PART I. OBSERVATIONS ON OUR LORD'S CONDUCT AS A DIVINE INSTRUCTOR. CHAPTER I. ON THE MATTER OF OUR LORD'S INSTRUCTIONS. SECTION I. WHAT OUR LORD TEACHES OF GOD THE FATHER, OUR Lord represents the Deity as adorable and amiable in the highest degree. He is the most High, and Lord of heaven and earth; heaven is his a d throne, and earth his footstool; he is the one Jehovah, and the only true God; he is a spirit, whom no man hath seen at any time; he hath life in himself; he i seeth in secret; he knoweth the heart; and with him all things are 'possible. k vi. 46. xix. 26. b C. v. 26. 1 Matt. vi. 4. * Luke xvi. 15. ! Matt. m He arrayeth the herb of the field in more than regal glory; he "feedeth the fowls of the air; and without him not a ° sparrow falleth to the ground. Much more does his providence extend to man:" yea, the very hairs of our head are all numbered, and, when He vouchsafes protection, there shall not There is none good but God; who "so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." He is also " righteous, "holy, kind to the unthankful and evil, perfect in mercy, forgiving to the merciful, and inexorable to those who withhold pardon and compassion from others. : C a He loveth those who observe our Lord's precepts he adopteth the peace makers for his sons: he abhorreth the lofty and ostentatious appearance which men admire he avengeth his faithful servants on their persecutors: fit is not his will that any should perish the pure in heart shall hereafter see him and of him shall the good be eternally blessed, and the wicked eternally punished. 9 Matt. x. 30. uri caderc P Matt. vi. Luke xii. 7. solet; according to a known force of the Hebrew future. 26, 30. x. 31. Luke xxi. 18. pressed, see Acts xxvii. 34. xvii. 25. f Matt. xviii. 14. Luke xii. 7. w ib. 11. • Mark x. 18. * Luke vi. 35. z Matt. v. 7. vi. 14. < Matt. v. 9. 8 Matt. v. 8. y Comp. Matt. v. 48. a Matt. vi. 15. xviii. 35 & Luke xvi. 15. ⚫ib. xviii. 6. h Matt. xxv. 34, 46. But the image which perpetually occurs through. out the gospels, and under which our Lord delights to mention God, is that of our heavenly Father; who "maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust," and is "kind to the unthankful and to the evil :" who' compassionates and embraces the returning sinner with the bowels of a most affectionate father; nay, who is actuated by a stronger principle than natural affection for "if we, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto our children, how much more shall our Father, who is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him ?" о m Such is the God whom we should " fear, because he is able to destroy both soul and body in hell ; whom we should obey after the manner of the angels in heaven; from whom we should seek our P reward; to whose will we should wholly resign ourselves; and who is the sole object of our worship, service and prayer, and the highest and best object of our imitation and " love. Matt. vi. 14, 26, 32, &c. 1 Luke xv. 20. i ib. v. 45. * Luke vi. 35. in Matt. vii. 11. Not absolutely evil; for God has implanted many good principles in the human mind: but comparatively so; subject to infirmities, passions, and the power of bad habits. SECTION П. WHAT HE TEACHES OF HIS OWN NATURE AND OFFICE. d с OUR Lord sometimes calls himself the a Son of man; and sometimes eminently the Son, in contradistinction to the Father, or to the Father and the Holy Spirit; and with one or both of these he frequently joins himself in the passages where this appellation occurs: he likewise styles himself the Son of God, and his only begotten Son. Of himself he further asserts, that God loved him before the foundation of the world; that he had a glory with the Father before the world was; that he spake what he had seen with his Father, whom no 1 man had seen but himself alone; that he came down from heaven to do the will of Him that sent him; that he came с i f h k forth from the Father and came into the world, and was to leave the world and go to the Father; that he should be seen ascending up where he was before and, because the Jews cavilled when he observed that Abraham saw his day with joy, he adds, m Before Abraham was, I am. It is true that he calls himself "a man; but this no more excludes his divine nature, than the application of that term to He affirms angels excludes their angelic nature. Matt. xxv. 31. John v. 27, &c. b Mark xiii. 32. v. 25. ix. 35. x. 36. xi. 4, &c. which, by a metonymy of the effect, ó translate ayanтós. xvii. 24. v. 38. 0.40. d John iii. 16, 18. • John Hebr. e ib. viii. 38. ib. vi. 46. John jib. |