I. Let it then be considered that a belief may be professed

either by stating it in terms, or by acting in a manner which necessarily implies that you hold it. A man may profess a creed with which his life is at variance; but he may also live a creed, if 1 may so speak, which he has not the desire or the skill to put into exact words. There is no moral difference between the sincere expression of a conviction in language, and its consistent reflection in action. There is, for example, no difference be- tween my saying that a given person is not to be relied upon when dealing with money matters, and my pointedly declining to act with him on this particular trust, when I am asked to do so. It is not necessary that I should express my complete opinion of his character, until I am obliged to express it. I content myself with acting in the only manner which is prudent under the circumstances. Meanwhile my line of action speaks for itself; its meaning is evident to all who are practically interested in the subject. Until I am challenged for an expla- nation; until the assumption upon which I act is denied; there is no necessity for my putting into words an opinion which has already been stated in the language of action and with such unmistakeable decision.
Did then the ante-Nicene Church as a whole—did its con- gregations of worshippers as well as its councils of divines— did its poor, its young, its unlettered multitudes, as well as its saints and doctors, so act and speak as to imply a belief that Jesus Christ is actually God ?
A question such as this may at first sight seem to be difficult to answer, by reason of the one-sidedness and caprice of history. History for the most part concerns herself with the actions and opinions of the great and the distinguished, that is to say, of the few. Incidentally, or on particular occasions, she may glance at what passes beyond the region of courts and battle-fields; but it is not her wont to enable us readily to ascertain εὖ real
LECT.
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Sesus Christ not only ‘admired’ but ‘adored. 367
currents of thought and feeling which have swayed the minds of multitudes in a distant age.
Such at any rate is the rule with secular history; but the genius of the Church of Christ is of a nature to limit the force of the observation. In her eyes, the interests of the many, the customs, the deeds, the sufferings of the illiterate and of the poor, are, to say the least, not less precious and noteworthy than those of kings and prelates. For the standard of aristocracy within her borders is not an intellectual or a social, but a moral standard; and her Founder has put the highest honour not upon those who rule and are of reputation, but upon those who serve and are unknown. ‘The history of the Christian Church does therefore serve to illustrate the point before us; and it proves the belief of Christian people in the Godhead of Jesus by its witness to the early and universal practice of adoring Him.
The early Christian Church did not content herself with ‘admiring’ Jesus Christ. She adored Him. She approached His glorious Person with that very tribute of prayer, of self- prostration, of self-surrender, by which all serious Theists, whether Christian or non-Christian, are accustomed to express their felt relationship as creatures to the Almighty Creator. For as yet it was not supposed that a higher and truer know- ledge of the Infinite God would lead man to abandon the sense and the.expression of complete dependence upon Him and of unmeasured indebtedness to Him, which befits a reasonable creature whom God has made, and whom God owns and can dispose of, when such a creature is dealing with God. As yet it was not imagined that this bearing would or could be ex- changed for the more easy demeanour of an equal, or of one deeming himself scarcely less than an equal, who is intelligently appreciating the existence of a remarkably wise and powerful Being, entitled by His activities to a very large share of specu- lative attention®. The Church simply adored God; and she
¢ Cf. Lecky, History of Rationalism, i. 309. Contrasting the Christian belief in a God Who can work miracles with the ‘scientific’ belief in a god who is the slave of ‘law,’ Mr. Lecky remarks, that the former ‘pre- disposes us most to prayer,’ the latter to ‘reverence and admiration.’ Here the antithesis between ‘reverence’ and ‘prayer’ seems to imply that the latter word is used in the narrow sense of petition for specific blessings, instead of in the wider sense which embraces the whole compass of the soul’s devotional activity, and among other things, adoration. Still, if Mr. Lecky had meant to include under ‘reverence’ anything higher than we yield to the highest forms of human greatness, he would scarcely have coupled it with ‘admiration,’ vo |
368 ‘Admiration’ and ‘adoration,’
adored Jesus Christ, as believing Him to be God. Nor did she destroy the significance of this act by conceiving that admi- ration differs from adoration only in degree; that a sincere admiration is practically equivalent to adoration; that adoration after all is only admiration raised to the height of an en- thusiasm.
You will not deem it altogether unnecessary, under our present intellectual circumstances, to consider for a moment whether this representation of the relationship between admi- ration and adoration be strictly accurate. So far indeed is this from being the case, that adoration and admiration are at one and the same moment and with reference to a single object mutually exclusive of each other. Certainly, in the strained and exaggerated language of poetry or of passion, you may speak of adoring that on which you lavish an unlimited ad- miration. But the common sense and judgment of men refuses to regard admiration as an embryo form of adoration, or as
other than a fundamentally distinct species of spiritual activity. —
Adoration may be an intensified reverence, but it certainly is not an intensified admiration. The difference between admi- ration and adoration is observable in the difference of their respective objects; and that difference is immeasurable. For, speaking strictly, we admire the finite; we adore the Infinite. Why is this? It is because admiration requires a certain as- sumption of equality with the object admired, an assumption of ideal, if not of literal equality4. Admiration such as is here in question is not a vague unregulated wonder; it involves a judgment; it is a form of criticism. And since it is a criticism, it consists in our internally referring the object which we admire to a criterion. That criterion is an ideal of our own, and the act by which we compare the admired object with the ideal is our own act. We may have borrowed the ideal from another ; and we do not for a moment suppose that we ourselves could give it perfect expression, or even could produce a rival to the object which commands our critical admiration. Yet, after all, the ideal is before us; it is, by right of possession, our own. We take credit to ourselves for possessing it, and for
4 Tt is on this account that the apotheosis of men involves the capital sin of pride in those who decree or sanction not less than in those who accept it. The worshipper is himself the ‘fountain of honour;’ and in ‘deifying’ a fellow-creature, he deifies human nature, and so by implica- tion himself. Wisd. xiv. 20; Acts xii, 22, 23; xiv. 11-15; xxviii. 6; Rom. i. 23. [ LECT.
‘Admiration’ and ‘adoration, 369
comparing the object before us with it; nay, we identify our- selves more or less with this ideal when we compare it with the object before us. When you, my brethren, express your admiration of a good painting, you do not mean to assert that you yourselves could have painted it. But you do imply that you have before your mind an ideal of what a good painting should be, and that you are able to form an opinion as to the correspondence of a particular work of art with that ideal. Thus it is that, whether justifiably or not, your admiration of the painting has the double character of self-appreciation and of patronage. Indeed it may be questioned whether as art-critics, intent upon the beauty of your ideal, you are not much more disposed secretly to claim for yourselves a share of merit than would have been the case if you had been the artist himself whose success you consent to admire; since the artist, we may be sure, is at least conscious of some measure of failure, and is humbled, if not depressed, by a sense of the difficulty of trans- lating his ideal into reality, by the anxieties and struggles which always accompany the process of production.
Now this element of self-esteem, or at any rate of approving reflection upon self, which enters so penetratingly into admira- tion, is utterly incompatible with the existence of genuine adoration. For adoration is no mere prostration of the body ; it is a prostration of the soul. It is reverence carried to the highest point of possible exaggeration. It is mental self-annihil- ation before a Greatness Which utterly transcends all human and finite standards. In That Presence self knows that it has neither plea nor right to any consideration; it is overwhelmed by the sense of its utter insignificance. The adoring soul bends thought and heart and will before the footstool of the One Self- existing, All-creating, All-upholding Being; the soul wills to be as nothing before Him, or to exist only that it may recognise His Glory as altogether surpassing its words and thoughts. If any one element of adoration be its most prominent character- istic, it is this heartfelt uncompromising renunciation of the claims of self.
