ashamed to show that it is so. He who shows such a change in him we may well believe to be reconciled to God: not that such works in themselves, or any works that he can do, are able by their own merit to reconcile him; nor does he for a moment believe that they are; but because, as it is our sin and carelessness that keep us away from Christ, so, where we see a manifest disposition to avoid sin, there we may be sure that Christ's Spirit has worked, and that Christ's redemption has been thankfully received.

And now then may I not well call on all who hear me to be reconciled to God? On all who have any influence, from whatever cause derived, that they being converted may strengthen their brethren, and not, while they perish themselves, incur also the dreadful guilt of leading others to perish also? On all who are ripening in age, and on all who are not yet ripening; for neither can afford to linger on their way, and both, if they delay, are as yet in that state in which it would have been good for them if they had never been born? On all who being possessed of some ability, are either wasting it in absolute idleness, or disposed to exert it for the sake of their own distinction and credit, exercising their understandings while their hearts are neglected? On all who being deficient in ability have little or no interest in the peculiar business of this place, but who have therefore the more reason to take

heed lest while they give up earthly prizes with indifference, they should give up the pursuit of eternal life besides? On all, in short, of whatever character, of whatever powers;-lest it should be said of you that it were good if you had never been born, when to the poorest understanding, to the humblest in age and influence amongst us, every hour of life may be made so precious, that to have been born shall be an eternal and infinite blessing?

RUGBY CHAPEL,

October 11th, 1835.

SERMON XX.

CHRIST'S DIVINITY.

EXODUS iii. 14.

And God said unto Moses, I am that I am.

ST. JOHN viii. 58.

Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.

RESEMBLANCES in words merely between one part of Scripture and another, and especially when those words are looked at by themselves, without any reference to the context, cannot be insisted upon as proving any thing. But when the passage in St. John from which I was just quoting was chosen for the Gospel of this day, the chapter in Exodus from which I have been also quoting, having been chosen for the first lesson, the resemblance between them to which it was intended to draw our attention was not verbal only but real. Verbal indeed it is not,

Р

as far as the Greek version of the Old Testament is concerned; for the expression there which answers to the "I am that I am" of our English Bible, is not the same with that in St. John's Gospel, which is translated in English by the same words. But the resemblance is real notwithstanding; for He who redeemed His people out of Egypt, and whilst revealing Himself in a visible form described Himself as essentially and eternally existing, is the same with Him who redeemed His people from their sins, and who, whilst again revealing Himself in a visible form, again declared that His existence was not measured by time, that He was the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.

Those who are acquainted with controversial theology well know that the words of our Lord are made to bear a lower sense by those who do not acknowledge His Divinity. By them they are interpreted as meaning only, "Before Abraham was,

it was determined in the counsels of God that I should be, and as to God all things are eternally present, so I may say that in God's sight before Abraham was I am." Many persons who would without any scruple reject such an interpretation in this case, yet do not hesitate often, in explaining the prophecies, to adopt a similar rule of interpretation there; that is, they give the words a meaning as far below their simple and obvious meaning, as the interpretation, "Before Abraham was, I was

But

present to God, inasmuch as he had determined that I should be," falls below the simple meaning of the words "Before Abraham was, I am." the fault in both cases consists not in giving such partial interpretations of the words of Scripture as a meaning of them, but as the meaning; as their highest meaning or their only one. It is true that our Lord's incarnation was determined, so the Scripture tells us, from the beginning of the world ; it is true, therefore, that our Lord was present in the mind of God, if we may so speak, before Abraham was born; and if any Jew who had heard him say these words, and who knew nothing of His divine nature, had understood them in this sense, and therefore, seeing in them nothing which he would think blasphemous, had not joined his countrymen in taking up stones to cast at Him, such a Jew would have understood them well according to his light, and would have gained from them the knowledge of a truth. And so when the Apostle's preached the resurrection, they were not wrong who said that the rising from the death of sin to a life of righteousness, was a part of the Christian's resurrection. But those were very wrong, who said that this figurative and partial interpretation of the doctrine expressed the whole of it; and so should we be wrong, if, taking only the lowest sense which our Lord's words will bear, that sense of which they are a highly hyperbolical expression, we were to say