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النشر الإلكتروني

CHAPTER XV.

THE TESTIMONY OF ST. PETER TO THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST, AND OF THE HOLY GHOST.

It is evident that, during the period of our Lord's personal ministry, His disciples regarded Him with a feeling of deep veneration. The familiar intercourse, to which He graciously admitted them, did not cause them to forget the reverence due to His sublime character. St. Peter, one of those, who had the greatest share of His private confidence, and whose natural impetuosity sometimes led him to express himself in an unguarded manner, yet gave full proof of his consciousness of the immeasurable distance at which he stood from the great Master, to whom he was attached. It is a reasonable supposition, that he esteemed our Saviour a sharer in the Divine Nature, when, after the signal miracle of the draught of fishes, "he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man,

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O Lord." The Jews believed that a sinful mortal could not see God, and live, and St. Peter's consternation seems to have arisen from this prevailing sentiment.-The Apostle's request, "Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water 3, the result of an impression, that Jesus possessed the power of the God of Nature, to whom "even the winds and the sea" are obedient. When he began to sink, he addressed himself in PRAYER to Christ, "Lord, save me."-His memorable confession, on the way to Cæsarea Philippi, was that of a believer, enlightened by Heavenly revelation, in the Divinity of the Messiah 5.-In the interview with Jesus, after the resurrection, at the sea of Tiberias, when Peter was asked, the third time, whether his love ex

1 Luke v. 8.

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* Exod. xxxiii. 20. The people of Israel, overwhelmed with astonishment and awe at the presence of the Lord on Mount Sinai, said to Moses: " Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die." Exod. xx. 19. Deut. v. 25. See Judges vi. 21-23. xiii. 22. Isa. vi. 5.

4 Matt. viii. 27. Ps. lxxxix. 9.

3 Matt. xiv. 28. 5 Matt. xvi. 16. Our Saviour showed how truly Peter had described Him, by immediately using language, which implies Divine Perfection: "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona-upon this rock I will build My Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of Heaven," &c.

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It is to be noted, that Christ says, "I will build My Church," and that St. Paul asserts of the Church at Corinth, GOD's building." 1 Cor. iii. 9.

ceeded that of his fellow-disciples, he replied, "Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee." The knowledge of all things, even of the secrets of the human breast, is an Attribute appropriate to God alone. "Thou, even Thou only 2," said Solomon, "knowest the hearts of all the children of men It is a peculiar Perfection of God, that He is ΚΑΡΔΙΟΓΝΩΣΤΗΣ-the Searcher of hearts 4.

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1 John xxi. 16.

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3 1 Kings viii. 39. 2 Chron. vi. 30.

4 Acts i. 24. xv. 8. It was a conviction that Jesus possessed this attribute of the Divine Nature, which prompted Nathanael's acknowledgment of Him, as "the Son of God." John i. 49. And from an observation of His all-searching Wisdom, the disciples drew the just conclusion: "Now we are sure that Thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask Thee by this we believe that Thou camest forth from God." John xvi. 30. When St. John wrote to believers, in his First Epistle, (ii. 20.) "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and know all things," it is manifest that he intended the expression to be received with this limitation-that they knew all necessary Gospel truths, all things essential to salvation-for St. Paul observed of the most accomplished and enlightened teachers, that they knew "in part" only. 1 Cor. xiii. 9. Peter had the power of penetrating into the human mind and character in particular instances. Prophets and Apostles have discovered men's secret thoughts; but "the Spirit was given by measure unto them." John iii. 34. Their knowledge, imparted by the Holy Ghost at certain seasons, was limited. Our Saviour's was permanent, universal, and inherent. "He knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man for He knew what was in man." John ii. 24, 25. "In Him were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Col. ii. 3. He says of Himself, claiming this perfect knowledge of all men and all

Peter was assured that this Perfection belonged to Jesus, and hence reasoned that his love to Him was a fact, of which his Lord needed no declaration.

Though St. Peter appears to have had an earlier understanding, than most of his brethren, of the Divine Nature of Christ, it was not until the day of Pentecost, that he had light and grace to apprehend that great doctrine of our religion, the mysterious Union of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, as One God. His conviction of this Truth, through the ministration of the Spirit, is indicated by various expressions in his discourses and Epistles, but is best evinced by the general sense, and whole tenor, of his apostolical instructions.

1. He says of Jesus, in his first public address to the Jewish nation, what could not have been asserted of any human, or created, being, "Whom God

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things, as His peculiar property: All the Churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts ('Eyw eiμı 'O ΕΡΕΥΝΩΝ νεφροὺς καὶ καρδίας) : and I will give unto every one of you according to your works." Rev. ii. 23. Christ, in this declaration, adopts the very style in which the distinguishing prerogative of the Father, and the righteous judgment consequent upon it, are expressed : "I, the Lord, search the heart; I try the reins; even to give to every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." Jer. xvii. 10.

The words recorded Matt. xxiv. 36. and Mark xiii. 32. are to be understood with relation to the human Nature of Christ ; in the sense, in which we read, that He "increased in wisdom." Luke ii. 52.

hath raised up, having loosed the pains' of death, because it was not possible that He should be holden of it. For David speaketh concerning Him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for He is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: because Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption '." In the human Nature, which He took upon Him, our Saviour died, but his detention under the power of death was impossible, because the Divine Nature

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1 ὠδῖνας. Hammond renders ὠδῖνας τοῦ θανάτου, bands of death, a sense which he prefers, as agreeing best with Xúoas, loosing, and кparɛiolaι, being holden fast, in this verse. The LXX. have several times translated the Hebrew word, which signifies both pains and cords, or bands, by wdives, pains, and, in some places, where bands would have better expressed the meaning. See Psalm xviii. 5.

If we receive wdives, in the present text, in the sense of pains, as of a woman in travail, its common import, the grave is then said to have rendered back Jesus with throes and pains, and Xvoas expresses loosing, or putting an end to, the pangs of parturition. God said of His Anointed, "Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee," (Ps. ii. 7.) a declaration, which St. Paul represents as having received its eminent accomplishment, when Jesus was raised from the sepulchre, and made "the first-born from the dead." Col. i. 18. Rev. i. 5. From the grave, as from a teeming womb, Jesus was delivered forth, and "declared to be the Son of God with power," by His glorious resurrection. Rom. i. 4.

1 Acts ii. 24-27. Psalm xvi. 10.

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