salvation, and that in opposition to all other means and instrumental causes, is called Jehovah,-who can be no other than our Jesus, because there is" no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved." As in another place, (Zach. x. 12.) he speak eth, "I will strengthen them in the Lord, (Jehovah,) and they shall walk up and down in his name, saith the Lord," (Jehovah,) where he that strengtheneth is one, and he by whom he strengtheneth, is another, clearly distinguished from him by the personal pronoun, and yet each of them is Jehovah, and Jehovah, our God, is one Jehovah. What ever objections may be framed against us, we know Christ is the "righteous branch raised unto David; the king that shall reign and prosper, in whose days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely ;" we are assured, that "this is the name whereby he shall be called, Jehovah, our righteousness;" Jehovah, the expression of his supremacy, and our righteousness, can be no dimunition to bis Majesty. If those words in the prophet, "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for lo, I come and dwell in the midst of thee, saith Jehovah," did not sufficiently of themselves denote our Saviour who dwelt among us, (as they certainly do,) yet the words which follow, would evince as much: "And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord of Hosts hath sent me unto thee;"-for what other Lord can we conceive dwelling in the midst of us, and sent unto us by the Lord of hosts, but Christ ?* Zach. ii. 10, 11.-Pearson on the Creed, p. 145-148.

7. Now, this name Jehovah is so sacred, that the supreme Being claims it as peculiar ly his own; as for instance,-Isaiah xlv. 5, "I am Jehovah, and there is none else, there is no God besides me:" And xlii. 8, "I am Jehovah, that is my name, my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images." It follows, therefore, that Christ is the supreme being, or that God is so united with man in his person, that the names of the supreme being, even the incommunicable name, Jehovah, may be properly given to him.)

8. As to the name GoD:-it is not denied that this is frequently given to him in Scripture, but it is contended that it is improperly given, and only meant to be taken in a subordinate and metaphorical sense, in other

As a further and demonstrative proof of Christ being called Jehovah, compare Psalm xcvii. 1, 5, 7, with Heb. i. 6.-Psalm cii. 1, 12, 16, 19, 25. with Heb. i. 10.-Psalm lxviii, 17, 18. with Eph. iv. 8.-Isaiah xlv. 23, 24, 25. with Rom. xiv. and 11.-and especially Isaiah vi. 1-3-5. with John xii. 41. Isaiah xl. 3-5, and Mal. iii. 1. with Matt. iii. 3.-and Zach. xi. 13. and xii. 10. with Matt. xvii. 9, 10. and John xix. 34, 37.

words, that he is only God by office, and not God by nature. And much stress has been laid upon the Greek Article in this controversy, and because in John i. 1, the original is Osos, and not o Osos, it has been urged that it ought to be rendered "the Word was a God, viz. a subordinate, inferior God, a God by office, a Magistrate." But, (as Dr. Doddridge justly observes, and as has been intimated above,) "It is impossible Christ should be here called God, merely as a governor, because he is spoken of as existing before the production of any creatures whom he could govern. And there are so many instances in the writings of this Apostle, and even in this Chap. (see ver. 6, 12, 13, 18.) where Oɛoc, without the article, is used to signify God, in the highest sense of the word, that it is something surprising such a stress should be laid on the want of that article, as a proof that it is used only in a subordinate serse." Add to this, that in Matt. i. 23 the article is found, red' nuwv o Dog, God with us; as also, John xx. 28, o kupio para o ens μ8,-My Lord and my God, or rather, "The LORD of me, the GoD of me.'

9. The pious and judicious Author last mentioned, justly remarks on these last words, "The irrefragable argument arising from these words of Thomas, in proof of the Deity of our blessed Lord, cannot be evaded by saying that, they are only an exclamation of surprise, as if Thomas had said, “Good God, is it indeed thus!" For it is expressly declared, he spoke these words to him. And no doubt Christ would severely have reproved him, if there had not been just reason to address him thus. This is set in a clear light by Dr. Abbadie, from whom the following paragraph is extracted;"It is a surprising thing, (if Christ were but a mere man,) that he should permit Thomas to say to him, my Lord, and my God, without saying a word to him about the impiety and blasphemy of treating the creature as if he were the Creator. Thomas before was an unbeliever ;-now he is an idolater. Till that instant, he would not believe that Jesus was risen, he considered him as a man lying under the power of death; but now, on a sudden, he addresses him as a God,-he bows and adores. Of the two extremes, the latter is most condemnable; for unbelief is not so criminal as idolatry: that dishonouring Jesus Christ,-this usurping the throne of God. Better for Thomas, therefore, to have perished in his unbelief, than by renouncing it to fall into idolatry. And yet,strange indeed! strange to astonishment! who can account for it ?-Jesus upbraids him only with the former, not at all with the latter." Besides, as our Lord could not but

