you think of your present anxious cares, covetings, envyings, repinings, and disputes, when the night cometh, in which no man can work? Seek, then, the "Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, for he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."

ESSAY VI.

ON THE DEITY OF CHRIST.

THE doctrine of a Mediator, through whom a just and holy God deals mercifully with believers, is the grand peculiarity of revelation; and it must, therefore, be of the greatest importance for us to form a proper estimate of the personal dignity of this Mediator. The doctrine which I shall here attempt to establish from scripture may be thus stated: "That Jesus Christ is truly and really God, one with, and equal to the Father; being from eternity possessed of all divine perfections, and justly entitled to all divine honours; yet personally distinct from the Father, and so called his own Son, his only-begotten Son, &c. : but that, in order to the performance of his mediatory office, he assumed our nature into personal union with the Deity; became one with us, truly man, like us in all things, sin alone excepted; and that he is thus God and man in one mysterious incomprehensible person: so that all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily.'

It is obvious, that no argument can be brought against the doctrine of our Lord's essential Deity, as here stated, from those scriptures which speak

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of his human nature, his mediatorial office, or his inferiority to the Father in both these respects; for our doctrine implies this, and even essentially requires it as an ambassador, though subordinate by office to his prince, is not supposed to be of an inferior nature, or of inferior abilities to him. We need not, therefore, discourse on this part of the subject: it is generally allowed by all, but deists and atheists, that "Christ is come in the flesh;" though numbers contend that he could not have come in any other way (which renders the language of inspiration unmeaning, if not absurd); and others deem him a mere creature of some superangelic nature, and only called God in consequence of his mediatorial exaltation. But the idea of a creature, however exalted, being advanced to divinity, is so repugnant to all rational principles, as well as to the declarations of Jehovah, that "he knows no god besides himself, and will not give his glory to another," that it will not be necessary to discuss the subject with any particular respect to these distinct opinions; but merely to show, that our Redeemer is by nature "God over all, blessed for evermore. ." At present I shall adduce a few select arguments, in direct proof of this point; leaving some other things that belong to the subject to be discussed in the next essay.

I. The reader will naturally turn his thoughts to those scriptures in which Jesus Christ is expressly called GOD, and LORD. "Without controversy," says the apostle, "great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh," (1 Tim. iii. 16.) He not only allows his doctrine to be very mysterious, but even appears to glory in it as "the great mystery of godliness;" nor could it be controverted or denied that it was a great mystery. We may therefore be sure, that they who would so interpret his words as to render his doctrine scarce mysterious at all do not understand

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them but they who suppose him to mean, that Jesus was Emmanuel, God with us; that the child born at Bethlehem was the mighty God, as the prophet foretold; consider his proposition both as a great mystery, and as the source, centre, and support of godliness (Isa. vii. 14; ix. 6). It would be superfluous, in this brief attempt, to do more than refer the reader to the well-known passages to this effect (John i. 1-18; Phil. ii. 5—8; Col. i. 15-17; Heb. i), and to entreat him to read them with attention, as the word of God, and with earnest prayer to be enabled to understand and believe them; for it seems impossible for human language to express any sentiment more strongly than they do the deity of Christ. He "who was in the beginning with God, and was God;" "who made all things," so that " without him was not any thing made that was made;" by whom and for whom all things were created, and by whom all things consist," and who "upholds all things by the word of his power;" must be " God over all, blessed for evermore;" for "he that made all things is God," which surely none but an avowed atheist will deny.

These, and several other passages of this kind, will come again under consideration towards the close of this essay; and this first argument may be concluded, by desiring the reader to consider what the apostle meant by saying, " The second man is the Lord from heaven," if Christ be only a mere man, or a created being? (1 Cor. xv. 47).

II. Several texts of the Old Testament concerning Jehovah are applied in the New to Christ.— The prophet declares, "that whosoever shall call on the name of Jehovah shall be delivered:" This the apostle applies to Christ (Joel ii. 32; Rom. x. 13); for he adds, "how shall they call on him of whom they have not heard? or how shall they hear without a preacher?" &c. Now it is mani

fest, that Joel predicted the judgments which awaited the Jews for rejecting the Messiah, (Acts ii. 16-21); but they certainly did call upon Jehovah, as the God of their fathers, to deliver them, and yet they were not delivered, because they would not join with those who called on the name of Jesus; and they only who called on him were delivered. As, therefore, the scripture cannot be broken, Christ is Jehovah: Paul considered him as such, and the event demonstrated him to be so. The Psalmist says, "Taste and see that Jehovah is good:" to this the apostle manifestly refers, when he uses these words, "If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious-to whom coming, as to a living stone," &c. and in what follows the attentive reader will perceive, that he applies to Christ what the prophet had spoken of Jehovah God of Hosts himself (Psalm xxxiv. 8; Isaiah viii. 13-15; xxviii. 16; 1 Pet. ii. 3-8). Isaiah had a most extraordinary vision of Jehovah in his temple; and the Evangelist declares, that he then "saw the glory of Christ, and spake of him" (Isaiah vi.; John xii. 39–42); and Paul applies to Christ's coming to judgment what the same prophet had written of Jehovah swearing by himself," that every knee should bow to him, and every tongue confess to God" (Isaiah xlv. 21-25; Rom. xiv. 9-12). Indeed the whole passage referred to, especially the last verse," In Jehovah shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory," proves that Emmanuel was especially meant, in whom alone believers are justified, and glory (1 Cor. i. 30, 31). Instances of this kind might be easily multiplied; but I would rest the argument principally on those which follow. Jehovah, speaking to Moses, declared his self-existent, immutable, and eternal Deity, by saying, I AM THAT I AM; and ordered him to inform Israel," that I AM had sent him to them.'

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This Christ expressly applied to himself when he said to the Jews, "Before Abraham was, AM." Had he said, before Abraham was, I was, it would sufficiently have proved his pre-existence to all who believe him to be truth, or to speak truth; but we cannot affix any meaning to the words, as they now stand, unless we allow him to be the eternal God. This his enemies of old clearly perceived, and therefore they went about to stone him for blasphemy: nor can they who deem him only a man fairly dissent from their verdict, however it may be convenient to them to palliate the language in question. Should we render the words, AM HE," they are then equivalent to those of Jehovah," Before the day was, I am he" (Isaiah xliii. 15); and the use of the present tense, with reference to Abraham, who lived so many ages before, perfectly discriminates this passage from. all others in which the same expression is used, either by our Lord, or any other person (Exod. iii. 14; John viii. 58). Indeed, the language of the passage in Exodus, and that of Luke concerning it (Acts vii. 30-37), lead us to consider the eternal Son, the great Angel of the covenant, as the speaker on this occasion: and whoever attentively compares the appearances of Jehovah to Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, and many others, with the words of the evangelist, "No man hath seen God at any time, the only-begotten Son -hath declared him," will be apt to conclude, that all these were discoveries of that very person, in the form of God, who afterwards appeared in the form of a servant. Again, Isaiah introduces Jehovah saying, "I am the first, and I am the last, and besides me there is no God." This Christ, appearing in vision to John, expressly and repeatedly claimed to himself (Isaiah xliv. 6; Rev. i. 8, 11, 17, 18; ii. 8; xxii. 13). Now can any reasonable man suppose, that Jesus, had he been