LIBKARY (Theological ^ eminaviu PRINCETON, X. J. No. Case, ^ J\ BR 45 .B35 1818 Bampton lectures THE DOCTRINES OF UNITARIANS EXAMINED, AS OPPOSED TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. IN EIGHT SERMONS PREACHED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, IN THE YEAR MDCCCXVIIJ, AT THE LECTURE FOUNDED BY THE LATE REV. JOHN BAMPTON, M. A. CANON OF SALISBURY. BY S THE REV. C. A. MOYSEY, D.D. RECTOR OF WALCOT, BATH ; CHAPLAIN TO THE LORD RODNEY, AND LATE STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH. OXFORD, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS FOR THE AUTHOR. SOLD BY J. PARKER, OXFORD 5 MESSRS. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD; J. HATCHARD, PICCADILLY, LONDON ; AND MESSRS. BARRATT, BATH. 1818. CONTENTS. SERMON I. On Mysteries. Heb. iii. 12. Take heed, brethren, lest tJiere be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. SERMON II. On the Holy Trinity. Matt, xviii. 19. Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. SERMON III. On the Godhead of Christ. Colos. ii. 9. In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. SERMON IV. On the Personality of the Holy Ghost. John xvi. 13. When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth. a2 iv CONTENTS. SERMON V. On the Judgment by our Saviour. Matt. xxv. 31. When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all his holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory. SERMON VI. On the Inspiration of Scripture. 2 Tim. iii. 16. All Scripture is given by uispiration of God. SERMON VII. On the Eternity of Punishment. Matt. xxv. 46. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment : but the righteous into life eternal. SERMON VIII. Conclusion. Colos. ii. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudi ments of the world, and not after Christ. EXTRACT FROM THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF THE LATE REV. JOHN BAMPTON, CANON OF SALISBURY. " I give and bequeath my Lands and " Estates to the Chancellor, Masters, and Scho- " lars of the University of Oxford for ever, to f( have and to hold all and singular the said ei Lands or Estates upon trust, and to the in- " tents and purposes hereinafter mentioned ; " that is to say, I will and appoint that the " Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford " for the time being shall take and receive all " the rents, issues, and profits thereof, and (after " all taxes, reparations, and necessary deduc- " tions made) that he pay all the remainder to " the endowment of eight Divinity Lecture lf Sermons, to be established for ever in the said " University, and to be performed in the man- " ner following : vi EXTRACT FROM " I direct and appoint, that, upon the first " Tuesday in Easter Term, a Lecturer be yearly " chosen by the Heads of Colleges only, and by et no others, in the room adjoining to the Print- " ing-House, between the hours of ten in the (t morning and two in the afternoon, to preach " eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, the year fol- " lowing, at St. Mary's in Oxford, between the " commencement of the last month in Lent " Term, and the end of the third week in Act " Term. " Also I direct and appoint, that the eight " Divinity Lecture Sermons shall be preached " upon either of the following Subjects — to con- " firm and establish the Christian Faith, and to " confute all heretics and schismatics — upon the " divine authority of the holy Scriptures — upon " the authority of the writings of the primitive " Fathers, as to the faith and practice of the pri- " mitive Church — upon the Divinity of our Lord " and Saviour Jesus Christ — upon the Divinity " of the Holy Ghost — upon the Articles of the " Christian Faith, as comprehended in the et Apostles' and Nicene Creeds. a Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight " Divinity Lecture Sermons shall be always CANON BAMPTON'S WILL. vii " printed, within two months after they arc " preached, and one copy shall be given to the " Chancellor of the University, and one copy to " the Head of every College, and one copy to " the Mayor of the city of Oxford, and one " copy to be put into the Bodleian Library ; and " the expence of printing them shall be paid " out of the revenue of the Land or Estates ie given for establishing the Divinity Lecture li Sermons ; and the Preacher shall not be paid, " nor be entitled to the revenue, before they " are printed. " Also I direct and appoint, that no person " shall be qualified to preach the Divinity Lec- " ture Sermons, unless he hath taken the de- " gree of Master of Arts at least, in one of the " two Universities of Oxford or Cambridge ; " and that the same person shall never preach " the Divinity Lecture Sermons twice." SERMON I. ON MYSTERIES. Heb. iii. 12. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. IN this land, where by the blessing of God the enjoyment of religious as well as of civil liberty is secured to all men, where restraint is laid upon the avowal of opi- nions no farther than is absolutely neces- sary for the maintenance of good order both in Church and State, it is the more necessary that such opinions should be ob- served with attention ; and that tendency to extravagance which too often springs out of liberty be prevented, if possible, from producing the destructive effects of disorder and licentiousness. In all matters is this necessary, but more especially in b * 2 SERMON I. those which have regard to religion ; reli- gion, which is the greatest source of bless- ing that mankind enjoys, when it is pre- served pure, and uncontaminated by the extravagancies of human invention, as it is the most powerful engine to produce fatal effects, when corrupted by the conceit, and debased by the inventions of man. I propose therefore to bring under our present examination the principles of a sect, which is daily striving to advance it- self, and to introduce such disorder, by overthrowing the very foundations of the Christian faith : I mean the sect of Soci- nians, or, as they style themselves in these days, Unitarians. That impunity which the Legislature has formally granted to them of late, ap- pears to have awakened their hopes, and aroused their activity ; and it is therefore the duty of the appointed ministers of God's word to meet their efforts by corre- sponding exertions, to detect the fallacy of their assertions, and to prevent, so far as we can, the mischief of their opinions from gaining farther ground. ON MYSTERIES. 3 Unitarianism is not indeed calculated to become easily a favourite doctrine with the common people, but it catches the vain, and those who are confident in their own abilities and discernment. It is a specula- tive faith, if indeed that may be called a faith which is rather a system of wwbelief. It relates to a most mysterious question, one which requires that which is not given to it so often as might be wished, a patient investigation ; an unpresuming judgment ; and a true humility, and submission of the weak understanding of mortals to the re- vealed, though incomprehensible, doctrines of the Most High. But there is a shew of simplicity in Uni- tarianism, which is not unlikely to make impression on the minds of those who re- gard it superficially ; of those in particular, who have made just such advancement in learning as suffices to give them confi- dence; and whose period of life makes them bold to engage themselves on the side of any novelty which calls itself amendment, and to follow the leading of a course, to which the name of liberality, b 2 4 SERMON I. so often and so sadly abused in these our days, is applied by its upholders. The shaking off of ancient prejudices has to many a flattering sound ; and there is something plausible to the inconsiderate, in the idea of rejecting mysteries; of bring- ing down religion to that which Unitarians now call, and Deists always have called, its original simplicity. But mysteries are in themselves no ob- jection to the doctrine which contains them ; more especially when, as in regard of the holy Trinity, the mystery relates to the incomprehensible nature of God. Do we suppose him able to reveal nothing that we cannot fully comprehend? This were to put our capacity on a level with that of the Almighty. Analogy requires, that since in the sys- tem of the natural world so many things pass our comprehension, much more should the same be the case with the heavens and their Creator ; where God is not only the revealer of the mystery, but his own in- conceivable nature is also the object re- vealed. ON MYSTERIES. 5 The question here then is not, which party can frame a creed most plausible, or most agreeable to human notions of that which is proper and intelligible; but, which follows that creed which ought ever to bind us, because it already exists in the unerring word of God. It is a question not of in- genuity, but of testimony. The Unitarians do not, like the Deists, profess to reject all revelation. With them therefore the holy Scriptures, though par- tially discredited, are yet in general an au- thority which cannot be disputed ; and from them alone I am confident that all the points in question between us may be abundantly proved. To that authority the speculations of mortal fancy must bend. It is not for us to reject mysteries be- cause they are incomprehensible, nor can that pride of human intellect, which sets itself up to measure the hidden things of God, be justified by the rational, nor en- dured by the religious mind. The point to be examined by us is simply this, whe- ther or no the matter offered for our belief be offered by the Almighty. If it be so, b 3 6 SERMON I. the case admits no farther question. Im- plicit belief then becomes a bounden duty. This however is a point which our ad- versaries will not concede, and declama- tion against " a prostration of the under- " standing" is employed by them, as if it were allowable to set up the understanding against him who made it ; as if the facul- ties of created beings were to sit in judg- ment on the acts of their omnipotent Cre- ator, who gave and who limited those fa- culties. We shall however have abundant oppor- tunity for entering more fully into this question in the course of these Lectures. It is perhaps with many the chief cause of infidelity, that they have neglected the Apostle's advice, " not to think of them- " selves more highly than they ought to " think, but to think soberly." Such meekness and humility is a duty which all Christians acknowledge to be incumbent on themselves ; and whatever others may do, we shall depart from our a Belsham's Letter to the Bishop of London, p. 75. ON MYSTERIES. 7 own professions if we desert them. For what is the profession of him who calls himself a Christian ? What is its real value, if, at the same time that he so calls him- self, he deny and reject the Godhead of Him from whom we derive that name. What the faith of Christians is has Ions: since been known and established. It ac- knowledges, that our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, is God and man. God, in identity with the Godhead of the Father, united with the manhood inherited from his mother. The Christian faith does not barely admit, that there was once a person called Jesus Christ upon earth, a teacher of righteousness sent from God, and now rewarded with a high degree of exaltation in heaven ; but still, with all this, no more than a creature. A Christian is not at li- berty to take so much of the faith as he may think proper, and to reject the rest; to embrace the morality and refuse the doctrine, nor to adhere to the doctrine and reject the morality of the Gospel. No man can be called a Christian, even in profession, unless he hold, not only that b 4 8 SERMON I. Christ existed as the man Jesus here on earth, but that he was very God at that very time ; that his Godhead had existed, in identity with the Father as to being and power, from all eternity, though with dis- tinction as to person ; and that he shall so exist till time shall be no more. This we hold to have been the faith of Christians as to the Person of our blessed Saviour from the beginning, and this the Unitarians deny. Whether the truth rest with them or with us will be matter for future discus- sion, but that such a faith is of necessity attached to the name of Christian can hardly be disputed. Let all who are cap- tivated by the sound of freedom in opi- nion, and the boast of those which some call exclusively rational principles, con- sider to what those principles are leading them ; even to the denial of him whom God has declared to be our Lord, our Saviour, and our God. Let them not rely on the sound of a name superadded, in order to affix an opposite and arbitrary sense to the appellation by which that sect distinguishes itself, which absolutely denies ON MYSTERIES. 9 the Godhead of Christ, and the personal- ity of the Holy Ghost. The same has formerly been done by unbelievers, who affected to talk of Christian Deists, and Christian Jews. The name of Unitarian Christians, if to the term Unitarian that sense be attached which they affix to it, is a contradiction in terms. It confounds believers in Christ's Godhead with those who absolutely deny that Godhead. It professes that they who bear that name are hoping for salvation through his sacrifice of atonement, and his mediation, as consequent and dependant thereon ; while they are denying the effi- cacy of that sacrifice, and reducing his me- diation to nothing more than the prayers of a prophet and righteous man. Even Ma- homet allowed as much as this, for he pro- fessed that he requested Christ's prayers for himself, and he ascribed to him pre- eminence above Moses and all the pro- phets. And what do modern Unitarians more than this ? The man Jesus, as a mere man, who had no manner of existence be- fore his birth at Bethlehem, who was not 10 SERMON I. the Saviour who purchased us by his blood, who was not the appointed sacrifice to atone for sins, who was not the eternal Son of the Most High : such is the person whose existence they acknowledge ! They grant indeed that Jesus Christ bore a special mission from God, and that he is now miraculously exalted to preemi- nent honour at God's right hand. But where does it appear in the Gospel that this is all which his disciples are required to believe ? What great preeminence does this assign to him, above others whom we know to have been taken up into the pre- sence of God ? Such pretences are mere deception; and the addition of a highly respected name is but too much like a shield to cover their real tenets, and a snare to draw in the unguarded to the de- structive errors of their communion. Even the heresy of Arius came nearer to the true faith than this. For it allowed the Godhead of our Saviour, and his ex- istence before his incarnation, though not from all eternity. But the Unitarians deny both. Yet did the general assembly of ON MYSTERIES. 11 the whole Christian Church condemn his doctrine, and stigmatize it with their ana- thema. I do not urge the sentence of that Council as of equal authority with the holy Scriptures, by which the measures of that, and of every other assembly of frail and fallible men must be judged. But it dis- tinctly proves what was the sense of the great body of believers, at a time when corruptions were not so common but that they were examined and censured ; and so near to the Christian era, as to be compa- ratively but little removed from the age of the Apostles themselves. At that period human presumption had not become so fertile as in these days, in inventing corruptions of the Christian faith ; and in that Council those Fathers of the Church assisted, who were most likely to know what had been the teaching of the Apostles themselves; whose opinions there- fore, though not infallible, have ever been accounted as entitled to the highest respect. Against the judgment then of the pri- mitive Church, and, what is much more, against the express words of Scripture, 12 SERMON I. from which we derive our doctrine, does this sect maintain opinions derogatory in the greatest degree to our blessed Saviour; and it spares no pains in disseminating opinions, which, if received, would degrade him from the Divine supremacy, to the condition of a mere mortal, a servant, a frail being, capable of moral corruption and of sin, equally with ourselves. That the audacity of man should broach such opinions is unhappily no matter of wonder. But that they who do thus should assume the very name which they labour to bring to nothing, is a proof of something very different from zeal for the truth. All who have ivell examined their tenets can judge of their names and profes- sions ; but in regard to others, it may well be feared lest the name should sometimes answer the purpose for which it is as- sumed, by putting them off their guard against the insidious practices of the Uni- tarians; lest it should lead those who do not inquire much into the matter, to con- clude that there is no reasonable appre- hension of danger to the Christian faith, ON MYSTERIES. 13 from those who assume an appellation which belongs, in truth, only to its sincere and faithful followers. What is the object which they profess ? What do they hold out as their avowed in- tention? To " inculcate the rational prin- " ciples of religion, and the necessity of " free inquiry, on topics essential to the " best interests of man, as well for the " world that now is, as for that which is to " come." None surely who consider this can be drawn in by the sound of its first words — Do not we know what has been in former times the abuse of similar language ? What has been always the plea of Infidels and Deists ? Rational principles, and free inquiry. The old title of Freethinkers might alone lead us to suspect the relation between the two parties. I do not mean to assert that the Unita- rians now hold all the same principles with the Deists, but that they hold that one which leads to them all, the supremacy of human reason, and its competency to ac- cept or reject even the dictates of Omni- potence. 14 SERMON I. They lay great stress on " making per- " sons of every class to comprehend and " feel the dignity of their nature, and judge " for themselves, of the principles upon " which the duties enjoined are founded." But this magnifying of the dignity of hu- man nature is the very language of pride, and shews but little proficiency in Chris- tian knowledge, as it was taught by him from whom alone we all profess to derive it. " Take my yoke upon you and learn " of me," were his words, " for I am meek " and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest " unto your souls." They who will not abide by any thing which they do not comprehend, must as- sert, that all which is above our compre- hension is untrue; or, at least, that they are justified in treating it as if it were un- true. And what is this but to make mor- tal intellect the measure of Divine truth? What, but to set up imperfect and very li- mited faculties to judge of the acts and counsels of the infinite and perfect Jeho- vah ? What, but to say in the pride of our hearts, so soon as we meet with any thing ON MYSTERIES. 15 in his declarations which we do not satis- factorily comprehend, Hitherto will I go, and no farther? Let us, for the sake of common sense and reason ; let us first perfect our know- ledge of earthly things ; of our own na- ture, and of all the created universe. How weak, how erroneous are all our specula- tions even there ! How soon are we com- pelled to acknowledge that we see effects, whose most immediate causes we cannot discern ; that we find ourselves to be parts of a system, the laws of which, except where revelation has aided us, we compre- hend but in a small degree ! Nor can we account for many of the wonderful pro- ductions or operations of nature, except by referring them at once to God ; whose work we know them to be, though we know not the course and method of his workmanship. The truly wise man will be the most ready to exclaim with Solomon, " Hardly do we guess aright at the things 66 which are upon the earth, and with la- " bour do we find the things which are 16 SERMON I. ".before us; but the things which are in " heaven who hath searched out?" Such being the case, the Church of Eng- land, which does not disdain prostration of the understanding before the unsearchable mysteries of God, which is contented to go to that extent which he has laid open, and to stop where his light ceases to guide us farther : our Church is ready to give its belief to this great mystery of a Trinity in Unity, because, though not fully explained, it is yet certainly declared, by Him to whom alone it could be known. Though life and immortality are unquestionably brought to light by the Gospel, yet it is, in this our mortal state, only such light as may serve to guide us to that immortality. The perfection of knowledge can not be- long to an imperfect state of being. If however religion be now rendered in all respects so very simple a matter, and so much within the compass of every man's intellect, that we may reject any duty, or any point of belief, however positively en- forced, provided that we disapprove it ; ON MYSTERIES. 