In MATT. xxiii. 37, Christ assumes the language, and places himself in the position of the God of Israel: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as athen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" -How easy is it here to apply the principle by which the identity of Peter was ascertained, "Thy speech bewrayeth thee!" (MATT. xxvi. 73); for this is precisely an appropriation to himself, on the part of Christ, of the office of president and protector of the Jewish people which Jehovah sustained, as is manifest from comparing it with the similar descriptions of Jehovah in the Old Testament; as in DEUT. XXXii. 11. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings; so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him."-And in PSALM Xci. 4. "He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust."-And in JER. XXIX. 19. 66 Because they have not hearkened unto my words, saith the Lord, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early, and sending; but ye would not hear, saith the Lord." -And in PSALM lxxxi. 11—14. "But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust; and they walked in their own counsels. Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries."

V. I SHALL NOW ADVANCE PROOFS OF THAT PART OF MY SECOND PROPOSITION WHICH ASSERTS, THAT CHRIST POSSESSES, AS TO HIS DIVINE NATURE, THE SAME ETERNITY, KNOWLEDGE, POWER, AUTHORITY, PREROGATIVES, AND GODHEAD, WITH THE FATHER, AND IS ONE WITH HIM IN ALL ATTRIBUTES. And this I shall do by advancing passages in which divine attributes and prerogatives are referred in common to Christ and the Father. [I should, however, premise, that in some of the passages which I shall advance, it might be questioned whether it be the person of the Father who is exclusively referred to, and not the Divine Being in a general sense; but it is evident that, according to the principles of those who differ from us, I have a right to assume, though I would not admit, that wherever the word God occurs in Scripture, the person of the Father is meant.]

The Apostle Paul, at the commencement of most of his Epistles, associates the Lord Jesus Christ with the Father, as the person to whom he prays for a dispensation of the highest spiritual blessings: as, for instance, in Rom. i. 7, "Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ."-In other places he represents Christ, without mentioning the Father, as the dispenser of the same blessings: as in 1 COR. xvi. 23, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you;" and 2 TIM. i. 16, “The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus;" and ver. 18, "The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day."

In 1 THESS. iii. 11-13, he also associates Christ with the Father as the object of prayer, aud as having the same power with him to

control the affairs of providence: Now God himself and our Fa ther, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you;" and then he continues his petition to Christ, under the title Lord, for spiritual blessings: "And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you; to the end he may establish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints."-There is a similar prayer in 2 THESS. ii. 16, 17, in which Christ, in order of address, is placed before the Father: Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation, and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work."

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The Lord Jesus Christ and the Father are represented in Scripture as equally entitled to the worship of all created beings; as is proved by the fact, that doxologies, of precisely similar form, and containing the same ascriptions, are offered to both; as in 2 PET. iii. 18: Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ: to whom be glory both now and for ever. Amen."Compared with that in 1 PET. v. 11, offered up to the God of all grace, whom we assume to be the Father: "To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever."

In HEB. i. 1, God the Father is represented as the person who spake by the prophets: "God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son."-But in 1 PET. i. 10, 11, it is asserted that Christ, in his pre-existent Deity, was the author of the inspiration of the prophets: "Of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you; searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow;" and also in 1 PET. iii. 19, Christ is represented as having inspired Noah, the preacher of righteousness to the antedeluvian world: "For Christ also hath once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God; being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison," &c.

Christ, as Lord, is one with the Father, as proprietor of the temple at Jerusalem; for we read, in JOHN ii. 16, "Make not my Father's house an house of merchandise;" and in MAL. iii. 1, we read of Christ, "The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple."

Christ is associated with the Father, as the person to whom believers are solemnly dedicated at baptism, as in MATT. xxviii. 19, "Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.".

It is said, in 1 JOHN ii. 22-24, that it is of equal importance that the Christian should have faith, and continue in the faith of

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both the Son and the Father: "He is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. ** Ye also shall continue in the Son and in the Father." Also, in 1 JOHN i. 3, Christians are represented as having fellowship equally with both persons: "And truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ."

VI. I SHALL NOW ADVANCE PASSAGES IN WHICH CHRIST ASCRIBES TO HIMSELF DIVINE ATTRIBUTES AND PREROGATIVES IN

COMMON WITH THE FATHER (WHOSE DEITY I ASSUME), OR ELSEWHERE ASCRIBED TO THE FATHER.

In MATT. xi. 27, Christ says, "All things are delivered unto me of my Father;" and it is an obvious principle, that the receiver must have a capacity of receiving coextensive with the nature of the things received.

In the same verse he declares, that his nature is equally inscrutable and incomprehensible as the Father's: "And no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save Son; and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him."

