SERM. as that, comparatively speaking, there is XV. No other Majesty but His. Thus, in Other places of Scripture, when God is ftiled abfolutely and by way of Eminence, The Holy One; The Bleffed, (as Mar. xiv. 61. Art thou the Chrift, the Son of the Bleffed?) The Power, (as in the verfe next following, Ye shall fee the Son of man fitting on the right hand of Power ;) The Excellent Glory, (as 2 Pet. i. 17. There came fuch a voice to him from The Excellent Glory ;) The sense of these expreffions is, that, comparatively speaking, there is None Holy, None Blessed, None Powerful, None Glorious, but He Alone. Good Men, are in Scripture frequently stiled Holy; and Angels, are the Holy Angels of God; and yet of him and to him alone 'tis faid, Thou Only art Holy. Angels and the Souls of Men are Immortal; and yet of Him 'tis in a most just sense affirmed, that He only hath Immortality. Others have Wisdom afcribed to them in their Degree and Order, and yet He neverthelefs is God Only Wife. Others are, in their rank and proportion, truly and juftly

XV.

justly called Good; and yet Our Lord, SER M. with peculiar Emphasis and High Propriety, declares, There is None Good, but One, that is, God. The Scripture, without Any Scruple, calls Temporal Deliverers, Saviours; Nehem. ix. 27. And our Lord Jefus Chrift, in the spiritual and infinitely higher fenfe, is, by way of Eminence, ftiled Our Saviour: And yet the Father Almighty, (who in St Paul's language, Tit. iii. 4, 5. is God our Saviour which faves us through Jesus Christ our Saviour,) declares concerning Himself, Ifai. xliii. 11. Befides Me, there is no Saviour. The manner of speaking, is very just, as well as lofty and fublime; and 'tis ufeful and proper, in order to keep up in mens minds a due and awful fense of the Supreme and unapproachable Greatnefs of God. Others have Power afcribed to them, and Dominion and Majefty; There are, as St Paul tells us, Gods many, and Lords. many, in Heaven and in Earth, I Cor. viii. 5. Some falfely fo called; Others rightly, in fuch a fenfe as the Scripture gives the Title of Gods and Lords

to

SER M. to Angels and to Men: Yet, for all that, XV. there is ftill really no other God but One;

and The Majefty, absolutely speaking, is His alone. Our High Prieft, is fet on the right hand of the Throne, of The Majefty in the Heavens.

THE term, Right Hand, when applied to God, is not to be understood literally, as denoting a particular Situation with regard to Place, (for God has no Hands, no Shape or Parts;) But it fignifies figuratively, a State of High Dignity, Dominion and Power, next and immediately after God the Father himself. Our Saviour's being advanced to the Right Hand of God, is his being actually invested with That Glory and Dignity, for the Joy of which, when it was fet before him, he willingly endured the Cross, (Heb. xii. 2.) defpifing the Shame, and is fet down at the right hand of the Throne of God; That is, has overcome Death, and entred into his Kingdom of Glory. And therefore, in other places of Scripture, the very fame Notion is fet forth under the parallel expreffions, that Him hath God exalted with

his right hand, to be a Prince and a Sa- SER M. viour; to be Lord both of the Dead and XV. Living; to be the Head of all Principality and Power, the Head over all things to the Church: That he hath given him All Power both in Heaven and Earth, and put all things in fubjection under his feet; Angels, and Authorities, and Powers, being made fubject unto him: That he has appointed him Heir of all things, and, according to the working of his mighty Power, has fet him far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in This World, but also in That which is to come; That at the Name of Jefus every knee Should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in Earth, and things under the Earth; and that every tongue fhould confefs that Jefus Chrift is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father. All which exalted characters, are emphatically included in this one figurative expreffion; the right hand of God, the right hand of the Throne of the Majefty in the Heavens.

Laftly,

SERM. Laftly, THE word, fitting, or being fet, XV. is likewise to be understood, not literally,

as denoting a particular corporeal Pofture; (for in other places of Scripture 'tis expreffed that our Lord Is at the right hand of God, or that he Stands at the right hand of God;) But the word, fitting, is for This reafon more frequently ufed in the cafe before us, because it implies, in its figurative Use and Signification, Fulness of Poffeffion, and perpetuity of retaining the Glory poffeffed. Heb. x. 12. After he had offered One Sacrifice for Sins, he for ever fat down on the right band of God; From henceforth expecting, till his Enemies be made his footstool; For by One offering, he hath perfected for ever them that are Sanctified. From the time of our Lord's afcending into Heaven, till his Second Coming to Judgment, there were Many Ages to pafs over: And therefore St Peter in his Sermon to the Jews, Acts iii. 19. tells them, that when the times of refreshing fhall come from the prefence of the Lord, he fall fend Jefus Chrift which before was preached unto

them;