to the community, and to our families; every thing lawful and expedient, may thus be rendered subservient to our grand object; and all things needful will be added to us. But men are ruined by reversing this order, and seeking first "the world, and the things that "are in the world," namely, "the lust of the flesh, "the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life."

Even where gross vices and open ungodliness are avoided, how greatly are persons of all ranks, endowments, and professions, "careful and troubled about many things;" instead of attending simply and diligently to the "one thing needful," and decidedly "choos"ing that good part, which could never be taken "from them!" Men's thoughts, contrivances, hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, maxims, wisdom, assiduity, and conversation, are almost wholly engrossed by the perishing vexatious trifles of time. Every vague, strange, and uninteresting report is more attended to, than "the glad tidings of salvation;" every science is deemed better worth cultivating, than the knowledge of God; every question is thought sufficiently important to set the ingenuity of men at work to give it a satisfactory answer, except it be enquired, "What

must we do to be saved?"-Such topicks as this excite only astonishment, disgust, and a short silence, till some more congenial subject is started! If a man pretend to teach the way to health, to riches, to the enjoyment of life, or how to appear to advantage in company, assiduous attention and liberal compensation will not be withheld: but they, who would instruct men in the way of eternal life, must not expect great or general regard, even when they desire no other recompence.

But time and room would fail should we attempt to enumerate the proofs of man's folly and madness in this respect. Even the very messages of God, respecting judgment, eternity, and the great salvation of the gos pel, instead of meeting with serious regard, are frequently set to musick, and profanely employed to vary the species of pleasurable dissipation! Nay, they are often preached, out of ostentation, avarice, envy, or strife; heard as a matter of curiosity or amusement; or contended for in pride, virulence, and furious anger! The grand business of most men seems to be, to avoid the burden of reflection, to cause time to glide away as imperceptibly as possible, and so, apparently, to shorten the span allotted them to prepare for eternity! Well might the Psalmist then say, "rivers of water "run down mine eyes, because men keep not thy law." -But, O ye giddy sons and daughters of Adam! what will you think of your present pursuits, when death shall summon you to God's tribunal? What will then your riches, pleasures, decorations, elegances, honours, or dignities avail you? What comfort will the knowledge of all languages, and arts, and sciences then afford? What will you think of your present anxious cares, covetings, envyings, repinings, and disputes; when the "night conieth in which no "man can work?" "Seek," then, "the Lord while

he may be found, call upon him while he is near; "let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous "man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, "and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, "for he will abundantly pardon."

ESSAY VI.

On the Deity of Jesus Christ.

THE doctrine of a Mediator, through whom a just and holy God deals mercifully with believers, is the grand peculiarity of revelation: it must therefore be of the greatest importance for us, to form a proper estimate of the personal dignity of this Mediator. The doctrine, which I shall here attempt to establish from Scripture, may be thus stated: That Jesus Christ is truly and really God, one with and equal to the Father; being 'from eternity possessed of all divine perfections, and 'justly entitled to all divine honours; yet personally 'distinct from the Father, and so called his own Son, and his only begotten Son. But that in order to the performance of his mediatorial offices, he assumed our nature into personal union with the Deity: and became One with us, truly Man, like us in all things, sin alone excepted: and that he is thus God and Man in one mysterious incomprehensible Person; so that 'all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in him bodily."

No argument can properly be brought against the doctrine of our Lord's essential Deity, as here stated

from those Scriptures which speak of his human nature, his mediatorial office, or his inferiority to the Father in both these respects: for our doctrine implies this, and even absolutely requires it. We need not therefore insist on this part of the subject: it is gene. rally allowed by all, except deists and atheists, that "Christ is come in the flesh:" though numbers contend that he could not have come in any other way; and others deem him a mere creature, though of a su pra-angelick nature, and maintain that he is called God only in consequence of his mediatorial exaltation. But the idea of a creature however exalted, being advan ced to divinity, is so repugnant to all rational principles, as well as to the declarations of Jehovah, that "he "knows no God besides himself, and will not give "his glory to another," that it will not be necessary to discuss the subject before us, with any particular reference to these distinct opinions. It will fully answer the purpose, if we can evince that our Redeemer is by nature "GOD over all, blessed for evermore.” At present I shall adduce a few select arguments in direct proof of this point; leaving some other things, that belong to the subject, to be considered in the next Essay.

I. The reader will naturally turn his thoughts to those Scriptures, in which Jesus Christ is expressly called GoD, and LORD. "Without controversy," says the apostle, "great is the mystery of godliness, "Gon was manifest in the flesh."* He allows that the doctrine which he advanced was very mysterious,

* 1 Tim. iii. 16.

and that this could not be controverted or denied; but he seems to glory in it on that very account, because he considered it as THE GREAT MYSTERY OF GODLINESS. We may therefore be sure, that they, who would so interpret the words as to render his doctrine scarcely mysterious at all, do not understand them: but all who suppose him to mean that Jesus was Emmanuel, GOD WITH US; that the child born at Bethlehem was THE MIGHTY GOD, as the prophet foretold:* consider this proposition both as a great mystery, and as the source, centre, and support of godliness. It would be superfluous, in this brief attempt, to do more than refer the reader to the well known passages which are commonly brought forward in this argument; † and to intreat him to read them with attention, as the word of God, and with earnest prayer to be enabled to understand and believe them: for it seems impossible for human language to express any sentiment more strongly than they express the Deity of Christ. He "who was in the beginning with God, "and was Go D; who made all things," so that "with"out him was not any thing made that was made;" "by whom, and for whom, all things were created, "and by whom all things consist," and who " upholds all things by the word of his power" must be "GoD over all, blessed for evermore:" for " he that made "all things is GOD;" which surely none but an avowad atheist will deny.

These and several other passages of the same kind,

• Is. vii. 14. ix. 6.

† John i. 1-18. Phil. ii. 5-8. Col. i. 15-17. Heb. i, VOL. V.

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