not suppose that an inferior and created minister of God would have thus placed himself in the exact relative position of that God who sent him. And this argument receives additional force-if possible -when we consider that the introduction of Christianity was, in one sense, a breaking down of the middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles; so that he who is now the God of Jews and Gentiles in the Christian Church, is the one being who was in a special sense the God of the Jews only. ROM. iii. 29.

I would here remark, that there are two methods of argument by which we may arrive at the conclusion in support of the Deity of Christ, from the comparison of passages in which Jehovah or God is spoken of, with others in which either the same passages are referred to Christ; or in which divine attributes which the former speak of, are in the same sense ascribed to him. 1st, This comparison either identifies Christ with the Jehovah or God who is spoken of in the one passage, and thus directly proves his Deity;-or, 2dly, If we admit that, in the passages in which the name of Jehovah or God occurs, the person of the Father is meant; then the parallel texts which speak of Christ in the same sense, ascribing to him the same divine characteristics and attributes with the Father, prove him to be the one God with the Father, and so indirectly, but as validly, demonstrate his true Deity. Thus, for instance, it is said, in PSALM lxxxiii. 18, that the Israelites tempted the Most High God in the desert; but, in 1 Cor. x. 9, Paul asserts, in reference to the same circumstance, that it was Christ whom they tempted. Now, I can arrive at a valid conclusion, substantiating the true Deity of Christ, from a comparison of these passages; by either at once inferring, that Christ, in his pre-existent Deity, was the Most High God, whom the Israelites tempted; or, admitting the Most High God to be meant by the Psalmist of the Father, I have an instance of Christ's being associated with the Father as the one object against whom the Israelites sinned; and therefore I necessarily infer, that Christ was the Most High God with the Father,

IV. I SHALL NOW ADVANCE ANOTHER CLASS OF PROOFS; NAMELY, INSTANCES OF CHRIST'S ASSUMING OR APPLYING TO HIMSELF DECLARATIONS OF SCRIPTURE, OR ATTRIBUTES ELSEWHERE REFERRING TO JEHOVAH OR GOD.

In EXOD. XX. 24, God is represented as making this promise to the Jewish Church: "In all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee."-But Christ, in the New Testament, represents himself as sustaining the very same relationship to the Christian Church, by recording two precisely similar promises; in MATT. xviii. 20: "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them;" and in MATT. xxviii. 20: "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." Upon this comparison, I remark; 1st, It must obviously require the divine faculty of being omnipresent, in order to enable a person who made these promises to fulfil them; and, 2dly, if Christ were a creature infinitely inferior to the true God, a promise of his perpetual presence would have been of no value. A promise of the presence and protec

tion of God, delivered authoritatively by Jesus his Messenger, would have been alone serviceable, and could alone have prevented the Jewish Church from possessing an infinitely higher advantage than the Christian, by enjoying the presence and protection of Jehovah himself.

In MATT. v. 21, and throughout his entire sermon, Christ contrasts his own instructions with the commandments of Jehovah to the Jews, so as to assume to himself the very same legislative prerogatives and authority: "Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time" (for so it is in the Greek); "but I say unto you."-What creature could presume to improve upon the language of a commandment of Jehovah ?

In ISA. xl. 10, we read, "Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him."-But in REV. xxii. 12, Christ applies the very same language to himself, and assumes to himself the same divine prerogative of rewarding: And behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be."

In 1 COR. vi. 14, it is said, "God hath both raised up the Lord."But in JOHN ii. 19, Christ asserts, in reference to his resurrection : "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it up in three days."-Upon which comparison I remark, that Christ must have been possessed of a divine nature, distinct from his human body, which divine nature raised up that body; and which was so connected with it at the time be made this declaration, as to justify his speaking in the first person singular-" I will raise it up" and that this was true, is evident from his calling his body a temple, on seeing the temple of Jerusalem. That temple was the house of Jehovah; and his body is so styled, because "in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."

In 1 Cor. vi. 14, it is also said, "God will raise up us by his own power."-But in JOHN vi. 39, 40, 44, 54, Christ says, four times, in reference to his people, "I WILL RAISE HIM up at the last day :" therefore, Christ is either that God who will raise the dead, or he is one with the Father in the exercise of that divine prerogative and power.

In ISA. xliv. 6, we read, "Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no god."—But in REV. i. 17; ii. 8; xxii. 13, Christ assumes this title to himself by saying, “I am the first and the last ;" upon which I remark, 1st, If we understand this title as designating eternal existence, then it is evident that Christ must be the one true and everlasting God with Jehovah, as no two perfectly distinct beings could say of themselves with truth, "I am the first and the last ;" or, 2dly, If we understand the words as denoting the first cause and final object of all things, it equally proves his true Deity.

Christ promises to give to his disciples that wisdom which the

Apostle directs them to pray to God for. LUKE xxi. 15, "For I WILL GIVE you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist."-Compared with JAMES i. 5,

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all liberally," &c.

In PSALM vii. 9, it is said, "The righteous God trieth the hearts and reins ;" and in JER. xvii. 10, "I Jehovah search the heart; I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings."-But in REV. ii. 23, Christ not only assumes to himself these two divine prerogatives of searching the reins and the heart, and of exercising retributive justice-but expressly identifies himself with Jehovah, who speaks in this passage, by quoting it in direct application to himself: "And all the Churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts; and I will give unto every one of you according to your works."-Here, I simply ask, Can any one have the hardihood to maintain, or even to insinuate, that Christ might have made an unjustifiable quotation, and incorrect application to himself, of the words of the Prophet?

