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II. Christ is represented as the AUTHOR and CAUSE of spiritual and immortal blessings.

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"Through the grace of the Lord Jesus, we believe "that we shall be saved. And this salvation is in "no other: for there is not another name under heaven given among men, by which we can be saved. He obtained the church, by his own blood."To him all the prophets bear witness, that every one who believeth on him shall, through his name, "receive the forgiveness of sins. Him hath God "exalted by his own right hand, a Prince and Saviour, "to give to Israel repentance and forgiveness of "sins. The Holy and Righteous One; -the "Prince of life.Through this [Saviour,] the forgiveness of sins is declared unto you; and every one "who believeth in him is justified from all [accu"sations] from which ye could not have been justified

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by the law of Moses.-That the Christ should be "a sufferer: and, being the first of the resurrection of "the dead, should announce light to the people [of "the Jews,] and to the nations.""

III. The miracles which were wrought by the apparent instrumentality of the apostles, are attributed to the efficient power of Christ, as the servant and messenger of the Father.

"In stretching forth thy hand for healing, "and that signs and miracles may be done through "the name of thy holy Son Jesus.In the name

in Dan. ix. 24, "to constitute the Most Holy One the Messiah.” iv. 27; xvii. 31.

9

Chap. xv. 11, see Griesbach; and so all the best editions, including Tittman and Scholz. Bloomfield retains the common reading, without remark. iv. 12. See Note [A], at the end of this Chapter. xx. 28; x. 43; v. 31; iii. 14, 15; xiii. 38; xxvi. 23.

"of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, arise and walk!

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They continued, speaking freely concerning the Lord, "who gave testimony to the word of his grace, and granted signs and miracles to be done through their “hands.―Æneas, Jesus the Christ healeth thee. I "command thee, in the name of Jesus Christ." 10

IV. The extraordinary influences of the Holy Spirit upon the minds of men, and in producing miraculous effects, are ascribed to the efficient agency of Christ, in the same œconomical subordination to God the Father.

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Being exalted to the right hand of God, and "having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath poured out this [operation] "which ye now behold and hear." "1

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V. He is represented as the future and universal Judge, by the designation of the Almighty Father.

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"This is he who is ordained by God, to be Judge "of the living and the dead. He hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by the man whom he hath ordained; affording "assurance [of this] to all, having raised him from "the dead." 12

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VI. The institutions of religious instruction and worship, and the means of diffusing and preserving Christianity, are referred to Jesus Christ as their Founder and Director, their proximate Object, and the Author of their success.

i. Baptism was administered "in his name,"13 and "to his name:"14 the one expression denoting his

10 Chap. iv. 30; iii. 6; xiv. 3; ix. 34; xvi. 18.

11 Chap. ii. 33.

14

12 Chap. x. 42; xvii. 31.

13

Chap. x. 48.

Chap. viii. 16; xix. 5. In Chap. ii. 38, the preposition is inì, which might be translated with regard to.

authority, in the origin of the institution; and the other pointing to him, as the OBJECT of the honour and obedience implied in this observance.

Whatever may be, in other respects, the nature and extent of that honour and obedience which are thus signified, it is unquestionable that they recognise their object as the Head of a religious dispensation. The apostle Paul puts the case of his "baptizing into his "own name," as what would be equivalent to his setting up himself as the founder of a new religion:15 and he describes the Israelites as having been, in an allusive or accommodated sense, "baptized unto Moses," as, by the divine direction, the founder of their sacred institutions.16

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From some observations before advanced," it may, I trust, be considered as established, that to perform a religious act, "To the name" of a person, imports such homage, as the nature, character, and relation of the person render fit and proper. Had we then no other information to assist our application of this rule, the instances of Moses 18 and Paul would limit our conclusions with respect to Christ, to the idea of his being the Founder, under God, of the new and gracious dispensation of the gospel. But the case is attended with other and peculiar circumstances. It refers to Him to whom the Father "hath given a "NAME above every name." This term, as we have before adduced evidence to show, 19 expresses his Divine Nature and perfections, as they are especially manifested in the amazing work of redemption. That

15

1 Cor. i. 15.

16

1 Cor. x. 2.

17 Vol. II. pp. 143–145, 222–225.

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19

Compare the form of expression with Rom. vi. 3, and Gal. iii. 27.
See Vol. II. pp. 139–145.

the relation of baptism to the name of Christ was thus peculiar and important, seems to be intimated by the manner in which the connexion of Christian instruction with that rite is represented. It is said of the Samaritan converts, that, "when they believed Philip, who preached the things of the gospel con

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cerning the kingdom of God and the NAME of Jesus "Christ, they were baptized."20 It is also to be observed, that the celebration of religious rites, divinely instituted under the Mosaic dispensation, was described by this very phrase, to mark its reference to Deity as the authority recognised and the object to be honoured: "Jehovah thy God hath chosen him out of "all thy tribes, that he may stand to serve in the name "of Jehovah." 21

Here the great command of our Lord demands our consideration: "Go, then, and make disciples of all "nations, baptizing them unto the NAME of the Father, "and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."22

The obvious purport of this passage is to describe the intention and design of baptism, to be a devotional consecration to God, who is manifested by his great and holy NAME, the display of his perfections and glories. It is likewise obvious, that this name is attributed equally to the Son and the Holy Spirit, as to the Father; and that the inference is next to inevitable, which has been drawn by the majority of Christians in all ages, to the confirmation of the doctrine, that the Son and the Spirit are, with the Father, the One God. To invalidate this inference Unitarians have adduced the following objections.23

20

Chap. viii. 12.

22 Matt. xxviii. 19.

21

See Deut. xviii. 5, 7.

23 Briefly recited in the Calm Inquiry, p. 364.

Obj. 1. That we have no evidence that these words were intended as a formulary of the rite: for we find no traces of it in the subsequent history and writings of the apostles; and the instances of Christian baptism upon record are all "into the name of Christ" only.

Reply. (1.) It is not necessary to our argument that the words should have been designed to be used as a formulary in the administration of the baptismal rite. In our Lord's discourse they are evidently a description of Christian baptism deduced from its reference, intention, and use. The doctrinal inference from the terms is not at all affected by the question, whether these very words were intended to be recited, or not. It should be recollected that no traces occur, in the Acts or Epistles, of the use of the prayer usually called the Lord's prayer, or of any prescribed form whatsoever for any act of religious worship.

(2.) The current expressions in the Acts, of baptizing in, unto, or with regard to the name of the Lord Jesus, may, with most reason, be considered as only descriptive of the character and design of the ceremony. There is not the smallest evidence that any of those expressions contain, or intimate, the formulary which was used on such occasions. But there is evidence, with respect to some of them, that the phrase was adopted as discriminative of Christian baptism from that of John, and from any of the Jewish baptisms: and this might be its sole intention.24 It exhibited

24 See Ger. Joh. Vossii Disput. de Baptismo, pp. 48, 55. Amst. 1648. Wits. Econ. Foed. lib. iv. cap. xvi. sect. 16. Limborchi Theol. Christ. p. 610.

A recent annotator, one of the Theological Professors at Leipzig,

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