by the power of God. At the grave of Lazarus He prayed for power to restore his friend to life, or rather that God would raise him from the dead; and He gave thanks that his prayer was heard.
Secondly, they agree that the development of the humanity of our Lord was without sin. He was from the beginning holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. Nevertheless He had to contend with all the infirmities of our nature, and to resist all the temptations arising from the flesh, the world, and the devil, witli which his people have to contend. He was liable to sin. As He was subject to hunger, thirst, weariness, and pain, as He had feelings capable of being wounded by ingratitude and insult. He was liable to the impatience and resentment which suffering or injury is adapted to produce. As He was susceptible of pleasure from the love and admiration of others. He was exposed to the temptation of seeking the honour which comes from men. In all things, liowever. He was witliout sin.
Tliirdly, they agree that it was only gradually that Christ came to the knowledge that He was a divine person, and into the possession and use of divine attributes. Communications of knowledge and power were made to Him from time to time from on high, so that both the knowledge of wliat He was and the consciousness of the possession of divine perfections came to Him by degrees. Christ's exaltation, therefore, began and was carried on while He was here on earth, but it was not until his resurrection and ascension that He became truly and forever divine.
Fourthly, since his ascension and session at the right hand of God, He is still a man, and only a man. Nevertheless He is an infinite man. A man with all the characteristics of a human soul possessed of all the perfections of the Godhead. Since his ascension, as Gess expresses it, a man has been taken into the adorable Trin- ity. " As the glorified Son remains man, a man is thus received into the trinitarian life of the Deity from and by the glorification of the Son."i Thomasius savs the same thins;. "Die immanente
1 The Scripture Doctrine of the Person of Christ. Freely translated from the German of W. F. Gess, with man\' additions, by J. A. Reubelt, D. D., Professor in Indiana University Bloomington, Ind. Andover: Warren F. Draper, 1870, p. 414. This worlc is admirablj- translated, and presents the clearest outline of the modern doctrine of Kenosis which has yet appeared. The author expresses his .satisfaction that he is sustained in his views arrived at by the study of the Scriptures, by the authority of Liebner and Thomasius, who reached Bubstantially the same conclusions by the way of speculation. There is ground for this self- congratulation of the author, for his book is far more Scriptural in its treatment of the sub- ject than any otlier book of the same class with which we are acquainted. It calls for a thorough review and candid criticism.
4S2 PART m. Ch. m. — the person of CHRIST.
Lebensbewegung der drei Personen ist nunmehr gewissermassen eine gottlicli-menschliche geworden ; .... So tief ist in der Person Cbri>ti die Menschbeit in den Kreis der Trinitat hereiiigenommen — und zwar nicbt auf voriibergebende Weise, sondern fur inimer. Denn der Sobn bleibt ewig Menscb."^ Tbat is : The immanent bfe movement uf the tbree persons has now become in a measure divine-liuman ; .... so deep bas bumanity in the person of Cbrist been taken into tbe spbere of the Trinity, — and tbat not in a temporary manner, but forever. For the Son remains man eternallv. On the following page he says that bumanity, or man- hood (Menschsein), bas become the permanent existence-form of God the Son. And again ^ be says that bumanity (das menschlicbe Gescblecbt) is "exalted to full equality with God" (schlecbt Gott selbst gleichgesetzt). This would be absolutely impossible were not human nature in its original constitution capable of receiving all divine perfections and of becoming absolutely divine. Accord- inirlv, in this connection, Thomasius says that man is of all crea- tures the nearest to God.^ " He must from his nature be capable of full participation in the divine glory ; be must be the organ into which tbe entire fulness of tlie divine love can be poured, and through which it can adequately act, otherwise we cannot under- stand how God could appropriate human nature as his own perma- nent form of existence."
The result of tbe incarnation, therefore, is that God becomes man in such a sense tbat the Son of God has no life or activity, no knowledge, presence, or power outside of or apart from his buman- ity. In Cbrist there is but one life, one activity, one consciousness. Eveiy act of tbe incarnate Logos is a human act, and every expe- rience of tbe humanity of Cbrist, all his sorrows, infirmities, and pains, were tbe experience of tbe Logos. "The absolute life, which is the being of God, exists in the narrow limits of an earthly-human life; absolute holiness and trutli, the essential attributes of God, develop themselves in the form of human thinking and willing; absolute love has assumed a human form, it lives as human feeling, as human sensibility in the heart of this man ; absolute freedom bas tbe form of human self-determination. The Son of God has not reserved for Himself a special existence form (ein besonderes Fiirsicbsevn), a special consciousness, a special sphere or power of action ; He does not exist anywhere outside of tbe flesh (nee Ver-
1 C^iristi Perton und Werh. DarsteHung der erangelUch-Iuiherischen Dogmntik torn JIU- Uipvnhti der ClrriiiUogie aui. Von G. Thoma.=ius, Dr. u. ord. Professor der Theologis ao der Univer>itat Erlangen. Zweite erweiterte Auflage, Erlangen. 1857, vol. ii. p. 295.
2 Ibid. p. 299. 8 Ibid. p. 296.