fame time expreffes her conviction of the conftant efficacy of his interceffion: But I know, that even now whatsoever thou wilt afk of God, God will give it thee, ver. 22. She feemed to confine her ideas of the power of Jefus to bodily prefence, to divine donation, and to the prevalence of his prayers. Therefore, before he would give her any difplay of his power, he accounts it neceffary to enlarge and elevate her ideas concerning it. In order to this, he declares his mediatory character, in fuch terms as neceffarily imply his original and effential dignity: I am the refurrection, and the life. He also fhews that faith is the mean of deri ving life from him, and that he is himself the proper ob ject of it: He that believeth in me, though be were dead, yet fhall be live, ver. 25. Then he declares the eternity of this life; informing Martha that it is perpetuated by union to him, and by a conftant life of faith in him: And whofoever liveth and believeth in me, shall never die. In addition to this, not for his own information, but for her instruction, and for exciting her to the more vigorous exercise of faith, he proposes the following question; Believeft thou this? ver. 26. She teftifies her affent in these words, Yea, Lord; acknowledging his dominion over her faith; and also fubjoining a more particular confeffion of it: I believe that thou art the Chrift, the Son of God, who should come into the world. She firft declares her perfuafion of the fovereign power of Jefus; and then her faith with refpect to, not only his official character, but his effential dignity and preexistence. The connexion between the fimple affirmative and the following confeffion, fhews that, in her apprehenfion, believing in him, not merely as the Chrift, but as the Son of God, was equivalent to a perfuafion of his being the fountain of life, and having power to communicate, and to continue it to eternity. Her faith rifes in its exercise, and extends in its views, in confequence of the testimony

of

of the author and finisher of faith. He gave her the most convincing evidence of the truth of what he teftified, with respect to himself as the refurrection and the life, by a renewed communication of life to her foul. While he spoke, he fhewed, by the operation of his Spirit, that his words. were fpirit and life.

If it did not appear to Jefus that Martha at first entertained ideas unworthy of his dignity, why did he exhibit himself in a superior point of view? But while fhe confined all his power to donation, did fhe not believe that he could obtain any thing from God by prayer? Did the not, therefore, think as highly of him as Socinians do? Is there one of them who believes that Jefus, in the proper sense of language, is the Life, as having it in himself, and as having a right to communicate it in a sovereign manner to others?

That Jefus performed the miracle recorded in this chapter, to confirm the faith of Martha and the rest of the difciples in himself as a divine Perfon, is evident, not only from what has been obferved, but from the end which he exprefsly proposed in this work. It has been formerly feen, that he exhibited the glory of the Son of God as the fupreme and ultimate end; faying to the twelve, This ficknefs is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby. The Son of God was glorified, because it appeared in a very ftriking manner, by this miracle, that he is that God who quickeneth the dead, and who is the object of faith in this character, Rom. iv. 17. that he hath not merely power to give life, but that he is the life. This was the glory of God which Martha was to fee, if the continued to believe; as our Lord reminds her, when her faith began to decline in its exercife, from a confideration of natural obftacles, ver. 40.

See above, p. 413, 414.

5. The difciples confefs their Mafter in this character, as expreffive of his power over nature, and of his right to religious worship. On occafion of their deliverance from a ftorm, a cluster of miracles is prefented to view. They fee Jefus walking on the waters. At his word, Peter does the fame. When Jefus enters into the ship, the wind ceases at once, though boisterous the moment before; and the hip, which was in the midst of the fea, is immediately at the land whither they went, Mat. xiv. 24-33. John vi. 21. Therefore, with one voice, they fay unto him, Truly thou art the Son of God. It cannot reasonably be doubted, that they gave him this character, as fignifying their perfuafion that he was a, divine Perfon. For all the concomitant circumstances fhew, in the cleareft manner, that they formed no other opinion. The difciples knew that God alone could fufpend the laws of nature. They could not, indeed, be ignorant, that he had occafionally employed men as his inftruments in this work. But they could never imagine that any man could communicate this power to another; and far less, that he could communicate it in an authoritative and abfolute way. They had been witneffes, however, of Jefus doing fo. While they hefitated whether it were he, whom they faw walking on the fea, or a fpirit; Peter propofed this teft of the truth of what his Master had said; Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. He not only gives him a name, in its full fenfe, denoting univerfal dominion; but expreffes his perfuafion that Jefus could extend the fame power, in its effects, to him alfo, and that he could accomplish this by a word. He craves, that this glorious operator would give forth his word of authority, faying, Command me to come. For the word wehe always denotes authority, and fometimes that which is abfolute and definitive. Thus it is used, Mat. xxvii. 64. with refpect to the power of Pilate, the Roman Governor, over

his foldiers; Command that the fepulchre be made fure. In the fame chapter in which we have an account of the miracles under confideration, it expreffes the authority of Herod; He commanded the head of John to be given her, ver. g. It is evident that, as foon as Peter received the command from his Lord, he confidered it as the word of a king, and as conveying power. For he came down out of the ship. His faith refted on the authoritative word of Jefus. Thus he gave him the honour that belongs to God only.

It was genuine faith. For it was the mean of his fupport on the watery element. He walked on the water. When he began to fink, Chrift does not reprove him for trusting in the word of a man like himself; which he cer tainly would have done, had this been the cafe. But he charges him with trufting too little, and sharply reproves him for doubting. Now, what did Peter doubt? Unqueftionably, the power of Chrift's word of command. Therefore, our Saviour blames his difciple for doubting that, which it had been his fin to have trufted, had Jefus been a mere man. He reproves him for what, on this supposition, must have been his duty; because it is written, Curfed be the man that trufleth in man.

Those who were in the fhip acknowledged, in confequence of what they had seen, that Jesus was truly the Son of God. The word annows, rendered truly, often denotes the certainty of that evidence by which the truth of any thing is demonftrated. But it is also used to fignify the truth of a thing itself, with refpect to its effence. The latter seems to be the fenfe here. It is equivalent to their faying; "Thou art the true," or 66 proper Son of God." They could have no other meaning. They not only witneffed the divine power of his word; but exprefsly declared their conviction of this, by joining adoration with their confefHon. They were affured that God alone treadeth upon the

waves of the fea, (Job ix. 8.). Therefore, they worshipped him, faying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God. That the term used denotes religious worship, we have elsewhere proved.

It also appears that the man born blind, whom Jefus reftored to fight, had such a faith in him as the Son of God, efpecially in confequence of having the eyes of his underStanding enlightened, as to account him entitled to religious adoration. For when Jefus faid unto him, Doft thou believe on the Son of God? on the ground of Chrift's teftimony, that it was he who spoke to him, he replied; Lord, I be lieve. And he worshipped him, John ix. 35-38.

CHA P. V.

Of the Ufe of this Expreffion by the Apoftles and others, after the Afcenfion of Jesus.

WE

E are now to fhew in what sense this character, the Son of God, was given to Jefus, after his afcenfion. He had promised to fend the Holy Ghoft, to lead the dif ciples into all truth. He was accordingly shed forth on the day of Pentecoft. It is of importance to obferve the confequence of this effufion. For we are under a neceffity of believing, that any former miftakes would henceforth be rectified, and that what they understood imperfectly would be clearly revealed. But, inftead of affording any evidence that they had formerly understood the term under confideration in too high a fenfe, they confirm that very fenfe in which it has been explained, both in their dif courtes, and in their writings.

1. That they ufed it in a different sense from that of either of thefe expreffions, Jefus and Chrift, has been already pro