Nay, the Lord Jesus is so far from upbraiding Thomas with idolatry, on account of this expression,

know what an impression these words of bis amazed and adoring Apostle would make on the minds of men; as he knew that the Jews, deceived by expressions less exceptionable than these, had accused him of blasphemy; and as he knew that these very expres. sions would give occasion to Christians, in succeeding ages, to treat him as the true God, it is evident that he ought, from a concern for the good of mankind, to have strictly prohibited all expressions which tended to make such a dangerous impression. And yet he not only permits his disciples to speak after this manner, but directs them to record the expressions for the perusal of all future generations; and that without giving the least hint that the terms are used in a new and uncommon sense, though they appear so impious and blasphemous.'

10. Let me observe further, that in 1 John v. 20. he is styled the true God; "We know that the Son of God is come, and bath given us an understanding to know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, in, or through his Son Jesus Christ,”πουτος εςιν ο αγεινος Θεος και ζωη αιωνιος : “ He, or this person, is the true God, and eternal life." St. John adds, "Little children keep yourselves from idols," A most necessary caution. But how did the Apostles and primitive Christians keep themselves from idols, when they worshipped Jesus Christ, (as Thomas did in the instance just mentioned, and as I shall shew by and bye, that they in general did,) if Jesus Christ be not truly God? What is idolatry, if it be not idolatry to worship one that is not the true God? But that he is the person meant here, is plain, not only from the relative pronoun ovrog, he, or this person, which the rules of construction require us to understand of the person last named, who is not the Father, but the Son Jesus Christ; but also from his being termed the eternal life, which is an appellation before given, once and again, by St. John to the Lord Jesus,-— and never that I remember to the Father. "The life was manifested, and we have seen it, and shew unto you that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested un'o us. He that hath the Son hath life;— these things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life," 1 John i. 2. and v. 12, 13.

11. Hence, too, he is called the mighty God, Isa. ix. 6 ;-and the great God, Titus ii. 13;-and "God blessed for ever," Rom. ix. 5. His name shall be called "Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God," 28. "Looking for the blessed hope, and the glorious appearing 78 μɛɣale 98ε naι owing new in 158, literally of our Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, or of the great God that he even commends him for it. For" Jesus said to him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me thou hast believed: Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed."

"Of

even our Saviour Jesus Christ:" whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever." Now all these Epithets are peculiar to proper and absolute Deity, as appears from Deut. x. 17, " Jehovah your God, is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, and mighty, and terrible;" from. Jer. xxxiii. 18. "The great, the mighty God, Jehovah of Hosts is his name:" and Rom. i. 25, "Have worshipped and served the creature, more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever." These Epithets, therefore, being added to the name of God, fix the sense, and shew, to a demonstration, that real, proper, and supreme divinity is intended.

12. This will appear still more manifestly, if we consider, secondly, that divine titles are also given to him.-As it has been proved, that he was the person who appeared to Moses at the bush, and to Jacob at Bethel and Peniel, so it is manifest he repeatedly styles himself" the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." And in Hosea the 12th, and Isaiah the 6th and 8th, we have seen him entitled Jehovah, God of hosts. In like manner, 1 Cor. ii. 8. and James ii. 1. he is styled Lord of Glory, a title of the same inport with that of King of Glory, an appellation whereby the true God is distinguished, Psa. xxiv. 7, 8. "Lift up your heads, O ye gates! and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? Jehovah, strong and mighty,-Jehovah, mighty in battle. Who is the King of glory? Jehovah of Hosts-He is the King of glory."

