lected them, as before remarked, not only because Christ is called God in them; but because he is so called God, with such connexions and adjuncts, as to render it clear that none other than the Supreme God is meant. In some of them he is said to be that God, "who created the universe" in one, that he is the true God; and in another, that he is "the God over all and forever blessed."

Will it do to answer here, that Christ is only called God, and that this name is sometimes given to inferior beings in scripture ? How is it given to them? we ask. Always, without any exception, in such connexions, and with such qualifications, as to shew that the Supreme God is not meant in those instances. "I said ye are gods," it is written o civil magistrates, "BUT ye shall die like men." And thus of Moses: "I have made thee A god unto Pharaoh ;" and so Satan is called THE god of this world. But do we not discover that in all these instances, there is something connected, which shows clearly that inferior beings are meant? But in the passages adduced, where this name is applied to Christ, it is precisely the reverse. Here the adjuncts show that it is the Supreme God who is meant-the attributes of creating power, of eternal truth and of supremacy,

being expressed in the same connexion, and they are so expressed as to lead to the grossest mistake, if the Supreme God be not intended. No man, in his senses, would be in danger of supposing the Supreme Deity to be ascribed to civil magistrates, when they are called gods in the plural number, and when it is added, "but ye shall die like men;" but a person, in his senses, would be likely to mistake, if we are indeed mistaken, in the sense of the passages, which give this name to Christ. He would be likely to imagine that the Supreme God was intended; for he now hears him not only called God, but called so with qualifications clearly implying his supremacy, and other eternal perfections. On this argument, it is confessed, we do rest, for one of our strongest proofs in favour of the proper divinity of Christ. If we wish to see other passages, where the names of God are given to Jesus Christ, let us consult the following:

Isai. ix. 6, and vii. 14; Jeremiah. xxxiii. John xx. 28; 1 Timothy iii. 16; Malachi iii. 1; Matthew i. 23; Titus ii. 13; and Rev. i. 8; in which last, no less than four of the distinguishing appellations of Deity are given to the Saviour. There is, besides all these, a large and powerful array of texts tó

the same purpose obtained, by comparing them as they stand in the Old Testament, with the quotations of them in the New. A reference to some of these may be found below.* Let us now proceed to our second proof.

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2. Christ is really divine, according to those passages of scripture, which ascribe to him an EQUALITY with God. Phil. ii. 5, 8. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who also being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant." John xiv. "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father." John v. 19. "What things soever he (the Father) doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." And 21, 23, of the same chapter. "For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will, that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the FATHER." Now, without stopping to inquire at present, how it is that a language implying

Compare Isai. viii. 13, 14, with 1 Peter ii. 8. Isai. xl. 3, with Math. iii. 1, 3. Psalm lxxviii. 18, with 1 Cor. x. 9. Isai, vi. throughout, with John xii. 39.

Christ's mediatorial inferiority is also used in some of these passages, let us candidly ask ourselves, if an equality of condition, of power, of honour and dignity, are not here clearly ascribed to the Saviour.

We proceed to our third proof:

3. Christ really possesses the divine or supreme nature, "in that the incommunicable attributes of Deity are ascribed to him in ScripHere we shall solicit your patience, while we enumerate several of these attributes.

ture."

Omniscience is ascribed to Christ. (Matthew xi. 27.) "No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." (John ii. 24.) "But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men." (Rev. ii. 23.) "I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts." And John xxi. 17. "Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee."

Omnipotence, or Almighty power is ascribed to Christ. (Phil. iii. 21.) "Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself." (Heb i 3.) "Upholding all things by the word of his power.” And Rev.

i. 8. "I am the Almighty." All these passages are applied to the second person of the Trinity, and their import is so plain as to require no comment. They ascribe to Christ

omnipotence.

Eternity is ascribed to Christ. "Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." (Micah v. 2.) "The same was in the beginning, with God." (John i. 2.) “ And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine ownself, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." (John xvii. 6.) Isaiah says in chap. ix. 5, "His name shall be called the everlasting Father." This expression has sometimes been rendered the Father of eternity. But we apprehend the word Father is used here, not as a distinction of personality in the Godhead, but as an expression of Christ's paternal character in the providence of all his works. And this paternal character of his is said to be everlasting. (1 John v. 20.) “This is the true God and eternal life." (Rev. xxii. 13.) "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last ;" and in chapter i. 8, the same expressions are used with this addition: "Which is, and which was, and which is to come;" the very import of the word Jehovah, the expression of God's eternity, which is so often used in the Old Testament.

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