In

and convey them to it. "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where am, there ye may be also." John xiv. 2, 3. the mean time they are raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; and their hope, like an anchor, finds its hold within the vail, whither they also shall, in due time, be conveyed by the Captain of their salvation. But I pro

ceed to another branch of the subject; namely the IV. WHICH is to offer some remarks concerning the Captain of salvation.

1. HE is the supreme God. No truth is more necessary to be believed, yet none has been more violently opposed. And indeed the enemies of the scheme of grace could not have adopted a more effectual method to render it abortive than to oppose the supreme Deity of Jesus, as this lies at the foundation of the whole. There is no truth, however, more clearly, more explicitly, or more frequently, asserted than this.

THE Scriptures contain the evidence of this truth, They were written, not merely for the learned Philosopher, but for the illiterate vulgar, whose faith, whose salvation, God never meant to rest on learned criticism or subtile metaphysical reasonings. This would make their faith stand too much in the wisdom of men. Common discernment to discover the evidenceof the divine testimony, is all that is necessary. Here we "Walk by faith," firmly believing what our reason cannot comprehend. The sacred penmen wrote and spoke to the illiterate vulgar, and it must have been in language which they understood, otherwise their labour was useless..

SUPREME Deity could not have been expressed in more emphatical, explicit or higher terms, than what are applied to Christ. The same language is used promiscuously in speaking of the Father and of Christ. "I am the first and the last." Isaiah xliv. 6. Rev.

He is Jehovah

But Jehovah is

i. 11. 17. The Father who establishes Zion is the Highest; so is Jesus. Luke i. 76. the self existent independent being. one. "Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Je hovah." Deut. 6. 4. He is also often called God; "God over all blessed for ever." But there is only one God. If there is only one Jehovah, only one God, and Jesus is called by both these names, he must be that one divine being meant by these names. When his Mediatory character, and human nature are brought into view, he is called by such names as are always used to express supreme Deity. "God manifest in the flesh. Immanuel, God with us. God purchased the church with his own blood." Every divine perfection, by which God discovers himself, is also ascribed to him, and claimed by him. He is the mighty God. The Almighty. Omnipresent, " filling all in all," Immutable," the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." Omniscient. A God of knowledge, who knows all things, and searches the heart, and' tries the reins of the children of men. If Jesus be not the true God, more incautious, unwarrantable and dangerous expressions could not have been used, as they natively lead to idolatry. Nay, a more effectual method to deceive and mislead could not have been adopted, than to apply such unequivocal characteristics of supreme Deity to a creature.

It is impossible to conceive of a more decisive proof of divine perfection than Creation, or giving existence

to creatures, and preserving them in it. But Scrip. ture ascribes these works to Christ in terms the most explicit, terms which draw a clear line of distinction between him and creatures. "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." John i. 3. "By him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him and for him; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist." Col. i. 16, 17. "All things" must mean creatures, and also include all creatures, while Christ, the Maker is excluded. Here the Creator and the creature are opposed to each other, and placed at an infinite distance from each other. Christ was the prime Agent, and not an instrument in this work, for "All things were created for him as well as by him. Had he acted only as an instrument, he must have made them for God not for himself. If then he that built all things is God, it will follow that, while that work is ascribed to Jesus, he must be God. The Apostle considered this as an infallible evidence of supreme Deity. "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and God-head." Rom. i. 20. Instead of giving any countenance to the idea of a subordinate instrumental god, in the creation of all things, the Creator himself denies it. "Thus saith the Lord, that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth-I am the Lord and there is none else." Isaiah xlv. 18. Is there a God besides me? yea, there is no God; I know not any. I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens.

alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself." Isaiah xliv. 24.

If he

I MIGHT also appeal to that worship which the Scriptures represent as due to Jesus, in contradistinction to all creatures, being the same which is claimed by God, who will have all men to worship the Son, even as they worship himself; but, having dwelt too long on this part of this subject already, I shall wave it for the present, as it will fall in our way after. I cannot leave this particular, however, without turning your attention to a passage or two, in confirmation of the truth I have been considering. Christ himself asserts: "All things that the Father hath are mine." is not one God with the Father, this assertion is most dangerous, because he claims as his own all that the Father can claim. He also said, "I and my Father are one.' "He thought it no robbery to be equal with God." No conclusion can so naturally be drawn from these, and similar expressions, with which Scripture abounds, as that Jesus is truly and properly God. Could Moses, David or Paul, could the most exalted seraph appropriate these claims? "All things that the Father hath are mine. I and the Father are one. I think it no robbery to be equal with God." Such claims would found a charge of blasphemy. if Jesus is only a man, or a creature of the highest order, the charge will lie against him, who makes such claims. Could any of these eminent characters have said, in truth, what Jesus said of himself concerning his people, "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand?" Paul was divinely inspired and knew much of the mind of God; but could he appropriate the words of Christ to himself, "No man R

But

knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him?" The nature of the Son is incomprehensible, and so known only by the infinite mind of the Father; but the Son knows the Father also, which shows the infinity of his mind. This knowledge is intuitive, not by revelation as is asserted concerning men. In a word, It is simply God's knowledge of himself. The mission of the Son of God is uniformly represented as the most astonishing fruit of his love to sinners, but if he was no more than a man, the divine love would have been as wonderfully displayed in Paul as in him; as both would have been equally dear to God, and holding the same relation to him. But the language of inspiration, concerning Christ and Paul, is very different on this point, which will necessarily infer some much greater excellence in the former than in the lafter. If however that excellence is only created, the difference is not great between Paul and him or the highest archangel. But he is infinitely greater than all creatures, even the most exalted angels, who are but his ministers, employed in his service, and who are commanded to worship him. This divine excellence qualifies the Captain of salvation for the momentous work of bringing many sons to glory.

2. HE sustains this character by the special appointment of the Father. Those sinners who are to be brought to glory, are the special objects of the Father's choice; and were, in the eternal covenant put under the care of the Mediator, to be redeemed, and saved. "I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people." Psalm lxxxix. 19. Jesus did not place himself at the head of the