17 then are we all now far wiser than the wisest of antiquity, who admitted their inability to comprehend such things without a reve- lation from God. If it be necessary that all should be throughly fathomed by our reason, before we need to believe it, what means St. Paul, when he says, " b That " your faith should not stand in the wis- " dom of men, but in the power of God ?" Or what is this saying of the same Apostle, a c We speak the wisdom of God in a mys- " tery, — which none of the princes of " this world knew; for had they known it, " they would not have crucified the Lord " of glory?" What is this, but a declara- tion, that man is not able to discover the whole of God's mysteries, of which this is the chief? Yet since the Most High has declared these things to us, though they be only in part intelligible, we are bound to receive and to admit the whole. It may be called unworthy of the dignity of our nature so to do ; but we must either receive them with- b 1 Cor. ii. 5. c 1 Cor. ii. 7, 8. c IS SERMON I. out comprehending, or we must dare to reject his word which enforces them. In this mortal state there will be many things hidden, "the secret things of God;" but we must nevertheless submit to receive them, unless we would be wise above the measure which he has allotted to us. " d The natural man receiveth not the " things of the Spirit of God, for they are " foolishness unto him ; neither can he " know them, because they are spiritually " discerned. " So long as these adversaries of the re- ceived faith reject with scorn all prostra- tion of the understanding, even before the throne of God, there is little or no hope of reclaiming them from their errors. The very snare of Satan, that same snare which entangled Eve, and led to all our woe, is, and always has been, wrought from our conceit and presumption. The right of human judg- ment in opposition to Divine revelation, was the temptation held out in that case : " e In the day ye eat thereof, then your d 1 Cor. ii. 11. e Gen. iii. 5. ON MYSTERIES. 1<) " eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as i{ gods, knowing good and evil." And the ambition of doing what is right in our own eyes is, and has ever been, a most fatal snare to human vanity. But let not them say, and let not others imagine, that Religion has nothing to do with Reason, because it is asserted, that Reason could never of itself have dis- covered the secret things of God, and is bound to receive them as revealed by him, though it be unable fully to comprehend them. The province of Reason is not to scrutinize the Divine essence, nor to pry into matters which must of necessity be far beyond the reach of our limited faculties. Its business on these points is to examine the credibility of the Revelation, so far as regards the testimony which is to prove that it proceeded from the Almighty. It has nothing to do with comprehending things incomprehensible : but if, upon full inquiry, it find that the doctrine be re- vealed by the word of the Lord, Reason must bow before his authority which sanc- C 2 20 SERMON I. tions that doctrine. Reason is thankful for such insight into celestial matters as is given, though only to a certain extent, and does not presume to press beyond the li- mits which must ever confine it. Our knowledge of the Divine nature is now only partial ; enough to shew the infinite distance between it and our own ; enough to call forth our awe and veneration. u Now we know in part;" and whoever has learned true Christian humility will be contented with that limited part, which is adapted to our limited abilities. In the next life, the faithful will be rewarded with the full understanding of all, which they have believed now, though they did not entirely comprehend it. " f Blessed," said our Saviour, " are they who have not seen, " and yet have believed." What they now receive on his authority, though they can- not comprehend it, will then be fully made clear to their enlarged and perfected capa- cities. " s Now we see in a glass darkly, f John xx. 29. s 1 Cor. xiii. 12. ON MYSTERIES. 21 " but then face to face. Now we know in " part, but then shall we know even as also " we are known/' Let man then restrain his impatience till the consummation of all things. Let him not, before his nature be perfected, expect to attain to the perfection of know- ledge ; lest such presumption, far from bringing him nearer to the object of his desire, should utterly exclude him from those privileges, which shall belong here- after to the spirits of just men made per- fect, and to them alone. The great evil which leads, and always has led to infidelity, is the setting up of human reason as the measure of truth ; whereas it is only the measure of that testimony whereby the truth is declared. The matter itself which is proposed to us may be ut- terly beyond the reach of our faculties, as the matter here in question, the Divine nature, is, and always has been; and while this world endures, always shall continue to be. Man has no sort of right to doubt the possibility of God's existence, in any man- c 3 22 SERMON I. ner which lie shall be pleased to reveal, Man does not understand his own nature, and much less the incomprehensible nature of the infinite Godhead. When things are thus necessarily beyond the reach of hu- man understanding, the authenticity of the revelation which makes them known is all of which we are competent to judge. The certainty that these truths are really and distinctly revealed, though they be not entirely laid open and made familiar to our capacities, is certainty enough, and ought to produce complete conviction. Such certainty must spring from due in- quiry into the authenticity of the revela- tion. It depends chiefly on the consist- ency of the present, with previous commu- nications from the same source ; which is one sort of testimony : and to this our Sa- viour himself appealed, when he said, " ''The works that I do, they bear wit- " ness of me." " » Search the Scriptures, " for, — they are they which testify of me." The other testimony lies in the cha- h John x. 25. ' John v. 39. ON MYSTERIES. 23 racter and consistency of those, from whom the witness proceeds; and that is in this case unquestionable. The Unitarians, as they love to call themselves, falsely implying thereby, and indeed asserting, that we are Tritheists ; these Unitarians do not deny the testi- mony, as to its authenticity, but endea- vour rather to wrest the words in which it is conveyed, and so to support themselves in their denial of the doctrine which it in- culcates. But let Christians ever remem- ber that of our ownselves we can do no- thing. Let them never allow themselves to suppose that human reason is to fathom every depth, and that we are not bound to admit any thing which we cannot clearly comprehend. Let us beware of admitting generally the evidence of the holy Scrip- tures, only that such admission may give the more weight to objections afterwards urged in detail against the most important particulars ; and let us not pervert and torture the obvious sense and plain inter- pretation of God's word, rather than break down the prejudices with which pride in- C 4 24 SERMON I. spires the heart of man. This is no unfair insinuation, no misinterpretation of the language of Unitarians, nor any conclu- sion violently extracted from expressions, which were not designed to bear it. What are the very words of their own advocate, on the point of prostration of the under- standing before the inscrutable mysteries of God ? " k Prostration of the understand- " ing," says he, " God forbid ! If any f t one had charged us with admitting as a " revealed truth, as a doctrine of Jesus, a " proposition which previously to its re- " ception required a prostration of the un- " derstanding, we should have regarded it " as a calumny more absurd, and more in- " jurioUs, than any which the ingenuity of u our bitterest enemies has ever yet in- " vented." The very point on which this prostration of the understanding was required, is the nature of God, in regard to the Trinity in Unity. These Unitarians are not called to submit their intellects to any thing un- derstood, and so ascertained to be absurd, k Belsham's Letter to the Bishop of London, p. 75. ON MYSTERIES. & but to a doctrine, which, though it be avowedly beyond the utmost stretch of mortal faculties to comprehend it, is ne- vertheless well authenticated as having pro- ceeded from the Almighty, as shall be de- monstrated : a doctrine, which is to be re- ceived as one of the secret things, by which God tries our faith. But it is supported by such testimony, as may well convince our reason, of all which reason is able to examine and decide; namely, that it is sent from God. The testimony to this doctrine is so di- rect and convincing, that Unitarians, in the pride of their heart, have set their own fancies above God's word ; and, in order to get rid of its evidence, have expunged and altered many passages which bore wit- ness to it most copiously. Foul methods indeed by which to hide an error, whether they were thrust upon the adoption of them by vanity, or by obstinacy ! I will however no farther anticipate my subject, but, having thus opened the ge- neral question, will endeavour in my sub- sequent discourses to examine severally the 2G SERMON I. articles held by this party; as well those which constitute the main hinge of the controversy, as the other subordinate points which they hold in opposition to the Chris- tian faith. The first is, that there is one God, " and " one only Person in the Godhead;" and connected with this is one of their negative articles, in which they deny absolutely, and in no very decent terms, (as is too much their practice,) a Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Godhead. And it is necessary throughout this ques- tion to keep it constantly in our recollec- tion, that the Church invariably and most strictly maintains the Unity of the God- head. When it asserts the personal dis- tinction of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, it does not lose sight of the first article which is the foundation of all the rest, namely, that " there is but one living and " true God." As is the case with all works, so the whole confession of faith published in the Articles of the Church of England has a right to be considered as one composition. ON MYSTERIES. 27 That composition is consistent with itself. Its parts were intended to agree with each other, as parts in one system, and as de- duced from one source : and the first, the very head of all, was certainly kept in view, while those which follow, especially those which immediately follow, were composed. The question is not of the number of Gods, but of the number of Persons who exist in one sole Godhead. Nor does the incom- prehensibility of the doctrine at all affect its truth. The whole subject of the con- troversy stands totally distinct from the question, whether a Trinity in Unity be, or be not, comprehensible to us ; for both parties hold alike that it is not. But we have to examine whether the objections made to that doctrine be or be not well founded ; and the whole matter turns on its divine authority, not on our capacity of comprehending it. They assert, secondly, that our blessed Saviour was a mere human being; and they deny that, which our Church never asserted, a subordinate Creator, &c. And 28 SERMON I. farther, they positively reject the most im- portant doctrine of the Atonement. Thirdly, they reject the personality of the Holy Spirit. After these shall have been discussed, I propose to examine their admission, that Jesus Christ is to be the universal Judge, he yet being according to them a mere man. Fifthly, we will consider their doctrine as to the inspiration of the holy Scriptures, and the respect which they have in reality shewn to them. And lastly, we will consider their denial of the eternity of punishment to condemned sinners. I have followed, throughout this arrange- ment, the order of that confession which was published by one of their present leaders 1 , in his Letter to the present Bi- shop of London ; wherein it is fair to con- clude, that the avowed doctrines of the sect are contained. I propose now to pro- 1 Bolsham. ON MYSTERIES. 29 ceed, with God's help, to the examination of those doctrines regularly and minutely. But I hope to avoid that offensive levity and indecency of style, which is too often perceptible in their pamphlets ; a style, in which it is unbecoming to treat any ques- tion acknowledged by all parties to be of the highest importance ; and which has too often betrayed them into language, shocking to the ears of all right-minded persons, because it is offensive and blas- phemous to the majesty of the Almighty. To him, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three Persons in one God, we ren- der and ascribe all might, majesty, adora- tion and praise, now and for ever. SERMON II. ON THE HOLY TRINITY. Matt, xviii. 19. {Jo ye and teach all nations, baptizing- them in the name of the Father > and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. IN these words we hear the original insti- tution of that rite, by which the followers of our blessed Saviour have in all times been initiated into the profession of the Christian faith ; and it is especially to be observed, that the Apostles are herein commanded by our Lord's own mouth to administer baptism in the names of all the three Persons who exist in the unity of the Godhead. In opposition to this, however, the first article with which the Socinian, or Unitarian, Creed commences, is, that ON THE HOLY TRINITY. 31 " a there is one God, in one Person only." Herein consists the whole peculiarity of their doctrine, as to this point. For that which is subsequently asserted, namely, that he is the " sole Creator and Governor " of the universe, absolute in all perfection, " and the sole object of religious worship," is the same which we and all Christians hold. The question therefore as to this article turns on the assertion, that God exists " in one Person only ;" contrary to the received opinion of the whole Christian Church, which agrees generally with our Article, wherein the Catholic doctrine is thus expressed : (i There is but one living " and true God, everlasting, without body, •' parts, or passions, of infinite power, wis- " dom, and goodness ; the Maker and Pre- tS server of all things both visible and invi- " sible; and in the Unity of this Godhead, " there be three Persons of one substance, " power, and eternity, the Father, the " Son, and the Holv Ghost." a Belsham, p. 5. b XXXIX Articles. Art. I. Of Faith in the Holy Trinity, &c. 32 SERMON II. The question therefore is not of the Be- ing, or Unity of God, but of the Trinity of Persons in that Unity ; and therefore we must look to a negative article in the Uni- tarian's Creed, which explains more fully their assertion, that God exists " in one " Person only." They " c enter their so- " lemn protest against the commonly re- " ceived doctrine of the Trinity, as an an- " cient and gross corruption of the Chri- " stian revelation ; the primary and fun- " damental article of which, is the Unity of « God." Their assertion is a negative; namely, that a Trinity of Persons does not exist in that Unity of Godhead ; a Unity which we hold as much as they. Upon that point then we will proceed to examine the ques- tion. These Unitarians reject the doctrine of the Trinity, together with those other most important doctrines which must stand or fall with it, " d as inconsistent with reason, " as unfounded in Scripture, as dishonour- c Belsham, p. S. d Belsham, p. 14. ON THE HOLY TRINITY. 33 " able to the divine attributes, as leading " to very pernicious practical consequences, " as gross corruptions of the Christian re- " velation, and as obstructing the progress c< of the Gospel in the world." Their first objection, that the doctrine of the Trinity is inconsistent with reason, is the old plea of Deists and Infidels for centuries past. But to that it has long since been sufficiently answered, that it is not contrary to reason, though certainly above its reach ; and therefore cannot be proved to be inconsistent with it : for it is absurd to make positive assertions, or to attempt to reason on matters which are utterly and avowedly incomprehensible. We have no distinct idea of God's entire nature. Our only distinct idea of him is a negative; that he cannot be limited, either in dura- tion or power ; cannot be resisted ; cannot be comprehended. So far as this we have distinct ideas. But when we talk of his positive properties we have no distinct ideas ; because infinity is the general at- tribute which pervades them all, and the D 34 SERMON II. human mind can form no conception of that which is infinite. We know only what it is not ; that it is not limited in any manner : but it is most obvious that we cannot say what it is. This may teach us how unreasonable it is to reject any thing that the Almighty has revealed concerning his own nature, because we do not comprehend it. One Person in the Deity, with all his necessary perfections, is, if we endeavour to explain all that belongs to them, fully as incompre- hensible to mortal faculties, as the Trinity in the Unity of the Godhead. Even if we descend to earthly things, to which our ideas and language are more adequate, to our own nature, and that of every thing animate or inanimate, if we consider every brute, every plant, even every blade of grass, it is beyond our power accurately to explain all the precise physical reasons of their birth or proper- ties. The doctrine of the Trinity is avowedly a mystery. It is therefore of necessity in- ON THE HOLY TRINITY. 35 comprehensible, otherwise it would cease to be a mystery. And it is, from the very nature of things, impossible that the pecu- liar nature of God should ever be revealed to us in this state of our existence, other- wise than as a mystery; because it does not admit of full explanation in mortal lan- guage. The images, in order to express which all language has been invented, are taken from visible objects. But the nature of God has nothing in common with them. Whether in regard to his Trinity of Per- sons, or to his other peculiar properties, such as his eternity for instance ; the na- ture of God, if considered in any way, is equally invisible, equally incomprehensible, equally above human reason, though never contrary to it ; and therefore, if this be sufficient ground for disbelief, it applies to the divine nature altogether. We cannot explain by human language, framed according to sensible objects, that which is beyond the reach of our senses, and has nothing in common with those ob- jects. It is therefore impossible, that our D '2 3G SERMON II. language should express intelligibly the hidden things of God c . When he is pleased to reveal to us any thing concerning his own infinite nature, we are bound to receive, in humble thank- fulness, what he so reveals, though we un- derstand the matter thereof only just so far as he is pleased to open it ; and are unable to penetrate at all into the myste- ries which yet remain unrevealed. Our nature and faculties are imperfect, and li- mited ; God's nature and deity are incom- prehensible, and unlimited. It is therefore presumptuous and irrational to expect, that we should be able to advance one single step in so incomprehensible a matter as the divine nature, without the guidance of express revelation. c It is not in man's ability either to express perfectly, or conceive the manner how this was brought to pass. But the strength of our faith is tried by those things wherein our wits and capacities are not strong. How- beit, because this divine mystery is more true than plain, divers having framed the same to their own con- ceits and fancies, are found in their exposition thereof more plain than true. Hooker, Eecl. Pol. v. 51. ON THE HOLY TRINITY. 37 That this has always been the case is abundantly shewn by comparison of the Jews, who enjoyed this advantage, with the heathens, who, though otherwise far more learned, enjoyed it not. The Jews, a peo- ple far from distinguished for learning or those arts which human ingenuity brings to perfection, were yet wise to a degree to which the sages of Greece could make no pretension, in all which related to the Godhead : for to them it had been re- vealed, so far at least as it pleased the Lord to reveal it. While the Greeks, far their superiors in letters and arts, during the very era of learning and philosophy, were yet labouring in vain to discover that, to which human faculties can never, by their own strength, attain. The reason of this ignorance with them was the want of express revelation on the subject ; for Plato himself, whose faculties could go as far as those of any mortal, Plato himself confesses f , that nothing short f Touto 8»j ovv to jxegoj QoifjLtv Qvcrei xvpiotiraTOv xai SuvaTOV, coj olov ts (j.sc'ahjt8' xv §j§a£a£v a pj 0=oj vtpyyoiTo. Epinomis. D 3 » Avayxxiov 38 SERMON 11. of an actual communication from the Deity could resolve their doubts and clear up their difficulties. Even the feeble ray of knowledge in sa- cred things which they did possess, seems to have been either borrowed from the Jews, perhaps through the medium of the ^Egyp- tians ; or else to have been a remnant of patriarchal tradition, which might have been handed down from the sons of Noah to their descendants. And it is well worth remarking, that all in which the heathens made any approaches towards truth in their traditions of facts, may be clearly traced to events recorded in the holy Scriptures. Those traditions related principally to Avayxouov ovv scttj TtzpipevsiVy ecu; a.v Tig jJ-tzSy «5j 2<3 ispog roug Qzoo; Key typo; a.v§gcv7roug ^taxstcr^af. AAK. stoti guv 'srupeoTcq 6 yjpovog ovtoc, co ^coxpaTsg, xcq tic o Trutievo-cov ; y^jkjtoc yap v a]8e xa/ avhpu, outco xa/ (tov 8av awo ttjj ^w^g i&pcDTOV ctfys/XovTcc ty { v a^Auv, rj vuv isapovo~u ruy^avsx, to tyjvix.ix.vt yj%y] zscoc^spsiv §»' cov /x=A- Asjj yvwosoSou; )]ju.ev xuxov >jSs xoj\ saSAov vuv ftsv yap ovx XV /u,oj Soxjjs §yvrjd>;va/. sllcib. Gen. iii. 22. » Isaiah vi. 8. ON THE HOLY TRINITY. 