disciples to pray to God as their heavenly Father, it is implied that they stand in that relationship to the Almighty as their Creator. And when St. John, speaking of the privileges of the faithful, says, "Behold what manner "of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, "that we should be called the sons of God"," he clearly refers to all who partake of the special privileges of the Christian dispensa

tion.

The general application of the term "Son "of man" is equally intelligible. When the Psalmist says, "Lord, what is man, that thou "art mindful of him, or the son of man, that "thou so regardest him"?"-we instantly perceive that the one expression, as well as the other, denotes mankind in general, the whole human race, to whom the Almighty extends his benevolent regard. And even when applied individually, as it is to the prophet Ezekiel throughout his prophecy, it admits of no other than its common acceptation; since it is not associated with any thing relative to his character or circumstances which can give it a peculiar signification.

But it will be found, that when applied to our blessed Saviour, both these titles are manifestly intended to convey an extraordinary,

a 1 John iii. 1.

b Psalm viii. 4.

an appropriate signification, inapplicable to any but himself. From the manner in which they were used by him, and in which they appear to have been understood by the Jews, every attentive reader may perceive that they bore some special reference to his character and office as the CHRIST, the Saviour and Redeemer of mankind.

Respecting the title, Son of God, occasion was taken, in a former discourse on the proofs of our Lord's divinity from his own declarations, to advert to it as one of those frequent and unequivocal indications of his Divine character, which his adversaries found it impossible either to resist or to evade. In the present discourse, it is my purpose to offer some brief observations of a similar kind on the title Son of Man, as assumed by our Lord in conjunction with the other, and then to consider it more especially as connected with the authority he asserts to be given him, in the words of the text, hereafter to judge the world, "because he is the Son of man."

That this title relates to his human nature there can be no question: but that it denotes also something peculiar to him, as distinct from the rest of mankind, it is hardly possible not to perceive. In several of his conferences with the Jews, both appellations,

the Son of God and the Son of man, seem to be used as equally appertaining to him as the Christ. When the high priest asked, "Art "thou the CHRIST, the SON OF GOD;" Jesus having answered in the affirmative, immediately adds, "Hereafter shall ye see the SON "OF MAN sitting on the right hand of power, " and coming in the clouds of heaven." When Nathanael addressed him, saying, "Rabbi, "thou art the SON OF GOD, thou art the

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King of Israel," he replied, "Hereafter ye "shall see heaven opened, and the angels of "God ascending and descending upon the "SON OF MAN" In the passage connected with the text, the same association of these terms occurs; "Verily, verily, I say unto you, “The hour is coming, and now is, when the "dead shall hear the voice of the SON OF “GOD; and they that hear shall live. For "as the FATHER hath life in himself, so hath "he given the Son to have life in himself; "and hath given him authority to execute

judgment also, because he is the SON OF "MAN." In all these instances, the interchange of the two titles is very remarkable, and clearly indicates some special and appropriate sense, in which they characterised Him

c Matt. xxvi. 63, 64.

d John i. 49, 51.

exclusively, and could not be similarly applied to any other.

It is a still further evidence of this, that our Lord calls himself the Son of man, not only when describing the humiliation to which, in that character, he submitted, but even when asserting and exercising the highest acts of divine authority. Although, as Son of man, he "had not where to lay his head,” and was to "be betrayed into the hands of men," and to "suffer many things;" yet it was also as Son of man that he declared he had " power

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on earth to forgive sins;" that he was "Lord of the sabbath," and that at the end of the world he was to "come in the glory of "his Father, with the holy angels 5." In every part of the great work he had undertaken for our redemption, whether suffering or triumphant, whether with reference to his state of glorification or of humiliation, we find him assuming this distinction, as no less applicable to the one case than to the other. Nor is it difficult to apprehend the reason of this. The appellation of Son of man, thus assumed as a distinctive characteristic, appears to have had reference to his being that one and only descendant of Adam, the promised seed, the

e Matt. ix. 6.

f Mark ii. 28.

g Mark viii. 38.

great Deliverer of mankind, foretold from the beginning to our first parents, and subsequently to the patriarchs and the prophets. The person so foretold was both to suffer and to conquer. His heel was to be bruised by the seed of the serpent, and He was to bruise the serpent's head. By Him, as the representative of the whole human race, their great adversary was to be destroyed. From Adam they had derived sin and condemnation ; through Him they were to obtain pardon and justification. For "as in Adam all die, even

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so in Christ shall all be made alive." Hence he is called the second Adam, in contradistinction to the first; and the old and the new man are expressions used to contrast the depraved state of mankind through the transgression of Adam, with their renovated state through the redemption by Christ. With reference to these distinguishing characteristics of the Messiah, it appears that our Lord is emphatically designated the Son of man; and the Jews seem clearly to have understood that this title emphatically belonged to that great Deliverer whose coming had been foretold. Had they also duly considered the full force of a designation so significant and so comprehensive, they might have been less

h 1 Cor. xv. 22.