bowing the knee to Jesus Christ, we fulfil the prophecy that is expressly spoken to Ifaiah, by God, of himself, " I have sworn by myself, the word. is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear," Isaiah xlv. 23. If this then be fulfilled by the bowing the knee to Christ, Christ is that God who spoke this prophecy. I must then refer to the whole chapter, every declaration in which is made of him who has fo spoken, even Jesus Christ: "there is no God else beside me, a just God, and a Saviour, there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else," Isaiah xlv. 21, 22. Befides this circumstance, every man is here confeffing to God before the judgmentfeat of Christ, therefore that God, (one with the Father) before whom they are confeffing, " for we must all appear before the judgment-feat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we perfuade men," 2 Cor. v. 10; and surely when arrayed in all the terrors with which he will come to judgment, " it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God," Heb. x. 31.

LIV.

" I know, and am perfuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself," Rom. xiv. 14. We do not find any particular revelation made to Paul that there is nothing unclean: he must then have had it from Peter, to whom it was revealed, and who says, " God hath shewed me, that I should not call any man common or unclean;" and this the Lord had shewed him by a vision in which Peter is called upon to eat things heretofore common and unclean, but now cleansed by God. If Paul therefore was perfuaded by Jesus Christ, through

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through the relation made by Peter, we find him look upon our Lord to be the God which had shewed the vision to him; or, if Paul had a like vision, it is very probable that it was presented to him and to Peter by the fame agent: but as Paul is not faid to have had fuch a revelation himself, the former supposition is most to be relied on. But if it be insisted on that Paul was perfuaded by the Spirit, with which he was full, it must follow, that the Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father, proceeds equally from the Son, by whom Paul declares himself to be perfuaded.

LV.

"That I should be the minifter of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the gospel of God," Rom. xv. 16. He goes on to say, that, according to this appointment, " from Jerufalem and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ," Rom. xv. 19; but he declines boasting of the mighty signs and wonders which he did in confirmation of this gospel by the power of the spirit of God. The grace which was given to him, that he should be a minifter of Chrift, is that wherein he says he may glory, and not in the miracles he had wrought, which, however, he declares to be the work of Christ by the hands of those who do them. The gospel of God is here the gospel of Christ, that which is God's is not another's: Jesus Chrift is therefore one with the Father, God.

LVI.

"The churches of Christ salute you," Rom. xvi. 16. " Paul called to be an apoftle of Jesus Christ, through the will of God, and Softhenes our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth," 1 Cor. i. 1, 2. It is remarkable that St. Paul wrote from Corinth to Rome, and in his epistle thence calls the churches there the churches of Christ; and that when he is at another time writing to the very fame churches which he had fo deno

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denominated, he addresses himself " to the church of God which is at Corinth," and describes the members of this church to be " fanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be faints, and calling upon the name of the Lord Jefus, both theirs and ours." There is but one church of God, and that is of Chrift who is called upon in it : Jesus Chrift is therefore one with the Father, God. "Grace be unto you," fays St. Paul, immediately after addreffing the church which called upon the Lord Jesus, whom he professes to be his Lord and theirs, " and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ;" and then he proceeds, " I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ," I Cor. i. 3, 4. This is + a very extraordinary gift for our Saviour to make if it was not his to give; but he has given it. The grace of God is therefore the grace of our Lord Jesus Chrift, with the Father, one God.

LVII.

"So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Chrift: who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Chrift," Cor. i. 7, 8. " He that judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifeft the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God," 1 Cor. iv. 4, 5. That God, for whose praise Paul is contented to wait, rather than seek the praise of men, is certainly the Lord who will come to judge, and to make manifeft the counsels of the hearts. But that the Lord who " judgeth Paul" is the Lord Jesus, whose coming he defires the Corinthians to wait for, that in his day they may be found blameless, is also certain: the conclufion is, that the Lord Jesus is the Lord, and that "the Lord he he is God;" and if this needed farther proof, it will appear from the following texts to be the Lord Jefus Christ whose praise he defireth : "we are come as far as to you also, in preaching the gospel of Chrift: having hope, when your faith is encreased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly, to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you, and not to boast in another man's line of things made ready to our hand. But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth," 2 Cor. x. 14 to 18.

LVIII.

"For it hath been declared unto me, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you faith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Chrift. Is Christ divided ? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?" 1 Cor. i. 11, 12, 13. From Christ's not being divided, he diffuades them from divifions, ver. 10. "Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but minifters by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered : but God gave the encrease," I Cor. iii. 5, 6. So that God who gave to every man the encrease, that is, affifted them in receiving the gospel, which was planted and watered by Paul and Apollos, is the Lord, according to whofe gift they believed. Of Jesus Chrift it is said, that "he shall confirm them unto the end," Cor. i. 8. That which was given to every man, confirmation in faith, is then the gift of Jesus Chrift the Lord; but God gave the encrease: therefore Jesus Christ, the Lord who gave it, is one with the Father, God.

LIX.

"I thank God, that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius: lest any should say, that I had baptized in my own name," I Cor. i. 14, 15. As Jefus Chrift had given command to his disciples to baptize " in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost," one God; and as they, in obedience to this command, went forth into all nations, baptizing in the name of Jesus Christ, one with the Father and the Holy Ghost, God, (for I dare not suppose them disobedient to the voice of their afcending Lord) Paul, having reprehended the Corinthians for looking upon him, Apollos, and Cephas, as equally objects of their adherence as Christ, who alone was crucified for them, proceeds to return thanks to God that he had not led such unstable fouls into farther errour, and by the exercise of that duty which was to be performed in the name of God, brought them to transfer that divinity to himself which belonged to Christ only for if their preaching Chrift crucified could bring his hearers to conceive the preachers as Chrift, he easily saw that baptifm in his name would have induced them to look upon them as baptizing in their own name, and assuming to themselves that Godhead, to the belief in which baptifm was administered in the name of Christ; an errour of so great magnitude, that the apostle is very happy in not having afforded occasion for it to men, whom he saw so ready to misinterpret the ministry and apostleship of the gospel, which he had preached among them. Mr. Lindsey draws a very extraordinary conclusion from the passage before us, and says, it affords a proof that "baptizing in the name of any one does not of itself imply any divinity in the person in whose name baptism is made." I request that this chapter may be turned to, and refer it to the meanest reader, who shall honour me with a perusal, whether Mr. Lindsey has not fallen into the very

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