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mities, that sympathy with which "Jesus wept," John xi. 35, for the afflictions of those who called upon him even at the moment that he was in act to wipe away the tears from their eyes.

XIX.

I should not look upon the application of the dying thief to our Saviour, hanging also upon a cross, to be any proof that Jesus Christ is the object of prayer, but for the answer made by him, who immediately granted that which was asked, and by admission into paradise, in consequence of a petition preferred to him in an hour, when, of all others, he seemed least able to assist in the time of trouble, exalted the last words of this poor penitent into an incontrovertible testimony that his is the kingdom, that " by suffering he was about to enter into his glory," and that he is therefore the Lord, one with the Father, God, Luke xxiii. 42, 432 and xxiv. 26.

21.

XX.

" Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," in saying which " he spake of the temple of his body," John ii. 19, Here Jefus Christ declares that he will himself raise his body from the grave; but in the grave that body lay truly dead and incapable of any agency: but here he says, that he will act, he must therefore speak of fome very extraordinary power remaining to him. But we are often told, that God raised the body of our Saviour from the grave. "This Jefus hath God raised up," says St. Peter, Acts ii. 32; wherein it is observable, that the union of the two natures being suspended during the death of the body, God is spoken of as distinct from Jesus, whose body only is intended by that name: this distinction Peter seems to have had in view throughout the Acts. That which Christ engaged to do, most assuredly he did. He engaged to raise his own body,

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body, therefore he did raise his own body. But "this Jesus hath God raised up." Jesus Chrift is therefore one with the Father, God.

ΧΧΙ.

"Jesus answered and faid unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that faith to thee, Give me to drink; then wouldest thou have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water," John iv. 10. "Whosoever drinketh of the water which I shall give him, shall never thirst," John iv. 14. Here Jesus Chrift gives the gift of God, more properly the gift of Jesus Chrift, who gives it, and only reconcilable to sense, by acknowledging him to be one with the Father, God. "They have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters," Jer. xvii. 13. "And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as chrystal, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb," Rev. xxii. 1. "Let him that is athirst, come: and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely," Rev. xxii. 17. This invitation so mercifully made to all mankind, and in the power of all to accept, is made by Jesus Christ; he therefore who gives such "water springing up into everlasting life," John iv. 14, is afsuredly the "Lord, the fountain of living waters;" which Jeremiah declares God to be. "Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters," Ifai. lv. 1 ; " for I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy feed, and my blessing upon thine offspring," Ifai. xliv. 3. "Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath faid, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this he spake of the spirit, which they that believe on him should receive,") John vii. 37, 38. This last text clears up and explains the figure, and shews what is all along meant by living waters. But "God shall pour his spirit upon him that is thirsty;" and according to this prophecy, Jesus Christ is to give this water springing up into life, which is the spirit. But these waters are said to proceed from God; Jesus Chrift therefore, from whom they proceed, is one with the Father, God. Let us then with gratitude come upon the invitation to believe; let us confess that the blood which was shed for us is the blood of God himself, Acts xx. 28, shed for our redemption; acknowledge " Chrift the Saviour of the world," John iv. 42, and "with joy draw water out of the wells of falvation," Ifai. xii. 3.

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XXII.

"My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the fabbath, but faid also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God," John v. 17, 18. As the Hebrew idiom of the scripture language is urged as a reason for doubting of our common acceptation of the affertions made in the New Testament, we must certainly admit the Jews to be the beft verbal interpreters of fuch phrases as were peculiar to themselves; and here they have taught us to understand that whensoever our Saviour, or any witness of his gospel, declares him to be the Son of God, they intended thereby to convey an assurance that Jesus Chrift is equal with the Father, and with him one, God. The subsequent verses say that "what thing foever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewife." "As the Father hath life in himself: fo hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man," John v. 26, 27. Here he speaks of himself both as God and man; he declares the self-exifting life equal with that of the Father; declares the derivation of that to his manhood, with which it was united by the will of God and the Father; and he declares also the reafon

-reason, wherefore the second person of the Godhead is to have the execution of judgment, to be, "because he is the Son of man." And St. Paul has explained the force of this reason, " for that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to fuccour them that are tempted," Heb. ii. 18; "that he can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities; having been in all points tempted like as we are," Heb. iv. 15; and in the next verse we are called upon to approach the throne of grace boldly, because that Christ is the Son of man, having taken on him the feed of Abraham, and has called us brethren, and can have compassion upon such infirmities as he was himself subject to in the flesh: so that whenfoever we hear our gracious Lord and Saviour call himself the Son of man, we may look upon it as an instance of tenderness, and that he uses that name, in order to inspire a confidence in mankind, his brethren, to approach his throne without diftrust in his mercy. Whenfoever he speaks of coming to judgment, he qualifies the terrors of that dreadful day by saying, that it is before the Son of man that all nations are to be gathered; and in the passage before us, declares the reason wherefore all judgment is committed to the Son to be, because he is the Son of man. Our Saviour, after having faid that "the Father quickeneth the dead," John v. 21, proceeds to tell us, that on that day "the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live," John v. 25. And farther, that "the hour is coming, in the which all that are in their graves shall hear his (the Son of man's) voice," John v. 28: So that here, they that are in their graves, live, being called upon by the Son of man, because they have heard the voice of the Son of God, the Father being he who quickeneth the dead. Can this be reconciled to any fenfe, if it be not granted that Jesus Chrift, the Son of God, and also the Son of man, is equal to, and one with the Father, God? And this once granted, is any position mere reconcileable to reason? Resist this who can, for my part I am unable to stand against it; but verily, "believe, and am sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God," John vi. 69; words, which I am bold to use, as expreffive of an equality between the Son and the Father: nay farther, of an identity and unity of Godhead. As poffefsed of this Godhead " I believe on him, and I worship him," John ix. 38.

XXIII.

"He that believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation," John v. 24. "He that believeth on him, (the Son) is not condemned; but he that believeth not, is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God," John iii. 18. If there be no condemnation for those who believe in the Father, how is it necessary to believe in the Son in order to indemnify? It can only be so, because that the Son is one with the Father, God; and the two passages then convey the fame instruction. In context with the last afsertion, our Saviour, speaking of himself, uses the following very remarkable words, "the Son of man which is in heaven," John iii. 13. This is a very express declaration of his Godhead, the ubiquity of which was by no means affected by its union with the Son of man; for whilst he was fpeaking to Nicodemus he could be on earth only as a man, and as God only filling immenfity,

fuch privilege

Hath Omniprefence

MILTON.

could he at that moment of time have been in heaven. But let us, for the sake of argument, accede to an affertion that this passage should have been turned " the Son of man which was in heaven," the glory of our

Lord

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