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that, in fact, they who did not thus honour the Son did not truly honour the Father who had sent him.]

From hence we may see,

II. What construction we must put upon them—
If the Jews were right in their construction of our
Lord's assertion, then we must regard his words,
1. As an avowal of his own proper divinity—

[When, on another occasion, our Lord had said, "I and my Father are one, the Jews took up stones to stone him;" and when our Lord said, "Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of them do ye stone me? they answered, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God." And truly, if he was not God, they were correct in their judgment. For what should we say if Moses or St. Paul had used such language, and founded on their relation to the Deity a right, a personal right, to supersede the laws which God himself had instituted? should we not have accounted them guilty of blasphemy? Then so was Christ, if he was no more than man. But, in fact, he spoke only what all the prophets had long since declared concerning him. "He, though a child born, and a son given, was the Mighty God";" "Jehovah's fellow," "Jehovah our Righteousness. And to the same effect all his holy Apostles also testify respecting him. Did the Father create, and does he also uphold, the world? This is true of the Son likewise; as St. Paul expressly asserts: "For 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." Again it is said, that " God hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things; by whom also he hath made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, upholdeth all things by the word of his powerm." What a confirmation is here of those words of our Lord, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work!" What a confirmation, too, of the construction put upon them by the Jews, "that he made himself equal with God"!" Yes, truly, being in the form of God, even in his incarnate state he

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f ver. 19-23.

i Zech. xiii. 7.

m Heb. i. 1, 3.

g John x. 30-33.
k Jer. xxiii. 6.

h Isai. ix. 6.
1 Col. i. 16, 17.

n ver. 19. ταῦτα καὶ ὁ Υἱὸς ὁμοίως ποιεῖ, He doth the same things

in the same manner.

thought it not robbery to be equal with God":" and the very words which were used by him on this occasion must be considered as an open avowal, on his part, that he was "God manifest in the flesh," even " God over all, blessed for evermore."] 2. As a warrant to us to rely upon him for all that we stand in need of—

"In him," as we have said, "dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." "In him, too, as Mediator, there is all fulness treasured up," that "out of his fulness all his people should receivet." He is constituted "Head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all"." Let us only see what he did, when on earth, to the bodies of men: that he now doeth to their souls Yes, pardon, and peace, and holiness, and glory, would he at this instant confer on us, if we would but seek them at his hands*. Was he incessant in his labours, rendering even the Sabbath-day subservient to his great work? So will he now impart to our souls continually, and to the full extent of our necessities and not only will he not intermit his labours on the Sabbath-day, but he will rather pursue them with redoubled energy on that holy day, sanctifying, rather than profaning, it by that blessed employment. In all this he will shew himself equal with the Father. He has said "Ye believe in God; believe also in mey." And " every soul that believeth in him shall most assuredly be justified from all things"," and "be saved by him with an everlasting salvation"."]

From hence then LEARN,

1. To dismiss prejudice from your minds

[The Jews were blinded by prejudice, and therefore could see nothing in the miracles of our Lord to justify their affiance in him. Had they been candid, and open to conviction, what blessings might they not have enjoyed! But they turned his every word and work into an occasion of offence, and augmented their own eternal condemnation by the very means used for their salvation. And thus it is that prejudice works at this day. Multitudes are so offended at something which they account wrong, that they have neither eyes nor ears for those things which are of the greatest possible importance to their souls. A departure from some outward observance, which they venerate, shall swallow up all the best qualities that the holiest of men can possess, all the best actions that he can

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perform, and all the best instructions he can give. Only think, my beloved brethren, what the Jews lost on this occasion; and how different their condition now is, in the eternal world, from what it might have been if they had obeyed the counsels of our Lord; and you will see, that the advice I now give you is worthy of your deepest attention —

2. To exercise a simple faith in Christ—

[In the days of his flesh, he inquired of persons who solicited his help, whether they believed him able to confer on them the desired boon: and so he now says to every one amongst you," According to your faith be it unto you." O what would he not do for us, if only we would call upon him? Verily, if every one of us could flock around him, importuning mercy for our souls, "virtue at this very instant should go forth from him, to heal us all." Think you, brethren, that he is less able or less willing now to hear us, than he was in the days of his flesh? No, indeed: even a touch of the hem of his garment" should be sufficient for the effecting all that our necessities require.]

