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who is therefore God; for Jefus Chrift is not faid to have been the means of falvation, which would have better described the inftrument of God in our redemption, but he is one and the fame Saviour with God. Of the man Chrift Jefus of the feed of David, it is indeed faid that he was raised from the dead, 2 Tim. ii, 8. But Jefus Chrift as God, clothed with eternal glory, is he by whom we have obtained eternal falvation, 2 Tim. ii. 10.

LXXXVIII.

"I give thee charge in the fight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Chrift Jefus, who before Pontius Pilate witneffed a good confeffion; that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jefus Chrift: which in his times he shall fhew, who is the bleffed and only potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen, nor can fee: to whom be honour and power everlasting, Amen," Tim. vi. 13, 14, 15, 16. Here even the glory of God, unapproachable by man, is afcribed to Jefus Chrift; and this is only afcribable to his divinity, as many men had feen the man Jefus; and St. Paul fays, "yea, though we have known Chrift after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more,' 2 Cor. v. 16, That he is the King of kings, and Lord of lords, is not only afferted here, but is in fo many terms declared to be the name of Jefus Chrift by St. John, Rev. xix. 16. His Godhead is therefore incontrovertibly established here, That St. Paul should speak of the Son only, is an inference naturally refulting from the confideration that he was making out an appointment to Timothy to go and to preach Jefus Chrift, of whom he speaks in fuch terms in the first chapter of this epiftle, that I choose to refer to it,

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rather than make a partial quotation, and the whole is too long to infert. The pious wifh, or rather let me have liberty to call it the benediction of the apostle, isgrace, mercy, and peace from God our Father, and Jefus Chrift our Lord;" a wish, which I cannot well imagine how he should expect to have gratified by a mere creature; nay, he says more, that the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant, fets forth, that to his truft was committed the glorious gospel of God, and inftantly thanks Jefus for putting him into the ministry; declares Jefus Chrift to have come into the world (a phrase extraordinary, if the commencement of our Saviour's life was in the flesh) to fave finners; and having recounted the particular mercy and longfuffering of Jefus Chrift toward himself, his gratitude breaks out into a doxology, the object of which must evidently appear to be the fame as the Being from whom he received the benefits that invite his praise. "And now" he fays" unto the King eternal, immortal, invifible, the only wife God, be honour and glory, for ever and ever. Amen." He must be a perverse interpreter who can understand these words in any other fenfe than that of a declaration that the merciful and long-fuffering Jefus, the abundance of whofe grace had pardoned his multitudinous perfecutions and blasphemies, for a pattern to all who should hereafter believe to life everlafting, "is the King eternal, the only wife God, to whom he ascribes honour and glory, in confideration of the exceedingly great benefits which he had received of him, and which were now fo ftrongly impreffed upon his mind, as at once to call forth his acknowledgments and his exulting praise.".

LXXXIX.

St. Paul fays to Timothy, whom he is fending to "do the work of an Evangelift," "I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jefus Chrift, who fhall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing,

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and his kingdom: preach the word, &c." 2 Tim. iv. t. And unto all them that love his appearing," he says, "the Lord the righteous Judge fhall give a crown of righteousness at that day," ver. 8. Here the kingdom, the judgement-feat, and the appearing, are affigned to Jesus Christ, and the crown of righteousness is conferred on all those who love his appearing, according to what he says to Titus, to whom he is giving a like charge: " looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jefus Chrift," Titus ii. 13. That these then are all fynonimous terms I fhall not affront the understanding of my reader by an attempt to make more evident than it must at once appear; and our Saviour Jefus Chrift is therefore one with the Father, God.

XC.

In the charge to Titus laft cited, St. Paul holds out "this bleffed hope, and glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jefus Chrift," to fuch as deny worldly lufts, and who, by fo doing, "adorn the doc trine of God our Saviour," Titus ii. 10. Jefus Chrift was the doctrine committed to Titus, and more particularly "how our falvation arose from his having given himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity;"" that having been difobedient, ferving lufts and pleasures, not our merits, but his mercy fhone forth in faving us:" that therefore, "Jesus Christ having loved us, and washed us from our fins in his blood," Rev. i. 5. " the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, by washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghoft; which was fhed on us abundantly, thro' Jefus Chrift aur Saviour," Titus iii. 4, 5, 6. Here, speaking to a man who was to act under him, and whose discharge of the office conferred on him, muft in a great measure depend upon the accuracy of St. Paul's expreffion, this apoftle, preaching that which was committed to him, according to the

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commandment of God our Saviour," falls into a mode of expreffion, which, if Jesus Christ be not God, must perpetually mislead Titus, keep him wandering in con- . tinual errour, and utterly incapacitate him to "exhort and convince by found doctrine." That mankind had obtained falvation, is the committed doctrine; that God is our Saviour, and that Jefus Chrift is our Saviour, are sentences occurring every where through the epiftle, nay, in contiguous verses; for, after declaring himself an apostle by the commandment of God our Saviour, St. Paul proceeds to fay, "To Titus mine own Son after the common faith: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and the Lord Jefus Christ our Saviour," Titus i, 3, 4. Did he mean to distract him? if not, he is very defective in his addrefs; but if he meant to inculcate the divinity of Christ, and to shew that the Father and the Son are one God, our Saviour, he has spoken to the purpose, and confiftently with the coherent stile that fo exceedingly diftinguishes the writings of St. Paul,

XCI.

"Verily, he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the feed of Abraham," Heb. ii. 16. This is urged as a perfuafive to us to lay hold of and embrace the great falvation, afforded to us by fo wonderful an inftance of condefcenfion as that of our Saviour's having taken our nature upon him, which he is declared to have done, that he might, as man, be come the Captain of our falvation, by fuffering death for all men. But St. Paul fays, that he took not on him. the nature of angels, but defcended a little lower: What is this but faying, that out of two things equally poffible to him, he has made a choice? and to that which is not yet ushered into being, we know that there is not any thing poffible; therefore Jefus Chrift had preexistence to the time he came in the flesh: But he ve

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rily took not on him the nature of angels; therefore, in his pre-existent state, he was not an angel. But while the power of making choice among all inferior natures which he would take was his, he affumed that in which a purpose beneficial to mankind was to be answered; and we are accordingly invited to offer up the tribute of our gratitude and confidence to him who had been thus merciful. But who was he to whom fuch a choice belonged? Certainly God, to whom alone all things are fubfervient, "by whom and for whom all things were created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth," Col. i. 16. who can exalt, as well as debase, the works of his own hands, and take into himself whatsoever nature it fhall please him to honour. This ftupendous dignity he has conferred upon ours; and for our advantage has become man, even the man Jefus Chrift. This adopted nature, this progeny of his power and mercy he has declared his Son; and for the fake of this his "holy child Jefus," who, notwithstanding that he was in all points tempted like as we are, continued to the end doing the will of God, spotlefs, without fin, became obedient to the death for our redemption, and having fuffered, thereby to become the Author and Captain of our falvation, accompanied thereafcending God into heaven, there for ever to emain our Mediator and Interceffor; for his fake, I fay, has God been pleased to extend falvation to us; ❝for this beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased," and whom therefore he has eternally united with himfelf, has undertaken the cause of our infirmities, and has graciously condescended to call us brethren; he has even called us fons; and having taken part in that flesh and blood whereof we are partakers, pronounced

*"Now, that he afcended, what is it but that he alfo de fcended firft into the lower parts of the earth?" Eph. iv. 8.

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