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CONTENTS.

SERMON I.

Christ God in the strict and proper sense: or Christ's Divinity asserted from John i. 1.

JOHN i. I.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God

SERMON II.

I

Christ properly Creator: or Christ's Divinity proved from Creation.

JOHN i. 3.

All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made

SERMON III.

24

Christ properly Creator: or Christ's Divinity proved from Creation.

JOHN i. 3.

All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made

SERMON IV.

48

The Scripture-Unity not an Unity of Person: or the Divine Unity stated and cleared.

MARK xii. 29.

Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν Κύριος εἰς ἐστι.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord

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67

SERMON V.

Christ's Divinity proved from his Coequality with the Father or Equality of Christ with the Father. PHIL. ii. 5-11.

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: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father

SERMON VI.

89

Divine Titles ascribed to Christ in Holy Scripture: or Christ's Divinity proved from his Titles.

JOHN xvi. 15.

All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you 111

SERMON VII.

Divine Attributes ascribed to Christ: or Christ's Divinity proved from his Attributes.

JOHN XVI. 15.

All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you 141

SERMON VIII.

Christ's Divinity proved from the Form of Baptism.
MATTH. xxviii. 19.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost

172

Christ God in the strict and proper sense:

OR

CHRIST'S DIVINITY

ASSERTED

FROM JOHN I. 1.

The first Sermon preached Sept. 9, 1719.

JOHN i. I.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

SAINT John the beloved Disciple, the undoubted author of this Gospel which bears his name, was the youngest of the Apostles, and survived the rest many years. He saw so much the more of the state of Christianity, and of the progress it made under two persecutions; the fist by Nero, the second by Domitian. Under the latter, he himself had inevitably suffered, had not God miraculously preserved him. After this, he was banished into Patmos, a little island in the Archipelago; and, during his retirement there, was favoured, in a particular manner, with revelations from heaven; which he committed to writing, and left behind him for the benefit of the Church. After a year or two's exile, it pleased God to call him forth again to Ephesus, his usual seat of residence; and there he passed the short remainder of his days, being then ninety years old, in the most divine and comfortable employment; taking upon him the charge of the churches

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of Christ, those especially of the Lesser Asia. As there must be heresies at all times, (infinite wisdom permitting them for great ends and reasons,) so were there not wanting, even in the times of the Apostles, some denying the divinity, others the humanity of our blessed Lord, and both for the same reason; being offended at the great and unsearchable mystery of God incarnate. The tares had been sown by Simon Magus, Cerinthus, and others; and were grown up to a great height before St. John's death. This made it the more necessary for him to write his Gospel; which accordingly he undertook at the request of the bishops of Asia, and the brethren of the neighbouring provinces. But first he appointed solemn fasting and prayer for the divine blessing and assistance in it; after which being more fully instructed and more plentifully inspired, he thus began his lofty theme. "In the beginning was the WORD, and the "WORD was with God, and the WORD was God. The "same was in the beginning with God. All things were "made by him, and without him was not any thing "made that was made." In these few words, and those that follow in that chapter, the good Apostle has not only confuted most of the heresies then on foot, but has obviated as many as should thereafter rise up in opposition to the divinity, personality, or incarnation of the Son of God: points of the greatest concernment to all Christians, but which nevertheless (through the perverseness of men's wits, and their proneness to take wrong measures of divine things) have been a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence to the disputers of this world, in former and in latter ages. This first chapter of St. John (as I said) is alone sufficient, with reasonable men, to end all disputes upon those heads. The words are plain, and the sense clear when carefully looked into; and it is for that very reason that they have been more tampered with, than any in the whole Scriptures. For, when the obvious and natural meaning of a text happens to stand in the way of an hypothesis, or preconceived opinion, pains must

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