His oneness of nature and attributes with the eternal Father prove him to be equally and truly God. "Brightness of the Father's glory and express image of his "otherwise invisible " person" (Heb. i. 3); to know, to see, to love him, and hear his voice, is the same as to know, see, love, and hear the voice of the eternal Father (John viii. 19; xii. 45; xiv. 9, 21); the Father can do nothing without the Son, nor the Son without the Father (John v. 17-19); not to honour the Son is precisely the same impiety as not to honour the Father (John v. 23); him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. ii. 9); the Father hath life in himself, so the Son hath life in himself" (John v. 26); his righteousness is that of God (2 Pet. i. 1); his blood the blood of God (Acts xx. 28); his nature and that of the eternal Father are one (John x. 30).

In "As

His being prayed unto, invoked, and worshipped, prove him to be truly God:-All the angels of God are commanded to worship him (Heb. i. 6). He is worshipped by the eastern magi (Matt. ii. 11). By his disciples (Matt. viii. 25; xiv. 33; Luke xxiv. 52). The blind man restored to sight (John ix. 38). The woman of Canaan (Matt. xv. 25). By Thomas (John xx. 28). Stephen (Acts vii. 59); and by the whole Church (John xiv. 14; Ps. xlv. 11; Joel ii. 32; Acts ii. 21; i. 24; Rom. x. 13; 1 Cor. i. 2). Paul makes constant supplication and prayer to him (Acts xxii. 16-21; 2 Cor. xii. 8, 9; Rom. i. 7; 1 Thess. iii. 11; 2 Thess. i. 2). And solemnly appeals to him as the omniscient Judge "of the thoughts and intents of the heart; " viz., “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not (Rom. ix. 1); "I charge you by the Lord (Jesus), that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren " (1 Thess. v. 27); "I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and dead at his appearing " (2 Tim. iv. 1). And Paul's example in this respect has been regarded by some as a sanction for swearing, or adjuring by his name, as implied by the oath sworn on the New Testament in the courts of law, &c., which practice, however, in the flippant and reckless manner of it, we cannot but view as an utter abomination in his sight.

His receiving divine praise, adoration, and glory, prove that he is the true God:-See Paul's ascription of everlasting blessedness (Rom. ix. 5); and everlasting glory (Heb. xiii. 21); and Peter's everlasting praise and dominion (1 Pet. v. 11). Again. "To him be glory, both now and for ever" (2 Pet. iii. 18). And Jude concludes his epistle with the same divine doxology-" To the only wise God our Saviour be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever" (Jude 25). The millions of millions of angelic choirs, without number, sing Hosannahs of "Worthy the Lamb." The whole creation of celestial and terrestrial worshippers join the chorus, "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever (Rev. v. 12, 13).

The sum of all these references, &c., amounts to the perfect and complete proof of the great and glorious doctrine of the true deity of the Lord Jesus Christ-that he is either verily God, and God's co-equal and co-eternal Son, or the very idol of the Scriptures and of his whole Church, before and since his appearance upon earth; but “ we have not so learned Christ." All these texts would make volumes in support of the divine truth; and we leave them as references, to lead at leisure, to mature and

deliberate consideration. It is not a mere speculative inquiry whether the plain sense of Scripture be received or not, but if we value the honour of God, and the salvation of our own souls, we shall deal with it as having eternal life and death in the balances. There is certainly no evidence on the contrary to overthrow what we have written, which we shall now endeavour to show, by considering the most plausible arguments against us. And with this view, we select certain passages of Scripture most commonly cited by the enemies of our Lord's divinity to support their unbelief; on which, however, we shall see that an undue stress has been laid, the interpretation which they are wont to give is erroneous, and that, instead of being opposed to, they are perfectly compatible with, it.

Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God" (Matt. xix. 17). It cannot be supposed that the attribute of goodness is confined here to the one absolute Person of the divine Father; for all admit that it belongs as well to his Son Jesus Christ, and it is also applied to the Holy Spirit (Neh. ix. 20; Ps. cxliii. 10). It is obvious that Christ put this question to the young man to try his faith, like as he questioned the Pharisees as to what they thought of him (Matt. xxii. 42-45); and which is clear from the conclusion by his telling him that, in order to obtain eternal life, which he appeared so solicitous about, he must sell all his possessions and follow him. He does not, therefore, repel the appellation of good as due to himself; but, on the contrary, claims it as due only to God in his whole nature, which alone is goodness in the abstract. It is as much as if Christ had said, "Why callest thou me good, when thou art not sincere in coming to me, nor ready to obey my commandments? There is none good but the one God (as the words may be construed), and I and my Father are one, and must be obeyed, or it is of no use your coming to me." And, after all, the young man turned his back upon Christ, proving that he justly merited the terrible reproof which he had received.

"Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power" (1 Cor. xv. 24). We have only to show the nature of this kingdom to refute the arguments of those who urge the words to lower the dignity and authority of Christ at the final period alluded to. It is not his natural essentially divine and universal kingdom which, as God equal with the Father, he, the eternal Son, inherited from all eternity; for this he did not receive, nor will he ever deliver it up; but reigns and rules therein, by right and unity of nature with the Father and Holy Spirit, from everlasting to everlasting. Nor are we to understand the kingdom of glory, wherein none but immortal, spiritual, and glorified intelligences dwell, and which was prepared and held by Christ for all his redeemed from before the foundation of the world, where Christ "sitteth on the throne of his glory" over the house of Jacob for ever; (of this) his kingdom there shall be no end." But the kingdom intended by this text is properly his mediatorial kingdom, or dispensation of grace, called in the New Testament the kingdom of heaven; because it "is not of this world," and because our Lord Jesus Christ is its spiritual King, and all its rewards and immunities are spiritual, and from heaven. And it will exist only so long as the world stands, and whilst it has enemies to contend with; but when Christ will have " put all enemies under his feet," when sin, Satan, and death itself will be vanquished, and the

"and

Church will no longer need his mediation and intercession, his government, as King, Mediator, and Advocate, will cease, and the whole kingdom of his Church, or body mystical, will be "delivered up "-presented perfect and complete unto the eternal Father, in order to the attainment of their eternal glorification in the kingdom of everlasting blessedness and peace, prepared for them from before the foundation of the world. And then they will not be only and entirely in his hands, as they are, in a sense, in their temporal and suffering state; but Christ, with the Father. and the Holy Spirit, the one true and living Jehovah, by a full communication of his glory, and by intimate union and communion with his glorified Church, will be all in all for evermore. This we conceive to be the true meaning of the text; so that the words were evidently designed not to lower, but rather to establish and set up the true and eternal divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ at that momentous epoch.

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"To sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father" (Matt. xx. 23). These words of Christ have been supposed by some to involve a denial of his divine power and authority. It appears that the mother and her two sons, who had joined the company of apostles, had formed gross, worldly conceptions of the spiritual kingdom which Christ came to establish, and therefore petitioned him to promise them the chief authority under him as officers of state; but our Lord at once averted their minds from such vain thoughts. "Ye know not what ye ask; and intimated that the preferments and honours which he had to dispense would expose them to the largest share of affliction in the cup of afflictive providences, which were "indeed" allotted them, in common with their divine Master and all his disciples, to drink hereafter, as intimated in the context by the figure of immersion in the waters of baptism (compare Ps. lxix. 2), which prediction was fulfilled in their future career; for James was killed by Herod (Acts xii. 1, 2). And, although it is said that John only of the twelve died a natural death, yet he shared in all the persecutions of his brethren, and in his extreme old age was banished to Patmos (Rev. i. 9). These words of our Lord, we repeat, do not prove his lack of power "to give;" but simply show, that all the concerns of his coming kingdom were already prepared and settled by the will of his divine Father, apart from which it was not his to bestow. "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will" (John v. 19—21). And yet our Lord promises all divine blessings in his own name, being of one and the same mind with the Father. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am" (John xvii. 24). "I go to prepare a place for you" (John xiv. 2). "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my throne" (Rev. iii. 21). Although Christ did not, in this instance, fully explain the nature of his heavenly kingdom, yet it is most obvious that his object was not to lower his authority, but to divert the minds of these two zealous young apostles from a vain request, by giving them to understand that they had a great work to do, although of a different kind to what they expected.

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"And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent" (John xvii. 3).—Great

stress has been laid upon this remarkable passage by Arians, Socinians, and others, to support a creed that the Father is the only true God, to the exclusion of the Son and the Holy Ghost. No such interpretation however, is warranted by it, for it is obvious that the great truth inculcated therein is contained in the doctrine that the possession of "life eternal" consists in the right knowledge of the eternal Father as the only true God (not in opposition to the true deity of Jesus Christ, as one with him and the Holy Spirit, but to all fictitious so-called gods of the heathen), and of Jesus Christ "sent" by the Father to redeem and save the world from eternal death. What is here said of the Father, is elsewhere said of the Son in almost the same words. "The true God and eternal life." The words in their full amplitude comprise the entire knowledge of God and his salvation by Jesus Christ, as the earnest and pledge of eternal life to the possessor; and which the false gods of the heathen are unable to bestow. This is the full scope of their meaning; and to say the least, there is nothing expressed or implied to set up a disparity of nature between the Father and the Son, or to contravene the true deity of Jesus Christ, as the enemies of which would fain infer from them.

