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convinced upon the credit of the author, that the book itself was worth study and labour; were there scarce an intelligible sentence contained in the book, and yet a certainty that it contained much matter; and were there at length to arise a man whofe ready faculties should alight upon one proposition by which that whole book should be explained, to which every obfcure assertion fhould be referred, and by the reference to which they should become clear and perfpicuous; and therefore it should appear, that this propofition was the object of every sentence, the darkness of which it difpelled; could any man pretend that this was not the object of the writer; or conceive that any one point, thus borne down upon by every argument, was not the point intended to be illuftrated and proved? certainly not. And if, on the other hand, the contradictory of that propofition was a point to which the process of the argument fo little referred, as that it fhould ftill continue obfcure when referred to it; would any man fay that this was the writer's object? certainly not. Exactly fuch is the ftate of the Bible; every pofition falls into fenfe, the tenour of it becomes a courfe of argument the inftant that the divinity of our Saviour in union with manhood is acknowledged to be its object; whereas, upon a denial of this propofition, there is not on earth a book fo fraught with contradictions and irreconcilable abfurdities, as that which is acknowledged to be the word of the God of truth. Partial quotations therefore, and paffages taken from the whole confiftent word of God, are to be confidered as of no value whatsoever in argument; they cannot afford any proof of any thing: and nothing contained in the facred writings is to be explained but as it ftands in context with the whole. Nothing lefs therefore than the whole of the Bible is to be confidered as the gospel of Chrift; and from the whole, taken together, his almighty Godhead is to be deduced. CHAP.

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CHA P. III.

The Evidence of our Saviour's Divinity afforded by the

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Scriptures.

S I have already faid that the Old Teftament affords but a very small part of the testimony of the Godhead of Jefus Chrift, I shall produce but few separate paffages from it, under the head of prophecy : fuch as receive their explanation from the New Teftament, being better brought under that head. It is not to fhew that the prophets have foretold our Lord and Saviour that I am engaged, for that were an easy office; but to fhew that they have foretold his divinity; and that the expected Meffiah was, though ignorantly, by them declared to be God himself.

From the prophecies of the Old Teftament I take the following proofs of the Godhead of Jefus Chrift. I.

"Therefore the Lord himself fhall give you a fign, behold a virgin fhall conceive, and bear a Son, and fhall call his name Immanuel," Ifaiah vii. 14. This prophecy is referred to by St. Matthew, declared to be of our Saviour, and the name interpreted to be "God with us."

II.

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government fhall be upon his fhoulder: and his name fhall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace," Ifai. ix, 6.

III.

"Thus faith the Lord the King of Ifrael, and his Redeemer the Lord of Hofts, I am the firft, and I am

the

the last, and befides me there is no God," Ifai. xliv. 6. This affertion is made by God to Ifaiah, and by Jefus Christ (verbatim) to St. John, Rev. ii. 8. God, in the fubsequent verses, declares his prerogatives to the prophet; the fame are applicable to the fame first and last, ❝ is there a God befides me? yea there is no God, I know not any." This God then is Jefus Chrift.

IV.

"Awake, awake, put on ftrength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the antient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it which hath dried the fea, the waters of the great deep, that hath made the depths of the fea a way for the ranfomed to pafs over?”

Ifai. li. 9. 10.

The answer to this call has the follow

ing words in it, "But I am the Lord thy God, that divided the fea, whofe waves roared: the Lord of Hofts in his name," Ifai. li. 15. To this entire chapter, and the two following, I refer for the explanation of these texts which I have brought to evince the divinity of Jefus Christ, and which I take to be even of themselves fufficient for that purpose. The arm of the Lord is here invoked, and in making answer, the arm of the Lord declares " I am the Lord thy God." The arm of the Lord, and the Lord God, are then with Isaiah fynonimous terms; but he afterwards fays" the Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth fhall fee the falvation of our God," Ifai. lii. 16: and again, "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" Ifai. liii. 1. To the former of thefe two texts St. Luke refers, and declares expressly that it is spoken of Jefus Chrift, for he relates that they were uttered by St. John the Baptift, whofe office was to be the forerunner of our Saviour, Luke iii. 6. To the latter St. John refers, chap. xii. verfe 38, where he quotes the verfe at large concerning the unbelief in Chrift,

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Christ, and says, "these things faid Efaias, when he faw his glory, and fpake of him," John xii. 41. Here then is the fame arm of the Lord, which is fynonimous with God, declared to be Jefus Christ, whose name is therefore fynonimous with God, one with him who is the "Lord thy God." St. Paul also intimates, that Chrift was the leader of the Ifraelites through the wilderness, faying, "neither let us tempt Christ, as fome of them also tempted," 1 Cor. x. 9; to which I refer.

V.

The arm of the Lord is thus foretold again, "behold, the Lord God will come with ftrong hand, and his arm fhall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He fhall feed his flock like a fhepherd," Ifa. xl. 10, 11. In the Revelation, our Saviour fays to St. John, "behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me," Rev. xxii. 12. And in the gospel he fays, "I am the good fhepherd," John x. II. St. Paul fays of him, "now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jefus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well-pleafing in his fight, through Jefus Chrift; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." Heb. xiii. 20, 21. Here we find Ifaiah's words. concerning the arm of the Lord (the fame as God) pronounced by our Saviour concerning himself, both in earth and in heaven, and also teftified of him by St. Paul, whose doxology affifts us to pronounce of Jesus Chrift, in the words of Ifaiah immediately preceding the text before us, "behold your God."

VI.

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth

falvation,

falvation, that faith unto Zion, thy God reigneth!” Ifai. lii. 7. St. Paul, fpeaking of the neceffity of a preacher to inftruct men in the belief on Chrift, that they may call upon him and be faved, directly applies these words of Isaiah, as being prophetick of a preacher who should publish falvation, and say unto Zion, "thy God reigneth," Rom. x. 15. If then the promulgation of the gofpel of our bleffed Lord and Saviour be correspondent to this prophecy, the preacher of Chrift is furely he who fays " thy God reigneth,”

2.

VII.

Out of the mouth of babes and fucklings haft thou ordained strength," or " perfected praife," (which is the interpretation of the New Teftament) Pfa. viii. These words David directs to God, whofe name he declares to be excellent. When children in the temple cried Hofanna to the Son of David," and the Chief Priests and Scribes were difpleafed at them for it, our Saviour himself justified the children by afsuming the direction of these words to himself, and declaring them a prophecy of his praise, to be perfected by the mouths of babes and fucklings; fo that we find a prophecy, that the praise of the Lord, "who had set his glory above the heavens," Pfa. viii. 1. is declared to be fulfilled by the direction of praise and hosannas to the Son of David, who must therefore be one with the Father, God, Mat. xxi. 16.

VIII.

"For thy fake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as fheep for the flaughter," Pfa. xliv. 22. These words directly addreffed to God, by David, are by St. Paul declared to be a prophecy of the perfeverance of the apoftles in the love of Chrift, of which he fays, "Who fhall feparate us from the love of Chrift? hall tribulation, or distress, or perfecution, or famine, pr nakedness, or peril, or fword?" As it is written,

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