SERM. X, XI. of our Religion, that there is but one God, the Father. If any one shall object, that the Advancement of Jefus Chrift to the Administration of the Government of the World is not a fufficient Ground to style him God, I will refer him to our Lord Jefus Christ himself, whofe Reply to this Objection is unanfwerable. Our Lord. difcourfing to the Jews, Jo. x. 30, &c. called God his Father ; which was in Effect to call himself the Son of God. Upon this the Jews charged him with Blafphemy, for that he (being a Man) made himself God. In Answer to this Charge of Blafphemy our Lord reafons thus; Is it not written in your Law, I faid ye are Gods? If he called them Gods unto whom the Word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken; say be of him whom the Father hath fanctified, and fent into the World, Thou blafphemest, because I faid I am the Son of God? Our Lord's Argument is plainly this; In the Scripture (which cannot be contradicted) Magiftrates acting by Commiffion from God, are ftyled Gods and Children of the Moft High, P. lxxxii. 6. If then God himself, fpeaking by the Mouth of the Pfalmift to Temporal Rulers, calleth them Gods and Children of the Most High; furely thefe Titles (God and Son of God) may without Blafphemy be affumed by Him whom the Father hath fanctified and fent into the World, with the Character of Prince Meffiah, and with a much higher Authority than any Earthly Prince ever had. WITHOUT Doubt the Holy Ghost is his own best Expofitor. And therefore the fureft Way to get a true Underftanding of his Meaning is to compare what He hath faid in one Place with what He hath faid in another; and to interpret those Texts in which there is any Thing of Obscurity or Ambiguity, by those which are plain and clear. And that we may be able to do this, it is our Duty to be diligent and attentive in reading the Scriptures, making the Word of God our Study, and the fre quent SERM. X, XI. SERM. X, XI. quent Subject of our Meditations. He who reads any Book whatsoever fuperficially and carelefly, may easily happen to take fome Paffages of it in a Sense not intended by the Author, and directly contrary to other Paffages, and even to the whole Tenor and Design of the Book. MOREOVER, He who would underftand any particular Text of Scriptures, must attend to the Scope of the Discourse, and to the Connection which the Words have with the Context. Dependent Claufes and Sentences (when they are confidered fingly, and looked upon as compleat and independent Propofitions) are very liable to be misunderstood, or to be wrested to a Meaning quite different from that which they naturally bear, when confidered together with what goes before and follows after. : In the vth Chapter of St. John, V. 23. we read That all Men fhould honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. How often have thefe Words been produced to prove (what indeed being taken apart they may poffibly fignify) that the very fame SERM. X, XI. r fame Honour which is due to the Father, is due likewife to the Son? Whereas from the Context it appears, that there is a different and diftinct Honour due to each of them; That the Father is to be honoured as the Perfon who hath committed all Judgment to the Son ; and the Son as the Perfon to whom all Judgment is committed by the Father; That the Father is to be honoured as the Perfon fending, and the Son as the Perfon fent by the Father; And that the Honour which is paid to the Son, the Party fent, doth ultimately redound to the Honour of the Father, the Party fending. For thus the Context runs, The Father judgeth no Man, but hath committed all Judgment to the Son; that all Men fhould honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father which bath fent hims When our Lord fays, The Father hath committed all Judgment unto the Son, that all Men fhould honour the Son even as they honour the Father; He cannot poffibly mean, that all Men fhould hoX hour SERM. X, XI. nour the Son, as being that God whofe Authority is independent and underived; but He muft mean, that all Men should honour the Son as well as the Father; That all Men fhould honour not only the Father to whom all Judgment originally belongs, but likewife the Son, as the Perfon unto whom the Father hath committed all Judgment. The Particle nada's (which is here render'd even as) is frequently used in Scripture, and especially in St. John's Writings, to denote not a perfect and exact Equality, but only fome degree of Likeness. Our Lord praying to his Father for his Followers (John xvii.) has thefe Expreffions; They are not of the World, even as I am not of the World, v. 16. That they may be one, even as we are one, V. 22. Thou haft loved them, as thou hast loved me, v. 23. And in like manner, in the ift Epiftle of St. John, Ch. iii. v. 3. it is faid, Every Man that hath this Hope in him, purifieth himself even as He is pure. From which Places it cannot be collected, that Believers may be as per fectly |