45 " of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, " and who will go for us £>" &c. It is to no purpose to multiply such instances, which might easily be done. Let any one search for himself, and he will easily find abundant satisfaction. This only ought to be observed ; that the expression here put in the mouth of God, cannot be under- stood as if he were speaking to the angels, as has been asserted by the Unitarians. For where do we find that God takes counsel of them, as to what he shall do, or what he shall forbear. " ° Who hath known " the mind of the Lord, or who hath been " his counsellor?" The expression can be understood and explained intelligibly only by admitting, that one Person of the Tri- nity here speaks to another. For as to the style which kings on earth now use, where- in the plural number is employed in speaking only of one ; (and this also has been suggested as accounting for the plural name in the Scripture;) as to that style, it must be shewn that they used it in • Isaiah xl. 13. 46 SERMON II. the days of Moses at the very least, in or- der to prove any thing thereby : that ob- jection therefore falls to the ground. In the fourth chapter of the Prophet Daniel there is another striking mention of a plurality of Persons in the Godhead, where " a Watcher and a Holy One" is stated to come down in the Prophet's vi- sion, and to pass judgment on Nebuchad- nezzar, which is declared to be done " by " the decree of the Watchers, and the de- " mand of the word of the Holy Ones." What Holy Ones can these be who pass decrees in heaven upon the kings of the earth ? What but the King of kings in his Trinity of Persons ? The same expression is continued through the next chapter also. i( p They took his glory from him," &c. I will mention only a few more out of the very many texts, which shew that the name and power of the Lord are applied indifferently to more than one Person in the Old Testament. " q The Lord said (i unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right P Dan. v. 20. l i Psalm xc. 1. ON THE HOLY TRINITY. 47 " hand," &c. Here the name of the Lord is attributed to two Persons. u r I will " drive thee from thy station, and from " thy state He will put thee down." Here acts of sovereignty are ascribed on equal terms to two Persons in the Deity. " s I " will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou " shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath " sent Me unto thee." Here God pro- mises his presence and protection, while he declares himself to be sent by the Lord of hosts *. The doctrine of a Plurality of Persons is thus manifestly taught in the Old Testament, while it every where insists on the strictest Unity in the Godhead. Before we proceed to that proof which, as might be expected, is yet more dis- r Isaiah xxii. 19. s Zechariah ii. 2. x There are in the Psalms many passages which shew the union of the singular and plural appellation in God, thus implying a Trinity (or at least a Plurality) in the Unity. For instance, Psalm viii. 12. "Lords," in the plural, (is) " a just Judge," in the singular. Condem- nation is also denounced on those who, though for- bidden to worship more Gods than one, should forget " Lords." Psalm ix. 17- " The wicked shall be turned " into hell, all the people who forget Lords." So these passages would stand in a literal version. 48 SERMON II. tinctly given in the New Testament, it is not unworthy of our notice to observe that remnant of tradition which kept alive some imperfect idea of a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead, even among the Pagans ; whether it were derived from the Jews, or from the Patriarchs, the sons of Noah. That tradition does not bear the stamp of human invention ; and we may account for it perhaps not unreasonably, by supposing it to have been held in its original state, by him who was the stock of the various na- tions settled in distant parts of the earth, from whom they derived the doctrines of their faith, as well as their being. We find it indeed existing at this day among the barbarous nations of the peninsula of In- dia, where the doctrine of three Persons in one God remains in their Bramah, Veshnu, and Sceva ; though, as it did among the Greeks and Romans, it remains with them in a very corrupted state ; and it is a re- markable coincidence, that the second Person in that Trinity, is, as in ours, a God incarnate, from whom acts of mercy pro- ceed towards man. ON THE HOLY TRINITY. 49 This doctrine, if we had nothing to which we might trace its origin, would be unac- countable. But when we find that it coin- cides with the Christian Trinity, and with the plurality of Persons in the Godhead, which is plainly taught by the plural name of God, and by the threefold appearances in the Old Testament ; matters which we learn from those which are infinitely the oldest of all authentic records ; it is not un- reasonable to suppose, that this religious mystery may have been preserved to those Indian heathen by tradition, even from the time when they separated themselves from the original seat of the common progeni- tors of mankind. They would naturally hand down their own faith, as we find that it was handed down in other cases ; for instance, in the book of Job probably a descendant from Esau ; who plainly mentions the Re- deemer, and calls him by the name of God. That faith soon lost its purity, ex- cept in the records of the one chosen na- tion ; while among the others, fragments broken and corrupted alone remained ; E 50 SERMON 11. yet, Cy God's providence, fragments so singular and remarkable, as when com- pared with the true and perfect doctrine, to give abundant evidence that they pro- ceeded from the same source. Of the re- ligion of the Eastern nations in general we yet know comparatively little, and better knowledge will probably throw clearer light on the traces by which their superstitions are connected with, and were derived from the true faith. But how shall wc account for the very strong and remarkable resemblance which exists, among all the darkness of heathen superstition, between that corrupt Trinity which was found in the Roman and Samo- thracian Cabala, and the true Trinity of Christians and of Holy Writ? How ; ex- cept by concluding that those superstitions proceeded from the same source with the true faith, and that they were imperfectly delivered to the ancestors of those nations, by the sons of Noah ; or else that they were borrowed by the Greeks from Egypt, and by the Egyptians from Israel. The Samothracian Cabin were the origin of the ON THE HOLY TRINITY. 51 Capitoline Trinity at Rome. Now the very word Cab'iri, or Cabirim,, poiverful o?ies, is Hebrew", and shews the origin of the doc- trine, which was said to have been brought, within eight hundred years from the de- luge, from Samothracia into Phrygia, and from thence to Rome. It is applied to the three preeminent deities who had sprang, by an easy corruption, out of the real and original doctrine of a Trinity in Unity. In the Capitoline Trinity of Jupiter, Minerva, and Juno, we may observe, that Minerva, the Divine wisdom, is the second person; no slight coincidence with the Wisdom of God, the Word. The Platonic Trinity, as it was held and taught by his followers, till they deviated, as was the case in later times, from the doctrine, consisted of x three original hy- postases : — the first, y self-existence and goodness; the second, mind ; the third, life u CTH^ xuSctpot. Ssoi fovuroi. See CudworuYs In- tel. Syst. 451. x Tpejj ap^ixcu imo?ctjv, ex Tz twv lludctyopsixv xou Op- fixoov ypcttj.[Ax.Ta>v. Theol. Platonis, 1. i. c. v. a A Trinity of Persons for the purpose of creation was taught by the Pythagoreans, and by Xenocrates. Aura ra apifyaa g-oi^eta to 'Ev, xa» rj Auaj y ctopifo;, >jv wirr- T(5rav»]j 3 apcivo$, xpovo;. See Cudworth's Intel. Syst. 547. d It is not to be disputed that the existence of the Platonic Triad or Trinity, as deities, has been, and may well be called in question. Nor is much weight rested upon it here. The present argument only brings it for- ward, if it may be admitted, collaterally, as some addi- tional confirmation to that which is more decidedly proved by the other evidence here adduced, viz. that some idea of a Trinity in the Godhead did exist among the heathens. That it was taught by Plato himself is not here asserted, but that it was the doctrine of his School after, as it had been of other philosophers before him. E 3 51 SERMON II. luge. Whether it came from Japheth, or from the Israelites, it is still the most an- cient doctrine of theology in the world, after that of the simple existence of a God. It ought not to excite wonder that the doc- trine of the Trinity was corrupted hy Pla- tonists and others, so that three gods were often substituted for three hypostases, or persons, in one God. It is far more won- derful that a doctrine so mysterious should have continued to exist at all : and it may not be too much for Christians to con- clude, that if it had been of men, it must have come to nought ; but since it was of God, nothing could overthrow it. The proofs of this doctrine are, as might be expected, far more explicit and precise in the New, than in the Old Testament. The names of the three persons are men- tioned, indifferently, as performing acts of sovereignty and divine power; and they are used without distinction as to order and precedence ; a circumstance which plainly intimates the perfect equality which exists between them, and which is essen- tial to their Unity in the Godhead. ON THE HOLY TRINITY. 55 The first and most important proof of this nature, is the use of all the three names in the sacrament of baptism, and that by our Saviour's own express command; for it is impossible, that in the very rite by which he appointed the initiation of con- verts into the Christian faith, any thing should be introduced by him which could be injurious to that faith. His words are these : " e Go therefore and teach all na- " tions;" or, as in the margin of our trans- lation, " f Make disciples of all nations, " baptizing them in the name of the Fa- " ther, and of the Son, and of the Holy " Ghost." How distinctly are all the three Persons here named, as equally essential to that rite which was to be the seal of Chris- tians for ever ! And yet Christianity came to supersede among the heathens their po- lytheism ; and it always teaches, that there is but One God. If therefore, in the rite by which converts are to be initiated into that faith, it be necessary to specify three Persons in the Godhead, it follows, that a e Matt, xxviii. 19. f Mx^TcvaxTi. E 4 56 SERMON II. Trinity must be reconcileable with the Unity of God. The Apostolic blessing is another pow- erful evidence to the same purpose. It shews both the distinction of the Persons, and their equality in the Godhead ; for be- ing in respect of Godhead One, it signifies not which Person is first named. Here the Son stands first, " §The grace of onr " Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, " and the communion of the Holy Ghost." I shall, for the present, satisfy myself with these two passages, because they re- late to most solemn occasions ; on which it is not to be imagined without impiety, that our Lord and his Apostle could have used any other language, than that which it was proper for them to deliver, and for their converts to receive. If we can ima- gine any thing of error or inadvertency in the very initiatory rite ordained by Christ himself; by our Lord, or even as the Uni- tarians call him, by " a prophet of the "highest order;" if we can conceive him g 2 Cor. xiii. 14. ON THE HOLY TRINITY. 57 to have been capable of mistake, or inac- curacy, in instituting a form as the distin- guishing badge of that faith which he came to reveal, there is an end to all respect for his Deity; and we are even guilty of reject- ing and insulting his claim to divine inspi- ration altogether. It would be easy to multiply proofs from the New Testament in confirmation of the doctrine of the Trinity. But as the ge- neral question will, of necessity, be dis- cussed, in proving the Deity of the separate Persons, it seems unnecessary to insist far- ther on the point at present. This doctrine then is traced up to the highest antiquity ; and it cannot be prov- ed to be, as the Unitarians say, " incon- " sistent with reason;" because, inasmuch as it is avowedly incomprehensible to our faculties, we are not capable of deciding on its consistency or inconsistency with a higher reason than ours. It stands upon the authority of testimony; of that word which declares it, such as it is, and in so much as it is revealed, to be a revelation from God. That it is not " unfounded in 58 SERMON II. " Scripture/' has already been shewn shortly, and shall be, by God's help, more abundantly shewn, in treating of the several Persons who constitute the Trinity in the Divine Unity. That it is not " dishonourable to the divine attributes," is sufficiently plain, because it takes no- thing from the Almighty, the one only God h , and attributes every thing excellent to him ; while it teaches, that in that God- head, and not to the diminution or disho- nour of it, there exist in a mysterious man- ner, Three Equal Persons. That it does not " lead to pernicious practical conse- " quences," is clear; for the consequences, to which allusion is here made, must be those of which they accuse us, namely, the worship of more Gods than one, and of h These three names of God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, must denote a threefold difference or dis- tinction belonging to God, but such as is consistent with the unity and simplicity of the divine nature: for each of these includes the whole idea of God, and something more. So far as they express the nature of God, they all adequately and exactly signify the same. It is the additional signification that makes all the dis- tinction between them. Dp. Gaxtrcll on the Trinity. ON THE HOLY TRINITY. 5!> course, the neglect of that which is solely due to the one Almighty. But this was answered, in that which was replied to them upon the last preceding point. That it is not " a corruption of the Christian " doctrine," is proved by the very words of the New Testament which explicitly teach it. That it " obstructs the progress " of the Gospel in the world," is an asser- tion which remains to be proved by those who advance it. And even though it were proved, we should find no authority there- in for setting aside a doctrine expressly taught in the word of God. That the Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Godhead, was thr.t of the earliest times of Christianity, and was the creed of all the apostolic Fathers \ is easily to be ' " Unus est omnia, dum ex uno omnia per substan- " tise scilicet unitatem : et nihilominus custoditur oixo- " vojuiac sacramentum tres dirigens, Patrem, Filium, et " Spiritum Sanctum." — " Quoniam et ipsa regula fidei " a pluribus Deis soeculi, ad unicum et verum Deum " transfert, non intelligentes unicum quidem, sed cum " sua ojjcovo/jcia credendum ; numerum et dispositionem " Trinitatis divisionem praesumentes Unitatis. Quando " Unitas ex semetipsa derivans Trinitatem, non destru- 60 SERMON II. proved. Bui with Unitarians that argu- ment would perhaps have little weight ; " atur ab ilia sed administretur." Tertullian. adv. Praxeam, sub initio. 'O Kty/jLYi; ap^xtorsgoc, Zr], (prpiv, 6 Oso$ xai 6 Kvpio; Ilj- crouj ~KfJi(TT0c, xcl\ to Ylvsvjj.cc to 'Ayiov. Basil, ii. p. 358. The threefold doxology used as we use it appears in the Constitutiones Apostolieae, a work of the second cen- tury. Ball. p. 49. T them, in order to their refutation ; and I should have been unwilling to lay them before such of my congregation, as may be altogether unpractised in the ques- tion, were it not, that it seems better for them to hear these things now stated, to- gether with a scriptural reply to them, than that they should be left to the hazard of stumbling upon them, unprepared, and unguarded. The first assertion to be here disproved is, that our Saviour was a mere human being ! Horrible it is to hear such a thing asserted, in a country which enjoys the full light of that revealed word, whereby his Godhead is so distinctly proved. Yet we have heard that this is asserted in the words which I just now cited; words which lose none of their impiety by the subse- quent admission of Christ's divine mission, and of his authority as the chief of the pro- phets ; for surely none is ignorant that the difference between God and his creatures is so infinite, that no exaltation of the lat- ter can possibly raise them to any thing ap- proaching to the former. 66 SERMON III. We hold with nil Christians — for that is a strange Christianity which denies it — we hold, that our Lord Jesus Christ " d is the u very and eternal God, of one substance " with the Father;" and we thus proceed to establish that assertion by the inspired word of God. For in this matter there is no conviction to be obtained from mere argument. Rea- soning can do nothing in this case, farther than to prove the authenticity of the scrip- tural assertions,, which plainly and distinct- ly mark our blessed Redeemer as the only- begotten Son, coeternal, and coequal, and one in identity of essence and deity with the Father. It must never be lost from our sight, that the mystery of three Per- sons in one God can never be explained, because it can never be understood by man. There is therefore no other proof on this part of our controversy, and there can be no other, than the recorded word of him whose word is truth. With that we must rest satisfied. Upon that we may d XXXIX Articles, Art. 2. ON THE GODHEAD OF CHRIST. G7 rely in entire confidence and security. Abandoning therefore in great measure the weapons of human warfare, the powers of abstract reasoning, and argument, oui weapon must almost solely be " the sword " of the Spirit, which is the word of God." It is, I believe, admitted by every one, that the title of Lord of hosts, as it stands in our Bibles, belongs exclusively to the one Almighty God, to him who has ex- pressly declared, that his glory he will not ffive to another. If therefore we find that the Person mentioned by that appellation is the Person of Jesus Christ, it will follow of necessity that he is the Almighty God. And moreover, since there is but one Lord of hosts, and that incommunicable name is applied both to the Father and to the Son, it must also follow, that the Father and the Son, two Persons, are one and the same God. Now St. John affirms concerning Christ, " e These things said Esaias, when he saw " his glory, and spake of him." But what f John xii. Af. F 2 68 SERMON III. is it which Esaias there says? " e Mine eyes " have seen the King, the Lord of hosts/' A little farther onward, the same Lord of hosts utters those very words, f which St. John had been quoting when he made that reference to Isaiah. The Apostle there- fore plainly declares, that the words spoken by the Lord of hosts were spoken by Christ; and therefore Christ must be the Lord of hosts ; and as such, one with the Father ; to whom, as God, that name ex- clusively belongs. The Saviour is also a name which God takes exclusively to himself: " * I, even I, " am the Lord; and besides me there is no " Saviour." " h Thou shalt know no God " but me : for there is no Saviour besides " me." Notwithstanding this, St. Peter applies the title to Christ: " j Our Lord " and Saviour Jesus Christ." So do the angels at his nativity: " k To you is born " this day in the city of David, a Saviour, ''which is Christ the Lord." St. Paul re- e Isa. vi. 5. t Isaiah vi. 9, 10. 5 Isaiah xliii. 11. h Hosea xiii. 4. ' 2 Pet. iii. 1. k Luke ii. 11. ON THE GODHEAD OF CHRIST. 69 peatedly does the same ; for instance, in his Epistle to Titus: i( 'Through preach- " ing, which is committed unto meaccord- " ing to the commandment of our God " and Saviour." But we know that com- mission to have been given to St. Paul by Christ himself. To these might be added a multitude of instances, wherein the term Saviour, which also is peculiarly appro- priated to God, has been applied in his word to Christ, in such a manner that the application cannot be evaded. In the 78th Psalm m it is said, " They " tempted and provoked the most high " God." St. Paul, alluding to this, says, " "Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of " them also tempted." Christ therefore is the same with the most high God ; the same in power and Godhead ; and there is but one God, as this same Apostle shews , though the Person of Christ is distinctly marked, as separate from that of the Fa- ther. The Apostle says to the Hebrews * 1 Titus i. 3. «» Psal. lxxviii. 56. n 1 Cor. x. 9. ° 1 Cor. viii. 4. P 3 70 SERMON III. also, in the opening of the Epistle, that by Christ God made the worlds ° : that wor- ship, which is God's due solely, is due to Christ p : that God gives the name of God, and ascribes everlasting supremacy and do- minion to Christ q : that he was from the beginning, and shall be to the end, the eternal Creator, and Almighty Lord r . The Prophet Malachi most plainly shews, that the temple, which, as every one knows, signified among the Jews the temple of God alone, was the temple of Christ who was to come 5 . Therefore Christ, who is the Lord there mentioned, was also the Lord of that temple ; the same God who was therein worshipped fc . Our Saviour himself asserts " u l and my Father are " one/' And it ought to be remarked that his expression is very particular; specifying two Persons, and uniting them in one Godhead, or one nature ; for the distinction lies in the Personality; the ° Heb. i. 2. P Heb. i. 6. q Heb. i. 8. r Heb. i. 10, 11, 12. s Mai. iii. 1. 