spake of him: "All the scriptures testify of him," John v. 39. "He is the Lord," Acts ix. 17. "He is the Almighty," Rev. i. 8. "He is the true God," 1 John v. 20. "He is the only Lord God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ," Jude ver. 4.

This Job knew well when he said, "God shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, whom I shall see in my flesh," Job xix. 25, 26. And David, throughout the Psalms, calls him, " My Lord, my Saviour, my Light, my Redeemer: The Lord is my Shepherd," Psalm xxiii. "The Lord is my Rock," Psalm xviii. 2... We know our Saviour ap+ plies this to himself, and says, " I am the good Shepherd," John x. 11. St. Paul also says, "This rock is Christ," I Cor. x. 4. Even the unutterable name, which God named to Moses out of the bush, (and which is looked upon as the most dreadful and sacred of all the names of God) our Saviour appro priates to himself, and for which cause the Jews were about to stone him. See John viii. 24 and 58. Should we, search, diligently the prophets and the Psalms concerning Jesus, we should soon see that the Saviour born to us is Christ the Lord :“The Son given to us is the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Most Holy, the Redeemer, the God of the whole earth," Luke ii. 11. Isa. ix. 6. Dan. ix. 24. Isa. liv. 5. Yea Isaiah, who, on account of his great insight into the person and kingdom of Christ, has been called the evangelical prophet, boldly asserts, "He is God, and there is none else, the Lord, a just God, and a Saviour; and there is none besides him," Isa. xiv. 5. 21, 22. It is to the Son, David here saith, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom, &c. Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens, are the work of thy hands; they shall

2. c 3

perish,

perish, but thou remainest; and they shall all wax old as doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed, but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail," Heb. 1. 8-12. Isaiah, when he saw his glory afar off, knew he would one day tabernacle with men; and had foretold his name shall be Immanuel, Isa. vii. 14.; or, as St. Paul hath it, God manifest in the flesh, 1 Tim. iii. 16. So Micah, speaking of God's birth in the world, says concerning his eternal existence," his goings-forth have been of old, even from everlasting," Micah v. 2.

But why need I to use so many arguments, or bring more proofs to make it clear, that this doctrine of the Son of man's Godhead is according to the scriptures, since" his name is above every name that is named in heaven?" Phil. ii. 9. and since all the angels of God, or all the Elohims, or gods, worship before him: and the whole first chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews was written to prove the same thing, namely, that Jesus is no created being, no angel, in the common sense, no inferior deity, but the maker and supporter of all worlds and creatures, the very essence and express image and person of God, whom all creatures and angels serve, and before whom all the Gods fall down and worship.

That he is more than all prophets and sons of God, is evident also from Heb. iii. 3. "This Man is counted worthy of more honour than Moses, inasmuch as he who has builded the house, has more honour than the house, because he built the house, which house we are; and is before all things, and author of all, whether angels, principalities, thrones, or men, visible or invisible; and is heir and inheritor of all, supporting them by the word of his power; God over all blessed for ever," Heb. i. 2, 3. John i. 3. 10. Rom. ix. 5. xi. 36.

But,

But, to say no more, if he be not God, verily and truly how can we blame the Jews for going about to stone him? or how can we say, "with wicked hands they have crucified and slain him?" Since their reasons for it were, "Because of blasphemy, in that he, being a man, made himself God," John x. 33. and because he said, " Before Abraham was, I AM," John viii. 58. And this was their accusation before Pilate, "He ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God," John xix. 7. My dear brethren, there is no medium; either he is God, or a blasphemer. If he be God, then give him his honour, and serve him as God; and if not, then do not be any longer called by his name; openly join the Turks and Jews, and cry out, "Away with him from the earth! We will not have this Man to reign over us!"

So sure were the cloud of his witnesses, and the noble army of martyrs, of the eternal divinity of their Master, that they would know no other, preached no other, but agreed to publish through the earth the doctrine they had received of their Head. "All men must honour the Son, even as the Father. He that honoureth not the Son, ho noureth not the Father," John v. 23. "He that is not in the doctrine of the Son, he is without God, he is an Atheist," 2 John 9. faithful assertors of this true doctrine, particular; he tells the Ephesians, that ye were without Christ, ye were without God in the world," Eph. ii. 12. And again, "In him dwelleth the whole fulness of the Godhead bodily," Col. ii. 9. But all this we have immediately from the Lord and Bishop of our souls himself: for when Philip wanted once to see the Father, of whom he had heard Jesus say so much, and thought then he should be fully satisfied, our Saviour said to him, "Philip,

Among the St. Paul is at that time

Philip, have I been so long with you, and fou have not known me? He that seeth me, seeth the Father I am in the Father, and the Father in me,” John xiv. 9, 10.

The whole book of the Revelations teacheth us, that Jesus is he, "which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty: He who is God and the Almighty in the midst of the throne: He before whom all sing and worship upon their faces, casting down their crowns to the ground at his feet, because he has been slain: He who is the King of kings and Lord of lords: He who shall judge the world, and is the First and the Last;" and who is, as St. Peter and Paul declare him, "the Lord of all," Acts x. 36.

I pass by, on purpose, many places of this kind, because if I should bring all the proofs which could be brought, to shew who the Son of man is, I must then bring all the Bible, for all testify of him; all confess him the Lord, beside martyrs and confessors without number, who all sung their hymns, accord ing to Pliny, to one Jesus, whom they (i. e. Christians) honoured and worshipped as God; and this the venerabie council of Nice confirmed, and all the churches of Christ in the east and west, and in every age, both received and preached this doctrine: for upon this Rock is the whole universal or catholic church built, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. These scriptures, however, may be enough to prove, that Jesus is indeed the everlasting Lord God, who made heaven and earth, the One God spoken of by all the prophets, the supreme Maker and Ruler of all worlds, and who, with all his greatness and Majesty, is Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Now I come, secondly, to speak of the humanity of the Most High, and for what end God humbled himself to put on our nature; and this is well ex

pressed

pressed in the words of the Nicene creed: "For us men, and for our salvation, he came down from heaven, and was made man :" or, in St. John's gospel, after he had asserted the Word or Logos was God, and without him was not any thing made that is made, he says, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us," John i. 14. And the same apostle even determines hereby who are of God; namely, those who confess him in the flesh, and forbids to believe or receive any other doctrine, because he says it is of antichrist, and of the false prophet, to deny him in the flesh, 1 John iv. 2. Since then this is so material a matter, let us give the more earnest heed to it, for no mystery of grace or power is greater or more sacred than this, "God manifest in the flesh." As surely as Jesus is very and essentially God, equal to the Father, and the Holy Ghost, in the blessed Trinity, so also is he very and true man, flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone, and became like us in all things, sin only excepted. This was needful, for else he could not have suffered or died; and, in this respect, he who was God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God, humbled himself, and was in form of a servant, and differed nothing from a servant, though he was Lord of all: and in this state it was true the Father was greater than he, and every angel higher thau he, 66 since for the suffering of death he was made a little lower than the angels," Heb. ii. 9.

Here then come and worship, and adore, and be astonished, all who hear me! to see him who made you, and is the very image and brightness of the Father, made a man, and appearing in the likeness of sinful flesh. See him before whom the seraphims covered their faces in their wings, now the Son of man and the offspring of David. He humbles himself and appears in our nature and image, when we

had