Certainly admiration may lead up to adoration; but then real admiration dies away when its object is seen to be entitled to something higher than and distinct from it. Admiration ceases when it has perceived that its Object altogether tran- scends any standard of excellence or beauty with which man can compare Him. Admiration may be the ladder by which we mount to adoration; but it is useless, or rather it is an vu | Bb
370 Lhe adoration of Fesus coeval with the Church.
impertinence, when adoration has been reached. Every man of intelligence and modesty meets in life with many objects which call for his free and sincere admiration, and he himself gains both morally and intellectually by answering to such a call. But while the objects of human admiration are as various as the minds and tastes of men,
‘Denique non omnes eadem mirantur amantque,’
One Only Being can be rightfully adored. To ‘admire’ God would involve an irreverence only equal to the impiety of ador- ing a fellow-creature. It would be as reasonable to pay Divine worship to our every-day associates, as to substitute for that incommunicable honour which is due to the Most High some one of the tranquil and self-satisfied forms of a favourable notice with which we greet accomplishments or excellence in our fellow-men. ‘When I saw Him,’ says St. John, speaking of Jesus in His glory, ‘I fell at His feet as dead.’ That was something more than admiration, even the most enthusiastic ; it was an act, in which self had no part; it was an aet of adoration.
If Jesus Christ had been only a morally perfect Man, He would have been entitled to the highest human admiration ; although it may be questioned, as we have seen, whether He can be deemed morally perfect if He is in reality only human. But the historical fact before us is, that from the earliest age of Christianity, Jesus Christ has been adored as God. This adora- tion was not yielded to Him in consequence of the persuasions of theologians who had pronounced Him to be a Divine Person. It had nothing in common with the fulsome and servile insin- cerities which ever and anon rose like incense around the throne of some pagan Cesar who had received the equivocal honour of an apotheosis. It was not the product of a spiritual fascination, too subtle or too strong to be analyzed by those who felt its power, but easy of explanation to a later age. You can- not trace the stages of its progressive development’. You cannot
e Rev. i. 17: ὅτε εἶδον αὐτὸν, ἔπεσα πρὸς τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ ὡς νεκρός.
f The expressions Κυριακὺν δειπνόν, 1 Cor. xi. 20, for the Holy Eucharist, and Κυριακὴ ἡμέρα, Rev. i. 10, are, in this connection, significant. In both cases the adjective undoubtedly refers to Jesus Christ; while the Eucharist corresponds to ‘the Lord’s Passover,’ Exod. xii. 11, and the Lord’s Day to the ‘Sabbath of the Lord thy God,’ Exod. xx. 10. The Gospel Rites are to the Jewish as the substance to the shadow; but their very names suggest that Jesus already has a claim upon the devotion of His people corresponding to that of Jehovah,
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Worship of Fesus during His earthly Life. 371
name the time at which it was regarded only as a pious custom or luxury, and then mark this off from a later period when it had become, in the judgment of Christians, an imperious Christian duty. Never was the adoration of Jesus protested against in the Church as a novelty, derogatory to the honour and claims of God. Never was there an age when Jesus was only ‘invoked’ as if He
had been an interceding saint, by those who had not yet learned
to prostrate themselves before His throne as the throne of the Omnipotent and the Eternal. In vain will you endeavour to establish a parallel between the adoration of Jesus and some modern ‘devotion,’ unknown to the early days of Christendom, but now popularized largely in portions of the Christian Church ; since the adoration of Jesus is as ancient as Christianity. Jesus has been ever adored on the score of His Divine Personality, of Which this tribute of adoration is not merely a legitimate but a necessary acknowledgment.
1. During the days of His earthly life our Lord was surrounded by a varied homage, extending, as it might seem, so far as the intentions of those who offered it were concerned, from the wonted forms of Eastern courtesy up to the most direct and conscious acts of Divine worship. As an Infant, He was ‘ wor- shipped’ by the Eastern sages$; and during His ministry He constantly received and welcomed acts and words expressive of an intense devotion to His Sacred Person on the part of those who sought or who had received from Him some supernatural aid or blessing. The leper worshipped Him, crying out, ‘ Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean}. Jairus worshipped Him, saying, ‘My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay Thy hand upon her, and she shall livei’ The mother of Zebedee’s children came near to Him, worshipping Him, and asking Him to bestow upon her sons the first places of honour in His kingdomj, The woman of Canaan, whose daughter was ‘grievously vexed with a devil,’ ‘came and wor- shipped Him, saying, Lord, help mek.’ The father of the poor lunatic, who met Jesus as He descended from the Mount of Transfiguration, ‘came, kneeling down to Him, and saying,
& St. Matt. 13, 11: πεσόντες προσεκύνησαν αὐτῷ.
n Ibid. viii. 2: Κύριε, ἐὰν θέλῃς, δύνασαί με καθαρίσαι.
i Thid. ix. 18: προσεκύνει αὐτῷ, λέγων, “Ὅτι ἡ θυγάτηρ μου ἄρτι ἐτελεύ- τησεν᾽ ἀλλὰ ἐλθὼν ἐπίθες τὴν χεῖρά σου ἐπ᾽ αὐτὴν, καὶ ζήσεται."
J Ibid. xx. 20: προσῆλθεν αὐτῷ ἣ μήτηρ τῶν υἱῶν Ζεβεδαίου μετὰ τῶν υἱῶν αὐτῆς, προσκυνοῦσα καὶ αἰτοῦσά τι παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ.
k Ibid. xv. 25: i δὲ ἐλθοῦσα προσεκύνει αὐτῷ, λέγουσα, “ Κύριε βοήθει μοι." vir | Bba
372 Worship of Fesus during His earthly Life.
‘Lord, have mercy on my son!.’ These are instances of worship accompanying prayers for special mercies. And did not the dying thief offer at least a true inward worship to the Crucified Ruler of the unseen world, while he uttered the words, ‘Remem- ber me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom ™’ ?
At other times such visible ‘worship’ of our Saviour was an act of acknowledgment or of thanksgiving for mercies received. Thus it was with the grateful Samaritan leper, who, ‘when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks®.’ Thus it was when Jesus had appeared walking on the sea and had quieted the storm, and ‘they that were in the ship came and worshipped Him, saying, Of a truth Thou art the Son of God. Thus too was it after the miraculous draught of fishes, that St. Peter, astonished at the greatness of the miracle, ‘fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me ; for I am a sinful man, O Lord®” Thus the penitent, ‘when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping, and began to wash His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment.’ Thus again when the man
born blind confesses his faith in ‘the Son of God,’ he accompa- nies the confession by an act of adoration. ‘And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him4,’ Thus the holy women,
1 St. Matt. xvii. 14, 15: προσῆλθεν αὐτῷ ἄνθρωπος γονυπετῶν αὐτῷ, καὶ λέγων, ‘Kupie, ἐλέησόν μου τὸν υἱόν.᾽
m St. Luke xxiii. 42: ἔλεγε τῷ ᾿Ιησοῦ, μνήσθητί μου, Κύριε [Ἰησοῦ, Tisch, ed. 8, Tregell.] ὅταν ἔλθῃς ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ cov.
