Watts - Houston-Packer Collection BX5207.W3 S4x 1805 v.3

DISC. vii.3 FAITH IN ITS LOWEST DEGREES. 213 queries would be very hard to answer, if we had nothing else but this miraculous sound, yetas the words lie in the Old Testament; since we enjoy the New, it is much easier to obtain a satisfying answer to them. Let us then try to find out, . I. Who is the person that speaks. II. Who are the persons spoken to. III. What this salvation is. IV. Howwe are to come by it. V. What assurance we can have, that we.shall possess - it in the wayproposed. To answer these questions shall be the business of these discourses. First, Let us find. out who is the person that speaks. He asserts his own divinity in the words of my text. . I amGod and there is atone else. Whether the Divine Being speaks this. in the person of the Father, or in the person of Jesus Christ the Son, is not ofabsolute neces- . sity to be determined in this place. Perhaps it could not be expounded under the Old Testament any otherwise than concerning the great God, considered asthe Father of all, the only trueGod, whose name is Jehovah, and who was then chiefly known to the Jews as the God of Israel. It is the God of the Jews calling the gentiles to partake of his salvation. He is their strength and their Saviour, and their righteousness is derived from him, as in the foregoing and following verses. But when under the NewTestament we explain these- words, we must rather consider God in Christ reconcil- ing the world of Jews and gentiles to himself : It is the. same one godhead which dwells bodily in the man Christ Jesus ; for 'the Father and the Son are not two Gods. It is God, the only true God; manifest in the flesh : It is Immanuel or .òd with us, who speaks these words : It. is. Christ Jesus the Lord, who is one with the Father, and' in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells, who calls the ends of ,the earth tó look .unto him and be saved. And there are some . special reasons that incline me to snppose these words of the prophet should chiefly be'. applied in the New Testament to our Lord Jesus' Christ, who makes this blessed offer. of grace. (L). It is the same person to whom the salvation of.. rS

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