in man." And Christ himself confirms the testimony of his three apostles, when he speaks from heaven, and says, "all the churches shall know that I AM HE THAT SEARCHETH THE REINS AND THE HEART." To this may be added the testimony of St. Paul above quoted, which assures us that, "In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."

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Omnipresence is another peculiar attribute of the Deity. I a God at hand," says he,* "and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord ?" And yet this divine perfection is claimed by Christ, when he says, "where two or three are met together in my name, I am there in the midst of them ;" and, "lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." Or, when he declares, "behold, I stand at the door and knock :" and promises, "If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.' ."§ Now, if Jesus be able to fulfil, and if he really do fulfil such promises as these, must he not be omnipresent? For who but an Omnipresent, and, may I not say, an infinite Being, can be present in thousands, yea, hundreds of thousands of congregations, assembled in different parts of the earth, at one and the same time? and present at the door of, and even in the heart of every true believer in all those congregations? Does not this show that his presence is as universal through our world, as the presence of the light or air? But we find it is not confined to this globe of ours, but is extended through universal nature, for, says the apostle,|| "By (or rather Ev av7w, in) him all things consist," uvesxs, all upheld or supported, viz. by his universally diffused and all-pervading presence. For, he upholdeth all things by the word of his power," and "filleth all things,"** especially his church, to which, and to every member of which, he is a head of vital influence, and which he so enriches with gifts and graces, that it is termed by St. Paul, "the fulness of Him that FILLETH ALL IN ALL.”

Almighty power is another property of the godhead, and when the apostle says that, "He is able to subdue all things to himself,"tt he evidently ascribes this perfection to Christ. Indeed, when Jesus himself speaks such language as the following, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. What things soever the Father doth, these doth the Son likewise. As the Father raiseth up the

* Jer. xxiii. 23, 24. || Col. i. 17.

+ Matt. xviii. 20. Matt. xxviii. 20. § Rev. iii. 20. Heb. i. 3. ** Eph. iv. 10. tt Phil. iii. 21.

dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son also quickeneth whom he will," he evidently lays claim to this property. Hence, the godlike works which he performed, prove the same; works that he continually appealed to in proof of his mission and deity, saying, "If I do not the works of my Father, (such works as only the Supreme God can do,) believe me not: But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works, that ye may know that the Father is in ine, and I in him."*

I mentioned also eternity, as an attribute belonging to the Son of God. Does Moses describe the eternity of Jehovah, when he says,† "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth or the world, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God!" St. John testifies of the Word, that he was in the beginning with God; Jesus says of himself, that he had glory with the Father before the world was, and that the Father toved him before the foundation of the world, and that he is "Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, and the prophet Micah affirms, that "his goings forth have been of old, from everlasting;" hyp from of old, from the days of eternity; for the Hebrew word is the same with that whereby Moses expresses the eternity of the Father in the verse just quoted. Hence the apostle, speaking of his type Melchisedec, king of righteousness, and king of peace, describes him as without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God,§ or a proper type of him who is eternal.

I shall only name one more attribute of the godhead, as ascribed to Christ in the sacred Scriptures, and that is immutability. If the immutability of the Father is described by himself, when he says, "I change not," and by St. James when he affirms, that with him is no variableness nor shadow of turning;" the same divine perfection is ascribed by the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, to the Son of God, when it is affirmed, that " HE IS THE SAME YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOR EVER," and when the words of David concerning Jehovah, quoted above, are ascribed to him, "They (the heavens and the earth) shall perish: But thou remainest: And they all shall wax old as a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: BUT THOU ART THE SAME, AND THY YEARS FAIL NOT;" than which, I ap

* John x. 37. + Psa. xc. 2.

Micah v. 2. || Mal. iii. 6.

§ Heb. vii. 3.

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prehend, no words can possibly more strongly express immutability. But it is not necessary to dwell so long upon particulars: He himself declares,* * "All things that the Father hath are mine." All the names, titles, and attributes of the Father are his. Indeed, the Father himself is his, and dwells in him in all his fulness; so that the Son is never without the Father, any more than the Father is without the Son.

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4. Another argument in proof of the proper deity of Christ, is taken from the divine works, which are all repeatedly ascribed to him in the holy Scriptures, and especially those of creation and preservation, to which I shall now confine myself. By that Word which was in the beginning with God, according to St. John, "all things were made, and without him was not any thing made that was made." "He was in the world," says he again, "and the world was made by him." "By him," testifies St. Paul, 66 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." "Thou, Lord, in the beginning," says the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, addressing Christ, as we have seen, in the language of David, "hast laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thine hands."t

* John xvi. 15.

