ward fhow;" and then, addreffing himself to his difciples, continues to declare, that no prognofticks fhall forefhew his day; but that, as the flood was not preceded by any figns that it was at hand, but found men eating and drinking and altogether unprepared, fo fhould it be "in the day when the Son of man is revealed." From the continuance of the discourse, and applying still the coming without obfervation, to the coming of the kingdom of God, and to his own day, which is often spoken of as fynonimous with the day in which the Son of man fhall come in power and great glory, fitting on the throne of his glory to judge the world, we may, without in the leaft ftraining for an inference, fay, that the day of which he fpeaks to the difciples as coming unobserved, and the kingdom of God, of which he afferts the fame thing to the Pharifees in the fame conversation, are one and the fame thing; and if the day of Christ be the fame as the kingdom of Chrift, the kingdom of God is here declared to be the kingdom of Chrift; therefore one with the Father, on that day, on the coming of that kingdom to be fully revealed to be God.

XII.

That a partial difcharge of our duty is not fufficient to obtain the reward due to a full one, is obvious; its infufficiency however is not a reafon for not difcharging it; for though it be not the whole, it is yet a part, and a part without which the whole cannot be. "Not every one that faith unto me Lord, Lord, fhall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven," Mat. vii. 21, are the words. of our Saviour, in which it is manifeftly implied, that, though it do not amount to the whole, yet it is an effential part of our duty to address our religious worship and invocations to Jefus Christ our Lord.

XIII.

The incomprehenfibility of the Father and the Son, except to each other, is a mark of equality of Godhead, which alone can be the fubject of the following words of our Saviour himself. "No man knoweth the Son but the Father: neither knoweth any man the Father, fave the Son, and he to whomfoever the Son will reveal him," Matth. xi. 27. Many a man had known Jefus Christ as Man; but as God, he was known then to the Father only, with whom he was one, God. The parallel paffage fays, "No man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father, &c." Luke x. 22. Mr. Lindsey fays he does, but I cannot think it. How fhall he, who is known by all his difciples to be a man, fay he is unknown to all but the Father, if he speak not of a nature not human, and of so high a rank as to be comprehenfible by the Father only, even his Godhead?

XIV.

When our bleffed Lord, juft before he afcended into heaven, was fending forth his difciples to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghoft, and to teach them to obferve all things which he had commanded them, he gives them a promife of his own affiftance in the performance of theit miffion, faying, " And, lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," Mat. xxviii. 20. We accordingly find that, upon his afcent, "they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with figns following," Mark xvi. 20. "How then fhall we escape if we neglect fo great falvation, which at the firft began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; God alfo bearing them witnefs, both with figns and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghoft, according to his own will?" Heb. ii. 3, 4. Here we find that the teftimony of figns

and

and miracles wrought to confirm what is preached by the apostles, is borne by God, and by the Lord Christ, therefore one with the Father, God.

XV.'

It is evident what was the faith of the father of the fick child, who cried out, and faid with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief," Mark ix. 24. So ftrong was his faith already, that he looked upon our Lord as poffeffed of power to affift his fpirit, and fupply whatsoever was defective in his belief. This application was approved of, and confirmed to be right by our bleffed Saviour himself, who granted the diftrefled father's prayer, and healed the fick child.

XVI.

Upon hearing Jefus Chrift say to the fick of the palfy, "Man, thy fins are forgiven thee," I cannot wonder at the remark of the Scribes, who faid, "Who can forgive fins but God alone?" For their law had fhewed them that God had made an exclufive claim to the forgiveness of fins, faying, “I, even I am he that blotteth out thy tranfgreffions for mine own fake, and will not remember thy fins," Ifai. xliii. 25. But our Saviour perceived their thoughts, and healed the fick man, in order to fhew that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive fins," Luke v. 20, 25. But God, whom Nehemiah ix. 17, beautifully, calls "a God of pardons," has an exclufive right in the forgiveness of fins; the Son of man who exercifes that right, even Jefus Chrift, is therefore one with the Father, God,

XVII.

when men

"Bleffed are ye shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's fake. Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy for behold your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets,"

H 2

22

Luke

Luke vi. 22, 23. If the happiness of the difciples, te whom our Saviour addreffes the words above, be not to proceed from the reproach, but from the cause for which they are to undergo it, there is no fimilitude between their cafe and that of the prophets, unless the prophets alfo fuffered for the fake of the Son of man, and for the teftimony which they bore to him: And that this was really the intention of our Lord's words, the following text, fpoken by St. Stephen, will evince, "Which of the prophets have not your fathers perfecuted? And they have flain them which fhewed before of the coming of the juft One; of whom ye have now been the betrayers and murderers," Acts vii. 52. Stephen was, at the time when he uttered these words, under the perfecution which our Saviour had foretold to his difciples that they fhould fuftain for his fake; he therefore reflected on the circumftance pointed out by him, as a means of happiness and bleffing, in their afflictions, and confidered that, with the prophets, he was

66

a partaker of Chrift's fufferings; that when his glory fhall be revealed, he might be glad alfo with exceeding. joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory, and of God refteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified," 1 Pet. iv. 13, 14. Let us juft turn then to the relation of the fufferings of this authentic martyr of Chrift, and fee whether, upon the reproach incurred for his fake, the glory of God, and of Jefus fitting at his right hand, was not revealed to him; and whether the Spirit, which proceeds from the one glory, the one Godhead of the Father and the Son, did not rest upon him, even the Holy Ghost, with which he was comforted, and by which he cried, "Lord Jefus receive my fpirit," Acts vii. 51 to 59.

XVIII,

XVIII.

"Jefus fent him away, faying, Return to thine own houfe, and fhew how great things God hath done unto thee. And he went his way, and published throughout the whole city, how great things Jefus had done unto him," Luke viii. 38, 39. According to a command, to fhew what God had done, the man who had been healed teftified what Jefus had done. I do not look upon the evidence of this man as of any great weight in the argument; but there is certainly some teftimony borne to our Saviour's divinity, by the manner in which the fact is related by an apoftle filled with the Holy Ghoft, for the purpose of preaching Christ with precifion, and who has, nevertheless, repeated the fame words concerning the name of God and of Jesus Christ. It is fomewhat remarkable alfo, that in the relation of the fame fact made by St. Mark, the command to the man is faid to have been," go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee," Mark v. 19; and the man's publication is exactly as related by St. Luke, how great things Jefus had done for him." The title of Lord is fo very often, nay, so almost peculiarly afcribed to our Saviour, throughout the New Teftament, that the use of it here feems an argument for looking upon our blessed Redeemer to have been intended by it: if Jefus Chrift then be the Lord intended here, and that the title of Lord be of the fame import as the name of "God," for which it is ufed by St. Mark, then we must acknowledge, that Chrift is the Lord, and the Lord he is God. There is a farther circumftance favouring the pofition that Jesus Christ is the person named here by the appellations of Lord and God, which is, that the man whom he had healed is defired to add to a declaration of what the Lord had done for him, " that he had compaffion on him," which certainly must bear reference to that tenderness with which he felt for our infir

mities,