who was calling on (invoking) and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."

It cannot be doubted but that Stephen addressed this request to the Lord Jesus. But then this can be no precedent for directing prayer to him unseen or addressing him as God, whom the blessed martyr declares he saw with his eyes, and calls him, ver. 56," the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God;" calls him the Son of Man, in that his highest state of exaltation. Son of Man, and God most high: what a space between!

Revelation i. 5, 6 : "Unto him that hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."

The very different readings of this disturbed passage in the MSS. shew that it has suffered by the negligence of transcribers, which may easily be observed in Mill and Wetstein; and therefore no certain conclusions can be formed from it,

"Dr. Mill observes (saith Dr. Clarke, Scr. Doct, pp. 146, 147), that, in one ancient Greek manuscript, the words unto him are wanting; the reading being, τῷ ἀγαπήσαντος καί λέσαντος, instead οἱ τῷ ἀγαπήσαντι καὶ λέσαντι : in which case the doxology will be, not to Christ, but the Father; and the passage would be read- And from Jesus Christ (who is the faithful witness, the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings

of the earth) who hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood."

Revelation v. 13: "Blessing and honour, &c. be unto him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb for ever and ever."

This is to be understood in the same way as Acts vii. 59. The blessing and honour is tendered to the object present and visible; and not upon the throne, but standing in the midst, ver. 5, or before the midst of the throne. The reason also, which is assigned for this worship being paid him, shews he cannot be God, or the object of divine worship, viz. ver. 12, his being the Lamb slain, and therefore worthy: i. e. spotless innocence, perfect virtue and goodness, tried and confirmed by sufferings.

The ascribing glory and honour to Christ, does in no degree imply him to be God, or authorize the worship of him, or prayer to him. It is no more than a declaration of reverence of him, and high esteem of his most perfect moral character and goodness. We may, therefore, in this sense, and we ought on all proper occasions, to join with his apostles in saying, 2 Pet. iii. 18, "To him be glory both now and for ever."

1 Tim. i. 12: "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry."

This is no address of thanks to Christ as an object of worship, but a sudden emotion of gra

titude in the apostle's mind, and expression of his thankfulness to Christ for his own miraculous conversion (Acts ix.) and call to be an apostle.

2 Cor. i. 3. Rom. i. 7: "Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ."

1 Thess. iii. 11: "Now God himself even our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you." 2 Thess. ii. 16.

These, and other the like passages, are only pious wishes, not prayers. That this is the true interpretation, and not mere assertion, appears from Rev. i. 4. Otherwise it may as well be said, that the writer prays to the seven spirits there named, which are afterwards in the same book, v. 6, called the Lamb's eyes, i. e. Christ's angels, messengers, sent forth into all the earth.

2 Cor. xii. 8: "For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me."

St. Paul appears here to have directed his prayer to God, the Father, and to have had in his thoughts, and imitated our Lord's prayer in the garden, the night before his sufferings, when he prayed three times to God, that, if it pleased him, the cup of affliction might pass away from him, without his drinking it. Beausobre on the place.

N. B. The apostles were not so exact in the use of the words, Lord, Saviour, and the like, which they indifferently gave both to God and to

Christ; never supposing that any would mistake their Lord and master, so lately born and living amongst men, to be the Supreme God, and object of worship.

call

Dr. Hammond thus paraphrases: "And I earnestly prayed to God to be delivered from it." 1 Cor. i. 2: "With all that in every place upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord." Dr. Hammond rightly observes, that it should be translated-With all them that are called by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

"In the style of Scripture, to be called by the name of any one, or to have the name of any one called upon it, signifies to belong, to be the property, or to be in subjection to that, whose name is called upon the other." the other." Daubuz on Rev. p. 130. But see in Dr. Clarke (Scr. Doct. No. 691), an enumeration of the various senses in which this phrase, calling on the name of Christ, and some like it, are used; among which there is none that implies directly invoking him, but Acts vii. 59, which has been considered.

Rev. xxii. 20: "Come, Lord Jesus"!

These words are only the reply of the apostle, addressed to the Lord Jesus present with him in the vision; who had said immediately before, "I come quickly.”

Matt. xviii. 20: "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

G

It may be proper to take notice of this text, though out of its course, lest we should pass by any thing of conséquence on the argument.

The following seems to be a valuable explica'tion of it:

"If we consider the whole of this passage, în which our Lord is speaking of the great power of which his apostles should be possessed, and especially of the efficacy of their prayers, we shall be satisfied that he could only mean by this form of expression, to represent their power with God, when they were assembled as his disciples, and prayed as became his disciples, to be the same as his own power with God; and God heard him always. That our Lord could not intend to speak of himself as the God who heareth prayer, is evident from his speaking of the Father in this very place, as the person who was to grant their petitions.” Ver. 19.*

Le Clerc, in his Harmony, seems to have had somewhat of the like thought. " Where two or three," &c. " it will be the same as if I was among them, and praying to God along with them."t

Melancthon, in a letter to Camerarius, in 1532, after a prediction which hath since been but too

* Familiar Illustrations of certain Passages of Scripture.— Printed for Johnson, St. Paul's Churchyard, 1772, pp. 26, 27. † — ipse inter eos esse, et Deum conjunctim cum iis orare censebor. Clerici Harm. Evangel.