of the evening expressed his hope of a better world, by saying "Who can tell but that, in a little time, I shall see Abraham, Isaac, and David, Matthew and Mark, with all the Apostles, and the Martyrs, who sealed the truth with their blood? There would I wish for some humble place, to sit down behind them, and celebrate the Redeemer's name for ever and ever." Yet this servant of Jesus was not removed to a state of immortality in so easy a manner as, with submission to the will of God, was desirable. He continued about three weeks; during which he frequently experienced the most excruciating pain. In this condition he would cry out "Patience and resignation, dear Lord! Thou never didst afflict any of thy people beyond what they were able to bear. Lord, I never was a hypocrite; I never preached for worldly gain even in that I had my infirmities; but I take these things, with every other work of my own, and cast them all away. I will come and build on the same foundation with Manasseh, — with Magdalen, and the Thief on the cross. On recovering from a slight degree of delirium, in which his words had been rather incoherent, he instantly perceived it, and requested that the exercise of his reason might be continued. Some time after this he was seized with distressing convulsions. These continued so long as to exhaust all the powers of nature; and left him, the day after they subsided, entirely speechless. On the last Lord's Day he spent on earth, he appears to have been pretty free from pain; and when Mrs. D. observed how good the Lord had been in giving him so much relief, he shook his head, and seemed overcome at the thought. His mind was fixed on the heavenly state; and, amid such contempla tions, began to repeat the follow ing lines: He In this happy frame he continued all the afternoon, conversed a little with those that were about him, enjoyed some intervals of sleep, and took a little refreshment in the course of the night. In the morning he found himself in a comfortable state; but about ten o'clock his countenance changed, the fever returned, his pulse beat very quick, and his breath was short. seemed to possess his reason entire, and to notice every thing that passed, but was unable to speak. His eyes were presently fixed; and after two or three gentle groans he entered into his rest. This happened October 25th, 1814, in the 42d year of his age. His funeral was numerously attended; and every proper respect paid to his memory. A sermon was delivered on the occasion, from Job xxx. 23, by the Rev. J. Meyler, of Rhosycaeran; after which his remains were deposited in the parish church-yard, near to the meeting in which he had often instructed many who then stood around his grave. Mr. Davies was possessed of good natural abilities, which were considerably improved by application. He was fond of reading; and possessed no small share of general information; and having a communicative disposition, as well as an excellent memory, was a very instructive and entertaining companion. On looking into his private memorandums, they are found to exhibit his pious care for the spiritual interests of his own family. Among other interesting passages, are the following: "My highest ambition is, that I may be enabled to instruct and set a good example before my children. I trust the Lord will keep me from being too fond of them; never suffer me to be blind to their faults; or to withhold correction when they need it, lest my fondness for their bodies should cause me to injure their souls! O my God, do thou bless them indeed! had I not withdrawn my eyes from the delightful scene. This was indeed partly the case when I endeavoured to address my hearers from Heb. iv. 9, 'There remaineth a rest for the people of God.' The impression the glories of Heaven made upon my mind was beyond conception. While endeavouring to describe them, my soul and body so panted after those enjoyments, that language failed, and I was obliged to change the subject. Thus to-day, after much darkness for weeks past, I can truly say, that Į am overwhelmed with divine mani festations. Next to his care for his relatives, was his concern for the prosperity of the church. Thus he writes with respect to his own people: "Stand by thy ministering servants who may labour among them during my absence. Let the cause of Christ flourish. Let brotherly love increase; and let the hand of the Lord be revealed among careless sinners. O my God, let the Thus he largely participated the tender youths who appeared hope- communications of divine enjoyful when I left the country, be ment, though his cup was mingled found growing in grace. Engage with many sorrows; while in death their hearts to love thy name. Let he bore a testimony to the truth neither Satan, nor sin, nor sinners, be permitted to throw hindrances in their way, or cause them to stumble." and excellence of religion, which infidelity cannot shake; and by which many will be encouraged to follow those who are gone before them to inherit the promises. Haverfordwest. J. B, Another thing worthy of remark was his humble dependence on the supporting and sanctifying influences of divine grace. To evince this state of his mind, the follow- ON THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. ing passages are sufficient: "I feel a necessity for the continued operations of God's grace on my negligent, sinful, unbelieving soul. If I have a comfortable season at any time, I am too apt to trust in present enjoyments, and not seek the renewed influence of divine grace continually. It is not pleasant