33 mities, that fympathy with which "Jefus wept,' John xi. 35, for the afflictions of thofe who called uport him even at the moment that he was in act to wipe away the tears from their eyes. XIX. I should not look upon the application of the dying thief to our Saviour, hanging also upon a cross, to be any proof that Jefus Chrift is the object of prayer, but for the answer made by him, who immediately granted that which was afked, and by admiffion into paradife, in confequence of a petition preferred to him in an hour, when, of all others, he seemed least able to affift in the time of trouble, exalted the laft words of this poor penitent into an incontrovertible teftimony that his is the kingdom, that " by fuffering he was about to enter into his glory," and that he is therefore the Lord, one with the Father, God, Luke xxiii. 42, 43, and xxiv. 26. XX. "Jefus answered and faid unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raife it up," in saying which "he spake of the temple of his body," John ii. 19, 21. Here Jefus Chrift declares that he will himself raife his body from the grave; but in the grave that body lay truly dead and incapable of any agency: but here he fays, that he will act, he must therefore fpeak of fome very extraordinary power remaining to him. But we are often told, that God raised the body of our Saviour from the grave. "This Jefus hath God raised up," fays St. Peter, Acts ii. 32; wherein it is obfervable, that the union of the two natures being suspended during the death of the body, God is fpoken of as diftinct from Jefus, whose body only is intended by that name: this distinction Peter feems to have had in view throughout the Acts. That which Chrift engaged to do, most assuredly he did. He engaged to raise his own body, body, therefore he did raise his own body. But this Jefus hath God raised up." Jefus Chrift is therefore one with the Father, God. XXI. "Jefus answered and faid unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that faith to thee, Give me to drink; then wouldest thou have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water," John iv. 10. "Whosoever drinketh of the water which I fhall give him, fhall never thirst," John iv. 14. Here Jefus Christ gives the gift of God, more properly the gift of Jefus Chrift, who gives it, and only reconcilable to fenfe, by acknowledging him to be one with the Father, God. "They have forfaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters," Jer. xvii. 13. "And he fhewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as chryftal, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb," Rev. xxii. 1. "Let him that is athirft, come: and whofoever will, let him take of the water of life freely," Rev. xxii. 17. This invitation fo mercifully made to all mankind, and in the power of all to accept, is made by Jefus Chrift; he therefore who gives fuch "water fpringing up into everlasting life," John iv. 14, is affuredly the "Lord, the fountain of living waters;" which Jeremiah declares God to be. "Ho! every one that thirfteth, come ye to the waters," Ifai. lv. I j "for I will pour water upon him that is thirfty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy feed, and my bleffing upon thine offspring," Ifai. xliv. 3. Jefus ftood and cried, faying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the fcripture hath faid, out of his belly fhall flow rivers of living water. (But this he spake of the fpirit, which they that believe on him fhould receive,") John vii. 37, 38. This laft text clears up and explains the figure, and fhews what is all along meant by living waters. But "God fhall 66 pour pour his spirit upon him that is thirfty;" and according to this prophecy, Jefus Chrift is to give this water fpringing up into life, which is the fpirit. But these waters are faid to proceed from God; Jefus Chrift therefore, from whom they proceed, is one with the Father, God. Let us then with gratitude come upon the invitation to believe; let us confefs that the blood which was fhed for us is the blood of God himself, Acts xx. 28, fhed for our redemption; acknowledge "Chrift the Saviour of the world," John iv. 42, and "with joy draw water out of the wells of falvation," Ifai. xii. 3. XXII. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews fought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the fabbath, but faid also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God,” John v. 17, 18. As the Hebrew idiom of the scripture language is urged as a reason for doubting of our common acceptation of the affertions made in the New Testament, we must certainly admit the Jews to be the best verbal interpreters of fuch phrases as were peculiar to themselves; and here they have taught us to underftand that whenfoever our Saviour, or any witness of his gospel, declares him to be the Son of God, they intended thereby to convey an affurance that Jefus Chrift is equal with the Father, and with him one, God. The subsequent verses say that "what thing foever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewife." "As the Father hath life in himself: fo hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment alfo, because he is the Son of man," John v. 26, 27. Here he speaks of himself both as God and man; he declares the felf-exifting life equal with that of the Father; declares the derivation of that to his manhood, with which it was united by the will of God and the Father; and he declares also the reason Feafon, wherefore the fecond perfon of the Godhead is to have the execution of judgment, to be, " because he is the Son of man.” And St. Paul has explained the force of this reafon, for that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to fuccour them that are tempted," Heb. ii. 18; "that he can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities; having been in all points tempted like as we are," Heb. iv. 15; and in the next verse we are called upon to approach the throne of grace boldly, because that Chrift is the Son of man, having taken on him the feed of Abraham, and has called us brethren, and can have compaffion upon fuch infirmities as he was himself fubject to in the flefh: fo that whenfoever we hear our gracious Lord and Saviour call himself the Son of man, we may look upon it as an inftance of tenderness, and that he uses that name, in order to inspire a confidence in mankind, his brethren, to approach his throne without diftruft in his mercy. When foever he speaks of coming to judgment, he qualifies the terrors of that dreadful day by faying, that it is before the Son of man that all nations are to be gathered; and in the paffage before us, declares the reafon wherefore all judgment is committed to the Son to be, because he is the Son of man. Our Saviour, after having faid that "the Father quickeneth the dead," John v. 21, proceeds to tell us, that on that day "the dead fhall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear fhall live," John v. 25. And farther, that "the hour is coming, in the which all that are in their graves fhall hear his (the Son of man's) voice," John v. 28: So that here, they that are in their graves, live, being called upon by the Son of man, because they have heard the voice of the Son of God, the Father being he who quickeneth the dead. Can this be reconciled to any fenfe, if it be not granted that Jefus Chrift, the Son of God, and alfo the Son of man, is equal to, and one with the Father, God? And this once granted, is any pofition more reconcileable to reafon? Refift this who can, for my part I am unable to ftand againft it; but verily, " believe, and am fure that thou art that Chrift, the Son of the living God," John vi. 69; words, which I am bold to use, as expreffive of an equality between the Son and the Father: nay farther, of an identity and unity of Godhead. As poffeffed of this Godhead "I believe on him, and I worfhip him," John ix. 38. XXIII. "He that believeth on him that fent me, hath everlafting life, and fhall not come into condemnation," John v. 24. "He that believeth on him, (the Son) is not condemned; but he that believeth not, is condemn ed already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God," John iii. 18. If there be no condemnation for those who believe in the Father, how is it neceffary to believe in the Son in order to indemnify? It can only be fo, because that the Son is one with the Father, God; and the two paffages then convey the fame inftruction. In context with the last affertion, our Saviour, fpeaking of himself, uses the following very remarkable words, "the Son of man which is in heaven," John iii. 13. This is a very exprefs declaration of his Godhead, the ubiquity of which was by no means affected by its union with the Son of man; for whilft he was fpeaking to Nicodemus he could be on earth only as a man, and as God only filling immenfity, fuch privilege Hath Omniprefence MILTON. could he at that moment of time have been in heaven. But let us, for the fake of argument, accede to an affertion that this paffage fhould have been turned "the Son of man which was in heaven," the glory of our Lord |