13. "King of kings, and Lord of lords," is another of those titles, which is appropri ated to the Supreme God in the Holy Scripture. "Circumcise the foreskin of your heart, (says Moses, Deut. x. 16, 17.) and be no more stiff-necked, for the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords." And St. Paul, describing the only true God, I Tim. vi. 15, 16, calls him "the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, dwelling in light, which no man can approach unto." And yet this title is repeatedly given to the Lord Jesus, as Rev. xiv. 17, "The Lamb shall overcome them, for he is King of kings, and Lord of lords; and again, ch. xix. 6, "He that hath on his vesture, and on his thigh, a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords."

14. In like manner, "The First and the Last," is a title peculiarly claimed by the one living and true God, as appears from Isaiah xli. 4, and xliv. 6. "Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Jehovah, the First and with the Last,-I am He." And again "Thus saith Jehovah, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts, I AM THE FIRST, AND I AM THE LAST, and

besides me there is no other God." And yet this title also is assumed by the Lord Jesus, Rev. i. 10-18," I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, saying, I AM ALPHA AND OMEGA, THE FIRST AND THE LAST, and what thou seest, write. And I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the breast with a golden girdle. His head and his hair were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire: And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he had in his right-hand seven stars; and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength : And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead, and he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I AM THE FIRST AND THE LAST: I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen: and have the keys of Hades, and of death."

15. I have quoted this passage at large, that we may have the better view of him whom Dr. Priestley, with Phontius of old, thinks a mere man, (Yılov avIgwmov) a weak, fallible, and peccable creature. But who can read this description of his wonderful person, given by an eye-witness of his glory, and yet, after all, be of the Doctor's mind? Who can behold, though but by faith, that Face which displays the glory of God, with a brightness like that of the sun shining in his strength, and yet doubt whether the Godhead inhabits the Manhood? Especially who can hear, these most august Titles peculiar to the Eternal, to Him that had no beginning of day, and will have no end of life, so freely and repeatedly claimed, and yet hesitate to pronounce, that the person thus claiming them, if he do it justly, (and surely the" Amen, the faithful, and true Witness," would not advance a false claim,) must, in union with his Father, be the one living and true God possessing, in his complex person, a nature properly divine?

16. Add to this, that it is supposed by many, that the 8th verse, also, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty,"-is spoken by the Lord Jesus. And the context seems to make it probable, that it is: and sure I am, it will be difficult, if not impossible to prove, that it is not. But as Dr. Doddridge observes in a Note on that verse, "If the words should be understood as spoken by the Father, our Lord's applying so many of these Titles afterwards to himself, plainly proves

his partaking with the Father in the glory peculiar to the Divine nature and incommunicable to any creature." For otherwise, would it not seem strange, not to say impious and blasphemous, after the Father had characterized his person by his peculiar Titles, saying, "I am Alpha and Omega, the begin ning and the ending," that a mere creature should immediately echo back the same words and say "I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last," and should do this a second time, and that after displaying glories, surely above any thing conceivable in man or Angel, saying, I AM THE FIRST AND THE LAST,—nay, and should do it a third time, in the same words, within a few sentences, as is recorded in the 8th verse of the next Chapter," These things saith the First and the Last, who was dead and is alive?"

If, then, we were in any doubt in what sense to understand the Prophets and Apostles, when they call Christ God, (as we have seen they frequently do) we can be in doubt no longer, when we see Epithets, descriptive of true and proper Deity, joined with the Name, and the highest Titles of the Supreme God, frequently claimed by him and given to him. But when, added, to this, we find also the incommunicable Attributes of the Godhead also 'ascribed to him, surely this, at least, must settle our faith as to this matter.

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17. To know the heart of Man, is the province only of Omniscience, and is claimed by the Lord as his peculiar prerogative in Scripture. Thus, Jer. xvii. 9, 10. "The heart. is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? I the Lord, search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings." And as it is Jehovah's prerogative, so it is his only. "Thou, even thou only, (says Solonon, I Kings viii. 39.) knowest the hearts of all the children of men." But the Lord Jesus is represented in the same infallible records, as possessed of this Divine Perfection. Lord thou knowest all things, (says St. Peter, John xxi. 17.) thou knowest that I love thee." "Jesus knew their thoughts," (says Mat. ch. xiii. 25.)" Jesus knew all men," (says St. John, ch. ii. 24, 25.) and "needed not that any should testify of man for he knew what was in man." And in confirmation of this testimony, bore by his three disciples, Jesus himself speaks from heaven, (Rev. ii. 23.) and says, "All the Churches shall know that I am He that searcheth the reins, and the heart." Jehovah only searches the heart: But the Lord Jesus searcheth the heart: Therefore the Lord Jesus is Jehovah : Or, in his person there is such a wonderful union of Jehovah with Manhood that when the Man speaks, and says, "I am he that searcheth the heart," Jehovah speaks in and. by him. And lest we should suppose, that