to nature to have nothing in store, but to come daily as a beggar to the throne of grace; but as this is most for the glory of God, so it is most for my comfort." And to add no more, the advan tages of living so near to God, appear from his enjoyment of that pleasure in religion he had often exhorted others to seek. On Sunday, March 17, 1811, he writes, "This day, when I awoke, I had such a view of the promised land as would soon have made me unfit to converse with my fellow-men, IT is not less wonderful than true, that the holy Scriptures are appealed to by persons of almost every denomination, as furnishing incontestible proofs of the accuracy of their creed; so general and so firm is the conviction that religious truth is to be found in the Bible, and no where else. Yet this conviction has not produced that uniformity of sentiment which might have been reasonably expected. Jarring systems and irreconcileable doctrines are supposed to be countenanced by the same texts, variously marshalled and explained, and seen through different mediums. The Scriptures are plain and luminous, equally adapted to the capacities of literary and uneducated men; but they are frequently obscured and perverted by the mis applied ingenuity of those whose office it is to expound them. The frequency with which truths are repeated, the variety of ways by which they are illustrated, and the earnestness with which they are enforced, correspond with their sanctifying tendency and practical importance. Those of first-rate consequence are written as with a sunbeam on almost every page; those of inferior moment are thrown into the shade, and a veil of impenetrable darkness covers all that might gratify curiosity, but would not purify the heart. The Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ is a truth of the highest order. A crowd of witnesses from the Old and New Testaments come forward to declare it. It is established by a redundancy of proof, which, in my opinion, cannot be resisted, unless by a mind which has previously received an unhappy bias. Texts which assert the Unity of God, do not disprove the Divinity of Christ. They were written to condemn the Polytheism of the Heathen, and to caution the Jews against idolatry, to which they were violently addicted. Texts which declare the humanity of Christ, and represent him as inferior to the Father, and the Servant of the Father, do not disprove his Divinity; for he is as truly Man as he is truly God. As Man, he is the Servant and the Messenger of God, to whose authority he is subject, from whom he received all that he had, has, or shall have, and to whom he addressed his praises and his prayers. Moses did not speak of the Lord Jesus by name, yet it is evident that he believed his Existence and Divinity. He ascribes the creation of the heavens and the earth to Aleim, in the plural number; yet the verbs which Aleim govern's, and the pronouns which relate to it, are for the most part of the singular num ber; acknowledging the Divinity of Christ, and the Unity of the Godhead. Moses denominates Christ the "Voice of the Lord God:" a title which bears a striking analogy to " Word," and "Word of God:"appellations which St. John repeatedly gives to Christ. This Voice of the Lord God was a Person; for our first parents heard it walking in the Garden of Eden; and it is afterwards called expressly "The Lord God." Solomon enjoins us to remember our Creators (plural) in the days of our youth. St. Paul informs us that God made the worlds by his Son Jesus Christ; and St. John, that the Word was God; that all things were made by Him; and adds emphatically, "Without Him was not any thing made that was made." Christ asserted his Divinity in the most unequivocal manner. He declares that he and his Father are one; and that it is the will of God that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. Equality of honour is inconsistent with disparity of nature. To Philip's request, "Lord, shew us the Father," Jesus answered, Have I been so long a time with you, and yet thou hast not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.' The Father twice declared that Jesus was his beloved Son; and Jesus called himself the Son of God, to the Jews occasionally, to the Sanhedrim openly, when he was solemnly adjured by the High Priest. For this he was condemned and crucified. This was the great truth, to confirm which he laid down his life. I will now enquire into the import of the term Son of God. The Jews were in the habit of calling pious men and holy angels Sons of God. The title, Son of God, does not therefore necessarily prove Divinity; yet Christ, by this expression, proclaimed, and in- humbly, yet fervently, interceded tended to proclaim, his Godhead. for the guilty cities. When he called God his Father, The two men who went to Soand declared that He and his Fa- dom are called Angels; and whatther were one, the Jews prepared ever they did is ascribed to them to stone him; but he saved his life both. When Lot had quitted Soby a prudent retreat. They were dom, Abraham's third visitant apgoing to stone him, because they pears to have joined the party; for thought him guilty of blasphemy; the plural style is dropped, and the saying, "Thou, being a man, singular substituted; the newly armakest thyself God." It appears, rived personage alone is noticed, therefore, that the Jews were firmly and he claims and exercises the persuaded there was a Being who power of pardoning Zoar. was, in a pre-eminent manner, the Son of God; and was himself God over all, blessed for ever. Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up Mount Sinai, and saw the God of Israel; and it is emphatically repeated, "They saw God." The opinions of the Jews, indeed, are entitled to little credit; but the Redeemer, on a very solemn occasion, confirmed this article of their St. John assures us that "no creed. man hath seen God at any time; The Sanhedrim condemned him therefore, the Jehovah who appearfor blasphemy, because he de- ed to Abraham, and the God of clared himself to be the Son of Israel, who was seen by seventyGod, which the Jews understood four persons, was not the Father to be an assertion of his Divinity. but Christ; consequently Christ is If he had denied their inference, God. and renounced every claim to Di- Isaiah saw in a vision the Lord vinity, they could not have con- sitting upon a throne, high and demned him. By not doing so, lifted up, and his train filled the he admitted the truth of their in- temple, and the surrounding seraference; nay, rather than say any phim adored him. St. John, rething which might be construed into an acknowledgment that he was a mere creature, he submitted to be crucified. He died asserting his Divinity. ferring to this vision, and applying the prophetical denunciation of the incredulity of the Jews to their rejection of the Lord Jesus, expresses himself thus: "These things, said Esaias, when he saw his glory and spake of him." The pronouns his and him can relate to Christ only. Moses narrates the appearance of Christ to the Fathers in a way that proves not merely his pre-existence, but his divinity. Three men stood by Abraham; he invited them to take some refreshment; they accepted his invitation. One of them promised Sarah a son. Sarah laughed, and Jehovah inquired a mere creature? the reason of her laughter, and repeated the promise. St. Paul informs us that "Christ was in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God." Would he say this of Again, he tells us that "Christ is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his Person." Finite cannot express infinite. The Lord proceeded to inform Abraham of the approaching destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The men then went toward So- When Thomas saw the Lord dom; i. e. two of them, for two Jesus after his resurrection, he only went to Sodom; and the Lord said to him, "My Lord, and my continued with Abraham, who God!" This was either an ac knowledgment of Christ's Divinity, or a taking of God's name in vain, which the Redeemer would certainly have reproved. St. John tells us, in the first chapter of the Revelations, that he heard a voice behind him, saying "I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last;" he looked round, and saw one like the Son of Man, who repeated, "I am the first and the last." He who is eternal must be divine. In the fifth chapter, St. John relates that he saw, in the midst of the throne of God, a Lamb, as it had been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth. Jesus Christ is the only Person who is styled the Lamb of God. Could a mere creature be in the midst (the most honourable place) of the throne of God? The four living creatures, and four-and-twenty Elders praise the Lamb for their redemption. The angels join the chorus, declaring the Lamb to be worthy of power, riches, wisdom, strength, honour, glory, and blessing; would the angels ascribe all these to a mere creature? Then every creature which is in Heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them exclaim, 'Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever;' and the four living creatures said Amen. And the four-and-twenty Elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and over. The same honours are paid to Christ as are paid to the Father. When the Redeemer called himself Alpha and Omega, he virtually styled himself the Eternal; and soon after, the Elders worship him that liveth for ever and ever. The name of the Word of God is (chap. xix.) KING of Kings and LORD of Lords. St. Paul, in his farewell address XXIV. to the Elders of the church at Ephesus, makes use of this remarkable language: - "Take heed to yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. The Person who bled to redeem the church was divine. And St. John expresses himself thus: - 66 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us. The words of God are not in the original; but as the context preceding and subsequent speaks of God, God is the only Being to whom St. John can allude. - Baptism is to be administered in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Would God associate his name with that of a mere creature?—I will only add to these the famous passage of the Three that bear record in Heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these Three are One. To these many other proofs may be added; but surely more than enough have been adduced to convince the honest inquirer after truth, and confirm the faith of the believer in the Divinity of Jesus Christ. Edmonton. W. WILLIAMS, REFLECTIONS ON THE SEA. HAVING in your Magazine for July, 1815, endeavoured to shew how the Summer may be enjoyed on Land, to make the subject complete, I proceed to make such remarks on the Sea, as may assist a Christian to enjoy it there also; and on this subject I wish to remark the following particulars: viz. Its very large extent. If we look into a map of the world, it appears that the ocean occupies a greater surface than the land, being in proportion nearly as three is to one; and (according to Ecclesiastes i. 7.) it is supposed that all ૨૧ |