of the fear of, or reverence due to God.

Lev. xxv. 17, Thou shalt fear thy God; for I am Jehovah your God.'

Eccles. xii. 13, Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.' 1 Pet. ii. 17.

Rev. xiv. 7. An angel, having the everlasting gospel to preach, is represented as saying, 'Fear God, and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is

come.

Of the worship of God.

According to inspired religion, God in many passages required worship, in the highest degree, to be offered to himself alone.

By worship I understand, in general, the acknowledgment of worth, or excellence, or perfection, in any being. And when this worship is applied to God, a Being of infinite worth and perfection, that is properly divine worship. The acknowledging or owning the real worth or perfection in any inferior created being, only according to that real worth or perfection, and no farther, is not idolatry, but what is really their due.

We are to give to every man his due: Unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's; unto God the things that are God's.' But we should ever be very careful to observe this as a governing principle, never to ascribe or give any divine honour or worship, properly so called, to any being with, or besides God. To observe this, we are obliged by reason itself; for giving or ascribing divine honours to any other being, would be owning that being to be God also. And we are taught by our holy religion to honour or worship God, the Supreme Being alone.

Exod. xxxiv. 14, For thou shalt worship no other God; for Jehovah, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.'

2 Kings xvii. 36, But Jehovah, who brought you out of the land of Egypt---him shall ye worship.'

Isa. lxvi. 23, All flesh shall come to worship before me, saith Jehovah.'

Jer. xxv. 6. 'Go not after other gods---to worship

them.'

Matt. iv. 10, Christ himself commands us in these words: Thou shalt worship the Lord (Jehovah) thy. God, and him only shalt thou serve.'

John iv. 23,The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him.'

This great duty of worshipping Jehovah, or the only true God, was practised strictly and most devoutly by Jesus Christ himself, and by his holy apostles, by the most primitive church at Jerusalem, by the angels, and by all the heavenly host; as may be seen at large in the chapter of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.

Of the obedience due to God.

That perfect and absolute obedience is due to Almighty God, as our lawgiver and judge, is a notion never yet contested by any sect of Christians : though the obligation has been very much weakened by some modern notions, which, it is hoped, as they have but lately appeared, will soon vanish and disappear out of Christendom. Here I shall have occasion to mention but a few of the principal texts concerning obedience.

Deut, xiii. 4, Ye shall walk after Jehovah your God---and keep his commandments, and obey his voice.'

Jer. vii. 23, But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God,' &c. and walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.'

From the four evangelists we are fully informed of the conduct of Jesus Christ, that he was obedient to God the Father, in his mission, and whole ministry, every where preaching his will, requiring all others to obey the same; and was obedient unto death,

even the death of the cross.' And the great apostle Paul makes Christ a complete instructor to all his followers, in these words: By the obedience of one (Christ) shall many be made righteous.'

6

Mat. vii. 21, Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father, who is in heaven.'

Jam. i. 22, 25, But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.---He being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word, this man shall be blessed in his deed.' See Rom, ii. 13.

This general term (obedience) respects all the laws of God, both natural and revealed, and comprehends all the branches of duty, both to God and man.

Whenever we neglect, or contradict, any divine or social duty, we are guilty of disobedience to the laws of God: for by these laws every divine and social duty is required. And whenever we indulge ourselves in any gratifications which are prejudicial to our understandings, which obscure our reason, which vitiate our faculties, which tend to give a wrong bias to our affections and desires, or which are in any degree dishonourable to the intelligent character, or to the Christian profession, we also are guilty of disobedience to the laws of God, which require of us, that we should deny all ungodliness, with every worldly lust:' that we should lay aside hatred, envy, malice,' &c. that we should purify ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit.'---And, on the other hand, that we should live soberly, righteously, and godlily, in this present evil world; perfecting holiness in the fear of God.'

THE

DOCTRINE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

CONCERNING

JESUS CHRIST.

HAVING Considered the language of the sacred writers of the New Testament, concerning Almighty God; I come now to consider the language of the same sacred writers concerning Jesus Christ, the first and great teacher of the Christian religion.

Two of the holy, evangelists, St. Matthew, and St. Luke in our present copies, give a short account of the birth of Jesus Christ. St. Mark, and St. John, the two other evangelists, have not given any account of Jesus Christ, before his entry upon his public ministry, afrer they had just mentioned a short account of St. John the Baptist.

Designing to represent, from the concurrent language of all the sacred writers, the characters they have given of Jesus Christ, as a person sent from God to publish the gospel first to the Jews, and afterwards, by his apostles, to mankind in general; I begin with the terms they use concerning his

person.

CHAP. XXXII.

The use of the word, ANHP, (man,) in the sacred wri tings, as applied to Jesus Christ.

JESUS CHRIST is expressly styled by two of his disciples going to Emmaus, a man prophet: Luke

6

xxiv. 19, and they must certainly know who and what he was, and could be no strangers to his person and character, after a long and intimate acquaintance with him.

N. B. The word* (man) here is shamefully omitted in our translation, and in Beza's too, whom our translators followed too servilely. But it is inserted in the Vulgate, by Arius Montanus, and in the French and Rhemish versions, and by the Dutch in the margin of their bibles. When all the Greek MSS. now extant agree to preserve, and not one, perhaps, omits this word (man) it tempts one to suspect, either great negligence, or something worse, in our translators.

John i. 30, John the Baptist saith of Jesus Christ, There cometh a man after me.'

Acts ii. 22, St. Peter in his first sermon, with the eleven other apostles, preaching to a numerous con、 gregation attending him, tells them expressly his notions of Jesus Christ, in these words: Ye men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved (or made manifest) by God, by miracles, wonders and signs, which God wrought by him, amongst you, as ye yourselves know;' i. e. I appeal to you Israelites, who knew Jesus of Nazareth to be man and a prophet, that God by him, in appearance, wrought miracles in his favour and justification; and all this was not done in private, but in the midst of you.

a

Acts xvii. 31, St. Paul is as express as St. Peter, and the others before-mentioned, saying that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world -by that man whom he hath ordained-and whom he hath raised from the dead.'

* The word man is not omitted in the margin by our translators but very properly left out of the text, as it is not emphatical, but a mere idiom of speech, which would not sound well in English., The writers of the New Testament were not solicitous to style Christ, a man, a human creature, because they never doubted themselves, nor ever thought that it was possible for any others to entertain a doubt of his being one of the human race like themselves, EDITOR of the Second Edition,