1 See Bp. Horsley. Sermon xxx. u John x. 30. Eycu xa/ o l\xrr t p kv etrfjav. ON THE GODHEAD OF CHRIST. 7! Unity, in the Godhead ; to which belongs the power which lie is in that place vindi- cating to himself. Our Saviour also as- serts, " X I am in the Father, and the Fa- " ther in me;" and St. Paul says the same, " y God was in Christ, reconciling " the world unto himself." The union of Godhead with the distinction of Person are here most plainly marked. St. Paul, and with him all the Apostles, and all Christians after him, hold, " z to us " there is but one God, the Father." St. Thomas, before the face of the Apostles, and on a most remarkable occasion, calls Christ " a My Lord, and my God;" which title he accepts, and no one present ex- presses the slightest surprise or disappro- bation at it. What does this prove, but that Christ and the Father were held by the Apostles for one and the same God ? The divine worship also which Christ admitted from his disciples and others de- cidedly proves the same : for it was ad- x John xiv. 11. y 2 Cor. v. 19. z 1 Cor. viii. 6. a John xx. 28. F 4 U SERMON III. mitted by him, who himself declared, " b Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, " and him only shalt thou serve." In that prophecy of Isaiah, c which no one ever dreamed of applying to any other than Christ, the child to be born is styled, " The mighty God" and " The everlasting " Father," as well as " The Prince of " Peace." He is often enough distin- guished in respect of Personality, as the Son ; and therefore, it is only in Godhead that he is the same with the Father. St. John tells us of Jesus Christ, " d This is the " true God, and eternal life :" and St. Paul again, in the words of my present text, declares, that " in him dwelleth all the ful- " ness of the Godhead bodily." Our Sa- viour himself plainly asserted his Godhead very early in his ministry at Capernaum, (Matt. ix. 6. Mark ii. 10.) when, the Scribes having accused him of blasphemy for saying, " Thy sins be forgiven thee," he replied, that " the Son of man hath b Matt. iii. 10. c Isa. ix. 6. (i 1 John v. 20. OTTOS eariv 6 ec\i)$woc Qbo:, Sec. ON THE GODHEAD OF CHRIST. 73 " power on earth to forgive sins :" not drawing back from the act, but rejecting the charge of blasphemy ; though it was an acknowledged thing, that none could forgive sins but God alone : which pointed to the manifest inference that He, the Son of man, was God. Our Saviour held three conferences with the Jews, in each of which he asserted, and they understood him to assert, his entire equality with the Father, as to actual Deity. The first is recorded in John v. 17, 18. " Jesus an- " swered them, My Father worketh hi- " therto, and I work. Therefore the Jews " sought the more to slay him, because he " had not only broken the sabbath, but " called God his Father 6 , making himself " equal with God." The second is in John viii. 58. " Before Abraham was, I " am. Then took they up stones to cast " at him." This was the punishment for blasphemy, as appointed by the Law. The third is in John x. 23 — 30. where he concludes his discourse with the words e TluTsqx iliov, his own Father. 71 SERMON 111. lately cited : "I and my Father are one." Upon which the Jews again proceed to stone him, for the blasphemy which they conceived that he had uttered. Christ also declared himself the Son of man, to be Lord of the sabbath, which is God's sabbath day. (Matt. xii. 8.) Christ asso- ciated himself with the Father in terms of equality, John xiv. 23. " My Father will " love him, and we will come unto him, " and make our abode with him." And again, as it were, to prove the perfect iden- tity of the Father and the Son, " All " things that the Father hath, are mine." " He that hath seen me hath seen the Fa- " ther also f ." f See also John iii. 34, 35, 36. and v. 17, IS, 23. Hea- thens and Jews, in the early days of Christianity, both understood the Christian religion as teaching that Christ is God. The famous letter of Pliny to Trajan, so often cited, states that the primitive Christians sang hymns to Christ as God. Julian, as cited by Cyril, shews that he understood St. John to teach Christ's proper God- head. (See Whitaker's Origin of Arianism, p. 48, 49, 50 in note.) The Jews now understand the writings of the New Testament as teaching that Christ is very God, and they acknowledged of old that divine omnipo- tence and perfection were necessarily inherent in their ON THE GODHEAD OF CHRIST. 75 So correct is the declaration of that Creed, against which so indiscriminate an Messiah, when they expressed so high indignation against our Saviour for taking to himself his name and office. The primitive Christians held that Christ is God, as appears in Justin Martyr, (A. D. 155.) in his Dialogue with Trypho. T. " As to your saying that " this Christ preexisted before all time, as God, and " then was born a man, and yet was not a man though " born of a man, it seems to me not only contradictory, u but absurd." J. " I know that this saying appears " contradictory to those of your nation, but I am able " to prove that the Son of the Creator preexisted as " God, and afterward was born of a virgin, as man." That the very first Christians prayed to Christ as God, is proved by Stephen's prayer to him expressly, at the moment of his death; a prayer for the remission of their sins, which God alone could remit, as was known and acknowledged by all. Irenaeus expressly asserts, that both the Father and the Son is God; and that none else is ever absolutely so called in the Scriptures. Lib. iii. cap. 6. That Christ is also God who spoke to Moses at the bush. Lib. iv. cap. 11. That God is wholly commensurate with Christ, and Christ with God. Lib. iv. cap. 8. See Bulli Def. Fid. Nic. cap. 5. Clemens Alexandrinus also shews the Deity of Christ, and his identity with the Father. See Bull, ut sup. cap. 6*. That it was the belief of the Jews in the earliest times, that Christians worshipped Christ, is evident from their application at the martyrdom of Polycarp, that his 7« SERMON III. outcry is raised, that the right faith neither confounds the person, nor divides the sub- stance. There are doubtless passages in the New Testament, which impute inferiority be- neath the Father to the man Jesus : that is, inferiority beneath the Godhead, to the human nature : for Christ took it upon him completely and sincerely, with all its wants and its weaknesses. This was an essential part of his humiliation, that he should put on, and unite himself with, a real, proper, human soul and body. The distinction, whereby all those passages which ascribe inferiority to Jesus are ap- plied to his human nature, is no invention of ours, nor of any other Church. Our Lord's declaration, " g I came down from (i heaven, not to do my own will, but the " will of him that sent me ;" and that, body should not be given to the Christians, " lest, leav- " ing him who had been crucified," (whom therefore they were then in the habit of worshipping,) " they " should begin to worship this man ;" Mrj afsvrsj tov e Why " hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to the iC Holy Ghost? — thou hast not lied unto " men, but unto God." In this place the name and power of God unequivocally at- tributed to the Holy Ghost, plainly shew his participation in the Godhead ; while the many expressions of distinct Person- ality above mentioned, establish, so far as we can comprehend it, and yet farther, his existence as a separate Person in that God- head. The evidence on this point would how- ever not be complete, were we to omit * 1 Cor. ii. 10. y Acts v. 3, 4. PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 119 those two most remarkable and significant passages which are contained in the form of baptism, as it was ordained by our Sa- viour himself, and in the blessing used by his Apostles : " z Go ye and teach all na- " tions, baptizing them in the name of the " Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy " Ghost." Now let us call to mind what was the state of all nations at the time when this commandment was given. The Roman power had extended itself over all the countries around Judaea, and indeed over the whole civilized world. Where- ever their arms established their empire, its officers, civil and military, stationed upon their conquests, conveyed the reli- gion of Rome ; which was the most cor- rupt sort of Polytheism. They were ever ready to adopt, as objects of worship, the deities of any state which they conquered. Nay, we know that it was proposed at one time, to enrol Christ himself among the multitude of their Gods ; and the unso- ciable tenets of Christianity, which did not z Matt, xxviii. 19. I 4 120 SERMON IV. admit any communion or participation in God's honours, alone prevented it from being done. The other nations also of the world were, without exception, Pa- gans ; and all worshipped more than one God. The Christian faith was sent forth to correct and reform those erroneous con- ceptions and idolatrous practices. It taught, that the world was reconciled to the one only God, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ; and that men should thence- forth turn from those vanities in their wor- ship, as St. Paul instructed the Athenians, and adore the one, living, eternal, and only true God. To those nations then, brought up in such mixed worship of many deities ; to those nations, did our Saviour send his Apostles to make disciples of them, and to turn them from their own mistaken worship, to one which acknow- ledged only one God, in the strictest pos- sible sense ; and in order to effect that conversion, they were to baptize them in the names of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Let any person of common sense and judgment put the question upon PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 121 this to himself. Was it probable that any man of sound judgment, was it possible that any inspired teacher, and above all others, that the Christ himself, should have proposed to those Pagan worshippers of many deities, a form of initiation, wherein three names are mentioned equally in the Godhead, if it were not absolutely neces- sary so to do ? Could he, above all others supreme in wisdom and every perfection, or could even any man of common discre- tion, have layed such a snare for persons strongly tinctured with their prejudices, as to name unnecessarily three distinct Per- sons in an act which ascribed authority and Godhead to each of them ; at the risk of giving a handle for relapsing into that vice to which the Jews had once been so fatally inclined, and in which their neigh- bours on every side, to whom that rite was to be communicated, were at that very time deeply involved? Would the Apo- stles have ventured upon a doctrine which bore so dangerous an appearance, unless it had been a matter of indispensable neces- sity to give them intimation of this mys~ 122 SERMON IV. tery from the first ; unless it had been es- sential to the true profession of Christi- anity so to do ? The argument, it must be observed, applies with equal force to all the three Persons in the blessed Trinity ; and sets the divinity of the three upon precisely the same footing. So does the apostolic benediction, " a The grace of our " Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, " and the communion of the Holy Ghost, " be with you all/' No one Person was to be omitted, because the blessing of God was fully implored on the converts ; who were to understand that the three opera- tions of the three Persons in the Godhead were alike essential to God's blessing. The Holy Spirit was therefore, in the opi- nion of the Apostles, and of our Saviour himself, as much and as distinctly entitled to the honour of God, as either of the other two Persons. His comforting aid was deemed necessary to accompany the love of the Father, and the grace of the Son ; and his name was solemnly and particu- a 2 Cor. xiii. 14. PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 123 larly invoked in conjunction with theirs, to give authority and sanction to the initiation of Christian converts. The passages of Scripture which have now been adduced, are some of those which apply forcibly to the separate Personality of the Holy Ghost ; a doctrine layed down distinctly in the word of God, though the manner and method of it be not distinctly comprehensible to our limited faculties, no more than the separate Personality of the Father and the Son in one and the same Godhead with the Holy Ghost. Many others might be brought forward, to shew the agency of the Holy Spirit, particularly, upon the souls of men ; but it has been my endeavour to avoid those, for which the subterfuge of interpreting the name as an attribute of, or as an emanation from, the Father might be held out. That, in regard to the Person of the Son, was the heresy of Sabellius in a very early age of the Chris- tian Church ; and the Unitarian evasion of interpreting the name of the Holy Ghost, so as to signify only miraculous gifts and powers bestowed by the Father, is not far 124 SERMON IV. removed from it. Still nearer does it ap- proach to the heresy of Macedonius, which was solemnly condemned in the first Coun- cil of Constantinople. He taught that the Holy Ghost is " a divine energy, diffused " throughout the universe, and not a Person " distinct from the Father and the Son :" in substance nearly the same with the mi- raculous gifts and powers, which modern Unitarians would impose on us, contrary both to the word and sense of the holy Scriptures. These licentious fancies of human ima- gination are not now, as we see, for the first time devised; nor are they now for the first time censured as violations of the pure Christian faith. The opinion of the early Fathers is decidedly the same with that of the Church of England on this point a . But a The disciples of Polycarp, who was himself St. John's disciple, must be held to have known his doc- trine. These are their words : Eggw&ai v^ag eu^ojueda aSeAfoj fOi^ovvTs; tco koltu to euayfeKwv \oyoo Ijjctou Xpig-ou, /J>s$' ou %o%ol tcq Qsco y.ou Tlurpt xa» 'Aytco rivsujaari, &c. Smyrnceorum Epistola de Martyrio Polycarpi. Huic autem plane gemina est lo%o\oyiot. Comitum Ig- natii, sub finem Act. Martyr. S. Ignatii " Glorificantcs PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 125 though the divine word so plainly upholds our doctrine, and the primitive churches following the apostolic age explained that word even as ours does ; yet all are alike rejected, when they contradict those ideas, with which men fancy that their own rea- son has inspired them : all must be made to bow before the arbitrary conceits of the sceptic. " in ipsius venerabili et sancta memoria Dominum nos- u trum Jesum Christum : per quern, et cum quo, Patri " gloria, et potentia, cum Spiritu Sancto, in sancta Ec- " clesia in saecula sseculorum. Amen." Bulli Def. Fid. Niccen. §. xiii. pp. 55, 56. Irenseus marks the distinction of the Holy Ghost from the Father, not as an Energy, but as a Person. Speak- ing of the Son, he says, " Ab omnibus accipiens testimo- " nium, quoniam vere homo et vere Deus, a Patre, a " Spiritu, ab angelis, &c." lib. iv. c. 14. A little farther onward he says also, there is one God the Father, one Son, one Holy Spirit. Again in the 37th chapter of the same book he says, that the Son and Holy Spirit are those to whom the Father addressed himself when he said, " Let us make man in our image," &c. So the same Father distinguishes between the Spirit as a Person, and the Spirit as not a Person, lib. v. c. 12. See Bulli Def. Fid. Niceen. §. ix. p. 82, 83. These, it must be remembered, were some of the very earliest Christians, who derived their doctrine from the immediate word of the very Apostles themselves. 126 SERMON IV. Into such difficulties do men run them- selves, when they must needs explain the mysteries of the kingdom of God farther than he has explained them ; when, in the pride of their hearts, they disdain any pros- tration of their mortal and circumscribed understandings before his supreme and in- comprehensible Godhead. If we must com- prehend every thing before we can believe it, let us make trial of the meanest herb on the face of the earth ; and see whether we can account for all its properties, without throwing ourselves blindly on God's will and pleasure. How do the prolific proper- ties of the earth cause its increase? How are its leaves and flowers formed ? And in what manner do the sap and juices produce those particular forms, and that specific mode of increase, which belongs to each one in particular? We shall perhaps be told, that it is their nature so to spring and so to increase. But this is not to explain, but to evade the difficulty. It is the nature of God, that in the Godhead there should be three Persons. The manner in which this sublime mystery of the Trinity in Unity PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. J 27 comes to pass, is not more removed from our knowledge, than the mode and prin- ciple of increase in the commonest plant ; or than that which may be more generally intelligible, the power of action in ourselves and every living creature. Does the Uni- tarian doubt whether the plants draw nou- rishment from the earth, because he can- not comprehend how the same earth com- municates to each one its own proper shape and colours ? Does he doubt whether man has power to move, because he cannot see how his will communicates motion to his muscles? because he cannot discern the process, by which the invisible and un- substantial inclination acts upon the gross and corporeal frame ? No : the fact is be- fore him ; and he is ready to make that prostration of his understanding before every part of the creation, which he scorns to make before the infinite and all perfect Creator. And yet to what does such scep- ticism lead ? If we allow to it a free course without restraint, there seems to be no rea- son why it should stop short even of the ancient Epicurean doctrine, that God has • 128 SERMON IV. no concern in mortal affairs. If we doubt this, let us but hear what the chief of sceptics in our own country has admitted : tt b \y ere our ignorance a sufficient reason " for rejecting any thing, we should be led U into that principle of refusing all energy " to the Supreme Being." We have thus gone shortly through some of the most striking proofs from Scripture of the Trinity in general, and of the second and third Persons in particular. We have found the existence of three Persons in one God to be plainly declared by the word of the Almighty, though declared as a mys- tery, and therefore with some darkness as to the manner of it ; into which we cannot penetrate farther than he has been pleased to open the way. In our present state, we must be contented with such knowledge as is limited in proportion to our abilities. We know not yet what we shall be; but it is one glorious prospect of the blessed here- after, that they shall see God " c as he is :" that they " d shall know even as also they are b Hume's Phil. Essays, p. 17. c John iii. 2. d 1 Cor. xiii. 12. PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY GHOST. 129 " known/' If then our eagerness to under- stand this n^stery lead us to any thing, let it be to humble acquiescence in every reve- lation which it has pleased God to give, and to a continued course of spiritual im- provement in this life, such as may lead us to a thoroughly Christian practice. So may we hope, through our blessed Saviour, to come to that inheritance which he has purchased for us with his most precious blood ; where all uncertainty and suspense shall be done away, and the fulness of all satisfaction shall at length be granted, as a part of that reward of the faithful which now passeth all understanding. K SERMON V. ON THE JUDGMENT BY OUR SAVIOUR. — >- Matth. xxv. 31. JVhen the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all his holy angels with him, then shall lie sit upon the throne of his glory. i HE point of doctrine which is now pro- posed to our examination is one, on which, as to the general idea of a future judgment, there has been an almost universal consent in all countries and all ages of the world. Whatever corruptions have been introduced into religion, however obscured and defaced its truths may have become, there has yet always existed an impression, that we must give after death some account of those things which we have done in the body, whether they be good or evil. Like some other leading truths of religion, in which, JUDGMENT BY OUR SAVIOUR. 