"But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him" (1 Cor. viii. 6).-These words are synonymous with the passage which we have just considered, insomuch as the one true God is set up in opposition to "idols," the gods many and lords many of the heathen, as the context shows. The word God here applied to the divine Father, cannot be supposed to exclude the Lord Jesus Christ from the attribute of deity otherwise by parity of reasoning, God the Father must be excluded from the name Lord, and the truth connected with it "by whom are all things" we know, however, that lordship dominion belongs to the Father, and deity to the Lord Jesus Christ; so that the divinity of each divine Person may fairly be understood to be inculcated without disparity or inferiority, and the whole passage is evidently intended to show that the only acceptable way of worshipping the one true and only God is "by" and through the mediation and merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. The words comprehend God in his nature, or essence, dwelling in the Lord Jesus Christ, "by" and through whom all divine blessings flow to man.

"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. ii. 5).—We cannot understand from these words that Christ is not God, for such inference would indeed be a contradiction to what is so plainly declared elsewhere. The text, again, is evidently intended to set up one true God and one only mediator, in opposition to the Gentile world, and utter condemnation of all false and pretended mediators, not only of the Pagan idolatry, but the Virgin Mary and all the sainted intercessors of the Roman Calender, and even the angels in heaven, none of whom are omnipresent and omniscient to hear and help us; and being the creatures of God, cannot be mediators and peace-makers with him; which office none can undertake but God's equal and fellow, as is affirmed of Christ (Phil ii. 6; Zech. xiii. 7), and is no where recorded of any creature. Moses, Aaron, and the high priests, in succession, performed the office of mediator under the legal covenant, yet they, we know, could never by their own merit and offerings of themselves propitiate God and obtain pardon of sin for the people (Heb. x. 11); because they acted only as typical mediators and intercessors, "shadows"

of Christ the one great high priest and only mediator, with the eternal Father. The worship, therefore, of any other than He, whether men or angels as mediators, intercessors, and peace-makers, is false, fictitious, and idolatrous.

The apostle does not say that Jesus is only a mere man, but simply that he is the man, Christ Jesus, the doctrine of which we agree to be a glorious truth, and perfectly consistent with the doctrine of his true divinity; and we may fairly conclude that the words as well as those of the two preceding texts, are not intended to set up supreme deity as belonging to the Father only, nor even to the Father and Son exclusively, but as indicative of the person of the deity as the common Parent, Redeemer, and Sanctifier of mankind; and all these and the like circumlocutory paraphrases comprehend, as they appear to us, the one Godhead, in his tri-personal being, attributes, and perfections.

"My Father is greater than I" (John xiv. 28). Our Lord also says, "I and my Father are one" (John x. 30). Not merely one in mind and will, but one in all the essential elements of Deity, in which sense he was understood by the Jews, who made the attempt to stone him to death, because (said they), "that thou, being a man, makest thyself God" (verse 33). All this is seen in the doctrine of his twofold nature. "Equal to the Father as touching his Godhead, and inferior as touching his manhood." Although his divine and human natures are inseparable, yet he is sometimes spoken of as God in a pre-eminent sense, and sometimes as man, as here; and in respect to his office as man, fulfilling the covenant of works, he is said to have taken the form of a servant, obedient unto death; so that, without confusion in the mysterious union of the divine and human natures, he may properly be said to be inferior as touching his manhood, in which sense the words of this text are to be understood. In other passages, he is presented as the eternal, omnipotent God (Rom. ix. 5; 1 Tim. vi. 14-16). And yet the unity of two natures in the one person of the Son of God, cannot be divided, inferiority, as man may be imputed to him, because the human nature is inferior to the divine. But "his taking the manhood into God" was his own voluntary act; and, by the divinity, he had power over that nature to lay it down and take it up again, so that the manhood was not naturally or essentially equal to divinity, but it gave virtue and efficacy to his work as Mediator and Redeemer. In that nature he was the humble and obedient minister and servant of the law, even unto the death upon the cross. So that, both as respects his humanity and office-work, he may properly be understood to say, "My Father is greater than I." (See also page 5.)

We have thus explained these several passages of Scripture on which the most plausible denial of the divinity of the eternal Word rests; and yet even these, when fairly considered, appear quite consonant with the truth of his co-eternal subsistence with the Father. These will serve as examples for all others of similar import, which it is therefore needless to discuss. Truly, there is no creed or doctrine opposed to the true divinity of Jesus Christ, at all reconcilable with the aggregate of the whole of the inspired writings; but the great truth admitted, shows perfect harmony and consistency throughout, forming, in short, the very foundation and key-stone on which all the rest depends.

In conclusion, we remark, that the name of our blessed Jesus, the