i? 418 QUESTIONS CONCERNING JESUS. in the fleshwas seen of angels ; 1 Tim. iii. 1ß. and worshipped by them. This text does not prove that the first-begotten is God, any other than by personal union with that Jehovahwho is spokenof in the xcvii. Psal. The first begotten Son of God is to be worshipped by angels, because of the indwelling godhead, the great Jehovah, with whom the manChrist is one. The last text, and which affords perhaps the most important objection against my sense of the name, is John v. 18. compared with John x. 23, &c. If the title Son of God did not signify true godhead, why did the Jews chargeChrist with blasphemy, and say, that he made himself equal with God, and seek to kill him, because he had said " God was his Father, his own Fa- ther, and as they construe it, making himself equal with God ?" John v. 18. And why do they charge him again with blasphe- my, when he said, I am the Son of God ? John x. 33. because that thou being aman, makest thyself God. How could this be, if the name Son of God did not signify godhead ? I have given some answer to that text in the fifth of John, in some of the foregoing pages. But to make it yet clearer, I proceed ; L It is possible that some learned men among themmight have a confused notion from the prophecies of the Old Testa- ment, that the Messiah or the Son of God was to have true and real godhead in him, which godhead of the Messiah is a certain truth, and path been sufficiently proved. Now, because he called himself the Son of God, and representedhimself as the Messiah, therefore they might infer that lie assumed that godr head to himself whichbelonged to the complete character of the Messiah, and upon this account might charge him with blas- phemy, by way of consequence. Yet I have much reason to doubt, whether the Scribes and Pharisees did certainly know that the Messiah was to be the true God ; for the whole nation of the Jews, with their priests and doctors, were most stupidly and shamefully ignorant of the true character and glory of the Messiah and his kingdom. Had the Pharisees themselves any notion that Christ was to be the true God, they would never have been puzzled and silenced at that question of our Saviour, Mat. xxii. 43, 44, &c. If the Mes- siah be the Son of David, how could David call him Lord ? or, If David calls hire Lord, how is he his Son ? Their supposi- tion of the godhead of theMessiah would have easily answered this difficulty, if they had had any such opinion. Besides, we have little reason to suppose that thePharisees knew more of the divinity of the Messiah than the disciples themselves did during the life of Christ. Now it appears from many parts of the history of the gospel, that they did hardly believe at all that he was the true God ; or if they did, yet their faith of it was very low, wavering and doubtful ; and yet doubt-
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