the Godhead, as give it to him ; since we, no less than he, are said to be " filled with all the fulness of God." But, on a closer inspection, there will be found a wide difference between all the foregoing passages and our text. The fulness spoken of in the text is the fulness of " the Godhead ;" residing in Christ, not symbolically, and for a season, as the Shechinah did in the tabernacle, but corporeally, substantially, permanently. There is no doubt a reference here to the Shechinah, which was a shadowy representation of the Deity. But the reference is rather in a way of contrast than of comparison : for, in my text, it is not God who is spoken of, and who is frequently said to dwell in his people, but the Godhead. Nor is Christ said to " be jilled" with it, but to have it essentially divelling in him ; and this, not in a type or shadow, but really, vitally, necessarily, immutably : " In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."
Suppose, now, the Lord Jesus Christ to be truly and un- questionably God : suppose, too, it is God's purpose to make this known to us : then, I would ask, can we conceive of any words that would more clearly convey that truth than the language of my text ? I must say, that if the words of my text do not clearly and decidedly declare the Godhead of Christ, no words whatever can express it. Nay, more ; if Christ be not truly and properly God, the Apostle has done more, by his unguarded expressions, to lead us to idolatry, than all the most impious sophists in the universe could have done by their most ingenious arguments.]
2. As confirmed by other passages of Holy Writ —
[To enter fully into this subject, would embrace too large a field for one discourse. I shall therefore confine myself to a few passages only, which establish the Divinity of Christ in connexion with his humanity, And here let me call to your remembrance that prophecy of Isaiah, where it is said, " To us a child is born ; to us a son is given : and his name shall be called, The Mighty Gode." This is quite decisive upon the point. Again, in another part of the same prophecy, it is said, " A Virgin shall conceive, and bring forth a son ; and they shall call his name Emmanelf;" which St. Matthew informs us, is " God with usg." In the New Testament, St. John, who seems to have been peculiarly attentive to this point, and, more than all the other inspired writers, anxious to impress it on our minds, says expressly, " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst ush." St. Paul also, to the same effect, says, "Great is the
c Isai. ix. 6. f Isai. vii. 14. e Matt. i. 2,3. h John i. 14.