Lord previous to his incarnation is yet amply attested by it, and he has himself in the very fame verfe farther declared, that "he came down from heaven;" to which, as a commentary, we may annex the teftimony of St. John Baptift, who, fpeaking of Jefus Chrift, affirms, that he that cometh from above is above all," John iii. 31. The pre-exiftence of our Lord in heaven is expressly declared by himfelf in the following words alfo,

What and if ye fhall fee the Son of man afcend up where he was before?" John vi. 62. This must refer to his Godhead, as it is no where afferted that his fleshly body had ever been in heaven before his final ascent. But when he declares, "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father," " his difciples faid unto him, lv, now speakest thou plainly, and fpeakest no proverb," John xvi. 28, 29.

XXIV.

Jefus faid unto them, verily verily I fay unto you, before Abraham was, I am," John viii. 58. There is a very remarkable diftinétion in this paffage between the words was and am. By the former, the existence of Abraham is marked to have had a commencement, and to have been finite; whereas, by the latter, the eternity of Jefus Chrift, as God, is ftrongly pointed out. The word am bears reference to a life in every moment extended to all eternity; which, as the presence of the Almighty fills infinite space, ftretches itself at once through all duration, and is at all periods to be spoken of in the present tense, as all periods are prefent to it at once; a life" which is, and which was, and which is to come," Rev. i. 4. Jefus Christ here makes ufe of the fame expreffion which God had declared to be his name to Mofes, and given to him as a token whereby he should make himself known to the children of Ifrael, to have come from God, Exod. iii. 14; and it can hardly be conceived

I 2

conceived that he does fo without an intention of marking his divinity, and declaring himself to be that God, and that he it was who led the forefathers of those with whom he spoke, out of the land of Egypt by the hand of Moses. In fome paffages, ending in a declaration, "I am" in the original, the tranflation has fupplied the word he; becaufe a relative pronoun, the expreffion of which the Greek tongue can difpenfe with, is neceffarily to be expreffed in ours, in order to make good fenfe of the paffage in English, which is good fenfe in Greek without it. For inftance: the woman of Samaria tells our Saviour, that "when Chrift comes, he will tell us all things:" to which he answered, “I that speak unto thee, am," John iv. 26; so it stands in the original, and requires no more words to convey the idea that he was Christ of whom the fpake; whereas it is indifpenfably requifite that the tranflator fhall add a pronoun referring to what had been faid before, and turn the paffage, as our Bible has it, "I that speak unto thee am he.” From this circumftance it is urged, that no inference, favouring our Saviour's divinity, is to be drawn from the paffage before us, because (as is alledged) it is only of the fame ftamp of the others. Without going farther into grammatical difquifitions, let us try the experiment upon it, and write it accordingly, "Jefus faid unto them, verily verily I fay unto you, before Abraham was, I am be." Who? Abraham? Will any man infist on this? The word am in this verfe fignifies, I exift, in a neuter fenfe, and fo cannot require a relative pronoun to follow it. The context alfo requires the interpretation which I have put upon these words; our Saviour declares to the Jews, "I am," in answer to their objection to the poffibility of his having feen Abraham, not being yet fifty years old. Upon the whole, I look upon this to be a very explicit declaration of his Godhead and pre-existence to the time of his having come into the

world,

world, a teftimony borne to it by the author of our falvation himself, and therefore I muft yield my affent to his word, that he is one with the Father, God.-See Inquiry into the belief of the Chriftians of the first three Centuries, p. 213, 217, 251.

XXV.

"I and my Father are one," John x. 30. When our Saviour made this very literal declaration, the Jews ftoned him, and gave as a reason, "because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God," John x. 33. This fhews how they understood him; and the answer of our Saviour to their charge fhews alfo that they were right, for, instead of retracting, he refers them to the testimony of his works; " that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him," John x. 38: words, which, however they might admit of a figurative interpretation in any other paffage, being here spoken to confirm what he had before declared, must be interpreted by that declaration, and mark a mutual relation, resulting only from the poffeffion of one Godhead with the Father. XXVI.

That Jefus Chrift crucified" is the propitiation for our fins; and not for ours only, but alfo for the fins of the whole world," 1 John ii. 2, is evident from the declaration of Caiaphas in the year of his high-priesthood, "not spoken of himfelf," but prophetically delivered, and pronouncing it "expedient for us that one man fhould die for the people, and that the whole nation perifh not;" and alfo from the comment of the Evangelift himself, who adds, " and not for that nation only, but that alfo he should gather together in one the children of God that were fcattered abroad," John xi. 50. The vail of the temple which divided between the holy place, and the most holy in which stood the mercy-feat, was a type of the distinction between the covenants of the law and the gospel, of that point in which the carnal and

fpiritual

fpiritual difpenfations met but mixed not, Exod. xxvi, 33, 34. And in conformity with this fymbol, the flesh of Jefus Chrift was the point itself in which the two covenants met, and by the fufferings and crucifixion of which the diftinction was removed, and all men admitted to be the people of God through Christ, instead of the Jews alone. "By Chrift, who hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, the Gentiles are made one with the Jews; and we, who were aliens and ftrangers from the covenant of promife, without Chrift, without God in the world, are with them made one commonwealth, the enmity between us, that is, the law of commandments and ordinances, being abolished in his flefh. But being thus reconciled to each other, it remains that we shall both be reconciled to God, and to this end that vail which divided us from him is to be taken away by the cross of Chrift; and thus, as through his incarnation, we have peace and union together; through his blood, through his crucified flesh, the enmity being flain by his death, we are made nigh, and both have access by one spirit unto the Father," Ephef. ii. 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. In maintenance of this type, when our Lord and Saviour gave up the ghost, and when that facrifice by which we were reconciled was offered up, was vifibly accepted as fufficient to its end, and "the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom," Mark xv. 38: That vail which divided us from God was removed, the mercy-feat which stood behind it, and to which none was heretofore permitted to have accefs, was rendered indeed acceffible, and a free entrance laid open to all men: we are in the instant of the offering, as it were, called upon "to draw near with a true heart in full affurance of faith, and with boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jefus, by a new and living way which he hath confecrated for us through the vail, that is to fay, his flesh," Heb. x. 19, 20, 21, 22.

it

XXVII.

Philip faith unto him, Lord, fhew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jefus faith unto him, Have I been fo long time with you, and yet haft thou not known me, Philip? He that hath feen me, hath feen the Father: and how fayeft thou then, Shew us the Father? Believest thou not, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I fpeak unto you, I fpeak not of myfelf: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or elfe believe me for the very works fake," John xiv. 8, 9, 10, 11. The interpretation of this paffage may be drawn from the remark made upon the texts laft cited; for our Saviour teftifies, that he is in the Father, and the Father in him, in order to evince, that Philip, in having known him, had known the Father. As our Lord could not mean that Philip's acquaintance with the Father was the fame as his acquaintance with himself, in the flesh, he has pointed out, that the means whereby he had known the Father, in having known him, was by his knowledge of thofe words. which he had fpoken, and those works which he had done by the operation of his Godhead, one with that of the Father. These had been often cognizable by Philip; he therefore in having known the Son, who had faid and done fuch things in teftimony of what he was, might well be faid to have known the Father, with whom our Lord and Saviour was, in that refpect which was pointed out, one and the fame God. See alfo John xv. 23,

24.

XXVIII.

"I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye fhall afk in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye fhall afk any thing in my name, I will do it," John xiv. 12, 13, 14. I believe no man will deny that a petition is to be made to him who is to

grant