cause that thou being a man makeft thyfelf God." The Jews alfo fought to kill him, "because he faid that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.” Here the ground of the Jewish resentment appears; they were Unitarians, and looked upon an equality or unity of Godhead between the Father and Son as the greatest indignity to the God of their fathers. To the words for which our Saviour was condemned by the high priest and his council, we may therefore afcribe the fame meaning, and conclude that they were defigned to convey the fame idea of our Lord's equal and one Godhead with the Father. The very fame thing which Jefus here fays they ihall hereafter fee, St. Stephen declares to the very fame tribunal to be now before his eyes; and the very fame confequence attends his declaration; fo that we may confider Stephen as having in this refpect alfo borne his teftimony to the one Godhead of the Father and of the Son of man.

XXXVII.

After Peter had healed Eneas at Lydda, faying, "Jefus Chrift maketh thee whole, arife," the friends of Tabitha, who was fick, and had died at Joppa, in the neighbourhood of the town where he had wrought this miracle, folicited his immediate attendance; upon which he rose and went with them, and coming into the chamber where they had laid her body, and having put forth all those who stood weeping by, "he kneeled down and prayed, and turning him to the body, faid, Tabitha, arife. And the opened her eyes: and when the faw Peter, fhe fat up," Acts ix. 40. "And it was known throughout all Joppa; and many believed in the Lord," verfe 42. The words which Peter spoke to Eneas were addreffed to him in order to induce his faith, and that of those who saw the work which he had done, in the Lord. But in the cafe of Tabitha, where he had put forth

thofe

those whose clamorous grief might interrupt the fervour of his devotion, and remained alone with the dead body, fuch language being abfolutely unneceffary, it is very probable that Peter did not use it on that account; but as there is no doubt that the fame Jefus Chrift, who had made Eneas whole, now called Tabitha back to life, it is furely to be inferred that the prayer of Peter was preferred to him; and this is the more probable, when we fee that the confequence of her revival on the call of Peter was, that "many believed on the Lord," for many who saw what had been done to Eneas "turned to the Lord."

XXXVIII.

"When God had to the Gentiles alfo granted repentance unto life," "fome of the difciples which were come to Antioch, fpake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jefus. And the hand of the Lord was with them; and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord;" upon which, when the church at Jerusalem heard it," they fent forth Barnabas, that he fhould go as far as Antioch. Who, when he came, and had feen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord," Acts xi. 18, 20, 21, 22, 23. Upon the hand of the Lord being with them, Barnabas is glad to have feen the grace of God; or he was glad upon having feen the "grace of God, who hath to the Gentiles alfo granted repentance unto life:" "but we believe that thro' the grace of the Lord Jefus Chrift, we fhall be faved even as they," Acts xv. 11. Here the grace of the Lord Jefus, and of God, are one and the fame, the fame also is the one Godhead of the Father and of the Son.

XXXIX.

That our Saviour was not intended to be a light to lighten the Gentiles," and consequently, that the full manifeftation of his Godhead was delayed till after his afcenfion,

afcenfion, as I have already fhewed, is evident from the following words of St. Paul to the Jews at Antioch, who were contradicting and blafpheming, because he gratified the request of the Gentiles, and on the fabbath day preached to them alfo "the word of God." " It was neceffary," said he and Barnabas," that the word of God fhould firft have been spoken to you: but feeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo! we turn to the Gentiles. For fo hath the Lord commanded us, faying, I have fet thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou fhouldeft be for falvation unto the ends of the earth," Acts xiii. 45, 46, 47. These words were spoken by the Lord to Isaiah, when he asked him, was it a light thing that he had appointed him to be his fervant, and " for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayeft be my falvation unto the end of the earth?" Ifaiah xlix. 6. Thefe words evidently fpoken by God to Ifaiah, and as evidently alluded to by St. Paul, who declares them a prophecy of the appointment made by the Lord Jefus Chrift to his apoftles, whom he had commanded" to go forth and preach his name to all nations, and to be his witnesses unto the uttermoft parts of the earth," to teach repentance and remiffion of fins among all nations in his name, " and to bear his name to the Gentiles," are an uncontrovertible evidence that the Lord, who commanded the apostles, faying, "I have fet, &c." is the fame God who had before spoken by his holy prophet. It is farther remarkable, that our Saviour then firft "opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures, and fee the neceffity there was that Chrift should suffer and rife from the dead the third day, when he was about to commiffion them to go forth and preach him to the Gentiles, which was not till after his refurrection, not indeed till the moment preceding his afcenfion. "He was not sent but to the loft sheep of the house of Ifrael,"

Matth.

Matth. xv. 24. " for it was neceffary that the word of God fhould firft have been fpoken to them;"" but when they had put it from them," and offered up this great facrifice for the fins of the whole world, hanging upon a cross" the Lord of glory," we find that, after he was made perfect by fuffering death, and, by his fuffering, had atoned for and adopted all nations, he was to be preached to the Gentiles; fo that the whole which he came to do according to the fcriptures, by which it was feen that it behoved him to die and rife again from the dead, could not have preceded his death, for fo the profit had been only to Ifrael; to Ifrael were his life and leffons, but to the whole world his falvation, which was to be promulgated after he had died for it; he therefore how fent out the apostles to hold forth this great light to lighten the Gentiles alfo, according to the prophecy before, certifying to them, "that they should be for falvation unto the ends of the earth." Paul and Barnabas continued fome time at Antioch, preaching the "word of God;"" and when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord and as many as were ordained to eternal life, believed. And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the region," Acts xiii. 48, 49. The Jews having ftirred up the honourable women, and raised a persecution against them, they proceeded to Iconium, where they fo fpake, that a great multitude, both of the Jews, and alfo of the Greeks, believed;"" long time therefore abode they, fpeaking boldly in the Lord, which gave teftimony unto the word of his Grace, and granted figns and wonders to be done by their hands," Acts xiv. 1, 3. What Paul and Barnabas preached is to be collected from its being said, that both Jews and Greeks believed. The God of the Jew and of the Unitarian is the fame; it was not therefore the God of the Jews, that the Jews were now firft induced to believe:

The

The Jews preached not their Jehovah, they fought not tớ make profelytes, it was not therefore in the God of the Jews that the Greeks believed. But Paul was fent “to bear the name of Chrift to the Gentiles, and to all nations, beginning from Jerufalem;" that the fecond perfon of the Godhead was then the object of Paul's doctrine to those who needed not a teacher of the one Godhead, but knew nothing before of the three Perfons in that Godhead, is evident hence; and therefore we may, with those believing Jews, lay afide the Unitarian system of Mr. Lindsey, and believe, that Jefus Christ, who, according to his promise that "he would be with them alway, even unto the end of the world," Matth. xxviii. 20, "continued working with them, and confirming the word with figns following," Mark xvi. 20; "and who now gave teftimony unto the word of his grace, and granted figns and wonders to be done by their hands," Acts xiv. 3, is one with the Father, that "God who bore them witness, both with figns and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghoft, according to his own will," Heb. ii. 4; "that God, who wrought fpecial miracles by the hands of Paul," before those "who heard him preach the word of the Lord Jefus, both Jews and Greeks," Acts xix. 11, 10.

XL.

When Paul and Barnabas preached the gospel at Lyftra, Acts xiv. 7, and fhewed their authority by a miracle of healing, the priests and people there would have done facrifice unto them, from a perfuafion that they were the foolish gods of their own idolatry; in oppofition to which the apoftles withstood them with great energy, faying that they preached in order to perfuade them that they fhould turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven and earth, and the fea, and all things that are therein," Acts xiv. 15. But

it