should be put to death by stoning. Suppo sing, therefore, Jesus was a mere man, it was their bounden duty to stone him to death for these sayings, as we know they often attempted to do. And it is the bounden duty of those, who arrogate to themselves the title of rational Christians, chiefly for agreeing with Jews in denying the proper divinity of Christ, and, with Jews, brand his church as idolators for worshipping him; it is their bounden duty, I say, if they believe God abhors idolatry with them, to call Jesus accur sed; when they read in his authentic history, that he takes to himself the incommunicable name of Jehovah....I am He.

This supposed blasphemy, was the cause of his death. For "when the high priest asked him, and said unto him, art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? Jesus said, I am; or I am He: and ye shall see the son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, ye have heard the blasphemy, what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death," Mark xiv. 63.

And now see how they gather round his cross, casting barbarous insults on him in his agonies, and triumphing over him in his fall.

Behold his face, more marred than any man's, and his body ploughed up with long furrows, by the scourging he endured! Hear that loud and bitter cry, as of one sinking under inex pressible horrors of mind, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me !" Still the union of the divine and human nature never appeared more incontestable, than in the midst of all this shocking scene: for a ruffian, upon his own confession deserving the death he suffered, calls upon Jesus to remember him. He instantly receives from him, an assurance of immediate everlasting happiness. Who can deliver after this manner, but God alone? Take off the veil, which hides from the eye of sense and unenlightened reason the transaction which passed on the cross, and you will perceive, that Jesus appeared in no instance of his life so glorious, as when he hung a spectacle to men and angels on the accursed tree. Then "his death destroyed death, and him that had the power of it. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so was the Son of man lifted up," bound only by the cords of love, for the healing of the nations. His precious blood, which bathed his body, flowed "a fountain for all sin, and for all uncleanness;" of which the growing

virtue, and the growing praise, shall fill with wonder and joy all heaven for ever.

Can such beneficent effects be ascribed to the blood of mere man? or can the death of one innocent creature be the atonement for the sins of innumerable myriads, and the everlasting salvation of all who escape the wrath to come? Here the things constantly asserted in holy writ of the efficacy of Christ's death, are beyond all proportion, without supposing the blood of Christ, which purchased the church, was indeed the blood of God.

Nor during his unexampled humiliation, were proofs of his eternal Godhead wanting. Above, below, on every side, whilst he hangs on the cross, the whole frame of nature was violently disturbed. Darkness at noon-day covers all the earth, for three hours. The sun itself is darkened, not by an interposing planet, but by a miracle. The earth quakes, and with the veil of the temple the rocks are rent. What manner of proportion is there between such awful and grand prodigies as these, and the death of a mere innocent man? Did ever martyred prophet or apostle receive any degree of such honour, in their dying hours? What aileth thee, O thou earth, that

thou wert moved, and thou sun, that thou refusedst to shine? We can answer, tremble not at the presence only, but at the cruci fixion of your Maker. In this loud and terrifying manner, publish the detestation due to the attrocious deed: and when the God of nature suffers, let the whole inanimate crea tion express its sympathy with him.

Having been crucified by the Scribes and Pharisees, for asserting his equality with the Father; after his resurrection, instead of refusing, as sacrilege, he openly receives the adoration due to God only. Thomas, upon hearing Jesus declare to him all his thoughts, and stubborn unbelief of heart, concerning his resurrection, said unto him, my Lord, and my God! At his ascension, all his disciples worship him. Soon after Stephen is stoned, invoking, and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." Here a martyr " beholding the heavens opened, and Jesus at the right hand of God," prays to him alone for the two greatest gifts which can be received, the salvation of his own soul, and the pardon of the worst murderers under heaven. Yet this very martyr, if Christ be not by nature God,

with the Father, dies in the very act of idolatry; therefore, according to express scripture, "can never enter into the kingdom of heaven." This is but one amongst a thousand glaring absurdities, which inevitably follow from degrading the Saviour into a mere man, or a creature.

From this time, and no wonder, we find the churches of Christ constantly distinguished by the very practice of the first martyr, by their calling on the name of the Lord Jesus. And calling upon God, we know, is the Old Testament phrase for worshipping him. When more than sixty years had pass ed from his ascension, St. John is favoured with a visit from his best and dearest friend. So glorious was the sight, that he fell at his feet as dead. "And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me," (observe, he takes to himself the style of the Supreme) "I am the first and the last, I am he that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death," Rev. i. 17. And to finish the whole account, the throne of God and the Lamb are joined together, as receiving the everlasting adoration of all the company of heaven. Thus the oracles of God deliver down the character of Christ to all ages.