did not in this sense speak of themselves, and they knew it. Hence it was hardly necessary for him to utter a truth so obvious. It could not then have been with the view of signifying that he was a mere man, as the Unitarians suppose, that he spake these words. For had he been a mere man, and the people had supposed him to be such, he need not have said any thing about it. But if, on the other hand, the people supposed him to be divine, and he perceived that they did so, when he knew he was not, he certainly should have adopted a more explicit mode of undeceiving them than he did, when he proceeded not only to say, "the father is in me," but also, "I am in the father." For he might have said the father was in him, if he were only a divinely commissioned agent, but he could not have said that he was in the father unless he had been himself divine. For no one can be in the Infinite, the Eternal, the Omnipotent, the Omniscient, but he who is himself possessed of infinity, eternity, omnipotence, and omniscience. When, therefore, the Lord says, "I speak not of myself," he indicates his identity with the father, and not his subordination to him. So that this clause harmonizes perfectly with that in which he says, "I am in the father :" for it implies that he himself is very God-since, as we have said, to be in the father, who is infinite, he must be himself infinite; and if he is infinite, he is God. And if he is God at all, he must be the only God; for if he is not the only God, and yet is God at all, then there are more gods than one—which is impossible and absurd.

We say, then, confidently, that Jesus Christ and the father are one. And, in doing so, we only echo the Lord's own words when he says, (John, v. 30,) "I and my father are one." Here you see a direct and explicit assertion, by the Lord himself, of the point which we are maintaining. Observe, too, that the Lord says he and the father are one-completely subverting the notion that the humanity has for its proximate divine principle a son or second person in the trinity.

We again, then, appeal to all men of common sense and rational Christians, whether-even on the grounds of argument

taken by those who support a contrary doctrine—we are not justified in concluding, from these express declarations of the Lord, that Jesus Christ and the father are one.

Here we might leave our case as entirely made out; but, as this is a most important point, we will confirm it by a few more passages from the Word.

Jesus says, in our text, that they who saw him saw the father; and he could say this in truth, because Jehovah himself had declared, (by Isaiah, ix. 6,) that the child which was to be born should be called "the everlasting father." Isaiah says, (xl. 3,) “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of Jehovah; make straight in the desert a highway for our God." But John said, (i. 23,) “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord." And it is well known that John made straight the way of Jesus Christ. Therefore, Jesus Christ is one with Jehovah. In Isaiah, xliii. 11, are these words, "I am Jehovah, and besides me there is no saviour"-Hosea, xiii. 4, “I am Jehovah thy God, thou shalt know no God but me, for there is no saviour besides me." But it was the express injunction of the angel of the Lord to Joseph, in respect to the son born of Mary, “thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins." If, then, there is no saviour besides Jehovah, and Jesus Christ is saviour, Jesus Christ is Jehovah.-Again, in Isaiah, xlix. 26, and xl. 16, Jehovah is called the "redeemer ;" and by this name too he is identified with the Lord Jesus, who is confessedly the redeemer of the world. We have also, in Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, xiii. 8, this remarkable passage, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." From which, compared with John, iv. 42, "This is Christ, the saviour of the world,” it follows, that, if Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, and in John's time, or at any time, was saviour, he must have been saviour at all times; and consequently was so when Jehovah said, by Isaiah, "besides me there is no saviour." Wherefore this, too, shows that Jesus and Jehovah are one and the same being. The Lord himself declares, “I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the

End, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty"—"I am the First and the Last." But how could he be the First, if he were a son begotten from eternity? In this case there would have been a divine principle eternally before him, and therefore he could not be in a divine sense the First. To be the First, therefore, he must be the father himself. And this the more especially, as he is "the Almighty;" for if he is not the very father, then there are two almighties-which is absurd. Hence, when Jesus Christ declares that he is the First and the Last, he only uses another form of saying that he and the father are one.

