210 FAITH IN ITS LOWEST DEGREES. [Disc. vI . else, ifapplied to Christ mean no more than this : There is no other godhead but that which dwells in me ; but that godhead in which I partake, by intimate communion or one-ness with the Father. "-I am in the Father, and the Father is in me ;" John xiv. 10, 11. In Christ dwells all the fullness of the godhead bodily ;" Col. ii. 9. After all, if we should ascribe this speech entirely to God the Father, yet it must be confessed, as I hinted before, it is God in Christ, God as reconciling the world to himself in and by Jesus Christ, and.saving the gentiles as his people, with an everlasting salvation ; so that Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour of men, cannot be left out ofmy text. 1. The second enquiry is this, who are the persons to whom this gracious invitation is made ? The text tells us, that the call reaches to all the ends of the earth, which we are to understand in á literal or in a figurative sense. . I. In a literal sense, and thus it signifies the gentile nations, who dwell afar off from Judea, those that inha- bit the distant corners of the world, and the islands that are afar off, that have not heard of the fame of the grace cr glory of God. As Is. lxvi. 19. For the Jews fancied themselves to be placed in thei middle of the earth, by the peculiar favour of God ; and indeed they were so in one respect, ftbr the land. of Canaan is near the borders of Asia, where it joins to Africa, and not very far off from the limits of Europe ;, which three were the only known parts of the world in that day. The British islands may, in a special manner, be in- eluded in this expression, for they were the very farthest parts of the earth, that could be known in the age of Isaiah. This voice of compassion is therefore eminently sent to us in England ; the Lord says to every one ofus, behold me, behold me, ye that were -not called by my name; Is. lxv. 1. Look untô me from these isles afar off, ye "Britons, look unto me from the ends of the earth, and be saved. O Sirs, if you and I could but imagine that Jesus Christ calls us, as it were by name, surely it would allure, us to hearken to the voice . of such divine compassion. II. The words may be understood in a figurative sense, and so they maysignify all those persons who are under
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