jamed, viz. Rom. xiv, 11, applying these words, so manifestly spoken y the true God, to Christ. "We shall all stand (says he) before the udgment seat of Christ: for it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every nee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God: so then Every one of us shall give an account of himself to God." How plain sit, from hence, that the apostle considered the God of Israel the "only ving and true God," as dwelling by his eternal Word in the human ature of Christ, and so intimately united therewith, that he who bowed the visible man, bowed to the invisible God; and he who gave an account to the man, gave an account to God dwelling in him, and Judging mankind by him. For otherwise, that is, on the supposition of Christ's being a mere man, or a mere creature, how could the words of Jehovah, "Every knee shall bow to me," be a proof that we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ? And if Christ were not God, how could our giving an account to him, be properly termed by the apostle "giving an account to God?"

7. Nor was the conduct of St. Paul, in applying passages of the Old Testament, manifestly meant of the true God, to Christ, any way peculiar. We find other apostles doing the same, St. John in particular. in the twelfth chapter of his Gospel, he applies to the Lord Jesus that remarkable and well-known description of the appearance of Jehovah to Isaiah, recorded in the sixth chapter of his prophecy. "In the year that Uzziah died," says the prophet, "I saw also the Lord sitting upon throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim: and one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. Then caid I, Wo is me, for I am undone: because I am a man of unclean lips, and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who shall go for us? [Heb. »> in the plural for us.] Then said I, Here am I, send me. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes: lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed." Now, John xii, 37, we read, "Though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: that the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, He hath blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts: that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him." In St. John's opinion, therefore, it was the glory of Christ which Isaiah saw, and of him that he spake in the above-mentioned passage.

8. In like manner, what is manifestly spoken of the true God in the fortieth of Isaiah, is, by all the evangelists, applied to Christ: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord," says "the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness," "make straight in the desert a high way for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, &c. And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it." Now, if the reader will be at the pains of examining Matt.

iii, 3; Mark i, 3; Luke i, 76, and iii, 4, and John i, 23, he will find all these evangelists understanding this voice crying in the wilderness, to be John the Baptist, and the God whose way he prepared, to be the Lord Christ in whom "dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily," and through whose humanity the Deity so shone forth, that he could truly say, "He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father." Hence the words of God by Zechariah, chap. xi, 13, "Jehovah said unto me, Cast it unto the potter: a goodly price that I was prized at of them :" and chap. xii, 13, They shall look upon me whom they have pierced,” are, it is well known, understood by St. Matthew and St. John, as spoken of Christ, and are applied to him accordingly.

9. We have seen, then, that the apostles made no difficulty of apply. ing to Christ those passages of the Old Testament which contain the most essential characters of the supreme God. "Now (as a French writer justly asks) how could they have dared to do this if Christ were not the true and supreme God? Had they been instructed only in the school of nature, they might have learned not to apply to any creature those things which had been spoken of the Creator alone, exclusive of all creatures. If, then, we regard them as brought up in the school of the prophets, we can never suspect them of such madness. For can any thing equal the circumspection of the prophets in this particular? They are continually apprehensive of confounding the Creator with any creature. And this apprehension sufficiently guards them from applying to the one the most essential characters of the other."

10. To illustrate this let it be observed, "The descriptions which the apostles make of Christ are not more sacred than those which the prophets make of the supreme God. As, then, one would not dare to apply to any other those descriptions of Jesus Christ, neither would one dare (were he not such) to apply to Jesus Christ these descriptions of the supreme God. Should we not accuse him of impiety, who treated a man, suppose St. Peter, as the "only begotten Son of God, the Lamb of God, our Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec, the Father of eternity, the Prince of Peace, Emmanuel, God with us: the Word that was in the beginning with God, the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last?" Could we suffer man to say of Peter, that he had "bought the Church with his own blood?" Had "made atonement for our sins, and borne them in his own body on the tree?" That Peter "dwells in our hearts by faith," and that "there is no other name under heaven whereby we can be saved, neither is there salvation in any other?" That "he is made of God unto us wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption?" Would you not regard him who spoke thus of St. Peter as a most impious blasphemer? Although he had told you withal, that St. Peter was less than Christ, this would not satisfy you. You would have reason to say that this very acknowledgment left him without excuse: seeing hereby he flatly contradicted himself, and made his impiety more glaring. It would not excuse him to say that he applied these characters to St. Peter only by way of allusion, or accommodation. You might justly answer, If it be an allusion, it is an impious allusion; if it be, an accommodation, it is a profane accommodation: be it an application of whatever kind it will, it is an application full of blasphemy.

