he led them out as far as Bethany; and he lifted up his hands and blessed them-And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven-And they worshiped him," we are to understand that they paid adoration to him as a divine being. The last instance, which we shall notice, in which it is expressly said that Jesus was worshiped, is in John, ix. 38. Nearly the whole of the chapter is taken up in giving an account of his restoring to sight a man who was born blind, and the fermentation which this produced among the Jews. They tried to prevail upon the man to "give God the praise,” by denying that Jesus had wrought this miracle upon him. But he persisted in thinking, and argued to convince them, that Jesus was the Christ; until, indignant at the thought that he, "who was altogether born in sin, should presume to teach them," they cast him out. And when Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and had found him, he said unto him, “ Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshiped him." This instance furnishes direct and incontrovertible evidence that Jesus Christ was worshiped when upon earth. For the worship in this case was reverence paid to him not as a mere man, or as a prophet, or as a man highly gifted of God; for he that had been blind believed Jesus to be all this before he revealed himself to him as the Son of God; but it was reverence paid to him as the Son of God, that is, as the brightness of God's glory, the express image of his substance, the bodily manifestation of his whole godhead; thus as one with God, as God himself. When, then, this man worshiped Jesus, he paid him divine adoration, on account of divine virtues in him as his own. Thus it appears conclusively, that the Lord Jesus Christ was worshiped when on earth; both from the fact that he had divine virtues in him as his own, and from the fact that adoration was paid to him on account of them. And thus we have shown, on scriptural authority, that Jesus Christ ought to be worshiped, and that he was worshiped when on earth. Since, then, Jesus Christ was worshiped directly when on earth, we cannot be far wrong, who worship him now he is in heaven, and has, as he expressly assures us, "all power in heaven and on earth." But let all those who worship the father directly, by praying to him out of Jesus Christ, instead of worshiping the father in Jesus Christ, by praying to Jesus Christ himself as the father-beware lest they perish because they kiss not the son. And especially let those who are degrading the Lord Jesus to the level of a mere man, see well to it, that they are not committing that sin which can never be forgiven, either in this world or that which is to come! SERMON X. 66 REV. V. 13. Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever." HAVING proved from the Word that the three essential constituents of God are in Jesus Christ, that all the divine attributes are ascribed to him, that, therefore, he is the proper object of christian worship, and that he was actually worshiped when on earth, we come now, in the regular course of our series, to show that he is worshiped in heaven, and, consequently, must be presumed to have been the object of apostolic worship. For as Paul, the chief of the apostles, was caught up into the third heaven, he must have had his views of the proper object of his worship on earth, very much, if not wholly determined by what he saw in the heavens. Hence, if Jesus Christ is worshiped in the heavens, and Paul was permitted to see and to know that fact, it is most presumable that his worship on earth would be after the pattern of that heavenly worship which he had seen, as it were, upon the mount. And it cannot be doubted that his views and practices in this respect, would be those also of the other apostles. Besides, as they that live and worship in heaven, once existed on earth,* and have carried with them the ideas of God by which their earthly character was formed, and the essential principles of worship with which their earthly life was replete, hence those that worshiped the Lord on earth will of course worship him in heaven; and, there * “The angel which showed me these things, then saith unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets." (Rev. xxii. 8, 9.) fore, the fact that Jesus Christ is now worshiped in heaven must go hand in hand with the other fact that he was worshiped when on earth; and the fact that he was both worshiped on earth and is worshiped in heaven must he inseparably connected with the supposition that he was the God of the apostles. Hence the proof of either of these positions will be but the confirmation of the others. And hence we shall now blend these topics in some degree together. 66 Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, (i. 6,) quoting from the Word of the Old Testament, most fully ascribes divine character to the Lord Jesus, and, in express reference to him, represents Jehovah, when bringing the first begotten into the world, as saying, " And let all the angels of God worship him." This proves that Jesus Christ is the object of angelic worship, and therefore renders more intensive the argument that the reverence paid to Jesus when on earth was divine adoration. We have, then, the greater boldness in assuming and maintaining that the attitude of adoration was assumed before Jesus Christ on earth because of his manifestation of a divine character, and not, as some in the present day pertinaciously maintain, because that was the attitude of respect to superior power and excellence ordinarily assumed by the people of eastern countries in ancient times. And the best proof of this is that the Lord Jesus always received the divine honour of worship as paid to himself without referring it to any superior being. In not one of the many passages which we have heretofore cited from the Word to prove that he was worshiped when on earth, did he forbid the prostration of the body before him, or any other act of worship, although he well knew the express command of Jehovah to be, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the waters under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them." (Exod. xx. 3-5.) And again, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." (Matt. iv. 10.) Hence he could not have permitted these acts of worship, if, as some suppose, he had been a mere man, or if he had been any other than the very God. For admitting and from the passages cited there can be no doubt that this worship was divine adoration, he, as a messenger sent from God, or as any being subordinate to God, could not have received it, and yet be a good man. It matters not to say that the prostration of the body by persons of inferior rank when they approached persons high in authority or conspicuous for their dignity and virtue was an eastern custom prevalent in our Lord's day, because, except in cases of idolatry, this prostration was not considered as divine honour, while in the case of Jesus there was none of that dig. nified elevation of worldly rank, those trappings of royalty, or that pomp of circumstance, which would command ceremonial reverence. He was a despised Nazarene-a man of low estate -reputed a carpenter's son; and it was only the display of divine virtue, which emanated from his person and beamed from his character, which prostrated before him the healed, the blessed and the gladdened subjects of his miraculous power. Hence this attitude was assumed before him as divine adoration. This distinction should be attended to. It is true, that, in eastern countries, subjects did then, and do still, prostrate themselves in the presence of their sovereigns or those high in power and authority. But, except in cases of gross ignorance, this honour was not paid to the sovereign, or other dignitary, on account of any divine excellence supposed to be his own. And we see that, in the case of Jesus Christ, this honour could not have been paid to him for the same reason that it was paid to eastern potentates, or others high in power or station, because, as he himself expressly says, his kingdom is not of this world. Therefore the honour paid to him must have been on account of divine virtues in him as his own, and thus to him as a divine being. Here, then, is the difference: prostration of the body as an eastern custom was a deference paid to rank without any reference to an exercise of divine power; but in the case of our Lord this attitude was assumed before him because "he spake as never man spake," and "did works which he could not have |