xviii. 26, "The servant therefore fell down and worshipped him;" and of the act of obeisance towards Peter the Apostle: Acts x. 25, " Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him." The original term, poσEXUVσs, occurs in Genesis xlii. 6, "Joseph's brethren came and bowed themselves down before him;" which might equally have been rendered worshipped.

It was not worship that Peter rejected, but that degree of reverential homage which Cornelius offered by his prostration: for Cornelius, who, though a Gentile, had been converted to the faith of the ONE true God, could not mean to worship the servant of that GOD in a religious sense.

1 Heb. i. 6, "And again, when he bringeth the first-begotten into the world, he saith, and let all the Angels of God worship him."

Whether this refer to the birth of Jesus or the resurrection is quite immaterial: in the latter instance, the words should be read, "when he. bringeth again His first-begotten into the world:" when he brings forth again to life him who was the "first-born of the dead." But there is no ground for considering the term Angels in a metaphysical sense, any more than for interpreting the word rendered worship by adore in a religious sense. All animate or inanimate agents of the will of God are styled Angels, that is, messengers; but the messengers of God, in the eminent sense, are his prophets: "let all the preceding messengers of God do him homage."

ACTS ix. 13, 14. Ananias answered, Lord! [Jesus, who was visibly present] I have heard by many of this man: he hath authority to bind all that call on thy name.

COR. 1. 2. All that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ.

The distinct injunctions of Christ himself, and the practice of the Apostles, as collected from the records of their Acts and the expressions in their

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Epistles, forbid us to interpret this phrase of literal religious worship. They who were "baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus," might be said to call on his name, or invoke it as the bond of their faith, without implying that they prayed to his name. The same word is used in the original of Acts xxv. 11, "I appeal unto Cæsar:" επικαλέμαι. The above passages may therefore be rendered, "that appeal to thy name," that appeal to the name of Jesus." The words admit also of the construction, who call thy name upon them, or are called by thy name, and whether this verbal idiom be adhered to or not, such, according to either of the three interpretations, is the spirit of the meaning.

ACTS i. 24. And they prayed and said, Thon, LORD! who knowest the hearts of all men, show whether of these two thou hast chosen.

It is pretended that the title Lord! refers to Christ; but it may equally refer to GoD: 1 Kings viii. 39, “Thou, O Jehovah! thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men." Acts xv. 8, "God, who knoweth the hearts, bare them witness." If Jesus searched the heart, Rev. ii. 27, it was through transmitted power from God that he did so; and Elisha, and Peter, and Paul, did the same, though in an inferior degree.

The Apostles, when they speak of prayer, speak only of prayer to the FATHER: Eph. iii. 14, "For this cause I bow my knees unto the FATHER of our Lord Jesus Christ." Jesus instructed his disciples to pray to THE FATHER: Matt. vi. 9,' "After this manner therefore pray ye: OUR FATHER, who art in heaven!" Jesus forbade supplication to himself, in his future invisible state, in John xvi. 23, "In that day ye shall ask me nothing: Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask THE FATHER in my name, he will give it you."

Rev. xxii. 8, 9, "I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God."

The title servant is applied to Jesus by Isaiah, xlii. 1, “Behold my servant whom I uphold;" and liii. 2, "My righteous servant;" and in Acts iv.27, "Thy holy child Jesus," may equally be rendered servant, Tais; the same word as that rendered servant in the quotation from Isaiah, Matt. xii. 18. The title prophet is applied to Jesus by Moses : Deut. xviii. 18, "I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee;" and by Jesus to himself: Luke xiii. 33, "It cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.” Though all reasoning on this passage must be merely speculative, there is at least a strong probability that Jesus is the Angel who forbids worship to himself.

The Angel of this passage is not the same who has before refused a similar homage of John, xix. 10, for he names himself of those who bear the testimony of Jesus; and is the same mentioned in xvii. 1, as one of the seven Angels who had the seven phials; and who again is distinct from the angel mentioned also as one of the seven, xxi. 9, who "talked with me, saying, come hither;" and this latter angel, though it is attempted to carry on his agency through the 7th, 8th, and 9th verses, is not the second angel that forbids worship; for this his agency properly ceases at ver. 5, they shall reign for ever and ever;" and the original speaker in this vision, described i. 13, "In the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like the Son of Man," resumes in ver. 5, “And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true. And the LORD GOD of the holy prophets

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sent his angel to show unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly." This is the peculiar language of Jesus, identified to be his by verse 12, "Behold, I come quickly;" and 20, "He which testifieth these things, saith, Surely I come quickly;" to which John replies, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus!" The argument therefore is invalid, drawn from verse 16, "I Jesus have sent my angel to testify unto you these things in the churches," that the angel sent to the churches is the last speaker to John, and that Jesus only speaks through him. It is the glorified Son of Man himself who begins the dramatic scene of the vision, and who closes it; and the angel sent by Jesus to the churches is John the divine or inspired; who writes the record. There is no ground therefore for the opinion that in the verse, i. 1, "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John," he relates to Jesus; for it is plain that God is the antecedent, and the Son of Man, who visibly appears, 13, "clothed with a garment down to his foot," is the angel sent, by whom the revelation was signified to John. He also is the second angel before whose feet John falls down to worship; he it is who describes himself as John's fellow-servant, and of his brethren the prophets; and who, refusing the homage of adoration to himself, bids him to "worship God."

The character of an Angel of God is assigned to Jesus by Paul. Gal. iv. 14, "Ye received me as an angel of God, even as CHRIST JESUS.

REV. V. S. The four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.

It does not appear that by this act of homage the elders are described as worshipping: the harps

imply praise, not worship: and in ver. 9, "They sing a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof." The odours or prayers are not offered directly to Christ, but brought to him as the mediator and intercessor, by whom "God hath reconciled us to himself; and in whose name "every knee must bow" to God, even the Father.

JOHN XV. 26. When the comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from THE FATHER, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.

This proof of the deity of JESUS will be less apparent to those who compare scripture with itself. John xiv. 16, 26, "I will pray the Father and HE shall give you another Comforter. But the comforter which is the holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things." Though Jesus says that the Spirit proceeds from the Father only, as the creed of Nice originally affirmed, yet because he also says, " whom I will send," it was at length settled that the holy Ghost had proceeded both from the Father and the Son from all eternity! Tanta molis erat!

Moses adopts the same figure of speech, Deut. xi, 13, "It shall come to pass, if you shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him, that I will give you the rain of your land in its due season: I will send grass in thy fields." Yet Moses has not been thought to be GOD.

Personification was naturally used among a people of a genius for allegory like the Jews, wherever dignity seemed required, or the subject was one of magnificence, or solemnity. Wisdom is. sublimely personified by Solomon, Prov. viii. 3; Charity by Paul, 1 Cor. xiii. 4. Nor is this mode of personification unusual in modern languages, of which the word Providence is a remarkable instance.