+ It is not denied, observe, that the Father, who is the fountain of Deity and of divine power, is also the primary cause of all the divine works. Certainly, he is continually represented in Scripture in this light. But the passages which have been quoted, with others, that, if need were, might be adduced, make it evident, that the apostles considered "the Word that was in the beginning with God," as the immediate, and if I may so express myself, as the operative Creator of them. St. Paul seems to make the proper distinction between the office of the Father, in the creation and preservation of all things, and that of the Son, when he says, "God, viz. the Father, created all things by Jesus Christ," and characterizes the Father as the Being of whom are all things, and the Lord Jesus as the person, BY whom are all things.* In short, they consider the Son of God as the Creating Wisdom, and Word, and Power of the Father, who both devised the plan of the universe, and executed what he had designed. In this light, it is evident, those ancient Fathers of the Christian church, who lived nearest to the apostolic age, considered the doctrine of the apostles on this subject. Bishop Bull, in his "Defence of the Nicene Faith," quotes the following passage from Justin's epistle to Diognetus. "He, the Almighty, the Creator of all things, the invisible God, hath implanted among men, the heavenly Truth. the Word, holy and incomprehensible; not sending a servant, an angel ;→→

* 1 Cor. viii. 6.

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It seems hardly necessary that I should add, that the divine oracles ascribe the preservation and government of all things to Christ, in the same sense in which they attribute to him their creation, in the verse above quoted. When, therefore, we read that all animate creatures live, and move, and have their being in the Father, and that he is above all, and through all, and in all, it is to be understood, that this is in and through his Son and Spirit, who are in and with him, and never separated from him. Add to this, that all things are expressly said to have been created FOR, as well as BY the Son of God, and HE, as the only-begotten of the Father, is represented as HEIR and LORD of all.

5. One, and only one more argument shall I now produce, to prove, that "the Child born," and "the Son given," who has "the government upon his shoulder," and whose "name is Wonderful," is the Mighty God, possessed of true and proper deity: And that is, that true and proper divine worship is due to him, and has been, is, and must be paid to him. And here I shall not refer to the various instances recorded in the gospel, of persons worshipping him, because there may be some reasons to doubt whether such persons did really mean to pay him proper religious and divine worship, as a person whom they believed to be truly God, or only

but the Artificer and Maker of all things, by whom he formed the heavens, and shut in the sea in its proper bounds: Whose mysteries all the elements faithfully observe," &c. He quotes Athenagoras to the same purpose. "The Son of God is the Word of the Father in Idea and Energy. All things were made by him and for him. The Son of God, is the Mind and Word of the Father." From Irenæus he produces some passages equally explicit. "Nor shall any thing made and in subjection, be compared with the Word of God, by whom all things were made, who is our Lord Jesus Christ." Again, “The Son, who is the Word of God, laid out these things from the beginning, the Father not standing in need of angels for the creation of the world, and the making of man, for whom the world was created, nor wanting a ministerial power for making these things that are made. For his own Offspring and Impress ministers to him in all things,-to whom angels are subject and minister." And yet again, "All things were made by him, and without him was nothing made. Here is no exception: But the Father made all things by him, whether visible or invisible; sensible or intellectual; temporal, for a certain purpose, or eternal. or powers, different from his own mind. nothing but by his Word and Spirit, things." To these testimonies of Justin, only add the following passage of Origen. the immediate, and, as it were, the very framer of the world: The Father of the Word, in that he ordered the Word his Son, to make the world, is primary Creator."

He made all things, not by angels For the God of all things wants makes, disposes, and governs all Athenagoras, and Irenæus, I shall "The Word, the Son of God, is

some civil, although extraordinary honour and respect. It appears to me, however, that had not our Lord been God, and had not proper religious and divine worship been his due, he would not have permitted those persons to have prostrated themselves before him in the manner they did. For we find, that neither the angel that communicated to St. John the mysteries contained in the Apocalypse, nor the apostles, would permit such respect to be paid them." "I fell down at his feet to worship him," says St. John," and he said to me, See thou do it not, I am thy fellowservant." And again, "I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel, and he said, See thou do it not, for I am thy fellow-servant, worship God." As Peter was entering Cornelius's house, "Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him: But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up: I myself also am a man." Now, is it not very remarkable, that Jesus Christ, who certainly had not less, but unspeakably more concern for the glory of the only living and true God, than either this angel or St. Peter, should never forbid such respect to be paid to himself, nor check those who actually paid it? Does not this show to a demonstration, that he knew himself to have that right to the worship of mankind, which the angels and apostles, who were but his creatures, had not?

And, indeed, well might he know this. For the Father, when he brought his First-begotten into the world, had said, “Let · all the angels of God worship him.” An injunction confirmed by Christ himself, who assures us, that "the Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men might honour the Son, even as they honour the Father," and that " he that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father." Accordingly we find both prayer and praise frequently addressed to Christ, by those who, of all others, were most likely to know the mind and will of God in this matter; I mean the apostles, whom the Spirit of truth had guided into all needful truth. In the days of his flesh they prayed to him to increase their faith. After his ascension, Stephen, when dying, in the most solemn and earnest manner, invoked him and said, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." St. Paul besought him thrice, that the thorn in his flesh, the messenger of Satan, that buffeted him, might depart from him," and received for answer, "My grace is sufficient for thee: My strength, (duvaus, my power, is made perfect in weakness ;") which answer to his request induced the apostle to exclaim, " Most gladly will I glory in my infirmities, that the power, (the same word in the original,) of Christ may

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