DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9552#0601
TO THE CHRISTIAN PUBLIC.
77
it as a gift of the Father : and the object of our inquiry
and reverence is the Son endowed with life, and not one
destitute of it.
SIXTH POSITION.
TlTe Editor begins by observing, that " to the sixth posi-
tion, that Jesus accepted worship due to God alone, our
author objects, ' That the word ' worship,' both in common
acceptation and scriptural writings, is used sometimes as
implying an external mark of religious reverence paid to
God, and at other times as signifying merely the token of
civil respect due to superiors ; that those who worshipped
Jesus did not believe him to be God, or one of the three
persons of the Godhead; and Jesus, in his acknowledged
human capacity, never prayed to himself, or directed
his followers to worship or pray to him.' Granting that
'worship' in English, and irPo<Tx.vviM in Greek, are some-
times used to denote civil respect, and that the worship
paid by the servant to his master, Matt, xviii. 26, and by
the people to David, meant merely civil respect, still the
position is not touched in the least degree." The reason
which the Editor assigns for this position not being
touched, is, that " whether the blind man, the lepers, the
mariners, and others, knew what they did in worshipping
Jesus, is not so much the question, as whether Jesus-
knew •, for if he suffered them, even through ignorance,
to yield him divine worship, when Peter did not suffer
it in Cornelius for a moment, unless he were God, he
must have had less discernment or less piety and concern
for the Divine honour than his own disciples/' P. 618.
As the Editor agrees that the term " ' worship, in
English, and TtPoo-xvvtw in Greek, are sometimes used to
denote civil respect," it is of course necessary to ascertain
77
it as a gift of the Father : and the object of our inquiry
and reverence is the Son endowed with life, and not one
destitute of it.
SIXTH POSITION.
TlTe Editor begins by observing, that " to the sixth posi-
tion, that Jesus accepted worship due to God alone, our
author objects, ' That the word ' worship,' both in common
acceptation and scriptural writings, is used sometimes as
implying an external mark of religious reverence paid to
God, and at other times as signifying merely the token of
civil respect due to superiors ; that those who worshipped
Jesus did not believe him to be God, or one of the three
persons of the Godhead; and Jesus, in his acknowledged
human capacity, never prayed to himself, or directed
his followers to worship or pray to him.' Granting that
'worship' in English, and irPo<Tx.vviM in Greek, are some-
times used to denote civil respect, and that the worship
paid by the servant to his master, Matt, xviii. 26, and by
the people to David, meant merely civil respect, still the
position is not touched in the least degree." The reason
which the Editor assigns for this position not being
touched, is, that " whether the blind man, the lepers, the
mariners, and others, knew what they did in worshipping
Jesus, is not so much the question, as whether Jesus-
knew •, for if he suffered them, even through ignorance,
to yield him divine worship, when Peter did not suffer
it in Cornelius for a moment, unless he were God, he
must have had less discernment or less piety and concern
for the Divine honour than his own disciples/' P. 618.
As the Editor agrees that the term " ' worship, in
English, and TtPoo-xvvtw in Greek, are sometimes used to
denote civil respect," it is of course necessary to ascertain