lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing.' Now the fulfilment of this was claimed by our Lord on a very remarkable occasion. When John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to Jesus, saying, 'Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?' Jesus answered and said unto him, 'Go and shew John again those things. which ye do hear and see. The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached unto them.' The very works which the Prophet declares shall be done when God himself comes to save his people, are performed by Christ in his own name and by his inherent power. There is, however, a peculiarity in these works, which demands attention. Under the former dispensation, no instance occurs of demons being expelled from the possessed, by any of the Prophets; with Christ, however, it was a frequent and ordinary work to expel them in the most astonishing manner. Before his time none but God claimed ability to confer on others gifts of healing or miraculous powers; but Christ freely bestowed those marvellous capacities on his Apostles. It was a prerogative of God alone, to rule the raging of the sea and the noise of its waves; but Christ exercises this very prerogative, by saying to the stormy billows, 'Peace, be still.' It was God alone, that could bring down to the grave and bring up ;' but Christ Jesus restores to life at a word`or a touch; yea, after four days elapse and the work of putrefaction commences, his command to the buried Lazarus is at once obeyed. The language of prophecy, before his time, had always been, "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts;' when he appears, it is changed into, Verily, verily, I say unto you.' Could any man or other creature pretend to the Divine power of reading the heart? Yet Christ knew the very thoughts of all men.

Could any but God forgive sins? Yet Christ forgives sins on several occasions. When Peter, Paul, or Barnabas perform a miracle, they are careful to tell the people that they have no power of their own, but work solely by the name of Jesus of Nazareth; when Christ himself is applied to, he asks, 'Believest thou that I am able to do this,' and when he is answered 'Yea, Lord,' instead of rebuking the supposed error, he saith, 'According to thy faith be it unto thee.' How could all or any of these things be, if he were not God manifest in the flesh? No wonder, then, that he appeals to his works, no wonder that no man ever spake like him,-no wonder that he saith himself, All things that the Father hath are mine.' The works that the Father doeth, the same doeth the Son; therefore, as ye believe in God, believe also in me.'

The next assertion that we were to prove was, that the same blessings were supplicated of God and of Christ; and this is manifest from the many prayers for mercy offered to him personally, by supplicants in general, by the Apostles where they exclaim, Lord increase our faith,' Lord save us or we perish;' from St. Stephen's crying out, in the moment of his death, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit;' from the frequency with which grace, mercy, and peace are invoked of Christ, conjointly with God the Father, throughout the Epistles; and from the plain and repeated directions in the book of Revelations, counselling the Churches to seek from the Lord Jesus spiritual sight, and knowledge, and strength, and consolation. All this, if he were not Divine, would be the grossest idolatry; but as it is, it demonstrates his Deity in full agreement with the other Scrip

tures.

Lastly, we have said that the same worship was given to God and to Christ, by the plain testimony of the Sacred

Volume. Humble prostration at his feet was the common attitude of all who approached to ask his aid; and the same adoration which other holy men refused to receive, was accepted by Christ Jesus as his due. Thus, when Cornelius, the heathen, fell down at the feet of St. Peter, the Apostle rebuked him, saying, 'Stand up, for I also am a man.' When the men of Lycaonia were about to worship Paul and Barnabas, they rent their clothes and ran in among the deluded idolaters, and exclaimed, Sirs, why do ye these things, for we also are men of like passions with yourselves.' Nay, when St. John was about to fall down at the feet of the Angel who showed him the wonderful visions of the latter days, the heavenly messenger checked him, saying, 'See thou do it not, for I am of thy fellowservants: worship God.' Yet our blessed Lord not only declares, that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father, but he receives continual worship, as a thing of course, without one word of rebuke. While only an infant in appearance, the Eastern Magi worship him; his Apostles worship him; the sick, the lepers, and all his supplicants worship him. Thomas falls at his feet and exclaims, 'My Lord and my God.' St. Paul applies to him the expression of the Psalmist, 'Let all the Angels of God worship him;' and declares, that At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and of things in earth, and things under the earth;' while, to crown the whole, we read in the book of Revelations, that the redeemed and the Cherubim in heaven fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints; and every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, were heard by the Apostle, saying, 'Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power

be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, forever and ever.'

And now, my brethren, have we not redeemed the pledge given you, that Jesus Christ should be proved to be Divine, yea, 'God over all blessed for ever?' Are not all the names and titles of God given to him? Are not all the peculiar works of God attributed to him, and performed as by his own intrinsic power? Are not those supplications, which ought only to be rendered to the Almighty, offered to Christ as to God; and is not Divine worship paid to him by all things in heaven and earth, as his unquestionable due? And is not the doctrine of his Divinity thus shown to be declared in Scripture, by such a variety of evidence, such a force of demonstration, as clearly marks its fundamental and indispensable importance, and proves it to be the very corner stone of the true faith?

But our adversaries reply to all this, by pointing out another set of Scriptures, in which Christ speaks and acts very differently. His appearing to suffer like a mere mortal-his knowledge and his wisdom increasing with his stature his assertion that he knew not the day of judgment-his declaration that his Father was greater than he— his asking why the young ruler called him good-his fastings-his humiliation-his agony-his death-all these things, say they, show that he was human and not Divine. O strange and most mistaken inference! Why cannot they say that these things show him to be human, as well as Divine. This would be the truth. For Christ Jesus was, in fact, both perfect God and perfect man in one Person. He submitted to the taking our nature upon him, in order that he might suffer the penalty due to our sins, and merit heaven by his pure and perfect obedience. How otherwise could he have become the second Adam, the head of the human

family? Above all, how, in his Divine nature, could he have rendered that sacrifice which the majesty of the Divine law required, as the price of our redemption? Hence, both his natures are demonstrated with equal clearness. Had he possessed only the nature of God, it would have been impossible to have made atonement by his death, or to have exhibited, as the head of the human family, a sinless perfection. And had he possessed only the nature of man, his sufferings and his obedience could never have possessed that infinite majesty, which renders them adequate to the justification and free forgiveness of the myriads of the human family. Of course, therefore, as the Divine and human natures both existed in our blessed Lord, he speaks and acts, now as a God, and presently as a man. The same double mode of speaking of him is found in the Prophets and in the Apostles, for they describe him and refer to him, now in one character, and again in the other. By necessary consequence, then, two sets of passages are equally true, the one representing him as the 'man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,' the other depicting him as God over all, blessed for ever.'

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Neither is this without a strong analogy amongst ourselves. For although we possess but one nature, yet that nature consists of two principles, the flesh and the spirit; and while a certain portion of our words and conduct refer to the one, the residue refers to the other. I sink with weakness and fatigue :—there speaks the body. I glow with the ardor of devotion :-there speaks the soul. The circle of all attainable knowledge is limited to a narrow space; I shall never know any thing to perfection :-there speaks the mortal. The circle of my attainable knowledge is boundless; I shall possess it perfectly, for I shall see God face to face, and know even as I am known'; there speaks the immor