ry question is thought to be sufficiently important to set the ingenuity of men at work to give it a satisfactory answer, except it be inquired" what we must do to be saved?" And such topics only excite astonishment, disgust, a short silence, and the starting of some more congenial subject ! If a man pretend to teach others the way to health, to riches, to the enjoyment of life, or how to appear to advantage among their companions; assiduous attention and liberal compensation will not be withheld: but they, who would teach men the way of eternal life, must not expect much regard even when they desire no other recompense.

But time and room would fail, should we attempt to enumerate the proofs of man's folly and madness in this respect. Even the very messages of God, respecting judgment, eternity, and his great salvation, (instead of meeting with a serious regard,) are often set to music, and profanely employed to vary the species of pleasurable dissipation! Nay, they are often preached out of ostentation, avarice, envy, or strife; heard as a matter of curiosity or amusement; or contended for in pride, virulence, and furious anger! The grand business of most men seems to be, to avoid the burden of reflection, to cause time to glide away as imperceptibly as possible, and so apparently to shorten the span allotted them to prepare for eternity! Well might the Psalmist then say, "Rivers of water run down mine eyes, "because men keep not thy law."-But, O ye giddy sons and daughters of Adam! what will ye think of your present pursuits when death shall summon you to God's tribunal ? What will then your riches, pleasures, decorations, elegancies, honours, or dignities, avail you? What comfort will the knowledge of all languages and sciences then afford? What will you think of your present anxious cares, covetings, envyings, repinings, and disputes; when "the "night cometh in which no man can work?" "Seek,” then," the Lord while he may be found, call upon him "while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and "the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to "the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our "God, for he will abundantly pardon."

ESSAY VI.

On the Deity of Christ.

THE doctrine of a Mediator, through whom a just and

Holy God deals mercifully with believers, is the grand peculiarity of revelation: it must, therefore, be of the greatest importance for us to form a proper estimate of the personal dignity of this Mediator. The doctrine which I shall here attempt to establish from Scripture, may be thus stated: That Jesus Christ is truly and really God, one with and equal to the Father; being from eternity possessed of all divine perfections, and justly entitled to all di'vine honours; yet personally distinct from the Father, and so called his own Son, and his only begotten Son. But that in order to the performance of his mediatorial office, he assumed our nature into personal union with the Deity, became One with us, truly man, like us in all things, sin alone excepted; and that he is thus God and Man in one mysterious incomprehensible Person : so that all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily.'

No argument can properly be brought against the doctrine of our Lord's essential Deity, as here stated, from those Scriptures which speak of his human nature, his mediatorial office, or his inferiority to the Father in both these respects; for our doctrine implies this, and even absolutely requires it. An ambassador, though subordinate by office to his prince, is not supposed to be of an inferior nature, or of inferior abilities to him. We need not therefore discourse on this part of the subject; it is generally allowed by all, except Deists and Atheists, that "Christ is

come in the flesh;" though numbers contend that he could not have come in any other way; which renders the language of inspiration unmeaning, if not absurd; while

others deem him a mere creature of some supra-angelic nature, and only called God in consequence of his mediatorial exaltation. But the idea of a creature, however exalted, being advanced to divinity, is so repugnant to all rational principles, as well as to the declarations of Jehovah, that "he knows no God besides himself, and will not give "his glory to another;" that it will not be necessary to discuss the subject before us with any particular reference to these distinct opinions; as it fully answers the purpose, if we can evince that our Redeemer is by nature "God over all blessed for evermore." At present I shall adduce a few select arguments, in direct proof of this point; leaving some other things that belong to the subject, to be discussed in the subsequent essay.

