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النشر الإلكتروني

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Baptizing with the Holy Ghost was an idea familiar to the Jewish prophets. We find it again in Ezekiel, in especial

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connection with the renewal of the heart of Israel. Then will 1 sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.' Ezek. xxxvi.

25-27.

"To the same purpose Isaiah speaks of the man who was marred in visage above all men, as the highly exalted outpourer of the Sp.rit upon all nations. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonished at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men: so shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.' Isa. lii, 13—15.

"Joel speaks of the same blessing which Peter assures us had its incipient fulfilment at Pentecost, when Jesus had ascended up on high. And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.' Joel ii 29.

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'Bringing those passages to bear upon the Baptist's declaration, He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost,' a mind unprejudiced could not but acknowledge that Jesus was declared by him to be that Being spoken of by the prophets, as both God and man.

"It cannot be objected that Jesus did not assent to what John said, for our Lord's words are in answer to his declaration‘I have need to be baptized of thee,' an office which he declared as his, in saying to the woman of Samaria 'he would have given thee living water.' John iv. 10.

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And now let us consider what it is to baptize with the Holy Ghost. It is to pour out the Divine power upon man, in renewing the heart, in enlightening, cheering, sustaining, and guiding. It is to help in prayer, to deliver in danger, to purify the thoughts, to subdue the unruly wills and passions of sinful men. It is to be wise enough to understand the wants, and rich enough to supply the moral and spiritual necessities of a whole world. It is to give to a prophet. his discernment, to an apostle his healing power, to the wise his wisdom, and to the ruler his diligence. It is to fill the world with the manifold grace of God.

"And such is the work of Him of whose fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. John i. 16.

"Let him who has endeavoured to guide and govern one family say what must be the power, skill, and wisdom of Him who is to guide and bless a world. This thought is capable of an expansion which would fill a volume rather than make a paragraph in an essay. I shall therefore leave it to the reader's prayerful meditation. Let him contemplate Jesus as the baptizer with the Holy Ghost, and then seriously ask himself, Who can Jesus be?

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"Farther, he was to baptize with fire. This also is an image borrowed from the Prophets. He is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap.' Mal. iii. 2. The dispenser of those fiery trials which are to purify his people. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you.' I Peter iv. 12. 'I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.' The manner of doing so is described by another prophet. 'He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.' Mal. iii 3.

"To take even one human being and baptize him with fire is a work far exceeding human skill; that is, so to regulate all his circumstances as to give him the exact amount of trial and sorrow which his case needs. In order to this his whole case must be known: what are the events just suited to purify his heart, to meet his feelings, to subdue his self-will, to assimilate his character to God's holiness. There must also be power to control the actions and wills of other men, so as to bring their influence to bear upon him at exactly the right time, and in the best way, so as to result in his spiritual good. It is a power which must be exercised in absence, unseen, unfelt, and unknown by those who are its subjects. Would the holiest and wisest of men undertake such an office towards a single individual? What would we think of Moses, or Paul, or Peter, or John, yea, or of the whole college of Apostles and Prophets undertaking to do so towards the very meanest believer? And yet here is one who performs it towards all who ever have or ever shall have attained to heavenly purity. His therefore is a wisdom capable of understanding the exact character and circumstances of all human beings, a power able to regulate and control all human events, and a skill able to make them all result in everlasting good to them that love God.

"Reader! who is that Being?"*

• Prophetic Herald.

John iii. 29. "He that hath the Bride is the Bridegroom." Jesus is here represented as the Bridegroom of the Church; which indeed he continually is, in the New Testament. But in Is. liv. 5, we read, "Thy Maker is thy husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy one of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be called." Was the Jewish Church the bride of the Lord of Hosts? and is the Christian Church but the bride of "a pious young man?"

Such was the testimony of John the Baptist. Let us now see how far Jesus himself by his words and actions asserted his own claims to Deity. But "in examining the Lord's teaching we must bear in mind the manner in which he could be likely to unfold the truth respecting himself. He came in the humble garb of a poor man, an ordinary mechanic. And yet he declares he existed before Abraham, and had glory with the Father before the world was. His outward appearance then would be a disguise. He was in very truth what he appeared to be, but he was also something more. It was not as man that he could have had glory with the Father before the world was. If therefore it pleased his Divine wisdom to come in a garb so little, to our view, agreeable with his pre-existing glory, it is not reasonable to object that his teaching says so little about his glory or his Deity. It is obviously reasonable to expect that the truth respecting himself would be gradually unfolded. In this point of view a candid inquirer will be struck with the fact that Jesus claimed so much from the very outset of his ministry."*

