the Scriptural formula of the dogma. The Arians vainly endeavored to weaken the force of the sentence by contending that it only established a moral unity; but, as Maldonatus rightly argues, if the sense of the words is thus restricted, the argument of Christ proves nothing. A moral unity is a mere unity of wills, and such a relation between Christ and the Father would be insufficient to support Christ's pledge of absolute security to all who trust in him. Wherefore, it is evident that he declares that no one is able to snatch his sheep out of his hand, because his hand is equal to the omnipotent hand of the Father, by the equality of which the Son and Father are one in nature.

The same truth results from the first reading adopted by the Vulgate, but the mode of argumentation is somewhat altered. According to that reading the Father has given to Jesus something which is above all. This thing given by the Father to the Son is the eternal act of generation, as the Fourth Lateran Council declares: "The Father from eternity generating the Son, gave him his substance, as he saith: "That which the Father hath given unto to me is greater than all.'' Upon this act of eternal generation is based all the attributes of the Son, and whenever he speaks of himself in any relation to the Father, this essential relation is implicitly contemplated. Jesus may appeal to certain titles of authority that are more obvious, as for instance his authentic mission from the Father; but the argument must finally go back until it rests on the absolute basis of Christ's consubstantiality. In this sentence, the thirtieth verse is adduced to declare more explicitly the nature of that which the Father hath given to the Son. The great truth is not varied by whichsoever reading we adopt.

The Jews are driven to fury by the words of Jesus, and they take up stones to stone him. No danger menaces Jesus thereby. His is infinite power, and when he shall offer himself, then men may put him to death, but not till then. With perfect calm, therefore, he remonstrates with them; he appeals to the record of his works. He characterizes these works as shown from the Father, inasmuch as they were not merely human works, but works requiring the divine power of God. With the noble courage of conscious sinlessness, Jesus declares

to them that in his life there can be no cause for the punishment they would inflict, unless they place it in some of his good works.

The Jews can not deny the existence of the good works of Jesus. They seem to be somewhat sobered by his words, and they seek to justify their wish to stone him on his present utterance, which they consider a blasphemy. Therefore, they

understood the words of Jesus to declare his equality in nature with the Father. Hence, Maldonatus rightly declares that these stones which the Jews took up to throw at Jesus cry out against the Arians.

Jesus now employs an argument a minore ad majus. He calls all the Scriptures of the Old Testament the Law. Now, in the eighty-second Psalm, sixth verse, it is written: "I said: Ye are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High. Jesus declares that this appellation was given to them to whom the Word of God came, inasmuch as the words are directed to those who hold the places of the appointed judges of Israel. If these mere men, appointed to represent God as judges, could be called gods, and sons of the Most High, much more could he whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world call himself the Son of God. The "sanctification" here spoken of refers to the consecration of the Messiah in his great office. As we have said above, both the sanctification and the mission of Jesus rest on the eternal generation of the Word. As that eternal act was farther removed from the realm of human knowledge, the Lord here adduces his authentic mission, of which they could not doubt. The Lord does not by this argument wish to limit the sense of the statement, "I and the Father are one," to anything less than the consubstantial unity of the Father and the Son. He declares his Divinity by the strange contrast. The Scriptures of God called gods and sons of the Most High mere men who were in posts of divine authority. The Jews accepted these Scriptures, and ratified the appellation. And here was the Son of God, begotten from all eternity, consubstantial and equal to the Father, and they would stone him for declaring that he was the Son of God.

Jesus does not say or intimate that he calls himself the Son of God in the same sense that the Judges of Israel are called elohim, gods. But he employs an argumentum ad hominem to calm the rage of the people, and to show them the injustice of the opposition. The judges were called gods; therefore Jesus, who had received more from God than the judges, could not be charged with blasphemy for laying claim to a title which God himself gave to the judges. In this present argument Jesus does not expressly state how much more than the judges he had received. He lays claim to more than had been given to mortal man by the fact that the Father had sanctified him, and had sent him into the world. He is leading his hearers to the full truth. He repels the charge of blasphemy by a reasoning that they could not deny, and then he proceeds to tell them his real character, he and the Father are one.