π St. Luke xvii. 15, 16: εἷς δὲ ἐξ αὐτῶν, ἰδὼν ὅτι ἰάθη, ὑπέστρεψε, μετὰ φωνῆς μεγάλης δοξάζων τὸν Θεόν" καὶ ἔπεσεν ἐπὶ πρόσωπον παρὰ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ, εὐχαριστῶν αὐτῷ. That εὐχαριστεῖν is not used in the Apostolic Epistles with reference to Christ may possibly be explained as an early anticipation of the devotional instinct referred to in Lect. vii. 397.
© St. Matt. xiv. 32, 33: ἐκόπασεν ὃ ἄνεμος" of δὲ ἐν TH πλοιῳ ἐλθόντες προσεκύνησαν αὐτῷ, λέγοντες, “᾿Αληθῶς Θεοῦ Υἱὸς el.’ St. Luke v. 8: ἰδὼν δὲ Σίμων Πέτρος προσέπεσε τοῖς γόνασι τοῦ ᾿Ιησοῦ, λέγων, “Ἔξελθε ἀπ᾽ ἐμοῦ, ὅτι ἀνὴρ ἁμαρτωλός εἶμι, Κύριε.᾽
P St. Luke vii. 37, 38: κομίσασα ἀλάβαστρον μύρου, καὶ στᾶσα παρὰ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ ὀπίσω κλαίουσα, ἤρξατο βρέχειν τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ τοῖς δάκρυσι, καὶ ταῖς θριξὶ τῆς κεφαλῆς αὐτῆς ἐξέμασσε, καὶ κατεφίλει τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἤλειφε τῷ μύρῳ. These actions were expressive of a passionate devotion ; they had no object beyond expressing it.
4 St. John ix. 35-38: ἤκουσεν ὁ Ἰησοῦς ὅτι ἐξέβαλον αὐτὸν ἔξω" καὶ εὑρὼν αὐτὸν, εἶπεν αὐτῷ, " Σὺ πιστεύεις εἰς τὸν Ὑἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ ;) ᾿Απεκρίθη ice καὶ
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Gradations in the worship offered to Fesus. 373
when the Risen ‘Jesus met them, saying, “All hail,” came... and held Him by the feet, and worshipped Himt. Thus apparently Mary of Magdala, in her deep devotion, had motioned to embrace His feet in the garden, when Jesus bade her ‘ Touch Me not§.’ Thus the eleven disciples met our Lord by appoint- ment on a mountain in Galilee, and ‘when they saw Him,’ as it would seem, in their joy and fear, ‘they worshipped Him t’ Thus, pre-eminently, St. Thomas uses the language of adoration, although it is not said to have been accompanied by any corre- sponding outward act. When, in reproof for his scepticism, he had been bidden to probe the Wounds of Jesus, he burst forth into the adoring confession, ‘My Lord and my God®.’ Thus, when the Ascending Jesus was being borne upwards into heaven, the disciples, as if thanking Him for His great glory, worshipped Him; and then ‘returned to Jerusalem with great joy x.’
It may be that in some of these instances the ‘worship’ paid to Jesus did not express more than a profound reverence. Sometimes He was ‘worshipped’ as a Superhuman Person, wield- ing superhuman powers; sometimes He was worshipped by those who instinctively felt His moral majesty, which forced them, they knew not how, upon their knees. But if He had been only a ‘good man,’ He must have checked such worship 9.
εἶπε, “Τίς ἐστι, Κύριε, ἵνα πιστεύσω eis a’téy;’ Εἶπε δὲ αὐτῷ ὃ ᾿Ιησοῦς, ‘ Καὶ ἑώρακας αὐτὸν, καὶ ὁ λαλῶν μετὰ σοῦ, ἐκεῖνός ἐστιν. ‘O δὲ ἔφη, " Πιστεύω, Κύριε" ᾽ καὶ προσεκύνησεν αὐτῷ.
τ St. Matt. xxviii. 9: 6 ᾿Ιησοῦς ἀπήντησεν αὐταῖς, λέγων, " Χαίρετε. Αἱ δὲ προσελθοῦσαι ἐκράτησαν αὐτοῦ τοὺς πόδας, καὶ προσεκύνησαν αὐτῷ. *
® St. John xx. 17.
t St. Matt. xxviii. 17: καὶ ἰδόντες αὐτὸν, προσεκύνησαν αὐτῷ" of δὲ ἐδίστα- σαν. If some doubted, the worship offered by the rest may be presumed to have been a very deliberate act. For the use of προσκυνεῖν in the strict sense of adoring the Deity, cf. St. Matt. iv. 9, 10; St.John iv. 23, 24; Rev. X1x. 10.
u St. John xx. 28: καὶ ἀπεκρίθη 6 Θωμᾶς, καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ, “Ὃ Κύριός μου καὶ ὁ Θεός μου’ Against the attempt of Theodore of Mopsuestia and others to resolve this into an ejaculation addressed to the Father, see Alford in loc.; Pye Smith on Messiah, ii. 53. The αὐτῷ is of itself decisive.
x St. Luke xxiv. 51, 52: καὶ ἀνεφέρετο εἰς τὸν οὐρανόν. καὶ αὐτοὶ προσ- κυνήσαντες αὐτὸν, ὑπέστρεψαν εἰς ἹΙερουσαλὴμ μετὰ χαρᾶς μεγάλης.
¥ This consideration is remarkably overlooked by Channing, who might have been expected to feel its force. Channing is ‘sure’ that ‘the worship paid to Christ during His public ministry was rendered to Him only as a Divine Messenger.’ But prophets and Apostles were messengers from God. Why were they not worshipped? Channing insists further that such titles as ‘Son of David,’ shew that those who used them had no thought of Christ’s being ‘the Self-existent Infinite Divinity.’ It may be true that the full vu
374 Adoration of Fesus Glorified.
He had Himself re-affirmed the foundation-law of the religion of Israel: ‘Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve%.’ Yet He never hints that danger lurked in this prostration of hearts and wills before Himself; He wel- comes, by a tacit approval, this profound homage of which He is the Object. His rebuke to the rich young man implies, not that He Himself had no real claim to be called ‘Good Master,’ but that such a title, in the mouth of the person before Him, was an unmeaning compliment®. He seems to invite prayer to Himself, even for the highest spiritual blessings, in such words as those which He addressed to the woman of Samaria: ‘If thou knewest the gift of God, and Who it is that saith unto thee, Give Me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water>.’ He predicts indeed a time when the spiritual curiosity of His disciples would be satisfied in the joy of perfectly possessing Him; but He nowhere hints that He would Himself cease to receive their prayers °¢, He claims all the varied homage which the sons of men, in their want and fulness, in their joy and sorrow, may rightfully and profitably pay to the Eternal Father; all men are to ‘honour the Son even as they honour the Father,’
2. Certain it is that no sooner had Christ been lifted up from the earth, in death and in glory, than He forthwith began to draw all men unto Him4, This attraction expressed itself,
truth of His Divine Nature was not known to these first worshippers; but it does not hold good that a particular title employed in prayer exhausts the idea which the petitioner has formed of the Person whom he addresses. Above all Channing urges the indifference of the Jews ‘to the frequent prostrations of men before Jesus.’ He thinks this indifference unintelligible on the supposition of their believing such prostrations to involve the pay- ment of divine honours. That many of these prostrations were not designed to involve anything so definite is freely conceded. That the Jews suspected the intention to honour Christ’s Divinity in none of them would not prove that none of them were designed to honour It. The Jews were not present at the confession of St. Thomas after the Resurrection; but there is no reasonable room for questioning either the devotional purpose or the theo- logical force of the Apostle’s exclamation, ‘My Lord and my God. > But see Channing, Works, ii. 194.