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MDCXXVI.

CHRIST'S VINDICATION OF HIS OWN DIVINE CHARACTER. John v. 21-23. As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.

AMONGST the various beauties by which the Holy Scriptures are distinguished, we cannot but notice the artless simplicity with which the most sublime doctrines are delivered: they are not introduced with studied care, as they would be in human compositions; but arise incidentally, as it were, out of things which have but a remote connexion with them. Our blessed Lord had healed an impotent man at the pool of Bethesda, and had bidden him to take up his bed whereon he had lain, and walk away with it. The Jews, instead of glorifying God on the occasion, accused Jesus of violating the Sabbath, and sought to kill him for having wrought this miracle on the

Sabbath-day. Our Lord, in vindication of himself, said, that he did no more than what his heavenly Father did; for his Father carried on his works both of providence and grace on the Sabbath, as well as on other days; and that he himself did the same. At this answer the Jews took still greater offence. They saw that Jesus arrogated to himself a peculiar relation to God, even such a relation as was in effect an assumption of equality with Goda. Hence " they sought the more to kill him," on account of what they conceived to be the summit of impiety and blasphemy. Jesus was now compelled to answer for himself on these grounds: and he told the Jews, that though they were correct in supposing him to claim an equality with God, they were mistaken in imagining that he therefore set up himself against God: on the contrary, there was a perfect union of sentiment and affection, of will and operation, between them; and neither did his Father, nor he, do any thing, without the most perfect concurrence and co-operation of the other: and so far was this from interfering with God's honour, that it was purposely arranged in the eternal counsels, in order that God might be honoured in the person of his Son: nor would God consider himself as honoured by any one, who would not honour him in the precise way which he himself had appointed.

Thus, out of this perverse conduct of the Jews arose an assertion and vindication of the divinity of Christ: they forced him to vindicate his apparent violation of the Sabbath, and then to maintain the ground he had assumed in his vindication of it: and thus we are indebted to their perverseness for one of the clearest and most important statements in all the sacred volume.

Let us now, in discoursing on these assertions of our Lord, consider,

I. The account he gives of his own character-
Had the Jews been mistaken in what they

a ver. 18.

supposed to be the scope of our Lord's assertions, he would have set them right: he would have told them plainly, that he did not intend to claim equality with God. But, instead of intimating that they had misunderstood his meaning, our Lord acknowledged that he did claim an equality with God; and, in confirmation of that claim, he asserted that a Divine authority belonged to him, both essentially, as God, and officially, as Mediator.

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1. Essentially, as God

[It is undoubtedly the Divine prerogative to "kill and to make alive:" nor is it possible for any creature to restore to life that which is really dead. But the Lord Jesus Christ quickeneth whom he will." As the Father had, by the instrumentality of his prophets, raised some to life, so Christ declared, that he would raise some by his own power. The persons, the time, the manner, were altogether at the disposal of his own will, by which alone he would be regulated in the dispensing of his favours. Moreover, he " Moreover, he "quickeneth also the souls of men when dead in trespasses and sins ;" and administers this gift also according to his own sovereign will and pleasure.

Would any mere creature have dared to arrogate to himself such a power as this? or would Jesus have given such an answer as this, if he have not designed to maintain his claim to an equality with God?]

2. Officially, as Mediator

[When it was determined in the Divine counsels that the Son of God should assume our nature, it was determined also that the government of the universe, and of the Church more especially, should be committed to his hands; and that he should judge the world whom he had redeemed by his blood. This, though primarily belonging, as it were, to the Father, was delegated to the Son, because he had assumed our nature, and because it was expedient that he who had "purchased the Church with his blood" should be empowered in his own person both to reward his friends and punish his enemies. But this office could not be executed by him, if he were not omniscient: he must know, not only every thought, word, and action, of all mankind from the beginning of the world to the end of it, but every possible circumstance that can at all tend to determine the precise quality of each. In a word, to exercise this office, he must be the omniscient God.

b Deut. xxxii. 39. c Acts x. 42. and xvii. 31. d ver. 27.

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