The sermons in the Acts confine themselves to the historical manifestation of Jesus Christ, the prophetical preparation for it, and the Second Advent. But in the ^xTitinofs of St. Paul an in- creasing consciousness of Christ's pre-existence and definiteness in speaking of it can be tracetl. In 1 Co 15^' Christ is ' from heaven.' in 2 Co 8* His earthly poverty is contrasted with an antecedent richness. It is, however, in the Epistles of the First Imprisonment that pre-existence is not only hinted at, but expressed and defined. The remark- able passage Ph 2^" predicates deliberate will and choice of Chrbt Jesus, before His Incarnation. He willed to surrender (from a human point of view) His natural equality with Goil. and chose the glory which came through hiuniliation and sacrifice of self. And, still more definitely, in Col U^-ii qq^ only priority, but an eternal priority to all crea- tion is ascribed to Him : ' he is before all things.' With this passage should be compared the oi>ening of the Epistle to the Hebrews, where not only similar descriptions are given of the nature of Christ, but the words of Ps 102, contrasting the eternity of the Creator with the transitoriness of creation, are boldly and without any explanation applied directly to Chri.*t (cf. also B.o 1'^^'). The lan<ruase of the Apocalviise is strictly parallel (Rev li' 3» 21« 22^3).
See artt. DmNiTY OF Christ. Incarnation.
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PEEMEDITATION
PREMEDITATION
Literature. — Sanday, art. 'Jesus Christ' in Hastings' DB\ Liddon, Divinity of our Lord (Banipton Lectures for 1866) ; VVestcott, Goapel of St. John, 1S82 ; Dorner, t'hr. Doct. (Eng. tr.) iii. (1882) 283 ; Lobstein, Xotion de la preexistence du Fils de Dieii (1883) ; Godet, ' Person of Christ ' in Monthly Interpreter, iii. (1886) 1; Beyschlag, JVT Theol. (Eng. tr.) ii. (1895) 249; VVendt, Teaching of Jesiis (Eng. tr.), ii. (1892) 168; Denney, Sttidies in Theology (1895), 51 ; Orr, Chr. View of God and the World (1893), 508; Barton, ' Jewish-Chr. Doct. of Pre-exist- ence of Messiah ' in JUL x.\i. (1902) 78 ; Du Bose, The Gospel in the Gospels (1906), 221 ; Barrett, The Earliest Chr. Hymn (1897), 23. A. R. WHITHAM.
PREMEDITATION.— 1. There is frequent evi- dence of this qnality in the teaeliing.s of Christ, and in the experiences of His life. Regarding Him simply on the common level of humanity, as for this faculty- we necessarily must, there is little ground for the assertion so often made that He was an enthusiast, dependent on the inspiration of the moment. The occasional intuitions of the Divine are no explanation of the great body of His teaching. There is an inborn forethought, a native endowment of premeditation, that, humanly speaking, goes to the building up of His greatest thoughts, uttered or wrought. No accident or impulse gave birth to the Sermon on the Mount. Its varied teachings, the keywords of a spiritual and moral revolution yet to be effected in the world, strike one as the result of most careful observation, comparison, and imagination — all the product of patient premeditation. From His en- trance into the active Gospel story, in that prelude of the Boy in the Temple, to tlie calm strength with which He faced the last days, it is "a gift of deep insight into human probabilities that we look upon. The Saviour of men foresees His task — its glories, and its awful cost.
As a boy He is surprised that His parents have not seen this, and known that His thoughts Avere so fixed on Divine things that in the looked-for Jerusalem He is sure to be found about the Temple and the teachers. ' How is it that ye sought me ? Wist ye not that I mu.st be in my Father's house ? ' (Lk 2*^). He ' Cometh unto John to be baptized of him' with the decision already thought out that ' thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness ' (Mt 313-17 II Mk p-ii Lk 3'^'- 22). The choice of the passage from Isaiah as the text of His first .sermon at Nazareth (Lk 4^^) is too distinctive to have been the chance of an opening of the roll. The more often we read and weigh it, sentence by sentence, word by word, the more wonderfully true do we find it as a summary of our Lord's mission. What care, what hesitation, must have preceded the .selection of the twelve Apostles, and the deliver- ing of that high commission that rings dowTi through the ages with a strange attraction to all set apart for ministry. Only the deepest premedita- tion could have given them such a full charge— to preach the Kingdom, raise the dead, and reveal the secret of life in the cross on the one hand, and on the other to recognize the disciple's duty in the common needs of men, as in the giving of a cup of cold water (:Mt O^' 10 || Mk S^^-is 67-i2 Lk 9^-«). He had found the incompletene.ss of the Law, and with deliberate purpose declared His mission to be one that was not to destroy but to fulfil : ' Except your righteousness .shall exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, ,ye shall in nowise enter into the kingdom ' (Mt 5"- ^o). He sees the divisions that will come because of the gospel (Lk 12«), but, as One who has thought out every step of the way, it can be written of Him, ' He set his face stedfastly to go to Jeru.salem' (Lk 9-"). There He speaks of the ine\-itable destruction of the Temple and the oflScialism it had .so long stood for (Mt 24^ || Mk IS^ Lk 2P) ; there He weeps over the lost possibilities of Jerusalem, that ancient home of faith (Lk 19^^) . and there, from the midst of His oato agony and