which they had looked for in the expected king of Ifrael; that he was indeed a "king who had all things put under his feet, who had led captivity captive, and hath given to us the victory over death and the grave; a king, whofe throne endureth for ever, and the fceptre of whose kingdom is a right fceptre." To these witneffes of Jefus Chrift the Holy Ghoft was given, even the spirit of truth, to fhew forth the means of our redemption, by which his infinite mercy had reconciled mankind to his infinite juftice: whatfoever the prophets had faid was given to them to understand, to open, and to reconcile: and what foever our Lord had done and faid in the flesh, was given to their remembrance to corroborate that which they should themselves declare; and these they have accordingly called upon, and shewed to be a teftimony bearing toward the truth, which it was their appointment to render fully manifeft, even this great truth, that the blood which ftreamed from a fuppofed malefactor, dying for imputed blasphemy upon a cross, was the blood of God himself, Acts xx. 28, "poured out for our tranfgreffions,' and "by which we have received the atonement." This is the full manifeftation of Chrift to mankind; till the work was finished it could not be related; and, when done, fo portentous was the deed in itself, fo above the reach of all human intellect, that it required and obtained a miraculous teftimony; a teftimony precisely adequate to that which is required of those who receive it, our belief, which alone is called for as the terms upon which this great falvation is offered to us, "that eternal falvation of which, by being made perfect, he became the author unto all them that obey him," Heb. v. 9.

The prophecies waited for their explanation till all which they had predicted fhould have come to pafs, and

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and therefore were not evidence to those who lived before the event. The four gospels relate, that a man had come into the "world endowed with a power working miracles, which he was perpetually exerting in acts of benevolence; instructing mankind in virtue, by leffons fuperior to thofe of any other man; speaking of the kingdom of God, and saying, that he was the door by which it was to be entered; inculcating faith in God, and hope in his mercies, arifing from the cultivation of piety toward him, and good-will toward man; teftifying that he was the object of former prophecy; forefhewing things which the hearers remembered, when they came to pass, to have heard of, but not to have understood before, John xii. 16, 17; dying upon a cross, arifing from the grave, and afcending into heaven ; that is, the gofpels relate the hiftory of Jefus Christ in the flesh, but have by no means revealed him, nor declared finally who or what he is, wherefore he died, arofe, and afcended. They tell us that he did the work for which he came; but the full import of this work, and why undertaken by this man who finished it, was not the object of the hiftorian to reveal; and till it was finished it could not be revealed to what end it had been done. From our Saviour we are not to expect this revelation, for his afcenfion into heaven being a part, the final part of his work, he continued not among men to declare its end. Another teftimo

ny then must be found, and that such as must be very powerful, we accordingly now find the apoftolic body come forth in the strength of the Lord, endowed with miraculous powers to be exerted before all hearers, and bleffed with elocution in every language, that all hearers might understand and believe; and thus the end of all that has been done is declared; that our falvation was the object is revealed; that for our fins Christ died, and that for our justification he rose again;

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that he has taken our nature into heaven, "having appeared to put away fin, by the facrifice of himself,” Heb. ix. 26, and, "by his own blood entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us," Heb. ix. 12; that, because he can have a feeling of our infirmities, having been in all points tempted like as we are, he is now our high-priest and interceffor; and that, for the fame gracious reafon, he is to be our judge, when, in the last day, he fhall come forth in his glory, and all nations shall be gathered before him, even before their God.

I hope and believe now that I have pointed out the degrees of proof which have been afforded to the world, that the Lord of life, Jefus Chrift, who redeemed it, is the God of our falvation; and having fhewn by what light he has been manifested, even that which has come from himself after his afcenfion and refumption of his former glory, it is easy to fee that the prophets and evangelifts are to be read by that light only by this alone the expectations of Ifrael are ta be reconciled, and the prophets found to have spoken confiftently; and what other circumftances could have reduced their predictions to good fenfe, but a revelation of the glory that has followed the fufferings of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift? what other circumstances than the death, burial, refurrection, and afcenfion of a man revealed to be the " King of kings, and Lord of lords," Rev. xix. 16; "who has become the captain of our falvation, who fhall come once again with power and great glory, fitting upon the throne of his glory, bringing his reward with him, to judge all men, could reconcile the expectations which the prophets had imparted, that the Meffiah fhould be a King, fitting on the throne of David for ever; that he should be a great deliverer, fubduing

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all nations under them; and alfo, that he fhould be a man defpifed and rejected of men, wounded for our tranfgreffions, and bruised for our iniquities, upon whom was the chaftifement of our peace, and by whofe ftripes we are healed?" Ifaiah liii. 5: for fuch were the indefinite hopes of the Jews; and therefore their ignorance is never to be confidered as of any weight in argument againft the Godhead of Chrift, nor a defect of teftimony in the Old Teftament taken by itself, and not explained by the fubfequent revelation, as any ground for denying that which it was never written with a view of ultimately proving. The fame thing may be afferted of the four evangelical hiftorics of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chrift, they were not intended to have been ultimate; and, confequently, if partial quotations do not evince his divinity to partial enquirers, it is not in the leaft degree an argument that he was not one with the Father and the Holy Ghost, God. Thofe hifteries, I have faid already, were written with a view of fetting before all men the works which our bleffed Redeemer did, in evidence of a power concerning which he withheld his own teftimony, but for the promulgation of which he refers to the fcriptures already written, and to the teftimony of the Holy Ghost hereafter to be afforded, the truth of which, he forefaw, would be lefs liable to doubt than that of his own record, which he therefore declined bearing, faying, that it would not be received as true. Had our Lord therefore been wholly filent upon this head, not even his abfolute filence would have derogated from the evidence of his divinity. "He came not to bear witness of himself," "but to be teftified in due time;" and he even faw that his teftimony, had he attempted to have borne it, would be rejected, as an evil interpretation was put upon the moft benevolent exertion of his power; that the faith

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of even his perpetual hearers was defective, and that they had fallen from him, because they could not comprehend him. He therefore looked for the belief of mankind from a miraculous declaration and teftimony of his Godhead, to be borne, not after a partial, but a full execution of that great work which he took our nature upon him to do; and faw that Godhead would be more readily acquiefced in, as in union with a man who fhould be teftified to have rifen from the dead, and ascended into heaven, than with one, the course of whose innocent life was feemingly unable to refift perfecutions and forrows, nay the infliction of an ignominious death. An acquaintancewith grief, a cheek turned to the fcorner, the grave and the fhadow of death, which he had often (and even with agonies which certified his feeling of our infirmities) predicted to be all before him, were so far from conveying an idea of divinity, that they afforded but a very humiliating picture of humanity. The belief of mankind was not required from fuch circumftances, and they who inflicted thofe miferies upon him were forgiven, for they knew not what they did.” It is at the same time true, that Jefus Chrift has not left us without a record of himself, as I fhall hereafter have occafion to fhew, but it was carried only fo far as to become a teftimony, when explained afterwards, otherwise they who crucified him must have known what they did. On the day on which our Lord was betrayed, knowing that his hour was come, he fays to his difciples, "I have yet many things to fay unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he the fpirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he fhall not fpeak of himself; but whatsoever he fhall hear, that shall he fpeak: and he will fhew you things to come. He fhall glorify me: for he fhall receive of mine, and fhall fhew it unto

you