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 whose ready faculties should alight upon one proposition by which that whole book should be explained, to which every obscure afsertion should be referred, and by the reference to which they should become clear and perfpicuous; and therefore it should appear, that this proposition was the object of every sentence, the darkness of which it dispelled; 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 illustrated 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 so little referred, as that it should still continue obscure when referred to it; would any man say that this was the writer's object? certainly not. Exactly such is the state of the Bible; every position falls into sense, the tenour of it becomes a course 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 proposition, there is not on earth a book so fraught with contradictions and irreconcilable absurdities, as that which is acknowledged to be the word of the God of truth. Partial quotations therefore, and passages taken from the whole consistent 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 sacred writings is to be explained but as it stands in context with the whole. Nothing less therefore than the whole of the Bible is to be confidered as the gospel of Christ; and from the whole, taken together, his almighty Godhead is to be deduced. CHAP.

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CHAP.

III.

The Evidence of our Saviour's Divinity afforded by the

A

Scriptures.

I have already faid that the Old Testament affords but a very small part of the teftimony of the Godhead of Jesus Chrift, I shall produce but few separate passages from it, under the head of prophecy: such 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 shew 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 Testament I take the following proofs of the Godhead of Jesus Chrift.

I.

"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a fign, behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call his name Immanuel," Isaiah 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 shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall 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 Hosts, I am the first, and I am the

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

IV.

"Awake, awake, put on strength, 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 sea a way for the ranfomed to pass over?" Ifai. li. 9. 10. The answer to this call has the following words in it, "But I am the Lord thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared: the Lord of Hosts 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 divi nity of Jesus 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 Ifaiah synonimous terms; but he afterwards says "the Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall fee the falvation of our God," Ifai. lii. 10: and again, "Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" Ifai. liii. 1. To the former of these two texts St. Luke refers, and declares expressly that it is spoken of Jesus Chrift, for he relates that they were uttered by St. John the Baptift, whose office was to be the forerunner of our Saviour, Luke iii. 6. To the latter St. John refers, chap. xii. verse 38, where he quotes the verse at large concerning the unbelief in Chrift,

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Chrift, and says, "these things said Efaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him," John xii. 41. Here then is the fame arm of the Lord, which is synonimous with God, declared to be Jesus Christ, whose name is therefore synonimous with God, one with him who is the "Lord thy God." St. Paul also intimates, that Christ was the leader of the Ifraelites through the wilderness, saying, " 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, be hold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd," Isa. xl. 10, 11. In the Revelation, our Saviour says to St. John, "behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me," Rev. xxii. 12. And in the gospel he says, " I am the good shepherd," John x. 11. St. Paul says of him, "now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, 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-pleasing in his fight, through Jesus Chrift; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." Heb. xiii. 20, 21. Here we find Isaiah's words concerning the arm of the Lord (the same as God) pronounced by our Saviour concerning himself, both in earth and in heaven, and also testified of him by St. Paul, whose doxology assists 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 salvation,

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falvation, that faith unto Zion, thy God reigneth!" Ifai. lii. 7. St. Paul, speaking of the neceffity of a preacher to inftruct men in the belief on Chrift, that they may call upon him and be saved, directly applies these words of Ifaiah, as being prophetick of a preacher who should publish salvation, and say unto Zion, "thy God reigneth," Rom. x. 15. If then the promulgation of the gospel of our blessed Lord and Saviour be correspondent to this prophecy, the preacher of Christ is surely he who says " thy God reigneth,"

VII.

"Out of the mouth of babes and fucklings haft thou ordained strength," or " perfected praise," (which is the interpretation of the New Testament) Pfa. viii.

2.

These words David directs to God, whose 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 displeased at them for it, our Saviour himself justified the children by assuming 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; so that we find a prophecy, that the praise of the Lord, "who had fet 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 sheep for the flaughter," Psa. xliv. 22. These words directly addressed to God, by David, are by St. Paul declared to be a prophecy of the perfeverance of the apostles in the love of Chrift, of which he fays, "Who shall separate us from the love of Chrift? shall tribulation, or distress, or perfecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" As it is written, " for