SERMON XI.

CALLING ON THE NAME OF JESUS.

ACTS, VII. 59.

And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

It is to be numbered among the evidences of our Saviour's divinity, that he is an object of prayer. It may comport with the principles of the Romish church to address their petitions to created spirits; but a protestant who would preserve consistency, must either subscribe to the divinity of Christ or refuse to call upon his name. We have an instance before us of a martyr, who on the verge of immortal light, while his soul was filled with the Holy Ghost, and the heavens were opened to his mortal vision, called on the name of Jesus. There is no term in the original answering to the word God. This was supplied by the translators: but the meaning would have been better preserved without it. In the original it is thus: "And they stoned Stephen, calling

upon and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” The immediate object of his prayer was the Redeemer, whom he was then beholding at the right hand of God. It was the practice of the primitive Christians to call on the name of Christ. This was the discriminating mark between them and the Jews, who called on the name of the Father but refused divine honors to the Son. When the Lord Jesus appeared in vision to Ananias at Damascus and commanded him to visit the penitent Saul, "Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name." And when he had come to Saul, he concluded his message in these words: "And now why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptised and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord."-the same Lord Jesus. "And straightway" Saul "preached Christ in the synagogues:-but all that heard him were amazed, and said, Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem ?" The first Epistle to the Corinthians is addressed to "the church of God which is at Corinth,—with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord." To the Romans Paul writes: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.-For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all,

[meaning Jesus Christ,] is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? [It was Jesus Christ in whom they were to believe.] And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?" "These things," says John, "have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.-And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will he heareth us. And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask and he, [the Son of God,] shall give him life for them that sin not unto death."

I

Persons acquainted only with our English translation, may imagine that they discover in another passage a prohibition against praying to Christ. “In that day ye shall ask me nothing: verily, verily say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you." The darkness of this passage is wholly in our translation; in the original the sense is plain. The confusion in our version is produced by translating two words of quite different significations by one and the same English term. I mean the word ask. One of the Greek words thus translated signifies to ask questions; the other, to ask in a way of petition. In the preceding conversation Jesus had foretold his death in a manner which the disciples did not understand, and they were anxious to comprehend his meaning.

"Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him, and said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while and ye shall not see me, and again a little while and ye shall see me?" Then having expressed himself somewhat more intelligibly concerning his death and resurrection, and their subsequent joy on earth, (referring to Pentecost,) he adds, "And in that day ye shall ask me nothing." Ye shall have no occasion to interrogate me, or that I should be present to solve your doubts. When you shall be anointed with the Holy Ghost, you will not need "that any man teach you, but-the same anointing" shall teach you "all things." "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." And furthermore, to supply the want of my personal presence and instruction, "Verily, verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name," whatsoever wisdom or knowledge ye shall request," he will give it you."

Thus the primitive Church did not confine their petitions to the Redeemer; they prayed also to the Father. Sometimes we are taught to supplicate the Father in the name of Christ, and are told that the Father will answer; because all the blessings originally come from him. Sometimes we are taught to ask the Father in the name of Christ, and are told that Christ will answer; because to him as King of Zion is committed the distribution of all good. "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do.-If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it." And sometimes, as we have seen, we are