QUESTION II. *41 John the Baptist expresses it, to have the Spirit given him with- out measure; John iii. 34. And they knew the peculiar and in timate presence of the Father was with him, which he so often taught them in express words ; John xiv.. 10, 11. x. 30. that the Father was in him, andhe in the Father; and that he and the Father, were one yet. they did scarce arrive at the belief of a personal union of the human nature with the divine.. All these things joined together exalted his character in their esteem, far above the common level of mankind. Question II. If they did not believe the godhead of Christ who had such special advantages above other men, " may it nut well be doubted whether there were sufficient proofs of his divi- nity ever given to mankind before his death ?" Answer I. By several scriptures of the Old Testament,. I think the godhead of the Messiah might have been proved, and when they had compared these prophecies with the actions and life of Christ, they had plain evidences that he was this Mes- siah The disciples therefore might have;had reasonable ground to have inferred this doctrine of his deity.. .Thit so ignorant was that generation, so overrun with national Mistakes, so nnam. quaiutedwith scripture, and the true meaning of it, that the apostles in that day did not believe many other things concerning Christ; which were written in the Old Testament in as plain and express language as.his godhead. Such were theptedictionn of his sorrows and sufferings, his death and his rising again, ant, his final exaltation But the have Christ's own words for it, e'en after he rose again, that they were fools and slow of hearth) believe all that the prophets have spoken ; Luke xxiv. eh. II. Some of the speeches which Christ macle concerning himself do certainly represent him in too sublime a character fol. any mere creature; which I have mentioned before.: and by, some circumstances of his conduct, they might have found out his godhead, especially if they, had compared them,with his cha. racter as Messiah. But they laboured under the power of many prejudices, and as our Lord often charges them, that they were dull of apprehension, hard to be instructed, and slow to believe: III. Though there might be a bare external sufficiency id the notices that Christ gave of his own godhead for their convie= tion, yet these were made more abundantly clear and evident to them, when according to the promise of Christ, " his Spirit brought to remembrance," and explained the things that he had before said to them : then he took of the things of Christ, and revealedthem to his apostles an he Promised, Johnxiv. 20. and xvi. 14. I might add also, that all these notices and evidences of the divinity of Christ, stand in a much fairer light before us who have the whole history of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ; and the writings and serinons of the apostles,' to
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