® St. Matt. iv. Io.
® See Lect. iv. 196.
b St. John i iv. το: εἰ ἤδεις Thy δωρεὰν τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ τίς ἐστιν ὃ λέγων σοι, "Ads μοι πιεῖν, σὺ ἂν ἤτησας αὐτὸν, καὶ ἔδωκεν ἄν σοι ὕδωρ (ῶν.
© Thid. xvi. 2a: πάλιν δὲ ὄψομαι ὑ ὑμᾶς, καὶ χαρήσεται ὑμῶν ἣ καρδία, καὶ τὴν χαρὰν ὑμῶν οὐδεὶς αἴρει ἀφ᾽ ὑμῶν" καὶ ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐμὲ οὐκ ἐρωτήσετε οὐδέν. Here ἐρωτήσετε clearly means ‘question,’
4 Ibid. xii, 32.
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Early apostolic prayers to Fesus Glorified. 375
not merely in an assent to His teaching, but in the worship of His Person. No sooner had He ascended to His throne than there burst upwards from the heart of His Church a tide of adoration which has only become wider and deeper with the lapse of time. In the first days of the Church, Christians were known as ‘those who called upon the name of Jesus Christ ®.’ Prayer to Jesus Christ, so far from being a devotional eccentricity, was the universal practice of Christians; it was the act of devotion which specially characterized a Christian. It would seem more than probable that the prayer offered by the assembled apostles at the election of St. Matthias, was addressed to Jesus glorifiedf A few months later the
ὁ Thus Ananias pleads to our Lord that Saul ‘hath authority from the chief priests to b'nd πάντας τοὺς ἐπικαλουμένους τὸ bvoud σου. (Acts ix. 14.) On St. Paul’s first preaching in Jerusalem, ‘ All that heard him were amazed, and said, Is not this he that destroyed in Jerusalem τοὺς ἐπικαλουμένους τὸ ὄνομα τοῦτο" (Ibid. ver. 21.) Thus the title was applied to Christians both by themselves and by Jews outside the Church. In after years St. Paul inserts it at the beginning of his first Epistle to the Corinthians, which is addressed to the Church of God at Corinth σὺν πᾶσι τοῖς ἐπικαλουμένοις τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. (1 Cor. i. 2.) The expression is illustrated by the dying prayer of St. Stephen, whom his murderers stoned ἐπικαλούμενον καὶ λέγοντα, ‘ Κύριε Ἰησοῦ, δέξαι τὸ πνεῦμά mov.” (Acts Vii. 59.) It cannot be doubted that in Acts xxii. 16, 2 Tim. ii. 22, the Person Who is addressed is our Lord Jesus Christ. ᾿Ἐπικαλεῖσθαι is not followed by an accusative except in the sense of appealing to God or man. Its meaning is clear when it is used of prayer to the Eternal Father, 1 St. Pet. i. 17; Acts ii. 21 (but cf. Rom. x. 13); or of appeal to Him, 2 Cor. i. 23; or of appeal to a human judge, Acts xxv. II, 12, 21, 25; xXXVl. 32, xxviii. 19. Its passive use occurs in texts of a different construction: Acts iv. 30; x. 18; xii, 12; xv. 173; Heb. xi. 16; St. James ii. 7.
τ Actsi. 24: καὶ προσευξάμενοι εἶπον, “ Σὺ Κύριε καρδιογνῶστα πάντων, ἀνά- δειξον ἐκ τούτων τῶν δύο ἕνα ὃν ἐξελέξω᾽ κιτιλ. The selection of the twelve apostles is always ascribed to Jesus Christ. Acts i. 2: ods ἐξελέξατο, St. Luke vi. 13: προσεφώνησε τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ" Kal ἐκλεξάμενος an’ αὐτῶν δώδεκα, ods Kal ἀποστόλους ὠνόμασε. St.John vi. 7o: οὐκ ἐγὼ ὑμᾶς τοὺς δώδεκα ἐξελεξάμην ; Ibid. xiii. 18: ἐγὼ οἶδα ods ἐξελεξάμην. Ibid. xv. 16: οὐχ ὑμεῖς με ἐξελέξασθε, ἀλλ᾽ ἐγὼ ἐξελεξάμην ὑμᾶς. Ibid. ver. 19: ἐγὼ ἐξελεξάμην ὑμᾶς ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου. Meyer quotes Acts xv. 7: 6 Θεὸς ἐξελέξατο διὰ τοῦ στόματός μου ἀκοῦσαι τὰ ἔθνη τὸν λόγον τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, in order to shew that the Eternal Father must have been addressed. But this assumes that Θεός can have no reference to our Lord. Moreover St. Peter is clearly referring, not to his original call to the apostolate, but to his being directed to evangelize the Gentiles. St. Paul was indeed accustomed to trace up his apostleship to the Eternal Father as the ultimate Source of all authority (Gal. i. 15; 2 Cor.i.1; Eph. 1.1; 2 Tim.i. 1); but this is not inconsistent with the fact that Jesus Christ chose and sent all the apostles, and in par- ticular himself: 1 Tim. i. 12, θέμενος εἰς διακονίαν : Rom. i. 5, δι’ οὗ ἐλάβομεν Σ καὶ ἀποστολήν. The epithet καρδιογνώστησ, and still more the word Vil
376 The dying prayer of St. Stephen.
dying martyr St. Stephen passed to his crown. His last cry was a prayer to our Lord, moulded upon two of the seven sayings which our Lord Himself had uttered on the Cross. Jesus had prayed the Father to forgive His executioners. Jesus had commended His Spirit into the Father's hands&. The words which are addressed by Jesus to the Father, are by St. Stephen addressed to Jesus. To Jesus Stephen turns in that moment of supreme agony; to Jesus he prays for pardon on his murderers; to Jesus, as to the King of the world of spirits, he commends his parting soul. It is suggested that St. Stephen’s words were ‘ only an ejaculation forced from him in the extremity of his anguish, and that as such they are ‘highly unfitted to be made the premiss of a theological in- ference. But the question is, whether the earliest apostolical Church did or did not pray to Jesus Christ. And St. Stephen’s dying prayer is strictly to the point. An ‘ejaculation’ may shew more clearly than any set formal prayer the ordinary currents of devotional thought and feeling; an ejaculation is more instinctive, more spontaneous, and therefore a truer index of a man’s real mind, than a prayer which has been used for years. And how could the martyr’s cry to Jesus have been the product of a ‘thoughtless impulse’? Dying men do not cling to devotional fancies or to precarious opinions; the soul in its last agony instinctively falls back upon its deepest certainties. Nor can the unpremeditated ejaculation of a person dying in shame and torture be credited with that element of dramatic artifice which may in rare cases have coloured parting words and actions when, alas! on the brink of eternity, men have thought more of a ‘place in history’ than of the awful Presence into which they were hastening. Is it hinted that St. Stephen was a recent convert, not yet entirely instructed in the complete faith and mind of the apostles, and not unlikely to exaggerate par- ticular features of their teaching? But St. Stephen is expressly described as a man ‘full of faith and of the Holy Ghost δ,
Κύριος, are equally applicable to the Father and to Jesus Christ. For the former, see St. John i. 49, ii. 25, vi. 64, xvi. 30, xxi. 17; Rev. ii. 23. It was natural that the apostles should thus apply to Jesus Christ to fill up the vacant chair, unless they had believed Him to be out of the reach of prayer or incapable of helping them. See Alford and Ols. in loc.; Baum- garten’s Apost. Hist. in loc.; Waterland, Works, ii. 555.
