Ye

ing,' i. e. by appointment. John xiii.13,14, call me teacher and master, and ye say well. Acts ii. 36, Him whom ye have crucified, hath God, (ver. 33, made Lord and Christ. iii. 22, vii. 37, iv. 26, Rom. v. 1, 11, xv. 6. Note, Especially that famous text or passage, 1 Tim. vi. 14, 15, 16, ، Which appearance of our master Jesus Christ, at his own time he (God) will shew, who is the blessed and the only potentate, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords. Rev. i. 8, The Lord who is and was, and is to come, the Almighty.' Note, These are the appropriate characters of the God of our Lord Christ.' See Rev. iv. 8, 9, Holy, &c. Lord God Almighty,' &c. chap. vi. ver. 15, 16, 17, xv. 3, xvi. 5, 7, xix. 6, xxi.

Compare Acts ii. 34, 35, with Psa. cx. 1, Mat. xxii. 44, Mark xii. 36, Luke xx. 42, where, it is evident, The Lord (Jehovah) who said unto my Lord, (Adonai,) sit thou on my right hand,' &c. are two distinct Lords. So St. Peter declared, Acts ii. 34, 35, 36, and expressly tells his audience, that God, who must mean the first-mentioned Lord made the second-mentioned Lord, both Lord and Christ.'

Mat. xi. 25, Jesus made his devout acknowledgments, and said, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth,' Luke x. 21, a title never given to the Son, or Holy Ghost.

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Mat. xxii. 37, The Lord thy God,' a title given by Christ to God; but never given to Christ himself. Luke i. 30-32, the angel said of Christ, that the 'Lord God should give him the throne of David his ancestor.'

Luke ii. 26, The Lord's Christ;' i. e. the person whom the Lord God had especially named and appointed, the messenger of his will.

Luke iv. 18, Christ said of himself, as Isaiah said before him, The spirit of the Lord is upon me :' meaning by the spirit of the Lord' the influence and inspiration of his God and Father.

Ephes. i. 17, ، The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father! give you,' &c.

1 Tim. vi. 14, Until the appearance of our Lord (or master) Jesus Christ; which in due time he (God): shall shew, who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords.'

Rev. iv. 8, 11, xi. 15, xv. 3, xvi. 7, xix. 6, xxi. 22, are texts that fully distinguish the Lord God Almighty, from our Lord (or master) Jesus Christ.

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For-iv. 8-11, The four living creatures' expressly own and worship him who sat upon the throne' in the character of Lord God Almighty: which title is never given to Jesus Christ, xi. 15, Our Lord and his Christ. And the words at ver. 16, 17, are very remarkable: The twenty four elders, sitting before the throne of God, fall upon their faces, and worship God saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord [Jehovah] God Almighty.' Again, xv. 3, They who had gotten the victory over the beast, &c. sang and said these words, Great and wonderful are thy works, O Lord [Jehovah] God Almighty,' &c. And this is there styled the song of Moses, and the song of the Lamb; because it was both taught and used by Moses and the Lamb, xix. 6, xxi. 22, xxii. 5. Now what they taught and practised ought to be our rule and our practice.

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1. If it be said, that Christ is styled Lord of lords,' Rev. xvii. 14, and xix. 16, it must, and ought always to be remembered, that the characters in both the contexts of these places plainly confine that style to the man Christ Jesus, who is there styled the 'Lamb fighting against the beast', and as one riding on a white horse,' and called 'the faithful,' and the 'true one,' and the word of God,' &c. and overcoming the followers of the beast, &c. Now it is certain, these are not, and cannot be the characters of the supreme God.

2. And it must be remembered always, what St. Peter saith, Acts ii. 32-36, that God, who raised Christ from the dead, and gave him the promise of the Holy Ghost:' I say, 'God made him both Lord and Christ.' To what end? Why, Phil. ii. 11, that all should own him such to the glory of God.

3. It must be remembered, that whatever degree of

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honour is to be understood by the word Kúpios, Lord of lords,' St. Paul assures us expressly, Ephes. i. 20-22, it is the gift of the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,' ver. 17, compared, For God by his mighty power raised him from the dead; set him at his righthand; put all things in subjection to him; and gave him to be head over all things, to the church.'

See the Epistle of the churches of Lions and ViEusebius's Eccl. hist. lib. v. cap. 1, Origen

enne.

and Novatian.