I. The reader will naturally turn his thoughts to those Scriptures, in which Jesus Christ is expressly called GOD, and LORD." Without controversy," says the Apostle, (c great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in "the flesh.*" He not only allows his doctrine to be very mysterious, but even appears to glory in it as "the great "mystery of godliness ;" and it could not be controverted nor denied that it was a great mystery. We may therefore be sure, that they who would so interpret the words, as to render his doctrine scarcely mysterious at all, do not understand them: but all they who suppose him to mean that Jesus was Emmanuel, God with us; that the child born at Bethlehem was the mighty God, as the prophet foretold; consider his proposition both as a great mystery, and as the source, centre, and support of godliness †. It would be superfluous in this brief attempt, to do more than refer the reader to the well known passages to this effect ‡, and to intreat him to read with attention as the word of God, and with earnest prayer to be enabled to understand and believe them: for it seems impossible for human language to express any sentiment more strongly than they

1 Tim. iii. 16. † Isaiah vii. 14. ix. 6. ‡ John i. 1-18. Phil. ii. 5-8. Col. i. 15-17.

Heb. i.

do the Deity of Christ. "with God, and was God, who made all things," so that "without him was not any thing made that was made;" "by whom, and for whom, all things were created, and by "whom all things consist," and who "upholds all things "by the word of his power," must be "God over all, bles❝sed for evermore;" for " he that made all things is “God,” which surely none but an avowed Atheist will deny. These and several other passages of this kind, will come again under consideration towards the close of this essay: and this first argument may be concluded by intreating the reader to consider what the Apostle could mean by saying "The second man is the Lord from heaven*," if Christ be only a mere man or a created being?

"He, who was in the beginning

II. Several texts of the Old Testament concerning Jehovah, are applied in the New to Christ. The prophet declares," that whosoever shall call on the name of Jehovah "shall be delivered:" and the Apostle expressly refers this to Christ : for he adds "how shall they call on him "of whom they have not heard? or how shall they "hear without a preacher?" It is manifest, that Joel predicted the judgments which awaited the Jews for rejecting the Messiah: certainly they did very earnestly call upon Jehovah, the God of their fathers to deliver them from the power of the Romans: yet they were not delivered, because they would not join with those who called on the name of Jesus; and they only who called on him were saved. As therefore the Scripture cannot be broken, Christ must be Jehovah; Paul considered him as such, and the event demonstrated him to be so.-The Psalmist says "Taste and see, that Jehovah is good;" to this the Apos tle manifestly refers when he uses these words, "If so be, 66 ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious-to whom com"ing as to a living stone, &c." and in what follows the attentive reader will perceive, that he applies to Christ in the most unreserved manner, what the Prophet had spoken

1 Cor. xv. 47. Joel ii. 32. Rom. x. 13. # Acts ii. 16-21.

of "Jehovah, God of hosts himself *"-Isaiah had a most extraordinary vision of Jehovah in his temple; and the Evangelist declares that "he then saw the glory of Christ, "and spake of him t."-Paul applies to Christ's coming to judgment what the same Prophet had written of Jehovah swearing by himself, that "every knee should bow to "him, and every tongue confess to God:" Indeed the whole passage referred to, especially the last verse, “In "Jehovah shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall "glory," proves that Emmanuel was especially meant, in whom alone believers are justified and glory §. Instances of this kind might be easily multiplied, did not brevity forbid: but I would rest the argument principally on those which follow. Jehovah, speaking to Moses, declared his self-existent, immutable, and eternal Deity, by saying, I AM THAT I AM; and ordered him to inform Israel ❝ that I AM had sent him to them :" This Christ expressly applied to himself, when he said to the Jews, "Before "Abraham was, I AM." Had he said before Abraham 'was, I was,' it would sufficiently have proved his pre-existence to all who believe him to be Truth, or to speak truth but we cannot affix any meaning to the words, as they now stand, unless we allow Him to be the eternal God. This his enemies of old clearly perceived, and therefore they went about to stone him for blasphemy: nor can they who deem him only a man fairly dissent from the verdict; however it may be convenient to them to palliate the language in question. Should we render the words "I AM "HE;" they are then equivalent to those of Jehovah, "Before the day was I AM HE|| ;" and the use of the present tense, with reference to Abraham who lived so many ages before, perfectly discriminates this passage from all others, in which the same expression is used either by our Lord or any other person ¶. Indeed the

• Ps. xxxiv. 8. Isaiah viii. 13–15. xxviii. 16. 1 Pet. ii. 3-8. Isaiah vi. John xii. 39-42.

Isaiah xlv. 21-25. Rom. xiv. 9-12.

§ 1 Cor. i. 30, 31.

Isaiah xliii. 13. ¶ Exod. iii. 14. John viii. 58.