& Acts vii. 59, 60: ἐλιθοβόλουν τὸν Στέφανον, ἐπικαλούμενον καὶ λέγοντα, “Κύριε Ἰησοῦ, δέξαι τὸ πνεῦμά pou.’ Θεὶς δὲ τὰ γόνατα, ἔκραξε φωνῇ μεγάλῃ, “Κύριε, μὴ στήσῃς αὐτοῖς τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ταὐτην.᾽
D Acts vi. 5: ἄνδρα πλήρη πίστεως καὶ Πνεύματος ᾿Αγίου.
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Prayer of Ananias to Fesus Christ. 377
As such he had-recently been chosen to fill an important office in the Church; and as a prominent missionary and apologist of the Gospel he might seem almost to have taken rank with the apostles themselves. Is it urged that St. Stephen’s prayer was offered under the exceptional circumstances of a vision of Christ vouchsafed in mercy to His dying servanti? But it does not enter into the definition of prayer or worship that it must of necessity be addressed to an invisible Person. And the vision of Jesus standing at the right hand of God may have differed in the degree of sensible clearness, but in its general nature it did not differ, from that sight upon which the eye of every dying Christian has rested from the beginning. St. Stephen would not have prayed to Jesus Christ then, if he had never prayed to Him before; the vision of Jesus would not have tempted him to innovate upon the devotional law of his life; the sight of Jesus would have only carried him in thought upwards to the Father, if the Father alone had been the Object of the Clurch’s earliest adoration. St. Stephen would never have prayed to Jesus, if he had been taught that such prayer was hostile to the supreme prerogatives of God; and the apostles, as mono- theists, must have taught him thus, unless they had believed that Jesus is God, Who with the Father is worshipped and glorified.
Indeed St. Stephen’s prayer may be illustrated, so far as this point is concerned, by that of Ananias at Damascus. To Ananias Jesus appeared in a vision, and desired him to go to the newly- converted Saul of Tarsus ‘in the street that is called Straight.’ The reply of Ananias is an instance of that species of prayer in which the soul trustfully converses with God even to the verge of argument and remonstrancej, while yet it is controlled by the deepest sense of God’s awful greatness: ‘Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to Thy saints at Jerusalem: and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on Thy Namek,’ Our Lord overrules the
! So apparently Meyer in loc.: ‘Das Stephanus Jesum anrief, war héchst natiirlich, da er eben Jesum fiir ihn bereit stehend gesehen hatte.’
J For similar colloquies with God in prayers, see Gen. xviii. 23-33; Exod. iv. 10-13; 1 Kings xx. 14; Jer. i. 6-9; Jonah iv. 9, 10; Acts x. 13-15. Compare Ps. lxxiv. 1-11; Ps, xliv. passim, and Imitat, Christi, Lib. iii. 17, etc.
* Acts ix. 13, 14: Κύριε, ἀκήκοα ἀπὸ πολλῶν περὶ τοῦ ἀνδρὺς τούτου, ὅσα κακὰ ἐποίησε τοῖς ἁγίοις σου ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ᾽ καὶ ὧδε ἔχει ἐξουσίαν παρὰ τῶν ee δῆσαι πάντας τοὺς ἐπικαλουμένους τὸ ὄνομά σου.
Vil
378 St. Paul's first prayers to Fesus.
objections of His servant. But what man has not at times prayed for exemption, when God has made it plain that He wills him to undertake some difficult duty, or to embrace some sharp and heavy cross? Who has not pleaded with God the claims of His interests and His honour against what appears to be His Will, so long as it has been possible to doubt whether His Will is really what it seems to be? Ananias’ ‘ remonstrance’ is a prayer; it is a spiritual colloquy; it is a form of prayer which implies daily, hourly familiarity with its Object; it is the language of a soul habituated to constant communion with Jesus. It shews very remarkably how completely Jesus occupies the whole field of vision in the soul of His servant. The ‘saints’ whom Saul of Tarsus has persecuted at Jerusalem, are the ‘saints,’ it is not said of God, but of Jesus; the Name which is called upon by those whom Saul has authority to bind at Damascus, is the Name of Jesus. Ananias does not glance at One higher than Jesus, as if Jesus were lower than God; Jesus is to Ananias his God, the Recipient of his worship, and yet the Friend before Whom he can plead the secret thoughts of his heart with earnestness and freedom.
But he to whom, at the crisis of a far greater destiny, Ana- nias brought consolation and relief from Jesus, was himself conspicuous for his devotion to the adorable Person of our Lord|. Even at the very moment of his conversion, Saul of Tarsus sought guidance from Jesus Christ in prayer, as from the lawful Lord of his being. ‘Lord, he cried, ‘what shall I do™?’ And when afterwards in the temple our Lord bade St. Paul, ‘Make haste and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem,’ we find the Apostle, like Ananias, unfolding to Jesus his secret thoughts, his fears, his regrets, his confessions; laying them out before Him, and waiting for an answer from Jesus in the secret chambers of his soul, Indeed St. Paul constantly uses lan- guage which shews that he habitually thought of Jesus as of Divine Providence in a Human Form, watching over, befriending, consoling, guiding, providing for him and his, with Infinite fore-
1 That Acts ix. 11, ἰδοὺ γὰρ προτεύχεται, refers to prayers addressed to Christ is rendered at least probable by the prayers of St. Paul at his con- version and in the temple. Acts xxii. 10, 19, 20. For the use of πρυσεύ- χεσθαι, of prayer to Christ, see Acts i. 24.
τὰ Acts xxii. 10, τί ποιήσω, Κύριε ;
n Ibid. vers. 19, 20: Κύριε, ty ἐπίστανται, ὅτι ἐγὼ ἤμην φυλακίζων καὶ δέρων κατὰ τὰς συναγωγὰς τοὺς πιστεύοντας ἐπὶ σέ" καὶ ὅτε ἐξεχεῖτο τὸ αἷμσ Στεφάνου τοῦ μάρτυρός σου, καὶ αὐτὸς ἤμην ἐφεστὼς καὶ συνευδοκῶν τῇ ἀναι- ρέσει αὐτοῦ, καὶ φυλάσσων τὰ ἱμάτια τῶν ἀναιρούντων αὑτόν.
