Now this glorious name is given to Jesus Christ : Kev. i. 8, ' I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.' 3 This kind of speaking is taken from the Greek alphabet, in which language John wrote this book. A, called Alpha by them, being their first letter, and 11, which they call Omega, the last. The sense is, I was before all creatures, and shall abide for ever, though all creatures should perish ; or I am he from whom all creatures had their begin- ning, and to whom they are referred, as their uttermost end. Christ, in calling of himself Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, and that absolutely, doth therein assume unto himself absolute perfection, power, dominion, eternity, and divinity, which is, and which was, and which is to come. Christ assumeth all those epithets here to himself by which John, ver. 4, described God ; and what wonder is it if Christ, who is God, doth take to himself whatever is due to God ? The Almighty : this is another epithet proper to God, which Christ also
* The Hebrew Ehieh, after Ehieh, properly signifies, ' I will be that I will be.' The Septuagint renders it 'Eyui et/it 6 wi>, I am he that is ; and in that Rev. xvi. 5, God is called, He that is, and that was, and that will be.
■■' Every creature is temporary and mutable. Ko creature can say, Ero qui ero, I will be that 1 will be.
" In this verse you have a clear and pregnant proof of Christ's deity.
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-taketh to himself, shewing that he is the true, eternal, and omnipo- tent God, in all things equal and co-essential with the Father and the Holy Ghost. This being the seventh argument which John makes use of to prove the deity of Christ, is three times repeated. He is the first and the last, which is, was, and is to come, and the Almighty, and therefore he is, without a peradventure, God eternal ; for so Jeho- vah saith of himself, ' I the Lord, the first and the last, I am he ; I am the first, and 1 am the last, and besides me there is no God ; I am God Almighty. i But Christ doth challenge, as due to himself, all these divine attributes ; therefore he is Jehovah, that one, eternal, and omnipotent God with the Father and the Holy Ghost. Oh, the stateli- ness and majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ ! What an excellent and stately person is he, there being not a property attributed to God but is agreeable to Christ ! Every word in this Rev. i. 8, is a proper attribute of God. He is infinite in power, sovereign in dominion, and not bounded as creatures are. And that this is clearly spoken of Christ is most evident, not only from the scope, John being to set out Christ, from whom he had this revelation, but also from the 11th and 17th verses following, where he gives him the same titles over again, or rather, if you please, Christ, speaking of himself, taketh and re- peateth the same titles.2 Heb. xiii. 8, ' Jesus Christ, the same yester- day, and to-day, and for ever.' ' Yesterday,' that is, the time past, before his coming in the flesh ; ' to-day,' while in the flesh ; ' and for ever,' that is, after. The same afore time, in time, and after time. 'Jesus Christ the same,' that is, unchangeable in his essence, pro- mises, and doctrine. Jesus Christ was always the same, and is still the same, and will abide for ever the same, as being one selfsame God, and one selfsame Mediator, as well in the Old as in the New Testament. John viii. 58, ' Jesus said unto them. Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.' According to my divine nature, which is from everlasting, before Abraham was, I am. I who, according to my humanity, am not above fifty years old, according to my divine nature am eternal, and so before Abraham and all the crea- tures, Micah V. 1, 2. I have a being from all eternity, and so before Abraham was born ; and therefore, as young as you take me to be in respect of my age here, I may well have seen and known Abraham, though he died above two thousand years since. But,
(3.) The third name or title which denotes the essence of God is Elohim, which signifies the persons in the essence. It is a name of the plural number, expressing the trinity of persons in the unity of essence ; and, therefore, it is observed by the learned that the Holy Ghost beginneth the story of the creation with this plural name of God, joined with a verb of the singular number, as Elohim Bara, Dii creavit, the mighty Gods, or all the three persons in the godhead, created, Gen. i. 1,2. So Gen. iii. 22, ' And Jehovah Elohim said, Behold, the man is become as one of us.' It is a holy irrision of man's vain aff'ectation of the deity. God upbraids our first parents for their vain aff'ectation of being like unto him in that ironical expres- sion, ' Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil ;'
^ Isa. xli. 4, xliv. 6, and Gen. xvii. 1. * See Rev. xxi. 6, and xxii 13.
154 Christ's eternal deity proved.
meaning, that by his sin he was become most unlike him. This name Elohim, by which God expresseth his nature, denotes the power and strength of God ; to shew us that God is strong and powerful, and that he can do great things for his people, and bring great desolations and destructions upon his and his people's enemies. 0 sirs, God is too strong for his strongest enemies, and too powerful for all the powers of hell ! Though Jacob, a worm in his own eyes, and in his enemies' eyes, yet Jacob need never fear ; for Elohim, the strong and powerful God, will stand by him, and help him, Isa. xli. 10, 13, 14.
Now this name is also attributed unto Christ : Ps. xlv. 6, ' Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever : the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.' ' Thy throne, 0 God,' Hebrew QTl'^'i* gods — ' Thy throne, 0 Gods,' Elohim. It signifies the trinity pf persons in the unity of essence, as I have before noted. The prophet directs his speech, not to Solomon but to Christ, as is most evident by the clear and unquestionable testimony of the Holy Ghost : Heb. i. 8, ' But unto the Son he saith. Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever : a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.' Christ is called God, not by an excellency only as the angels are, nor by office and title only as magistrates are called gods, nor catachrestically and ironically as the heathen gods are called, nor a diminutive God, in- ferior to the Father, as Arius held, but God by nature every way, co-essential, co-eternal, and co-equal with the Father and the Holy Ghost.i Hold fast all truth, but, above all, hold fast this glorious truth, that Jesus Christ is God blessed for ever.