blessings and honour and glory and power to Him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever. The New Jeru- salem is the seat of his kingdom. He is its light, glory, and bless- edness. He again and again declares himself to be the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last (i. e., the immutable and eternal), the Beginning and the End, for whose second coming the whole Church is in earnest expectation.
B. The Epistles of St. Paul.
In the epistles of Paul, the same exalted exhibition is made of the person and work of Christ. In the Epistle to the Romans, Christ is declared to be the Son of God, the object of faith, the judge of the world, the God of providence, the giver of the Holy Spirit, and what in the Old Testament is said of Jehovah, the Apostle applies to Christ. In chapter ix. 5, He is expressly de- clared to be "over all, God blessed forever." The text here is beyond dispute. The only method to avoid the force of the passage is by changing the punctuation. Erasmus, who has been followed by many modern interpreters, placed a full stop after Kara o-ap/<a, or after TravTwv. In the former case the passage would read, " Of whom is Christ concerning the flesh. The God who is over all be blessed forever ; " in the latter, " Of whom Christ came concern- ing the flesh, who is above all," i. e., higher than the patriarchs. It is frankly admitted by the advocates of these interpretations that the reason for adopting them is to avoid making the Apostle assert that Christ is God over all. As they do not admit that doctrine, they are unwilling to admit that the Apostle teaches it. It was universally referred to Christ in the ancient Church, by all the Reformers, by all the older theologians, and by almost all of the modern interpreters who believe in the divinity of Christ. This uniformity of assent is itself a decisive proof that the common in- terpretation is the natural one. We are bound to take every pas- sage of Scripture in its obvious and natural sense, unless the plainer declarations of the Word of God show that a less obvious meaning must be the true one. That the common interpretation of this passage is correct is plain, —
1. Because Christ is the subject of discourse ; God is not men- tioned in the context. The Apostle is mentioning the distinguish- mg blessings of the Jewish nation. To them were given the law, the glory, the covenant, and the promises, and above all, from them *' as concerning the flesh (^. g., as far as his humanity is concerned), Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever." Here every-
612 PART I. — THEOLOGY. [Ch. VII. — Divinity of Chkist
thing is natural and to the point. It shows how preeminent was the distinction of the Jews that from them the Messiah, God man- ifest in the ftesh, should be born. Compared to this all the other prerogatives of their nation sink into insignificance.
2. The words Kara adpKa demand an antithesis. There would be no reason for saying that Christ, as far as He was a man, was de- scended from the Jews, if He was not more than man, and if there were not a sense in which He was not descended from them. As in Rom. i. 3, 4, it is said that Kara crdpKa He was the Son of David, but Kara Trvev/^ta the Son of God ; so here it is said, that Kara a-dpKa He was descended from the patriarchs, but that in his higher na- ture He is God over all, blessed forever.
3. The usage of the language 'demands the common interpreta- tion. In all exclamations and benedictions, in distinction from mere narration, the predicate uniformly stands before the subject, if the copula etvai be omitted. This usage is strictly observed in the Septuagint, in the Apocrypha, and in the New Testament. We therefore always read in such doxologies evXoyyjTos 6 deos, and never 6 Oeos euAoyT^rds. In the Hebrew Scriptures, Tl^i:! occurs forty times in doxologies and formulas of praise before the subject. It is always " Blessed be God," and never " God be blessed." In the Septuagint, Psalm Ixviii. 20 (19), Ku^tos 6 ^eos euXoyTyrds is the only apparent exception to this rule. And there the Hebrew adheres to the common form, and the Greek version is a rhetorical para- phrase of the original. The Hebrew is simply ^aiS TJ^in, for which the LXX. have, Kupios 6 6e6<; ciAo-yT^rd?, €vXoyr}To<; Kvpios. Every con- sideration, therefore, is in favour of the intei'pretation which has been accepted by the Church as giving the true meaning of this passage. Christ is God over all, blessed forever.
The Mpistles to the Corinthians.
In the Epistles to the Corinthians, Christ is represented, (1.) As the proper object of religious homage. All believers are rep- resented as his worshippers, (1 Cor. i. 2.) (2.) As the soui'ce of spiritual life. (1 Cor. i. 4-9, 30, 31.) (3.) As the Lord of all Christians and the Lord of glory. (1 Cor. ii. 8.) (4.) As creator of the universe (1 Cor. viii. 6), 8i ov ra -n-avTa. (5.) As the Jehovah of the Old Testament, who led the Israelites through the wilderness. (1 Cor. x. 1-13.) (6.) As the giver of spiritual gifts. (1 Cor. xii.) (7.) As the Lord from heaven to whom the universe (ra Travra) is subject. (1 Cor. xv. 25.) (8.) A life-giv-