131 with considerable variations indeed, but in the main ground of which a general con- sent has been traced throughout the world, so this most important doctrine probably came down from patriarchal tradition. And it is an argument of the excellent provi- dence of God, that an idea which alone can check the inordinate passions of those, who are either beyond the knowledge, or above the power of human laws, has never been suffered to vanish altogether. That there is a judgment to come is not then the matter in dispute. The Unitarians, as well as ourselves, profess to believe it. But the point in question between us, respects the person by whom judgment and justice will be administered on that occasion. They hold, that Christ will indeed judge the world, but yet that he will be no more than a mere man ; invested indeed with a certain authority and glory, but neverthe- less not acting in his own right, but alto- gether with a subordinate and delegated power. They hold% that the resurrection a Belsham, vii. 4. K 2 132 SERMON V. " of the dead and the final judgment is " that sublime and infinitely important doc- " trine," which they " conceive to be the " sum and substance of the Christian reve- " lation." Of its sublimity and infinite im- portance, we also have no manner of doubt. But we do not conceive that it is absolutely the sum and substance of the Christian re- velation. The fallacy of their assertion is visible in the concluding sentence of this article in their confession, wherein they as- sert, concerning the Christian revelation, a part of the truth, for the whole. They de- clare, that " b the great object of it was to " bring life and immortality to light." We hold more than this. We hold, with the Apostle St. Paul, that " c the grace of God " was made manifest, by the appearing of " our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abo- " lished death, and brought life and im- " mortality to light through the Gospel" That life and immortality are brought to light by Jesus Christ, is the doctrine both of them and ourselves. The difference lies b Belsham, vii. 4. c 2 Tim. i. 10. JUDGMENT BY OUR SAVIOUR. 188 in this ; that we hold them to have been brought to light through the Gospel ; through belief of all the revelations, and practice of all the duties therein made known, and enjoined to us for observance; of which revealed truths the foundation stone is this which they deny, namely, that Jesus Christ the Son of God is come in the flesh. Not that a mere man was then created in the flesh, as a matter of course like all other men, without having pre- viously existed distinct from the flesh from all eternity; but that Christ, the eternal and omnipotent Son, one of the three Persons who in entire equality compose the Unity of the Godhead, is come in the form of the man Jesus, having taken upon him a pro- per human body, which he had never borne before that time. This is the signification of St. John's expression, that " d Christ is " come in the flesh/' and this the Unita- rians deny. That very expression however implies that Christ was not naturally in the flesh. For a mere man to come in that d 1 John iv. 2. k3 134 SERMON V. flesh, in that nature which alone he in- herits, were not a thing to be noticed. The wonder, the remarkable thing would be, if he should come otherwise . When there- fore the Apostle says that Christ is come in the flesh, he gives a clear indication that the flesh was not his usual, nor his original, nor his proper nature. And it is necessary to recall these things to our recollection here. For if Christ came as a mere man, he must return as a mere man to judge the quick and dead. But though he will appear in the manhood united with the Godhead, yet he will not appear merely in the man- hood : not in the manhood alone, however glorified it may be. The Unitarians ap- pear, from the expressions employed in stating their dissent from the foundation of Christianity ; for such it is ; they appear to build upon the expression used by the in- spired writers of " the man Jesus." St. Peter indeed uses that expression in his discourse upon occasion of the miraculous e See Middleton on the Greek Article, p. 351, 354: also Dean Magee on Atonement, iii. 32, in note, and 33, 34, ibid. JUDGMENT BY OUR SAVIOUR. 135 gifts of tongues : " f Jesus of Nazareth, a " man approved of God among you, &c." It gave no presumption of mere manhood that the Apostle spoke of Christ, who had been at the time of which he ivas then speak- ing in a human form, simply as a man. The same expression is used in the Old Testament, of persons whom nobody ever supposed to be any thing less than angels. The three angels who appeared to Abra- ham and to Lot are simply called men, be- cause they were in fashion as men. There- fore St. Peter also speaking of the ministry of Jesus Christ in his humiliation, when under the form of man, calls him a man. But having thus informed the hearers, that he whom they had seen as a man among them, was the same from whom the mira- culous gift of the Holy Spirit proceeded ; he goes on to shew that the same man is also the Lord, applying to him David's words: " I foresaw the Lord always before " my face, &c." He then proceeds to shew that this Lord is he who was never to see f Acts ii. 22. K 4 V46 SERMON V. corruption, which David himself did see : and that the man Jesus, whom the Jews had crucified, is now no longer in his mor- tal state of humiliation; but that the divine power has taken up the manhood to the throne of God ; has made this same Jesus, whom they had crucified, both Lord and Christ. St. Paul too, when he preached to the Athenians, declared that " s God will "judge the world in righteousness by that " man whom he hath ordained." The Apo- stle was then discoursing to persons who did not deny the existence of a Deity, though their idea of his nature and attri- butes was miserably confused and corrupt- ed ; and among the greater part of them a multitude of separate deities were, each in his particular time and place, the objects of adoration. The doctrines in which, (to speak of the mass of the nation, of a gene- ral assembly,) the doctrines in which they were entirely ignorant were, the Unity of God, together with the Mediation and A- tonement made by one of the three Persons s Acts xvii. 3J. JUDGMENT BY OUR SAVIOUR. 137 in that Unity, under the fashion of a man : and also the judgment hereafter to be ad- ministered by him. In this his first address therefore, the Apostle does not enter at large into the particulars of that mystery ; but contents himself with a general open- ing, and with facts less likely to move dis- pute. He tells them, that one God, incor- poreal and invisible, made and governs all things, and that he will judge the world at its termination " by that man whom he " hath ordained:" a man to all intents and purposes in his human nature, so far as a real human body and soul could constitute a man ; though that manhood was myste- riously united to one of the Persons in the Godhead. But as- this last part of the Christian doctrine was more difficult of comprehension, and more liable to perver- sion, among a conceited and cavilling peo- ple; so he does not think fit to disclose it at this his opening of the Christian faith. He does not even mention Christ by name, nor give any hint of his ministry in the flesh ; but contents himself, in this his first address, with that which was most easily in- 138 SERMON V. telligible, as reason and sound judgment required that he should do. " h He fed " them," to use his own expression to the Corinthians, " with milk, and not with " meat; because they were not able to bear " it." But wherever the whole doctrine of the Gospel was fully preached, we rind abundant mention of our Saviour, as the Son of man, as the man whom God had ordained to take away our sins, and under other similar expressions. Nor is there any reason why we should shrink from the 'Uni- tarian's blasphemous sarcasm, who without scruple imputes a " mean equivocation" to Christ and his Apostles, whenever they speak of his manhood, as distinct from the honours and powers of .the Godhead. The style of insolence with which the writers of that party treat the most sacred expressions of God's word carries its own cure with it. It must inspire disgust and offence, without carrying the slightest weight of conviction. The question here depends on the authen- ticity of those parts of Scripture, which un- h 1 Cor. iii. 2. ' Belsham, p. 36'. JUDGMENT BY OUR SAVIOUR. 139 equivocally attribute Godhead to our Re- deemer. And they are not shaken, and cannot be shaken, by any of these false de- signing arts, which endeavour to hold out a shew of criticism, while they are really no better than k arbitrary alterations ; which are invented in order to get rid of those passages, which in the most unequivocal manner 'refute the blasphemous doctrine of Christ's mere manhood. That God is the Judge of all mankind who shall render to all according to their works, appears most evidently from every part of the word of God. That the man Jesus shall execute precisely the same high office is as un- questionably revealed. The humble piety of a Christian teaches him not to reject either part of the doctrine, however diffi- cult he may find it to arrange, in a manner intelligible to his comprehension, this dis- tinction with this union of divine and hu- man nature in Christ Jesus. The unbe- liever, on the contrary, feels it to be be- yond his reason to comprehend this mys- k See Sermon VI. l See Sermon II. 140 SERMON V. tery, and therefore insolently rejects it ; and thinks to get clear of the question by a profane sneer at the idea of a God- man. It is never to be forgotten, it can scarcely be enough impressed, that a Chris- tian must be " meek and lowly in heart." He must take God's revelations thankfully, even as they are; and never imagine him- self at liberty to reject or modify, because he may not understand them. All infide- lity, if it be not founded in conceit, is prin- cipally upheld by it. Pride was the vice which cast Satan down from heaven ; and those who will follow his pride, must ex- pect to be involved in the endless perdi- tion which is its necessary consequence. But let us turn to the holy Scriptures, and examine the passages which relate to the final judgment, and to the high office of administering justice on that occasion, which they assign to Christ the Almighty Son, either by the name of the Son of man, or by that of the man Jesus, or by any other similar appellation. We find, in the first place, the text which I have taken this day to stand directly in opposition to the JUDGMENT BY OUR SAVIOUR. 141 adversaries of the established Christian faith. And that text is one of great im- portance. The words are those of onr Saviour himself, when he was revealing to his Apostles, so far as he thought it proper for them to know it, the manner of his ap- pearance to judgment at the last day. There will probably be no question, as there cannot reasonably be any doubt, that he then intended himself by the Son of man, though the expression has occa- sionally been otherwise applied, especially to the Prophet Ezekiel. But it is very evident from the context that Christ was not then describing himself as a mere man : a m When the Son of man shall come in " his glory, and all the holy angels with " him" — what is the glory in which he is here described as coming ? His own pro- per glory, not one delegated to him for the occasion ; " n the glory," as he says to the Father, " which I had with thee " before the world was :" the glory of one surrounded by the attendant angels, and m Matt. xxv. 31. n John xvii. 5. 142 SERMON V. coming in the clouds of heaven. But such glory belongs exclusively to God Almighty; as our blessed Saviour in another place de- scribes it, where he says, " ° Whosoever " shall be ashamed of me and of my words, " in this adulterous and sinful generation, " of him also shall the Son of man be " ashamed, when he cometh in the glory " of the Father with the holy angels." Now God himself declares, " p My glory " will I not give to another :" a positive declaration, which excludes from all man- ner of participation in that glory every created being, of whatever rank or degree. And yet Christ claims participation in that glory at the day of judgment, as he had possessed it before the world was. He must therefore judge the world, not as man alone, but as God coupled with the man- hood ; for as God alone could he have ex- isted before the world was. There is no reason whatever for supposing, that any mere man, in all respects like unto his fel- lows, can be dignified with the peculiar Mark viii. 38. P Isa. xlii. S. xviii. 11. JUDGMENT BY OUR SAVIOUR. 143 honours of the Almighty. Such is the incommunicable name Jehovah, which has been shewn to be so often applied in the Old Testament to Christ. Such is the at- tendance of all the holy angels, with the right to call that glory which he enjoys indifferently his own, or the glory of the Father. God is always declared to be our Judge ; the same who once appeared in Christ with humiliation, il reconciling the " world unto himself;" and who will also come again in Christ with glory, to judge mankind for their use or abuse of such re- conciliation. It is therefore manifest blas- phemy, to describe as a mere man him who shall then sit on the throne of his glory, which is the glory of God omnipo- tent. The phrase, Son of man, occurs, as has been observed, not unfrequently in the Old Testament. The Jews therefore knew how it is there applied ; and if there had been any tolerable ground for inferring that the expression denoted a mere man, they could not have charged our Lord with blasphemy for having declared, " q Here- q Matt. xxvi. 64. 144 SERMON V. " after shall ve see the Son of man sitting " on the right hand of power, and coming " in the clouds of heaven." But the Jews perceived distinctly from that expression, that he claimed to himself supremacy and Godhead. They therefore immediately exclaimed, " He hath spoken blasphemy :" as on another occasion they did in like manner, specifying that in which they con- ceived that blasphemy to consist; " r Be- " cause thou, being a man, makest thyself " God." I do not say that the expression used on that occasion was exactly the same as that on the first mentioned; but notice it here, to shew, from the Jews' own explana- tion of that which they accounted for blas- phemy, that they understood him, when upon his trial before the high priest, to claim Godhead, in saying that he was the Son of man who should be seen sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Now every Jew knew, that Enoch and Elijah had been taken up to the divine presence ; and there * John x. 33. JUDGMENT BY OUR SAVIOUR. 145 could be no blasphemy in any man's asser- tion, that he, a mere mortal, should be, as those two mortals had been, exalted to any celestial dignity whatsoever, short of actual Deity. We must take notice, that they do not reproach our Lord for any degree of presumption alone, but for ac- tual blasphemy ; that " thou, being a man, " makest thyself God ;" and he, by his silence upon that charge, suffers that sense to pass in which they understood his words. That instance of what the Jews considered to be blasphemy, when our Saviour was not upon his trial, was indeed infinitely the strongest. For though he did not at that time call himself man, or the Son of man, yet he who frequently at other times had taken those appellations to himself, or had accepted them from his Apostles, in that instance plainly asserted, " The Father is " in me, and I in him." Our Saviour always kept his Sonship, his Godhead, distinct from the sonship of his disciples, who were mere men. He taught them to pray, " Our Father," but he join- ed not himself with them ; for he withdrew 146 SERMON V. from them, and prayed, " My Father." " I go," says he, " to my Father, and " your Father; and to my God, and your " God." He joins without losing the dis- tinction, he distinguishes without losing the connection. He makes us to be united in him ; but himself to be one ivith the Father s . This Person then of the Son, thus iden- tified in being with the Father; this Judge of all the earth, who shall come at the last day, and whom the Unitarians represent as a mere man, possesses all the attributes of the Godhead. He calls the angels his own, therefore, when he says, that he, " t the Son of man, shall send forth his an- " gels :" those angels whom God " u mak- i( eth his spirits," but of whom it is not al- lowable for any one to say, that delegated power over them shall be given to any mortal. He shall come to judgment in his own Godhead, not as a glorified man s Sic jungit ut distinguat, sic distinguit ut non se- jungat. Unum nos vult esse in sej unum autem Pu- trem et se. S. Jug. in Joan. 1 Matt. xiii. 41. u Psalm civ. 4. JUDGMENT BY OUR SAVIOUR. 147 acting by commission. What can be plainer than St. Paul's testimony in his Epistle to the Thessalonians; " x The Lord " himself shall descend from heaven, with " a shout, with the voice of the archangel, " and with the trump of God." The Lord, that is, the second Person, shall descend with the archangel and the honours of God. Yet he who thus wrote, ascribed at the same time those very honours to Christ as his own; " > The Lord Jesus shall be " revealed from heaven witlpi his mighty " angels." How can these unbelievers reconcile the state to which they would lower the Judge of all the earth with these things ? How can they reconcile it with that previous existence in heaven from the beginning, which St. John so distinctly as- serts in the opening of his Gospel ? What can be the meaning of our Lord's question to the Jews, " z What, and if ye shall see i( the Son of man ascend up," not merely as a glorified man taken into God's blessed * 1 Thess. iv. 16. 7 2 Thess. i. 7- |*er ayyeKwv Ima^ewc ctvrav. z John vi. 62. L 2 148 SERMON V. abode by way of reward, of which we cer- tainly do know two instances in Enoch and Elijah ; but, " ascend up where he <( was before?" If he resided in heaven before he came down to earth, as is most manifest from hence, how dare they to call him a " mere man, in all respects like " unto his fellows?" What mere man ever ascended into heaven of his own act and power, as our Saviour did? " a No man," says St. John, reporting our Lord's own words, " No man hath ascended up into " heaven, save he that came down from " heaven, even the Son of man which is " in heaven." The Son of man then, who is the Judge appointed for the last day, shall come in his own proper glory to judg- ment. And he, that very Son of man, while he was on earth speaking the words just now recited, declares at the same mo- ment that he is, not merely that he was, in heaven : a declaration of which, if his two natures, the divine and the human, be denied, if it be a " b mean equivocation" * John iii. 13. b Belsham. JUDGMENT BY OUR SAVIOUR. 149 to speak of the one distinctly from the other, no tolerable sense can possibly be made : the dreadful impiety of which sup- position, no true and devout Christian can contemplate without abhorrence and de- testation. The title of Son of man, that very title from whence our adversaries would infer the real and proper humanity of our future Judge, as totally divested of any participation of right in the Godhead ; is yet attributed to him in the prophecies, in language of such sublimity, and descrip- tive of such majesty, as are utterly inap- plicable to any mortal. That title is never indeed employed as an appellation of any ordinary person, nor of any one below the dignity of princes and prophets. And our Saviour takes it peculiarly to himself, to point out that he is the Person of whom Daniel so magnificently prophesied : " c I " saw in the night visions, and, behold, one " like the Son of man came with the clouds i( of heaven, and came to the Ancient of " days, and they brought him near unto c Dan. vii. 13, 14. L 3 150 SERMON V. " him. And there was given him domi- " nion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all " people, nations, and languages should " serve him. His dominion is an ever- " lasting dominion, which shall not pass " away, and his kingdom that which shall " not be destroyed.'' The title of Son of man is therefore not altogether an appel- lation of humiliation ; but in this place it is clearly visible, that the honours and divi- nity assigned to that name by the Prophet Daniel, honours and divinity which shall not pass away, belong to our Lord Jesus, whom all allow to be the Judge there men- tioned. The name may also sometimes perhaps have relation to the human na- ture which he bore, a real and true human nature, but still united with the divine. In regard to that his incarnation, he is sometimes styled man, and the Son of man. That incarnation of the Godhead in one of the three Persons, is however one of the principal points which these Unitarians deny ; and on that incarnation our present question altogether depends. While they deny that, they must also ne- JUDGMENT BY OUR SAVIOUR. 151 cessarily reject with it the atonement, for no mere man could make atonement for others. They must deny all peculiar sig- nification in the title of the Son of man, for it can be no distinction to call any mortal by that name, because he is such by the ordinary course of nature. But it was necessary to declare plainly, that he who so often proclaimed himself the Son of God, and who was so often announced as such by the voice of the Father, or through the ministry of his angels ; it was necessary to make it generally known, that this exalted Person was the Son of man also ; that he truly bore the human nature of his mother Mary, and shall bear it in like manner when he shall return again to judgment. This is a material part of that divine dispensation, and shews plainly the great mercy of God in his deal- ings with us, that the most solemn and awful act of his authority, the general judgment, shall be administered by one, who, having partaken of our infirmities, must therefore be fully aware of them, and able to make every proper allowance for L 4 152 SERMON V. them. Therefore, in the Epistle to the He- brews, the Apostle comforts them on that very ground: " d We have not an high " priest which cannot be touched with the '♦feeling of our infirmities, but was in all " points tempted like as we are." This very provision then, which the Almighty has made in his mercy, as a source of com- fort and encouragement to us and our in- firmities, is abused by these Unitarians into an argument to support their denial of his Godhead, to make the Judge of all flesh mere flesh in himself, and to do away all his title to real and proper Deity ! They act thus, in the face of all that evidence which was miraculously given throughout the ministry of Jesus, in proof of the truth of his assertions, that he was himself the very and eternal God ; one and the same, in Deity, with the Father; though distinct, in Personality, as the Son. These are truths on which we have before insisted in proving from holy Scripture the Deity of the Son. But we are necessarily again re- d Heb. iv. 14, 15. JUDGMENT BY OUR SAVIOUR. 