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DISCOURSE XXXIV.

CHRIST THE OBJECT OF RELIGIOUS ADORATION, AND THEREFORE VERY GOD.

ROMANS, X. 13.

Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

THE text, as Dr. Whitby well remarks upon it, presents us with a double argument in favour of our Lord's Divinity. First, it applies to HIM, what by the prophet Joel is spoken of Jehovah; secondly, it affirms him to be the object of religious adoration. Either of these particulars does, indeed, imply the other.

For if he be Jehovah, he must be the object of religious adoration; and, if the object of religious adoration, he must be Jehovah. We might therefore take occasion, from this passage, to prove his Divinity, and from thence infer, that he is to be worshipped; but at present, that the subject may be viewed on every side, let us take it in another light; let us first prove, that he is to be worshipped, and from thence infer his Divinity.

But it is incumbent upon me previously to observe, that, since the composition of the following discourse, the cause has been pleaded at large by much abler

advocates; for which reason, a resolution was once taken to lay it aside, as fully and happily superseded. But a saying of one of the ancients occurred, that in times when erroneous and noxious tenets were diffused, all men should embrace some opportunity to bear their testimony against them. It occured likewise, that the evidence, drawn to a point, and delivered from the pulpit, might strike many (of my younger auditors more especially) who might not be disposed to search for it in tracts of greater extent, and far greater merit. This consideration, above all, prevailed, that the established doctrine concerning the worship of our Redeemer might receive no small degree of confirmation in the minds of its professors, when, without concert or consultation, persons sitting down to reconsider it, at different times and in different places, should be found to represent it in the same light, and to vindicate it by the same arguments. Entreating your favourable acceptance of this very necessary apology, I will venture to proceed.

Invocation, then, is a part, and a principal part, of adoration; but my text mentions the invocation of Christ, as a duty, to the performance of which salvation is annexed: "Whosoever shall call upon "the name of the Lord shall be saved." The context treats wholly of Christ, in whom, it is said,

* See Dr. Randolph's Vindication of the Worship of the Son and Holy Ghost; and Mr. Bingham's Vindication of the Doctrine and Liturgy of the Church of England. See likewise Mr. Burgh's Scriptural confutation of the Arguments against the one Godhead of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Whosoever believeth shall not be ashamed;" and in whom, it is likewise said, the Jews refused to believe, when they had heard of him by the preaching of the apostles. "Whosoever shall call on the name

of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they " call on him, of whom they have not heard? and "how shall they hear without a preacher?" &c. Christ therefore is, without doubt, the person mentioned in the text; he is, consequently, the object of invocation, a principal part of religious adoration; and the man who desires to be "saved," must "call upon him," by prayer.

In the apostolical times, all Christians were supposed, by virtue of their profession, to invoke Christ, and were characterized by that very circumstance. Thus St. Paul addresses one of his epistles, to "all "that in every place call upon the name of the "Lord Jesus, both theirs and ours," that is, says an excellent paraphrast, "whom we and all true "Christians join in acknowledging and adoring as "their Lord and ours." In the ninth chapter of the Acts, we find Ananias saying of Saul, "And here "he hath authority to bind all that call on thy name;" that is, says Dr. Hammond, "who publicly avow "the worship of Christ." Again, in the same chapter, we read, "And straightway he preached Christ "in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God. "But all that heard him were amazed, and said, Is "not this he that destroyed them who called on this name?" that is, evidently, the name of Christ,

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Some critics tell us, that the phrase Exaλevol TO Ovoμa Xp58,"calling upon the name of Christ," is to be taken passively, as denoting those who were namned by the name of Christ, or who were called Christians. But this cannot be. The name, Christian, was not known in the world, till some time after St. Paul's conversion, when, as St. Luke expressly informs us, "the disciples were called Christians first "at Antioch;" whereas, before that time, they were distinguished by the title of επικαλέμενοι το Όνομα Χρισ8, "those who called on the name of Christ." Besides that mapa (as hath been justly observed), when followed by an accusative case, always signifies to invoke, or worship, except only where it signifies to appeal to. Thus, in the chapter from whence my text is taken-"The same Lord is rich to all who "call upon him-for whosoever shall call on the "name of the Lord shall be saved"." In the twentysecond chapter of the Acts, Saul is bidden to "wash "6 away his sins, calling on the name of the Lord"." And Origen, who must have understood the import and force of a Greek participle, at least as well as any modern critic, commenting on one of the above cited passages, says " The apostle, in these words, "declares him to be God, whose name was called "upon." The argument, therefore, deduced from

εις πάντας τες επικαλεμενες αυτον πας γαρ ος αν επικα λέσηται το Όνομα Κυριε σωθησεται.

• Επικαλεσάμενος το Όνομα τ8 Κυρι8.

f Origen. Com. in Rom. x. lib. viii.

this expression, we may venture to say stands good; nor can it admit of any farther reply or evasion.

St. Paul's usual form of benediction was by invocation of the name of Christ. "Grace be to you, "and peace, from God the Father, and from our "Lord Jesus Christ." Sometimes the name of Christ stands in the first order; "The grace of the Lord Jesus "Christ, and the love of God, and the communion "of the Holy Ghost be with you all." In another place, "The Lord Jesus Christ comfort your hearts";" "that is, I pray the Lord Jesus Christ so to do. And speaking of his thorn in the flesh, he says "I besought "the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for "thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness. "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my in"firmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon "me" The power of Christ,—that is, plainly, of the Lord whom he besought, and who said, "My "strength is made perfect in weakness."-I would entreat your attention to the following passage in 1 John, v. 13. &c. "These things have I written unto you-that ye may believe on the name of the Son "of God. And this is the confidence we have in

him, that if we ask any thing according to his "will, he heareth us. And if we know that he "hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we "have the petitions we desired of him." In another part of the epistle, the same precept is repeated, i 2 Cor. xii. 8.

2 Cor. xiii. 14.

h 2 Thess. ii. 16.