The first passage then we shall bring forward is from our Lord's sermon on the Mount. Unitarians are very fond of appealing to this discourse, and asking where we can find the Trinity, his own Deity, the Atonement, &c., &c., in Christ's preaching. Now without alluding to other answers, which might be given to this objection, but which would lead us into subjects unconnected with the present lecture, we will content ourselves with the four following:-First; if nothing is essential to Christianity but what Jesus taught in direct words in that sermon, it cannot be essential to Christianity to "believe that Jesus is the Christ," (which is Mr. Barker's definition of a Christian;) for Jesus there says not one single word about his being Messiah or Christ. He implies it, if you like; and I shall shew you, in my fourth answer, that he implies something more. Secondly; if every thing necessary to be known and believed was fully and distinctly taught there, what could be the use of all the rest of the Bible? why should the Evangelists have thought it necessary to record any other of his discourses? Thirdly; Jesus himself tells his disciples, that

Prophetic Herald.

he had not either in his sermon on the Mount, on in any other, fully and distinctly taught all that it was necessary for them to know; "I have many things to tell you, but ye cannot bear them now." But nevertheless-Fourthly; we do find most, if not every, doctrine of the gospel implied or alluded to in Christ's teaching, in such a way that, when the Apostles were fully enlightened by the Holy Ghost, they could see the real meaning of their master's words: which in fact we are told was the case. Now in this particular instance of the sermon on the Mount, there is not an essential doctrine of the gospel that Jesus did not add his testimony to, when he said, Think not, that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." In these words, Jesus declares the infallible truth of the whole of the Old Testament. But the Old Testament taught, that Jehovah was Triune, that the Messiah would be God-man, that he would be born of a virgin, atone for the sins of the world, &c, &c; so that when we "search for the knowledge of God as hid treasure" in this favourite discourse of Unitarians, we actually find the doctrines of the Trinity, the Deity of Christ, his Miraculous Conception, the Atonement, man's fallen nature,-in fact every thing that is taught from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Malachi.

This however is a digression; the particular passage I wish to call your attention to being that part of the sermon contained in the 11th and 12th verses of the 8th chapter of St. Matthew; "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." "Men were to submit to all manner of persecution for his sake; a persecution similar to that which the Jewish prophets had suffered. Now the persecution of the Jewish prophets is never said to have been for their own sakes or for Moses' sake. They recalled the people to the true knowledge of God, and rebuked them for their immoralities. They brought upon themselves persecution: but it was not for Moses' sake; it was for the Lord's sake,”

So much for the sermon on the Mount. Immediately on his coming down, a circumstance occurred, which presents Jesus to us in two important aspects; as receiving worship, and working a miracle. And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him,

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* Prophetic Herald,

saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed." Matt. viii. 2, 3. These two points will be considered in order.

I. JESUS RECEIVES WORSHIP.-What did Peter say, when the Centurion attempted to worship him? "Stand up; I

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a man,

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myself also am a man Acts x. 26 What did the angel say, when St. John fell down to worship him? "See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book; worship God." Now if St. Peter's being Rev. xxii. 9. and the angel's being St. John's "fellow-servant," were sufficient reasons for their not accepting worship, why did Jesus accept it? Why did he not say to this leper, Stand up; I myself also am a man; or, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets; worship God? Or why did he not say as he did to the tempter, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.' And this was not a solitary instance; Jesus habitually received worship, and always, either by word or deed, expressed his approbation of it. If instances need be specified, take the following. "There came a ruler, and worshipped him, &c. Matt, ix. 18-25. "They that were in the ship worshipped hin, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God." Matt xiv.33. Does not this shew, that more was understood by the expression "Son of God" than Unitarians suppose?" Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord help me." Matt. xv.. 23-23.-" And they came, and held him by the feet, and worshipped him " Matt. xxviii. 9" And when they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted." Matt. xxviii. 17. Now if Jesus thus accepted, and approved of, Divine worship being paid him, when in his state of humiliation, in "the form of a servant,' ""despised and rejected of men," is it rational to suppose, that such worship is to be withheld' from him now that he is sitting "at the right hand of the majesty on high?" But we need not appeal to reason; for scripture decides for us. We read in Luke xxiv. 52, that after his ascension the disciples "worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God." Why the honour they paid to their ascended master is expressed here in actually stronger terms than that which they rendered to God. Well might St. Paul say, We serve the Lord Christ." Col. iii. 24. We learn then most unquestionably from scripture, that Jesus was worshipped and served when on earth, and that he is to be worshipped and served now: but-" Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." The conclusion which this leads us to will be strengthened, if we remember Jehovah's words "My glory will I not give to another."

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