153 minded of them in this place, where the truth, that Christ Jesus shall be the Judge of quick and dead, is not the matter in dispute ; but where we find it asserted by the unbeliever, that he will come in that capacity only with a delegated authority ; not acting in right of his own Godhead, but only as a man empowered and com- missioned by God. St. Paul tells us, that God hath given as- surance that Jesus will come again to judg- ment, " e in that he hath raised him from " the dead/' But this assurance, which is the accomplishment of his own repeated prediction, and the seal to the truth of all his assertions, seems to have little or no weight with the modern sceptic. Yet this is the test to which our Lord repeatedly put his claim to actual Godhead ; as when he said, " f Destroy this temple, and in i{ three days / will raise it up." Christ had entered into the temple, and asserted his right to that holy place, in which none but the Most High could possess any right, c Acts xvii. 31. f John ii. 19. IM SERMON V. by casting out those whose occupations were profanation to it, and by the expres- sions which he used in so doing. The Jews, seeing him perform that act of au- thority, and hearing the language with which he accompanied it, demand a sign from him. Now it must be remarked, that the Jews always comprehended throughly the expression used by our Saviour, when he called himself the Son of God. They knew that it implied actual Godhead, and condemned him for blasphemy on that very charge. In like manner, when he here said, " Make not my Father's house a " house of merchandize," they understood that he called God his Father ; not gene- rally, as the Father of all ; nor more parti- cularly, as he is the Father of the right- eous ; but most peculiarly, " s making " himself equal with God;" as we find that he was considered to have done, by calling God his h own Father. It was re- g 1 John v. 18. h TlaTeqa iliov. Justin Martyr shews that the name, the Son of God, is not applicable to Christ merely in common with holy men. Apolog. i. 44. 'O fo v\og exa- JUDGMENT BY OUR SAVIOUR. 155 served for the Socinians and their followers to go beyond the Jews ; to put a miscon- struction on that expression, and degrade, if they had been able, him whom they ac- knowledge for their Saviour, to a mere mortal. The Jews understood that he claimed equal Godhead with the Father, and of this they demanded a sign. Very rarely did our Lord comply with that in- solent demand; never, indeed, in the sense in which they made it. And when he did so, it was by a future sign, which at once gave proof of his foreknowledge, and point- ed to that decisive evidence on which, more perhaps than on any other single proof, he rested his claim to Omnipotence; namely, his own resurrection by himself from the dead. To that fact then, though hitherto unperformed, he referred the Jews, as to a complete demonstration that he was very God. To that fact his Apo- stle St. Paul afterward appealed, as a proof vov, 'O povog Asyoj«.ri/oj xvpiaog vlog, &c. and in his Dia- logue with Trypho, 332. MovoysvYjg zjurpi twv 6\wv, tltous e£ aurou Aoyoj x«y Swaps ysysvv}[tsvos, xaf CxrTspov uvfywirog $ja tyjs rzctpSevov ysvo/Asvoj. 156 SERMON V. that he, the same Lord Jesus, was or- dained to be Judge of quick and dead. And such a proof it was. Our Saviour had distinctly foretold the future judgment, when all flesh should appear upon their trial before God. He had declared himself to be the Son of God, equal to, and one with, the Father. He had required " ' that " all men should honour the Son, even as " they honour the Father;" and that, be- cause the " Father hath committed all " judgment to the Son." He had claimed Supreme Deity, when he cried openly among the Jews, " k I and my Father are " one." If then he was actually God, all flesh is to be judged by him as God, and not as mere man in commission under God. That he was God, he himself put to the test of his rising again the third day after his death ; and therefore St. Paul well declar- ed, that his having so done was full proof that he was to be the Judge of quick and dead. These are plain and direct inferences, > John v. 23. k John x. 30. JUDGMENT BY OUR SAVIOUR. 157 consistent with the whole tenor of the Gos- pel, and which do not admit any contrary interpretation without violence to sense and language. They can hardly be, by this time, unknown to the Unitarians. And we cannot be too much on our guard against imitating the conduct of presumptuous men, who strive to uphold the opinions which they have taken up, in contradiction to the general teaching of God's word, by overstrained constructions of insulated and detached expressions of holy Writ. Such has ever been the infidel's constant method, and indeed their only shadow of support from Scripture; a support which, before heedless eyes, they may set up in appear- ance, while they are wresting the word of God to their own destruction. The truth of this question which they raise, concern- ing the Deity or manhood of him who is ordained to be the Judge of all the earth, cannot stand or fall alone. It is inseparably connected with the whole Christian faith, being placed on the same test with our Sa- viour's Godhead, namely, the resurrection of him from the dead. Against the gene- 158 SERMON V. ral and harmonious evidence of the whole Gospel, the Unitarian arrays a few select- ed and mutilated passages, which, if taken singly, may bear a sound which shall seem to concur with his favourite opinions; and he rests his whole system on them, without taking into the account the tenor of our Saviour's doctrine in general, as delivered by himself and his Apostles. Those single passages, like all others, are best explained in that sense which the context, and gene- ral tenor of the Scripture in which they are placed, manifestly points out. But the doc- trine which contradicts the unbeliever's construction of them, cannot be so over- thrown ; for it is the uniform doctrine of the Christian revelation. Every thing in Scripture points to the same evidence : " If **. these," as said our Saviour to the Pha- risees, who were, like the Unitarians, un- believers in his Godhead, " If these should " hold their peace, the stones would im- " mediately cry out." The Socinians must know, that their method of torturing the words of Scripture, in order to force a par- ticular interpretation upon them, would JUDGMENT BY OUR SAVIOUR. 159 not be endured, if they were so to treat the common writings of men. And they shew more respect for their own conceits, than for God's revelations, when they force and misconstrue his holy word, that they may represent it as utterly inconsistent with it- self, rather than bend their pride to bow to a doctrine which they cannot comprehend, though it be plainly revealed, and ex- pressly sanctioned by the word of the Most High K 1 Bishop Pearson observes, on the question of the na- ture of Christ our Judge, " There is an original, su- " preme, autocratorical, judiciary power. There is a " judiciary power derived, delegated, given by commis- " sion. Christ, as God, hath the first, together with the " Father and the Holy Ghost. Christ, as man, hath " the second, from the Father expressly, from the Holy " Ghost concomitantly ; for e the Father hath given him " authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son <* of man.' " Pearson on the Creed, Art. vii. Chrysostom, on a question of the punctuation of John v. 27. shews what the Church then held on this point : Oy yap $ia tzto shaSe xptcnv oti avSgcunog eg-*, (sni t» exwAue •aravjas avSpumovg ewai xpirac;) a\\' entity rr t $ appyTOV ejv 6 Aoyoj. X Ev Ctp%YI £7T0IT)(r£V 6 06O£ TOV OVfUVOV XCLf TTJV yiJV, N 2 180 SERMON VI. to " contain a revelation from God," and to be " the only repositories of his will ;" yet we can hardly allow it, when their con- duct manifestly proves the contrary. In the same spirit, however, do they proceed to explain away the Apostle's declaration, that " the Word was God." This, as they tell us, means, that " he went into retire- " ment to commune with his God." It was necessary to get rid of the preceding assertion, that the Word was " in the be- " ginning," in order to introduce this con- struction ; and their anxiety to get rid of it at any rate, excites a suspicion that they were conscious of a more direct interpre- tation. This going into retirement to com- mune with God, is also inconsistent with the very next passage, ts the Word was " God:" an expression so plain and di- rect, that we can hardly believe it possible for any man really to mistake it. These editors, however, in their anxiety to do away our Saviour's Godhead, seem not to have observed how they contradict their own fellows. At the end of their notes on INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 181 this chapter, they introduce the version of a private Unitarian u of note among them ; apparently with the intention of weaken- ing the idea, that the Word means Christ, the medium of communication between God and man. If however they mean to ascribe any authority to that writer, they must admit what he evidently does ; that " in the beginning" has the same significa- tion in the opening of St. John's Gospel, as in that of the book of Genesis, and stands for the beginning of the universe. For, as they do not adopt in their Version his change of Wisdom, instead of the Word, if they intend to confirm any thing, it should be his exposition of those terms in the translation of which they both agree; and of them, " In the beginning" is one. By their insertion of this author's version they involve themselves in this difficulty ; either that they must contradict him, or must shew that he contradicts them : un- less indeed they have brought him forward u Lindsey. See Nares on the Unitarian Version, p. 105, note. N 3 182 SERMON VI. merely to perplex and unsettle the opinions of the unlearned and unstable, by laying before them at once a variety of doubts and objections; which would be an addi- tional proof of that respect, which they profess to entertain for a revelation from God. As they treat St. John's Gospel, so, or even in a worse manner, do they treat that of St. Luke ; where the account of our Saviour's miraculous conception x is so invincible an obstacle to their theories, that one of their leaders y proposed to leave it out altogether; even though another 2 expressly admits its authenticity. When we see such conduct as this, we cannot but think their admission, that the Scriptures contain the only revelation of God's word, to be of little or no real value ; since the very man who admits it proposes without hesitation to cut off at once a very material part of that word, because it interferes with the system which he and his fellows have set up. Their treatment of the holy Scrip- x Compare the annunciation in St. Luke with the opening of the Epistle to the Hebrews. y Belsham. z Dr. Carpenter. INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 183 tures is indeed, throughout, such as would be deemed notoriously unfair and fraudu- lent, if applied to any common book ; and with regard to those most precious reve- lations of God's will, it is altogether im- pious and inexcusable. They scruple not arbitrarily to reject from their Version any particular passages which speak strongly against them ; and that they pitch on such constantly for rejection or alteration, is a circumstance too remarkable, and too much according with their general incli- nation, and the interests of their party, to be passed over as an accidental circum- stance. It renders it difficult, if not im- possible, for any impartial mind to acquit them of wilful and deliberate corruption of the word of life. For it is not with those two Evangelists alone that they deal thus. They attempt peremptorily to set aside St. Peter's words also, a marking as spu- rious, without ceremony, the whole second chapter of his second Epistle. And no wonder; for it begins with the mention of a 2 Pet. ii. N 4 184 SERMON VI. il false teachers, who should bring in dam- " liable heresies, even denying the Lord " who bought them." An offensive passage indeed to those teachers, whose leading article is the denial of our Lord and of his atonement ! Yet this they do, in defiance of the two authorities by whom they pro- fess to abide always. But of such conduct it would be endless to enumerate all the instances b . For though they tell the world, that notice is always given in their Ver- sion of any variation from that of the Pre- late whose English text they profess to adopt , yet have they failed to do it in many instances, and those the most liable to suspicion of fraudulent suppression ; be- cause they are passages which decidedly overthrow their particular tenets respecting our Blessed Saviour d . As they omit what it does not serve their purpose to retain, so do they add also, when they find it con- b See Nares on the Unitarian Version, p. 154, 181, &c. c Calm Inquiry, Introduction, p. iv. d See Magee on Atonement, &c. Postscript to Ap- pendix, p. 16, 17, &c. INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 185 venient to weaken the precision of any ex- pression by so doing. Thus they endea- vour to evade the expression by which St, Paul couples our Saviour's name with the great God, as one and the same", by in- serting the article where it does not really stand. " Our great God and Saviour " Jesus Christ ;" which thev would make, " The great God and our Saviour Jesus " Christ." So when the same Apostle says, " f See that ye refuse not him that " speaketh," plainly intending our Saviour by " him;" the editors of the New Ver- sion prefer to insert God instead of Mfh\ lest they should admit a passage which gives authority, in any other than a vica- rious manner, to Christ g . The present time will not allow me to enumerate the very many instances, in e Titus ii. 13. Tou [teyuXov ©sou xa/ Sconjpoj ij^cuy 'Ivjcra XgKnovj translated as if it were, tou psyixkou Qsou xaj TOT 5wT»jpOC, &C. f Heb. xii. 25. s See Magee on Atonement, Postscript to Appendix, p. 207, 231, &c. whose remarks on this place apply to the whole conduct of the Unitarians in regard to the Bible. 186 SERMON VI. which they have departed from that Ver- sion of the holy Scriptures which they had selected as the most correct ; and it is a matter again and again to be noticed, as indicating their reason for so doing, that most, if not all, their desertions of their avowed model are on those points, wherein the word of the inspired writer, as com- monly received, is most strongly adverse to the Unitarian doctrine. If this be not conclusive evidence, yet at least it is a strong presumption ; which must operate powerfully to prove, to unprejudiced minds, that their profession of respect for the word of God is no more than empty sound at best, if it be not rather " cunning craf- " tiness, whereby they lie in wait to de- " ceive:" that it is assumed in order to evade the odium which open rejection of the Bible must produce, and to draw in those who might not suspect the snare that is laid for them, under cover of a trans- lation of God's word by a Prelate of the Established Church. Their notes on those passages which they have not ventured to remove or alter in the text, are at the INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE. 187 same time weak in argument ; while they shew that they have kept constantly in view their main object, to bend the Scrip- tures to their doctrines, and not to frame their doctrines according to the Scriptures. When we find them guilty of greater vio- lations of -fidelity, which affect the text it- self, we cannot much wonder at any liber- ties which they take in regard to punctu- ation. But surely stops are not to be altered at pleasure ; for the sense of the passage and the course of the argument must indicate their proper situation. These editors, however, besides an unjustifiable alteration in the words, have notoriously endeavoured, by alteration of the stops, to evade a strong expression used by St. Paul in favour of our Saviour's Godhead h . The Apostle there styles him, " i God over all, " blessed for ever/' They endeavour to change the sense by an alteration of the stops, though manifestly against the sense and natural course of the expression, and so to apply it altogether to God the Fa- h See Nares, &c. p. J 68. ' Rom. ix. 5. 1S8 SERMON VI. ther; striving to make out, by the change thus produced in the translation, their fa- vourite point, that Christ Jesus was mere- ly a man. By an equally unfair artifice, they attempt to escape from the acknow- ledgment, that he i( k inhe?ited" a more excellent name than the angels ; for they silently drop the word inherited, and use the words, " this day have I adopted," in- stead of " l begotten'' thee ; and thus also do they distort that important passage in St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians, " m Who, being in the form of God, " thought it not robbery to be equal with " God : but made himself of no reputa- i( tion, and took upon him the form of a " servant, and was made in the likeness of " men." Little indeed can be thought of their reverence for the Scriptures, when they think proper to pervert this last by a strained accommodation to their own particular system, even while one of them » confesses, that if we allow Christ's divine k Heb. i. 4, 5. ' Eyoo (T^spov yeyevvyxct jv aiwviov. ETERNITY OF PUNISHMENT. 197 reason whatsoever can be drawn from this very plain and positive passage, for making any manner of difference between the du- ration of the happiness and of the torment. Now the Unitarian system holds the future certainty of happiness, both to the blessed and the cursed; with this distinction alone, that such happiness is not to commence equally soon with both ; for after a course of purgatory pain, the most grievous sin- ners are to be restored, according to that system, to virtue and happiness. But if they build on the Scriptures, and there is no other foundation on which we can build securely, there is in them to the full as much and as decisive assurance of eternity of tor- ment, as of eternity of enjoyment. That it is a horrible doctrine, if by horrible they mean such as must excite terror as its na- tural consequence in the heart of man, is not only the most true, but would to God that it produced that effect more deeply and more universally. For it is, if man- kind would give to it full and due consi- deration, the most powerful of all induce- ments to urge them to work out their own o 3 198 SERMON Vlt. salvation, by mortifying the deeds of the flesh. But if by a horrible doctrine they mean to signify one which is unworthy of God, and inconsistent with his attributes, that assertion shall, I trust, be speedily proved to have no foundation. Plain rea- son will prove it, and, what is far more, God's own word ; wherein it were the height of impiety to imagine that he could make any declaration unworthy of himself. Reason will shew, that the punishment must necessarily be eternal; because there is no deliverance from it at any time, ex- cept through our Saviour's mediation, and that mediation ceases after the judgment, when God shall be all in all b . b See Bishop Pearson on the Creed, Art. viii. The Fathers understood, as the doctrine of Scripture, that punishment would be eternal. So Chrysostom : Avu>Tsgco fj.ev tjjv xoXcktiv emsy evravSce. ds xui rov xqiTr,v Sax- voctjv, xai Trjv ti^wqiuv aSavctTOV EKJuyei. So also Tertul- lian : " Affirmamus te (anima) manere post vitae dis- (C punctionem, et expectare diem judicii; proque mentis " aut cruciatui destinari, aut refrigerio, utroque sempi- " terno." (De Testim. Animce, c. 4.) Again ; " — qui " producto sevo isto, judicaturus sit, suos cultores in ae- " ternae vitas retributionem ; profanos in ignem aeque " perpetem et jugem." Jpol. c. 18. ETERNITY OF PUNISHMENT. 199 That punishment of some sort after death, for the offences committed during this life, is not repugnant to reason, may also be inferred from the concurring tradi- tion of all nations, whether civilized or bar- barous ; of which there never perhaps has been found one which did not hold this, as well as the doctrine of reward for the right- eous. And if the reivard be eternal, as even the Unitarians allow that it shall be, what is the argument, either from reason or analogy, which can set aside the eternity of punishment? The God who has power to appoint and to execute the one part of the system of retribution, has the same power also in regard to the other part. And it has been abundantly shewn, by the conduct of holy men under the Gospel, as it had been also even under the far more difficult yoke of the Mosaical Law, that man is ca- pable of making himself inheritor of the everlasting reward, as well as liable to the everlasting punishment. He is capable through our Saviour's atonement, what- ever be the incapacity of his own unas- sisted nature : though the unbeliever, who o 4 200 SERMON VII. denies the atonement, cannot admit its effi- cacy. The equity of the case requires, that, as fair and equal opposites, the punishment should be commensurate with the reward. For if it were otherwise, let us but consider how powerful would be the temptation which such a system, as that of the Unita- rians in this matter, would set before man- kind. To the virtuous, they propose eter- nity of happiness, and that perfect in its kind ; and therefore beyond the very high- est idea that the imagination of man can conceive. So far as reward may entice us, here is indeed every thing as to futurity, which might induce us to mortify our lusts and passions at present. Yet who is not aware, that every thing promised in futu- rity has hardly the same influence on the human mind, and can hardly control the affections at the instant of temptation so powerfully, as the allurements which are then present, and which act immediately on the passions ? If then on the opposite side were set the very extreme of misery, equally complete, and equally inconceiv- able in its kind with the happiness of the ETERNITY OF PUNISHMENT. 