given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. that hath the Son hath life.

He

John iii. 36. He that believeth on the Son hath

everlasting life. John vi. 40.

This is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day.

[Comp. Gal. ii. 20.]

21. The Sonship of Christ the great aggravation of unbelief.

John iii. 18, 36. He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God.-He that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

1 John ii. 22, 23. Father and the Son.

He is antichrist, that denieth the

Whosoever denieth the Son, the

same hath not the Father.

1 John v. 10. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

[Comp. Heb. vi. 4-6; x. 26-31.]

22. The evangelical record intended to excite and confirm our faith in the filiation of Christ.

John xx. 31. These are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

1 John v. 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

[Thus the Gospel is styled, "The Gospel of the Son." (Comp. Rom. i. 9; and Mark i. 1.) The first revelation

to St. Paul of evangelical truth is represented as the "revelation of the Son;" (Gal. i. 16;) and hence the first subject of his ministry was the divine filiation of our Redeemer. (Acts ix. 20.)]

The reader has now before him, distributed with regard to their general design, a sufficient number of citations to enable him to form his own conclusions on the doctrine of the Apostle. Other passages might possibly be rendered available to our purpose; but the foregoing selection has been advisedly restricted to such as either expressly or by inference describe our Lord as the Son. Of these, a more minute classification might have been effected: but this it was thought would rather have tended to embarrass than to elucidate the subject.

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CHAPTER V.

THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS.

SECTION I.

THE PURPOSE AND GENERAL ARGUMENT OF THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS.

In the following remarks it will be assumed that of this epistle St. Paul was the author; and that it was originally addressed to Christian Hebrews. In the circumstances of these individuals there was this peculiarity, however, that they were not, like the churches of Galatia and others, in danger from insulated and partial questions of the Judaical controversy. On the contrary, it is clear that to them the institutions of Moses, as a great whole, were presented in a form peculiarly impressive; and for their benefit therefore it was necessary that the arguments on the other side should be stated at large, and with the utmost cogency. But there were no Jews with whom this was the case so fully as those of Palestine, and particularly those in and near Jerusalem.

*The former question is, for the present, set at rest by the valuable dissertation prefixed to Professor Stuart's commentary on this book. That those whose benefit was here primarily contemplated were Jews, is proved from the entire structure of the composition; while several passages are equally decisive on the genuineness of their faith in Christ. (e. g. Heb. iii. 1; x. 32-39; xii. 22-24, &c., &c.

These, therefore, it is highly probable were the persons here addressed.*

Assuming such to be the fact, more minute chronological investigation will not be requisite. The epistle, of course, was written antecedently to the destruction of Jerusalem, a conclusion confirmed by the current of internal evidence; and beyond this we need not inquire.

The circumstances of the Christian Hebrews of Palestine were signally perilous. The splendour of the Jewish temple, the imposing character of its rites, the venerable prescription of the economy to which it was the centre, the undoubted divine original and appointment of its grandeur and devotion, perpetually conspired to recommend the religion of their fathers, and to throw into shadow the noiseless and unobtrusive system to which they had newly attached themselves. Added to these, the intolerance of their countrymen and neighbours, with in many cases the urgent entreaties of domestic love, rendered their attachment to Christianity a continual and poignant self-denial, and supplied every outward inducement to abandon its profession, by which the imperfect piety of man can be most strongly assailed.

It is obvious that the mind of the Apostle was deeply affected by a consideration of these circumstances; and accordingly he puts forth all his strength in proposing, illustrating, and enforcing the arguments on the other hand. The great principle of his discourse is the infinite and unspeakable dignity of the person of Christ. To this are superadded, in the concluding chapters, other appropriate considerations and counsels.

The suitableness of this method of reasoning is apparent from the fact, that there was no part of the

To this opinion a local allusion or two in the course of the epistle give increased force, especially chap. xiii. 10—13.

question at issue, upon which the Hebrews were more likely to fall into error, nor any one where error would be more pernicious. It has already been shown that, in the Christ, the Jews expected a human Prophet and potentate; and that the loftier pretensions of our Lord furnished the great objection to the admission of his Messiahship. And, apart from the decisive historical testimony to this effect, we might reasonably conclude, that in the minds of the enemies of the Gospel these prejudices would be confirmed by the lapse of time, and the extended promulgation of Christianity. In the same opinions it cannot be doubted that the Christian Hebrews had generally been educated; and these, confirmed by the associations of daily intercourse, rendered it no small achievement to surmount the obnoxious tenet of our Lord's Deity, even so far as to acknowledge the divinity of his mission. On the former doctrine it is not irrational to suppose that their faith was comparatively imperfect, while it constantly had to maintain a conflict with habitual and established impressions. Besides their struggles from within, they had to endure the most furious assaults from without. The claims of Jesus to proper divinity, repudiated as from the beginning they had been, were now met by fiercer denial, and rebuke more fanatical; and it need not be questioned that in this respect it was that the faith of his adherents was most constantly and most intemperately assailed.

The Messiahship of our Lord, on the other hand, considered of itself, had been extensively admitted even during his life-time; and to the majority of Hebrew Christians persuasion upon that point was quite superfluous. Nothing but the firm conviction that Jesus was the Christ could have induced a Jew to forego the splendour of his native ritual and priesthood for a religion, the elements of which were so spiritual, and the