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Prayer to Fesus tn St. Paul’s Epistles. 379
sight and power, but also with the tenderness of a human sym- pathy. In this sense Jesus is placed on a level with the Father in St. Paul’s two earliest Epistles. ‘Now God Himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you°;’ ‘Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, Which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts,and stablish you in every good word and work.’ Thus Jesus is associated with the Father, in one instance as directing the outward movements of the Apostle’s life, in another as building up the inward life of the recent converts to Christianity. In other devotional ex- pressions the Name of Jesus stands alone. “1 trust in the Lord Jesus,’ so the Apostle writes to the Philippians, ‘to send Timo- theus shortly unto you’. ‘I thank Christ Jesus our Lord,’ so he assures St. Timothy, ‘ Who hath given me power, for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry". Is not this the natural language of a soul which is constantly engaged in communion with Jesus, whether it be the communion of praise or the communion of prayer? Jesus is to St. Paul, not a deceased teacher or philanthropist, who has simply done his great work and then has left it as a legacy to the world; He is God, ever living and ever present, the Giver of temporal and of spiritual blessings, the Guide and Friend of man both in man’s outward and in his inward life. If we had no explicit records of prayers offered by St. Paul to Jesus, we might be sure that such prayers were offered, since otherwise the language which he employs could not have been used. But, in point of fact, the Apostle has not left us in doubt as to his faith or his practice in this respect. ‘If, he asserts, ‘thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with
© 1 Thess. iii, 11: Αὐτὸς δὲ 5 Θεὸς καὶ Πατὴρ ἡμῶν, καὶ ὃ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς, κατευθύναι τὴν ὁδὸν ἡμῶν πρὸς ὑμᾶς.
P 2 Thess, ii. 16, 17: αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς, καὶ ὃ Θεὸς καὶ Πατὴρ ἡμῶν, 6 ἀγαπήσας ἡμᾶς καὶ δοὺς παράκλησιν αἰωνίαν καὶ ἐλπίδα ἀγαθὴν ἐν χάριτι; παρακαλέσαι ὑμῶν τὰς καρδίας, καὶ στηρίξαι ὑμᾶς ἐν παντὶ λόγῳ καὶ ἔργῳ ἀγαθῷ.
4 Phil. ii. 19: ἐλπίζω δὲ ἐν Κυρίῳ Ἰησοῦ, Τιμόθεον ταχέως πέμψαι. ‘This hope was ἐν Κυρίῳ Ἰησοῦ : it rested and centred in Him; it arose from no extraneous feelings or expectations, and so would doubtless be fulfilled.’ Bp. Ellicott in loc. Compare, too, Bp. Lightfoot in loc.
τα Tim.i. 12: καὶ χάριν ἔχω τῷ ἐνδυναμώσαντί με Χριστῷ ᾿Ιησοῦ τῷ Κυρίῳ ἡμῶν, ὅτι πιστόν με ἡγήσατο, θέμενος εἰς διακονίαν. vu |
380 Prayer to Fesus
the mouth confession is made to salvation. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the Same is Lord over all, rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved 8,’ The prophet Joel had used these last words of prayer to the Lord Jehovah. St. Paul, as the whole context shews beyond reasonable doubt, understands them of prayer to Jesus t. And what are the Apostle’s benedictions in the name of Christ but indirect prayers offered to Christ that His blessing might be vouchsafed to the Churches which the Apostle is addressing ? ‘Grace be to you from God our Father, and from the Lord» Jesus Christ’ ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all’. Or what shall we say of St. Paul’s entreaties that he might be freed from the mysterious and humiliating infirmity which he terms his ‘thorn in the flesh’? He tells us that three times he besought the Lord Jesus Christ that it might depart from him, and that in mercy his prayer was refused ¥. Are we to imagine that that prayer to Jesus was an isolated act in St. Paul’s spiritual life? Does any such religious act stand alone in the spiritual history of an ear- nest and moderately consistent man? Apostles believed that
5. Rom. x. 9-13: ἐὰν ὁμολογήσῃς ἐν τῷ στόματί σου Κύριον ᾿Ιησοῦν, καὶ πιστεύσῃς ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ σου ὅτι ὁ Θεὸς αὐτὸν ἤγειρεν ἐκ νεκρῶν, σωθήσῃ" καρδίᾳ γὰρ πιστεύεται εἰς δικαιοσύνην, στόματι δὲ ὁμολογεῖται εἰς σωτηρίαν. Λέγει “γὰρ ἡ γραφὴ, ‘Tas ὃ πιστεύων ἐπ᾽ αὐτῷ οὐ καταισχυνθήσεται.͵ Οὐ γάρ ἐστι διαστολὴ ᾿Ιουδαίου τε καὶ Ἕλληνος" 6 γὰρ αὐτὸς Κύριος πάντων, πλουτῶν εἰς πάντας τοὺς ἐπικαλουμένους αὐτόν. “Πᾶς γὰρ ὃς ἂν ἐπικαλέσηται τὸ ὄνομα Κυρίου, σωθήσεται. Of. Isa, xxviii. 16; Joel ii. 32. Here St. Paul applies to Jesus the language which prophets had used of the Lord Jehovah. ΟΣ, Acts ii, 21,
t Cf. Meyer in Rom. x. 12: ὁ γὰρ αὐτὸς Κύριος πάντων. ‘ Dieser Κύριος ist Christus, der αὐτός ver. 11 und der mit diesem αὐτός nothwendig iden- tische Κύριος ver. 13. Wire Gott (i.e. the Father) gemeint, so mtisste man grade den christlichen Charakter der Beweisfiihrung erst hinzutragen (wie Olsh. : ‘Gott in Christo’), was aber willkiirlich wire.’ For Κύριος πάντων, see Phil. ii. 11. Cf. St. Chrys. in loe,
8. Cor. i.-3.
τ Rom. xvi. 20; ef. Rom. i. 7.
Ww 2 Cor. xii. 8,9: ὑπὲρ τούτου τρὶς τὸν Κύριον παρεκάλεσα, ἵνα ἀποστῇ am ἐμοῦ" καὶ εἴρηκέ μοι, “᾽Αρκεῖ σοι ἣ χάρις μου 7 γὰρ δύναμίς μου ἐν ἀσθενείᾳ τελειοῦται. ἥδιστα οὖν μᾶλλον καυχήσομαι ἐν ταῖς ἀσθενείαις μου, ἵνα ἐπι- σκηνώσῃ ἐπ᾽ ἐμὲ ἡ δύναμις τοῦ Χριστοῦ. Meyer in loc.: “ τὸν Κύριον. nicht Gott (the Father), sondern Christum (Β. v. 9, ἡ δύναμις τοῦ Χριστοῦ), der ja der miichtige Bezwinger des Satan’s ist... .. Wie Paulus die Antwort, den xpnuatiouds (Matt. ii. 12: Luk. ii, 6: Act. x. 22) von Christo emp- fangen habe, ist uns vollig unbekannt.’