201 blessed, but not equally everlasting, the preponderance must immediately be thrown where the Almighty would never have thrown it, into the scale of vicious gratifi- cation. There would be present enjoy- ment, opposed indeed by future torment ; but yet by such torment only, as, however severe for a time, would assuredly end in the perfection of felicity for evermore. It is impossible that man should not catch at such an idea as this, if it could but be maintained. And thus amidst all the pre- cepts of godliness, and all the exhortations and inducements to it, which are set forth in the word of God, we should have a counter-declaration of far superior weight and efficacy ; an invincible persuasive to evade the whole obligation which the Gos- pel lays upon us. Is it to be conceived, without impiety, that the Almighty should either threaten us with that which he does not intend to execute ; or that he should endeavour to bring us to the practice of virtue, by means which even human dis- cernment can perceive to be utterly inade- quate to the accomplishment of that ob- 802 SERMON VII. ject ? Can any religious mind endure to think, that the Most High is capable of defeating the object of all his precepts by a system of his own appointment? Yet this must be the case, if he has appointed eter- nity of blessing for the godly, and set against it, as a counterpoise, no more than a temporary curse for the ungodly, how- ever long be the time during which that curse shall produce the fruits of misery. For, according to the Unitarian system, it is only in the duration of reward and pu- nishment that any difference is supposed to exist. In the degree of both they agree with the Scriptures, which say, tliat " c Eye " hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither " hath it entered into the heart of man to i( conceive, the good things which God " hath prepared for them that love him :" and which describe the punishment of sin- ners as equally inexpressible. But accord- ing to their hypothesis, those who love God and those who hate him are to be in exactly the same situation, after the lat- c 1 Cor. ii. 9. Isaiah lxiv. 4. ETERNITY OF PUNISHMENT. 203 ter shall have undergone their purgatorial pains. Those pains however would be far from sufficient to restrain mankind, were the certainty of their comparative shortness once throughly established. No punish- ment can possibly be imagined more ex- quisite in its kind, than the happiness of heaven will be in its kind : none, which by the greater intensity of anguish for a limit- ed period, could be considered as an equi- valent to that which is to endure for ever. But however untenable such a position be, the case does not admit even that ; for the true statement of the Unitarian theory is this : That we are to choose, whether we will sacrifice those carnal and forbidden gratifications which are at present within our reach, for the sake of an inestimable reward : or whether we will take the full enjoyment of all forbidden gratifications at present, with the certainty of an inconceiv- able torment after death ; which torment however should last only during a long, in- deed, but a determinate period ; and bring us at length to the same state of perfect celestial blessing, to which the righteous 204 SERMON VII. had been admitted long before, immedi- ately after the decision of their lot. This is much the same with the doctrine of the Gnostics in the first century, " d that the " pains of hell shall be purgatorial and re- " medial, and shall end in perfect blessed- " ness." Now the most powerful argument that can be urged against giving way to pre- sent temptation, is the shortness of its en- joyment, compared with the eternity, which will follow. But by the Unitarian creed that argument is turned against righteous- ness ; for the eternity of happiness in fu- ture is thereby assured alike to the obe- dient and disobedient ; the only difference is in the relative duration and degree of earthly mortification during this life, and of penal pain after it, previous to that happiness. The former, mortification upon earth, being that which the righteous must prepare themselves to endure, ac- cording to our Saviour's warning, " c In the " world ye shall have tribulation :" the lat- ter, purgatorial pain, that which transgres- d Mosheim, Eccl. Hist. cent. I. partii. c. 1. « John xvi. 33. ETERNITY OF PUNISHMENT. 205 sors must expect; who, after a course of unrestrained indulgence in this world, are on that supposition to be consigned for a certain and bounded time to remedial pu- nishment. Now we cannot but observe every day, how much the prospect even of eternal punishment wants weight in the minds of those who do believe it, to re- strain them entirely from yielding to pre- sent temptation. And surely no man will deny, that if for eternal we should substi- tute temporary torment, the impression on our minds must be materially weakened ; and every person who can bring himself to believe that doctrine, so alluring to the profligate and negligent, will be turned loose upon society, to do whatsoever he may think worth the risk of a long, but not an endless punishment. And is the state of mankind such, that it should seem desirable to diminish the restraints laid on mortal passions ? Do we find that the evil affec- tions and lusts are easily kept under, even by all those terrors which we all acknow- ledge when we think of them? And should we think more of a prospect of diminished 206 SERMON VII. peril, and consequently of diminished in- terest ? Far from it. So far as reason can enable us to judge, it is not to be denied, that it is most consistent with God's desire to prevent wickedness, that he should pu- nish, and proclaim his intention to punish, the transgression of his laws, with pains as extreme as the happiness with which he will reward the observance of them. And as to purgatorial pains, the world has long since too plainly and too lamentably seen the infinite abuses and iniquities to which they lead the way f . The next point to be considered is the evidence of Scripture in support of the f Gregory the Great plainly enough foresaw the er- rors into which the doctrine of purgatory would betray mankind ; and he argues well against such a supposi- tion, both from reason and Scripture. " Antiquus iste " persuasor in membris suis, id est in mentibus iniquo- " rum, futuras pcenas levigat ; quas quasi certo fine de- " terminat, ut eorum culpas sine termino correptionis " extendat: et eo magis hie peccata non finiunt, quo istic " aestimant peccatorum supplicia finienda. Quibus bre- " viter respondemus. Si quandoque finienda sunt suppli- " cia reproborum, quandoque finienda sunt ergo et gau- " dia beatorum. Per semetipsam namque Veritas dicit, " ' Ibunt hi in supplicium aetemum, justi autem in vitam * aetemam.'" S. Oregor. Mag. Mortal, lib. xxxiv. c. 19. ETERNITY OF PUNISHMENT. 207 eternity of punishment ; and that, be it re- membered, is evidence which, if plainly made out, must be altogether decisive. For though it be useful to do away the objec- tions and silence the presumptuous asser- tions of the unbeliever, if that be possible, by shewing the equity of God's ordinances, and proving that they may be vindicated even by human reason ; yet that is only to be done as a satisfaction to our minds. The most full and conclusive evidence that any thing will be, is the declaration of the Al- mighty that it shall be. Now the eternity of torment to the wick- ed is in his word declared expressly, both in the Old and New Testament. The Pro- phet Daniel, speaking of the last day, states the eternity of the blessing and of the curse, to the righteous and to the wicked, as distinctly as St. Matthew in my text : l( g Many of them that sleep in the dust of i( the earth shall awake, some to everlast- " ing life, and some to shame and everlast- " ing contempt." In like manner Isaiah S Dan. xii. 2. 208 SERMON VII. closes his prophecy with the declaration concerning the wicked in the last day, that " h their worm shall not die, neither shall " their fire be quenched." So in another place he speaks of the lot of the righteous and of the wicked, alluding very distinctly to the eternity of punishment which awaits the latter : " ■ Who among us," says he, " shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who " among us shall dwell with everlasting " burnings?" Such expressions prove what was the knowledge possessed by the in- spired writers under the Mosaic dispensa- tion, respecting the nature of those pains which are appointed for sinners hereafter. But the Unitarian always professes to think more lightly of the precepts of the Old Testament, as belonging to a system of less importance, than that which was brought to our knowledge in the Gospel. Let us therefore turn thither, and see whe- ther the same doctrine be not expressed more frequently, and, if possible, in a man- ner more incapable of being misunder- h Isaiah lxvi. 24. > Ibid, xxxiii. 11. ETERNITY OF PUNISHMENT. 209 stood, in the books therein contained. And here, though we have already touched upon the passage of my text, it ought to be again mentioned among the rest ; for although there had been no other to the same effect, yet this is so direct, and so incapable of perversion, that it alone might decide the question; especially when we recollect, that the words therein recorded are those of our Lord himself, and delivered in the most solemn and impressive manner. They are words which even if spoken by a pro- phet, as our adversaries choose to assert, and he too the Prophet, as they declare, of the last and most perfect revelation sent from heaven, must by their own selves be admitted to utter incontrovertible truths : and in this declaration of our Lord and Saviour, as we maintain, and as I trust in God that we always shall maintain, it is asserted that i( these (the wicked) shall go " away into everlasting punishment.'* To this however more abundant testimonies shall be added, that it may be seen, how well able all Christians are upon this point also, as well as on those before discussed , p 210 SERMON VII. to give a reason for the faith that is in them ; and that, a reason which cannot be shaken, because it stands on the immov- able footing of divine revelation. St. Mat- thew, from whom we take the record of the words above mentioned, asserts again in another place the same thing in effect; that is, the eternity of punishment here- after, and the doctrine is there again re- lated from our Lord's own mouth : " k It is u better for thee to enter into life halt or " maimed, rather than having two hands " or two feet to be cast into everlasting " fire." What that fire is, may be seen from the very next verse, which follows in conclusion of that discourse : " It is better " for thee to enter into life with one eye, " rather than having two eyes to be cast " into hell fire." The " everlasting fire" in the first part is the same, most obvi- ously, with the " hell fire" in the last : it follows therefore undeniably, that hell fire is everlasting, and the punishment of sin- ners in it is equally everlasting ; for it is in k Matth. xviii. 8, 9. ETERNITY OF PUNISHMENT. 211 regard to that punishment that this epithet is applied to it. The fire being eternal, it follows that those for whom it is prepared must abide in it eternally. " ! The smoke of " their torment ascendeth up for ever:' 1 and those who are cast into the lake of fire and brimstone " m shall be tormented clay " and night for ever." Similar to this is the passage in St. Mark's Gospel, but yet more full and urgent on this very point of the eternity of the punishment : " n It is better " for thee to enter into life maimed, than " having two hands to go into hell, into " the fire that never shall be quenched ; " where their worm dieth not, and the fire " is not quenched :" and the same words are again repeated in the two following verses. How can we possibly interpret such direct and positive expressions for the everlasting continuance of torment to the damned, in the sense of remedial or purgatorial tor- ments alone ? Or how can we get rid of St. Mark's declaration respecting the pu- nishment of him who shall blaspheme the 1 Rev. xiv. 11. m Rev. xx. 10. " Mark ix. 43, 44, 45, 46. P 2 212 SERMON VII. Holy Ghost ; that he " ° hath never for- " giveness, but is liable (j-vowi) to eternal " damnation?" Even those unbelievers who reject our Lord Jesus as our God and our Atonement, yet acknowledge him as a true Prophet, and as the very greatest of that favoured and highly endowed and pri- vileged class of men. And how then can they, consistently with such an acknowledg- ment, presume to dispense thus with the admission of that most important truth thus solemnly revealed by him? It is suffi- ciently obvious, that man has abundant in- ducement in his own consciousness of sin and evil desert, to seek some escape from the dread of never-ending woe. But we cannot avert danger by shutting our eyes against it : and though we have all too much reason to wish that eternity of tor- ment for unrepentant sinners were not a part of God's system, yet it being declared as such, it were well that men should re- collect the folly, nay more than that, the wickedness also of making their minds easy Mark iii. 29. ETERNITY OF PUNISHMENT. 213 by an unauthorized theory which contra- dicts the divine revelation. Perhaps the Unitarians will take refuse in their denial of plenary inspiration to the Holy Scrip- tures, for they dare not deny that both the passages in St. Matthew's, and that in St. Mark's Gospel are to be found there ; nor does their pattern for correctness in the sacred text p reject, or throw any doubt on the original of either. It is indeed no un- reasonable thing to suppose this of them, after the liberties which they have taken with the sacred text, as was shewn in my last discourse ; but it is impossible, I should hope, that any man can be so persuaded, who believes that there was really any guid- ance of the Holy Spirit exerted upon the Evangelists. It is utterly impossible, if they were inspired at all, that they should have been permitted to deliver as truth, that which is not truth ; as the words of our Saviour, those which he never uttered ; and to promulgate under the sanction of his supreme authority such doctrine, if, as p Griesbach. P 3 214 SERxMON VII. its adversaries maintain, it be repugnant to the attribute of mercy, which is so conspi- cuously manifested by the Almighty, and so particularly asserted to be his peculiar property. That the doctrine of punishment, not only inconceivably grievous in its quality, but also eternal in its duration, is the doc- trine of the holy Scriptures, and of Jesus Christ our Lord himself, has been shewn ; sufficiently, as it may be hoped, to satisfy any one who is desirous, not to support a preconceived system, but to ascertain the truth. It is sufficiently clear, to prevent any one who allows the word of God its fair weight and proper influence from setting aside that doctrine, which, full of terror as it is to us, is yet unable to restrain the inconsiderate and profligate from doing those things whereby they lay themselves under the sentence of that eternity of pain. Dr. Priestley, indeed, with that irreverence which is too often visible in his writings, advises to keep death, and all its conse- quences, out of sight. " It is not neces- " sary," says he, " to dwell in our thoughts ETERNITY OF PUNISHMENT. 215 " upon death and futurity, lest it should " interrupt the business of life, and cause i( us to live in perpetual bondage' 1 ." On their hypothesis it may not indeed be ne- cessary ; but if future punishment shall be eternal, the necessity is most urgent and undeniable. And since even that is not enough to prevent sin, we have at once an answer to the vain plea, that it is inconsist- ent with God's mercy to punish man eter- nally for temporary offences. Man is God's creature, the offspring of his will and pleasure ; yet such a one that God de- signs to effect his everlasting happiness, if he shew himself worthy to enjoy it. The two courses of present conduct are placed before him, with an eternity attached to the end of each ; eternity of happiness to obedience and virtue, and of misery to disodience and sin. The terms there- fore are equal ; and there can be no injus- tice, no derogation from the divine mercy in such a system. Man is indeed in a state of such imperfection now, it is impossible for him not to transgress. But to this 9 Sermon on the Death of Mr. Robinson. P 4 216 SERMON VII. there are two obvious answers : the first, that such imperfection is not the condition in which God originally created him ; the second, that in spite even of it, he may yet save himself through the atonement and mediation made by our Blessed Sa- viour. Though this last consideration must not be admitted by a Unitarian, for it is contrary to his system, because, denying our Lord Jesus Christ to be any more than a mere man, he sees well enough that it is impossible for such a frail being to make any satisfactory atonement for other beings frail as himself. Though therefore the un- believer must, in consistency with himself, deny this doctrine, yet to a Christian it is distinctly revealed, and full of joy and hope. It is an abundant vindication of God's mercy, of his love and desire to pro- mote the welfare of the human race, that where he had originally set immortality and death, blessing and cursing, in equal balance, as the rewards of obedience or disobedience ; he has himself now thrown the weight into that scale which is favour- able to us ; he lias himself found out, and ETERNITY OF PUNISHMENT. 217 offered to us, the remedy for the fatal con- sequences in justice due to the transgres- sion of his own law, a transgression which incurred the forfeiture of that claim, which man in his innocency had been allowed to make. And let us recollect, that in the case of our first parents there was no na- tural propensity, as there is now, to vice ; but they were guarded on the one side as much as they were assailed on the other. They were fully apprized of the conse- quence of transgression, and yet allowed themselves to be drawn into it. After this, the very exact execution of the. terms in which the original covenant between God and man had been made, could not have been more than justice. But, " where " sin abounded," as says St. Paul, M grace " did much more abound:'' God's mercy so prevailed, that the Mediator was imme- diately promised, as he was afterwards sent, to make atonement for the sin com- mitted, and to give to mankind a power through him, of regaining that inheritance which in strictness they had forfeited alto- gether. That all should suffer for the fault of 218 SERMON VII. our first parents, is no more unjust than that all should have enjoyed the blessed condi- tion appointed for us, if they had not trans- gressed. Of that side of the covenant none would have complained ; and it is only a sign of our depravity that we dare to mur- mur against the other ; to set up God's mercy to the utter overthrow of his judg- ment; and in the case before us, indeed, to rely upon what men choose to think that it requires him to do, in spite of his own revelation of what he will do, because it is, in his eyes who cannot err, just and right so to do. " q Nay but, O man," says the Apostle to those who presume to argue upon that very question concerning the equity of God's decrees in regard to man- kind, " who art thou that rcpliest against " God ? shall the thing formed say unto " him that formed it, Why hast thou " made me thus?" Of that humility how- ever, which utters, or which acquiesces, in such an argument as his, our adversaries are, it is to be feared, but little conscious. q Rom. ix. 21, 22. ETERNITY OF PUNISHMENT. 