In JOHN, chap. v. there are several declarations made by the Saviour, asserting his perfect oneness in attributes and prerogatives with the Father, interspersed, according to Scripture, with declarations which refer to his mediatorial office and subordination; as, for instance,

In verse 17, he says, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work;" which implies, as is evident from the context, "My Father has been engaged upon the Sabbath-day, and every day alike, up to the present moment, in sustaining the office of providence, and I have been doing the same;" or, "I work miracles upon the Sabbathday by the very same right by which my Father works upon the Sabbath-day."

In verse 18, we find the Jews understanding him as representing himself equal to the Father: "Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said that God was his Father, making himself equal to God;" or, rather, "said that God was in such a peculiar sense his Father, as to represent himself to be equal to God."—It is not, however, from the view in which the Jews understood him that I argue, but from Christ's proceeding in the sequel to sanction and confirm their view.

In verse 19: "Then answered Jesus, and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do;" that is, "The Son and the Father are so closely and intimately one in power and operation, that the Son can do nothing of himself (or distinct from the Father), but what he seeth the Father do;" as is evident from the most remarkable words which follow, as the reason of this declaration, and which would be blasphemy in the mouth of a created and finite being: "For what things soever he doeth, these (or rather "the same") also doeth the Son likewise" (or, "in the same manner").

In verse 21, "As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will."

In verse 22, "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son."-The receiving such a commission implies, necessarily, his antecedent possession of every divine quality to enable him to perform the work: and I would also remark, that as the Father judgeth no man, consequently, in arguing for the Deity of the Father and the Son, from the divine works performed by them, we have more evidence for the Deity of the Son than we have for the Deity of the Father; for though it is true that "whatsoever things the Father doeth, the same doeth the Son likewise," yet the proposition cannot be converted so as to say, "Whatsoever things the Son doeth, the same doeth the Father likewise."

Verse 23, "That all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father, which hath sent him."

In JOHN X. 27-38, he asserts the possession of the same power with the Father to protect his people against all their spiritual adversaries: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one."-By the latter declaration, in which he sums up into one comprehensive assertion the substance of the two preceding verses for the consolation and security of his people, he evidently must mean, one in power and superiority to all their enemies, and in affection towards his people. It was in this sense that the Jews understood him; for they immediately took up stones to stone him, as a blasphemer; upon which Christ proceeds with his discourse, from verse 32 to 38, which consists of two parts: 1st, a justification of his words, from the 32d to the 36th verses; and 2dly, an explanation of their meaning, in verses 37 and 38: "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not; but if do, though you believe not me, believe the works, that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in him." Now it is evident that this latter declaration is even stronger than the former ("I and my Father are one"); for it denotes not a mere simple unity of connexion, but a unity of reciprocity and of mutual indwelling; and it had the very same effect upon the Jews, of leading them to regard him as a blasphemer, upon which he took no further trouble to do away their impressions, but worked a miracle to release himself from their malignity: "Therefore, they sought again to take him; but he escaped out of their hands,"-evidently leaving them, as we must argue, upon every principle of duty and piety, in possession of the correct meaning of his two declarations in the 30th and 38th verses.

In JOHN X. 15, he asserts his possession of a knowledge of the Father, equal to the knowledge which the Father has of him: "As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father." Now, although

we may say that God knows every creature to perfection, yet we may truly address every created being in the universe in the lan guage of Zophar: "Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection?" Surely a created and finite intelligence, which knows his Creator even as the scrutinizing omniscience of his Creator knows him, is an anomaly which neither can nor does exist!

In JOHN xiv. 9, 10, he asserts his oneness with the Father to be so complete and perfect, that he who hath seen him hath seen the Father: "Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?" And then he proceeds still further to give evidence of the perfect oneness that subsists between them; a oneness so perfect and so close, as to admit of no distinctness or independence of power, authority, or operation whatsoever, on the part of the Son, in his divine nature, from the Father: "The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself (that is, as a separate being from the Father, as Philip supposed); but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."

On comparing JOHN xiv. 14 with xvi. 23, we find that Christ and the Father are equally employed in answering the prayers of the Church. The former passage is, "If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it;" and the latter, "Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you." And I would here remark, that the same Apostle-John-who has recorded these two declarations, enlarges upon the former, in his first Epistle, v. 14, 15, in a manner which shows that he recognised the correctness of directing our petitions to the Son of God, as well as to the Father: "And this is the confidence that we have in him (the Son of God), that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us; and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him."

In JOHN xiv. 23, Christ asserts his possession of the same faculty of being universally and permanently present with his people, as the Father possessed; and represents the promise of his presence as equally valuable to his people, as that of his Father: "If a man love me, he will keep my words; and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him."-We may also remark, upon this passage, that it connects the promise of God's presence with the love of Christ, and not of the Father; so that, if Christ is not one God with the Father, we have here an instance of God surrendering his glory and prerogatives to a creature!

In JOHN xvi. 15, we read this declaration of the Saviour: "All things that the Father hath, are mine;" and, in JOHN xvii. 10, a similar one: "And all mine are thine, and thine are mine."—Here are two explicit assertions of a common proprietorship with the Fa