Holy Spirit fell visibly upon them,) "understood none of these things, and these sayings were hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken;" for they were remarkably dull in apprehending many of the plainer discoveries which their Lord and Master made to them. They understood not how he was to die and rise again on the third day, although he had repeatedly advertised them of it, and they had seen him raise the dead upon three several occasions. They at one moment placed the greatest degree of faith in him, which they withdrew the next. They were, in fact, all ignorance and weakness. When their Lord was captured they deserted him, and all the hopes, which he had so fondly excited in their bosoms, were buried with him in the tomb; and even after the resurrection they were incredulous and fearful; but the moment they are visited by the Holy Spirit from on high their characters instantly change. No longer ignorant, they speak, and they speak eloquently, clearly, and fluently, in various languages. Instead of assembling" in private for fear of the Jews, the doors being shut,” and whispering their hopes or alarms in each other's hearing, they declaim openly and aloud. Fearless of every danger, and unawed by the presence of either Scribes or Pharisees, they now removed the veil which concealed the divinity while they looked upon the person of their Master. This change of

character and new doctrine is "noised abroad, and the multitude come together and are confounded, and are amazed, and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold! are not these Galileans? hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?" Indeed, so great is the amazement of the people, that they for a moment attribute the frenzy of feeling in the Apostles to madness, or to the effects of new wine. And what is it that St. Peter now declares unto the amazed multitude? He adds to their astonishment by telling them that Jesus of Nazareth, who hitherto appeared among them "as a man approved of God," and whom they had taken and by wicked hands crucified and slain," (mark the boldness of the expression,) was none other than God, whom "it was not possible for death to hold" or destroy, and against whom death had no power; a circumstance which David in the spirit of prophecy had predicted, when he said that he had "foreseen JEHOVAH," and had thus spoken of his resurrection, "that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption." And what was the effect which this astonishing discovery of the divinity of Jesus produced upon his hearers? "They were pricked in their hearts' their hearts now fail them, for they perceive, but perceive too late, that they had crucified and murdered not only Jesus of Nazareth, but him who was indeed "one with the Father;"

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and in terror and alarm they cry out, “Men and brethren, what shall we do!" St. Peter afterwards addressed the dispersed Jews to the same effect, "We have not followed cunningly-devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty;"-where the power and coming of Christ, of which the Apostle speaks, was not, as the Defendants conceive, either his general coming to judgment upon the world, or his particular coming upon the nation of the Jews; but by his power and coming is meant his powerful appearance in the world, by which he mightily discovered himself to be the Son of God.1 Before I close this address, I shall adduce another instance of the surprise, consternation, and alarm, which a discovery of Christ's divinity produced among the Scribes, the Pharisees, and others of the Jewish people, who saw, acknowledged, and were perplexed at the proof of it. This transaction, and that which I have already detailed, are both of them recorded by St. Luke; and yet what say the Defendants?" Matthew, Mark, and Luke, professing to write a history which should contain all that would be necessary, absolutely forget to mention that Jesus Christ was the living and true God, and take no more notice of this awful distinction than

1 Stillingfleet's Origines Sacræ, b.îì. c. 9. xiii.

if he were a man like themselves." But supposing the case had been as it is here represented, and that Matthew, Mark, and Luke had made no allusion to the divinity of their Lord; what is to be said of St. John, who wrote almost exclusively upon the subject of the person and office of Christ? I will take upon myself to say, that an able theologian, with this single Gospel alone, might meet and refute every argument brought by the Unitarians to deny the divinity of Christ: for it is impossible to take even any small part of his Gospel in which it is not again and again asserted or implied.' Matthew tells, of the miraculous conception of Jesus, that his birth of a virgin was the fulfilment of ancient prophecy, and that his name, EMMANUEL, signified "God with us;" that this blessed Saviour afterwards promised, that wherever two or three were gathered together in his name, He would be in the midst of them; and when he finally left his disciples for his heavenly kingdom, he said, "Lo! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Mark tells us that the evil spirits immediately knew and acknowledged his divine power.

This has been admirably done by Bishop Blomfield in his "Five Lectures on the Gospel of St. John," a work equally characterised, with all others on subjects of theology from his pen, for that peculiar simplicity of expression and style so rare among the learned, yet with all that force so common to this profound scholar and divine.

"Let us alone: what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee, who thou art, the Holy One of God." Luke speaks fully of the miraculous conception and the birth of him who was born a Saviour, Christ the LORD;" relates the birth and office of his forerunner, who was appointed to go before the face of the Lord (Jehovah) and to prepare his ways: with a variety of other circumstances bespeaking his divinity. However slight might be the notice of the supernatural incidents accompanying the birth and early years of the Messiah, the virgin mother we are told, regarded all that passed with wonder and amazement; and though, perchance, she did not make known her feelings, yet we are assured that she preserved every thing in her memory, 66 pondering them in her heart." "Yet," say the Defendants, “Luke, who continues his history for thirty years after the resurrection of Christ, and relates the travels, the doctrines, and the success of the Apostles, mentions not a syllable of the divinity of Christ, and no one would know or suspect in reading his history, that the Apostles had ever heard of any such doctrine."

Luke, however, in the Acts of the Apostles represents them as praying to their ascended Lord, to direct them in their choice of one to supply the place of Judas: he tells, more than once, of the