Now, in all this eventful history, there was that very combination of earth and heaven, of the human and superhuman, which received an interpretation from the fact only of Christ’s divine and human nature, and which, along with Christ’s own words, and the teaching of His Spirit, made the apostles accept the doctrine with profound conviction and deep joy; although, without some such overwhelming evidence, the very thought must have been to them a blasphemous idolatry.  They believed, because they had sufficient grounds, from facts, for their belief.  We cannot, therefore, think that those who rejected the claims of Jesus, and executed Him as a blasphemer, were right, and that the apostles, who acknowledged Him as one with God, were wrong, or that their faith will ever be put to shame!

We have thus considered the Person of Jesus in the light of His own teaching, as that too was understood at the time, both by enemies and friends, and also in the light of the faith and teaching of His apostles.

4.  But there is yet another aspect in which we may view this question—­viz., the faith and views of the Christian Church.

As to the faith of the Church, using that word as expressing its creed, it is historically certain that since the days of the apostles till the present time, this doctrine has formed a sine qua non of the creed of the whole Church, whether called Popish, Protestant, Greek, Armenian, Nestorian, &c.—­of every branch, in short, with the exception of the Unitarians.  Amidst all differences, the millions of professing Christians have agreed from age to age in this article.  No theological strifes or angry passions, no dissents or reformations, have disturbed this truth as the foundation-stone of the Temple.  Now, if Christ is not a divine person, it follows that the Christian Church is one huge institution of idolatry.  We do not, observe, attempt as Christians to conceal our faith in Christ’s divinity, or to modify it so as to escape, if possible, such an imputation.  We necessarily accept this conclusion, unless our faith is grounded on fact.  We boldly declare that we believe in Jesus of Nazareth; love Him, trust Him, obey Him, as we do God Almighty, and with the same degree of faith and reverence.  In the one name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, we have been baptized, and that name we honour as One, ascribing equal glory to each Person in the Godhead.  Such a creed as this may startle some and offend others, but it is nevertheless the creed which is and has been the faith of universal Christendom, which millions with ourselves believe unhesitatingly, and confess as boldly as they do their faith in the being of God.  Now what we assert is, that if Jesus was a mere man, or was not “God manifest in the flesh,” we and all Christians so believing are idolaters in the strictest sense of that word.  Our churches are idol temples where a dead man is worshipped; our