the copies of the original language, so thus absolutely and subjectively taken must it be understood of Christ." Our Saviour did not censure Thomas, when, upon being convinced of his resurrection, he exclaimed, "My Lord and my God (o);" and therefore by allowing himself to be called God, he admitted that the name was justly applied to him; and it may be observed, that the answer of our Saviour seems to annex a blessing to this belief of his divinity: "Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." It cannot, I think, be said that this declaration of our Lord referred only to the belief in his resurrection, when we consider the words of Thomas, and the circumstances which passed after Christ's resurrection. The incredulity of Thomas could not proceed from doubting the possibility of restoration to life, because he had seen professed enemy so well versed in MSS. I cannot consider this as a doubtful text; and whoever will take the trouble of reading Wetstein's long and laboured note upon this verse, will, I think, be convinced both of its purity, as it now stands in our Greek Testaments, and of its force in proving the divinity of our Saviour. Vide Mill and Whitby in loc. and Pearson, Art. 2. (0) John, c. 20. v. 28. seen the dead raised by the power of Jesus; but he had been expressly told, that " as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given the Son to have life in himself (p)," and he might have considered this and similar declarations to be so inconsistent with the death of Christ, as to doubt whether he and the other disciples had not been deceived in their confidence in him. Certain it is that they were not prepared for the event of his crucifixion, although our Lord had repeatedly foretold it. When he was taken before Pilate, "they all forsook him and fled;" and after his death we hear them expressing their firm belief that "Jesus of Nazareth was a mighty prophet in deed and word before God and all the people;" but adding, with evident marks of the disappointment occasioned by his death, "But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel (q)." Thomas therefore, who seems to have determined (r), after having received so severe a disappointment, as he thought, of the expectations he had formed concerning the Son of God, not to yield his faith again. but to the most positive evidence, is no sooner convinced of the actual existence of his master Jesus Christ, than all his former confidence in his assertions (p) John, c. 5. v. 26. (q) Luke, c. 24. v. 19 and 21. assertions instantly returns, and he exclaims, 66 My Lord and my God." God." Our Lord does not reply, as when St. Peter made an acknowledgment of his belief in his divinity before his crucifixion, "charging him to tell no man (s).” The time of necessary concealment was past; and having since his resurrection reproved his disciples for the doubts they entertained, "O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not Christ to have suffered. these things, and to enter into his glory (t)?" and having "expounded unto them, in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself," according to his promise to speak unto them plainly upon a subject about which they had expressed so much eager curiosity, he soon after directs them to publish the truths he had declared, by "teaching all nations (u)," and admitting them into his church by a form of baptism expressive of his Divinity, and ascends into heaven as a demonstrative proof of what he had asserted. God frequently describes his own Being in the Old Testament by the appellation of the "First and the Last," as a title denoting eternity, and exclusively belonging to himself: "I am the First, and I am the Last, and beside me there is no God." (s) Matt. c. 16. v. 20. (t) Luke, c. 24. v. 25, &c. (u) Matt. c. 28, v. 19. God (u)." In the Revelation, Christ describes himself by the same title; he says to St. John, "Fear not; I am the First and the Last (x):"-"These things saith the First and the Last, which was dead and is alive (y):”—“ I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last (2);" and, "therefore," says bishop Pearson, "since Christ has so immediately, and with so great solemnity and frequency, taken the same style upon him, by which the Father did express his Godhead, it follows that he has declared himself to be the Supreme, Almighty, and Eternal God (a)." And indeed" all the names, the operations, and even the attributes of God, are in full and plain words given to Christ; he is called God (b); his blood is said to be the blood of God (c); God is said to have laid down his life for us (d); Christ is called the true God (e); the great God (f); the Lord of Glory (g); the King of Kings, and the Lord of Lords (h); and more particularly the name Jehovah is ascribed to him in the same word in which the seventy interpreters had translated it throughout the whole Old Testament, so that the constant uniformity of style between the Greek of the New, and that translation of the Old Testament, which was then received, and was of great authority among the Jews, and was yet of more authority among the first Christians, is an argument that carries such a weight with it, that this alone may serve to determine the matter. The creating, the preserving, and the governing of all things, is also ascribed to Christ in a variety of places, but most remarkably when it is said, that 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 (i); he is said to have known what was in man (k); to have known mens secret thoughts, and to have known all things; that as the Father was known of none but of the Son, so none knew the Son, but the Father (1); he pardons sin (m), sends the Spirit (n), gives grace and eternal life, and he shall (i) Col. c. i. v. 16 and 17. (k) John, c. 2. v. 25. (m) Matt. c. 9. v. 6. |