See Dr. Clarke's Scripture-doctrine, page 40, 41, 68. Dr. Tillotson in the second Sermon of the Divinity of Christ. Bishop Fowler of the Descent, page 50. Dr. Whitby in loc. The very learned Schmidius. Dr. Bennet in loc.

CHAP. L.

The account given by the evangelists, and the other holy writers of the New Testameut, concerning Jesus Christ, as a prophet.

JESUS Christ being in his native country, and teaching his countrymen in the synagogue, in a very unusual, but affecting strain; some admired, but reflected upon his mean descent and relations. To whom he offers this to be considered: That a prophet is not without honour, but in his own country and in his own family. Mat. xiii. 57, Mark vi. 4, Luke iv. 24, John iv. 44.

Note, Here Christ speaking to his countrymen, who slighted him, does not take upon him, or assume any other high character than that of a prophet; and if they had received him as such, they had not been taxed with neglecting him, and other persons of that character.

Mat. xvi. 1320, Christ asked his disciples, Whom do the multitude say that I am?' The disciples answered, John the Baptist, others Elias, or one

of the prophets.' Christ then asked his disciples, 'Whom do ye say that I am? Peter answers, Mat. xvi. 16, The Christ, the Son of the living God.' In Mark viii. 29, Peter's answer is, Thou art the Christ. In Luke ix. 20, Peter's words are, Christ of God.'

• The

In the texts here referred to, it is plain the people thought Christ to be a prophet; and his disciples acknowledged him to be no more or other than that prophet of God expected under the character of Christ, or the Messias.

N. B. Here was a most proper occasion given, and started by Christ, to declare and make known his divine nature, if he truly and really had such: but St. Peter, and no doubt the rest of the disciples then present, knew nothing of it. He plainly declares his own opinion and notion, and tells Christ, he was the Christ, or the Christ of God, which, all know, signifies a person specially appointed by God for some particular service.

N. B. Here was a fair opportunity for Peter and the disciples to have set forth fully and clearly the whole nature and doctrine of Christ's person; and thereby prevented the infinite disputes of after-ages. And, had it been necessary, Christ himself would have told his disciples, "You are not fully acquainted with me, nor truly sensible who I am. Your notions of me are vastly below the dignity of my nature; I am a divine person, equal with God, co-essential, and con-substantial, &c. Be sure you, above all things, mind and hold this truth as a fundamental, without which you cannot be saved. And I, foreseeing this will be questioned in after-ages, give you fair warning.'

But Peter and the disciples knew better the person and character of their master; nay, his person and character were best known, undoubtedly, to them; and it is plain, that Christ approved of St. Peter's answer, Christ was fully satisfied with St. Peter's answer, and and notion of him. But St. Peter's notion will not satisfy his pretended succèssors, nor the after-ages,

which have framed new fundamentals, and by councils and their decrees have formed a new Christ, and established a new Christianity.

The sense of the people or multitude was, that 'Christ was a prophet.'

Mat. xxi. 11, and 46, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth.'

The multitude here again took Christ for a prophet: and, notwithstanding they had seen his miracles, did. never infer his divine nature or godhead from the miracles, as the moderns; but pronounced or pro-claimed him blessed who came in the name of the Lord,' wishing him success by their hosannahs.

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Luke vii. 11, and 16, The multitude, with Christ's own disciples, who saw the young man raised from the dead, glorified God,' and said, a great prophet was raised up among them.' And, Mat. ix. 8, the multitude, who had seen Christ healing the paralytic, glorified God, who had given such power to men, &c.' Also Mark ii. 12, Luke v. 25, 26.

John vi. 14, The five thousand who were miraculously fed, &c. did not rashly conclude Christ was God; but they inferred very justly, This person is truly the prophet that was to come,' &c. Again, John vii. 40, The people who had seen his works concluded, 'This is truly the prophet.' This was the sense of the blind man,' John ix. 17, though the blind of the present age see it not.

iv. 44, Jesus owns himself to be a prophet. Luke xxiv. 13-19, The two disciples going to Emmaus, after Christ's resurrection, met with him, as they were discoursing about him, &c. aud told him expressly (not then perceiving him to be Christ himself) that Jesus of Nazareth was a man and a prophet, mighty in word and deed, &c. It is here very remarkable, that our English translators leave out the word [man] which in the original seems emphatical,* And

See Judg. vi. 8, margin. The Rhemish Testament, which is a Popish translation, has in this text rightly inserted the word [man], but our version omits it.