i. His Pre-existence.
1. Who is it of whom St. John says that He became flesh ? The Word, he says. And who was the Word ? Was it some prophet, a voice from God, bringing His word to man ? It was more than that. Was it some Being, more than man, created on purpose to be the messenger of God to His creatures, and to declare His will with more authority than any human being could declare it ? If we believe anything at all about Him, it was more than that. Was it some great angel, a dweller in the secret place where thought of man never approaches, seated near God's
36 THE INCARNATION OF THE WORD
throne, ever beholding the face of God ? — was it such a one, who was sent to clothe himself with man's form and flesh ? Was it Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God? Was it Michael, the Prince of Angels ? Was it one of the Seraphim, who day and night cry aloud, " Holy, holy, holy " ? It was more than that — more, infinitely more than that — one to whom highest angels were but messengers and servants. Was it some heavenly Person, greater, higher, more ancient than the archangels, created almost from all eternity, to be the companion of the solitude of the Godhead on the eternal throne, to be His minister in all creation, the revealer and utterer of the mind of God, the sharer with Him in the worship of heaven and earth — all but God ? Again, if we hold the faith of St. Paul and St. James, if we believe Him of whom we are speaking, it was more than this. The gulf is in- finite, the gulf is impassable, between such a supposed being and the reality declared in Scripture — between God and the highest of His creatures. Who was the Word ? St. John tells us, " In the beginning was the 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 anything made that hath been made." " The Word was God." This is He of whom it is said, " And the AVord was made flesh, and dwelt among us." This is that Jesus Christ, of whom it is written, that " She brought forth her firstborn son ; and she wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." The Son of God, only begotten, equal to the Father, ever with the Father, by whom also He made the worlds; "God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God " ; " the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power." " The firstborn of every creature, 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 " ; — not to be named with the angels, for the angels were made by Him, and Him do the angels worship — "Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." Only
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He knew the secret of God, for He was one with God. Only He had seen God, for He was the Son of God, " in glory with God before the world was." *' No man hath seen God at any time ; the only begotten Son (himself God), which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." And from the " glory " and " bosom " of the Father He came, to be a little child, born in Bethlehem of Judsea, the city of David ; and He who came, was God.
^ Such a relation as we believe our Saviour now bears to the Father could not have arisen at a point of time. It could not have been created by His earthly life. The power to exercise God's prerogative of forgiveness, judgment, and redemption could never have been acquired by the moral excellence or religious achievement of any created being, however endowed by the Spirit of God. I confess (if I may descend so far) I had long this difficulty, which lowered the roof of my faith, and arrested the flight of devotion. And I am afraid, from the state of our public worship, I was not alone in that difficulty. I could not get the plenitude of New Testament worship or Catholic faith out of the mere self-sacrifice of the human Christ even unto death. Nor could I rise to it from that level. I was too little moved by His earthly renunciations to rise to the dimensions of the Church's faith, for I am not speaking of its creed, which was my own. The cross of such a Christ, who was the mere martyr of His revelation, or the paragon of self-sacrifice, was not adequate to produce the absolute devotion which made a proud Pharisee, yea a proud Apostle, glory in being Christ's entire slave, and which drove the whole Church to call Christ Lord and God, in a devotion the most magnificent the soul has ever known. Such worsliip seemed too large a response to anything which Jesus, with all His unique greatness, did or determined in the course of His earthly life alone. The Synoptic record alone would not account for the Christian religion, nor produce the plerophory of Christian faith. Christ's earthly humiliation had to have its foundation laid in Heaven, and to be viewed but as the working out of a renunciation before the world was.^