though he possessed this branch of divine knowledge, yet that there were other branches thereof which he did not possess, St. Paul assures us," In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Col. ii 3. 18. Omnipresence is another peculiar glory of the infinite Jehovah. "Am I a God at hand," says he, Jer. ch. xxiii. 23, 24.) "and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?" And yet this glory also is claimed by Jesus Christ. Thus Matt. xviii. 20, " Where two or three are met together in my name, I am there in the midst of them." And again, Mat. xxviii. 20. “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." And yet again, Rev. iii. 20. "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come into him, and will sup with him, and he with me." And who, but an infinite being, can be present in every congregation, -in every place? Nay, in ten thousands of congregations at one and the same time, and that all over the face of the earth, and even present at the door of every heart, and in every heart, of every true believer, in all those congregations, of every one that opens the door, and admits him in? Surely this shews, at least, that his presence is as universal throughout the globe, as the presence of the light, or of the air. Nor is it confined to this globe of ours, but is extended through universal nature, through all his immense and boundless works,-for by him the Apostle assures us, Col. i. 17. or rather (εv avтw) in him all things consist, ovaɛsŋkɛ, stand together, are upheld or supported, even by his universally-diffused, and all-pervading presence. For he "upholdeth all things by the word of his power," Heb. i. 13. "and filleth all things," Eph. iv. 10. especially his church which is his body; to which he is a head of vital influence, and which he so en riches with gifts and graces, that it is called by the Apostle, (Eph. i. 23.) his fulness To πληρωμα τε τα παντα εν πασι πληρεμενε -The fulness of him that FILLETH ALL IN

ALL.

19. How plainly does it appear, then, that he is possessed of a nature truly and properly divine, omniscience, and omnipresence, being most certainly, if any thing can be so,-Incommunicable Attributes of that immense and infinite Jehovah, concerning whom the Psalmist speaks with great propriety, as well as sublimity of thought and expression, in the 139 Psalm, in words, which though primarily meant of the Father, are, neverthe Jess, very applicable to the Son :-") Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me:" "Thou knowest my down-sitting and my uprising: Thou understandest my thoughts afar off. Thou compassest my path, and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.

For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo! O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into hea ven, thou art there: if I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the earth or sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall cover me: even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee, but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the night are both alike. For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought, in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, being yet imperfect, and in thy book were all my members written, which in continuance, were fashioned, when as yet there were none of them."

20. This Omniscience and Omnipresence of the Lord Jesus, are represented in the Book of the Revelation, ch. v. 6. by the seven eyes of the Lamb; and in the same passages, his Almighty power is represented by the emblem of seven horns. And that this is also an attribute of Christ, appears from the Apostle's declaring that he is " able to subdue all things to himself," Phil. iii. 21. which surely speaks the omnipotence of God. Accordingly, he affirms to the Jews, John v. 17. "My father worketh hitherto, and I work.-What things soever the father doth, these doth the Son likewise.-As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son also quickeneth whom he will." Hence, too, all the god-like works which he wrought in the days of his flesh, and which he often appealed to in proof of his mission, and in proof of his Deity, saying, (John x. 37.) “If I do not the works of my Father, (such works as the Supreme God does,) believe me not; but if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works, that ye may know and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him."

21. Two more divine attributes, I shall mention, as ascribed to Christ in the Holy Scriptures, viz. eternity and immutability. Moses well describes the eternity of Jehovah in the ninetieth Psalm, verse 2. where he says," Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth or the world: even from everlasting to ever lasting, thou art God. A thousand years in thy sight, are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." And what does the inspired penman speak of the Word, that was in the beginning with God, and was God? Does not Solomon say of him (Prov. viii. 22.) "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his