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assertions instantly returns, and he exclaims, "My Lord and my God." God." Our Lord does not reply, as when St. Peter made an acknowledgment of his belief in his divinity before his crucifixion, charging him to tell no man (s)." The time of necessary concealment was past; and having since his resurrection reproved his disciples for the doubts they entertained, "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory (t)?” and having "expounded unto them, in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself," according to his promise to speak unto them plainly upon a subject about which they had expressed so much eager curiosity, he soon after directs them to publish the truths he had declared, by "teaching all nations (u)," and admitting them into his church by a form of baptism expressive of his Divinity, and ascends into heaven as a demonstrative proof of what he had asserted.

God frequently describes his own Being in the Old Testament by the appellation of the "First and the Last," as a title denoting eternity, and exclusively belonging to himself: "I am the First, and I am the Last, and beside me there is no God."

(s) Matt. c. 16. v. 20. (t) Luke, c. 24 v. 25, &c. (u) Matt. c. 28. v. 19.

God (u)." In the Revelation, Christ describes himself by the same title; he says to St. John, "Fear not; I am the First and the Last (r): "— "These things saith the First and the Last, which was dead and is alive (y):"-" I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last (2);" and, "therefore, says bishop Pearson, "since Christ has so immediately, and with so great solemnity and frequency, taken the same style upon him, by which the Father did express his Godhead, it follows that he has declared himself to be the Supreme, Almighty, and Eternal God (a)."

And indeed "all the names, the operations, and even the attributes of God, are in full and plain words given to Christ; he is called God (b); his blood is said to be the blood of God (c); God is said to have laid down his life for us (d); Christ is called the true God (e); the great God (f); the Lord of Glory (g); the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords (h); and more particularly the name Jehovah is ascribed to him in the same word in which the seventy

(u) Is. c. 44. v. 6.
(y) Rev. c. 2. v. 8.
(a) Art. 2. of the Creed.
(c) Acts, c. 20. v. 28.
(e) 1 John, c. 5. v. 20.
(g) James, c. 2. V. 1.

interpreters

(x) Rev. c. 1. v. 17. (z) Rev. c. 22. v. 13. (b) Rom. c. 9. v. 5. (d) 1 John, c. 3. v. 16. (f) Titus, c. 2. v. 13. (h) Rev. c. 19. v. 16.

interpreters had translated it throughout the whole Old Testament, so that the constant uniformity of style between the Greek of the New, and that translation of the Old Testament, which was then received, and was of great authority among the Jews, and was yet of more authority among the first Christians, is an argument that carries such a weight with it, that this alone may serve to determine the matter. The creating, the preserving, and the governing of all things, is also ascribed to Christ in a variety of places, but most remarkably when it is said, that by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible; whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were created by him, and for him; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist (i); he is said to have known what was in man (k); to have known mens secret thoughts, and to have known all things; that as the Father was known of none but of the Son, so none knew the Son, but the Father (1); he pardons sin (m), sends the Spirit (n), gives grace and eternal life, and he

shall

(i) Col. c. 1. v. 16 and 17.
(1) Matt. c. 11. v. 27.
(n) John, c. 15. v. 26

(k) John, c. 2. V. 25. (m) Matt. c. 9. v. 6.

shall raise the dead at the last day (o). When all these things are laid together, in that variety of expressions in which they lie scattered in the New Testament, it is not possible to retain any reverence for those books, if we imagine that they are written in a style so full of approaches to the deifying of a mere man, that, without a very critical studying of languages and phrases, it is not possible to understand them otherwise. Idolatry, and a plurality of gods, seem to be the main things that the Scriptures warn us against; and yet here is a pursued thread of passages and discourses that do naturally lead a man to think that Christ is the true God, who yet, according to these men, only acted in his name, and has now a high honour conferred on him by God (p)."

It will be acknowledged by all who believe in revealed religion, that the one true God is the only proper object of adoration; and therefore, if we can show that the New Testament authorizes the worship of Christ, it will be a sufficient proof of his divinity. A woman, whose daughter was grievously vexed with a devil, came and worshipped Christ (g); and when the eleven Apostles

(0) John, c. 24. v. 23.. c. 5. 25 v. and 26. c. 6. v. 39 and 40.

(p) Burnet.

(q) Matt. c. 15. v. 25.

Apostles first saw him after his resurrection, they worshipped him (r). Upon these, and several other occasions, Christ permitted himself to be worshipped; but when the same worship was offered to Peter by Cornelius, he forbade it, and assigned as a reason, that "he was a man (s);" and if Christ had been a mere man he would have refused the worship offered him upon the same principle. There is also a passage in the Revelation, which shows that the worship spoken of in the New Testament, was not barely the prostration common in eastern countries towards superiors, but a species of adoration which was due to God alone: "And I fell at his (that is the angel's) feet to worship him and he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus; worship God (t)." And our Saviour himself said to Satan, when he was tempted in the wilderness, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve (u)." And it is further to be observed, that the Apostles worshipped Christ when he was no longer present with them : "And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up

:

into

(r) Matt. c. 28.v.16&17. (s) Acts, c. 10. v. 25 & 26. (t) Rev. c. 19. v. 10.

(u) Matt. c. 4. v. 10.

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