Are you afraid to stand up for the cause of CHRIST in the world? Dare not you be singularly good? Are you afraid of being members of JESUS CHRIST? I tell you, such persons would crucify him afresh were he in the world. But do not you, my brethren, so learn CHRIST; let not the temptations of the devil keep you from coming to the LORD JESUS CHRIST; he may be fierce, he may hurry you from place to place, but strive with him, so that he may not drive you from CHRIST; and if you seek unto CHRIST, he will so help you that you shall resist the devil, and then he will fly from you; CHRIST will dispossess him, be not afraid therefore to meet JESUS CHRIST; tell him all that your souls want, and he will give it to you; and you shall not be any longer troubled with the fierce outrages of the devil.
_And they cried out, saying, what have we to do with thee, JESUS, thou Son of GOD? Art thou come to torment us before the time?_
As soon as the devils observed JESUS coming near, then they were afraid, lest he was come to punish them before that day of accounts, when all must be brought to judgment.
The devils themselves are enough to convince all our polite Arians and Socinians. They here own the LORD JESUS CHRIST to be GOD blessed for ever; they feel his power, and are assured of his being the GOD who must condemn them at the great day of accounts; and they were afraid lest the LORD JESUS CHRIST was come to punish them now. But though the devils believe the divinity of CHRIST, yet the world swarms with Arians and Socinians.
The Arians make CHRIST no more than a titular GOD, a subordinate deity, one who was more than man, and yet less than GOD; that he was a prophet sent from GOD they own, but deny him to be equal with the Father. But I hope, my brethren, he is to you, what our creed makes him, GOD of GOD, very GOD of very GOD, co-eternal and consubstantial with the Father; that as there was not a moment of time in which GOD the Father was not, so there is not a moment of time in which GOD the Son was not. For he says himself, “All things were made by him;” and if they were made by him, he must be GOD; and whoever reads but the word of GOD, will find divine homage is paid to him, “and that he thought it no robbery to be equal with GOD;” he is “the Alpha and Omega.” These and a great many more places might be brought to prove the divinity of the LORD JESUS CHRIST; he could never have made satisfaction for our sins if he had not been GOD as well as Man. As Man he suffered; as GOD he satisfied; so was GOD and man in one person; he took our nature upon him, and was offered upon the cross for the sins of all those who come unto him, which if he had not been GOD he could never have satisfied for. It may be proved, even to a demonstration, that the LORD JESUS CHRIST is GOD, and that he is equal with the Father.
The Socinians do not go so far as the others; they look on CHRIST to be no more than a good man, who told the people their duty, and died in defence of the doctrines which he delivered unto them.
But I hope there are none such here, that have so low and dishonourable thoughts of the blessed JESUS, and that thus despise the divinity of the LORD who bought them. No, I hope better things of you, and things that accompany salvation. Think you, that any one who denies the deity of CHRIST can ever be saved by him, living and dying in that state? Surely, the time will come, when they who have denied his Deity, shall feel the power of it hereafter; they shall feel that he is GOD as well as man; then he will be owned as GOD by all those who now dare to deny his truths; but GOD forbid it should go undetermined till then! Woe unto the polite infidels of this generation, for the devils will rise up in judgment against them.
If any such are here, consider what you are doing of, before it is too late; return, return ye unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon you, and to JESUS CHRIST, and he will abundantly pardon. O my friends, let me beseech you to consider what you are about, lest you fall into hell, and there be none to deliver you.
_And the devils besought him, saying, If thou cast us out, suffer us to go away into the herd of swine. And he said unto them, Go: And when they were come out, they went into the herd of swine; and behold, the whole herd of swine ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters._