who has so constituted things, on the principle that the Deity is
subject to his own law, " by their fruits ye shall know them."
Assuming, then, that nature is an image of its Creator ; and
that every essential principle of nature must have a correspond
ing principle in God, therefore we reason, that as in nature
every active has a reactive, in order that any effect may be pro
duced, consequently the divine essence must have something
that is divinely reactive to it, in order that it may produce any
effect. The effects of the divine essence are in general creation,
preservation, redemption and salvation. Neither of these effects,
therefore, could be produced if there were not something to re
act on the divine essence.
But what is the divine essence? The apostle John says,
" God is love." And love is evidently the essence of all things.
All things of a man proceed from and body forth his love. If a
man's love is self, self will be perceived to be the centre of his
thoughts, and will be seen to be in all his actions. If his love
be the world, every thing in him will regard and tend to the
world. If his love be ambition, or avarice, or any other spe
cific form of love of self and love of the world, not only his
acts and his thoughts, but the visage of his face, the tone of his

260 RATIONAL EXEMPLIFICATION OF THE
vine man is the appropriate form of the divine essence. And
as Paul expressly says the fullness of the godhead dwells in
Jesus Christ bodily, therefore we may conclude that the
unitarian notion of God, as a divine mind out of, or abstract
from, the divine man Jesus Christ, is grounded in a mere fal
lacy of human sense, and is itself utterly fallacious.
, But the points which we have thus brought distinctly to view
in the light of the new church, are susceptible of sorae exera-
plification by the principles of philosophy and natural science;
and it is the especial purpose of this discourse to make such an
exemplification. Recollect that there is but one point which we wish to be now
kept distinctiy before the view, naraely, that fhe divine essence
must have a divine forra to effect either creation, or rederaption
and salvation. To show this we need advert to but two philoso
phical principles. The first principle to which we shall advert, is
expressed in these words of the new church : " Every active
principle has its reactive or reciprocal principle that any effect
may be produced ; and the active principle is the cause, and
the reactive is the thing Caused : therefore reactivity is also of,
the active principle, as the thing caused is of the cause, for all
energy in the thing caused is frora the cause. This is the case
with reaction, in singular the things of universal nature." (A.
C. 6262.) The other philosophical principle is, that the form
determines the quality of the influent life. Thus the form of
the plant determines the quality of life flowing in from the sun.
The form of a peach tree determines the influences of the sun
to the production of a peach, the form of an apple tree to an
apple, of a plum tree to a plum, and so on. Just so the form
of man determines the quality of life flowing in frora the Lord,
who is the Sun of Righteousness in heaven. Hence the be
nevolent man determines the Lord's influences to benevolence,
the avaricious man to avarice. The selfish man determines
the influx of divine love into self love, the worldling into, love
of the world. This principle is the groundwork of the law
that life appears to be in the subject of it. Thus that life ap
pears to be in the tree, and not in the sun ; or in man and not

NEW-CHURCH VIEWS OF THE LORD. 261
in God. And it is the groundwork of that other law to which
we adverted in our last discourse, nariiely, that " the activity
of man does not proceed from his soul by his body, but out of
his body from his soul." (T. C. R. 188.) For the soul acts
upon the body, as the sun's rays act upon the plant, that is,
discretely. Hence the body determines the influences of the
soul, as the plant determines the influences of the sun. Hence
idiocy or insanity of the raind results frora malformation or
lesion of the brain; and hence the necessity of a sound body to
the adequate manifestations of a sound mind.
These two principles we take to be ultimate facts, which are
ascertained by observation of things as they exist. Why God
has made things so, it is not our province to determine, nor is it
incur ability. to see. The counsels of the Almighty are past
knowing, and his ways past finding out. All we have to do, is
to take these facts, and reason from thera to the nature of Him
who has so constituted things, on the principle that the Deity is
subject to his own law, " by their fruits ye shall know them."
Assuming, then, that nature is an image of its Creator ; and
that every essential principle of nature must have a correspond
ing principle in God, therefore we reason, that as in nature
every active has a reactive, in order that any effect may be pro
duced, consequently the divine essence raust have soraething
that is divinely reactive to it, in order that it may produce any
effect. The effects of the divine essence are in general creation,
preservation, redemption and salvation. Neither of these effects,
therefore, could be produced if there were not something to re
act on the divine essence.
But what is the divine essence? The apostle John says,
" God is love." And love is evidently the essence of all things.
All things of a man proceed from and body forth his love. If a
man's love is self, self will be perceived to be the centre of his
thoughts, and will be seen to be in all his actions. If his love
be fhe world, every thing in him will regard and tend to the
world. If his love be ambition, or avarice, or any other spe
cific forra of love of self and love of the world, not only his
acts and his thoughts, but the visage of his face, the tone of his

262 A DIVINE ESSENCE MUST HAVE A DIVINE FORM
voice, the habitual contraction of all his muscles, and the very
clothes on his back, will have the lineaments or wear the sem
blance of ambition or avarice. Ambition or avarice will ooze
through every pore, and forra a complete sphere of itself around
the man, so that every one who comes near him can feel or
perceive its quality, just as one perceives the quality of a flower
in the smell of its odour. So of any other love, whether it be
love of God, or love of man, in some one or other of its specific
forms of love of goodness or love of truth. This love will be
found to be the essence of every thought, deed, physical con
formation and spherical influence of the man who is principled in
it. Therefore love is the essence of the man. And hence divine
love is the essence of God.
Love too is manifestly fhe active principle in man. Who
does not see that love of self, or love of the worid, is the main
spring of action in those who are under its predominating in
fluence. The ruling love is the end which a raan proposes to
hiraself. For what he loves, this he calls good, and this he
constantly^eeks to attain. It reigns universally in his thought,
and is always clasped in his affection. Awake, it enters into
all his plans ; and asleep, he drearas of it. The man who loves
money, for instance, is constantly projecting ways and raeans
of getting and keeping it ; and all his action is but the ultiraate
form of his cogitations. Therefore the love of money, in his
case, is the active principle. Who does not know that the love
of a man for a woman, when strong and engrossing, fills every
thought, gives forra to every affection, and completely stimu
lates every action. What is it that a raan will not do for the
woraan whora he truly and ardently loves. He will fight for
her — he will die for her — he will compass sea and land to gain
her : nay, he will totally change his character, that he may
win her favour, or secure her acceptance of him. No one can
fair to see and feel that love in his case prompts incessantly to
action. Love is, therefore, the active principle of man. So of
every other ruling love. This is seen to be so from the fact,
that if the hopes of the love are destroyed, the man sinks into
despair or apathy, and consequent total inaction. The man

TO EFFECT REDEMPTION AND SALVATION. 263
whose prospects in business are hopelessly blasted, gives up
business, and too often sinks into dissipation. He who utterly
despairs of gaining the affections and the person of his mistress,
becomes reckless of the proprieties of life, and not unfrequently
commits suicide. Indeed, innumerable are the instances which
go to show, that if the love is destroyed, the principle of action
is entirely gone. Hence love is the active principle of raan ;
and, by parity, love raust be the active principle of God.
Now the simple question is, cftn love act, if it have not some
thing to react on it ? Can love exist, or operate, or show itself,
or be appreciable to the objects of it, without a form ? How
can the divine love appear, or be appreciable, to any raan, if it
has not a son in the bosom of it, to bring it forth to view ?
Who can see the love of man without his body ? Man's
thought, or his affection, is but an erabodyraent of his love. It
is a form of it, that flows from it, reacts on it, is in the bosom
of it and brings it forth to view. And the thought, or the affec
tion, cannot at all exist without an organ ; and this organ is some
conformation of substance which ultiraates, limits, reacts on,
and furnishes a perfectly correspondent forra to, the thought or
the affection. For instance, how can the thought speak without
the organs of speech. How can the affection, or its intelligence,
see without the eye, hear without the ear, act without the hand,
or effectuate any of its ends without an appropriate organiza
tion ? So the love, which is a still more universal principle —
is the essence of all — can effect no end, without an organized
form, which ultimates, limits and reacts on it, so as to produce
it correspondently in effect. How can the air as a simple sub
stance produce any effect? Suppose it to issue from a central
source without any thing to react on it, would it not spend itself
in the immensity of space ? And if thus infinitely diffused,
what effect could it produce ? It would discourse no etherial
music, if there were no eolian strings to vibrate at its touch.
And it would utter no intelligible sound, if that which reacted
on it were not an intelligent form. How can you produce
music by air alone, without the conformation of the mouth, or
of the flute, or of some other instrument ? Is not the perfection

266 A DIVINE ESSENCE MUST HAVE A DIVINE FORM
flute is its perfect adaptation to produce certain modifications
of the air in musical tones. So of a violin. A boy would say
a beautiful flute was one made of ivory or ebony, and inlaid
with silver or gold, and exquisitely wrought and polished. He
would regard in the violin, too, the material and the cabinet
work. But the enthusiastic professor or amateur in music
values his old Cremona for no such properties. Philosophical
perfection of form, then, is not perfection of shape or material
configuration. Therefore the forra of God is not the shape of
God, but the adaptation of means to his ends: and God's limit
is that in which his ends close ; and his ends close in their per
fect effectuation.
There are, as we have shown, three principles in God — love,
wisdom and use. These are ends, causes and effects. Or
they are good, truth and the conjunction of good and trUth.
Good is an active endeavour, truth is its reactive power, and
when endeavour is conjoined to its perfect power, it is an effi
cient form of use in some subject of that use. The conjunction
of good and truth in use, then, is the limit of God. It is'that
in which God rests from his labour and says it is good, it is
very good.
Use is love in form : and it is clearly evident that the form
of use may be as perfect in an animalcule as in an elephant,
or in a single man as in a world. It might, therefore, have
been as perfect in the one person Jesus Christ, as in the whole
universe ; and as divinity consists in this perfection of state,
and not jn physical extension or conformation, therefore Jesus
Christ was God, because in hira there was a perfect union of
divine goodness and divine truth in divine use.
Thus fhe perfect ultimation of interior principles in use is per
fect forra. The degree of space or time, or the material configu
ration, has little or nothing to do with its perfection. Hence it
is the perfect adaptation of raan for all uses, which makes him
a perfect forra. And this does not lie in his shape, but in the
perfect relation and subordination of parts to a whole. To con
ceive, therefore, of the forra, the lirait, the external of God, we
must lift our minds out of the ideas of time, space and mate-

TO EFFECT REDEMPTION AND SALTATION. 267
riality, and fix thera on the ideas of a perfect state of relation
of parts to a whole, or of adaptation of raeans to an end. We
must think of the perfect conjunction of good and truth in the
forms of use — of the perfect and inevitable effectuation of ends
by their adequate causes — in which effectuation the ends close
and rest as in their appropriate terra or lirait.
Therefore, in considering Jesus Christ as God, we must not
regard him as a person merely, but look at his qualities in his
person : for his divinity lies not in his person, but in the divine
qualities, even ths complex qualities of the whole godhead,
which dwell and are conspicuous in his person. These con
stitute his forra. His person is but the subject of this forra, as
matter is but the subject of shape. His manhood is his form of
divine goodness, which is a perfect correspondence to divine
love — is a perfect adaptation to present the emotions, and effect
the ends, of divine love. His person is but an object which
fixes the thought and determines it to the consideration of the
divine qualities which inhere in and are operative through his
person. To allow the thought to rest in the person, is idolatry;
for it is worshiping what is external without what is internal.
Thus the divine essence must have a divine form ; and the
divine essence in form is divine love in divine use.
Now the raain use of divine love is a heaven of human
beings : for the very nature of love is a desire and an effort to
make others happy out of itself. Hence comes creation : for
without creation there would be no beings to receive and reci
procate the divine love. No other end could actuate God in
creation, because his own glory, or his own happiness, was
coraplete from eternity ; and therefore he could not effect or
increase either by any creation in time. Hence his end in
creating was to make beings happy out of hiraself, by making
them more and raore receptive of him to eternity. Hence the
creation of man : for man is a form most perfectly receptive of
the influences of divine love, so as to be made happy in the
reception and manifestation of it. Heaven is that state of man
in which he is most perfectiy concordant and correspondent to
the activities of the divine love ; or, it is the most perfect con-

238 A DIVINE ESSENCE .MUST HAVE A DIVINE FORM
sociation and arrangement of all those beings who are thus
concordant and correspondent.
But man, to enjoy heaven in the reception and reciprocity of
divine love, raust be free to receive it and live it as of himself.
And in the abuse of this freedom, he in fact lost all conformity
fo the divine love, so as to be on the verge of utter destruction
as a true man. The spirits of men, passing into the spiritual
world by the death of the material body, had risen to the very
confines of heaven, and were endangering the existence of hea
ven and the kingdom of God itself; just as a mortification of the
foot, in rising to the vitals, endangers the life of the whole body.
And unless these spirits had been removed, the heavens been
reduced to order, and man on earth been again subjected to
healthful divine influences, all flesh must have perished.
Now how was man to be saved ? Could he have been saved
by a raere principle of divine love? That is the question. We
have seen that all principles of life are raodified by the forms
into which they flow. Now how could the divine love save a
diabolical man, or a diabolical spirit, by flowing into hira as a
simple principle, a mere unity of essence, a mere etherial ema
nation ? Would not divine love flowing into a diabolical spirit
in this way have made him still more diabolical ? For, accord
ing to the law of order, the divine life flowing into him would
appear to be in him as his own, and would not be received in
its own intrinsic quality, but would be modified by the quality of
his form, just as wholesome food is raodified by a diseased
stomach, or the rays of the sun by a putrifying substance, or
by a poisonous plant. Hence God flowing as a simple divine
principle into a devil, would make him still more a devil. In
like manner, coming to a bad man thus, he would make him
still worse ; for the divine love flowing as a principle of love
into man as a form of self-love, would make him still more
selfish. Hence the divine love flowing in this way into man,
would have been most inevitably destructive of him, and con
sequently of heaven and the whole universe. How then was
man to be saved by a mere principle of love or goodness in
God, or by a mere divine essence ? Man could not see God as

TO EFFECT REDEMPTION AND SALVATION. 209
such an essence, for he lives, and moves, and has his being in
that essence as an all pervading principle. And if he could
not see God, he could have no idea of him so as to be con
formed to him : and without such conformation he could not
receive God as a principle adequately to his salvation ; for God
coming as such a principle to him in a contrary state, would
destroy him, just as the heat of the sun decomposes a dead
carcass. It is very evident, then, that God, to save man, must come
to him in a form adapted to his state ; that is, the divine essence
must clothe itself in a form apprehensible to huraan thought and
affection ; and without such a clothing, or limiting, or finitingof
the essence, it is clearly manifest that no flesh could have been
saved. And it can be shown with equal clearness, that the Deity
never could have created any thing unless, or until, he had
produced from his essence an ultimate, by the reaction of which
on his essence he could form and make discrete recipient sub
jects of his own life. It is perfectiy evident, also, that he
could not make man in any other way, because, in the actual
creation of him, he formed first the earth and the world, with
all their raaterial appurtenances, and all the most common
forms of vegetable and animal life, before man was produced.
Hence it is perfectly clear, that, without soraething to react on
the divine essence, that essence never could have created and
sustained the world, or redeemed and saved raan.
The Word of God declares that by the word the heavens and
the earths were raade ; and when man had corrupted his way
on the earth, so that no flesh could have been saved — when
" his iniquities had separated between him and his God, and
his sins had hid his face from him," the same Word of God
declares that Jehovah took to hiraself an arm of flesh, and ex
pressly says, that he put on an external covering, as it were a
breastplate, a hemlet, a garment and a cloak. " Yea, truth
faileth, and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey :
and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no
judgment. And he saw that there was no man, and wondered
24*

270 A DIVINE ESSENCE MUST HAVE A DIVINE FORM
that there was no intercessor : therefore his arm brought sal
vation unto him ; and his righteousness it sustained him. For
he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of sal
vation upon his head ; and he put on the garment of vengeance
for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak." Here you
see that the divine essence took fo itself an external which came
between it and the human race, and so was an intercessor be
tween God and man. By this external, the divine internal
acquired the power to reach and affect the state of man, while
man acted as a free agent, having apparently life in himself.
By this external, the divine essence acquired power to change
man's state without destroying the appearance of man's living
in himself, or without destroying the appearance of his chang
ing his character himself by the exercise of his own faculties.
Hence this external was to the divine essence an arm; for the
arm is the instrument of the body's power.
You see, then, it was not the divine essence of itself which
produced salvation, but the divine essence stretched out from
itself an arm, and the arm brought salvation to the divine es
sence. Thus it was the reactive principle from the active, and
not the active of itself. Consequently, it was necessary for the
divine active to have a divine reactive, or salvation could not
have been effected. " And I looked, and there was none to
help ; and I wondered that there was none to uphold : therefore
mine own arm brought salvation unto me, and my fury it up
held me."
It is perfectly clear, then, on philosophical principles, that
God must have had an external, either to create or to save
raan. And the same train of reasoning leads directly to the
conclusion, that it was necessary for him, in order to save the
huraan race, to clothe hiraself in materiality. For we have
seen that God, to save man, must needs have come into a form
apprehensible to his thought and affection. Now man is lost
when he is in a completely corporeaUand sensual state of affec
tion and thought. In this state his thoughts are suggested, and
his affections ruled, entirely by evil spirits, till at length his
very body is possessed by them, and they, by acting through

TO EFFECT REDEMPTION AND SALVATION. 271
his involuntary rauscles, move him at their will without any
will of his own. And the Lord flowing as a mere active divine
principle into man in this state, would have been received ac
cording to man's form, so as to have smitten him with a more
direful curse. The divine life, flowing as a principle of life
into the evil spirits attendant on him, would but have increased
the appearance of life in those spirits, and this would have ren-
dered indefinitely more intense their diabolical influence on man,
until all raen would have been utterly destroyed in the consum,
mation of hellish passions. The Lord could not, therefore
flow into man from within, but had to close up the issues of in
terior divine life and approach him from without. By coraing
to him as a personification of truth to his senses and' his cor
poreal affections, while the evil of those affections was kept
quiescent, or covered and removed by an association with good
spirits, or by a divine sphere from himself, he could gradually
inform his understanding, store his meraory, rectify his will,
and ultiraately correct his action, so as to change his forra, and
fit it once more to receive correspondently the influences of di
vine love from within. But to do this, he had to clothe his own
divine form in a form similar to raan's, and similar to that of
the spirits attendant on him. Hence he had to come in a sen
sual and corporeal form. Else man and devil would have been
repelled from him, just as an owl or a bat is repelled from light,
or a frozen serpent is repelled frora fire.
Indeed the Lord could not at first approach men even in the
most ultimate material enveloping which he hiraself could put
on ; but he had to send John the Baptist, as a forerunner, to
prepare the way for him. John by the baptism of repentance
associated men with better spirits, and so loosened them frora
ah association with infernal spirits that they were in sorae de
gree able to bear the Lord's presence, and in sorae degree free
to receive and obey his teachings. If the Lord had not thus
prepared the way for himself, the evil spirits attendant upon
men, by which many of thera were possessed, and without
whom no man could otherwise have been kept in life and its
activities, would have receded, so that raen would have dropped

272 A DIVINE ESSENCE MUST H.iVE A DIVINE FORM
instantly dead, iraraediately on the Lord's presentation ; or if
this were by any means prevented, all raen, under demoniac
influence, would have so fully acted out'their latent evils as to
produce the utter destruction of the whole huraan race. But
by John's baptism, and the repentance of it, sorae raen were
dissociated from infernal spirits and associated with good spirits
on the confines of heaven, so as to be able to receive and be
purified by baptism into the Lord's light and life ; that is, by
baptism into his wisdom and his love.
And unless the Lord had taken to himself a corrupt humanity,
similar to that which infernal spirits had possessed in other
raen ; he could never have come in contact with them so as to
have let upon them the light of his divine countenance for their
subjugation. But when he had wrapped up his divine essence
in a mantle of corrupt clay, which was common to him and to
them, he could approach them and grapple them ; and then by
transfusing his essence through his covering, could let them
perceive and feel its quality even in matter, so that they, tor
mented by a quality so different from their own in raatter,
would, in the exercise of their own freedom, recede entirely
frora all matter. Thus the Lord, by taking to himself a cover
ing of matter, and expelling from raatter in its universal prin
ciples all that was homogeneous to infernal spirits, effected their
expulsion from raatter, and so from the involuntary parts of
man. And by remaining for ever in a divine natural humanity,
which infinitely and eternally reacts on his divine essence, so
as fully to ultiraate the qualities of that essence in all worlds,
he has not only effected the expulsion of infernal spirits from
man and frora earth, but he holds them chained for ever, by-
entire and perpetual seclusion, in abodes of outer darkness, so
that man, no longer possessed by them as to his sensual and
corporeal principles, can be for ever able to receive the light of
truth, and free to follow its guidance in ceasing to do evil and
learning fo do well.
Thus it is clear that God could not have redeemed and saved
man, if he had not ultimated, and so finited, his divine essence
in a corrupt material huraanity. Without this, neither devils

TO EFFECT REDEMPTION AND SALVATION. 273
nor men could have perceived the divine essence as distinct
from, and contrary to, their own life. On the contrary, their
own life would have been strengthened and confirmed by the
inner influx of that life : hence, without this, fhe Lord could
have had no power fo remand fhe one and correct and save the
other. And therefore Jehovah took a material humanity to
himself as an arm, whereby he gained power for the subjuga
tion of hell and for human rederaption.
Thus we see that, on strict philosophical principles, God
could not have redeemed and saved man if he had not clothed
his divine essence in an ultimate form. Wherefore, " Who is
this that cometh frora Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah ?
this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling in the greatness
of his strength ? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.
Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like
him that treadeth in the wine-press ? I have trodden the wine
press alone, and of the people there was none with me : for I
will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury ;
and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I
will stain all my raiment. For the day of vengeance is in my
heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. And I looked
and there was none to help ; and I wondered that there was
none to uphold : therefore mine own arra brought salvation
unto me ; and my fury it upheld me." (Isa. Ixiii. 1 — 5.)

SERMON XVI

JEREMIAH, IV. 23.
" I beheld, and. In, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens
had fled."
We have now, at sorae length and with considerable minute
ness of illustration, slated the new-church doctrine of the Lord.
And those who investigate the matter will find that no where
but in the New Jerusalem is there a belief in a divine humanity.
The truth that Jehovah assumed human nature upon earth —
that this human nature has life in itself as Jehovah has life in
hiraself, and thus that this huraan nature is God as Jehovah is
God — has no place in the tenets of the sects now prevailing in
christendora. In respect to Unitarians this is quite manifest :
for they hold that Jesi)s Christ is a mere man, and that it is im
pious to give forra and embodyment to Deity. And though it
may not be so clear in respect to Trinitarians, since they hold
that Jesus Christ is in, some sense divine ; yet it will be found
to be correct in respect to them also. For they hold that Jesus
Christ has two natures, a divine and a huraan : and they so
separate his human frbra his divine nature as to suppose that
there is no divinity in his huraan nature. But the truth is that
his huraan nature is divine. For Peter confessed that Jesus,
as the son qf man, is Christ the son of the living God ; and
we have shown, in our previous discourses, and shall have oc
casion to show again in our next, that the son of man as the
son of the living God, is the humanity of the Lord made divine
by a process of glorification.
Since, then, nothing more peculiarly characterizes a church

DIVINE HUMANITY OF THE LORD ILLUSTRATED. 275
than the view which it takes of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
since the truth that the humanity of the Lord Jesus is divine,
is no where received in the old christian church ; while it is
the truth which is fundamental aud central to that whole doc
trinal system called the New Jerusalem ; hence it must be
manifest how totally different the New Jerusalem is frora the
old christian church. It raust be quite clear, that the new-
jerusalem church raakes no part whatever of the numerous
sects into which the old christian church is now split up, but is
an entirely new dispensation of doctrinal truths from the Word
of God.
It becomes, therefore, a matter of very considerable impor
tance to get a clear and distinct idea of this divine humanity,
which so peculiarly characterizes the new-jerusalem church,
and so thoroughly discriminates it from all other churches.
This is the more necessary, because, as both the idea and the
term are new, many to whora we preach, not only find a dif
ficulty in coraprehending what we raean by the Lord's humanity,
but fall into great raisapprehensions of our doctrinal tenets
generally from obscure or wrong conceptions of this funda
mental tenet. We shall, therefore, devote this discourse to a
familiar illustration of what we understand by the Lord's divine
humanity. Doubtless, enough has been said and shown in our previous
discourses to raake the terra we are here to explain sufficiently
apprehensible to some rainds, but we design in this discourse
to raake it clearly so to all who have any genuine affection for
spiritual things.
Now the only way in which we can forra a correct idea of
the Lord's huraanity is by acquiring a right idea of our own.
Our ideas of raanhood are always according to our state. The
mere sensual and corporeal man makes it to consist in the
bodily form and the bodily powers. Hence the ancient Romans
applied the word virtus, frora which coraes our word virtue, to
virile strength and animal courage. They were a martial peo
ple. Their delight was war. The gratification of their life's
love, the attainment of all the objects of their ambition, there-

276 A FAMILIAR ILLUSTRATION OF
fore, lay in military prowess ; and this, in that day, was
grounded in physical strength : for the science by which men
are now killed secundum artem, was not then known, but whole
armies fought man to man in so many single' combats, which
were mainly decided by the greater bodily powers of the indi
vidual combatants. Hence, with the ancient Romans, raanhood
was esteemed to consist in a great development of the animal
powers. But as the character of man changes, from physical to sci
entific, intellectual, moral, or spiritual, the idea of manhood
becomes elevated. Still the difference in the forms of raan
hood of the respective grades is strongly raarked. And if
those who are in a lower grade forra their ideas of the Lord's
manhood by their own model, they will have wrong concep
tions of his huraanity. For instance, the intellectual man, the
man of bare intellect, whose heart has not been softened by
the mellowing influences of celestial love, thinks raanhood con
sists in raere strength of intellect. His character is forraed
upon raere truth ; and truth without good is hard, harsh and
conderanatory. With hira, therefore, manhood is strength, vi
gour, boldness, daring and stern inflexibility of character. He
eschews, as he would the pollution of dishonour, any thing like
softness of feeling. This he calls unmanly weakness. He is
rough in his manners, and negligent of his personal appear
ance. He prides himself upon the strength and thickness of
his beard, the brawn of his muscle, and his infinite elevation
above all womanish sensibility. It would be irreverant to ex
press what such a man raight have thought, if he had been
present, when as it is stated in the Gospel, " Jesus wept" !
But, not to follow out the train of thought into which this
suggestion would lead us, we will only say, it cannot but be
manifest fo any person of any considerable degree of mental
elevation, that our bodies are but inert mafter, determined in
their forra and propelled in their activities by certain mental,
moral or spiritual principles within thera. Hence it is evident
that our humanity does not consist in our bodies. And thus, if
we suppose the Lord's humanity to consist in his body, or his

THE DIVINE HUMANITY OF THE LORD. 277
personal form and appearance, we shall be egregiously mis
taken. Yet -tve imagine that the great diflnculty in conceiving
how the Lord's humanity could become divine by glorification,
which some persons profess to feel, arises out of some such
corporeal or personal notion of his humanity.
Let it be carefully remarked, then, that our humanity does
not consist in our bodies, but in those spiritual principles from
which our bodies exist. Our bodies hold the same relation to
our real human that our clothes do to our bodies. They are
but an external material covering suited to the operation of our
human principle in a world of matter. Let us consider, then,
wJiat are those spiritual principles which constitute our hu
manity-? By attending to the subjects of our own consciousness, wo
perceive that we are beings who think and feel, or understand
and will, or have motives to action and modes of acting. These
properties of our being we in general call mind, and we per
ceive that from the activity of these proceed the activity of our
bodies and all the energies of life. We are aware thatthe discri-
raination of the human mind into will and understanding as its
two chief constituent faculties, is not common in the present day :
but that it is not wholly peculiar to the new church, and that it
has not been unknown to philosophers, raay be concluded from
the following views of Addison, as expressed in the Spectator,
No. 600 : " The soul consists of many faculties, as the under
standing and the will, with all the senses, both outward and in
ward." This is a strictly true definition of the human con
stitution, with its three discrete divisions — of the will, to which
belongs love or good ; of the understanding, to which belongs
wisdom or truth ; and of the senses, to which belongs science or
knowledge. And a man's love, wisdom and learning, flowing
simultaneously into, or subsiding in, a useful life, constitute his
humanity. The body is merely a complex of material organs
or instruments by which this humanity acts in and upon the
raaterial world.
It is clear, then, that our huraanity is not our material form
25

278 A FAMILIAR ILLUSTRATION OF
and energy, but is our mind, or that spiritual form, in and by
which our essence, or inmost principle of life, or our love, ope
rates. Our humanity, therefore, is that which thinks, reasons,
understands, perceives, feels, and acts ; or, in a word, is the form
of our love. It is the complex form of use, in which a good
will clothes itself by means of an enlightened understanding.
Now these faculties of ours, in our original creation, were in a
perfect state ; and, as nothing which exists can be without fOrm,
they were in a perfect form. We were created in the image
and likeness of God, and thus were in a truly human form.
We were made capable of knowing, loving and serving God ;
and in the degree that we becarae acquainted with him and his
laws of order, and conformed ourselves to those laws, we be
came raoulded into his image and likeness, and were thus truly
men. For in this degree we were influenced by the divine love,
and our forra was the form of the divine love, which is the truly
human form.
But from this high estate we fell'. And our fall consisted in
a perversion of these our faculties ; in withdrawing thera from
God, and attaching thera to earth. It consisted in a perversion
of our love, whereby we ceased to love God as cur ultiraate
end, and learned to love self and the world, as ultimate ends ;
and thus from celestial and spiritual we became merely cor
poreal beings. From this radical change in our character, we
ceased to act with a view to the good of others, and began to
act with a sole reference to our own gratification. This prin
ciple in its entire ultiraation leads to the destruction of all others
when they oppose the gratification of our wishes, and to the
indulgence of mere corporeal appetites without any relish what
ever for intellectual and moral delights. We were now, there
fore, on the point of losing every vestige of the truly huraan
character, and of becoming mere animals. Our destruction as
men, therefore, was at hand. And it was necessary to redeem
and save us from this destruction. We could not save our
selves ; for we had lost all power to see what is true and to do
what is good. He that made alone could save. " And he saw

THE DIVINE HUMANITY OF THE LORD. 279
that there was no man ; and wondered that there was no in
tercessor : therefore his arm brought salvation unto hira, and
his righteousness it sustained hira." (Isaiah, lix. 16.)
The import of this text was shown in our last discourse.
Here we raay remark so much of it as is parallel to our pre
sent te.\t. It says, Jehovah " saw there was no man." This
was spoken in prophetic allusion to the consumraation of the
church — to that state of the world in which true huraanity was
about to become extinct, and all mankind were on the verge of
moral and spiritual destruction. It was not because there were
no animals in human shape. For there were Nephalim and
Anakim in these days — men of prodigious physical and mere
intellectual strength — men, too, who were proud of their strength
and their intelligence: but there was none of that innocence of
wisdom, none of that child-like simplicity of character, that
child-like teachableness of spirit, that child-like imitation of our
Heavenly Father's example, wliich constitutes the true man, —
the spiritual and the celestial raan, — and without which no one
can enter into the kingdora of God.
There was then no man because the Lord was no where re
ceived, and his iraage and likeness were no where reflected. He
is chaste, raeek and lowly ; doing not his own will, forgiving
injuries, lending without expectation of return, doing good with
out a view to any recompense of reward ; in short, actuated in
all things by love unconfined, all-embracing love. Hence from
his love of the universal human race, he could weep in the view
of their utter destruction.
But, at the time the Lord came into the world, mankind, as
they are described by an apostle of that day, were " vain in
their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened — Pro
fessing themselves to be wise, they became fools : and changed
the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like
corruptible man, and to birds and to four-footed beasts, and
creeping things. Wherefore, they were given up to the vilest
and most abominable affections and practices — Being filled
with all unrighteousness — fornication, wickedness, covetous
ness, maliciousness ; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malig-

280 A FAMILIAR ILLUSTRATION OF
nity ; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud,
boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, with
out understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection,
implacable, unmerciful; who, knowing the judgment of God,
(that they which commit such-things are worthy of d,eath,) not
only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."
Yes ! with the men of that day it was manly to do such things.
And he who could surpass all others in such things, was, in
their estimation, most iruly a man. As in the time of Alexan
der, or the early kings of England, so then, he was the most
of a man who could drink the greatest quantity of spirituous
liquor without getting drunk. Then, as now, it was manly to
deflower innocence, or pollute the sacred shrine of domestic
virtue and peace, and boast of it. To resent an injury, to call
a man out and kill him in deadly combat for calling you a liar,
even when he told the truth, was then as now, fo be a man
of spirit a true man. Then any thing like refinement of sen
timent or feeling was efferainacy ; and to weep was to be
a woman or a baby. Then, in short, pride, vanity, conceit
in his powers as his own, and all that concatenation of evil
affections and false imaginations which hang frora self-love
as a hook, had destroyed every vestige of true humanity
in raankind. And therefore, when Jehovah looked down
upon the earth, " he saw that there was no man." The
turning of fhe affections of mankind outward to things of
sense had closed up the interiors of their minds. The hea
ven that was over their head was brass, and the ground that
was under their feet was iron. Mere natural passion was
the inmost of their soul, and the form of this was their
manhood. But the only true raanhood is the form of divine love. It is
that development of muscular form and force, that contour of
visage, that expression of countenance, that symmetry of re
lative parts; in short, it is just that, whatever you choose to call
it, by which the affections and purposes of divine love are mani
fested and effected in corresponding uses. When, therefore, the
human soul had perverted the influences of the divine love into

THE DIVINE HUMANITY OF THE LORD. 281
self-love, and the form of the human soul no longer manifested
the activities of the divine love, but manifested the activities of
self-love, there was no man.
And there was no intercessor, because there was no medium
between the divine love and the human soul, by which the di
vine love might be coraraunicated to it, and produce in it again
the form of that love, which is the truly huraan forra.
The mediator between the divine love and the huraan soul,
is divine truth. For this binds the strong raan of self-love and
spoils his goods. Truth leads to self-denial ; and in the de
gree that self is denied and driven out, the love of God flows
in. For there can no more be a vacuum in the spiritual, than
in the natural, world. Thus truth, mediates, by so altering
raan's love as to raake it correspondent to the divine love.
And as raan's mind was so perverted that light frora heaven
flowing into it was changed into falsehood, — since raen had put
darkness for light and light for darkness, — therefore there was
nothing to come in betv/een God and raan, so that divine in
fluences could reach man for his salvation. Therefore the arm
of Jehovah "brought salvation unto hira, and his righteousness
it sustained him."
Jehovah who had made man, descended hiraself to redeem
him. To redeem him it was necessary to bring his faculties
from a perverted into an orderly state — to pluck them from the
corporeal things in which they were immersed, and to make
them again receptive of the things of heaven. To effect all
this, it seems it was necessary that he should descend to earth
and assurae that nature which raan had corrupted. The Scrip
tures tell us that he did so. He shed forth frora himself a
sphere of his essence. He shed forth from his essence an
emanation of vital truth. This was his holy spirit breathed
into the material universe for man's rederaption. This spirit
of the Most High clothed itself in matter in a virgin's womb.
Thus Jehovah took human nature into conjunction with his
invisible and unapproachable essence; and thus stretched forth
an arm into the natural world. He " bowed his heavens and
came down." The virgin, overshadowed by the spirit of the
25*

282 A FAMILIAR ILLUSTRATION OF
Most High God, brought forth a child that was God-with-us.
The word which was in the beginning with God, and was God,
was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory,
as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth. As
the whole spiritual world, like a vast ocean pressing on a point,
clothes itself in a seed, and developes itself in a tree, a plant or a
floiver, so the whole godhead — all that is good and all that is true
— the infinite essence and the infinite form, clothed itself in a child,
so that all, from essential divinity to matter, could say, " unto
us a child is born." All that is divine, all that is celestial, all
that is spiritual, clothed itself -with a correspondent natural
form, comparatively as the vegetable soul clothes itself with a
correspondent raaterial forra — the essence of the rose with the
forra of the rose — or as the vital blood clothes itself with brain,
and nerve, and heart, and arteries, and bone, and -sinew, and
muscle, and all the corapages of various fibres and simple com
ponent parts, which, with their enveloping membranes and
cuticles, make up the body ; and thus all that is divine, and
celestial, and spiritual, bodied itself forth in a natural image
and likeness of itself, as a man's soul bodies itself forth in a
son that is begotten of hira : so that all that is divine, and ce
lestial, and spiritual, could say, "unto us a son is given:"
which son, like the fulcrura of a lever, sustained in a point all the
power of Deity ; for all the fulness of the godhead dwelt in hira
bodily : so that " the government was upon his shoulder :"
and he, hence, could be called " Wonderful, Counsellor, God,
Hero, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of peace."
Thus Jehovah descended, as the word or divine truth, into
the forra of a child, which was Iramanuel. " And the child
grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdora ; and the
grace of God was upon hira." (Luke, ii. 40.) " He increased
in wisdora and stature, and in favour with God and man."
(verse 52.) He received instruction from the doctors in the
temple, and he fulfilled every jot and tittle of the Scriptures.
Thus he assumed the mental faculties of man, with all the cor
ruptions of man's moral turpitude — he assumed raan's sensual,
scientific, rational, intellectual and moral faculties, and made

THE DIVINE HUMANITY OF THE LORD. 283
them divine by conforming them to fhe divine, law. He thus
assumed raan's corrupt huraanity, and made it a divine
huraanity. All that corporeal part in which he was born from
the virgin, and by which he took upon hira all the sins and
corruptions of the whole raass of raankind, he put off, with all
its evil affections and desires, and all its false raaxiras ; and
from the divine principle within hira acquired to himself an
absolutely perfect, a divine human character. And as this
character, consisting of certain specific faculties or properties,
is an absolute existence; and all and every existence must have
form, he thus acquired to himself a divine human forra. This
is what we understand bythe two terms Jesus — Christ ; Jesus
signifying all that is good in that character, and Christ all that
is true.
Thus Jesus Christ is the outward manifestation of Jehovah
hiraself, and so is the form of Jehovah himself. This form,
this outward manifestation, is what we are to understand by the
Lord's divine humanity. This is that glorious body, which
Peter, James and John saw when Jesus was transfigured on the
mount. This is that glorious person who so did the will of the
divine love as to be the divine love in form. This is that
glorious Son of God who hath life in himself as his father hath
life in himself, so as to be essential life in form. Hence this is
He who is God in form — who is God in huraanity — who is, in
short, the Divine Humanitt. For the new church teaches
that " Jesus Christ was the narae of the Lord in the world ;
thus the name of his human principle. But as to his divinity,
his name was Jehovah and God." (Apoc. Ex. 26.) Henee
Jesus Christ is the narae of what the Lord still retains frora the
world, naraely, his divine-natural body, or his human forra,
which is the divine humanity of Jehovah God.
Such is a familiar and plain illustration of what we un
derstand by the terra divine humanity. It is, in short, true
manhood. All we have to do, then, in concluding this topic, is to con
firm the views which we have advanced, by a brief explanation

284 A FAMILIAR ILLUSTRATION OF
of our text — " / beheld, and, lo, there was no man ; and all
the birds of the heavens had fled."
If this text, and the chapter from which it is taken, are com
pared with the passage from Isaiah, upon which we have just
remarked, any one of any spiritual discernment must see that
they treat of a state of the church, in which it is vastated of all
genuine goodness and truth. This must be the conviction es
pecially in studying the text together with the verse which
immediately precedes, and that which immediately succeeds, it.
" I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled ; and all the
hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man ; and
all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the
fruitful place was a wilderness ; and all the cities thereof were
broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by his fierce an
ger. Thus hath the Lord said. The whole land shall be
desolate." It raust be very manifest that " these things are said con
cerning the devastation of the church as to all the good and
truth thereof," when the Lord, by the light of his advent, has
made plain its real spiritual condition.
By mountains and hills in the natural world, are signified
celestial and spiritual loves : for what is high in nature, signi
fies what is interior or internal in spirit ; arid spiritual love is
the interior, and celestial love is the internal, principle of raan.
Hence, by the mountains trembling, and by the hills moving,
which are catastrophes that overturn and destroy the natural
forra of things, is meant those changes in the form and quality
of man's spirit, by which the celestial and spiritual character
of his loves is de.stroyed. And we are now instructed, that, in
the spiritual world, where natural objects appear as in this
world, but not of a fixed material nature as here, being merely
spiritual forms corresponding fo the minds of spirits and angels
there, the mountains and hills upon which spirits dwell, are ac
tually put in commotion and overthrown, when there no longer
exists with the spirits that inhabit them any celestial or spirit
ual love. Hence any such similar changes of state in the

TUE DIVI.N'E HUMANITY OF TIIE LORD. 285
church are represented in the Word — which is written according
to correspondences — by the recital of such natural commotions
in this world.
When, therefore, it is said in the text, the Lord beheld no
man, it is not to be supposed that the Lord in his advent saw
no material bodies, or no natural personages, on earth : but by
man is to be understood the spiritual forra or quality of the
mind, to which the natural form and activity of the body cor
respond ; and by the Lord's beholding no man, when he makes
his advent, is to be understood, that, at that tirae, there is none
of the true form, or the genuine quality, of real raanhood in
the church.
Now that which constitutes a man, distinctively such, is
strength of intellect. And strength of intellect in spiritual
things is the effect of the understanding of truth. And there
is no genuine and permanent understanding of truth, without
the love of truth for its own sake, which is spiritual love, or
fhe love of good for its own sake, which is celestial love. The
true man, then, is celestial or spiritual love formed by and in
the understanding of truth. And when it is said in the text, or
elsewhere in the Word, that there is no man, it means that
there is no understanding of truth in consequence of a defect
of that genuine love of good and truth which is charity in the
church. By birds are signified the intellectual powers of the mind
raised high up in the regions of spiritual contemplation by the
science and thought of truth, as birds are raised up high in the
air by wings. Hence by all the birds of the heavens being
fled, is meant there was no longer any science and consequent
thought of spiritual truth in the church.
Compare this text with Zephaniah, i. 3. " I will consume
man and beast ; I will consume the birds of the heavens and
the fishes of the sea ; I will cut off raan from the faces of the
earth." Here "to consume man and beast, signifies to destroy
spiritual and natural affection ; to consume the birds of the
heavens and the fishes of the sea, signifies to destroy fhe per
ceptions and the knowledges of truth. And as the state of the

288 A FAMILIAR ILLUSTRATION OF
church is described as to its devastation of all those spiritual
forms and qualities which in the complex make it a true and
genuine church of the Lord, therefore, it is said, ' I will cut off
man from fhe faces of the earth ;' for by the earth is signified
the church, as the church exists on earth, and the thing con
taining is named to signify the thing contained ; and by the
faces of the earth is signified the interior of the church, because
the face is that in which the interiors of the mind are expressed ;
and by man is signified the all of the church as to its interior
qualities in one complex form."
See, further, Isaiah, xii. 28, " I beheld, and there was no
man, even araongst thera, and there was no counsellor." Here
it is raanifest, by inspection of the context, that by man and
counsellor is raeant the internal of the church, that is, the in
ternal raan, who is one that is wise and intelligent. So in
Jeremiah, v. 1, " Run ye through the streets of Jerusalem,
and see if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth
judgment, that seeketh truth."
By comparing these parallel passages of Scripture with our
test, it is raade sufficiently plain what it is that constitutes a
true man, and hence what it is that makes true manhood.
A true man is he " that executeth judgment, and that seeketh
truth." One that executes judgment is a wise man, and one
that seeks truth is an intelligent man. For none but the truly
wise can judge justly, and no one can be truly inteUigent who
is not made so by the knowledge and practice of truth. Hence
true manhood consists in wisdom and intelligence. And when
these qualities are wanting in the church, it is said the Lord
can find no man on the earth. And as raan is made intelligent
and wise by the knowledge and practice of truth frora the love
of it for its own sake, therefore truth itself, abstractly con
sidered, is truly raan ; so that when it is said there is no man
on earth, it is meant that the church has become devastated of
all genuine truth, and all genuine love of truth.
But by the term truth as here used, is not to be understood a
mere intellectual form. It is a vital activity^ It is the form of
good. Hence it is good itself in form and activity. Wherefore

THE DIVINE HUMANITY OP THE LORD. 287
true manhood is the forra and activity of genuine goodness.
And as there is no genuine goodness which does not flow from
and body forth the divine love, hence true manhood is the form
and activity of divine love.
It is perfectly clear, then, what we are to understand by the
term divine humanity, namely, the perfect forra of divine love,
which is the perfect effectuation of the ends of that love. By the
perfect effectuation of its ends, the divine love comes fully forth
into spiritual forra and efficiency. And the complex of all raeans
for the effectuation of the ends of divine love is the divine truth.
Hence the divine love brought into life, by conformity of the
divine will to the precepts of divine truth, is the Humanity of
Jehovah God. And this is Jesus Christ, who came not to do
his own will, but the will of the father who sent him — whose
meat was to do the will of the father who sent him, and to finish
his work ; and who did this will by fulfilling every jot and tittle
of the Sacred Scriptures — even in his sufferings enduring
only what Moses, the Prophets and all the Scriptures predicted
he must needs suffer, " to enter into his glory," which was
" the glory of the only begotten of the father, full of grace
and truth."
Having thus shown what the New Jerusalem teaches re
specting the Lord Jesus Christ as the Divine Humanity of Jeho
vah God, we shall proceed, in our next discourse, to point out
the alterative and rending effects which the doctrine of this
divine humanity is to produce in Christendom.

SERMON XVII

LUKE, XX. 18.
-' Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken: but on .whom
soever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder."
There are many in the present day who think the words
and sentences of the Bible have no other sense than that which
they had in the ordinary language of the time in 'which they
were written or uttered. And hence they suppose that the
Bible is to be interpreted bythe sarae rules which would govern
the interpretation of any other book of antiquity. But it is
very manifest that the language which the Divine Being con
descends to use in accoramodation to man, must be only an
outward covering of a deeply inward forra of divine thought
and affection. For the sayings of wise men, though fraraed
with words farailiar to common ears, are pregnant with ideas
of hidden wisdom ; and we cannot for a raoment suppose that
the Divine Being would speak with less meaning than a wise
mortal. Hence the apostle speaks of " the deep things of God."
And he makes a distinction between the wisdom of this world
and the wisdora of God, which, he says, is spoken in a mys
tery ; and is only to be discerned by those who have become
spiritdally minded by receiving the raind of Christ. According
to this apostle, then, there is the hidden wisdom of God in the
things which the holy ghost teaches. And as, according to
another apostle, the Scriptures were given in olden time by
holy men of God, who spake as they were moved by the holy
ghost, and as, in after ages, the Scriptures of the New Testa
ment were spoken by the Lord, who had fhe holy spirit dwell
ing in him and proceeding from him, hence the Word of the

A TOUCHSTONE FOR THS CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 28
Old and New Testaments has within it the hidden wisdom of
God. Of course, this Word must be understood by spiritual
discernment, and not by mere natural interpretation : because
" the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God :
for they are foolishness unto hira, neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned." Hence he who thinks
that the Bible has no other meaning than the natural sense of
its verbal expressions, is like one who should determine that
no mines of gold and silver were in the bowels of a mountain
because he saw nothing but forest trees upon its surface. But
as a nearer approach and a closer inspection sometimes discover
veins of precious ore jutting from even the surface of a moun
tain, so a diligent perusal often discerns a manifest spiritual
sense protruding itself even into the literal expressions of the
Sacred Scriptures. Such is the character of our text. For it
is very manifest that under the similitude of a stone, which the
builders rejected, becoming the head of the corner, breaking
those who should fall upon it, and grinding to powder those
upon whom it should fall, is conveyed some lesson of deep
spiritual instruction. Let us then inquire, what is raeant by
the stone which the builders rejected. And when we have as
certained this, we can know what it is to fall on that stone and
be broken ; and also, what it is to have that stone fall on any
one and grind him fo powder.
The stone which the builders rejected raeans Jesus Christ.
Or stone is a word suggesting the appropriate material idea of
that truth which declares Jesus Christ to be the son of God,
that is, the proceeding eraanation and the manifested form of
the divine essence. And by this stone's becoming the head of
the corner, is clearly raeant, that this truth is fundamental to
that entire temple of consecutive and orderly arranged truths
which constitute the church in a doctrinal form.
That this is the spiritual meaning of the word stone in our
text is clear frora parallel passages. For instance, in Matthew,
xvi. 13, Jesus asked his disciples, saying, " Whom do men say
that I, the Son of Man, ara ? And they said, sorae say that
thou art Joh^ the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias, or
26

290 THE DOCTRINE OP THE DIVINE HUMANITY
one of the prophets. He saith unto them. But whom say ye
that I am ? And Simon Peter answered and said. Thou art
Christ the son of the living God. — And Jesus answered and
said unto hira. Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build
my church : and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
The name Peter in this passage signifies stone. For the word
that is here rendered Peter, signifies stone in the greek. And
the word which is rendered rock, also signifies stone in that
language. Now the question is, what did the Lord mean by " this rock,"
upon which he said he would found his church. Some tell us
that he meant Peter ; and that he, by these words, constituted
Peter, or his successor, his vice-gerent, or the head of his
church, on earth. And they moreover tell us that, when the
Lord says, in the next verse, " I will give unto thee the keys of
the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shall bind on
earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shaft loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven," he transferred to Peter,
and to his successor the pope, the power of opening and shut
ting heaven, and of absolving raen from their sins, or of doom
ing them to punishment on account of them. They insist upon
this, too, and say there can be no doubt of it, .because it is
plainly and positively asserted. Thus they found their doc
trine upon the Scriptures in their apparent sense only, as if the
words of Scripture have no other meaning than they would
have in any ordinary book.
But we are not sure that their doctrine that the Lord meant
Peter when he said upon " this rock" will I found my church,
can be drawn even from the apparent sense of this passage.
For any one who can read the greek will see that the Lord
uses to express rock a different word from that by which he
called Peter. He says, in answer to Peter's confession of him
as the son of God, " Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona," that is,
Simon son of Jonas, " for flesh and blood hath not revealed it
unto thee, but ray father which is in heaven. And I say also
unto thee. Thou art Verpo<i" — that isUhe word in greek by which
the Lord named him; and it signifies, as we have^said, a stone.

A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 291
But when the Lord proceeds and says, "Upon this rock I will
build my church," he uses the word Tr'npa., which, as you will
perceive, is a different word from ?riTpof, and signifies a rock as
well as a stone.
It is clear, then, that the Lord did not allude to Peter, even
in the mere letter of his words, when he said upon this roc]^
will I build ray church. We raay rather imagine that the
Lord, while he looked at Peter and said to hira with his lips
" Thou art Peter," pointed with his finger to himself as he used
the words " this rock." And then the church would not be
founded even apparently on Peter. For the apparent sense
would then be. Thou art a stone — thou art a truth, or thou art
true as to the confession which thou hast made — thou art faith,
or thou representest faith in the truth which thou hast con
fessed : and upon this rock [pointing to himself] — upon me,
that is, upon the truth itself which thou hast confessed, upon
the truth that I ara Christ the son of the living God, will I
build my church.
The rock, then, upon which the church is built is the truth
itself — Peter is the faith of that truth ; and the church is only
so far built in us, as that truth coraes into our faith. There
fore, the chief corner stone on which the whole teraple of doc
trinal truths is built, is the rock, the truth that Christ is the
son of the living God. Thus the chief corner stone is Christ
himself. For Christ and his truth are one .
This is clear frora the verses which precede our text. For
it was in express reference to the son whora the Lord of the
vineyard had sent, and whora the husbandmen cast out of the
vineyard and killed, that Jesus applies the prediction in Psalm
cxviii. 22, where it is written, "The stone which the builders
refused, is become the head of the corner." Jesus, therefore,
identifies the son with the corner stone. Wherefore, he alluded
to the son — to Christ — to hiraself — when he said, " upon this
rock will I build ray church, and the gates of hell shall not pre
vail against it :" which means that he would found the church
upon the truth, that Jesus Christ is God manifested in human
nature ; and that all those false doctrines which open from hell.

292 THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY
that is, which flow into the mind from self-love and love of the
world ; and which lead to hell, that is, which confirm the mind
in the indulgence of those evil loves, and thus are the gates of
hell ; shall not prevail to sap that fundamental truth of the
church, or to destroy the church which is founded upon the
practical acknowledgment of it. And the universal extension of
this truth ultiraately in the church, is predicted by Daniel, (ii.
35,) in these words, " The stone which smote the image be
came a great mountain and filled the whole earth."
They are wrong, then, who suppose that the Lord meant to
say that he would build his church upon Peter. For he meant
to say that he would build his church upon himself, or upon
the truth which proceeds from him, or upon Peter only so far
as he represented faith in that truth. And you raay see this
confirraed by Peter hiraself in Acts, iv. 10, 11, where he says,
" Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that
by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified,
whom God raised frora the dead, even by hira doth this raan
stand here before you whole. This is the stone which is set at
nought of you builders, which is become the head of the cor
ner." Here this sarae prediction in the Psalras is applied ex
pressly to Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and he is most unequivo
cally shown to be that corner stone, that rock, upon which the
church is built. Paul also says, " Other foundation can no
man lay than is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. iii. 11.)
In a general sense, then, the stone which the builders rejected
is that truth upon which heaven and the church is founded,
naraely, the truth that Jesus, as the son of man, is Christ, the
son of the living God. But it is all-iraportant that we should
have a more specific idea of this fundamental truth of the
church. And in order to see what specific truth is meant by
the stone which the builders rejected, we must understand the
distinction between the two terms son of man aud son of God,
as well as attend to the meaning of the word Christ. And in
order to understand the distinction between the son of God and
the son of man, we must recollect what has been stated on for
mer occasions, namely, that the Lord Jesus had, like one of us.

A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 293
an internal, an interior, and an external mind. In man these,
which are called the celestial, the spiritual, and the natural re
gions of the mind, and which make man capable of enjoying
eternal life in the three heavens, are as distinct as affection,
thought and speech, or as will, understanding and action ; and
they are equally distinct in the Lord. The Lord's internal
was .Tehovah, or the divine esse, or the divine love ; the Lord's
interior was the divine wisdom, which is the form of the divine
love, and is the word which was in the beginning with God and
was God ; and the Lord's external was, at first, the huraan na
ture which he assumed frora the mother Mary, and afterwards
was the humanity which, in the glorification of that human na
ture, he produced from the divinity within hira. Now the Lord
Jesus, as to the divine wisdora or the word, which was raade
flesh in him, and formed his interior or rational mind, was called
the son of God ; but as to the human nature which he assumed
frora his raother, and which formed bis external or natural
mind, he was called the son of man. This was the son of man
before his glorification, and it was then formed by truth frora
the letter of the Word. But after his glorification, the son of
man was divine truth in the natural degree.
The distinction, then, between the son of God and the son
of man is the sarae as the distinction between the Lord's inte
rior and external mind. And Christ signifies the Anointed.
For this is the meaning of the greek word Xpia-m. The same
is the meaning of the hebrew word Messiah. Hence, in John,
i. 41, Andrew, after he has found his brother Simon, says unto
hira, " We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted,
the Christ," or the Anointed.
Now it will be recollected that anointing was raade with oil.
Thus the kings of Israel were anointed by pouring oil on the
head. And when the king had royalty thus conferred on him,
he was called the Lord's anointed. Thus David, after his
heart smote him for having privily cut off the skirt of Saul's
robe, says fo his raen, respecting Saul, who was then king of
Israel, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto ray mas
ter the Lord's anointed, to stretch forth my hand against him,
26*

294 THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY
seeing he is the anointed of the Lord." And kings were so
called because they were the types of Christ. Hence, because
David too, as king of Israel, was a type of Christ, he says, in
the twentieth Psaira, " Now know I that the Lord saveth his
anpinted." In like manner Isaiah says, xlv. 1, "Thus saith
the Lord to his anointed', to Cyrus :" for Cyrus also was a type
of Christ.
If, then, it is known that oil in the Word signifies the good
which is done frora a principle of love, and that, therefore, the
anointing with oil signifies the imparting of love as a principle
of action to the mind, it will be seen that the Lord Jesus, so
far as he acted from the principle of divine love, was the
Christ, or the Anointed.
To see this yet more clearly, it may be well to reflect that
the Lord descended from heaven as the divine truth ; for he
was the word raade flesh, and the word is the truth of God.
Yet he did not separate from it the divine good : for John says
that he was in the bosom of the father and brought the father
forth to view ; and he himself said, " the father is in me ;"
and we have frequently proved that the father signifies, in the
Sacred Scriptures, the divine good. Therefore, he was divine
truth as to his external, and divine good as to his internal man.
Or he was truth as to his understanding, and good as to his
will. Or, to be still more accurate, he was the obedience of
divine truth as to his external man — hence, he fulfilled every
jot and tittle of the Sacred Scriptures ; he was the understand
ing of all that is divinely good and true as to hisinterior man —
hence he says, " No man knoweth the father save the son ;"
and he was the will of what is divinely good and true, or the
divine love itself, as to his internal man — hence he said, " All
things that the father hath are mine :" and in respect to his be
ing all three, namely, the obedience, fhe understanding and the
will of all that is divinely good and true, he says, " I am the
way, the truth and the life." Now so far as the Lord Jesus
brought good, from, his will or love, by truth, which formed
his understanding, into action, and thus united his external to
his internal man, just so far the truth in his understanding was

A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 295
anointed with oil, and he as to that truth so anointed was the
Christ. The stone, then, on which the church is founded, is truth
anointed with good ; or, to use the phraseology of the new
church, it is the truth of good, that is, the truth seen in the
light which is shed abroad in the mind by the good affections
of a regenerated heart. Hence, when Peter had confessed that
the Lord as the son of man is Christ the son of the living God,
Jesus answered and said unto him, " Blessed art thou, Simon
Barjona : for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but
my father which is in heaven." Peter, and those who are sig
nified by Peter, namely, those who are in mere faith, or in
mere truth, do not discover the truth that the son of raan is the
son of the living God by the light of their own reason, nor are
they able to confess it frora the affections of their natural heart
— flesh and blood do not reveal it unto thera ; for, as Paul also
says, " flesh and blood cannot enter into the kingdom of hea
ven," and hence cannot ascend into heaven and bring down
Christ from above : but it is revealed to them by the Lord's
father which is in heaven ; that is, it is revealed to them by the
principle of love in their internal man : for heaven signifies the
internal mind, because the internal has correspondentially the
same relation to the external mind, which heaven has to earth.
And in the Lord's internal mind was the divine love. Thus
the divine love was his father in his heaven ; and so far as by
regeneration frora hira the principle of divine love is imparted
to the internal mind of his disciples, so far his father is in their
heaven : and when the principle of divine love is in the internal
mind of his disciples from the -Lord, there is a light generated
by this love in their understandings which enables them to see
that Jesus Christ is God. Hence the Lord said to Peter, " my
father which is in heaven hath revealed it unto thee ;" that is,
love from God in your internal mind has enabled you to see
that the son of man is the anointed of the father, is the son of
the living God — in other words, has enabled you to see that
even ray external man, or ray ultimate humanity, is divine.
So then the stone upon which the church is founded is truth

296 THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY
grounded in good. It is not truth as science merely — nor is it
truth as mere doctrine — nor is it truth as faith alone ; but it is
truth as charity and its works. It is truth in outward life. It
is truth as seen and felt in experience, and confessed from the
good affections of a regenerated heart. For as the corner and
foundation stone is laid in the earth, and is sustained by the
earth, so is the truth, on which the church is founded, laid in
ULTIMATE good, and is sustained by that good. And as the
whole house or teraple rests upon its foundation, hence the
corner stone, or chief fundaraental truth, by which all the rest
are squared, signifies and involves all other fundamental truths
and all the truths of heaven and the church which rest upon
these. Hence it is on account of this signification of the corner
stone, as denoting all divine truth upon which the church is
founded, that it is said in Isaiah, xxviii. 16, " Behold, I lay in
Zion, for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner
stone, a sure foundation." Mark, the Lord says, T lay in Zion,
a stone — not in Jerusalem. For Zion signifies the church as
to love, and Jerusalem the church as to faith. Hence the
foundation stone of the church is laid in the good of love : and
the good of love is what love does according to truth. So, also,
it is on account of the signification of corner stone as denoting
all divine truth on which the church is founded, that the Lord
says, in the verses to which we have adverted, " upon this
rock," that is, upon the one truth which Peter had confessed,
" will I build my church." The true church is genuine charity ;
and when the truth that the humanity of the Lord is divine has
become the pervading, or universally reigning, principle of a
man's conduct, then genuine charity exists and abides in his
soul, and spreads a sphere of its quality on all around.
The specific truth, then, which is meant by the stone which
the builders rejected, is that one particular truth which Peter
confessed, namely, that the son of man, or the Lord's external
man, is Christ, the son of the living God. In other words, it is
the truth that the human nature of Jesus Christ is divine, or that
Jesus Christ is God even as to his huraan nature. For the con
fession of Peter is, that the sore of man is Christ, the son of the

A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 297
living God. And, as we have seen, the son of man is the Lord's
external man, that is, the humanity which he assumed in this
worid. And this became Christ, the son of the living God, by
being anointed from fhe father, that is, by being united through
the Lord's interior with his internal man ; or, in other words,
the Lord's external man was made entirely correspondent to
the divine love, which was the Lord's internal man, by acting
in all things according to the dictates of the divine wisdom in
his interior or rational mind. Thus the Lord's external man
becarae itself divine, just as a man becomes externally good by
regeneration frora God. That is, the external, with its external
thoughts and affections, becarae good by being united to a good
will through obedience to the rational dictates of an understand
ing enlightened by the truths of God's Word. Thus God's
Word guided the Lord's external man as a father guides a son.
And hence the Lord's external raan, so far as it was thus re
generated or glorified by the Word, becarae the son of the Word.
For the external man of the Lord, by being conformed to the
Word, was begotten into the iraage and likeness of the Word,
and thus was its son. And as the divine truth, which the
Word contains, when it was raade flesh and dwelt araong us,
was not separated frora the divine good, but, as the Lord's in
terior mind, had the divine love dwelling in it as his internal
mind, hence it was the living Word. And as this Word was
thus in the beginning with God and was God, hence when the
Lord's external raan or huraanity becarae the son of this hving
Word, it also becarae the son of the living God, and conse
quently is itself divine.
The truth, then, that the humanity of Jesus Christ is divine,
is that one fundaraental truth, that sure foundation stone, on
which the true church is ever founded. This is the truth on
which rest all the doctrines of the New Jerusalem.
This is the radical truth which the Jews refused. For men
in the days of the Jewish church said that Jesus, as the son of
man, was John fhe Baptist, or Elias, or Jeremias, or one of the
prophets. Thus they regarded him only as an ordinary man,
or as a prophet sent from God, and not as God himself. It is

298 THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY
well known that the Jews sought to stone hira, and did at length
crucify hira, for calling himself the son of God, and making
himself equal with God by doing the work of God in forgiving
sins. This, too, is the truth which all denominations of the old
christian church have rejected in the present day. For now
also Jesus, as the son of man, is regarded only as a prophet
sent frora God. Even those who believe that Jesus Christ is in
any sense divine, hold that his huraan nature, or his huraan
soul, is like that of any other raan, and thus not divine. They
all, therefore, have rejected the truth that Jesus Christ is divine
as to his huraan nature. Consequently, this truth is that stone
which the builders in all ages have rejected. And the reason
why they have rejected it is, because it is laid in Zion, and not
in Jerusalem ; because it is revealed by the Lord's father in
heaven, and not by flesh and blood ; or, in a word, because it
can be seen only in spiritual and not in natural light. Did the
Lord corae in his own name, that is, did he corae in the charac
ter and quality of a natural raan, the natural raan would receive
him. He would then favour the loves of the natural man, and
would preach the doctrines which the natural raan can under
stand. But because he coraes in the narae of the father who
sent hira — because he comes in the quality of a divinely spirit
ual raan, and preaches the doctrines of supreme love to God
and the neighbour, the natural man, who is principled in love
to self and the world, does not understand, and cannot but
reject, him.
From what has now been advanced, we can clearly see, that
the stone which is mentioned in our text, is the truth that Jesus
Christ is divine even as to his huraan nature : and the text very
significantly pourtrays the effects which the rejection or the re
ception of this truth raust produce in the church.
We have repeatedly said that nothing more peculiarly charac
terizes a church than the view which it takes of the Lord Jesus
Christ: and no one point of doctrine so accurately and so
thoroughly discriminates fhe different divisions of the christian
church as the doctrine of the Lord. The reason is, because

A TOUCHSTONE POR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 299
all Scripture concerns Jesus Christ : for the Lord, as he accom
panied the two disciples to Emmaus, " beginning at Moses,
and all the Prophets, expounded to them, in all the Scriptures,
the things concerning himself," (Luke, xxiv. 2 :) thus showing
that there are things which concern him in all the Scriptures.
Since, then, all Scripture treats of Jesus Christ, and the church
is founded on the Scriptures, and has a quality according to its
view of the Scriptures, it is hence manifest that the character
of the whole church, and the distinctive character of its divi
sions, must be determined by its views of Jesus Christ. Hence
it is that the truth which respects him and his divinity, is put
for all other truths in the Word, and is called the corner stone
on which all the doctrines that constitute the church are built.
For all other truths in the Word converge to this truth as radii
to a centre.
The Lord spoke and acted out the Word, and therefore the
Word and he are one. Thus the church that is founded on
the Word is founded on him. And hence, if there is error in
the view of his character, there is error in the view of the
Word. If he, for instance, be regarded as a mere man, the
Word will be considered as only a natural book. But if he be
regarded as a divine man, the Word will be admitted and seen
to be a divine book. If he be rejected, the Word will be de
spised. But if he be received, the Word will be loved and
practised. Thus invariably will the Word be viewed in pre
cisely the same light in which the Lord its author is viewed.
Thus the whole Word rests on him, and hence the whole
church, which is forraed frora the WoTd, must likewise rest on
hira. Hence rending and alterative consequences must flow frora
the rejection or reception of the truth which declares him to be
divine. For if he is divine, and men deny it, — as a truth
which regards hira must be fundamental, — then their denial of
this truth vitiates their whole mind as to the things of the
church. For, as we have said, it vitiates the view which their
mind takes of the Word — it causes thera to view the Word in
the same light as any mere human composition. But if the

300 THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY
Lord was divine, then the Word also which he spoke, was di-j
vine. Consequeritly, the notion that his Word is a mere human
composition is false. And a false idea of the Word in general
causes a false construction of all its particular truths. Hence
their entire view of the Word is false. And as the church is
founded on the Word, and has its quality according to its view
of the Word, hence the whole church in them is raade false by
a false view of the Word resulting from their denial of the
Lord's divinity.
On the other hand, supposing men to have imbibed, by edu
cation or prescription, notions of faith and practice founded on,
the idea that Jesus Christ, as to his human nature, is nothing
more than any other raan, when they fully and practically
admit this fundamental truth that the human nature of Jesus
Christ is divine, all such notions are dissipated; because they
cannot square with this as a corner stone, and cannot cohere
as a regular foundation built upon it.
Thus, so far as a raan rejects and opposes the truth that
Jesus Christ as to his huraan nature is God, his spiritual mind
is crushed and destroyed ; and so far as this truth gets adrais-
sion into a man by a practical reception, it dissipates the false
notions which previously existed in his mind. And thus who
soever falls on this stone is broken ; but on whomsoever it falls
it grinds him to powder.
When, therefore, the Lord said to his disciples, " Whom do
men say that I, the Son of Man, am ?" you see that he pro
pounded a most penetrating and searching question. And if
you reflect deeply on Peter's answer in connection with our
text, you will perhaps see that the truth which he confessed,
namely, the truth which declares the Lord's humanity divine,
is destined to break up and destroy all the existing combina
tions of the old christian church.
The effect of fhe rejection of this truth upon the individual
character, can be easily seen. For if a man denies, opposes
or rejects this truth in spirit, he cuts himself off frora fhe true
vine. He is without the influx of spiritual truth. He is dis
sociated in spirit frora those angels who are in that truth and

A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE CHRISTI '. N CHtRCH. 30l
who could, as ministering spirits, convey it to him. He is
without the influence of celestial affections, because dissociated
from those celestial angels who behold their Heavenly Father's
face, and who therefore are the mediuras of his heavenly good
to man. He is, therefore, without the culture of the Heavenly
Husbandman, who alone can impart to man the truly vegeta
tive soul of heaven. Not thinlcing of the divine humanity of
Jehovah, which is the only raediator between God and man, he
has not that huraanity spiritually present to his soul ; and not
loving and doing the good of that huraanity, it is not conjoined
to his soul; and thus there is no raeans of Jehovah's imraediate
influx into him so as to impart to him the principles of celestial
and spiritual life. Hence, when a man rejects the truth that
the Lord as to his humanity is divine, he cuts himself off from
the mediate and more immediate influx of the Lord's love and
life, so as to corae gradually under the entire influence of self
ish and worldly affections. He may not, indeed, while in this
world of deceptions appearances, where there is an outside to
things often very different from their inside, put off the courte
sies and elegancies of life ; but he has only the shell of hu
manity, without its kernel. He has the shell with a rotten
kernel : for the sound kernel of humanity is divine and hea
venly love — is supreme love to God and purely disinterested
love to others. Yet selfish and worldly love may assurae the
form of heavenly love — wolves may put on sheep's clothing,
and a devil may appear as an angel of light. But when the
soul passes into the other world, the shell of humanity, in
which selfish and worldly love envelopes itself, is cracked, so as
to expose to view the rotten kernel : and the stone on which it
is cracked is the divinity of the Lord's huraanity.
In fhe spiritual world, where spiritual things present them
selves in forms visible and perceptible f o the senses of its in
habitants, this process is represented by a way, in which all
who pass frora this world to the next are seen walking in com
mon. The reason of this is, because, when raen first come into
the world of spirits, they are in their external characters, which
are nearly similar. But after a while the road forks, with a
27

302 THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY
stone in the corner. This stone represents the truth of which
we are now treating, and which is signified by the stone in our
text. The one road represents the way to heaven, which is
the life of celestial and spiritual loves ; the other road repre
sents the way to hell, which is the life of selfish and worldly
loves. On coming to this stone, the internal states of men de
parted frora the natural world are first raanifested. Those who
have been in fhe internal acknowledgraent of the divinity of the
Lord's humanity, take the road to heaven ; but those who have
been in the internal rejection of this truth, take the road to hell.
This is a spiritual representation of the gradual development of
their internal life, according to the laws of the spiritual world.
And the spiritual world is nothing more than the mind of man,
in this case made visible to mental discernment. Every indi
vidual mind is an image of the whole spiritual world, and all
individual minds token together constitute the spiritual world in
the complex. Hence what is here said of the spiritual world
is true ofthe rainds of men even while they are existing on earth;
for the spiritual world raakes one with the natural worid, just as
the soul makes one with the body.
As, then, the case is with the individual mind, so when men
in a mass, as one collective man, come to this stone of which
we are speaking, it separates the spiritual from the natural ; and
the spiritual go into spiritual life, while the natural go into na
tural life. Thus man in the mass is broken, and is ground to
powder. For the sarae is true of the individual raan, as fo the
effect of this truth upon his individual mind, and the mass is
made up of individuals. When the mind falls upon that stone,
or rejects the truth that the Lord's humanity is divine, it divests
itself of all spiritually, and becomes wholly natural, so that its
spiritual form is broken or crushed. But when this stone falls
upon the mind, that is, when the truth that the Lord's humanity
is divine comes into and conforms the raind to itself, the raind
becoraes wholly spiritual, and the evils and falses of the natural
man are separated, dissipated or blown away. This is signi
fied, in our english translation of the text, by a man's being
ground to powder.

A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 303
But the original text is susceptible of a somewhat different
rendering. The word which our english translators have ren
dered grind to powder, is Aixftijo-ei ; which is the third person
singular, future tense, of the verb Aixftaa, derived from A/xftos,
which means a van, or sieve, for sifting or winnowing corn.
The true literal idea of this greek word is, therefore, to sepa
rate corn from the chaff, and hence, metaphorically, to separate
and disperse in a general sense. Consequentiy, the true literal
meaning of the text is, on whomsoever that stone shall fall, it shall
winnow him — it shall separate the corn from the chaff in him.
The english translators were, doubtless, led to render this
word by the english verb to grind, from their keeping in mind
the raaterial meaning of the word stone. For, not being able
to conceive how a stone could winnow grain, they imagined
that allusion was made to triturating grain in stone mortars, or
grinding it with a mill stone. Hence they rendered this word
by grind to powder. But the greek word has not this signi
fication ; and this signification is not required by the spiritual
sense of the passage. The stone which the builders rejected,
as a fundaraental truth of the church, separates the spiritual
frora the natural man, both in the individual and in the raass.
Hence a word was wanted which signified separaiiore, and such
is the greek word ?iix.ft.tia-u.
However, grinding, so far as it separates the outer husk from
the inner farinaceous substance ofthe grain, expresses substan
tially the same idea. The separating of the bran from the fine
flour by bolting, [which raay be erabraced in the generic terra
grinding,] is the sarae thing in relation to the internal man,
which the separating the chaff from the grain by winnowing is
in respect to the external man. Therefore the phrase grinding
to powder raay be retained without perversion of the truth.
Still the strict literal meaning ofthe text is to winnow the chaff
from the corn : and we think the idea which this meaning con
veys is the most appropriate ; for the natural thoughts and af
fections of the mind have precisely the sarae relation to its
spiritual thoughts and affections which chaff has to corn. The
natural thought and affection is developed first, and is a means

304 THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY
of covering and defending the spiritual thought and affection
until it is fully formed and ripened. But when the spiritual is
fully formed and perfected, then the natural dries up, or
whithers away, and the chaff is separated from the corn. This
is strikingly illustrated by the decay of the external memory.
In early life our memory of natural things,^-of persons, names,
events and dates, — is vigorous ; but in after life this memory
fails, and we have only the memory of our affections, which, as
to natural things, are affections of their uses. In youth, the
affections of natural things are a plane for fhe development of
spiritual affections ; and when the spiritual affections are formed,
the natural affections fall away like fhe husk from the ear of
corn, or like the burr from the chestnut.
This is seen in that love of knowledge which we have spoken
of on another occasion, and which peculiarly characterizes
youth. This love stimulates the young to get knowledge sim
ply from the delight of knowing. But when they become men,
this love in a great measure falls away, and leaves the love of
the uses to which knowledge may be put. And it is found that,
in after life, we forget raost, if not all, of the knowledge which
we have no use for. All the knowledge which we acquire in
youth serves its use, during that period, in developing our
faculties; but when this end is attained, the science which was
only useful to this end, and which is no longer applicable to
our present pursuits in life, falls away like withered chaff.
We say, then, universally, that our natural thought and affec
tion is a rudiment in which our spiritual principle is first held
in embryo, and is afterwards formed and perfected ; and that
when the corn of spiritual good is fully formed and ripened, it
is winnowed, and separated from fhe chaff of mere natural
affection. But this general idea leads to one that is more particular, and
more appropriate to the text before us. It will be found that
all false doctrines are apparent truths, which are fhe forms of
our natural affections ; and therefore may be in fhe same pre
dication with respect fo our spiritual good that our natural affec
tions themselves are. Hence false doctrines have, in the divine

A TOUCHSTON'E FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 305
mercy, been permitted to prevail, because mankind had become
merely natural, sensual or corporeal in their affections, and
these false doctrines were the only approximations to the truth
which, in such a state of their affections, they were capable
of receiving. Being apparent truths, they were capable of
union with good, so as fo preserve it until it could be unhed
with truths more genuine. Thus they were permitted that
they raight defend and preserve the principle of spiritual Ufe,
which is latent in natural good. And thus they serve as a
kind of husk, in which the grain of wheat is secured frora
blight until it is fully developed and ripened ; then this husk
dries up, is threshed off, and winnowed away, as chaff. Hence
by chaff in fhe Word is meant false doctrines of every kind.
The chief of false doctrines is faith alone, which Peter re
presented, in Luke, xxii., when he denied the Lord thrice ;
therefore the Lord said to hira on that occasion, " Simon, lo,
Satan hath earnestly desired you, that he raight sift you as
wheat." The faith of the false is like chaff before the wind.
And when a raan is io this faith, the principle of falsity, which is
Satan, bears a raan before it like a hurricane. Hence Sa
tan's sifting Peter as wheat represented the church's departure
frora genuine good, or from true charity, so far as from a prin
ciple of falsity it came into the doctrine of faith alone. And so
far as the church coraes into faith alone as a confirmed princi
ple, it totally denies the Lord, who is love or charity itself.
When this takes place in the church, it is at its consummation,
or midnight; which is signified in the Word by cock-crowinw.
Hence the Lord told Peter, that before the cock crew, he would
deny hira thrice, to denote that the christian church, the faith
of which Peter then represented, would so decline from its first
love, or charity, as to come into a state of faith alone; when,
having no true charity, it would cease to be a true church, and
so come to its close, or to spiritual midnight.
Still this doctrine of faith alone is an apparent truth. For it
is apparentiy true that truth, and the faith of truth, are primary,
because, in point of time, they appear to corae first in man's
salvation. And when this doctrine is erabraced by good per.-
27 *

30G THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY
sons of the church in the innocence of ignorance, and so
embraced in an honest heart as to lead them to do the works of
faith or truth, it is, in the divine mercy, a means by which
spiritual life is preserved in them. Thus it serves as a husk to
defend the grain of wheat in them, when it is green. The case
is similar with other false doctrines which raay be joined with
good. On this subject the new church teaches, that " fhe truths
which enter into good and qualify it are seldora genuine, but
are appearances of truth, and are also falses, but still falses not
opposite to truths : nevertheless, when these flow into good,
which is the case when the life is formed according fo them
from ignorance, in which ignorance is innocence, and when the
end is to do good, in this case they are regarded by the Lord
and in heaven not as falses, but as bearing a resemblance to
truth, and according to the quality of innocence are accepted as
truths." And " they within the church may be regenerated
by means of any doctrine whatsoever — though raore especially
by means of genuine truths." For " the Lord does not require
more from the man of the church than to live according to
what he knoios." This is plainly intimated by the ajwstie, in
Acts, xvii. 30, where, speaking of the idolatrous practices of
the heathen, he says, " And the tirae of this ignorance God
winked at :" thus showing that God excuses idolatry in those
who know no better ; and so establishing the principle that the
Lord requires men only to act according to their knowledge.
But in the consuramation of the age, when fresh revelations
of truth are made, and greater and higher knowledge is given.
He, to use the words ofthe sarae apostle, " then commandeth
all raen every where to repent — Because he hath appointed a
day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath ordained." The man whom Jehovah
God has ordained is fhe man Christ Jesus, whom he hath made
the heir of all things, hath gifted with all power in heaven and
on earth — thus is that humanity which he himself has assumed
upon earth, and so glorified as to make it one with himself,
possessing his life, his infinity and his omnipotence — is, in
short, the truth which manifests his good, and, by exposing the

A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 307
false doctrines which are contrary to this good, causes the
good in all churches to separate themselves from them ; and in
this manner comraands all men every where to repent of their
false doctrines. And just so far as the truth that Jesus Christ
is the divine humanity of Jehovah God is received in faith and
practice as the fundamental truth ofthe church, it must and will
separate the spiritual from the natural man in the church gene
ral and particular — it will dissipate the false doctrines in which
the good may be ignorantly and innocently principled — and
thus will winnow the chaff from the wheat.
Thus we see bow the truth that Jesus Christ is God is the
touchstone which is to prove the whole christian church. It is,
as we have shown fully on former occasions, a spiritual truth,
which none but the spiritually minded can discern and bear in
their lives. Hence it will be " like a sharp two-edged sword,
— piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of
the joints and marrow, and proving a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart," — which will most effectually separate
between the spiritual and the natural man. Those that fall
upon, that is, deny this truth, will be broken, or spiritually de
stroyed ; and those upon whom it falls, that is, those in whora
it becoraes the reigning principle, it will grind to powder, that
is, it will dissipate all their false doctrines.
And who is so blind as not to see that this winnowing pro
cess is now going on. The question, is Jesus Christ God, or
not? is convulsing the whole church to its very centre. Old
lines of demarcation are broken. It is no longer denomination
against denomination : but the coraraotion is becoraing intes
tine, and war is waging between brethren ofthe sarae profes
sions. Thus, in a sense, " a sword is sent upon the earth, and
a man is set at variance against his father, and the daughter
against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mo
ther-in-law." " There are wars and rumours of wars — nation
is rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdora : and there
are famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places.'^
This, we apprehend, is a prelude to the final consummation
of the old church, and the formation of the new. To this end

308 THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY
there is a fermentation going on in the whole body of the church,
which will continue till the pure wine stands clear upon its lees.
The great line of demarcation will hereafter be between what
is spiritual and what is merely natural. Men of these respec
tive descriptions exist more or less in every denomination ofthe
old church, and a separation must take place between them.
Hence existing denorainations will be broken into pieces. This
has already taken place, or is taking place, in some denomina
tions; and it will ultimately take place in all.
We dare to hazard the assertion, that every merely natural
raan is at heart a Unitarian — no matter what may be his ex
ternal profession. The prejudices of education, and considera
tions of interest or policy, may now keep him in connection
with those who hold a different faith ; but when it shall be as
much to his interest to profess an opposite faith ; so soon as
the sharp two-edged sword of truth, pierces even to the divid
ing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow,
so as to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart ; his true
character will be manifested.
There are, undoubtedly, pious and good people in all the de
nominations of the old church, who will ultimately be saved in
the light and life of the New Jerusalem: but we. apprehend this
is the exception to a general rule. A new chuf-ch is always
formed mainly araong the Gentiles — those who are in simple
good out of the consummated church. Many raen, belonging
to all the denorainations of the old church, scarcely know what
they believe. The fact is, they do not trouble their heads about
the principles of faith held by their church. They are connected
with the church by external considerations merely. Their
chief object is to get along in the world : to acquire business,
wealth, influence or power. And they attach themselves to
that persuasion which is most likely to further their views in
these respects. There are others again who have been educated
in fhe principles of religion professed by their fathers, and
have grown up in an attendance upon its ceremonials of wor
ship. They have never investigated for themselves the princi
ples they profess. They have taken them for granted from

A TOUCHSTONE FOa THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 309
their parents or their spiritual teachers. The dograas of their
church have never been seen in rational light. Such dogmas
are matters of memory merely, and of thought frora meraory.
Hence they can talk about their religion ; be zealous in its pro
pagation ; rigid in a conforraity to its cereraonial requisitions ;
while it has no influence whatever in altering the staraina of
their character. It does not reach and change their love.
They are still natural men ; because still influenced by natural
loves. All such men, both those who are influenced by motives
of interest and pohcy, and those who are led by prejudices of
education, are ready to belong to any party which is the most
popular, and which can be assimilated externally to their pre
vious raodes of thinking. They cannot discriminate principles.
They are in results only ; and if results are the same, they
care not about principles. These are natural men. Those of
them who are internally good ; that is, those whose wills and
intentions are upright, or whose lives are, in their degree, con
formed to the Lord's commandments, are natural-spiritual; that
is, are from natural capable of being raade spiritual. These
will ultiraately come into fhe new church. But those of them
who are internally evil, that is, who are actuated by self-love
and love of the world, are merely natural, and will ultimately
become Socinians or Deists.
This we are inclined to think, will be the ultiraity of the old
christian church. Socinianism, and the next step, deism, are
naturalism; and naturalisra is the old church gone to seed.
Persons of the above descriptions form the raass of the
christian church. There are others less numerous, but of more
strongly marked character. They raay be erabraced in the
general description of those who have confirmed themselves in
the dogmas of their church frora fallacious reasonings. These,
too, and even those araong them who are learned, notwith
standing their learning and supposed spiritual sagacity, are
natural men ; because they derive and confirra their tenets frora
the mere letter ofthe Scriptures, which consists of the appear
ances of truth only. These will decrease as the spirits of the
dragon are cast out by Michael and his angels : that is, as the
spirits of those who have been confirmed in the false doctrines

310 THE DOC TRINE OF THE DIVINE HQMA.VITY
of the old church are removed from the world of mind, and
there is a corresponding descent of the new heaven, which we
are taught has been formed since the last judgment in 1757.
And as the influences of this heaven descend upon earth, they
will produce a resolution ofthe church into the two descriptions
of men above noticed, namely, natural-spiritual and merely na
tural. There may be many distinctive varieties, but these will be
the general divisions. To this end the commotions which are now
racking the christian church are tending. For it is a universal
law, that old affinities raust be broken up, sometiraes by violent
processes, before new corabinations can be forraed. Not to use
the exaraple of threshing and winnowing grain which our text
suggests, this is strikingly seen in the forraation of chemical
combinations ; where the previous connection between the parts
of substances is destroyed by pounding, concussion or attrition,
so as to leave them free to obey other laws of attraction and
form various other compositions — examples of which every one
can see by daily observation of the arts. As a very familiar
instance we may take the formation of mortar for building.
The constituents of mortar are lime, sand and water. The
sand consists of particles of stones separated from their pre
vious connections by the operations of nature. The lime is
made frora limestone by the action of fire ; by which process
certain parts ofthe limestone are driven off and the connection
of the remaining parts loosened. The water consists of two
species of air, or of two gasses ; and thus, though generally
supposed to be a simple substance, is itself a compound. By
the union of the water with the lime a further resolution takes
place, which is called slacking the lime. By this process the
parts of the lime are still further separated, and are brought
into such a state that they can be combined with the sand.
And thus by the union of lime, sand and water, mortar is
forraed. Now it is perfectly raanifest that if you were to place
unmodified limestone, sandstone and water together, no com
bination would take place : and thus you see, in this case, the
necessity of a previous corarainution of the parts.
Again, wheat in the sheaf raust be first threshed, then win
nowed, then ground, then bolted, before it can be made into

A TOUCHSTONE FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 311
bread; and then it must be cut or broken, chewed, swallowed
and digested, before it can go into the coraposition of our
bodies. So universally.
Thus it must be in the forraation of new spiritual corabina
tions. Old spiritual affinities raust be broken up, and the parts
of old associations be coraminuted by concussions of various
kinds, before new associations can be formed by the attractions
of new spiritual affinities. And this process is now going on.
Almost all the denominations of the old christian church are
quarreling araong theraselves, and splitting up into parties;
and those that are not, have within fhem.selves the elements of
discord, which only require an occasion to burst forth into vio
lent action. In this way the associations ofthe old church are
breaking up; and the parts being thus left free, such of thera as
have an affinity will ultiraately obey the attractions of the new
heaven, and arranging theraselves according to its order, will
forra the new associations of the new-jerusalem church, which
is now descending frora the Lord out of that heaven.
Thus it may be seen that a great spiritual threshing is going
on. The Lord has his fan in his hand, and, by his holy spirit
of truth, he will " thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his
wheat into his garner ; but he will burn up the chaff with un
quenchable fire." (Matt. iii. 12.)
And it must now be clear that the touchstone which is to try
the characters of men and to effect this mighty work of sepa-
tion, is the divinity of that humanity which the Lord assumed
upon earth. This, therefore, is that stone, on which " whosoever
shall fall shall be broken : but on whomsoever it shall fall, it
will grind him to powder," or separate in hira the chaff frora
the corn.
Oh that this truth raay so fall upon each one and all of us —
may be so made the corner stone of all our doctrines, and so
the ruling principle of our lives, that we raay be winnowed
clean from all our falses, and be garnered for ever in heaven!
And oh thou Son of Man, " thrust in thy sickle and reap : for
the time is come for thee to reap : for the harvest of the earth
is ripe" !

SERMON XVIII

MATT. IX. 12, 13.
" But when Jesus heard, he said unto them, They that be whole need not
a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that
meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice ; for I am not come to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."
When the New Jerusalem has presented and enforced her
peculiar views of the Lord, and it begins to be felt how com
pletely these views subvert the commonly received notion that
the Lord came to raake a propitiation by offering a vicarious
sacrifice for sin, we often hear it asked, What, then, did Jesus
Christ corae for? It is the design of this discourse to answer
that question.
Our present text involves the doctrine, that raan, both as an
individual and as a raass, is fallen frora a state of spiritual in
tegrity, and that he cannot be again made whole without re
demption. The text, therefore, teaches the necessity of re
demption. It teaches that, without redemption, there can be no
salvation. In other words, it teaches that mankind, indivi
dually and collectively, are spiritually sick — sick unto death ;
and that, without a physician, they must all perish eternally.
It teaches that Jehovah God in humanity, whose high and holy
name is Jesus Christ, is the true and only physician of the sin-.
sick soul. And it teaches that the prescription which this
physician gives for the sickness or sin of the soul is repentance.
Our text, therefore, teaches, that there can be no salvation
without cessation from sin ; for repentance implies, not merely
sorrow and contrition on account of sin, but the actual putting
of sin away — the incessant putting away of all evil as sin

WHAT DID JESUS CHRIST COME FOR? 313
against God. In one word, the text teaches that there can be
no regeneration without previous reformation — no doing good
without first ceasing to do evil — no spiritual health in our
spiritual bodies until, by the physicing of truth from the Lord,
all diseased spiritual action is previously removed.
It should be observed, too, that our text exposes a very fun
damental error in the prevailing christian church. For the
fundamental doctrine of that church is, salvation by a vicarious
sacrifice ; whereas the text teaches that the Lord will not have
sacrifice but mercy. The prevailing church teaches that raan is
saved by the sacrifice of a divine victim as an atonement to divine
justice for raan's violation of its law ; and that the merit of this
sacrifice, or this atoneraent, is iraputed to raan, not as his own,
but as Christ's, righteousness : so that, when man, by faith, puts
on this righteousness, he, though in himself a sinner, is regarded
by Jehovah as just or righteous for Christ's sake. Thus, in the
view of the prevailing christian church, man is saved by an im
puted righteousness, — a righteousness that is not his own, but the
Lord's iraputed to him, — and so imputed as to make h'lm just in
the eyes of Jehovah. Therefore, in this view, man is saved by
a principle of justice through sacrifice. Ho is pardoned and
accepted of Jehovah because he is just, or righteous, and raade
so, not by any act, either seeraingly or really his own, but by
the sacrifice of the innocent son of God. But the text expressly
declares that the Lord came not to call the righteous, but sin
ners ; and that he saves sinners, not by a sacrifice rendered to
his justice, but by their own repentance of sin, which is an of
fering to his mercy. In truth, then, sinners never are made
righteous in the eyes of Divine Justice, for even the heaven
of heavens is unclean in his sight.; but sinners are raade
righteous in the hands of the Divine Mercy, which are the
operations and powers of the Divine Love, so influencing the
hearts and lives of sinners as to enable sinriers theraselves to
repent of their sins, in order that iniquity may no longer be
their ruin.
The New Jerusalem adopts, therefore, the doctrine of the
Lord in the text, and, with the apostle Paul, holds it to be a
28

314 WHAT DID JESUS CHRIST COME FOrT
faithful saying, which is worthy of aZZ acceptation — worthy of
the acceptation of those who have received the atonement, as
well as of those who have not, of Christians as well as of In
fidels — that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,
of whom I am chief. She holds that our salvation is at all
times of mercy, and not of justice — is at all tiraes of goodness,
and not merely of truth. For truth condemns all to hell, and
would eternally keep them there ; but goodness elevates to
heaven all who will so put away evil as to receive good in its
stead. The New Jerusalem holds that all who are saved, are
saved my mercy as a principle of divine goodness flowing forth
from the divine love and leading the sinner, in the light and by
the power of truth, to such a repentance and godly sorrow for
sin as prompts and enables him freely and rationally to put it
away. She takes it for granted that salvation is a process
whereby the sinner ceases to be such. But she maintains that
the process whereby man ceases to be a sinner is one which
takes place in his own proper person, and consists in such a
change of his character, that he is reconciled to God.
The members of the new-jerusalem church believe that man
by degeneration has come into a state of contrariety to divine
order, and that his redemption and salvation consist in bring
ing him by reformation and regeneration into a state of recon-
formity to that order. Thus, in the view of our church, re
deraption or salvation is a process which goes on in man him
self, and which cannot take place by substitution. Thus it is
a change in his actual condition, whereby he, not factitiously,
but virtually ceases to be a sinner. And in our view this re
demption is wrought out by Iramanuel, or God-with-us, who is
Jesus, or Jehovah, saving his people from their sins. And We
believe that Jehovah redeems and saves his people, when the
truth — which Jesus uttered and manifested by his personal in
fluences on earth, and which he now, having ascended far
above all heavens, sheds abroad by his divine human influences
on the hearts of all who embrace him in faith and love — is re
ceived into man's understanding frora having its image and
likeness stamped on his will and life. For in the degree that

TO REDEEM AND SAVE MANKl.ND. 315
truth is thus formed in man, his character and condition is so
changed as to be reconformed to the laws of divine order, and
thus he is redeemed from the bondage of evil, and is saved from
his sins.
This, in our view, is what Christ Jesus came for. And we
believe he effected this in the general principles of huraanity,
when he came forth from the father and came into the world
through the assumption of our corrupt nature by conception in
the womb of the virgin, and when again he left the world and
went back to the father through the unition of that nature to
the divine goodness by its glorification in a full conforraity to
the divine law. And this, we believe, is what he still continues
to effect in the particular parts of huraanity, when he coraes
forth from the purified heart into the reformed conduct of every
individual regenerated soul.
How this descent and ascent of divinity was effected, none
but a divine intelligence can know, because it was a divine
work. But we must believe that God did come down to earth
to redeem mankind, simply because it is declared that he did
so in the Word of God. And as in our attempts to illustrate
the inscrutable process of the Lord's substitution of a divine
for a material humanity, so in the faint illustrations of this in
comprehensible work of redemption which we raay attempt to
make, we do not presume to explain the raatter, but endeavour
merely to assist our weak conceptions by recurring to those si
militudes in the nature of the world and of ourselves which
correspond to the Deity and his invisible operations.
In illustrating this deep subject, we first show the necessity
of redemption. We suppose that the universe is created and
held in consistency as one man : that Jesus Christ, or the hu
manity of Jehovah, is this man ; and that the divinity of Jeho
vah is its soul. In other words, we suppose that Jehovah is
the soul of the universe as a body : and that all who are saved
come into this body, that is, come again into the form of this
man ; for, says the apostle to members of the church, " Ye
are the body of Christ." (1 Cor. xii. 27.) Hence we believe

316 WHAT DID JESUS CHRIST COME FOR?
that the same laws have force in the moral government of God
which obtain in the human system. Consequently, that the de
rangements of the moral system of the universe are of a na
ture like to those of man's physical system, and require a
soraewhat sirailar curative process. This we infer frora the fact
that the body exists frora and corresponds to the soul, and from
the philosophical axiom that the parts resemble a whole. For
we thus reason, that, as God is infinite, he acts through all —
thus infinitely, in creating and sustaining each part ; hence
that each and every part must bear the impress of the whole
through which it is created ; and thus that each part raust be a
likeness of the whole. Wherefore, as God has created this
world, and man, who is its miniature form, through the uni
verse, this world, or raan, is a likeness of the universe. And,
therefore, conversely, as this world, or raan, its miniature, is a
component of the universe, we conclude that the universe is a
human body in a vast complex form ; and therefore subject to
the same laws on a larger scale which govern the human body
in its miniature form. Hence we suppose that as from man on
earth to matter there are gradations of natural beings, so from
God in heaven to man on earth there are gradations of spirit
ual beings ; and that all from God through spirits and men to
matter are held in consistence precisely as all things are in an
individual huraan body. And thus we suppose that all the
parts of the universe have the harmonious relations, the regu
lar connections, the mutual dependencies, and the reciprocal
actions of one vast body with God as its all-pervading soul ;
and that the salvation of this body, and of each and every part,
is its state of universal health.
Then, as we know that the heaUb of the physical body de
pends upon the equilibrium of its parts, we further suppose that
the health of fhe great body ofthe universe depends upon that
state of universal equilibrium in which, though the whole is
connected with and acts upon each part, yet each part is kept
free to obey the impulses of the divine soul flowing into it.
And we suppose that, if this equihbrium were destroyed in any

TO REDEEM AND SAVE MANKIND. 317
part, the whole must ultimately be destroyed, just as the whole
physical body dies from lock-jaw when the foot has been
wounded by a rusty nail.
We then assume, as a matter of revelation, that fhe Divine
Being keeps up this equihbrium by exactly balancing the
counter influences of heaven and hell, which have a comraon
plane of operation in the breast of raankind upon earth. Man
in his integrity upon earth is a rational free agent, made and
kept at Uberty to turn to good or to evil. This is the result of
his being placed between heaven and hell ; which being suffered
to act upon him with equal strength in opposite directions, the
force of one neutraUses the force of the other, and this pro
duces that equilibrity which leaves him free to turn to either.
Bythe rational consideration of truth, man's will is determined
to good — thus he turns to heaven, and hereby heaven flows
fully into hira, rules him, and keeps hira free to obey the im
pulses of the divine life. For when the truth makes man free,
he is free indeed. But by the irrational consideration of what
is false, man's will is determined to evil^-thus he turns fo hell,
and hell hereby gets dominion over him, perverts his forra, ob
structs the influences of the divine life, and raakes hira the slave
of sin and death.
The fact, then, being assumed as a matter of divine revela.
tion, that man, having been created perfect, that is, an entire
rational free agent, did actually fall by the abuse of his free
will, whereby he did actually becorae the slave of sin and death,
we can clearly see the necessity of redemption. For, by the
universal determination of man's will to evil, hell had got such
a dominion over the human race that the equilibrium between
heaven and hell was destroyed. Hereby a diseased action was
induced in this part of the grand raan of the universe. A
mortification took place in the feet, and was spreading up to
wards the vitals. The whole system became sympatheticaUy
affected. Morbid forms being ingenerated in the superior parts,
those parts foo were becoming diseased, and, assuming a mor.
bid action, were obstructing or perverting the influent divine
life, and hastening on the general dissolution. So that, unless a
28*

318 WHAT DID JESUS CHRIST COME FOR?
raedicative remedy had been applied^unless by external and
internal applications of counteracting causes, the diseased
action had been changed, a healthy action brought on, the
mortified parts made to slough off, and sound parts reproduced
by fresh depositions of healthful substance, no flesh could have
been saved.
But how was this remedy to be applied ? The diseased parts
could not heal themselves. A diseased gland, for instance,
could not secrete from the blood a substance which would serve
as an alterative to its morbid action. Nor could the deranged
stomach secrete sickly juices and at the sarae tirae generate a
medicament to counteract their morbific operation. Nor could
the mortified limbs cut themselves off, or reassume a healthful
constitution. It is clear, therefore, that the aid of a physician
was necessary. Hence a world " dead in trespasses and in
sins" could not possibly have been raised to life and health
without " the balm in Gilead and the Great Physician there."
Thus it is seen that Jehovah hiraself, who made raan, could
alone redeem hira. He only who raade the world originally,
could raake it again, when it was destroyed by sin. Only the
divine soul, which produced the univer.se, as a body, could heal
that body by coming down with fresh life and throwing off its
diseases. This, therefore, is what Jesus Christ came for.
Immanuel, God-with-us, "was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we were healed."
By the abuse of the huraan will, huraan nature had come
into a state of contrariety to the divine nature. This contra
riety is sin. All men, being part and parcel of human nature
in the complex, were becoming involved, or were actually in
volved, in this sin. And all flesh having^corrupted itself, there
was no uncorrupting medium of divine Ufe. Jehovah " looked.
and there was none fo help, and he wondered that there was
none to uphold ; therefore, his own arm brought salvation."
He descended as divine truth into flesh. Divine truth clothed
itself in human nature, with all its corruptions thick upon it.
Truth so manifested was Christ. And the soul of Christ, that

TO REDEEM AND SAVE MANKIND. 319
is, the soul of divine truth manifested in the flesh, was divine
goodness, which, as a principle of Ufe, conformed human nature
in Christ to the divine truth. Thus fhe divine goodness was in
Christ, reconforming and so reconciUng the world, that is,
human nature, — for human nature is the world in its complex,
— unto itself. And so far as huraan nature was by divine truth
made conformable and correspondent to divine goodness in
Christ, that nature was itself made divine. And just so far as
huraan nature was in Christ raade divine, it was saved frora
sin, that is, it was restored from a state of contrariety to a state
of conformity to the divine nature. Hence human nature raade
divine goodness by divine truth was called Jesus, because by
such a glorification of human nature, it was saved from its sins.
Hence the angel said of God incarnate "thou shalt call his
name Jesus ; for he shall save his people frora their sins."
The sins of all God's people consisted in that state of con
trariety to the divine nature which had been induced upon
huraan nature by the abuse of man's free will. Wherefore, just
so far as that state of contrariety was reraoved from huraan
nature, the sins of God's people were removed. And this state
of contrariety was, in Jesus Christ, removed from huraan nature
in its general and essential principles. This was redemption :
for hereby hell was subdued and its preponderance over heaven
done away. And the bringing down this redemption to men
individually by reformation and regeneration into the iraage
and likeness of Jesus Christ is salvation : for hereby the state
of contrariety to the divine nature which exists in men in
dividually is reraoved, and thus they are saved frora their sins.
The same effects are hereby wrought in them as a body which
were wrought in Christ as their head.
Human nature taken into connection with the divine nature,
and thus making the raan Christ Jesus, is a raediator between God
and man. Thus in the raan Christ Jesus the rays of the Sun
of Righteousness, the all-glorious beamings of the whole god
head, are brought to a focus ; and being raade to pass through
human nature purified and elevated in hira, as, coraparafively,
the light of a lamp is made to pass through the painted object

320 WHAT DID JESUS CHRIST COME FOR .'
in a magic lantern, they form that nature correspondently in
men beneath, and cause them, as a screen, to reflect its image
and likeness. And so far as men have the image and likeness
of Jesus Christ thus formed in thera, they are saved, and no fur
ther. For so far the divine Ufe, which is in itself unapproacha
ble and incoraprehensible, flows into them, in a way accommo
dated to their state, and throws off their spiritual raaladiesJ
Thus Jesus Christ is glorified in thera who are given to hira
out of the world, and they and he become one, as he and the
essential divinity are one.
Thus it is seen wherein consists the necessity of rederaption,
and the necessity of Jehovah coraing into the world to eflect it.
And from this portraiture of the necessity of redemption, it is
discerned what was the process by which redemption was
effected. In short, by the abuse of man's free agency hell had
preponderated over heaven in the human breast, and by the
departure of the spirits of men into fhe spiritual world was in
vading and bearing death and desolation into the confines of
the heavens. And redemption consisted, first, in Jehovah's
coming down fo the common plane of heavenly and hellish
operation and conquering there the infernal spirits of evil and
falsity, thus detruding them from raan, and bringing thera down
to their proper grade in the scale of being, so as to make men
free to do good according to a rational conviction of truth ; and
secondly, having glorified raan's nature in hiraself, in passing
up with that nature through all the heavens, so as to arrange
them and reduce thera to order by spreading its glorified in
fluences throughout thera, and thus freeing them frora the
defilements occasioned by the contaminating approach of in
fernal spirits from bell. For when the powers of hell were
cast down, and the heavens reduced to order, the causes of
diseased action in the grand man ofthe universe were counter
acted. Thus a remedy was applied to its diseased parts both
externally and internally. And, consequently, a healthy action
was brought about, which has been going on, and will continue
to go on, until raan in the universal form shall enjoy a state of
universal health.

TO REDEF.M AND SAVE MA.VKIND. 321
A familiar illustration of this process of redemption will be
had, if we advert to the siraile of the sun and its earths which
we used on a former occasion : and we do this the rather, be
cause the sun of the world is the actual correspondent and
representative ofthe sun of heaven, in which is the Lord ; and
because, therefore, what is true in a natural sense of the natural
sun, and the earth, and their respective phenoraena, is also
true, in a spiritual sense, ofthe Lord, as the Sun of Righteous
ness, and the aspects and relations which he and man respec
tively bear to each other. It is sufficient to represent raan by
the earth, the spiritual world by the earth's atmospheres, and
the Lord by the sun.
The atmospheres and the earth are created frora the Lord
through the sun : and all the forras of being in both are sus-
tained by the continued influx of the sun's heat and light. The
earth, in certain states, sends up vapours, which, rising into
the atmosphere, intercept the sun's influences ; and the earth
generates miasmata and noxious gasses, which corrupt the vital
principles of the air. Thus light is measurably cut off and
heat flows into perverted forms. And unless the vapours are
dissipated and the atraosphere purified, vegetable decay and ani
mal disease and death are the universal consequence. Thus
far we have a sirailitude of man's creation by the Sun of
Righteousness, his perversion of the influences of that sun, of
the derangeraent of the spiritual world by the huraid vapours
and perverted forms of life which this perversion sends up, and
of the spiritual death which impends over him in consequence
of the rays of the sun of heaven being intercepted by this de
rangement of the spiritual world.
To redeera the earth, the vapours which surround it must be
dissipated, its atraosphere purified, and the causes of noxious
exhalations reraoved. The equilibriura of the atraosphere,
which bad been disturbed, raust be restored. The restoration
of this equilibriura produces aerial currents, and the storras
which result dissipate atraospheric vapours and purify the air
by agitation. The electric fluid, too, by its concussive and other
purificative effects on the air, frees the atmosphere of its mor-

322 W.IIAT DID JESUS CHRIST COME FOR?
bific matters and makes it a clear raedium ofthe sun's salutary
influences. Now, if we thoroughly understood these natural phenomena,
we doubt not that a striking analogy might be traced between
them and the process by which the hells were subdued, the
heavens reduced to order, and mankind redeemed. According
to the most approved philosophy the electric fluid coraes frqm
the earth. May it not be the action of certain highly ethereal
influences of the sun, which the earth's surface will not reflect,
and which, being converged by the atmosphere, as a convex
lens, are continually brought to a focus at the earth's centre,
and thence transmitted divergentiy to the earth's surface in the
opposite hemisphere? If so, then raay not the electric fluid re
present the Lord's life descending more immediately than in
the ordinary way, that is, by the raedium of the atmospheres,
which the electric and magnetic fluids transcend ? May not its
effects in thunder and lightning represent his conflict with fhe
hells by divine truth ; and its purifying effects on the atmo
sphere represent his reduction of the heavens to order? And
may not the sarae things be represented by the storras of wind
and succeeding calms ? May not the currents in the atmo
sphere, which are caused by warm air rising and cold air de
scending in consequence of the sun's direct action at the equa
tor, figure forth the detrution of the wicked and the elevation
of the good, which occurs in consequence ofthe Lord's more
immediate presence and more direct influence in his advent?
And raay not the equilibrium which is produced in the atmo
sphere by means of its currents, aptiy represent the equilibrium
which the Lord restores between heaven and hell by casting
down the evil and elevating the good ? For my part, I am per
suaded that nature, in these phenomena, furnishes us with some
thing raore than fanciful sirailitudes. Certain it is, that nature
is nothing else than God operating in the material plane of ex
istence. And if we could rightly understand her language, she
would read us a lesson which would greatly help our concep
tions of that vast process by which the universe was redeemed
and mankind arc saved.

TO REDEEM AND SAVE MANKIND. A^^
But there is a view of this subject which is raore strictly
theological. The necessity of the Lord's coraing into the world
to save sinners is seen in the necessity which man's fall created
of revealing truth to his senses. This was stated in the third
sermon of this series ; and also in the fifteenth. All that need
be repeated here is, that it was necessary for Jehovah himself
to assume a body and dwell araong us as the divine truth raade
flesh, and in this body to speak to the ears, raanifest a divine
character to the eyes, and irapart divine virtues to the very
bodies of men. Thus raen were approached by divine truth
from without. For divine truth came down from the alpha to
the omega of existence-^from intiraate principles to ultimate
forras — and, through raatter as the last plane, acted upon and
imparted to the lower faculties of raan a healing virtue. This
was the external reraedy which diseased huraan nature needed.
But the health of the universe required an internal remedy
also. For existence is sustained in created beings by a two
fold influx of life into them from the Divine Being, that is an
influx iraraediately from himself, and an influ.x mediately
through angels and spirits. Hence when Jehovah by coming
down to earth had expelled infernal spirits from the bodies of
men, and thus caused the mortified parts of the grand man to
slough off, he at fhe same time caused " Satan to fall as light
ning from heaven;" then leaving the earth, and going up
through the heavens, he healed the vital organs ofthe universal
man, thus restored the equilibrium of its internal parts, and,
hereby restoring the rational free agency of raan upon earth,
opened a way for universal and perraanent salvation.
All that is necessary for raan to be saved is, therefore, to
avail himself of the power which is continually sent down to
enable him fo put off the diseased forms which have been here
ditarily entailed upon him. In the degree that these are put off,
together with the old natural will which produces and excites
thera, and a new spiritual will is forraed by obedience to truth
from the Word, a way is cleared for the Lord's second or spi
ritual advent. The Lord's first advent is by truth externally
into the natural plane, or info the understanding ; and his second

324 WHAT DID JESUS CHRIST COME FOR 1
advent is by good internally into the spiritual plane, or into the
will. In order to be saved, therefore, man must receive truth from
the Word into a ground of vital faith, which is a practical prin
ciple, and, suffering his will to be determined by truth rationally
considered, he raust bring hiraself more and more into a state
of thorough conforraity to it, by exercising his powers as his
own, and yet acknowledging that all his power is of God. For
man's essential nature can never be changed without destroy
ing him as man. He raust, therefore, ever be constituted so as
to act in freedom according to reason. Life flowing into him
must still appear to be in him as his own. And hence, though
God in Christ .Tesus has given raan the power to will and to do
of his good pleasure, by reconciling man's nature to the divine
nature, and so opening a way for the divine influences to reach
him, yet man must use his faculties as though they were his
own, and raust " work out his own salvation with fear and
trembling." He must put forth his energies as a man, and not
wait to be acted upon as a machine. By a power vouchsafed
to him continually to act as of hiraself, he must stretch forth
his withered hand, that the Lord raay, by this very act, flow
into him with fresh life from within and heal hira. This is the
only way that he can be made whole. And thus he must be
saved by obeying, as a rational free agent, the dictates of divine
love and wisdora. He, acting as of himself, yet believing that
power is given to hira bythe Lord, must "wash him, make hira
clean, put away the evil of his doings frora before the eyes of
Jehovah, cease to do evil, learn to do well ; seek judgraent, re
lieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow."
In short, man, acting in freedom according to reason, raust
" repent, and turn from his transgressions, so iniquity may not
be his ruin." He must " cast away frora him all his trans
gressions whereby he has transgressed, and make him a new
heart and a new spirit," whereby he may keep the first and
great commandment, and the second, which is like unto it, on
which hang all the Law and the Prophets, and in keeping which
there is the great reward of the Ufe that now is and that which

TO REDEEM AND SAVE MANKIND. 325
is to come. Yes, " if any raan will enter into life, let him keep
the commandraents." The Great Physician has given this pre
scription — " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind," and
" thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself — " This do, and
live." And although this may be bitter phy.sic, yet it must be
taken. Love of self and the world, which coraes frora hell and leads
to hell, and which is the cause of all diseased action in the
limbs, organs or viscera of the universal man, raust be denied
and put off as a principle of action. Love of God and the
neighbour must become the all-actuating principle. Then man
will corae from under the influence of hell, which is obstructing
the divine influences and mortifying his immortal soul. Then
the arteries of fhe divine life, again ramifying through hira,
wUl cause him to pulsate with heaven, and will impart to hira
its health, its happiness and its " joy unspeakable and full of
glory." And then, though his sins " were as scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow ; though they were red, Uke crimson,
they shall be as wool."
Thus, finally, there can be no doing of good without putting
away evil — no regeneration without reformation — no salvation
without rederaption ; and, consequently, no salvation of man
without his ceasing to do evil. For man is spiritually lost by
sin, which is the derangement and disease of his spiritual frame;
and the only way to save hira is to have all those things which
" work aboraination and make a lie" purged from his spiritual
body "as with hyssop." "The blood is the life:" and that
blood of man's spirit, which is inflamed and vitiated by in
fluences from hell, raust be so altered in its quality as to cor
respond to the divine life flowing from within. The blood of
self-love must be regenerated and become the blood of love to
God. External truth frora the Word (which is signified by
hyssop) raust be taken as raedicine, and the raorbid forras of
man's depraved natural will must be corrected by " the leaves
of the tree of life, which are for the healing of fhe nations."
Nay, that will itself must, as an old man, be put off, and a new
29

326 WHAT DID JESUS CHRIST COME FOR?
will, as a new man, must be put on. Thus sin, which obstructs
man's salvation, must be reraoved by man's repentance unto
reformation, and new life raust be infiised into hira by obedience
to the divine coramandments. This is the way of salvation
prescribed by the True and Good Physician, and they who
prescribe any other way are spiritual quacks.
Oh, then, " Jerusalem wash thy heart from wickedness that
thou mayest be saved"! (Jer. iv. 14.) Trust not to those who
are crying " Peace, peace, when there is no peace" — who, for
fear of disturbing thee on thy death bed, would soothe thee
with flattering representations of thy health, when thou art
dying ! Oh rather listen to the still small voice of the spirit
of truth, which, pointing to the way of reformation by the life
of the comraandments, says, "This is the way, walk ye in it."
And be ye well assured, " If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall
eat the good of the land. But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall
be devoured with the sword : for the raouth of the Lord hath
spoken it" !

SERMON XIX

JOHN, III. 5.

" Jesus answered, 'Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born
of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."
These words suggest two topics of discourse : first, what is
meant by being born of water and the spirit ; and, second, the
impossibility of entering into the kingdom of God without this
birth. Reserving the necessity of a new birth for another discourse,
we shall, in this, first take a view of man's state before regenera
tion, in order that we may see raore distinctiy the nature of that
change which regeneration effects ; and then consider the
raeans by which this change is wrought; which will lead us to
unfold the scriptural meaning of the being born of water and
the spirit.
Paul says that is first which is natural, and afterwards that
which is spiritual. This, as it regards raan, is a universal
truth. In general, then, regeneration is the bringing us frora
a natural into a spiritual state.
But what is radically and distinctively our state by nature ?
It is all-iraportant that we should have right ideas on this point.
For according to our views of this will be our views of religion,
and the change which religion effects. And hence if our views
on this point are erroneous, our religion will be false, and we
shall stop short of that change which is indispensable to our
salvation. It is very generally thought that our state by nature is de
praved. It is admitted that we are fallen creatures ; that we
are prone to evil and this continually ; that " the whole head is

328 TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH.
sick, and the whole heart faint;" that "the heart is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked ; but, in the minds of
most people, the conception of this scriptural truth amounts fo
nothing raore than a general and vague impression that we are
evil, without distinctly knowing in what this evil consists. It
is true we can discern that we are by nature inclined to anger,
hatred, malice, revenge, cruelty, unkindness, and raany other
evil feelings; and that we are continuaUy prone to give vent to
these feelings, and to adopt and maintain those false maxims
which justify or paUiate their indulgence. But these evil feel
ings, maxims and acts are only effects of a cause, with which
raany seem not to be acquainted. And as these effects may
be restrained and modified by even the cause from which they
proceed ; hence raany people rest satisfied with an alteration of
the effects, without an alteration or reraoval of the cause. The
cause is in the ruling love, and the effects are in fhe affections
and thoughts, or the motives and maxims, which proceed frora
this love and determine themselves in act.
Man's ruling love forms his life ; and the destruction of the
life is the destruction of the love itself. Hence, when the pas
sions and principles which proceed from the love, would, in
their unrestrained indulgence, destroy its life, the love prevents
them from coraing into act, and assuraes an orderly and decent
exterior, in order to prevent its own destruction. For exaraple :
suppose a man is governed by a covetous love, which prompts
ta the aggrandizing oneself at fhe expense of others. If this
love met with no restraints, it would urge him to take, without
leave, and even with violence, whatever he wanted. He would
overreach his neighbour whenever he could : and when he
could not do this, he would rob and plunder him without mercy.
But the general consequences of such conduct as this would de
stroy society ; and hence men have agreed together to enact
laws, with penalties annexed, by which the aggressions of any
one upon the others are restrained. And now any one who
should indulge the direct inclinations pf such a love, would not
only incur the penalty of the law, but also the loss of reputa
tion, and of gain, which would defeat the attainment of his

TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH. 329
objects. In order to attain its ends, therefore, this love
prompts him to avoid an open course of villainy, and to assume
the character and conduct of an honest man : and when, by
this means, he has gained fhe confidence of his neighbours, it
prompts him, under fhe garb of fair pretences, to cheat them,
whenever be can do so without detection. Thus his love re
strains its own passions and principles, and assumes a fair
exterior, that it may attain its ends, and continue in the enjoy
ment of its delights. So in the case of any other predominating
love. It is in this way that people may undergo an exterior reli
gious change, while the love from which their previous course
of conduct proceeded, is unrenioved.
Now, as the love is the cause of all that proceeds frora it,
and constitutes the life of raan, the love is the essential man.
Hence whatever is the quality of his love, that is his quality.
In order, therefore, to ascertain what is radically and distinc
tively man's state by nature, we must ascertain what is the all-
prevailing or general love by which he is naturally actuated.
In other words, what is the love into which man is born?
Is not man's natural love the love of self? Is not the
gratification of oneself, or a regard to one's own interest, the
ruling end of life with the natural man? This is a question
for our own consciousness to decide. Experience and observa
tion can better determine the matter than argument. It is a
matter of fact ; and all matters of fact must be ascertained, not
by reasoning, but by observation and experience. For al!
science is founded upon matters of fact, or the knowledges of
truth ; frora which knowledges we, by reasoning, deduce the
general and doctrinal principles of the science. And this,
therefore, must be the mode of proceeding in the science of
theology. In the present case, therefore, we must ascertain
the matter of fact. Appealing, then, to observation and expe
rience, I ask is it not the character of the mere natural raan,
from the cradle to the grave, to love himself above all things?
Do not all things with him begin and end in self? Does he not
love fhe world — does he not seek money and wealth, for the sake
29*

330 TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH.
of self-gratification ? Does he not seek office, and every kind
of honour and distinction merely for fhe sake of self? Your
experience and observation differ very widely from mine, if they
do not bear me out in the assertion that it is the radical charac
teristic of the raere natural raan to love hiraself above all things,
and the world for the sake of himself. The love of self, then, is
the general and all-predominating love in the natural mind.
This is the progenitor of every ruling natural passion. From
this, for instance, proceeds covetousness. For we first set about
acquiring property on account of the power, influence and re
spectability which it gives to self; and we become insatiable in
this acquisition, because the more property we have, the more
consequence or gratification we imagine it gives to self. In the
same way it raay be seen that from the love of self proceeds
ambition. For ambition is another terra for the desire of rule
and domination, which are the subjection of others to self.
And the root of such desire manifestly can only be a supreme
regard to self, which is self-love. And so of every other
ruling passion ofthe natural raind. Frora this, too, arise envy,
hatred, anger, malice, revenge, and ill will of every kind; and
from these aggression, war, murder, bloodshed, rapine and every
species of violence. For it is the nature of self-love to desire
to bring all things into subjection to itself; since, in fhe degree
that they are in subjection to it, they minister to its gratification:
and whatsoever re.sists it, and thus does not minister to its grati
fication, this it hates and endeavours to force into its measures,
or fo destroy. But as self-love predominates in all, it hence
produces in each the sarae desire of a subjection of all the rest
to itself; and, consequentiy, there must be in every forra of
self a tendency to resist the efforts of any other forra of self to
bring it into subjection, and thus there must be, in the nature
of things, that opposition, resistance and confliction which
result in the above named, and all other, evil passions, and
their bad consequences.
Thus self-love is the source of all evil. And it is because
man is born with this disposition to love himself supremely,
that he is said to be born in evil. It is because aU his thoughts

TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH. 331
and affections, all his principles of action, and rules for fhe re
gulation of his conduct flow from the love of self, and because
all the ends which he proposes to himself in doing what is good
and refraining frora what is evil, have respect solely to self,
that it is said his " whole head is sick and his whole heart is
faint." This, then, is raan's natural state. And this, therefore,
is the state out of which he is to be brought by regeneration.
Let us now see how this is effected. The text inforras us
that we must be born of water and the spirit. What, then, are
we to understand by being born of water and of the spirit 1
In the passage before us, water signifies truth ; or it signifies
those doctrinal precepts frora the Word of God by which our
rainds are informed in relation to the being of a God, to a fu
ture state of existence, to our own fallen nature in the present
state, and to the way of salvation. And when we hear, under
stand and embrace these doctrinal truths, so as to renounce the
false and evil principles, or the selfish and worldly raotives and
maxims, by which we are actuated in our natural state, a
change takes place in the quality and character of our minds,
which is the being born of water.
We will not now detain you by proving at length from the
Word that the spiritual signification of water is truth. It will
be sufficient to show this is the Lord's meaning in the text.
There can be no doubt that these words of the Lord have a
spiritual signification : for he elsewhere says, (John, vi. 63,)
" The words that I speak unto you, are spirit and are Ufe."
This is true of all his words ; consequently ofthe words ofthe
text. Therefore, water in the text raeans spiritual water.
And hence there can be no question that the Lord, by the birth
of water, means spiritual cleansing ; which is a removal of what
is evil and false frora the mind. Hence he says, in Isaiah, i. 16,
" Wash ye, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings
from before mine eyes, cease to do evil." And in Jeremiah,
iv. 14, "O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that
thou mayest be saved : how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge
within thee ?" Here salvation is the effect of washing the heart

332 TRUE NATURE OP THE NEW BIRTH.
from wickedness, and removing vain thoughts from fhe mind.
And salvation and being born again are one and fhe same.
Thus it is evident that by being born of water the Lord
means the spiritual process of removing from fhe mind what is
evil and false, and not a submission to the mere ceremonial rite
of baptism, or a mere exercise of faith in his merits, or a mere
feeling of confidence in his mercy. Such things may be ex
perienced, and should be attended to, but they are of no avail
without the weightier matters of self-renunciation, and fhe de
parting from all iniquity. The cleansing to which the Lord
refers is a washing from the uncleanness of our spirit, a wash
ing frora our sins. Hence the devout Ananias said to Saul,
" And now why tarriest thou ? arise, and be baptized, and wash
away thy sins." (Acts, xxu. 16.) And Paul himself says,
(Titus, iii. 5,) " he saved us by the washing of regeneration."
And James says, (iv. 8,) " Cleanse your hands, ye sinners ;
and purify your hearts, ye double-minded." And John, (i. 9,)
" If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Thus, then, there can be no question that the being born of
water means spiritual cleansing. The only question can be^
how this cleansing is effected. We maintain that it is effected
by instructions frora the Word ; and hence that the Lord means,
by the being born of water, that change which is wrought in
the state of the raind by the reception and practical acknow
ledgment of his doctrinal precepts.
That the Lord's Word is the instrument of our spiritual
cleansing, is evident frora what he says, (John, xv. 7,) " Now
ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you :"
and (xvii. 17,) " Sanctify thera through thy truth, thy word
is truth." Here you see sanctification, which is evidently
spiritual cleansing, is effected by truth from the Word : that is,
we are made clean by what the Lord teaches in his Word : thus
we are made clean by his doctrinal precepts.
This is confirmed by Paul in Ephesians, v;. 26, where he
says, " Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he
might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water bythe

TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH. 333
Word." Now with those who allow Paul's authority, this
should settie the matter. What is true ofthe church is true of
the individuals that compose it. If the church, then, is cleansed
with the washing of water by the Word, so are individuals.
Hence, according to Paul, we are cleansed with the washing of
water by the Word. This shows us, moreover, the meaning
of water in the text, namely, truth from the Word. And also
shows us how we are born of this water, namely, by the being
cleansed from our evil and false principles with the washing of
this truth, that is, by that change which is wrought in the
quality of our rainds by the reception and practical acknow
ledgraent of this truth. But how can this truth be received,
and a change be effected by it, unless by gradual and long-con
tinued instructions frora the Word ? The being born of water,
then, is that change which takes place in the character of our
spirit, that is, of our tvill and our understanding, by the recep
tion and practical adoption of regular instructions from the
Word of God. Consequently, regeneration by water does not
consist in a cereraonial ablution with consecrated material
water ; nor in an intellectual assent to a creed or confession of
faith; nor in any instantaneous emotion of the heart or ebuUi-
tion of animal feeling.
We are now, in the second place, to determine what is meant
by being born of the spirit. Having so fully shown, in the
second and fourth sermons of this series, what is raeant in the
Sacred Scriptures by this term, we need only say here, that
whatever proceeds frora raan's love, or the inraost principles of
his Ufe, is called his spirit. Hence, the life of a man is his
spirit ; because the life proceeds from, and outwardly manifests,
his love. Literally, then, by being born of the spirit, is meant
being born of the life. And we are born of the life when the
inmost principles which actuate us are brought into our life ;
that is, are manifested in our conduct. Taking, therefore, the
term spirit in its present connection ; that is, in connection with
the term water ; the being born of the spirit means a change
in our life and conversation corresponding to the interior change
which has taken place in our maxims and motives.

334 TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BlIirH..
Since, then, wafer signifies truths from fhe Word, spirit sig
nifies a life according to these truths. And hence the being
born of water and the spirit signifies regeneration by truths from
the Word, and by a Ufe according to them-.
To sura up all in a few words, the truths of God's word are first
received into man's understanding : that is, man acquires the
knowledge of truths by reading the Word, and by Kstening to
preachings from the Word. And by faith in these truths, he men
tally adopts them as principles of action. When these truths are
thus known, understood and adopted, they produce a change in
the intellectual form of the raind, by removing the false and
evil principles which previously predominated there : and this
change is the being born of water. Afterwards, when these
truths, as convictions of raan's understanding, act upon his
will, and remove from his conduct all false and evil practices,
there results a change in the forra of his love and consequent
Ufe : and this change is the being born of the spirit.
But there is a more specific meaning to this text. Water, in
the Word, signifies natural truth, (see Sermon 11, p. 43,) and the
spirit signifies spiritual truth. Natural truth, is truth as appre
hended by the senses, and by the mind's mere natural faculties.
And as fhe Word in the letter is written according to the ap
pearances of things in the natural raind, hence water signifies
truth in the mere letter of the Word: and, therefore, to be born
of water denotes the having our lives determined and regulated
by truth drawn from the Word in only its literal or natural
sense. But as the spirit signifies the spiritual sense of the
Word, hence, to be born of the spirit denotes the having our
lives determined and regulated by the truths of the Word in its
spiritual sense.
To raeet the states of all minds, we raay now raore plainly
illustrate the subject before us, by attending somewhat more
specifically to the huraan constitution.
There are two parts in man, an internal and an external.
The internal consists of the love, with fhe secret purposes, in
tentions and thoughts which flow frora it. In this internal
reside all raan's ends of action — the principles which goveris

TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH. 33,5
him, and determine him to any course of conduct. Man is
conscious of this internal when he is in secret, and thinks with
hiraself. The external of man consists of his actions, and the
thoughts and affections which are in immediate connection with
and produce his actions. It consists of his external memory,
and all those raaxiras, sayings and matters of fact which he
learns from persons and things around hira, and which he talks
of, and acts out, in the presence of tho^e with whom he has
intercourse. That man has this external distinct from his
internal, any one may know by reflecting that a person
may talk and act one way with another, while he thinks and
feels directly opposite in his heart : as is the case with hypo
crites and dissemblers. Thus a man may profess to be your
friend, and treat you with every kindness, while he has secret
designs of defrauding and injuring you. The spy, when he
goes to discover the strength and position of a hostile army,
acts the deserter by virtue of his external, while with his inter
nal he raakes the requisite observations of the eneray's posts.
These examples are given that you may see distinctly that
there are an external and an internal in man, and that you
may have a clear idea of the manner in which they are
distinct. Now the external is determined and governed by the internal.
And hence the character of the external is altogether such as
is the quality of the internal. Thus though the external be
ever so fair and honest to appearance, it is really bad, when
the internal from which it proceeds is bad. Though a person
be in the highest degree moral in his conduct, honest and up
right in his dealings, kind and obliging in his deportment, or
polite and elegant in his manners, he is no more a good man,
if his secret purposes are evil, than brass is gold because it re
sembles it in its external form. Hence the internal is the real
man. And when the internal is changed, the whole man is
changed. Any alteration, which takes place in the external,
that does not proceed from a radical change of the internal, is
no change of the man. He only puts on a new coat. It is the
same man in another dress. But when the internal is changed.

330 TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH.
the external, proceeding as it does from it, must be changed of
course ; and thus the whole man is changed. This is the rea
son that the Lord comraanded the Jews to cleanse the inside
of the cup and platter that the outside raight be clean also.
(Matt, xxiii. 26.)
Now the inside is cleansed by the reception of truth into the
love, or into the secret purposes, intentions and thoughts which
flow from it — which is effected, in the first place, by knowing,
understanding and practising the doctrinal precepts of the Lord
in the letter of the Word. So far as man practises the truths of
the Word in its letter, his internal mind is opened. For the
Lord's precepts in the letter, when practised, cause the sub
sidence of natural loves; and then the Lord can flow in with
spiritual loves — such as the love of truth, and the love of good
for their own sakes : and- when these loves are active, the
spiritual mind is opened, and receives light from heaven, so as
to see truth cf a spiritual degree in the Word, shining in its
letter like glory in a translucent cloud. And then from the
love ofthe good to which truth leads, the spiritual truths ofthe
Word are brought into ultimate life. First natural truth from
fhe Word is received into raan's inner thought, conviction, ac
knowledgraent and intention. But frora thence it raust descend,
so as to alter correspondently the external character. It is neces
sary that change of intention should produce change of conduct.
It is necessary that knowledge of duty should become perform
ance of duty. It is necessary that man should remove from his
life and conversation whatever truth in his understanding points
out therein as wrong : and from the ivill of good in his internal
should do good in his external. For goodness and truth, or
charity and fahh, are ideal and evanescent until they are de
termined to act or brought into works. But when charity and
faith are in works, then they are full and complete ; and the
man is every whit whole. Thus the internal is regenerated
first, and by it the external. When truth from the letter of the
Word is thus received in the internal and brought forth into the
external, then man is born of water. This birth of water opens
the internal mind to perceive the Word in its spiritual sense.

TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH. 337
Then the truths of this sense, having become acknowledged in
the will, descend through a clear rational intellection of them
into ultiraate life ; and thus raan is born of the spirit.
This reforraation of the external by the principles of good
ness and truth, or charity and faith, in the internal, is repre
sented by the Lord's washing his disciples' feet. For the Lord
is the Word. And therefore he is in the principles of goodness
and truth from the Word. When, then, these principles, re
ceived into the internal of man, change that internal, and lead
hira to regulate his outward conduct by thera, his external, to
which his feet correspond, is cleansed by principles proceeding
frora the Lord. And thus it is that the Lord is said to cleanse
or wash his feet. And as the cleansing ofthe external implies,
because it is the effect of, the previous purification of the inter
nal, and thus the entire man is clean when the external is
clean, hence the Lord said to Simon Peter, "He that is washed,
needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit."
(John, xiii. 10.)
When man, from the love of what is good and true in his
internal, does what is good and true in his external, and thus
every part of him becomes conformed to goodness and truth as
contained in both the letter and the spirit of the Word, he is
born of water and the spirit, and his regeneration is complete.
It is said, when man, does all this ; but it is to be understood
that he does it from the Lord's operation in and by hira. For
the Lord fights for him in temptation, overcoraes the powers of
hell which infuse into him evil love.s — thus removes frora hira
evil loves, and flows into his internal with that love of goodness
and truth, which is the cause of all his virtuous activity.
Thus the Lord washes " not his feet only, but also his hands
and his head." (John, xiii. 9.)
Now frora what has been advanced it conclusively follows,
that the love of raan is really the man himself. Hence, unless
his love is altered, he reraains essentially unchanged. Conse
quently, the new birth truly consists in the changing of man's
love. And as regeneration is bringing hira out of a natural
into a spiritual state, it is the bringing him out of a natural into
30

338 TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH,
a spiritual love. The love into which man is born is, as we
have seen, the love of self and the world. This, therefore, is
the natural love out of which man is to be brought by regene
ration. And man must be born again of water and the spirit :
that is, by the truths of God's Word and a life according to them.
But all of the Law and the Prophets — thus the whole Word —
hangs upon one precept, " thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind ; and
thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." The love of God
and our neighbour, then, is the fulfilling ofthe whole law; and
is, therefore, the sum and substance of religion. This is the true
spiritual love into which man must be brought by regeneration.
Hence, the true new birth is that spiritual process by which man
is brought out of the love of self into the love of God, and from
the love of the world into the love of his neighbour. And fhe
way to have this effected, is for him, as of hiraself, yet looking
to the Lord, to "cease to do evil, and learn to do well." For
then, though " his sins were as scarlet, they becorae white as
snow, though they were red like crimson, they becorae as wool."
Thus the all-iraportant work which man has to do, is to " deny
himself, take up his cross daily, and follow the Lord in the
regeneration." Any change of character short of entire self-
renunciation, will be of no avail; and any hope of heaven other
than that which consists in the delights of the Ufe of supreme
love to God and the neighbour, or the delight of doing what is
good and true for its own sake — is delusion.
John says, " Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin."
Some may interpret this to mean, that when a man has fhe
righteousness of Christ imputed fo hira by faith, whatever he
may do is not considered as sin. But this passage really means
that he who is born of God renounces sin. In other words, it
means that fhe first stage of the process by which he is born
of God is the renunciation of sin, or repentance ; which is ne
cessary as a preparatory step, and leads to a subsequent actual
conforraity to the Lord's coramandments. And as if for the
very purpose of gainsaying the false doctrines which might be
deduced frora the forra of this clause, John afterwards varies

TRUE NATURE OF THE N,EW niRTlI. odif
the mode of expression, and says, " whosoever doth not
righteousness is not of God." You will observe that in the pre
vious clause he had said, negatively, he that is born of God
doth not commit sin. Here he says, affirmatively, he Ma* doth
not do righteousness is not of God : thus showing conclusively
that the new birth of man consists, not in the imputation to him of
a righteousness wrought out for hira by another, but in his ac
tually doing righteousness hiraself — that it does not consist
raerely in a pardon of his sins, and the not considering his
conduct sinful because he believes and trusts in the merits of
another who has raade an infinite atoneraent for those sins, but
in his actually ceasing to commit sin hiraself.
By these two passages John also shows, that regeneration is
not only a negative desisting from sin, but also a positive doing
of good — that it consists not only in ceasing to do evil, but also
in learning to do weU. Thus you see John supports our posi
tion that man is born again by coraing out of self-love, which
he does by renouncing fhe evils that flow from self-love ; and
by coming into the love of God, v/hich he does by keeping tho
comraandments of God.
John also shows that we are born again by coming into
brotherly love ; which raakes one with love to God ; for it is
the manifestation of love to God by doing good to one another.
Hence he says, " Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of
God — neither he that loveth not his brother." And again,
" whosoever doth not righteousness, is not of God ;" — " whoso
ever hateth his brother is a murderer : and ye know that no
murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive
we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us : and
we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." Now all of
us cannot lay down our bodily lives for the brethren. In what
sense then can we lay down our lives for them, if it is not by
renouncing our selfish and worldly feelings and principles of
action, which are distinctively our lives, and acting towards
them in all things from a principle of justice and judgment,
from a regard to what is good and true in itself considered,
without any design of making them subservient to our selfish

340 TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH.
or worldly purposes, and thus from the pure love of God, or
the Lord's life, shed abroad in our hearts? For again he says,
" But whoso hath thisworld's good, and seeth his brother have
need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how
dwelleth the love of God in him? My littie children let us
not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth" —
"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and
every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He
that loveth not, knoweth not God ; for God is love." Now it is
manifest that the love of God, that is the love which belongs to
God — which is in God or which is God, and which is of God
in us, is not a raatter of feeling, but a desire and effort to do
good. Hence by this love John did not mean a mere animal
feeling — a mere leaping of our bodily heart — an enthusiastic
and violent emotion of the mind accompanied by some vehe
ment gesture of the body, but a cool, deliberate principle of action
— a full and fixed purpose of the mind — a persevering intention
of the will, to do good to our fellow-men ; which leads us to
act towards thera in all circurastances according to the dictates of
an understanding enlightened by the truths of God's Word.
For he expressly says, "this is the love of God, that we keep
his comraandraents." Here he evidently shows that the love
to which he alludes, is a principle of action, a matter of life,
a steady, unwavering and long-continued course of conduct ;
and not a sudden emotion of the heart, or an instantaneous
change of feeling. There raay be, and we have no doubt there
often is, a sudden change of feeling, which leads ultimately to
this permanent change of purpose and actual conformity fo
God's comraandraents; but this raatter of feeling is not what
John means by the love of God. It is evidently, as we have
said, a settled purpose, of the soul, which leads man to desist
from whatever God's coramandments say we shall not do, and
to do whatever God's comraandraents say we shall do; It is
that love which Paul calls fhe fulfilUng of the law. " Owe no
man any thing," says he, " but to love one another : for he that
loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this. Thou shalt not
commit adultery. Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal. Thou

TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH. 341
shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet : and if there
be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this
saying, namely. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour : therefore, love is the
fulfilling of the law."
Thus, then, the new birth is that spiritual change in which
we renounce all the evils of self-love, and continually act from
a principle of love to God and our neighbour. It is a change
of the love and the life ; and if we rest in any other change
than this, we shall stop short of heaven.
Any, therefore, who have experienced merely an external
change of character — who have conformed, and are conform
ing with ever so much exactness, to the rites and ceremonies of
the church, or are yielding assent to the most perfect forms of
faith, while they are stiU selfish in their hearts and principles
of conduct, are really not born again. And while they are
confiding in a vicarious sacrifice and an imputed righteousness,
wrought out of and independently of them, without that per
sonal holiness which results from the sacrifice of self with all
its evil loves and practices, and a faithful conformity to God's
commandments, they are trusting to a broken reed, and are
" crying peace, peace, when there is no peace !"
How many people, in the present day, make religion to con
sist solely in going to meeting, praying, singing, or certain en
thusiastic acts of devotion, without any strict regard to the
motives and principles of action which govern them in their
daily walks of life. Yet how futile is such a religion ! From
what has been now shown, it is clear that a man's natural loves
or ends of life may remain all unchanged, while his external
character is completely altered. Hence the religion which con
sists merely in such an external alteration of character is likely
to be very extensively embraced by natural men, who Uke to
be lulled with the hope of getting to heaven without the renun
ciation of selfish and worldly principles.
Men are very apt to believe what they love. Hence it is
that " the generality of people at this day believe they shall
get to heaven solely by attending churches, and by adorations
30*

342 TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH.
and prayers:" for all this is compatible with unchanged na
tural loves. Attendance at church, and a due regard for the
proper ceremonials of religious worship, are highand iraportant
duties, which, by all means, should be attended to in their sea
son. But they do not raake up the whole of religion. Nay,
they may be scrupulously attended to with an utter destitution
of aU true religion. All true reUgion has relation to life. Life
according to the doctrines of a true faith, or the life of charity
— in which a raan acts invariably frora justice and judgment
in the various duties of comraon life — is the essential worship
of God. The several acts of religious veneration before raen-
fioned, constitute the life of piety, in contradistinction to this
life of charity, and are formal worship, which is of no avail to
salvation unless essential worship be in it. Hence it is evident
that such Christians as imagine that they are going to be saved
by a mere confession of faith, by worshiping God in temples,
by partaking of the sacraments of the church, or by any or all
of the acts of a raerely pious life, are deluded. For is it not
perfectly clear, frora what has been shown, " that such of them
as have no concern about the knowledges of truth and good
frora the Word, and who neglect to irabue not only the raemory,
but also the life therewith; remain natural as before? They
certainly do not become spiritual, inasmuch as their external
professions and religious acts do not proceed frora their spirits,
thus, from a spiritual origin : for their spiritual mind is not
forraed by the knowledge and love of spiritual things, and by
a life according to thera, but is void of any internal principles
of goodness and truth ; and worship which proceeds from a
mind thus void, is only a natural gesture, entirely destitute of
spirituality. If such persons, as to moral and civil life, are
insincere and unjust, then their worship, adorations and pray
ers have inwardly such a quality as repels heaven from them,
instead of bringing them into heaven as they suppose. For
their worship is like a garment enveloping a diseased body, or
a 'whited sepulchre, which indeed appears beautiful outwardly,
but within is full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.'
" Very different is it, however, with the holy worship, the

TRUE NATURE OF THE NEW BIRTH. 343
adorations and prayers of those who are in the knowledge of
truth and good, and in a life according to it. With such per
sons those things are pleasing to the Lord ; for they are the
effect of their spirit in their body, or the effect of their faith
and love ; and thus are not only natural gestures, but spiritual
acts." (Ap. Ex. 126.)
Let us, then,. guard against delusion in this raatter. Let us
deeply and soleranly reflect, that however exact we may be in
our religious observances, however fervent in our prayers, how
ever enthusiastic in our feelings, and however vehement in our
devotional gestures ; we have not a spark of true religion while
we are governed by self-love and love of the world in our daily
walk and conversation. Oh let us not raistake passion for
principle ! — mere natural feeling for true spiritual-mindedness 1
With the Word of God, spiritually understood, as the man of
our counsel and the guide of our life, let us, as we hope for
salvation, renounce self and the world ; and perform faithfully
all our individual and relative duties — as well as our pecuUar
religious exercises — frora a supreme regard to the glory of our
God in the good of our fellow-men ! Let this be the all-actuat
ing and all-governing principle of our souls ; and the life that
flows frora this, our religion I " If any man will enter into life,
let hira keep the comraandraents."

SERMON XX.
JOHN, UI. 7.
" Ye must be born again."
In the last discourse we considered the true nature of the
new birth. The present text will lead us to consider its neces
sity. Two principal topics of discourse are suggested by the
manner in which fhe emphasis is laid in reading this sentence.
Ye must be born again, suggests the necessity ofthe new birth ;
and ye must be born again, would lead us to reflect upon the
gradual and progressive nature of that change. These two
topics we intend to make the principal heads of discussion in
this sermon.
But before we proceed to this discussion, we will premise,
that by laying the emphasis on the last word of our text, we
bring into relief the source from whence the new birth is ef
fected. The original word which our english version renders
again in this clause, is avu6ev. This greek word does sorae-
tiraes signify again, but it raost commonly means from above.
The word again so far as it implies the spirituality of the new
birth, involves the same idea ; because the spirituality of the
second birth consists in its coming from above ; for the natural
man, or the natural plane of the mind, is quickened, thus made
alive, by influx from the Lord through fhe spiritual plane,
which is above or within the natural plane. Therefore we say,
so far as the english word again implies the spirituality of the
new birth, it involves the idea of from above : but as again, in
the english idiom, implies repetition simply, it does not ade
quately express the sense of the original word 'aiuht. This is
the same word which is rendered from above in the thirty-first

SOURCE OP THE NEW BIRTH. 345
verse, " He that cometh from above, is above all:" and it is
evidently proper to give the same rendering to this word in our
text. Hence if we read. Ye must be born from above — we
have it indicated, that the true new birth comes from the Lord,
because he " coraeth frora above, and is above aU."
It is not, then, by any raerit in ourselves — by any truth
which we can devise, or by any good which we can of our
selves do — that we can be regenerated. Neither self-derived
learning, refineraent, raorality or elegance of manners — neither
our araiableness of disposition, nor any or all of our merely
natural good qualities, can avail to our salvation : for " not by
works of righteousness which we have done, but by the washing
of regeneration and renewing of the holy spirit, doth God our
Saviour save us." "All flesh is grass; the goodliness thereof
is as the flower of the field : the grass withereth, the flower
fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord bloweth on it : surely the
people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth : but
the Word of our God will stand for ever." (Isa. xl. 6, 8.) The
truths of the Word, received in faith and practised with an end
to God and the neighbour, will alone produce that change in us
which will fit us for, and bring us into, heaven. We must
thus be horn from above. We must go to the Lord Jesus that
we raay have Ufe. " For no man hath ascended up to heaven
but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man,
which is in heaven." Hence, if we go to heaven we raust be
carried thither by hira who came down from thence. He
" being formed in us," raust renew our rainds, and transform
our vile bodies into the fashion of his glorious body, so as to
elevate our spirits from a carnal to a spiritual quality, and from
an earthly to a heavenly state.
" That which is born ofthe flesh, is flesh; and that which is
born of the spirit, is spirit." All that comes from self, goes to
self — " dust to dust ; but the spirit to God who gave it." That
only can go to God which comes from him. " The things of
God knoweth no man, but the spirit of God :" but they who
" have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit of
God," are able to " know the things that are freely given to us

340 sour.cE of the new birth.
of God." Hence, if we ever go to God, or to heaven, we must
be carried thither by that which comes down from thence,
namely, the spirit of God, which the Lord .Tesus sends to us in
his father's name.
That we raay be the subjects of spiritual Ufe, our actions
raust spring frora an ultiraate end to God and our neighbour ;
for this alone is the true spiritual principle of action. This is
that law of love which worketh no ill to the neighbour ; and in
the keeping of which law, or in the godliness that results from
the keeping of if, there is the " promise of the life that now is,
and of that which is to come." But who is of himself sufficient
unto this ? No one can of himself live fhe life of so pure a love.
The Lord expressly says " without me ye can do nothing."
And the apostle declares, " I can do all things through Christ
who strengtheneth me." Hence our power to live the Ufe of
love to God comes only frora Christ our Lord and Master.
The flesh is fhe natural raan — fhe ends, the motives and the
reasonings of the natural mind. It is that mind which a man
receives by birth and education in this world. In its utmost
perfection it is but love of self and love of the world enlightened
and refined by the light of nature : and, in a distinctive refer
ence to the church, it is the religious character as forraed by a
natural interpretation of the mere letter of the Word, without
any spiritual sense within it. It is that natural man which
Paul says " receiveth not the things of the spirit of God," and
which " cannot know thera, because they are spiritually dis
cerned." Hence, that which proceeds from the natural mind
is still natural: consequently, the religion which a man pro
fesses, and to the requisitions of which he renders the most
rigid external conformity, is still a natural religion while the
man's ends of life are natural. However spiritual the religion
may be in itself, or in its divine source, it is notwithstanding
natural in such a man. That which is born ofthe flesh, is still
flesh, and nothing but flesh. It is irapossible for a natural af
fection to generate a spiritual affection, or for a natural thought
to generate a spiritual thought: for oZZ that is born ofthe flesh
is flesh. Spiritual thoughts and affections can proceed only

NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH. 347
from that which is spiritual : for that only " which is born of
the spirit, is spirit ;" and " the spirit is truth ;" and the Lord
is " the way, the truth, and the life." Therefore, spiritual
thoughts and affections can proceed from the Lord alone.
And, consequently, if we are ever born of the spirit, it must be
from the Lord — thus from above.
Having seen the source from whence the new birth springs,
we raay now proceed to discuss the especial topics of this dis
course. And first as to the necessity ofthe new birth.
"Except a raan be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God." The Lord Jesus says, (John, xviii. 36,) " My king
dom is not of this world." And it is said of him by John, (i.
10,) " He was in the world, and the world was made by him,
and the world knew hira not." Again Jesus says, (John, vii.
7,) " The world cannot hate you, but me it hateth, because 1
testify of it, that the works thereof are evil." And (xv. 18,
19,) " If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before
it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love
his own : but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen
you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." And,
(xvii. 16,) speaking still of his disciples, he says, " They are
not of the world, even as 1 am not ofthe world."
From these passages it is clear that there is a contrariety
between man, in his natural state, and the Lord. For by the
world in these passages is evidentiy raeant the mass of men in
their natural state, who, while in that state, are actuated by a
regard to the world — its wealth, its power, its honour and its
glory. And by the kingdom of the Lord is meant his church
on earth and in the heavens. His kingdom is a spiritual king
dom ; a kingdora which rules in and over the spirits of raen —
which forras their understandings and creates their wills — cor
rects their thoughts and purifies their affections. His kingdora
is the dominion of spiritual truth, and the righteousness which
results from the love and practice of that truth. And it is be
cause the world is actuated by principles contrary to spiritual
truth and righteousness, that it hates the Lord.
Like loves like — the world loves its own. Opposites hate and

348 NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH.
shun each other. The Lord's kingdom is not of this world J
therefore this world hates it. The Lord " desires truth in the
inward parts," (Ps. li. 6 ;) but the inward parts ofthe mere na
tural man " are very wickedness." (Ps. v. 9.) The Psalmist
says of the Lord, " thou are not a God that hath pleasure in
wickedness; neither shall evil dwell with thee,' (Ps. v. 4;)
and the Prbphet, (Hab. i. 13,) " Thou art of purer eyes than to
behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity :" but " God saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually," (Gen. vi. 5 :) and " the Lord looked down from
heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that
did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they
are altogether become filthy; there is none that doth good, no
not one." (Ps. xiv. 2, 3.) Not that men are not " clean in their
own eyes," and " wise in their own conceits ;" but their " righ
teousness is as filthy rags," and their " wisdom is foolishness
with God." " The thoughts of God are not our thoughts, nor
his ways our ways." " All we, like sheep, have gone astray ;
we have turned every one to his own way." (Isa. Iiii. 6.) And
now, when the truth coraes and points out our state, we will
not corae to the light lest our deeds should be reproved — we
hate the light, because our deeds are not wrought in God.
" This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world ;
but men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds
are evil."
Thus, by nature, we are in a state of contrariety to God.
We are in a state of rebellion against hira. Hence Paul says,
" fhe carnal raind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to
the law of God, neither indeed can be." (Rom. viii. 7.) And
James says, (iv. 4,) "the friendship of the world is enmity
with God — whosoever, therefore, will be a friend of the world,
is the enemy of God." While, then, we are in the world, that
is, while we are in and governed by the principles which
govern the world — thus, while we are in our natural state, we
are the enemies of God — our minds are not subject to the law
of God, and cannot be. How clear is it, then, that, if we ever

NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH. 349
become the friends of God, if we are ever made fhe happy sub
jects of his kingdom, we must undergo a change. A new birth,
therefore, is necessary.
The ground and reason of the necessity of a new birth are,
that heaven is spiritual, and man is born natural. " God is a
spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit
and in truth." (John, iv. 24.) Now it is manifest that heaven
is where God is. As, then, God is a spirit, and they that wor
ship him, worship hira in spirit, it is evident that they who are
in heaven are in a spiritual state — thus that heaven is spiritual.
And that man is not born spiritual every one knows and can
not but admit. " It is written. The first man Adam was made
a living soul, the last Adam was raade a quickening spirit.
Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is
natural ; and afterwards that which is spiritual. The first man
is of the earth, earthy ; the second man is the Lord frora hea
ven." (1 Cor. XV. 45 — 47.) Hence, in order that raan may
corae into heaven, he must from natural become spiritual.
In order to see the necessity of a new birth on the ground
and reason here stated, we have need to know, and reflect upon,
the nature of degrees. For "the knowledge of degrees is as a
key to open the causes of things and to enter into thera. The
interior things which lie hid in both the natural and the spiritual
worlds can by no raeans be disclosed, unless degrees be known.
Hence without this knowledge nothing can be known concern
ing the state of men as to reforraation and regeneration. All
and each of the things which exist in the spiritual and the na
tural worlds co-exist from discrete degrees and at the same
time from continuous degrees. Continuous degrees are decre
ments from coarser to finer, or frora denser to rarer ; or rather
are increments frora finer to coarser, or from rarer fo denser,
just as of Ught to shade, of heat to cold, of hard to soft, or of
thick to thin. But discrete degrees are entirely different, they
are as things prior, posterior and postreme ; and as end, cause
and effect. These degrees are called discrete, because the
prior is by itself, the posterior by itself, and the postrerae by it
self; but still, taken together, they make one. There are
31

350 NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH.
atmospheres, from the highest fo the lowest, or from the sun lo
the earth, which are called ethers and airs, discreted into such
degrees ; and there are as it were simples, congregated from
them, and again congregated from these, which taken together
are called a compound. These degrees are discrete, because
they exist distinctly, and are understood by degrees of altitude ;
but the former degrees are continuous, because they contain
ratios of more or less, or less or raore, of the same things, and
are understood by degrees of latitude." " It is known by ocular
experience, that each muscle in the huraan body consists of the
sraallest fibres, and that these, being disposed in fascicles, make
up the larger fibres, which are called moving ones ; and that
from bundles of these exists the compound, which is caOed the
muscle. It is similar with the nerves :. in these, from the
smallest fibres are compacted larger ones, which appear as fila
ments, and from these collected the nerve is compacted. It is
similar in all and every thing of the vegetable and mineral king
doms : in woods there are compactions of filaments in a triple
order ; in metals and stones there are conglobations of the
parts also in a triple order. From these things it is manifest
what discrete degrees are, namely, that one is from another,
and by the other a third, which is called a compound; and that
each degree is distinct from another. It is said that degrees
are such among theraselves, but it is raeant that substances are
such in their degrees. There are three heavens, and these dis
tinguished by discrete degrees. Wherefore one heaven is
under another ; nor do they coramunicafe with each other other
wise than by influx, which is effected from the Lord through
the highest and the higher to the lowest, and not the reverse.
But each heaven in itself is distinguished, not by discrete, but
by continuous degrees : that is, the wisest are in the centre,
and the less wise are more and more in the circumference ;
thus wisdom decreases even to ignorance, as light decreases
into shade, which is done by continuity. It is similar with
men: the interior, which are of their mind are distinguished into
as raany degrees as are the angelic heavens, and one degree of
them is above another ; wherefore the interiors of men, which

NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH. 351
are of their mind, are distinguished by discrete degrees : hence
it is that man may be in the lowest degree, or in a higher, or
in the highest, according to the altitude of his wisdom ; and
that when he is in only the lowest degree, the higher degree is
shut ; and that it is opened as he receives wisdom from the
Lord. In man also, as in heaven, there are continuous de
grees as well as those that are discrete. The reason why man
is similar fo fhe heavens is, because he is, as to the interiors of
his mind, a heaven in the least form, so far as he is in love and
wisdom from the Lord." (D. L. & W. 184—198.)
Now nature and spirit, or the natural and spiritual planes of
the mind, are separated by a discrete degree ; and are just as
distinct as act and will, speech and thought, body and soul,
effect and cause. Hence it is just as impossible for what is
natural to become what is spiritual, as it is for effect to becorae
cause, or body to become soul.
But man is born in nature. He first comes into existence with
a material body. In this first stage of his existence he knows
nothing and can do nothing without help. He opens his eyes
upon material objects, and his mind is first formed by the
knowledge of natural things. All his thoughts and affections
are formed by things of time and space. He understands na
tural things only ; he wills those things alone which the natural
world affords. Hence he is incapable of a spiritual thought or a
spiritual affection. For the Lord says, " My kingdom is not
of this world ;" of course has nothing in common with this
world : and therefore, he whose thoughts and affections are
wholly formed by the things of this world, can have no thought
of, or affection for, the things ofthe Lord's spiritual kingdom.
The things of heaven and fhe spiritual world have nothing
to do with time and space — except that they act upon time and
space, as spirit does upon matter, or soul upon body. The
thought, therefore, which is formed by time and space only, is
incapable of comprehending those things which exist indepen
dently of time and space. Thus the natural mind is in itself
incapable of comprehending the things of heaven, just as space
cannot comprehend that which is above and without space.

352 NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH.
Hence Paul says, (1. Cor. ii. 14,) " The natural man receiveth
not the things of the spirit of God : for they are foolishness
unto him : neither can he know them, because they are spirit
ually discerned."
Nor is it possible by any perfection of the natural mind in
natural thingj ta\bring it to a perception of spiritual things: for
" that which is born of the flesh, is flesh, and that which is born
of the spirit, is spirit ;" and " flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God." It is just as impossible for the mere na
tural man by any cultivation of his mere natural powers to see
spiritual things in spiritual light, as it is for a mere animal by
any perfection of his animal nature to understand rational things
in rational light ; just as impossible for a raan, without spiritual
discernment, to understand the things of the spirit of God, as
it is for a horse to understand mathematics.
Man is, in fact, as to his corporeal part, a mere animal. In
this he thinks and feels as an animal. Hence the apostle Peter,
(2 Epis. ii. 12,) speaking of "them that walk after fhe flesh
in the lust of uncleanness," says, " these, as natural brute
beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things
that they understand not, and shall utterly perish in their own
corruption." So Jude, speaking of the sarae description of
persons, " But these speak evil of those things which they know
not : but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those
things they corrupt theraselves." And Paul, evidently in allu
sion to mere natural and evil disposed men, speaks of having
" fought with beasts at Ephesus." (1 Cor. xv. 32.) Thus man
as to his corporeal part is a mere animal. He, however, dif
fers from an animal in the capacity which he enjoys of becom
ing spiritual, which a brute does not possess. But if he does
not exercise this faculty, and thus does not rise above his mere
animal nature, he is virtually a brute.
And hence, in the degree that his mind is immersed in cor
poreal or sensual things, even a man is incapable of under
standing mathematics, or becoraing proficient in those sciences
which dwell in the rational plane of the mind. Any person
who has studied these sciences well knows how necessary it is

NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH. 353
for a man fo keep- under his animal nature in order to reach
proficiency in them. Those who have been engaged in the
education of youth know well enough, too, how difficult, if not
impossible it is, to make some boys, whose animal propensities
are strong, understand abstract scientific truths.
Any perfection of man's mere animal nature, then, will
never give a man a rational discernment of scientific things.
Let his sight, his hearing, his smell, his taste, his touch, be ever
so exquisite ; let his form be ever so perfect in syraraetry, or
powerful in muscular energy ; all will avail him nothing in the
comprehension of mathematical truths, for instance, unless he
has a matheraatical mind. Just so it is with spiritual things.
Any perfection of raan's mere natural mind will avail him no
thing in the comprehension of spiritual truths, unless he has a
spiritual mind. And this can be acquired only by an elevation
of his mental and moral powers, discretely, out of mere natu
ral things into the Ught of heaven. A spiritual body raust be
developed and perfected, with a spiritual eye, and all the or
gans of spiritual discernment, before he can see the things of
the spirit of God. He must, as Paul expresses it, " be trans
formed by the renewing of his mind." And as, in the case of
the acquisition of scientific discernment, it is necessary to mor
tify and keep under the propensities of our mere animal nature
by an obedience to the dictates of prudence and propriety ; so,
in the case of spiritual discernraent, it is necessary for us to
mortify and keep under the propensities of the mere natural
man — " the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life" — by a Ufe according to the Lord's comraandraents.
Any thing but a life according to the Lord's coramandment.';
will not suffice fo open the spiritual mind. And an obedience
to the Lord's Commandments as mere natural rules of life, will
not do this. These commands must be done as spiritual truths
- — as truths which teach spiritual motives, and which inculcate
spiritual ends of action. No motives of action, no maxims of
conduct, no rules of morality which the natural man can feel,
devise, or put in practice will avail to the opening of his mind
up to heaven. That which is born of the flesh is still and only
31 *

354 NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH.
flesh. The Lord is " the way, the truth and the life ;" and no
raan can ascend up to heaven — can attain to that spiritual per
ception and blessedness which constitutes heaven— but he who
takes up his cross daily and follows the Lord's footsteps in the
regeneration. .Tesus says, (John, viii. 12,) " I am the light of
the world : he that foUoweth rae shall not walk in darkness,
but shall have the light of life :" and no man can have the light
of life, unless he derive it from the word raade flesh : for " in
him was life; and the life was the light of men," (John, i. 4 :)
" that was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh
into the world :" and " Simon Peter answered him. Lord to
whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life," (John,
vi. 68 :) " it is the spirit that quickeneth" — " The words that I
speak unto you, are spirit and are life," (John, vi. 63 :) and
the only way in which we can attain this spirit, and enjoy this
life, is by keeping these words which the Lord speaks to us j
for he says, (John, v. 24,) " Verily, verily, I say unto you.
He that beareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me,
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation ;
but is passed frora death unto life ;" " If thou wilt enter into
life, keep the coramandments." (Matt, xviii. 17.) Hence it is
clear that keeping the Lord's words, or his commandments, is
fhe way in which we draw nigh to him, and receive the life
which is in hira, and which is spiritual life.
Thus, then, a new birth is necessary, because man is first
born in this world, and there is a contrariety between this
world and heaven in which man was destined to live for ever.
Heaven is spiritual, and this world is natural ; and what is na
tural is separated from what is spiritual by a discrete degree.
Hence, as man is first born natural, he, to becorae spiritual,
must be born again. His natural loves, with their affections
and thoughts, must be exchanged for spiritual loves, with their
affections and thoughts. It is natural forman to love himself and
the world; but it is spiritual for him to love God and his neigh
bour : and " a raan cannot serve two masters : for either he
Mrill hate the one, and love the other ; or else he will hold to the

NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH. 853
one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mam
mon." (Matt. vi. 24.) Man, therefore, cannot act from the
love of self and the worid and from the love of God and his
neighbour, at the same time. Hence his selfish and worldly
love must be brought into subjection to the love of God and
the neighbour. He raust cease to regard himself and the world
in the first place, and he must make God and his neighbour
first. In this way the " first must becorae last and the last
first." Hence a change must take place.
Moreover, the necessity of a radical change is not only in
herent in man's constitution, in that he is first born natural,
and must afterwards be made spiritual ; but this necessity is
made still greater by the hereditary evil into which he is born.
For " man is born into sin which is increased in a long series
from parents, grandfathers aud great-grandfathers, and is be
come hereditary, and thereby translated into the offspring.
And every man who is born, is born into so many hereditary
evils, which have thus successively grown one upon another, that
he is nothing but sin. Wherefore, unless he be regenerated, he
remains wholly in sin as to every power and faculty." (A. C.
5280.) Hence, if he does not receive spiritual life, or if he is
not begotten anew by the Lord, he cannot come into heaven.
This is the reason that the Lord says, " Except a raan be born
again, he cannot see the kingdora of God," (John, iu. 3 ;) and
"except a man be born of water and ofthe spirit, he cannot enter
mto the kingdom of God," (verse 5.) Wherefore, marvel not
that he says unto you, " Ye must be born again."
From all that has been said, we summarily conclude, under
this head, " that man is not born of his parents into spiritual
life, but into natural life. Spiritual life is to love God above
all things and fo love the neighbour as himself; and this ac
cording to the precepts of faith, which the L ord has taught in
the Word : but natural life is to love self and fhe world above
the neighbour — yes, above God himself! Every man is born
of his parents into the evils of the love of self and the world.
Every evil, which, by habit as it were, has contracted a nature,

356 NEW BIRTH GRADUAL AND PROGRESSIVE.
is derived into the offspring : thus successively from parents, from
grandfathers, and from great-grandfathers, in a long series
backwards. Hence the derivation of evil is at length become
so great that fhe whole of man's life, which is properly or dis
tinctively his own, is nothing else but evil. This continued
determinated evil is not broken and altered except by the Ufe
of faith and charity from the Lord. Man continually inclines
and lapses into what he derives hereditarily from his parents.
Hence he confirms within himself that evil, and also of himself
superadds more evils. These evils are altogether contrary fo
spiritual life, and destroy it. Wherefore, unless man, as to
spiritual life, is by the Lord conceived anew, born anew and
educated anew, or, in other words, is created anew, he is
damned : for he wills nothing else, and hence thinks noth
ing else, but what is infused into him by evil spirits from
hell. Consequently, since man is such by nature, the order
of life is inverted with him: what ought to have dominion,
this is raade to serve, and what ought to serve, this has do
minion. And that man may be saved, this order which ap
pertains to him by nature, must be absolutely changed by re
generation from the Lord." (A. C. 8548—8553.) Therefore,
marvel not that he says unto you, " Ye must be born again."
We come now, in the second place, to show that this change
must be gradual and progressive : for " ye must be born again."
The objects of this material world, existing as they do from
the Divine Being, correspond to him, and figure forth his opera
tions. All things in nature are determined in their forms, and
have their qualities, by the influx of Ufe into them from the
Deity through suitable mediuras. Hence every thing in nature
must represent some principle in the Divine Being ; just as fhe
print of the hand in sorae plastic substance represents its form,
or as the features of the face represent the character of the
mind. And thus " universal nature is a theatre representative of
the Lord's kingdom." We may, therefore, reason that ther6 is
an analogy between the operations of the Deity in the natural
world and his operations in fhe spiritual world. And as we

NEW BIRTH GRADUAL AND PROGRESSIVE. 357
discover that all things in the natural world are gradual and
progressive in their growth, we may hence conclude that all
things in the spiritual world are subject to a like order.
Throughout all nature, a single instance cannot be produced,
in which a thing is made complete and perfect at once. Every
thing has a beginning, a middle and an end. Every thing
starts from soraething as a first principle, and progresses
gradually towards maturity. Thus from fhe sun go forth heat
and Ught ; from these atmospheres, in various successions ;
and from these, in regularly progressive combinations, those
innumerable etherial, aerial, vapourous, fluid and solid sub
stances which make up the globe. From springs flow stream
lets ; these, collecting, form rivulets ; which, running together,
form rivers ; and these, uniting, from smaller become larger,
till they pour their mingling waters into lakes, and seas, and
oceans. Again exhaled by the action of the sun's rays upon
the surface of the ocean, the waters rise in vapours, which,
collecting, form clouds, and these, wafted by the winds to some
colder region, are condensed, and descend in rain to refresh
and fertilize the thirsty earth.
Throughout the vegetable kingdora, also, how striking is the
operation of fhe law of progressive order ! There is first the
seed, then the germ, then the shoot, then the stalk, then the
branches, then the buds, then the leaves, then the flowers, and
at last the fruit, in which is deposited fresh seeds for further
propagations. So in the animal kingdom, there is no such thing as an
animal formed entire at once. But with these, as with vegeta
bles, and all other things in nature, there is a beginning and a
progressive growth to maturity.
In like manner man, as to his bodily form and animal life,
is conceived, carried in the womb, born, grows up, and is edu
cated, before he coraes to maturity and enjoys the full exercise
of his powers.
Now as this is so in the natural worid, why should it not be
so in the spiritual world ? Can the Deity, who is " the same
yesterday, and to-day, and for ever," be thus orderly and pro-

358 NEW BIRTH GRADUAL AND PROGRESSIVE.
gressive in his works of nature, and not be so in his works of
grace ? Can he be so long in forming the body, and in bring
ing it to maturity, and yet regenerate the soul at once ? Surely
it is the dictate of sound reason that the new birth must be
gradual and progressive.
The new birth is so represented in the Scriptures. For the
Lord says, (Mark, iv. 26 — 28,) " So is the kingdom of God, as
if a raan should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep,
and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow
up he knoweth not how. For the earth- bringeth forth fruit of
herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in
the ear." Again he says, (verses 30 — 32,) " Whereunto shall
we liken the kingdora of God ? or with what comparison shall
we compare it ? It is like a grain of mustard-seed, which,
when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be
in the earth : but when it is sown, it growethup, and becometh
greater than all herbs, and|shooteth out great branches, so that
the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it." It is
manifest that these passages refer to the implantation of the
church in man, which is the sarae as regeneration. And we
here see that the Lord himself corapares the kingdom of heaven,
that is, the dominion of spiritual principles in the mind of raan,
to seed and fo the progressive growth of plants — thus establish
ing the analogy between spiritual and natural things, and thus
fully confirraing the argument we have advanced for the gra
dual and progressive nature ofthe new birth.
Wherefore, the new birth of man is not instantaneous. For
it is like the growth of a tree. Hence, the man who is reborn
begins, like a tree, frora seed ; next he produces leaves ; next
blossoms, and finally fruit. The seed from which he begins is
the truth of the Word. For the Lord (Matt, xiii.) represents
himself as a sower going forth to sow, in evident allusion to the
spiritual instructions which he gave by the truths that he uttered ;
and he compares the various reception of these instructions to
seed falling by the way-side, upon stony places, araong thorns
and into good ground. Hence the first stage of regeneration
in man is the reception of truth from the Word ; for in this

NEW BIRTH GRADUAL AND PROGRESSIVE. 359
are contained all the Lord's spiritual instructions. The truths
of this .Word become seed sown in him. Next he produces
such things as are of intelUgence, which in the Word are signi
fied by leaves. For when the Lord cursed the barren fig-tree,
it was because it had leaves only — hereby intimating that those
who received truth into the understanding raerely, without bring
ing it down to the regulation of their lives, and who are thus
inteUigent without being wise, are cursed. Next he produces
such things as are of wisdom, which are signified by blossoms.
For in Isaiah, xxvii. 6, it is said, "Israel shall blossom, and
bud, and- fill the face of fhe world with fruit." Here Israel re
presents the internal or spiritual church, and the church is said
to blossora when its principles corae down into practice from
a principle of obedience, and fhe practice of the principles of the
church is true wisdom. And finally man produces such things
as are of life, that is, the good acts which flow from a principle
of love to God and charity to his neighbour, which in the Word
are signified by fruits. For the Lord says, " These are they which
are sown on good ground ; such as hear the Word, and receive it,
and bring forth fruit, some thirty fold, some sixty, and some an
hundred," (Mark, iv. 20 :) and it is well known that the sum and
substance of the Word is to love God supreraely, and our
neighbour as oneself. Hence, to bring forth fruit, is to hear
and receive this precept ; that is, in heart and soul to act from
the principle of love to God and charity to the neighbour.
Such, then, is the representative simUitude between the fruit-
bearing tree and fhe man who is regenerated : and by this com
parison, which the Lord himself has instituted, we know that
regeneration is gradual and progressive.
But the words of our Lord in the text are still raore striking
and conclusive. Marvel not that I say unto thee " ye must be
born again." As now there is a strict analogy between the
natural and the spiritual worlds, it follows, from these words of
our Lord, that the regenerative process in man is sirailar to his
natural b^rth. And as natural birth is gradual and progressive,
60 in like raanner must be the spiritual birth.
The Lord does not here make a comparison, but asserts an

360 NEW BIRTH GRADUAL AND PROGRESSIVE.
actual birth. " Ye must he born again :" and " Except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nico
demus, it seems, from his low natural state, could not conceive
9f a spiritual birth; and, understanding the Lord's words
literally, he inquires, " How can a man be, born when he is
old ? can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and
be born ?" The Lord then explains himself to mean a spiritual
birth, by saying, " Except a man be born of water, and of the
spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."
In this text, as we showed in our last sermon, the Lord inti
mates the nature of the new birth — that it is a spiritual pro
cess, .whereby raan's mental, moral and religious character is
radically changed by truths received from the Sacred Scrip
tures and a life according to them. He also shows that this is
an entirely separate and distinct thing frora fhe formation of
the natural mind: for he says, "that which is born ofthe flesh,
is flesh; and that which is born of the spirit,- is spirit;" and
clearly intimates that the process is not only not instantaneous,
and perceptible to man, but that it goes on secretly, and we
may conclude gradually, without man's knowing any thing
about it — except so far as its effects are seen in, the external, by
comparing a more with a less advanced state of growth in
grace. For he says, " The wind bloweth where it listeth, and
thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, or whither it goeth : so is every one that is born of the
spirit." By wind in this passage is evidently meant truth,
because, in the original, it is, the sarae word which in the last
clause of this verse is rendered spirit ; and by the spirit in the
Word, is raeant truth. The oft quoted declaration of John
confirms this — " it is the spirit that beareth witness, because the
spirit is truth." (1 Ep. v. 6.) Inasmuch, then, as man is rege
nerated by a life according to divine truth, when the Lord says,
" the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound
thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, or whither it
goeth," he intimates that all divine truth, whereby a man is
regenerated, flows into him when he does not know it.
By the wind blowing where it listeth, or the spirit breathing

NEW BIRTH GRADUAL AND PROGRESSIVE. 361
where it willeth, is signified, that the Lord by divine truth, out
of mercy, gives new life ; by hearing the voice thereof, is sig
nified that those things come to perception in fhe external or
natural man — for voice denotes what is announced from the
Word ; and by not knowing whence it comes and. whither it
goes, is signified that man does not know how regeneration is
effected — for it is effected by innumerable and unspeakable
secret means from the Lord." (A. C. 10, 240.)
Thus the Lord clearly shows that the new birth goes on
gradually and progressively, while raan hiraself is unconscious
of fhe process. All which goes to show the exact analogy
which there is between the birth of the spiritual man and that
ofthe natural man. For man's natural preservation and birth
goes on and takes place v>'ithout his consciousness. And after
he is born, he grows imperceptibly to himself. It is only by
comparing his size at one time with his size at another, that be
can have any idea of his bodily growth. And with regard to
his bodily life — digestion, the circulation of the blood, and the
operations ofthe nervous system, by which the bodily frame is
kept in health and vigour, go on without man's knowing any
thing about them. All that he knows is their effect in a con
scious power of willing, thinking and acting. Thus, even in
regard to the Ufe of his body, " the wind bloweth where it
listeth, and he knows not whence it cometh, or whither it
goeth." He knows nothing of those secret operations by which
life flowing into his body causes it to exist and subsist as a
living form. He only hears the voice thereof. He is only
conscious of life in its external effects.
Since, then, there is so strict an analogy between the spiritual
birth and the natural birth, the fact ofthe gradual and progres
sive nature ofthe natural birth proves incontrovertibly thatthe
new birth also is in its nature gradual and progressive. And
we may have some idea of the process of the new birth by the
various stages in the natural birth. Thus " the man who is
regenerating is also, in like manner, as it were, conceived, car
ried in the womb, born and educated, as a man is conceived
frora his father, carried in the worab of his mother, born and
afterwards educated." (A. E. 721.)
32

362 NEW BIRTH GRADUAL AND PROGRESSIVE.
We may be able to apprehend this truth more clearly by at
tending to the human constitution as it has been now so minute
ly pourtrayed in the preceding sermons. It has been seen
that there are three things which constitute a man— will, under
standing and act, or affection, thought and speech, or love,
wisdom and usefulness. These three things, or principles,
may be said to constitute the whole man, because they enter
into and produce every thing which is in him, or which pro
ceeds from him.
Now the thought, or the understanding, is that in man which
sees and receives truth. Into this, therefore, truth is insemi
nated. But a man raay think and understand truth some tirae
before he wills it. And we all know that men do very fre
quently have clear and rational views of truth for some time
before they will them, and bring them into practice. The re
ception of truth in the understanding, therefore, is only a part
of the regenerative process. It is the first stage of the new
birth. And the spiritual man is only now mentally conceived.
In the next stage, truth becoraes a raatter of will. And a
man raay will and intend a truth sorae tirae before he brings it
into practice. He may resolve, and re- resolve, and yet not
effect his resolution. The truth raust be perfectly formed in
his will before he can bring it forth. Thus the truth is carried
in the will as a womb. This is spiritual gestation.
When the truth has acquired a perfect form in the will —
when a raan has such an affection or love for it, as to desire to
make it the end of his life, he is then stimulated to bring it into
act. And when man, frora the will does bring the truth into
act, and thus raakes it a matter of Ufe, it becomes a living thing,
and is said to be born. This birth of truth by bringing it into
practice, is fhe third stage of the regenerative process.
In this stage, the truth in man meets with a great deal of op
position frora the false principles which arise from his heredi
tary evil nature. The false maxims of selfish and worldly pro
pensities array theraselves against the truths which he has learnt
from the Word, and a mental conflict ensues. These conflicts
are temptations, that produce anxiety and anguish of mind,
which continue until the truth is brought forth into the life, and

NEW BIRTH GRADUAL AND PROGRESSIVE. 363
the life becomes conformed to it. This anxiety and anguish of
mind are the labour pains attendant on the birth of truth. To
which succeeds a state of tranquillity and peace, when truth has
become predominant over the false and evil principles opposed
to it, and there is the delight of doing what is good and true for
its own sake. This is the spiritual signification of the Lord's
words in John, xvi. 21, " A woman, when she is in travail, hath
sorrow, because her hour is corae : but as soon as she is de
livered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for
joy that a man is born into the world."
But it is some time before the life can be purified and entirely
conformed to the truth which man understands and wills. It
is like doing away a bad habit which has been long indulged.
This is not to be done in a moment. The habit frequently re
turns upon him, and he frequently relapses into it. And it is
only by a persevering and constant endeavour that it is even
tually overcome. So, in the regeneration, the evils of self-love
and love of the world, which are hereditarily in man, cannot be
overcome at once. A man may understand and will that truth,
on which hang all the Law and the Prophets — " Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind, and Thou shalt love thy neighbour ae
thyself" (Matt. xxii. 37, 39) — long before his conduct is
thoroughly conformed to it as a principle of action. "The
old raan, with his deeds," is not so soon or so easily put off.
It is not without great conflict — not without many down-fallings
and up-risings — that we can " put on the new raan, which is
renewed in knowledge after the iraage of Him that created him."
(Col. in. 9, 10.)
The conflict and difficulty attendant upon bringing our life
into order by an entire subjection to truth in the inner raan, is
very forcibly described by Paul in Rom. vii. — particularly in
verses 18 — 25. " For I know, that in rae (that is in my flesh)
dwelleth no good thing : for to will is present with me, but to
perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I
would, I do not ; but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Now if I do that I would not, (here he evidentiy alludes to in
voluntary lapses info previous bad habits,) it is no more I that

364 NEW BIRTH GRADUAL AND PROGRESSIVE.
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find, then, a law, that when
I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the
law of God after the inward man. But I see another law, in
my members warring against the law of my mind, and bring
ing rae into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my mem
bers. O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
the body of this death ! I thank God through Jesus Christ our
Lord. So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God ;
but with the flesh the law of sin." Who is there that has made
almost any advancement in the regenerate life that cannot testify
to the truth and pathos of this quotation ! How strikingly does
it display the dire conflicts which ensue when we endeavour to
bring the principles of divine love and charity into practice!
Oh, he who imagines he can be born again in an instant, does
not know himself! Little does he know of those agonies which
the soul endures, and those appalling difficulties which it en
counters, in bringing into subjection the inbred loves of self
and the world ! And those who think they know they are born
again; can, with the utmost confidence, tell the very moment
when it took place, and are boasting that they have experienced
a change of heart ; had better fake care that they are not still
" in fhe gall of bitterness, and the bond of iniquity" !
This reduction ofthe life to order, by the bringing forth truth
from the inner to the outer raan, is the fourth stage in the regene
ration, and is the education or bringing up of the spiritual man
when born. This stage lasts till the end of life in this world. And
the life which a raan has lived in this world, then serves as a
plane for his eternal progression in the knowledge and love of
God in the world to corae, which is the spiritual raan's growth
in wisdom to eternity.
Thus a raan must be spiritually conceived, gestated, born, and
brought up, before he can come unto a perfect man, unto the
measure ofthe stature of the fulness of Christ," (Eph. iv. 13:)
all which shows that the change by which a man comes out of
a natural into a spiritual state is gradual and progressive.
Wherefore, marvel not that the Lord says unto you, " ye must
be born again."

NEW BIRTH GRADUAL AND PROGRESSIVE. 365
We conclude, now, from all that has been said and shown, that
there is no newness of Ufe without a radical change in the prin
ciple of action — that there is no true new birth until the prin
ciple of action, which is the end that a man proposes to himself
in all he does, is from natural made spiritual ; and that, conse
quently, the new birth consists in ceasing to act frora the irapulses
of natural will as guided by natural reason, and the learning
to act in all things frora a regard to the Lord's commandraents,
which are all spiritual truths, and therefore produce, in the con
forraity of the Ufe to them, spiritual life. We conclude, in short,
that the new birth consists in the ceasing to act from the prin
ciple of self love, and love of the world, which is a supreme
regard to self-interest and to worldly elevation or aggrandize
ment, in all we do ; and the learning to act from a principle of
love to God and the neighbour, which is a supreme regard in all
we do to what is good simply because it is good, and what is
true simply because it is true. We conclude, further, as to tfie
necessity of the new birth, that this arises out of the contrariety
between the natural world and God, and out of the fact that
man is first born natural, and raust afterwards become discretely
spiritual. And we conclude, finally, that the new birth is
gradual and progressive in its nature, and not an instantaneous
work. In short, we are born anew from above ; thus the Lord
alone is our spiritual father, the sole source of our regeneration ;
who begets us anew unto righteousness and true holiness, by a
successive process of spiritual conception, gestation, birth, and
education to eternity : for not one single spark of spiritual life
can be given to us by the light of our own wisdora or theheat
of our own love.
Wherefore, may the Lord in his infinite mercy give us the spirit
of adoption, whereby we can cry Abba, Father ! May he tho
roughly renew us in the spirit and temper of our minds, giving
that faith which works by love and a new creature ! And may
he, in short, give us " power to becorae the sons of God" — en-
abUng us so to believe on his narae as to be " born not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" !
Amen. S3*

SERMON XXI

MATTHEW, VI. 33.
" But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all
these things shall be added unto you."
We comraenced these serraons with the observation, that the
New Jerusalem differs from the old christian church, not in ad
vancing entirely different doctrines, but in understanding the
same doctrines in a new way. We now conclude our series
with the remark, that, in the true christian church, all things
are made new, not by a change of externals, but by a change
of internals — not by a change of ordinary and proper natural
actions, but by a total change ofthe ends from which such ac
tions are comraonly done. Hence the prescription which the
Great Physician has given for the securing of spiritual life,
" Thou shalt love God supreraely and thy neighbour as thyself
— This do, and thou shalt live," is a forraulary for every day
¦practice. It is a principle which is to be brought into every
duty, every vocation, every pleasure, every enjoyment of this
natural life ; and it is a spiritual principle, which, when so
brought into natural life, makes natural life itself spiritual ; that
is, makes natural Ufe so subservient as to conduce to the
strengthening and perfecting of spiritual life. When natural
things are thus done from a spiritual principle — when natural
things are sought, acquired and used from an end to God and
the neighbour — from an end to what is good and true for its
own sake — from an-ered to what is just and honest for the sake
of justice and honesty, and without any ultiraate or final refer
ence to selfish and worldly gratification, then natural things are
truly and eternally enjoyed. But when natural life is in any

LIFE or USE THE SUM OF RELIGION. 367
way separated from spiritual life, so that natural things are
sought, acquired and used without a continual as well as an
ultimate and a final reference to spiritual and eternal things,
then, not only is true spiritual Ufe lost, but the fruition of na
tural life also is for ever put out of our reach. Therefore it is,
that the Lord gives us the weighty injunction of our text :
" Seek ye first the kingdora of God and his righteousness, and
all these things shall be added unto you."
All things in the universe have reference to two principles,
naraely, goodness and truth, and to their conjunction in ultiraate
use. And in the Sacred Scriptures there are constantly two
terras used and mostly coupled by the conjunctive particle and.
One of these terms has specific reference to good, while the
other refers to truth, and the coupling of thera by the particle
and denotes the conjunction of good and truth in use. Thus
the terms Lord and God are used — the terra Lord referring to
the divine good, and the terra God to the divine truth. Hence
the kingdora of God is the kingdora of divine truth.
In the text, " the kingdom qf God" is coupled with " his
righteousness" by the particle " and" : therefore, according to
the general law just stated, while the kingdom of God means
the kingdom of the divine truth, his righteousness raeans the
divine good of that truth. The kingdom of truth is its con
trolling influence in the raind of raan, and the righteousness of
truth is the good to which truth in practice leads. The king is
the inraost or central functionary of the kingdom. And the
king, in the human soul, is its inmost principle, or its ruling
end. of life. The king sits on the throne, which is the highest
and first place of the kingdom. The throne is the seat and
erablem of power and authority, and frora it flows all that which
constitutes the kingdora's force and integrity. The kingdom is
in fact nothing but the holy principle of royalty extended frora
the king and his throne. Hence it is that the throne is put for
the kingdora, and the king for the kingly office.
Now, in the huraan soul, the first place is its inmost princi
ple ; and whatever rules there, rules throughout the whole soul.
And, as we have already shown, the inmost of the soul is its

368 DISINTERESTED LIFE OF USE
ruling love, which makes one with its end of life ; for whatever
a man loves supremely, that he proposes to himself as his end
of life. Hence the end of life, is the first place in the human
soul ; and whatever is in its end of life, this is the ruling prin
ciple of the soul. Hence the command to seek first the king
dom of God and his righteousness, implies that the divine truth
and the good of that truth should be made man's end of life. It
implies that truth should, be sought for its own sake, and good
be done for its own sake. When truth, with the good of it, is
in man's end of life, then it is in the first place, and has domi
nion over all the inferior principles and parts of the soul. In
short, good is as a king, and truth is as a throne, in the mind
of man, which is a spiritual world and dominion. Hence,
when truth is in the end of life, it is God's throne set in the
soul ; and when the good of that truth is in the ruling love,
that good is as a king, seated on that throne, exercising
dominion over the whole wiU, understanding and ultimate con
duct, as his kingdom.
The things which are to be added unto us, when we seek
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, are all the
things which are exterior to that kingdora and righteousness.
The kingdora of God and his righteousness constitute spiritual
and celestial life in the soul, and the things exterior to this
life are all those things which constitute natural life.
Now, if a raan makes spiritual and celestial life his end, then
all things of natural life will happen as he wishes for his salva
tion. For "the delights of gain and honours in this natural
world, when they are regarded as means conducive to heavenly
life as an end, have then life in thera by virtue of life from
heaven, that is, through heaven from the Lord ; for in this case
the end regarded is the Lord. When raan is in such an order
of life, then worldly gains and honours are a blessing to hira ;
but if he be in an inverted order," — if he looks first to earthly
gains and honours, and pays regard to spiritual and divine
things as means to such gains and honours as his end of life, —
then they are curses fo him. Hence that all things of natural
life are blessings when man is in the order of heaven, is meant

THE SUM OF TRUE RELIGION. 369
by its being said, in the text, all things shall be added unto you,
" if ye seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness."
The Lord's divine providence is most particular and singular
in all that concerns man's spiritual and eternal welfare. " Even
the hairs of our heads are all numbered, and not a sparrow
faUs to the ground without his notice." He decks the Uly and
clothes the grass of the field. He gives to man all natural
good, and every appliance of temporal life, as means of attain
ing the life which is spiritual and eternal. All physical power,
all -mental abiUty, all external science, all that knowledge and
skill which gains the wealth and constitutes the power of this
natural life, are, in his divine providence, furnished as the sub
stratum of heavenly life. And if " the Lord's providence ex
tends to the lowest things and principles in the regenerate life,
how much rriore wiU it extend to the things and principles that
are of a higher order. Therefore man ought to depend upon
the Divine Providence for sustenance in all the degrees of his
life, and not to -trust to, his own prudence. Nevertheless the
unregenerate are more solicitous about external or natural Ufe
than about internal or spiritual life — when yet it is the Lord's
will, in giving natural Ufe and its goods, that external or
natural life should be subservient and administer to internal or
spiritual Ufe. For when spiritual life flows into and rests on
natural life, then both are preserved ; but when natural Ufe has
the preeminence and rules over spiritual life, then both are de
stroyed. Therefore spiritual truth and good ought to be exalted
above natural ; for then natural truth and good are blessed
from a spiritual principle within, and becorae conducive to the
eternal life ofthe soul."
Such is the general spiritual iraport of the text. It may have
a more particular illustration, if we consider what is more spe
cifically raeant by the kingdom of God and his righteousness.
We are now taught in the new church, that the kingdom of
God is a kingdom of uses. The reason is, because truth is
not a mere ideal or intellective thing, but is a vital form.
Truth is the form of good — is good in its activity : and good
in form and activity is use. Hence the kingdom of God, which

370 DISINTERESTED LIFE OF USE
is the kingdom of all truths in the complex, is the kingdom of
all good uses. Therefore, to seek first the kingdom of God
and his righteousness is to have use, and the love of if, in the
first place. It is to have use for an end in all we do, and fo
perform use simply from the love of use. And when we en
gage in and discharge faithfully all the comraon duties, as well
as enjoy all the coraraon pleasures, of this natural life, frora a
siraple regard to their use, then all natural good things — wealth,
honour, fame — may be added unto us, not only without loss,
but with positive gain, to our spiritual life. On the other hand,
if a man seek natural good as an end, even though he gain it
temporarily, still he will lose the enjoyment of it eternally.
Nor is there any real enjoyment of natural good in time,
when it is sought as an end — when it is sought from the love
of self and the world — when it is sought for selfish and worldly
gratification, and not with a sole view to its use. For however
much natural wealth or honour we may attain, when sought
from the love of self and the world, it is a law of our nature
that we can never be satisfied. In this case, fhe possession of
wealth and honour brings with it increased care for what we
have got, and increased solicitude for raore.
It is not contrary to order that a man should have care in
providing for hiraself and his dependents present food and
rairaent, and also wealth for the time to come. But the selfish
and worldly, that is, fhe unregenerate, seek only worldly and
terrestrial things as an end, and have no primary respect to
heavenly things ; and, in seeking this end, they have no regard
to a divine principle, but look only to themselves, and expect
to gain all by the exercise of their own prudence. Hence they
are the prey of universal solicitude about things future. They
are goaded by a desire of possessing all things and of exercising
universal rule, which desire burns more fiercely in proportion
as it is gratified, until it exceeds all bounds. " Such persons
grieve if they do not enjoy what they desire, and are tormented
when they lose the objects of their loye. And in the loss of
what they love, they can have no consolation ; for, on such
occasions, they are angry with the Divine Being, and reject all

THE SUM OF TRUE RELIGION. 371
that faith in his goodness, and that trust in his providence, from
which alone all true consolation in affliction springs. It is
altogether otherwise with those who seek first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness, and who desire and procure to
themselves earthly goods with a sole reference to their use.
These trust to the Divine Being, acknowledging and seeking
the Lord as a principle of goodness and truth in all they do."
And having the Lord as a principle of good and truth in their
end of Ufe, they are wholly ruled by the Lord and his angels
flowing into that end, so as to be led, while they themselves are
ignorant of it, into all that is happy to eternity. " These, although
they may feel care for things future, nevertheless do not suffer
any anxiety about them. They are of an equable mind whether
they enjoy what they desire or not — neither do they grieve at
the loss of what they desire, being content with their lot. If
they become opulent, they do not place their hearts in opulence.
If they are raised to honours, they do not regard themselves as
more deserving than others. Neither are they sad, if they be
come poor; nor are they dejected in raind, if their condition be
low: for they know that, with those who trust to the Divine
Being, all things succeed for a happy state in eternity ; and that
the things which befal them in tirae — however adverse to their
apparent and temporal prosperity — are always made conducive
to an eternal state of happiness." Thus they enjoy temporal
peace and joy, which is all that the selfish and worldly can
propose to themselves in the search and acquisition of earthly
goods, though they may, in the Divine Providence, be deprived
of thera. But seeking earthly good for the sake of heavenly good,
— in discharging the duties, and enjoying the delights, of natural
life with an end to eternal life, — the Lord^ in his providence, will
most assuredly add unto them all those terrestrial and worldly
good things which his wisdom sees will tend to secure them in
the enjoyment of their eternal happiness.
If then, any of us are seeking for wealth, for fame, for influ
ence araong our fellow men, or for any of those things which the
unregenerate natural man regards and seeks as his chief good,
iCt us know that it is not wrong for us to seek such things ; for our

372 DISINTERESTED LIFE OF USE
humanity is to be regenerated, not destroyed. But let us at the
same tirae know, that we are not to seek these things as an
end — we are not to seek them first — we are not to make them
central and ' internal ; but we are to put them in fhe second
place — we are to put them into the circumference — we are to
make them subservient to spiritual life — we are to seek and pro
cure them only as means to spiritual and eternal use as our final
end. Then they will be most assuredly added unto us, just so
far as the Divine Wisdom sees they will conduce to that end.
In a farailiar illustration of our subject we may take a few
specific cases. Our text as a practical maxim raay be thus ex
pressed — No raan becomes eminent in his profession who has
not such a passion for it as leads him to pursue it frora a de
light in it for its own sake, or for the Sake of fhe use which is
effected by it to the community.
Men, from the love of self, the love of fame, or fhe love of
gain, raay be stimulated to such exertions as will lead them to
a certain degree of eminence and success in their pursuits,
when they do not love them for their own sakes ; but the de
gree will never be that which they would have attained if they
had been actuated solely by the pure love of the use. Thus
the poet, the musician, the painter, or the civilian — the states
man, the scientific raan, the artizan, or the raan of any ordinary
business, though he may attain to sorae success when goaded
by ambition, or stimulated by necessity, still will not reach
consummate excellence until he is actuated by the love of use,
or until use simply is the end of his life. The reason is, be
cause all excellence comes frora God ; and the highest excel
lence can flow into man only when he is acting frora ends
similar to those which are actuating the Divine Being, or solely
by the mediura of angels of the highest order, who are living
nearest to the Lord.
The celestial angels flow solely into man's ends of life, and
are themselves in the supreme love of use. For heaven is a
continent of uses, and not any can come into heaven except so
far as they are in fhe performance of use from the love of use.
And the heavens are discriminated according to the degrees of

THE SUM OF TRUE RELIGION. 373
supereminence in the uses which they perform. Hence the
highest heaven is in the highest uses. Thus the celestial
heaven, which is emphatically the heaven of love, and therefore
the heaven in which the love of use supereminently prevails,
is that alone from which the highest excellence can descend
into the uses of earth. Now, as the angels of this heaven,
who are loves in form, can flow only into man's loves, so as to
rule thence his ends of life ; therefore, where the love of use
does not exist in man, there can be no ground in man for celes
tial influx, frora which alone the highest use, and the highest
excellence in the performance of use on earth, can be produced.
For instance, it is said that the architectonic art is in its per
fection in the heavens. Now an architect on earth, when
stimulated by ambition, the love of fame, or the love of wealth,
may design architectural forras of beauty and use in a certain
degree. He may study the ancients ; — who attained a perfec
tion which he cannot surpass, because they went up to the well-
springs of perfection iu the adytum of their souls, and were not
copyists as he is ; — and by the study of their models, and the
science of their art, may recombine their elements in forras of
fancied novelty and imaginary beauty. But he can never, as
with the hoofs of a winged horse, unloose the gushing fountains
of original conception, and pour down streams of fresh real
beauty and use frora that sole abode of beauty and use, the
celestial heaven. There raust be a love of use for its own
sake — a supereminent love of the supremely true and the su
premely good in architecture, and the constant end of universal
good or use to men, without any other recompense of reward
than simply the deUght of performing that use for the good of
others, before we shall have any original conceptions in archi
tecture, that shall equal or surpass those of the ancients.
The ancients were lovers of their art, and sought excellence
in it simply for the sake of excellence. Their philosophers, as
the very terra imports, were lovers of wisdom ; and sought
wisdom for its own sake. Their legislators, as Solon and
Lycurgus, made laws from the love of justice, and sought tho
good of their country in just laws, though that good was to ha
33

374 DISINTERESTED LIFE OF USE
alone found in their own banishment or expatriation. Their
teachers of youth were their philosophers — their greatest and
best men — like Socrates^rwho taught from fhe love of the use,
and not from the love of gain. Hence there is an excellence
in their arts, their philosophy, their laws and their education,
which the moderns have never reached except by copying.
For the moderns have becorae sensual and sordid in their ends
of life. They seek not excellence for the sake of excellence
alone, but for the sake of some extrinsic selfish and worldly
gratification. Thus they seek excellence for the sake of
worldly distinction — for the sake of fame among raen — for the
sake of present gain or future glory. And this, in my humble
opinion, is the reason why raodern poets, sculptors, architects,
and the Uke, have never equalled or excelled the ancients — why
they are the mere copyists of ancient models, and not the givers
forth of original conceptions of superior beauty and superemi
nent use.
It is true, that, in the present day, the arts and sciences have
received a new impulse; and all the fields of excellence therein,
are extending, widening, and opening vistas through which
visions of coming beauty and excellence may now be diraly seen
that never dawned on ancient eyes and never could have been
conceived-by ancient hearts : but all this is because of iramediate
revelation from heaven in consequence of tlie consuramation of
the church. The sun has been clothed in sackcloth, the moon
been turned to blood, the stars of heaven detruded to earth and
put out in its dust. But the Sun of Righteousness has again
arisen with healing in his beams. The light ofthe sun has be
corae, or is becoraing, as the Ught of seven days. Its floods of
seven-fold brightness are pouring down to earth, and pressino-
and beaming through, wherever there is a chink. The powers
ofthe heavens are everywhere pressing for admission. And
the laws of heaven are revealed, in the relations of heavenly
arcana, and in the knowledge of the constitution of the spiritual
world and of its operation on and influx into the natural world.
Now the poet, the painter, the sculptor, the architect, and the
man of any science and of every art, may attain to a more than

THE SUM OF TRUE RELIGION. 375
ordinary excellence ; but, to do so, he must connect his spirit
with the highest influences of the spiritual world, in order that
their powers may be in his efforts. He must connect himself
with the highest heaven by the love of use, or he never can
originate on earth those celestial forms of use and beauty which
shall comraand the meed of universal praise, and prosper him
in the possession of those external goods, which are the un
sought and unbought adjuncts of sincerely seeking first the
kingdora of God and his righteousness.
The life of the love of use is not only heavenly, but eternal,
life ; and he who ultiraates that Ufe here, will produce in his
profession or calling, whatever it raay be, not only a heavenly,
but comparatively an infinite, perfection. The acknowledg
ment of the Divine Being in any thing, tends to bring into that
thing a sort of divine presence and divine form. If, therefore,
the artist of any kind wishes to produce a divine perfection in
his art, let him acknowledge in his art the Divine- Being. It is
said of Haydn, one of the most famous musical composers,
that he was wont to invoke the Lord in prayer for inspiration,
when he engaged in composing his pieces of sacred rausic.
And the starap of that prayer is on his composition, giving it
an indelible raark of immortality. It is well known, too, that
the ancient poets always began their poems with an invocation
to some Deity ; which, if sincere, doubtless gave a character to
their poetic conceptions. So must the new-church poet and the
new-church artist, invoke his Lord in all his undertakings, if
he would certainly attain eminence, excellence, usefulness and
spiritual power in his calling.
The Lord of the Newchurchraan is Goodness Itself and
Truth Itself in a Divine Huraan Form ; and the true invocation
of this Lord, is the acting from a principle of goodness and
truth, a principle of justice and judgment, in all the good uses
of society, which is a common man. It is to do use from the
love of use merely, to do use with an end to the common good,
and not with an end to fame, honour, gain, or any other merely
selfish and worldly good. When use is thus done, fame,
honour, wealth and every other good will be added unto us, —
although we sought them not, — because they are the natural

376 THE LIFE OF USE THE SUM OF RELIGION.
consequents of use well and supereminently done. And so it is
that all else is added unto us, if we seek first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness.
If the poet writes from a passion for poetic excellence, and
finds his chief and all sufficient reward in the mere delight of
ultimating poetic beauties for their own sakes, there will be
added unto hira, farae, honour and perhaps worldly gain, as
consequences of his poetic excellences. But if he think of
fame, of honour or of wealth, and especially if he seek these
as ends in his poetic corapositions, the founts of true inspiration
will be closed, and the sordid principle, that actuates him in
writing, will descend into and defile all his writings, so as to
make his fame evanescent and his gains unsubstantial.
So with the painter, if he wants excellence in his art, he must
seek it for its own sake. He must seek the kingdora of God
and his righteousness first in his art ; and then farae, wealth and
every other external good will be added unto hira. But if he
look at these external goods as ends of life, the founts of true
inspiration in hira, too, will be closed up ; and his external ends
will be lost : or if he succeeds, he will paint only by the lumen
of some infernal fire, cater for the lusts of some prevailing self
ish or worldly passion, and in the wealth and the farae which
he raay hereby gain, he will find only the foothold and the food
of an ephemeral natural Ufe, to the destruction of the Ufe that
is heavenly and eternal.
Just so it is with any other profession in which we as New-
churchmen raay engage. We raust pursue thera simply from
the love of use, or they will not strengthen in us spiritual Ufe.
If we propose to ourselves only natural ends in what we do, na
tural life can alone be strengthened by our success. And the
true church can alone be built up in us, and spread from us, or
through us, on raen around, by our pursuing all our natural
duties and callings from spiritual ends. Therefore, if we desire
the true good of our Jerusalem, we will diUgentiy heed our
Lord's injunction in the text, " Seek ye first the kingdora of
God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added
unto you."

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