It is needless to multiply quotations on this head, had we time: for were we to quote all that would go, either directly or indirectly, to prove this point, we should be obliged to read the whole Bible.

Still we are aware, that, notwithstanding this overwhelming evidence from the Word, many will continue to cling to appearances of truth which seem to inculcate a different doctrine. And if they are resolved to adhere to the tenets, true or false, in which they may happen to have been educated, they may do so easily they will find enough in the mere letter of the Word, which will give plausible colouring to their views; because any doctrine, however false or heretical, may be confirmed by the apparent sense of Scripture. But let all such beware how they ground their doctrines upon constructions of Scripture when those doctrines are at variance with the Lord's express declarations. When the Lord says the father is in him, and that he is himself the father, let them beware how they set about making the father a being out of him, so as to be a person separate and distinct from him. "Let them kiss the son, lest he be angry, and they perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little." And while they are confirming their views by the appearances of truth in the mere letter of the Word, let them take good heed to the apostle Paul, when he says, "the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."

SERMON II.

JOHN, XV. 26.

"When the comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the father, even the spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the father, he shall testify of me."

THESE are the words of the Lord Jesus to his disciples. They form a link in that chain of comforting and sustaining assurances which he gave them in view of his departure from this world, when they were to be left scattered like sheep while their shepherd was smitten.

This text will lead us to consider, first, the true nature of the spirit which testifies of Jesus; and, next, to explain some difficult points of our theology, by throwing upon them its light. The first of these topics will be the theme of our present discourse, the second that of our next.

Let us, then, remark here that the spirit which testifies of Jesus is "the spirit of truth which proceeds from the father." A father is one who begets, or has begotten, children; and who sustains them in existence. Hence, in the abstract, the term father denotes a begetting and sustaining principle. Consequently, the term father as applied to the Deity, means a divine begetting and sustaining principle in God. And what this is, will appear plainly to any spiritually minded person who duly considers the apostolic declaration that "God is love." The father, or all begetting and all sustaining principle in God, is, then, divine love. Therefore, "the spirit of truth which proceeds from the father," is the spirit of truth which proceeds from divine love. And what this is, is clearly indicated by that

other apostolic declaration that "God is light." Hence, "the spirit of truth which proceeds from the father," is the sphere of divine light which flows from divine love.

It is the same thing to say the spirit of truth which proceeds from Jesus; for he expressly says, "I and my father are one:" and "he that seeth me, seeth the father." For Jesus Christ, when he was glorified with the glory which he had with the father before the world was, became the divine good of the divine love even as to his very body. This was the reason that, on the mount of transfiguration, his face did shine as the sun; because the activities of the divine love are the sun of heaven, and the divine love, being within Jesus Christ as his soul, shined forth through his face, as a man's face corresponds to and manifests the interiors of his mind. Thus "the spirit of truth which proceeds from the father," is the sphere of divine light which flows from the divine love in Jesus Christ, which is a sphere of life enlightening the mind; because "in him was life, and the life was the light of men." (John, i. 4.) Hence, the Lord says, in our text, the comforter which is the spirit of truth, "whom I will send unto you from the father." For when Jesus was so glorified that he and the father were one, and those that saw him saw the father, he was divine good in form; and as the form of good is truth, therefore he, as the form of divine good, was divine truth, that is, truth itself. And hence, his spirit, that is his breath or proceeding influence, must have been the spirit of of truth, or a sphere of light and life.

We reason, then, that the spirit spoken of in our text, and which is therein said to testify of Jesus, is truth itself in its sphere or its activity. It is thus the fruit of truth, by which truth, or He who is "the truth," may be known. For the law is, "By their fruits ye shall know them." Thus the spirit in question is truth proceeding from the Lord Jesus Christ, as the sphere of his life, and so expressing his quality. And as it is the sphere of his life, it is the activity of his love, which is the divine love, and is the father in him. Consequently, the spirit of truth, spoken of in our text, being the activity of divine love in Jesus Christ, is the sphere of truth proceeding from the