and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?" (xiv. 9.) " All things that the Father hath are mine." (xvi. 15.) "Be not faithless, but believing." "And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God." (xx. 27.) "Grace to you, and peace from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who is over all gods, blessed for ever." (Rom. i. 7; ix. 5.) "Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ;" (1 Cor. i. 3;) clearly implying equality. 2 Cor. i. 2, contains the same words. “Paul an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father:" "Grace be unto you, and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ." (Gal. i. 1, 3.) "Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." "Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus

the works of my Father, such glorious works as could not be performed by any but a divine agent, believe me not; but if it be apparent that I do such works, though you believe not me, and am regardless of my own testimony in the case, yet, at least, believe the mighty works that I perform, and let the evidence of these remove the prejudices you have entertained; that ye may know and believe, that the Father is in me and I in him, by such an union as abundantly justifies the expression, which seems to give you such peculiar offence. Then though they knew not what to answer him, the Jews were so enraged against him, that they sought again to seize him, that they might accuse him of blasphemy before the sanhedrim; but He withdrew himself as He had done before, in an extraordinary manner, and so escaped out of their hands. (Compare Luke iv. 30, sect. 32; and John viii. 59, sect. x. 5.)"-Dod. Ex. vol. ii. p. 228, 229.

Christ." (Eph. i. 2; vi. 23.)

"Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." (Phil. i. 2.) "The supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ:" (ver. 19.) "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." (ii. 5, 6.) "Grace be unto you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ;" (Col. i. 2.) "who is the image of the invisible God." (ver. 15.) “For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, that your hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love; and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him which is the head of all principality and power." (Col. ii. 1—10.) "Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ: grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Thess. i. 1.) "Now God himself, and our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way unto you." (iii. 11.) "Paul, and Silvanus, and Timotheus, unto the church of the Thessalonians in

God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: grace be," &c. (2 Thess. i. 1.) "When the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, according to the grace of our God, and the Lord Jesus Christ." (ver. 7, 12.) "Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work." (ii. 16, 17.) "Paul. an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour, and Lord Jesus Christ which. is our hope; unto Timothy, my own son in the faith; grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord." (1 Tim. i. 1, 2.)

66

Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness God was manifest in the flesh." (iii. 16.) "Who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen or can see; to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen." (vi. 16.) "Grace," &c. (2 Tim. i. 2.) "I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ." (iv. 1.) "Grace," &c. (Tit. i. 4.) "Adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." (ii. 10, 13.) The epistle of Paul to Philemon, (ver. 3.) "Grace to you," &c.

In the epistle of Paul to Titus, first bishop of the church of the Christians, he exhorts him to hold fast the faithful word as he had been taught,

that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers: for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped; who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake; wherefore, rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth.

These considerations may have powerfully suggested the necessity of writing, as Dr. Doddridge well distinguishes it, that celebrated epistle the epistle to the Hebrews: "It was written," as he continues to observe, "to the converts to Christianity from Judaism, who were almost incessantly persecuted by their unbelieving brethren (such, probably, as those described by St. Paul to Titus-it may be in part the very men) who tenaciously adhered to the constitution and ceremonies of the Mosaic law, which Christianity superseded. Now the manifest design of St. Paul in this epistle is to confirm the Jewish Christians in the faith and practice of the gospel, of which they might be in danger of deserting, either through the insinuations or ill treatment of their persecutors." And the method wisely adopted in their particular case is, directing their attention to the Scriptures they held sacred, by references to them, and to their legal types, showing that these are now fulfilled in Christ.

This most highly important epistle commences * Dod. Ex. vol. vi. p. 5.

by declaring unto the Jewish converts, that "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners (as they well knew and acknowledged) spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things :* by whom also He made the worlds;" enforcing upon their minds, and imprinting on their recollections the truths before asserted by St. John, namely, that by his Son God made the worlds; that without him was not any thing made that was made; and which St. Paul had so emphatically impressed on the memory of the Colossian converts, unto whom he declares, that by him—that is, God the Son-all things were created; reminding them also of his high supremacy over the angels, according with, and corroborative of his assertions to the Ephesians; unto whom he testifies that Christ is set down at the right hand of God in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, that He might fill all things. And though it was written that God gave his angels. charge concerning him, at the humiliating juncture of his incarnation; (Ps. xc. 7;) yet at the same time, when He brought his first-begotten into the world, He saith, "Let all the angels of God worship him ;" which command, at the termi

* These truths are, under a parabolical form, asserted by our blessed Saviour himself, (Matt. xxi. 33,) wherein is described the treatment of the prophets; and that last of all, the householder sent his son, saying, They will reverence my son: but when the husbandmen saw him, they said, This is the heir.