From the language which Christ adopts in his addresses to the seven churches in Asia, in REV. ii. and iii. we infer his possession of the attributes and prerogatives of Deity. He does not use that style of address which a created being, acting as the inferior agent of God, would naturally employ, and always did employ, by saying, "Thus saith Jehovah."-But he says, "I know thy works," &c.; "I have somewhat against thee:" "To him that overcometh, will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God;" Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly;" "He that overcometh, and keepth my words unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations;" "I will not blot his name out of the book of life;" "He that openeth, and no man (or "no one") shutteth, he that shutteth, and no one openeth ;" "Thou hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name;" "I will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world ;" "Him that overcometh, will I make a pillar in the temple of my God;" "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten;" "To him that overcometh, will I grant to sit with me on my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne."-Upon these passages it is obvious to remark, that the assumption of independent and underived knowledge of authority to dispense the blessedness and the dignities of heaven-of power to exercise retributive justice-of the possession of irresistible dominion over the condition of men-and of preserving, correcting, punishing, and rewarding the members of his churches, which they contain,-is totally unaccountable upon any principle, but that which admits and recognises him as the one God with the Father. And, as the threats denounced against the Asiatic churches have been fulfilled by rendering the ordinary arrangements of providence the instruments of their accomplishment, it is evident, that Christ has, in these passages, represented himself as the God of providence, who can alone order all things for the accomplishment of his purposes.

In MATT. xxiii. 37, Christ assumes the language, and places himself in the position of the God of Israel: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" -How easy is it here to apply the principle by which the identity of Peter was ascertained, "Thy speech bewrayeth thee!" (MATT. xxvi. 73); for this is precisely an appropriation to himself, on the part of Christ, of the office of president and protector of the Jewish people which Jehovah sustained, as is manifest from comparing it with the similar descriptions of Jehovah in the Old Testament; as in DEUT. xxxii. 11. "As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings; so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him."-And in PSALM Xci. 4. " He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust."-And in JER. xxix. 19. "Because they have not hearkened unto my words, saith the Lord, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early, and sending; but ye would not hear, saith the Lord." -And in PSALM 1xxxi. 11-14." But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust; and they walked in their own counsels. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries."

V. I SHALL NOW ADVANCE PROOFS OF THAT PART OF MY SECOND PROPOSITION WHICH ASSERTS, THAT CHRIST POSSESSES, AS TO HIS DIVINE NATURE, THE SAME ETERNITY, KNOWLEDGE, POWER, AUTHORITY, PREROGATIVES, AND GODHEAD, WITH THE Father, anD IS ONE WITH HIM IN ALL ATTRIBUTES. And this I shall do by advancing passages in which divine attributes and prerogatives are referred in common to Christ and the Father. [I should, however, premise, that in some of the passages which I shall advance, it might be questioned whether it be the person of the Father who is exclusively referred to, and not the Divine Being in a general sense; but it is evident that, according to the principles of those who differ from us, I have a right to assume, though I would not admit, that wherever the word God occurs in Scripture, the person of the Father is meant.]

The Apostle Paul, at the commencement of most of his Epistles, associates the Lord Jesus Christ with the Father, as the person to whom he prays for a dispensation of the highest spiritual blessings; as, for instance, in Rom. i. 7, "Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ."-In other places he represents Christ, without mentioning the Father, as the dispenser of the same blessings: as in 1 COR. xvi. 23, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you;" and 2 TIM. i. 16, "The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus ;" and ver. 18, "The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day."

In 1 THESS. iii. 11-13, he also associates Christ with the Father as the object of prayer, and as having the same power with him to

control the affairs of providence: "Now God himself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you ;" and then he continues his petition to Christ, under the title Lord, for spiritual blessings: "And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you; to the end he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints."-There is a similar prayer in 2 THESS. ii. 16, 17, in which Christ, in order of address, is placed before the Father: "Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation, and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.”

The Lord Jesus Christ and the Father are represented in Scripture as equally entitled to the worship of all created beings; as is proved by the fact, that doxologies, of precisely similar form, and containing the same ascriptions, are offered to both; as in 2 PET. iii. 18: "Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: to whom be glory both now and for ever. Amen."Compared with that in 1 PET. v. 11, offered up to the God of all grace, whom we assume to be the Father: "To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever."

In HEB. i. 1, God the Father is represented as the person who spake by the prophets: "God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son."-But in 1 PET. i. 10, 11, it is asserted that Christ, in his pre-existent Deity, was the author of the inspiration of the prophets : "Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you; searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow ;" and also in 1 PET. iii. 19, Christ is represented as having inspired Noah, the preacher of righteousness to the antedeluvian world: "For Christ also hath once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God; being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison," &c.

Christ, as Lord, is one with the Father, as proprietor of the temple at Jerusalem; for we read, in JOHN ii. 16, "Make not my Father's house an house of merchandise ;" and in MAL. iii. 1, we read of Christ, "The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple."

Christ is associated with the Father, as the person to whom believers are solemnly dedicated at baptism, as in MATT. xxviii. 19, "Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

It is said, in 1 JOHN ii. 22-24, that it is of equal importance that the Christian should have faith, and continue in the faith of

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