me hath seen the Father." Christ was truly the image of God in his moral excellences; but perhaps more properly, in this connexion, Christ is said to be the image of the Father, as having completely revealed the Father's will, and confirmed his doctrine by his miraculous works. John xiv. 11. 2 Cor. iv. 4.

VIII. Lord of Glory.

1. 1 Cor. ii. S. "-had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory:" q. d. their glorious Lord, or Master.

2. James ii. 1. "My brethren, hold not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord, of glory with respect of persons."

The words in italics are not in the original. The passage may be translated either the faith of our glorious Master,' or 'the glorious faith of our Master Jesus Christ.' Dr. Clarke prefers the latter. Scr. Doct. No. 663. See 2 Cor. iv. 4.

IX. Alpha and Omega, First and Last.

1. Rev. i. 8. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty."

Griesbach's text reads, "I am Alpha and Omega, saith the Lord God," &c. This is to be understood of the Father, to whom alone the attribute of omnipotence belongs.

distinguit, et ro quo8olov confirmat adversus Arianos." How surprised would the sacred writer have been, could he have foreseen the subtle metaphysical distinctions and the wild disputes to which his rhetorical expressions have given birth!

N. B. There is no foundation for the use of the epithet express, as if χαρακτηρ was a more perfect likeness than είκων, the former properly expressing an engraving, the latter an image. But they are sometimes used promiscuously. See Schleusner. Also Mr. Simpson's Essays, vol. ii, p. 235. Dr. Carpenter's Rep. to Mr. Veysie, p. 190.

2. Rev.

2. Rev. i. 10, 11. "And I heard behind me a great voice, saying [I am Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, and] what thou seest write in a book."

This is certainly spoken in the person of Christ: and, from the repetition of the words in ver. 8, Dr. Doddridge and others have strongly insisted upon this text as a decisive argument in support of the proper deity of Christ.

But the words in brackets, upon which the argument rests, are wanting in the Alexandrine, Ephrem, and many other manuscripts; in the Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian, and Vulgate versions; they are excluded from the Complutensian edition, also from those of Geneva, Plantin, Bengel, and Griesbach; and from the English translations of Newcome and the Improved Version.

It must, however, be admitted, that, though the words in this text are probably interpolated, in other passages in this book, and even in this vision, see ver. 17, 18, our Lord applies the very same, or nearly the same, epithets to himself. All therefore which can justly be advanced in reply to the argument above mentioned, is, that Dr. Doddridge 49 and other expositors have laid greater stress upon the words than they will properly bear ;-that they are not intended to express self-existence, but solely that the christian dispensation was begun, and will be completed, by Christ, who is the author and the finisher of our faith.

3. Rev. i. 17, 18. "Fear not: I am the first and the last; I am he that liveth and was dead," &c.

4. Rev. ii. 8. "These things saith the first and the last, who was dead, and is alive."

"Dr. Doddridge, in his note upon this text, remarks: "I cannot forbear recording it, that this text has done more than any other in the Bible towards preventing me from giving into that scheme which would make our Lord Jesus Christ nothing more than a deified creaThe learned expositor was not aware of the spuriousness of this text. Indeed the posthumous volumes of the Family Expositor were evidently left in a very unfinished state.

ture."

5. Rev.

5. Rev. xxii. 13. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last 50,"

In reasoning from the Book of Revelation, it should not be forgotten that this is one of the books the genuineness of which was much contested in the primitive church, and which therefore, as Dr. Lardner observes, Hist. of Apost. vol. i. p. 30,"ought not to be alleged as affording, alone, sufficient proof of any doctrine 51."

X. Christ is Lord, Lord of all.

1. John xiii. 13. "Ye call me Master, (Sidarna205, the Teacher,') and Lord, (¿ κύριος, the Master,') and ye say well, for so I am."

