thoughts, said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?' Instances of this are frequent in the gospel; and no wonder, since St. Paul says of him, Heb. iv. 12, 13, The Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow; and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.' The eleven apostles, in a body, and by a solemn act of worship, ascribe to him this peculiar act of infinite wisdom, as we see in their prayer at the election of a successor to Judas: Thou, Lord, who knowest the secrets of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen.'

We are not to be surprised at his searching the heart, since omniscience is directly ascribed to him, not only by affirmations limited to this particular species or instance of wisdom, but, by such as give him the attribute in its full extent. St. Peter, who first confessed the Christian faith, says to him, John xxi. 17, 'Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee.' His Master is so far from blaming him either for the antecedent, or the consequent which he draws from it, that he thereupon finally commits to him the care of his sheep. On Christ's telling his disciples, John xvi. 28, 'I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again, I leave the world, and go unto the Father;' they say, 'Lo, now speakest thou plainly,' ver. 29; (now are we sure that thou knowest all things:-by this we believe that thou camest forth from God;' ver. 30. Here again Christ is as far from correcting their confession of his omniscience, as of his mission. On the contrary, he answers, 'Do you now believe?' as if he meant to upbraid them for not having sooner believed, as they then did.

The immutability peculiar to God alone, is expressly given him, Heb. i. by a quotation from Psalm cii., 'Thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest: and they all shall wax old, as doth a garment; and, as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed; but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.' That this is spoken of God

only in the Psalm, and directly applied to Christ, by the express appellation of God, in the Epistle, any one may see, who will be at the pains to compare both. Hence it is that the apostle, in the same Epistle, chap. xiii. 8, says of him, 'Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.'

His immensity, or omnipresence, is clearly represented to us, Matt. xxviii. 20, 'Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world;' and, in John iii. 13, No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.' In the first of these passages he speaks, as none but Jehovah can properly speak, of himself, making all times and places present with him as one time and place. He says, you see, in the present tense, 'I am with you;' concerning the future, 'to the end of the world.' And how is he to be with them? Not only when gathered together in one place, as then, but when dispersed over the whole world. In the other passage he represents himself as present in heaven while he is speaking to them on earth; which could not be true, did not he fill heaven and earth.

His omnipotence is declared in the strongest terms. The Baptist, speaking of him, John iii. 31, says, 'He that cometh from above is above all.' St. Paul says, Phil. iii. 21, 'He is able even to subdue all things to himself;' and, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, chap. i. 3, 'He upholdeth all things by the word of his power.' But, in his Epistle to the Romans, chap. ix. 5, he ascribes omnipotence and divinity to him at once; speaking of the Jews, he saith, 'Of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever,' And, which may serve instead of a thousand authorities, Christ himself says, Rev. i. 8, 'I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.'

As all the works of God, wherewith we are any way concerned, are distinguished from one another, and made known to us, by their essential properties or qualities; so the infinite Being is distinguished from all his creatures, and revealed to our understandings, by his peculiar attributes, which are here, in their full extent, attributed to Christ. From hence we must either infer his divinity in a true, strict, and proper sense; or else we must confound the infinite na

ture with the finite; whereas there is not only no medium between them, but an infinite distance, nay, a sort of contrariety, as will appear, if we consider the sense of these terms, created and uncreated, finite and infinite. This argument, drawn from the scriptural application of the unimpartible attributes of God to Christ, will acquire a prodigious accession of strength, if we view him in the execution of those offices which necessarily require those attributes; such as his judging the world, John v. 22, 23, and several other places of Scripture. And,

