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of our Saviour is expressly declared here, and the identity of that Godhead with which he and the Father are mutually to glorify each other; that glory which the Son had in all respects equal with the Father, before he had, for the sake of mankind, taken upon him that nature whereby he was, upon earth, infe

rior to him.

XXVII.

"Pilate therefore said unto him, art thou a king then? Jesus answered, thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth, heareth my voice," John xviii. 37. These words are preceded by a declaration made by our Saviour, that, " my kingdom is not of this world;" and the whole together is said by St. Paul to be " a good confession witnessed before Pilate," 1 Tim. vi. 13. That Nathanael, an Israelite indeed, in whom was no guile, understood the prophecies of our Saviour's kingdom in this sense is evident, for, upon seeing him an unattended man, he pronounced him " the King of Ifrael," which he must have seen that he was not in any other acceptation of the terms than as he was the "Son of God," John i. 49. and this interpretation he put upon the prophecies, upon seeing our Saviour possessed of an extraordinary knowledge. Greater things have been referved for us to fee than Nathanael saw; why then shall we hesitate to say, according to the teftimony which this great witness of the truth bore to himself, " thy kingdom is not of this world," and with Nathanael, "thou art the King of Ifrael, the Son of God;" words which I have already shewed, when spoken by a Jew, to mean, thou haft equality of Godhead with the Father.

1

" And

XXVIII.

" And Thomas answered and faid unto him, my Lord, and my God. Jesus faith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed," John xx. 28, 29. To call this saying of Thomas an exclamation, is a poor and difingenuous evasion of the Bishop, quoted by Mr. Lindsey; for it is declared to be an answer and an address to our Saviour, who had convinced him that he was the fame Jesus who had been dead and was alive again; an argument which I should conceive sufficient to evince the truth of doctrines which Thomas had heard before, but through a defective faith did not understand; and to induce that confession which he now makes, saying unto him, "my Lord and my God." When Mary, ver. 16, saw and knew our Lord after his refurrection, she made no exclamation, but directly addressed herself to him, faying, "Master,” acknowledging him to whom she spoke. Mary had not been a witness of all the declarations of his own nature which he had made to his apostles, who were to be witnesses unto him; she acknowledges him as she had known him before; but Thomas, who confidered a refurrection from the dead to be a conclusive proof of the truth of what he had often heard, inftantly draws the natural inference, and acknowledges him to be his Lord and his God. If the works of this bishop of Mopsuestia, which have not reached us, be of the same stamp as the fragment quoted by Mr. Lindsey, we have no great reason to regret the lofs, or condemn our ancestors for having configned the rest of them to oblivion. The poor bishop himself must also be obliged to those who have redeemed him from our cenfure,

Next in order follows the teftimony borne to the divinity of Jesus Christ by the apostles, men appointed to be his witnesses, on whom he breathed and faid,"

" receive ye the Holy Ghost," " the spirit of truth, he will guide you into all truth;" "he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have faid unto you;" " he will shew you things to come; he shall glorify me." Men, "whose understanding he opened that they might understand the scriptures," "holy men of God who have made known unto us the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Chrift, for they were eye-witnesses of his Majefty." To persons thus qualified, speaking as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, coming in due time to speak of him who had given himself a ransom for all, " understanding the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apoftles and prophets by the Spirit;" taking the prophecies from a dark place to spread abroad their radiance, and render their sure word a light to us; to such men we shall do well that we take heed; to their teftimony it is essential to our own eternal happiness that we give credit, and not that we look upon all fuch things as occur in their writings, which are "hard to be understood, as given to our ignorance and instability to wrest to our own destruction;" they have pointed out the way to a blessed immortality; it is our duty to search into what they have faid, and where we cannot understand to confide. From the apostles we are to expect the manifestation of spiritual things, and as fuch are certainly beyond the reach of our farther enquiry, it is but reasonable to truft those who were permitted to look into them, and to promulgate so much as concerns us to know.

ΧΧΙΧ.

"And they prayed, and said, thou Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen, that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship," Acts i. 24. This prayer

is

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is preferred to the Lord who had fent forth his difciples, saying, ye shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning," John xv.

"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," Mark xvi. 15; and by whom, St. Paul says, " we have received the apostleship," Rom. i. 5; to that Lord, who knew to whom he should commit himself, "because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man; for he knew what was in man," John ii. 25. And the petition is that out of two men, namely, Justus and Matthias, selected from those "who had been with our Saviour from the beginning," " which have companied with us, all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto that fame day that he was taken up from us," Acts i. 21, 22; he should ordain one to be a witness of his refurrection in the place of Judas, who had fallen by tranfgreffion. That it is addressed to Jesus Christ, not only the context, but the following circumstance may thoroughly demonstrate: The very fame call being to be made of another apostle, as the Lord is now defired to make, a light shone from heaven round about Saul, and of the voice which spoke it is thus declared: "the Lord faid, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest:" " and the Lord faid, arife, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do," Acts ix. 5, 6. But when Saul, according to this commandment, came into Damascus, " he is met and received by a certain disciple named Ananias, to whom said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, behold I am here, Lord. I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerufalem: and here he hath authority from the Chief Priests, to bind all that call upon thy name. But the Lord said unto him, go thy way:

way: for he is a chofen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and Kings, and the children of Ifrael," Acts ix. 13, 14, 15. That the vessel which was to bear the name of Christ before the Gentiles, &c. was to be chosen by him is here evident; and St. Paul himself farther says, " Chrift fent me (not to baptize, but) to preach the gospel," 1 Cor. i. 17. Το him who was to choose, it is therefore to be concluded the petition was preferred that he would shew whether of these two he had chosen to preach his gospel, and take part of that ministry to which "the wisdom of God," Luke xi. 49, even "Christ," Mat. xxiii. 34; faid, "I will fend them prophets and apostles:" so that here is an instance of adoration incontrovertibly + offered up to Jesus Christ; therefore one with the Father, God, the proper object of prayer and religious worship.

But, throughout the relation, there is a farther testimony to be found of the adoration of Jesus Chrift; for Ananias, himself a disciple, declares, that Saul was a persecutor of those who called upon the name of Christ, and " the disciples of our Saviour were therefore afraid of him when he assayed to join himself unto them," Acts ix. 26; for "all that heard him preach Chrift in the synagogues were amazed, and said, is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerufalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound to the Chief Priests?" Acts ix. 20, 21. We have here direct proof that the disciples of Chrift called upon his name, both from those who did, and those who did not call upon it.

I shall in this place take notice of Mr. Lindsey's afsertion, (fupported by quotations from various authors) that to call upon the name of Jesus is the same as to

be