6

The word Kugos, commonly translated 'Lord,' properly signifies Master,' in opposition to deλos, slave.' So ver. 16: "The servant, deλos, is not greater than his Lord, nugos." In this sense this title is challenged by Christ, and in this sense it was used of him, and to him, by his disciples. See Luke xii. 42-48. John xv. 15. Rom. xiv. 7, 8.52

2. Matt. xxii. 41-46. "How then doth David, in spirit, call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord," &c. " If David then call him Lord, how is he his

50 << Tρwros, summus dignitate, Joh. i. 15, saxaros, contemptissimus hominum." Grotius." They who apply these texts to prove Christ to be the supreme God, and parallel them with Isa. xliv. 6; xlviii. 12, should ask themselves how it can be said of God that he was dead, or, if dead, who could bring him to life again." Lindsey's Sequel, p. 293. See also Wetstein in loc.

si Mr. Evanson, who admits the divine authority of the Apocalypse, nevertheless rejects the epistles to the churches, for reasons which he assigns in his Disson. p. 338.

Kugos is a title of authority given to kings, Gen. xl. 1; to princes, nobles, and governors, Acts xxv. 26. It is also an appellation of respect and reverence to a prophet, 1 Kings xviii. 7; to a husband, Gen. xviii. 12; to a master, John xv. 15. It is used as a civil mode of address, John xii. 21." Simpson's Essays, vol. ii. p. 263.

Son?"

Son?" See Psalm cx. 1. Compare Mark xii. 38. Luke

XX. 41.

If this Psalm is a prophecy of Christ, and if our Lord is not merely arguing with the Jews upon their own principles, as in the case of demoniacs, Matt. xii. 27, the proper answer to this question seems to be, that the Psalmist was transported in vision to the age of the Messiah, and speaks as though he were contemporary with Christ. This mode of writing was not unusual with the prophets. See Isaiah liii. David, like Abraham, was permitted to see the day of Christ. John viii. 56.

3. Acts x. 36. “The word which God sent to the children of Israel by Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all.” Ούτος εστι παντων κύριος.

i. e. of Jews and Gentiles, as appears from the con

text 53.

4. Rom. xiv. 9. "For to this end Christ both died and rose again, that he might be Lord both of the dead, and of the living."

Christ is Lord of the dead, as he will be invested with authority to raise them to life, and to judge them according to their works. He is Lord of the living, as the whole human race will ultimately profess subjection to his gospel.

XI. Prince or Leader of Life and Salvation.

1. Acts iii. 15. "Ye killed the prince (agyo, leader,) of life.” i. e. the person who, by his resurrection from the dead, led the way to immortality.

2. Acts v. 31. "Him hath God exalted to be a prince, (agyov, a leader,) and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins."

83 See Clarke on Trin. No. 620, and Doddridge in loc.

9. d. a leader to that salvation which consists in deliverance from the power and the punishment of sin.

3. Heb. ii. 10. "It became him-to make the captain (agynyov, the leader,) of their salvation perfect through sufferings."

4. Heb. xii. 2. "Looking unto Jesus, the author (agynyov, the leader,) and the finisher (λswry, the perfecter,) of our faith 54,"

q. d. The example and the judge who will eventually bestow the reward.

XII. Christ is, or fills, all and in all.

1. Eph. i. 22, 23. "And gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness (To λnρwμa, the complement,) of him who filleth all in all.”

Christ is the head; the church is the body, which completes the whole mystical person, and which in all its parts and limbs derives vigour and nourishment from the head $5.

2. Col. iii. 10, 11. "Ye have put off the old man, and put on the new-where there is neither Greek nor Jew, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free but Christ is all and in all."

Jews and Gentiles are by Christ formed into one new man, (see Eph. ii. 15,) which is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor master, but simply the mystical body of Christ, in which all the component parts are harmoniously, and without distinction, blended. q. d. All invidious distinctions are absorbed in the profession of christianity 56.

XIII.

"See Simpson's Essays, vol. ii. p. 197. “Qui nobis exemplo suo hunc cursum præiit, idemque ejus erit ßpabeurys. Conf. ch. xi. 40.” Grotius.

55 See Hallet's Obs. on Script. vol. i. p. 59.

56 Gal. iii. 28, is exactly parallel to this passage in the epistile to the Colossians: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond

nor