11. But if you regard as blasphemous an application of the chief

characters of Jesus Christ to so great an apostle as St. Peter, it must be a still greater blasphemy to apply to Christ (if he be not the Most High) the chief characters of the supreme God. For, not to urge that Peter was a teacher sent of God, an inspired prophet, and, according to the Socinians, Christ was no more; allowing that Christ was a greater prophet than St. Peter, and that "there was a great disproportion between him and his apostle; yet if our adversaries be right, there is a far greater disproportion between Christ and the supreme God; seeing the former, however great, is finite, whereas the latter is infinite. If, then, one cannot, without great blasphemy, apply to St. Peter the most essential characters of Christ, one cannot, without infinitely greater blasphemy, apply to Christ the essential characters of God."

12. "This will appear still more evident, if we suppose farther, that he who made these applications to St. Peter, knew that it was already a point in debate, whether St. Peter were not equal to Christ: and foresaw that this error would generally prevail, and that men, for several ages, would confound St. Peter with Jesus Christ, the Saviour and Redeemer of mankind. Such a man, in this case, would be guilty of astonishing impiety, to dare to make such an application of the characters of Jesus Christ, as he knew would be attended with so dangerous, so fatal a consequence. There is nothing easier than to apply this to the apostles. They could not be ignorant that the question, whether Jesus Christ was equal with God, had been already started; yea, and that the Jews had persecuted him under colour of this pretended blasphemy. They who foresaw that, in the last times, false teachers would arise, and who characterized their doctrine, were not ignorant that Christians would fall into this error of confounding Christ with the most high God. How, then, could they who knew both these things, without manifest impiety, apply to Christ those ancient oracles which express the glory of the Most High, those in particular which express the glory of God, exclusively of all his creatures?".

13. From all this it is plain beyond a doubt, that the inspired writers of the New Testament considered the King of Israel and God of the Jews, who had anciently dwelt in their tabernacle and temple, and manifested his presence in Divine glory in the holy of holies, as being incarnated in the flesh of the holy Jesus. Hence St. John, speaking of his incarnation, uses the word soxnvwosv, he tabernacled "The Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us," alluding most manifestly to his having dwelt of old in their tabernacle and temple. And hence God promises, "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple," Mal. iii, 1. Observe, "His temple,"—for it had been his in all the ages of their government-only before the time of the Babylonish captivity he forsook it; and the glorious tokens of his presence were seen no more, till he was manifested in the flesh of Christ Jesus: then he appeared again in his temple, and by speaking "as never man spake," and performing miracles such as no man had ever performed, he gave that latter house, built after their return from Babylon, a glory such as But inasmuch as that was to even Solomon's temple had never known. be only for a very short time, and inasmuch as the human nature of Christ was to be the true and everlasting dwelling place of the Deity,

where he would be found by penitent, believing souls, and from whence he would give forth oracles and communicate blessings; therefore the Lord Jesus calls his body a temple, and says, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will build it up." For the evangelist assures us he spake of the "temple of his body," John ii, 21.