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when the First-begotten was brought into the inhabited world, the angels of heaven were bidden to worship Himx. They declared Him ¥, when His day of humiliation and suffering had ended, to have been so highly exalted that the Name which He had borne on earth, and which is the symbol of His Humanity, was now the very atmosphere and nutriment of all the upward
= Heb. 1.6: ὕταν δὲ πάλιν εἰσαγάγῃ τὸν πρωτότοκον εἰς τὴν οἰκουμένην, λέγει, ‘Kal προσκυνησότωσαν αὐτῷ πάντες ἄγγελοι Ocod.’ On this passage see the exhaustive note of Delitzsch, Comm. zum. Br. an die Hebréer, pp. 24-29. ‘Die LXX. iibers. hier ganz richtig προσκυνήσατε, denn wnAwn ist
ja kein praet. consec., und Augustin macht die den rechten Sinn treffende schéne Bemerkung: adorate Eum ;” cessat igitur adoratio angelorum, qui non adorantur, sed adorant; mali angeli volunt adorari, boni adorant nec se adorari permittunt, ut vel saltem eorum exemplo idolatrie cessent.’ Es fragt sich nun aber: mit welchem Rechte oder auch nur auf welchem Grunde bezieht der Verf. eine Stelle, die von Jehova handelt, auf Christum?’ After discussing some unsatisfactory replies, he proceeds: ‘Der Grundsatz, von welchem der Verf. ausgeht, ist... . dieser: Ueberall wo im A. T. von einer endzeitigen letztentscheidenden Zukunft (Parusie), Erscheinung und Erweis- ung Jehova’s in seiner zugleich richterlichen und heilwartigen Macht und Herrlichkeit die Rede ist, von einer gegenbildlich zur mosaischen Zeit sich verhaltenden Offenbarung Jehova’s, von einer Selbstdarstellung Jehova’s als Koénigs seines Reiches: da ist Jehova=Jesus Christus; denn dieser ist Jehova, geoffenbaret im Fleisch; Jehova, eingetreten in die Menscheit und ihre Geschichte; Jehova, aufgegangen als Sonne des Heils iiber seinem Volke. Dieser Grundsatz ist auch unumstésslich wahr; auf ihm ruht der heilsgeschichtliche Zusammenhang, die tiefinnerste Einheit beider Testa- mente. Alle neutest. Schriftsteller sind dieses Bewusstseins voll, welches sich gleich auf der Schwelle der evangelischen Geschichte ausspricht ; denn dem ‘7 ov soll Elia vorausgehn Mal. iii. 23 f. und πρὸ προσώπου Κυρίου Johannes Le. i. 76, vgl. 17. Darum sind auch alle Psalmen in welchen die Verwirklichung des weltiiberwindenden Kénigthums Jehova’s besungen wird, messianisch und werden von unserem Verf. als solche betrachtet, denn die schliessliche Glorie der Theokratie ist nach heilsgeschichtlichem Plane keine andere als die der Christokratie, das Reich Jehova’s und das Reich Christi ist Eines.’
¥ Phil. ii. 9, 10: 6 Θεὸς αὐτὸν ὑπερύψωσε, καὶ ἐχαρίσατο αὐτῷ ὄνομα τὸ ὑπὲρ πᾶν ὄνομα' ἵνα ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι Ἰησοῦ πᾶν γόνυ κάμψῃ ἐπουρανίων καὶ ἐπι- yelwv καὶ καταχθονίων" καὶ πᾶσα γλῶσσα ἐξομολογήσηται ὅτι Κύριος Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς εἰς δόξαν Θεοῦ Πατρός. See Alford in loc.: ‘The general aim of the passage is... . the exaltation of Jesus. The εἰς δόξαν Θεοῦ Πατρός below is no deduction from this, but rather an additional reason why we should carry on the exaltation of Jesus until this new particular is in- troduced, This would lead us to infer that the universal prayer is to be to Jesus. And this view is confirmed by the next clause, where every tongue is to confess that Jesus Christ is Κύριος, when we remember the common expression, ἐπικαλεῖσθαι τὸ ὕ ὄνομα Κυρίου, for prayer. Rom x. 12; 1 Cor. i. 2; 2 Tim. ii. 22.’ For ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι, comp. 1 Kings viii. 44, LXX; Ps. xliv. 10. Bp. Lightfoot in loc.: ‘It seems clear from the context that the Name of Jesus is not only the medium, but the object of adoration.’
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382 St. Fohn on prayer to the Son of Gon.
torrents of prayer which rise from the moral world beneath His throne; that as the God-Man He was worshipped by angels, by men, and by the spirits of the dead. The practice of the Apostles did but illustrate their faith; and the prayers offered to Jesus by His servants on earth were believed to be but a reflection of that worship which is offered to Him by the Church of heaven. If this belief is less clearly traceable in the brief Epistles of St. Peter, it is especially observable in St. John. St. John is speaking of the Son of God, when he exclaims, ‘ This is the con- fidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His Will, He heareth us: and if we know that He hear us, .... we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.’ These petitions of the earthly Church correspond to the adoration above, where the wounded Humanity of our Lord is throned in the highest heavens. ‘I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne .... stood a Lamb as It had been slain.’ Around Him are three concentric circles of adoration. The inmost pro- ceeds from the four mysterious creatures and the four and twenty elders who ‘have harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of the saints¢.’ These are the courtiers who are placed on the very steps of the throne; they represent more distant worshippers. But they too fall down before the throne, and sing the new song which is addressed to the Lamb slain and glorified 4: ‘Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy Blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth®.” Around these, at a greater
* Yet 1 St. Pet. iv. 11 is a doxology ‘framed, as it might seem, for com- mon use on earth and in heaven.’ See also 2 St. Pet. 111, 18.
δα St. John v. 13-15: ἵνα πιστεύητε εἰς τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Tiod τοῦ Θεοῦ. Καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἣ παῤῥησία ἣν ἔχομεν πρὸς αὐτὸν, ὅτε ἐάν τι αἰτώμεθα κατὰ τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ, ἀκούει ἡμῶν καὶ ἐὰν οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἀκούει ἡμῶν, ὃ ἂν αἰτώμεθα, οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἔχομεν τὰ αἰτήματα ἃ ἠτήκαμεν παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ. The natural con- struction of this passage seems to oblige us to refer αὐτοῦ and τὸ θέλημα to the Son of God (ver. 13). The passage 1 St. John iii. 21, 22 does not for- bid this; it only shews how fully, in St. John’s mind, the honour and prerogatives of the Son are those of the Father.
b Rev. νυ. 6: καὶ εἶδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ θρόνου καὶ τῶν τεσσάρων ζώων καὶ ἐν μέσῳ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων, ἀρνίον ἑστηκὸς ὡς ἐσφαγμένον.
© Ibid. ver. 8: ἔχοντες ἕκαστος κιθάρας, καὶ φιάλας χρυσᾶς γεμούσας θυμια- μάτων, αἵ εἰσιν αἱ προσευχαὶ τῶν ἁγίων.
4 Thid.: ἔπεσον ἐνώπιον τοῦ apviov.... καὶ ἄδουσιν φδὴν καινήν.
© Ibid. ver. 9: ἐσφάγης, καὶ nydpacas τῷ Θεῷ ἡμᾶς ἐν τῷ αἵματί σου, ἐκ πάσης φυλῆς καὶ γλώσσηξ καὶ λαοῦ καὶ ἔθνους, καὶ ἐποίησας ἡμᾶς τῷ Θεῷ ἡμῶν βασιλεῖς καὶ ἱερεῖς" καὶ βασιλεύσομεν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς.
