Christ, and says, "these things faid Efaias, when he faw his glory, and spake of him," John xii. 41. Here then is the fame arm of the Lord, which is fynonimous with God, declared to be Jefus Chrift, whose name is therefore fynonimous with God, one with him who is the Lord thy God." St. Paul alfo intimates, that Christ was the leader of the Ifraelites through the wildernefs, faying, "neither let us tempt Chrift, as fome of them alfo tempted," 1 Cor. x. 9; to which I refer. V.

The arm of the Lord is thus foretold again, "behold, the Lord God will come with ftrong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He fhall feed his flock like a fhepherd," Ifai. xl. 10, II. In the Revelation, our Saviour fays to St. John, " behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me," Rev. xxii. 12. And in the gofpel he fays, "I am the good fhepherd," John x. 11, St. Paul fays of him, "now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jefus, that great fhepherd 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-pleafing in his fight, through Jefus Chrift; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." Heb. xiii. 20, 21. Here we find Ifaiah's words concerning the arm of the Lord (the fame as God) pronounced by our Saviour concerning himself, both in earth and in heaven, and alfe teftified of him by St. Paul, whofe doxology affifts us to pronounce of Jefus Chrift, in the words of Ifaiah immediately preceding the text before us, "behold your God." See alfo Ifaiah lxii.

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 publifheth

falvation,

falvation, that faith unto Zion, thy God reigneth." Ifaiah lii. 7. St. Paul, fpeaking of the neceffity of a preacher to inftruct men in the belief on Chrift, that they may call upon him and be faved, directly applies these words of Ifaiah, as being prophetick of a preacher who fhould publish falvation, and fay unto Zion, "thy God reigneth," Rom. x. 15. If then the promulgation of the gofpel of our bleffed Lord and Saviour be correfpondent to this prophecy, the preacher of Chrift is furely he who fays "thy God reigneth."

VII.

"Out of the mouth of babes and fucklings haft thou ordained ftrength," or "perfected praife," (which is the interpretation of the New Teftament) Pfal. viii. 2. These words David directs to God, whofe name he declares to be excellent. When children in the temple cried "Hofanna to the Son of David," and the Chief Priefts and Scribes were difpleafed at them for it, our Saviour himself juftified the children by affuming the direction of these words to himself, and declaring them a prophecy of his praife, to be perfected by the mouths of babes and fucklings; fo that we find a prophecy, that the praife of the Lord, "who had fet his glory above the heavens," Pfal. viii. 1, is declared to be fulfilled by the direction of praife and hofannas 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 fheep for the flaughter," Pfal. xliv. 22. These words directly addreffed to God, by David, are by St. Paul declared to be a prophecy of the perfeverance of the apoftles in the love of Chrift, of which he fays, "Who fhall separate us from the love of Chrift? fhall tribulation, or distress, or perfecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or fword?" As it is written,

" for

"for thy fake, &c." Rom. viii. 35. For whofe fake? certainly Chrift's, one with the Father, God.

IX.

"Thus faith the Lord which ftretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundations of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.” “ I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerufalem, the fpirit of grace and of fupplications; and they fhall look upon ME whom they have pierced," Zechariah xii. 1. 10. St. John declares this to be a prophecy of the wound inflicted upon our Saviour, when "one of the foldiers with a fpear pierced his fide," John xix. 34, 37. But it was "ME whom they have pierced, faith the Lord which stretcheth out the heavens:"" and in that day there fhall be a great mourning," Zechariah xii. 10. "Behold he cometh with clouds; and every eye fhall fee him, and they also which pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him," Rev. i. 7: the very next verse renders an inference that Jefus Chrift is one with the Father, God, indifputable; for on coming with clouds he announces himself the first and the laft, "the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty," Rev. i. 8. Who now hath ftretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and who hath formed the spirit of man within him?

Many of the prophecies afforded by the New Teftament, I have already stated in the preceding chapter, and fhall not trouble my reader with a repetition of them. One however I fhall add, and notwithstanding that the evangelifts have related the history of John the Baptift, I chufe to rank this great forerunner of our Redeemer among the prophets that preceded his advent and, under the head of inquiry into their predictions,

to

to produce the teftimony borne by the Baptift to the divinity of Jefus Christ.

X.

"He that cometh from above is above all; he that is of the earth is earthy, and speaketh of the earth; but he that cometh from heaven is above all." "He that hath received his teftimony, hath fet to his feal that God is true," John iii. 31, 33. Chrift is here teftified to have come from heaven, and to be above all, and the truth of Chrift is affirmed to be the truth of God.

The following proofs are taken from the teftimony borne to our bleffed Lord's divinity in the writings of the four evangelists.

XI.

Thy kingdom come," Matth. vi. 10. "Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.” Matth. vi. 13. 'That our Saviour's command to the difciples, is to address these words, and the prayer in which they occur, directly to God, is not only granted but contended for: but let us fee now who is this God, who is this king of glory. "Then (in the last day) shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they fhall fee the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he fhall fend his angels, &c." Matth. xxiv. 30, 31. "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he fit upon the throne of his glory. And before him fhall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a fhepherd divideth his fheep from the goats; and he fhall fet the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then fhall the King fay unto them on his right hand, Come, ye bleffed of my Father, &c." Matth. xxv. 31, 32, 33, 34. Here we fee the coming of the kingdom, and we fee also whofe is the kingdom, and the power, and the

glory.

glory. Wherefore then should we fay that Jesus Christ in prefcribing this form of prayer, forbad worship and application to be made to him, whom we find to be the very being described and pointed out as the proper object of our adoration? It is manifeftly his command that we fhould worship him; and hence it follows, that he is one with the Father, God Almighty. He fays in another place, "whofoever fhall be afhamed of me, and of my words, in this adulterous and finful generation, of him alfo fhall the Son of man be afhamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father, with the holy angels," Mark viii. 38. On which I remark, that the glory of the Father, and of the Son, is but one glory, one Godhead; for we see our bleffed Lord coming in his own glory, and in the parallel paffage, in the glory of his Father. The following texts evince this, and also afcribe the kingdom and the glory to Jefus Chrift. "The Son of man fhall fend forth his angels, and they fhall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity," Matth. xiii. 41. "The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father, with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works," Mat. xvi. 27. "Whofoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him fhall the Son of man be ashamed, when he fhall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and all the holy angels," Luke ix. 26. "No whoremonger, &c. hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Chrift, and of God," Ephes. v. 5. " Jefus Chrift, who fhall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing, and his kingdom," 2 Tim. iv. 1. "The everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift," 2 Pet. i. 11. Our Saviour, in answer to the demand of the Pharifees, (Luke xvii. 20 to 30)" when the kingdom of God fhould come," tells them, "the kingdom of God cometh not with obfervation;" or, as it is tranflated in the margin of the Bible," with out