liver us out of the hand of these mighty Alehim? These are the Alehim that smote the Egyptians."*

Now the tabernacle and temple were but `types of Christ. His human nature was that "true tabernacle which the Lord pitched." Therefore John 66 says, The Word was God, and the word was made flesh, and tabernacled among us." Malachi had of old said, "The Lord whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in." And when the Lord came, he said to the Jews, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. But he spake of the temple of his body."

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And what made his body a temple? Paul will give the reply; " In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." But the Godhead dwelt in him, not only substantially, and influentially or powerfully, but personally likewise. We have seen that the Word who was God, was in the human nature. But in the 14th of John, Christ says, The Father dwelleth in me." These, though personally distinct, are substantially indivisible and inseparable; therefore in the 10th of John Christ says, I and the Father are one." The plural are, proves them two persons, although but one in substance. Now as the Father and Word, so the Spirit also, dwelt in Christ. The influence of the Spirit was the anointing intended by Daniel, and which

* 1 Samuel iv. 3—8.

constituted him the Christ or Messiah; and the Spirit being in him in all his energy, he is said to have been "full of the Holy Ghost." Besides; as in the gospel of John the Father and Son are said to be one, so in this text from the pen of the same writer, all the three are declared to be one; that is, in relation to the whole fulness of the Godhead said to dwell in Christ.

This then will account for that remark of John in the 21st of the Revelation. "And I saw no temple therein;" no material edifice; "For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it." The temple of the true church. And thus, not only is God of a spiritual nature, and his proper worship spiritual, but the temple of God is now spiritual also. The spiritual body of Christ, his whole glorified human nature, is now our only place of worship; and Jehovah, the Alehim, is the object of our adorations. Christ is the holy place of the holy ones, the secret place of the most high ones, the Gebah-im as they are called in the 5th of Ecclesiastes, and these, the Father, Word, and Spirit, are personally and individually the proper objects of our devotions.

The passage referred to in Ecclesiastes is as follows; Fear thou the Alehim. If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment in a province (namely by the mal-administration of the persons in power), marvel not at the matter; for he that is

loftier than the loftiest of them regardeth ; and the most lofty ones are above them." It is parallel to the last verse of the 58th Psalm; "verily there is an Alehim who are judges in the earth." The word is shophetim, that is, in the plural form.

I have omitted many an illustration of our text, from want of time in a single discourse; but the Alehim are also called "the living ones," or the hayim, in the 5th of Deuteronomy, at the 26th verse, and at the 36th verse of the 23rd of Jeremiah, and other places. The true and false Alehim are thus finely contrasted in the 8th of Isaiah, at the 19th verse. " Should not a people seek each one to his own Alehim? Should they seek, instead of the living ones (hayim), to the dead ones (motim)?"

Nor ought we to have omitted the 32nd of Exodus. The people, despairing of the return of Moses from the mount, in their impatience cry out to Aaron, "Up, make us Alehim, who shall go before us." If it be said that they spoke incorrectly in adopting a plural verb in connexion with Alehim, the reply is easy, that we have already shown instances of God's doing so, from Genesis onwards. Then observe, Aaron made but one molten image as a representative of the Deity; and yet the people were content with it; but still used the plural language, and exclaimed, "These are thy Alehim, O Israel! who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt."

Aaron then built an altar before the image, and proclaimed a feast to Jehovah; this the people readily complied with, which proves their crime to have been, not a departure from the true God to a false one, but the setting up of image-worship. For this was God's charge against them; "They have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, these are thy Alehim, O Israel! who have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.” It is difficult to imagine any other ground for this use of plural language to a single image, than the knowledge the Israelites were trained up in, of Jehovah being their Alehim, and of their Alehim being Jehovah; that is to say, of the true God being plural in one sense, as the Alehim, but singular in another sense, namely as Jehovah.

But we must transfer our attention from the old to the new testament, as proposed under the 3d division of our subject. And I beg you will still keep the grand object in view, which was, to present you with a connected chain of evidence from the scriptures in favour of the doctrine of our text..

1. In the 3d of Matthew, "Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. And lo, the heavens were opened to him; and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him. And lo, a voice from Heaven, saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."

From the 1st of John, we find that the Baptist was to know Christ as the Son of God by this visible descent of the Holy Ghost. "John seeth Jesus coming to him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from Heaven like a dove, and He abode. upon him. And I knew him not. But he that sent me to baptize with water (namely the Father), the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is He who baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bare record, that this is the Son of God."

Now there being no question of the divinity and personal agency of the Father, who is here represented as speaking from Heaven, we have to limit our remarks on these passages to the divinity and personal agency of the Son and the Spirit.

We have already proved, that the Father himself acknowledges the Son to be God, in the 1st of the Hebrews; and that John in the 1st chap. of his gospel likewise declares him to be God. And in the 9th of Romans at the 5th verse, Paul styles him "God over all, blessed for ever." But what 1 would urge upon you at present, is, his work; for it is the Work of God. He taketh away the sin of the world. This is a mightier atchievement than the creation of the world.