Jesus again appeals to his works in support of his true character, that men might know and understand that the Father was in him, and he in the Father. By this statement, the doctrine is formally enunciated of the reciprocal existence in one another of the three persons of the Godhead. This is called by the Greeks the ovμπeρixóρnois, and in the Latin tongue the circumincessio. In the passage, therefore, the Lord has declared his sonship, his consubstantiality, and his circumincession.

The argument of Jesus was clear and convincing, but it only aroused the Jews to greater fury. They could not answer him; but in wild fury they sought to take him captive. His hour was not yet come, and he went forth out of their hands, and went down beyond the Jordan, into the desert where the Baptist inaugurated his great mission. The evident truth of Jesus' teaching drew many to believe in him. The Evangelist only gives us the outlines of the arguments by which these moved themselves to faith in Jesus. We can fill in these outlines as follows: "John did no sign, and yet we believed in him; this man does great signs, therefore much more should we believe in him. And, moreover, if we believe in John we should believe in this man, for in him are verified all things which John said concerning him for whom he

(23) Gosp. III.

prepared. Their argument was logical and sound, and their faith reasonable. The New Testament is one grand harmonious series of irrefragable arguments in proof of the Divinity of Jesus Christ, and the other truths of our faith, and yet a strange inertia holds men back from faith. The minds of many seem to be affected by a sort of spiritual catarrh, so that they can not assimilate the truths of the teachings of Jesus.

LUKE XIII. 23-35

23. And one said unto him: Lord, are they few that are saved?

Ι

24. And he said unto them: Strive to enter in by the narrow door: for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

25. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying: Lord, open to us; and he shall answer and say to you: I know you not whence ye are;

26. Then shall ye begin to say: We did eat and drink in thy presence, and thou didst teach in our streets:

27. And he shall say: I tell you, I know not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of inquity.

28. There shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and yourselves cast forth without.

29. And they shall come from the east and west, and

23. Εἶπεν δέ τις αὐτῷ: Κύριε, εἰ ὀλίγοι οἱ σωζόμενοι; ὁ δὲ εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτούς.

24. ̓Αγωνίζεσθε εἰσελθεῖν διὰ τῆς στενής θύρας: ὅτι πολλοί, λέγω ὑμῖν, ζητήσουσιν εἰσελθεῖν, καὶ οὐκ ἰσχύσουσιν.

25. ̓Αφ ̓ οὗ ἂν ἐγερθῇ ὁ οἰκοδεσπότης, καὶ ἀποκλείσῃ τὴν θύραν, καὶ ἄρξεσθε ἔξω ἑστάναι, καὶ κρούειν τὴν θύραν, λέγοντες: Κύριε, ἄνοιξον ἡμῖν: καὶ ἀποκριθεὶς ἐρεῖ ὑμῖν: Οὐκ οἶδα ὑμᾶς, πόθεν ἐστέ.

26. Τότε ἄρξεσθε λέγειν: Εφάγομεν ἐνώπιόν σου, καὶ ἐπίομεν, καὶ ἐν ταῖς πλατείαις ἡμῶν ἐδίδαξας.

27. Καὶ ἐρεῖ: Λέγω ὑμῖν, οὐκ οἶδα πόθεν ἐστέ: ἀπόστητε ἀπ ̓ ἐμοῦ πάντες ἐργάται ἀδικίας.

28. Ἐκεῖ ἔσται ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων, ὅταν ὄψεσθε ̓Αβραὰμ καὶ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ Ιακώβ, καὶ πάντας τοὺς προφήτας ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὑμᾶς δὲ ἐκβαλλομένους ἔξω.

29. Καὶ ἥξουσιν ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν καὶ δυσμῶν, καὶ ἀπὸ βορρᾶ καὶ

In Verse twenty-seven, after ἐρεῖ A has λέγων: other authorities have λέγω. The term is omitted by N, and by the Old Italian version, and by the Vulgate, Sahidic, Bohairic, and Peshitto versions. In Verse thirty-one we find the reading pą in, A, B*, D, L, R, X, et al. This is approved by