14. Well might St. John say, therefore, in the passage quoted above, "He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not." He came to his own, and his own received him not. For, if the apostles had a right view of him, and understood his true character, he was the immediate Creator of the world, and the person who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, and styled himself "the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," who led the people of Israel out of Egypt, and gave them the law from Mount Sinai; who took up his abode on that mount, where his appearance was like that of devouring fire, till the tabernacle was prepared for his reception, when he condescended to remove his presence thither, and fill the most holy place, yea, and the whole tabernacle, with such glory that Moses (though accustomed to the Divine presence, having been twice forty days with the Lord on the mount) was not able to enter even into the tent of the congregation, Exod. xl, 34, 35. He it was who dwelt first at Shiloh, and then at Jerusalem, and from between the cherubim upon the mercy seat gave answers to the high priest, being the King as well as God of Israel. He it was who manifested his glory to Isaiah and the other prophets; and having been their true King in all ages, and having been "in the world" from the beginning, appearing in various forms, and superintending his ancient Church from the calling of Abraham to the Babylonish captivity, -he it was, I say, who, when he came in the flesh, "came to his own,' but because he came without the ensign of his former glory, having put off the Divine "Shekinah," the form of God, in which he had been wont to appear, "his own received him not:" nay, they rejected him, they crucified him; but not without his title providentially put over his head : "This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews," a title which had been previously acknowledged by Nathanael: "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God: thou art the King of Israel." This the Jews did, not knowing who he was; for had they known it, doubtless "they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."

15. As a farther confirmation of this doctrine, I would observe, First, That it is the constant testimony of the apostles that the Father in his own proper person, by which we are to understand, perhaps, the simple Divine essence, never was seen by man. "No man hath seen God at any time," John i, 18, and 1 John iv, 12. "The King eternal, immortal, invisible," 1 Tim. i, 17. "Who only hath immortality, dwelling in light, which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen, or can see," 1 Tim. vi, 16. These declarations of his apostles are confirmed by our Lord: "Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he who is of God, he hath seen the Father." And yet it is manifest from divers passages of the Old Testament quoted already, and from a great many more that might be quoted, that a person did appear, at sundry times, to the patriarchs and prophets of old, who styled himself the "God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Israel, the true God."

16. One very remarkable appearance of his has been already noticed,

as recorded in the sixth of Isaiah: "Mine eyes (says the prophet) have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts." Another is related, "Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and, they saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet, as it were, a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not his hand; also they saw God, and did eat and drink," Exod. xxiv, 9–12. Now as certainly as St. John, St. Paul, and our Lord himself, (who all affirm that no one hath seen the Father,) were not mistaken, so certainly this person whom Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel saw, and whom Isaiah saw, was not the Father in his own proper person. Who then could it be save the Word, the image of the invisible God, the "brightness of his glory, and express image of his person?" And that it was he is certain, from St. John's declaration, chap. xii, 41, above cited.

17. Let it be observed, Secondly, That in most of the appearances of God recorded in the Old Testament, though the person appearing speaks as God, the true God, yet he is called an angel, or messenger, of God, and often appears as a man. Thus Exod. iii, 2, "The angel of the Lord appeared unto him [Moses] in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush. And when Jehovah saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: and Moses hid his face, for he was ashamed to look upon God. And Jehovah said, I have seen the affliction of my people that are in Egypt: and I am come down to deliver them," ver. 14. "And God said unto Moses, I am that I am." Now this same person, who here styles himself the "God of Abraham," appeared to that father of the faithful as a man, and conversed familiarly with him. See Gen. xviii. And yet the historian assures us, ver. 1, that it was Jehovah that appeared unto him; and in the course of the narration he is frequently styled Jehovah: as ver. 13, "Jehovah said unto Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh-is any thing too hard for Jehovah? At the time appointed I will return unto thee: and Sarah shall have a son. And Jehovah said, ver. 17, Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do? They then [two of the three] turned their faces before from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet Jehovah," ver. 22. From hence to the end of the chapter follows a long conversation, between this person (Jehovah under the form of a man,) and Abraham; in which he is repeatedly styled Jehovah by the historian, and is acknowledged by Abraham, ver. 25, as "Judge of all the earth."

18. After this, the same person appeared to Jacob at Bethel: "Jacob dreamed, and behold a ladder set upon the earth, and the top reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God ascending and descending on it; and Jehovah stood above it, and said, I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac," &c, Gen. xxviii, 12. And yet, chapter xxxi, verse 11, we find this person, who is here styled Jehovah, called an "angel of God." "The angel of God (says Jacob to Rachel and Leah) spake unto me, saying, I am the God of Bethel where thou anointedst the pillar, and vowedst a vow unto me."

19. Concerning another remarkable appearance of this same person,