In the fifth place, his creating all things; which gives the argument for his Divinity the force of all those reasonings for the being of a God, deducible from the works of creation. Now the creation of all things is, in Scripture, ascribed to him in terms so clear and express, as can leave no doubt in the mind of any reader, whether it was the intention of the Holy Ghost to represent him to us as the Creator of the world. Nay, the terms in which this great point is revealed, go yet farther; for they not only tell us he made the world, that is, all things both above and below, but that all things were made for him; so that he is set forth to us both as the Proprietor and Maker of the whole creation. Well, therefore, may a Christian call him, especially since the Scriptures so often do it, the Jehovah,' that is, the Being, or the Lord, the Lord of the whole earth, the Lord of lords, and the King of kings.' To illustrate this, I shall select a few passages out of many. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made;' John i. 3. If he made all things that were made, either he made himself, or he never was made. The world was made by him;' John i. 10. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God;' Heb. xi. 3. 'Thou, Lord,' saith David to Christ, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands;' Psal. cii. 25. Heb. i. 10. St. Paul, in the first chapter of his Epistle to the Colossians, is still more particular and express in speaking of Christ as the Creator: 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.' Was he not before all

things that were made, since they were all made for him? And, if he was before all things that were made, surely he himself could not have been made, for then he must have been before himself. What now can the Arians, or SemiArians, who say Christ is a creature of the angelic order, reply to this passage, wherein it is so positively affirmed, not only that Christ created all the orders of angels, not excepting the very highest, but that he created them for himself, so that all things which the Father hath are his,' John xvi. 15. his own property by right of creation? Exclusive of revelation and authority, we have no other way of proving the being of one infinite cause, but by observations made on the works of creation; and by deducing from those observations such reasonings as serve to convince us, that things so limited in their natures could not have given being to themselves. To raise a being out of nothing, and to bestow beauty, proportion, and excellence or happiness, on that being, is to create; and to create, exceeds infinitely the power of all limited natures. If the Scriptures, therefore, set forth what is true, when they ascribe to Christ the creation of all things visible and invisible, spirits as well as matter, Christ is certainly the one Infinite Being, or God. Our adversaries do but beat the air, when they tell us Christ did not of himself create the world; but that God created it by him as an instrumental, rather than an efficient cause. We acknowledge that Christ, both as our Creator and Redeemer, acted by the power and authority communicated eternally to him from the Father. But we insist, that this power and authority were ever naturally inherent in him as the only Son of God; and that he is, therefore, in respect to the creation, no instrument, but a true efficient. If it were not so, David, speaking by the Spirit, Psal. cii. and quoted by the same Spirit, Heb. i. 10, would never have said to Christ, Thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands.' He plainly distinguishes his own power of operation from that of the Father, as personally inherent in himself; John v. 17. My Father worketh hitherto, and I work ;' and in Isa. xliv. 24, he ascribes to himself alone, considered as the Lord, or God, the whole work of creation; for, that Christ is the speaker throughout this chapter, will presently

appear by his calling himself the First, and the Last, in the Revelation, as well as here: Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb; I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself.' What sign or shadow of instrumentality is to be picked out of these words? Is it not a kind of blasphemy against God, common sense, and Scripture, to ascribe the creation to a creature, or any but God himself? Yet here it is ascribed to Christ, by him who could not lie: Christ, therefore, is no creature, but God.

Accordingly, I shall now shew, in the sixth place, that the Scriptures call him, and, if we believe them, that he called himself, God. All agree, that what is said, Isa. ix. 6, is said directly and expressly of Christ: Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God,' &c. These words, with the context, evidently explain themselves of Christ or the Messiah, and are applied to him, Luke ii. 11. and John iii. 6. Now here he is called 'El Gibbor,' that is, the most mighty God. El, we know, is that name of God which expresses his power, and, with the addition of Gibbor, God, or the powerful one, who is mighty. Both the name and the epithet intimate power; and, therefore, together, are best translated by the most mighty God.' St. John opens his Gospel with asserting the divinity of Christ: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;' John i. 1. St. Thomas, after being convinced of his resurrection, cries out to him, My Lord, and my God.' His beloved apostle calls him the true God;' 1 John v. 20. St. Paul calls him 'the great God;' Tit. ii. 13. and, in his First Epistle to Timothy, ch. iii. 16, he establishes the doctrine both of his divinity and incarnation, in the most plain and express terms: 'Great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.' The same doctrines he as positively and expressly establishes, Col. ii. 9, where, speaking of Christ, he says, 'In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.' Observe what Hosea, distinguishing him from his Father, chap.