them who had conftantly acknowledg❜d Him to be the Meffiah, and who trusted that this had been He who fhould have redeemed Ifrael. But fhort is this awful pause of fufpence and despondency. See the third morning dawns in the eaft. He revives, He rises! He burfts the fetters of death and the grave, and leads captivity captive. For the space of forty days He fhews Himself alive by many infallible proofs; and then, in the presence of his difinto heaven. up And as Saint ciples, He afcends Luke exprefsly informs us, they, that is the difciples, worshipped him.

On this laft recited paffage I would not hesitate to reft with the unletter'd reader the fatisfactory proof of Chrift's Divinity. Our adverfaries are here reduc'd to a wretched quibble, endeavouring to distinguish two forts of worship: a diftinction for which they are indebted to the Papifts, who first invented it to palliate their worship of images and relics, of Saints, and of the Virgin Mary. To these they pretend that they address an inferior worfhip, referving the fuperior to God alone. A diftinction this, which the unlearned can not comprehend, and the learned know to be groundless. It has been fuggefted also, that the difciples, ftruck with astonishment at the ftupendous fight of their Master's

Master's human body of flesh and blood quitting the furface of the earth, and rifing gradually in the air, till a cloud hid him from their eyes; ftruck I fay with aftonishment, they fell on their faces, depriv'd in a manner of their fenfes, and not knowing what they did. But what will the plain reader fay to this? the difciples worshipped Him, and He forbade them not; therefore worship is his due but worship is due to God alone; therefore He, Chrift, is God.

On farther progrefs in the perufal of the Bible, we shall find every name and every attribute of God afcrib'd to Chrift. By the Prophet Ifaiah He is ftil'd the everlafting Father; in exact conformity to his own affertion, I and the Father are One. He is eternal, the firft, and the laft. Saint Paul tells the Coloffians, that Chrift is before all things, and by Him all things confift. Juft as Saint John afferts of that Word which was made flesh, and dwelt among us, even by that Word were all things made, and without Him was not any thing made that was made. He is omniprefent. While converfing with his difciples on earth, He calls Himfelf the Son of Man, which is in heaven. Sitting as He now is at the right hand of God on the throne of glory in heaven, yet as He told his disciples, lo!

I am with you always, even to the end of the world; fo now wherefoever two or three are gathered together in his name, there is He in the midft of them. He is Omniscient. While He was on earth, He knew all men, and needed not that any fhould tell Him; for he knew what was in man. Now He is in heaven, He fearcheth the hearts, and trieth the reins. In confequence of these two attributes or qualities of Omniprefence and Omniscience, He is even now present here, in the midst of this affembly to Him do I appeal for my fincerity in preaching this doctrine; to Him do each of

you ftand amenable for your faith herein. In confequence of these attributes He will one day come to judge the world in righteousness. Then as Saint Paul tells the Corinthians, we must all appear before the judgement feat of Chrift, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. The fame Apoftle tells Timothy that the Lord Jefus Chrift fhall judge the quick and the dead, at his appearing, and his kingdom. But God is Judge alone; God alone is eternal, omniprefent, and omniscient. What conclufion then follows from these premises? even this, that Chrift is God.

In

In the New Teftament, particularly in Saint John's Gospel, are recorded various converfations of our bleffed Saviour, both with his own difciples, and with the unbelieving Jews. Many of the expreffions which He uses are involv'd in no inconfiderable degree of obfcurity. Of this the Unitarians endeavour to take advantage, and deny them to contain any proofs of Chrift's Divinity. I fhall not attempt an explanation of them, fomé of them being poffibly not fully comprehended by the most learned; but the unlearned may eafily collect in what fense they were understood by thofe to whom they were addrefs'd. You will obferve, that Jefus is uniformly call'd the Son of God. That title we grant to have been sometimes applied to others; though we maintain that the appellation of the only-begotten Son was never confer'd ́ on any but Jefus. But does this imply equality with the Father? you will find that the Jews fo understood it. In the fifth Chapter of Saint John's Gospel is recorded the miraculous cure wrought by Jefus on the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, on the Sabbath-day. The Jews feeking to flay him for this, Jefus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore, adds the Evangelist, the Jews fought the more to kill Him, be

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cause He not only had broken the Sabbath, but faid alfo that God was his Father, making Himself equal with God. Again in the tenth chapter of the fame Gofpel, Jefus having fpoke thofe memorable words, I and my Father are one; the Jews took up ftones again to stone Him. Jefus anfwer'd them, Many good works have I fhewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye ftone me? The Jews anfwered Him, faying, For a good work we ftone Thee not, but for blafphemy; and because that thou, being a Man, makeft Thyfelf God. Many fimilar paffages will occur to the attentive reader, which for brevity's fake I omit, and proceed to the finifhing scene of the crofs. In the plain narrative of the Gospel-history you read that Jefus Christ, the subject of that history, after a life spent in doing good, having at length finish'd the work of his Ministry, was betray'd by Judas, feiz'd in the garden, taken before the Jewish Council, examin'd before the Priefts and Elders, found guilty on his own confeffion; then sentenc'd to death by the Roman Governor Pontius Pilate, and inftantly drag'd to execution by the Roman Soldiers, and nail'd to the crofs. At the fame time the Governor himself pronounc'd Him innocent, even while he infamously abandon'd Him to the fury of the people,

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