Instances of this kind might be easily multiplied, did not brevity forbid: but I would rest the argument principally on those which follow. Jehovah, speaking to Moses, declared his self-existent, immutable, and eternal Deity, by saying I AM THAT I AM; and ordered him to inform Israel, "that I AM had sent him to them:" this, Christ expressly applied to himself when he said to the Jews, "Before Abraham was, I AM."" Had he said, 'before Abraham was, I was,' it would sufficiently have proved his pre-existence, as far as men believe him to be the Truth, or to speak truth: but we cannot affix any meaning to the words as they now stand, unless we allow him to be the eternal God. This his enemies of old clearly perceived, and therefore they went about to stone him for blasphemy: nor can they who deem him only a man fairly dissent from this determination, however it may be convenient to them to palliate the language which he employed. Should we render the words "I AM HE;" they are then equivalent to those of Jehovah, "Before the day "was I AM HE;" and the use of the present tense, with reference to Abraham who lived so many ages before, perfectly discriminates this passage from all others, in which the same expression is used either by our Lord or by any other person. Indeed the language of the passage in Exodus, and

Exod. iii. 14. John viii. 58.

2 * Is. xliii. 13.

that of Luke concerning it,' leads us to consider the eternal Son, the great Angel of the covenant, as the Speaker on this occasion: and whoever attentively compares the appearances of Jehovah to Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, and many others, with the words of the Evangelist, "No man hath seen GOD at any time, the only 'begotten Son-hath declared him;" will be apt to conclude that all these were discoveries of that very person in the form of God, who afterwards appeared in the form of a servant.

Again Isaiah introduces Jehovah saying, "I "am the First and I am the Last, and besides me "there is no God." This, Christ, appearing in vision to John, expressly and repeatedly claimed to himself." "Fear not, I am the First and "the Last: I am he that liveth and was dead, and "am alive for evermore." How can any reasonable man suppose, that Jesus, had he been no more than a mere creature, would have used such language, and appropriated to himself the very words by which Jehovah declared his own eternal power and Godhead?-Finally, Jehovah claims it as his prerogative (6 to search the hearts "and try the reins:" and Christ most emphati"And all the churches shall know that

cally says,

"I am He, which searcheth the reins and hearts.4”

Acts vii. 30--37.

Is. xliv. 6. Rev. i. 8, 11, 17, 18. ii. 8. xxii. 13.

VOL. V.

3 Is. xli. 4. xliii. 10-13. xlviii. 11, 12.

4 Jer. xvii. 10. Rev. ii. 23.

K

Did any holy creature ever use such language?" Or would the holy Jesus, if he had not been One with the eternal Father?

III. We may next consider some things, which Christ spoke concerning himself, or his disciples. concerning him, as manifest proofs of his Deity. "Destroy," says he, this temple, and in three

days I will raise it up again; but he spake of "the temple of his body."" Not to insist on the appropriate sense in which he called his body a temple, as the immediate residence of his Deity; I would enquire whether it be not an act of divine power to raise the dead? whether any mere man ever raised his own body, after he had been violently put to death? and whether God did not actually raise again the man Christ Jesus? The obvious answers to these questions will evince, that Christ had a nature distinct from his manhood; that he was truly GoD, as One with the Father; that he had "power to lay down his life, “and power to take it again;" and that by so doing he proved himself to be the Son of God, in that sense which the Jews deemed blasphemy. For the priests condemned him to death as a blasphemer, because he spoke of himself as the Son of God."

Again, he saith to his disciples, "I will give you a mouth and wisdom; which none of your 'John ii. 19-21. 2. Matt. xxvi. 61-66. John xix. 7.

"enemies shall be able to gainsay or resist." Now who can give a mouth and wisdom but God only?1 Did any mere man or holy creature ever advance such a claim, or induce others to form such expectations from him? Yet according to this promise, the Evangelist says, "Then opened he their "understandings to understand the Scriptures."" -To Nicodemus who was astonished at his discourse on regeneration, he said, "If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall

66

ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he "that came down from heaven, even the Son of "man who is in heaven."" But in what sense could the Son of man be said "to come down "from heaven," and at the same time "to be in hea99 ven, even when he was speaking on earth, if there had not been such an intimate union between the man Christ Jesus, and "the Word, which "in the beginning was with God, and was GoD," that what belonged to the one nature might properly be said of the other? Thus it is said that "GOD purchased the church with his own blood;" because he, who shed his blood, was Gop as well as man. In like manner "the Son of man was in heaven," because that Person, whose omnipresence filled the heavens, was also the Son of man : and this was doubtless a specimen of those heavenly

'Exod. iv. 11. Prov. ii. 6. Luke xxi, 15.

things, which are far more mysterious than rege

neration.

The same conclusions may undeniably be drawn from our Lord's words, when he says, "Where "two or three are gathered together in my Name "there am I in the midst of you;" and, "Lo, I

am with you always, even to the end of the "world." These are certainly equivalent to the promises of Jehovah in the Old Testament, that he would be with his people in all their trials; and can by no ingenuity be separated from the attribute of omnipresence: for Christ, as Man, is in heaven, and not personally present with his ministers and congregations.-." No one," says he, "know"eth who the Son is, but the Father; neither "knoweth any one who the Father is, save the "" Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal "him."" Can any one deny this to be an assertion, that the Son is equally incomprehensible with the Father, and a declaration that all knowledge of God is erroneous, which is not learned by faith in Christ?

When he was called to account (probably before the sanhedrim,) for healing on the sabbath-day;" he answered, "My Father worketh hitherto, and "I work;" and the Jews considered this as a declaration, that," God was his own (idior) Father," and as "making himself equal with God." His

'Matt. xviii. 20. xxviii. 20.

2 Matt. xi. 27. Luke x. 22.

3 John v.