tiles desirous to see me! Now is the time near when the salutary truths of the gospel shall be made known to them, and to all the world, (This is plainly what he means by his being glorified.) But it is by my death which is approaching, and the happy consequences of it, that this most desirable event will be brought about. * Upon this being effected, (for he could not have been a man, had not he been so) with the thought and near prospect of his suffer. ings and death; he says, ver. 27. Now is my soul troubTed, and what shall I say? Father save me from this hour: But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name.' i. e. Though nature shrinks upon the view of the evils that are before me, and would prompt me to seek a deliverance from them: I will not desire it. Heavenly Father, let thy truth flourish and prevail by my means! Whatever I am to suffer, I gladly submit. Ver. 28. Then there came a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again: i. e. I have already given thee a foretaste of this glory, by the success which has attended thy miracles and preaching. And I will honour thee still more, and add to thy glory by raising thee speedily to life, aud enlarging thy powers of promoting the gospel of truth and righteousness. Thus it appears that the great object of our Lord's thoughts, upon the approach of his death, what he most earnestly desired, his expected glory,' was the success of the gospel which he preached." + $ *" John vii. 39. The holy Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.' i. e. his glory was to be promoted by sending the miraculous powers to the Apostles and followers, by which the success of that Gospel was to be promoted. John xiii. 31, 32. Now is the son of man glorified; and God is glorified by him. If God be glorified by him, God shall also glorify him in himself; and shall straitway glorify him.' Christ glorified God by his voluntary death in the cause of his truth; and Christ was glorified immediately, by the miracles done at his death, his resurrec tion in three days, and its consequence, the success of the gospel, + Mr Lindsey's Sequel to his Apology, p. 239 to 246. $ Grotius and Le Clerc interpret John xvii. 5. in the same manner, viz. of the glory that was destined, prepared, or laid up for Christ before the world was. See Grotius in loco, and Le Clerc's Harmonia Evans gelica. Augustin also understood this passage in the same way. John xx. 28. 'And Thomas answered and said unto him, my Lord, and my God.' This was an abrupt exclamation, uttered by Thomas at a time when his incredulity was removed, and he had received the most satisfactory evidence from our Lord himself of the certainty of his resur rection, and the identity of his persón. Thomas does not say to Christ, thou art my Lord and my God, but simply exclaims, in a transport of admiration, my Lord! and my God! which, for ought we know to the contrary, may have been directed to the Father who raised Christ from the dead. In the same manner pious and devout persons, when any sudden, unexpected, and surprising event happens, will sometimes say, good Lord! or good God! An ancient Father, who lived in the fourth century, gives the following interpretation of Thomas' words. "He did not call Christ, Lord and God; but being astonished at the great miracle of his resurrection, and the full evidence of it that he had afforded him, he praised God who had raised Christ from the dead."✶ A learned modern writer following the same idea, observes as follows.-"My Lord and my God; the faith of St. Thomas was only this, that Jesus was really risen from the dead. For when the Apostles had told him, they had seen the Lord; he answers, that except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe (it).' Then Christ coming a second time, saith unto him, 'reach hither thy finger, and "Et nunc clarifica me tu Pater apud temetipsum, claritate, quam habui priusquam mundus esset, apud te; tanquam diceret, claritatem quam habui apud te, id est, illam claritatem, quam habui apud te in prædestinatione tua, jam tempus est, ut apud te habeam etiam vivens in dextera tua, ́i. e. "And now glorify thou me Father with thyself, with the glory which I had before the world was, with thee; as if he had said, it is now time for me to be put into actual possession at thy right hand, of that glory which I had with thee, that is, had in thy predestination, or fore-appointment. Augustini Opera. Tom. 9. Tr. 105. p. 509. Ed. Frob. Basila 1569. Where a great deal more to the same purpose may be found.” " Theodore, Bishop of Mopsuestia, as quoted by Dr. Lardner. behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless but believing, (viz.) that I am risen.' Lastly, our Saviour saith, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed; which shews, that he could believe only what he had seen; to wit, that the same body was raised which had been crucified. Neither had he seen, nor could he see with his bodily eyes, that he who was thus raised, was his Lord and his God. These words, therefore, my Lord and my God, may have this import; my Lord and my God hath done this:' and se they exactly agree with the faith of the Apostles, saying, the God of our Fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew, and hanged on a tree.' Acts v. 30. See Acts ii. 24. Acts iii. 15. iv. 10. and xiii. 30. Or thus, my Lord and my God! How great is thy power; for, saith St. Paul, 'God exerted the greatness of his power, and the activity of his might, in raising our Lord Jesus from the dead. Eph. i. 19, 20. But whether this be the true import of St. Thomas' words or no; certain it is, that it cannot be proved, that he did intend by them to signify that he owned Jesus Christ as his Lord and his God. "First. Because he was bred up in the Jewish faith, which taught him that the Lord his God, the God of Israel, was one Lord, and that there was no other than he. And secondly. It would have contradicted the faith of Christ himself, who after his resurrection speaks to his disciples thus: I ascend to my Father and to your Father, and to my God and your God,' John xx. 17. And again, 'Him that overcometh, will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is the new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God; aud I will write upon him my new name.' Rev. iii. 12. * ›› 1 Dr. Whitby's Last Thoughts, &c. p. 77, 78. Dr. Whitby was once a strict Trinitarian, and in his Commentary on the New Testa ment, and in other works, he strenuously supported that system. But when far advanced in life, he became convinced that the Athanasian doctrine of a co-equal and consubstantial Trinity was erroneous. John xxi. 17. “And he said unto him (Peter said unto Jesus) Lord thou knowest all things; thou knowest "that I love thee.' The word ALL in scripture, is not always to be taken in an universal sense, but is sometimes to be limited to the subject in hand. Thus St. Paul tells the Corinthians, Eph. iii. 21. 'All things are yours,' and St. John says of those to whom he wrote, 1 Eph. ii. 20. But ye have an unction from the holy One, and ye know all things.' That our Lord Jesus Christ did not literally know all things that were possible to be known, is evident, because he expressly declared that he was ignorant of the day of judgment. Matth. xxiv. 36. Mark xiii. 32. Nor is the knowledge of Peter's heart, or the hearts of others, any proof of divin ity, because it was communicated to our Lord by the Father; and the Prophets and Apostles, on some occasions, possessed the same knowledge. See page 174. The words of Peter are, therefore, to be understood, only as declar. ing his opinion of the great extent of our Lord's knowledge. "Lord, thou whose knowledge is very great and extensive, to whom the spirit has been imparted without measure, and who hast on many occasions, even before thy death and resurrection, manifested an intimate acquaintance with, and accurate knowledge of the human heart, cannot be ignorant at present of the prevailing sentiments of my mind. Thou art conscious of the sincerity of my attachment, and the cordiality of my love; so that there is no occasion for me to make an express declaration of it in words." This seems to be the full import of Peter's words, nor can any thing further be fairly inferred from them. We have now fully considered and answered the objections of our opponents occurring in the Evangelists; and we shall, therefore, put a period to this Discourse, which has been extended to a more than usual length. It will be the subject He possessed the integrity of mind to change his opinions, and the magnanimity to avow it openly and became an advocate for that faith which once he endeavoured to destroy. He confuted Bishop Bull's Defensio Fidei Nicana, opposed to Dr. Waterland, and in his last thoughts on religion, has retracted and corrected several inter pretations of scripture, in his own Commentary on the New Too tament |