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The adoration of the spotless Lamb. — 383
distance from the Most Holy, there is a countless company of worshippers: ‘I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the creatures and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb That was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing £.’ Beyond these again, the entranced Apostle discerns a third sphere in which a perpetual worship is maintained. Lying outside the two inner circles of conscious adoration offered by the heavenly intelligences, there is in St. John’s vision an assemblage of all created life, which, whether it wills or not, lives for Christ’s as for the Father’s glory: ‘And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and ah 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 ever8.’ This is the hymn of the whole visible creation, and to it a response comes from the inmost circle of adoring beings, ratifying and harmonizing this sublime movement of universal life: ‘ And the four creatures said, Amen,’ And how does the redeemed Church on earth bear her part in the universal chorus of praise? ‘Unto Him That loved us, and washed us from our sins in His Own Blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father ; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Ameni,’ It is surely impossible to mistake the force and meaning of this representation of the adoration of the Lamb in the Apocalypse. This representation cannot be compared with the Apocalyptic pictures of the future fortunes of the Church, where the imagery employed frequently leaves room for allusions so diverse, that no interpretation can be positively assigned to a particular symbol without a certain intellectual and spiritual immodesty in the
f Rev. v. 11, 13: καὶ εἶδον, καὶ ἤκουσα φωνὴν ἀγγέλων πολλῶν κυκλόθεν τοῦ θρόνου καὶ τῶν ζώων καὶ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων... .. καὶ χιλιάδες χιλιάδων, λέγοντες φωνῇ μεγάλῃ, “ἴΑξιόν ἐστι τὸ ἀρνίον τὸ ἐσφαγμένον λαβεῖν τὴν δύ- ναμιν καὶ πλοῦτον καὶ σοφίαν καὶ ἰσχὺν καὶ τιμὴν καὶ δόξαν καὶ εὐλογίαν.᾽ἢ
ε Ibid. ver. 13: καὶ πᾶν κτίσμα ὅ ἐσΐιν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, καὶ ἐν τῇ γῇ, καὶ ὑποκάτω τῆς γῆς, καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς θαλάσσης & ἐστι, καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς πάντα, ἤκουσα λέγοντας, “Τῷ καθημένῳ ἐπὶ τοῦ θρόνου καὶ τῷ ἀρνίῳ ἡ εὐλογία καὶ ἣ τιμὴ καὶ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. Cf. vii. 9, 10.
h Thid. ver. 14: καὶ τὰ τέσσαρα ζῶα ἔλεγον, ᾿Αμήν.
1 Ibid. i. 5, 6: τῷ ἀγαπήσαντι ἡμᾶς καὶ λούσαντι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν ἐν τῷ αἵματι αὐτοῦ" καὶ ἐποίησεν ἡμᾶς βασιλεῖς καὶ ἱερεῖς τῷ Θεῷ καὶ Πατρὶ αὐτοῦ" αὐτῷ ἡ δόξα καὶ τὸ κράτος εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων, ἀμήν. Vil
384 Characteristics of the worship of Fesus in N.T.
interpreter who essays to do so. You may in vain endeavour satisfactorily to solve the questions which encompass such points as the number of the beast or the era of the millennium; but you cannot doubt for one moment Who is meant by ‘the Lamb,’ or what is the character of the worship that is so solemnly offered to Him.
But upon this worship of Jesus Christ as we meet with it in the apostolical age, let us here make three observations.
a. First, then, it cannot be accounted for, and so set aside, as being part of an undiscriminating cultus of heavenly or super- human beings in general. Such a cultus finds no place in the New Testament, except when it, or something very much re- sembling it, is expressly discountenanced. By the mouth of our Lord Jesus Christ the New Testament reaffirms the Sinaitic law which restricts worship to the Lord God Himself*. St. Peter will not sanction the self-prostrations of the grateful Cornelius, lest Cornelius should think of him as more than human}, When, at Lystra, the excited populace, with their priest, desired to offer sacrifice to St. Paul and St. Barnabas, as to ‘deities who had come down to them in the likeness of men,’ the Apostles in their unfeigned distress protested that they were but men of like feelings with those whom they were addressing, and claimed for the living God that service which was His exclusive right ™, When St. John fell at the feet of the angel of the Apocalypse, in profound acknowledgment of the marvellous privileges of sight and sound to which he had been admitted, he was peremptorily checked on the ground that the angel too was only his fellow-slave, and that God was the one true Object of worship®, One of the most salient features of the Gnostico- Jewish theosophy which threatened the faith of the Church of Colossee was the worshipping of angels; and St. Paul censures
k St. Matt. iv. το; Deut. vi. 13; x. 20. See Lect. I. 27; II. 95.
1 Acts x. 25: συναντήσας αὐτῷ 6 Κορνήλιος, πεσὼν ἐπὶ τοὺς πόδας προσε- κύνησεν. ὃ δὲ Πέτρος αὐτὸν ἤγειρε λέγων, “᾿Ανάστηθι" κἀγὼ αὐτὸς ἄνθρωπός 3 ’ εἰμι.
m Tbid. xiv. 14,15: διαῤῥήξαντες τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτῶν εἰσεπήδησαν εἰς τὸν
Pa , ΄ εν a a ore
ὄχλον, κράζοντες καὶ λέγοντες, ‘“Awdpes, τι ταῦτα ποιεῖτε ; Kal ἡμεῖς ὁμοιο- παθεῖς ἐσμεν ὑμῖν ἄνθρωποι, εὐαγγελιζόμενοι ὑμᾶς ἀπὸ τούτων τῶν ματαίων ἐπιστρέφειν ἐπὶ τὸν Θεὸν τὸν ζῶντα.
π Rev, xxii. 8, 9: καὶ ἐγὼ ᾿Ιωάννης 6 βλέπων ταῦτα καὶ ἀκούων" καὶ ὅτε ἤκουσα καὶ ἔβλεψα, ἔπεσα προσκυνῆσαι ἔμπροσθεν τῶν ποδῶν τοῦ ἀγγέλου τοῦ δεικ- νύοντός μοι ταῦτα. καὶ λέγει μοι, “Ὅρα μή" σύνδουλός σου γάρ εἶμι καὶ τῶν > a “ Ὁ ΄“ ~ , \ a re , ἀδελφῶν cov τῶν προφητῶν, Kal τῶν τηρούντων τοὺς λόγους τοῦ βιβλίου τού- του" τῷ Θεῷ προσκύνησον.᾽
[ LECT.
: ποῦ St NEO ee eas, Ee are ee
ae
(2) No instances of secondary worship in theN.T. 385
it because it tended to loosen men’s hold upon the incommu- nicable prerogatives of the great Head of the Church®. Cer- tainly the New Testament does teach that we Christians have close communion with the blessed angels and with the sainted dead, such as would be natural to members of one great and really undivided family. The invisible world is not merely above, it is around us; we have come into it; and Christ’s kingdom on earth and in heavenP forms one supernatural whole. But the worship claimed for, accepted by, and paid to Jesus, stands out in the New Testament in the sharpest relief. This relief is not softened or shaded off by any instances of an in- ferior homage paid, whether legitimately or not, to created beings. We do not meet with any clear distinction between a primary and a secondary worship, by which the force of the argument might have been more or less seriously weakened. Worship is claimed for, and is given to, God alone; and if Jesus is wor- shipped, this is simply because Jesus is God 4.
8. The worship paid to Jesus in the apostolic age was cer- tainly in many cases that adoration which is due to the Most High God, and to Him alone, from all His intelligent creatures. God Himself must needs have been, then as ever, the One Object of real worship. But the Eternal Son, when He became
© Col. ii, 18: μηδεὶς ὑμᾶς καταβραβευέτω θέλων ἐν ταπεινοφροσύνῃ καὶ θρησκείᾳ τῶν ἀγγέλων. The Apostle condemns this (1) on the moral ground that the Gnostic teacher here alluded to claimed to be in possession of” truths respecting the unseen world of which he really was ignorant, ἃ [μὴ