is most reasonable to suppose, that, by the works here referred to, the great work of redemption by the eternal Son of God is principally intended; the mystery of godliness, exhibited in God manifest in the flesh, and difplayed in the wonderful effusion of the Holy Ghost.

In the first address of the Apostles to the Jews, and Jewish profelytes, by the mouth of Peter, on the same day, both the humanity and divinity of our Saviour are plainly and diftinctly asserted, or implied; and in fuch a manner as hardly to be liable to misconstruction. The doctrine of the refurrection of Jesus Chrift, confidered as the confirmation of a still greater doctrine, that of his Divinity, is the chief corner-stone of our Christian Faith; and, as such, is particularly insisted upon by the Apostles, who were ordained to be witnesses of it. And because this most important of all events could not be accomplished by himself in his mere human capacity, we find the holy writers frequently de

claring that God raised him from the dead. But

let

let it be remembered, that Jesus, whom God raised up, is likewise as expressly said to have rifen; and is styled by these very witnesses the Holy One, and the Just, and the Prince of life in different places; which beyond all doubt are titles appertaining to the Supreme God. Under the first of these characters, God the Creator is described in numberless passages of the Old Testament; and he who is the Prince, or author of life, according to the marginal reading, must be the fame, in point of power and perogative, with him to whom belong the issues from death; who killeth and maketh alive; and in whose hand is the life of every thing. Indeed the Prince, or Author of life must have life in himself from all eternity; must be emphatically the life and refurrection, as our Saviour calls himself; and therefore may as truly and properly be faid to have raised the temple of his body by his own power, (to borrow his own phrafe,) as to have been raised from the dead by the power of God the Father. We may say, in short, with equal truth and propriety, Christ was raised from the dead, or Christ rose from the

dead,

1

dead, according to the Scriptures; the latter affertion importing his Divinity, the former not superseding it; and therefore when St. Peter told the men of Ifrael, that they had killed the Prince of life, I scarce know which strikes us most, the force of the implied truth, or the keenness of the farcafm. But to return to the address of the Apostles. Peter, standing up with the eleven, says the sacred historian, lift up his voice, and faid unto them, ye men of Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerufalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words; for these are not drunken, as ye fuppofe, &c; but this is that which was Spoken by the prophet Joel: and it shall come to pass in the last days, (faith God,) I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh; and your fons and your daughters shall prophesy, &c; and I will shew wonders, &c; and it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. * Now let us compare the promulgation or delivery of this prophecy with the completion of it at this period. Observe the words of the Apostle in

* Acts ii. 14.

the

the course of his harange. This Jefus, says he, (whom, with reference to his humanity, he had just before called a man approved by God,) bath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghoft, He hath shed forth this which ye now fee and hear. That the Father and the Son concurred in this wonderful dispensation of infinite wisdom and power on an equal foot, it will scarce be possible for us to doubt, when we recollect that the fecond Person in the blessed Trinity is often represented as the giver of Spiritual gifts, independently on any promije from, or affociation with the first. I will give you a mouth, says he to his Apostles, just before his paffion, and wisdom which all your adverfaries shall not be able to gainsay. I am with you always, says he after his refurrection, even unto the end of the world. * Without him, he tells them, they can do nothing. And, to produce only one passage more out of many that might be cited, which has a manifest allusion to the effusion of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost, St. Paul assures the Ephefians, that unto every one is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore, he adds, he faith, when he afcended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. It may be pertinent yet farther to remark, that sometimes neither the Father, nor the Son, appear to be concerned in this matter; the Spirit being said, of and by himself, to divide his gifts and graces to every man severally as he will.

But what shall we say to the invocation implied in the close of the prophecy we are confidering; whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be faved? Whom are we to understand by the Lord here? This, I should think, may be determined by the fignificance of the fame words in other places. They cannot be misunderstood in the original prophecy of Joel. And if we refer to the tenth Chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, where they occur again, they will amount

† Ephef. iv. 7. 1 Cor. vii 11.

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