219 There is in all their writings too obvious an endeavour to set up their own under- standing as the test of truth, to acknow- ledge no duty which is not grounded on reasons comprehended and approved by themselves, and to deny all doctrines which are contrary to their ideas of wisdom and fitness. And denying, as they do, that this life is a state of probation for eternity, they have a sort of security in which they may go on to any thing that the imaginations of mortal man may suggest to them. For if eternity of punishment be done away, the probation is made of none effect ; since it becomes no more than a question open to the decision of every one, whether he thinks present gratification without re- straint an equivalent to the temporary torment which they set up by their system, as the only future punishment of disobe- dience. I say, by their system, because it is clear that it is not any part of the doc- trine of holy Scripture. The state of trial upon their plan is an unequal state, and one which it is blasphemous to impute to the unerring God. For we must re mem- 220 SERMON VII. ber that he holds out to us the idea of himself as of one, who " is of purer eyes " than to behold iniquity ;" who has ap- pointed that the "just, and only the just, " shall continue in his sight;" who takes pleasure in righteousness, and is offended at iniquity. And yet this article of the Unitarian's creed holds out to us a system which gives encouragement to vice, as if it were God's own ; though it be really in contradiction to his unequivocal declara- tions. This then is one of the inconsistencies, this is one instance of the impiety into which the system of unbelief adopted by this sect must necessarily force them. The consideration of the unwarrantable liberties which they are thus driven to take with the word of God, will, it is to be hoped, prove the weakness of their cause ; and more than counterbalance, with all who have any due reverence for their Almighty Creator, those allurements which the Uni- tarian doctrine holds out to the vanity of man, equally as to his depravity. For their doctrine courts popularity by the ETERNITY OF PUNISHMENT. 221 one, as well as by the other method. By reducing every thing that is revealed to a level with the human understanding on the one hand, and by rejecting what is most alarming, and what expresses the most decided intolerance of mortal ini- quities on the other, it brings the acts of God before the tribunal of men to decide on the truth or untruth of his declarations, and the propriety or impropriety of his de- crees. But we have St. Paul's declaration that Christianity does not proceed by such methods as these : that the devices of man must give way, whatever they may be, or however supported, when we find them to be standing in opposition to the revelation which God has made. " r The weapons " of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty, " through God, to the pulling down of " strong holds,' ' such as these are, in which the unbelievers of our days endea- vour to establish themselves ; and strong holds, though not so strong but that the word of God utterly overthrows them, of ' 2 Cor. x. 4, 5. 222 SERMON VII. human judgment and human devices. The course pursued by true Christianity is that of " casting down imaginations and every " thing that exalteth itself against the " knowledge of God, and bringing into " captivity every thought to the obedience " of Christ." " The preaching of the cross," says that same Apostle, "is to them that " perish foolishness." Let all who hold any part of its doctrines as foolishness take heed that they be not among the number of those who thus perish. Let us all look to this ; let us not allow our- selves to be drawn aside by the snares of our own vanity, nor yet by the devices of others who have been themselves so en- snared. The foundation laid in God's word standeth sure ; and so long as we have the support of his own recorded re- velation, let us not fear to maintain his truth, whether it be revealed clearly or in mystery, against all the sophistry of man, the allurements of our own passions, and the suggestions of the tempter. SERMON VIIL CONCLUSION. Colossians ii. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through philoso- phy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. oUCH is the caution which arises as a natural inference from the consideration of that system of scepticism and unbelief, which we have now endeavoured to ex- amine in all its avowed principles. The sect which avows them has set itself in open and declared opposition to those opi- nions which are held by the Church of England, with regard to the very founda- tions of the Christian religion. It has however, I trust, been shewn, that all the 224 SERMON VIII. difficulties and objections which they bring forward as impediments to the reception of the mysteries of Christianity, are grounded in no better principle than human vanity. For they set up their own reason as a suffi- cient measure of God's revelations ; and whatever does not accord with their ideas, they make no scruple to reject it, and that too frequently in most offensive and in- decent language. The great and increased activity which they have exerted in pro- moting their cause, by disseminating the principles of their persuasion, and reviling the profession of sound Christianity, can- not but have been visible to every attentive observer ; from that time especially, when the restraints originally laid on them were withdrawn. But there is, I trust, nothing to be feared from their efforts as to any change which they can introduce generally, though much mischief may be done to unlearned or unstable individuals. The foundations of the Christian Church are laid in a rock, and " the gates of hell shall not prevail " against it." Still however is it our duty to provide some remedies against the par- CONCLUSION. 225 tial evil which their confident and positive assertions are not unlikely to produce. Refuted as they have been, by the repeated answers of various able advocates, on the great cardinal point of our Saviour's Deity and Atonement, still do they bring for- ward the same assertions with the same as- surance, as if no one had ever replied to or disproved them. They tell those who will listen to them, in a summary manner, that there is nothing in the arguments which are urged against them ; and even the word of God itself is treated by them with as little ceremony. For instance, one of their principal upholders, when pressed with one of those positive texts of St. John's Gospel which is fatal to their blasphemous asser- tion of the mere humanity of Christ, whom the Unitarians declare to have been born in the natural way of his mother Mary, a man in all respects like other men ; thinks it sufficient coolly to reply, that there is nothing in it. The Apostle's words are these : " a And now, O Father, glorify thou a John xvii. 5. Q 226 SERMON VIII. " me with thine own self with the glory " which I had with thee before the world " was." It is not easy to conceive words more directly affirmative of the preexistence of our Saviour before his assumption of our human nature. Yet to this it is only answered, that " no argument can be drawn " from this ambiguous textV If this be ambiguous, it is not easy to conceive what can be express or positive. Sometimes they will venture even farther than this, and insinuate, where they have not the confidence plainly to assert it, that the words which in reality tend to overthrow their system are rather favourable to it. Thus the same person says of the following passage of St. Paul, c that " if it be not de- " cisive in favour of their doctrine, ,, it may " at least be regarded as neutral." Now the passage of which this is asserted is no less than one of the most positive for the actual deity of Christ, and for his coequality with the Father : " d — Christ Jesus ; who, " being in the form of God, thought it not b Belsham, Calm Inquiry, p. 148. e lb. p. 145. d Phil. ii. 6, 7. CONCLUSION. 227 " robbery to be equal with God : but made " himself of no reputation, and took upon " him the form of a servant, and was made " in the likeness of men." Now what can be thought of those who openly say that this passage upholds their rejection of our Saviour's Godhead, or, at the utmost, is neutral on the question ? What ? But that they are determined, by the most barefaced though ungrounded assertions, to prejudice the minds of those who will listen to them, resisting themselves, and stifling in others, the conviction, which it is difficult to ima- gine that they do not see, and which in- deed their endeavours to alter the sense of this passage have long since shewn that they do see, to arise naturally from this and similar expressions. What can we think of their desire to weigh the truth fairly as it is declared by the Evangelist, when, finding that they cannot set aside the express words of his Gospel, they in another instance resort to a sort of mental reservation, and tell us, that our Saviour's assertion of his preexistence before Abraham % (which e John viii. 58. Q 2 228 SERMON VIII. must of course, in its natural sense, do away all idea of his being a mere mortal,) means only a preexistence f in the Divine purpose f Such a miserable subterfuge is not indeed deserving of deliberate reply, for it is hardly to be supposed, that even the very person who makes it can feel him- self convinced of that which he asserts. We all may know, by almost every day's expe- rience, how tenacious men are of those opi- nions which they have embraced, especially when they are taken up in contradiction to the general sense of mankind. There is, then, a pretension to superiority of discern- ment, which urges them forward to assert, and which supports them in maintaining the assertions which they have made. And so soon as the vanity of human reason, the vain idea of its entire competency to judge and to reject any revelation, is once set up, the voice of the whole Christian world is scorned as the dictate of deluded igno- rance ; the judgment of the most wise in sacred knowledge is described as the bias f John x. 3. CONCLUSION. 229 of prejudice and bigotry. By a specious shew of what they are pleased to miscall liberality, a name which has in these days been, more than any other, abused by its application to licentious practices and un- authorized scepticism ; by an ostentatious display of that name, they lay a dangerous snare for the ignorant or the unwary, and seek to promote its fatal effects by the as- surance of confident, though unsubstantial assertions. The vanity of man, especially of those who are wise in their own conceits rather than in the wisdom which is from above ; that vanity of man is naturally de- lighted by any idea of the supremacy of human reason ; by the notion of its ability and fitness to decide even on the reception due to the revelations of heaven itself. And indolence also, and ignorance, will betray many, who are not so open to the snares of self-conceit. How many are there, who, though they will be the last to admit it, are, from the habits of their lives, incapable of weighing evidence ; who lie particularly open to the influence of either the one or the other; of either gratuitous assertions q 3 230 SERMON VI1L and false criticism, or the delusive shew of liberality and freedom in opinion ! Some there are who will examine nothing ; but take up at once with the opinions which a specious and plausible statement sets be- fore them, under fair, though false colours. Others, on the contrary, who advance rashly to the trial of any question set before them, though without any of that practice in ex- amination which produces the faculty of weighing the comparative value of con- trary assertions ; of sifting and discrimi- nating evidence. For their presumption arises from that very inexperience, which at once prevents them from being fit for such disquisitions, and at the same time conceals from them their own unfitness. How many are there, who, falling into the hands of artful men, before whom they are conscious of inferiority in understanding, yield up their assent without an effort ; choosing rather to take human wisdom for their authority, than to examine for them- selves ! And yet on points so plainly re- vealed as these, nothing more than industry and consideration is requisite. Let the CONCLUSION. 231 more learned reason with the infidel, and confute his reasonings ; but even the most unlearned Christian may find in the Bible, if he will be at the pains of searching there, and humble himself enough to submit the opinion which he has taken up, to that which he shall find there ; even the most plain and unlearned Christian may find abundant proof of all those doctrines which Christians hold, and Unitarians deny. They will indeed seek to shake mm, by urging, though falsely, the incorrectness of our version of the New Testament. But even though we were to give up all which they have fraudulently suppressed and altered in ' theirs, there would still remain enough of which they have not dared to get rid in that way ; enough to prove the doctrines which ours and every other Christian Church holds in opposition to them. The doctrines of the Unitarian sect strike at the very vitals of Christianity, and en- deavour to secure to their followers a sort of comparative impunity, an escape from eternal punishment, which may embolden them to venture on the denial of the most q 4 232 SERMON V1I1. important truths revealed by God, and committed to ourselves for unreserved ac- ceptation and belief. Therefore it is, that although the most particular and cardinal points of their system have been repeatedly discussed and overthrown by far more able defenders of our faith, it may yet be useful to have taken a comprehensive view of the whole, and shortly to have demonstrated the fallacy of each peculiar doctrine which that sect has avowed. The indolent may not be terrified at so short a discussion of the matter; and since the proofs on which I have insisted have been chiefly drawn from passages of holy Writ, whose au- thenticity is not denied, even by our ad- versaries, a demonstration of the falsehood of their tenets is thereby afforded, which must carry conviction to any unbiassed mind, whether of the learned or unlearned. The Apostle exhorts us to " prove all " things, and hold fast that which is good." I have proceeded so to do, upon that which, in spite of whatsoever presumption may suggest to the human mind, ought ever to be esteemed the best proof: I have proved CONCLUSION. 233 the truth of those doctrines which we hold and they refuse, by the word of him whose word is truth. Such evidence as this lies well within the compass of the most ordi- nary capacity, and is at the same time the most convincing testimony which can be laid before the brightest and most cultivated abilities. The inductions which appear at first sight to be reasonable, may upon far- ther examination be found to have been unfairly drawn : the course of an argument may be warped, and its result unfairly stated. Of abstract reasonings, the un- learned are not competent judges ; neither are those, who, with better abilities and means of information, neglect to give the subject a full investigation. Whether they do thus from presumption or negligence, or from a prejudice previously conceived in favour of new and strange doctrines, and what are falsely called liberal ideas in religion ; neither of them is more likely to convince the gainsayer, or themselves, to learn and to hold fast tjiat which is good. The word of God, however, on this as well as on all other points of vital importance, 234 SERMON VIII. is clear to all who do not seek to wrest it to their own purposes. To that we must all bow, and on its foundation may secure- ly make our stand, and defy alike the snares and assaults of the infidel. And let it be remembered, that we enter upon this controversy, not as on one which we have provoked by any novel opinions of ours, but in defence of that which has been the Christian faith from the first : which was, with very few exceptions, uni- versally held in the earliest and purest ages of the Christian Church, the age of the Apostles themselves, and of their contem- poraries and immediate successors. The Unitarian, proud in his own conceit of his own reason, will tell us, when he finds that venerable authority to be against him, that it is of no value compared with the disco- veries which the freedom of religious in- quiry has now made known. But that freedom is not now for the first time so employed ; for we all know, that in the earliest times there were a few who erred, and overthrew the faith of some : there were those who, being unlearned and un- CONCLUSION. 235 stable, wrested the Scriptures, as these do now, to their own destruction. The Uni- tarians indeed still tell us, that they were the primitive Church, who did thus, though their assertion has long ago been most tri- umphantly refuted, by the learning and abilities of a distinguished Prelate of our own days. They still keep alive the dis- pute, and hazardous as controversy is to the truly Christian spirit, yet it does not therefore become us to permit their dan- gerous doctrines and fallacious assertions to pass unheeded, dispersing their mischief, and scattering their snares on every side, to poison and entrap the unwary. All Christians, but particularly those dedicated to the sacred office, are called upon to come forward ; to take to them " the " whole armour of God," and " fight the " good fight of faith;" but never let us forget that which in the heat of contro- versy is too often allowed to escape our recollection, that " the weapons of our " warfare are not carnal." If it be almost impossible to suppress indignation at the coarse and profane manner in which things 236 SERMON VIII. the most sacred are occasionally treated by the adversary, yet should a strict guard be kept over the mind of him who engages in the question, lest his indignation dege- nerate into anger and personal animosity. But whatever be the dangers which this controversy shares in common with all others, still it is not to be considered as altogether unproductive of good. The mercies of God are never more conspi- cuous, never more loudly call for our gra- titude, than when, from the evil attempts of his enemies, he produces good to his faithful servants; when he makes those questions which the unbeliever agitates, in the hope of disturbing the belief of Chris- tians, the means of strengthening and con- firming that faith ; by causing its evidences, and the immoveable authority on which it rests, to be laid in every possible form before the eyes of the world. Controversy on the great fundamental articles of our religion, like the moving of the waters at Bethesda, excites a salutary influence, of which those who go fairly into it, to seek the good which God has sent to man, be- CONCLUSION. 237 come partakers, to the establishment of their spiritual strength and health. The cavils and objections of the infidel, which if silently insinuated without reply would be more pregnant with mischief to those on whom they might light, are thereby brought before the world, examined and sifted. The poison is shewn to be poison, and the minds of many who might other- wise have rested quiescent in indolence, exposed to the influence of unbelieving cavils, without being able to " give a rea- " son for the hope that is in them," with- out having any power to confute the gain- sayer, will now, it is reasonably to be hoped, " prove all things;" and if that be fairly done, they will the more effectually " hold fast that which is good." And would to God that controversy were confined to points which affect the basis of religion, which threaten the foun- dations of the Christian faith ! Would to God, that where a difference of opinion prevails on points not essential to salvation, both sides alike would refrain from urging, as well as from repelling, with such vio- 238 SERMON VIII. lence as too often leads to bitter animo- sity, those opinions which they hold, and their opponents deny ! Would that all parties would recollect that in which all agree, that " charity never faileth :" that charity " is not easily provoked ; doth not u behave itself unseemly ; thinketh no " evil!" The truth, as it is in Christ Je- sus, and all that belongs to it, must be maintained. The defence of the outworks tends to keep off the attack from the ci- tadel, and the negligent maintenance of the one may in fact betray the other. But there is no advantage in intemperance ; nor is there any thing, either in reason or religion, which justifies the corruption of earnest and fervent zeal, into fiery and in- temperate bitterness. Let not Christians preach Christ " of contention" among them- selves; but if contention is forced upon us, let it be maintained by all believers, against those who are the enemies to the faith. Of those professed enemies the present sect of Unitarians are the chief; and it must be observed by any one who considers the state of religious dissent in these days, that CONCLUSION. 239 Unitarianism is, as it were, the sink into which those who have been long unsettled in their opinions, and have run through many different persuasions, often fall at the last. This is well known to be the case with a large and powerful sect, which once differed principally on a point of discipline from the Established Church of this land ; many of whose members however are now falling into this state of positive unbelief. The writings of several among the German divines also have long been tending that way ; and that imaginary illumination, which produced disbelief in the doctrines and person of our Blessed Redeemer, which has in our own times been too fa- tally connected with the total abandon- ment of religion under any form whatso- ever, and with the rejection of true mora- lity altogether, proceeded from that same, which they now set up as a sovereign prin- ciple — the fancied supremacy of Human Reason. It might perhaps be highly resented, were ive to say, that the system of faith of this sect is the natural offspring of licen- 240 SERMON VIII. tious freedom of conduct; though immoral practice naturally begets an inclination to set aside that authority which most deci- dedly condemns it. But the writings of their own principal authors in our country declare that such is the case. One de- scribes them as those " g who have heard " Christianity from their infancy, who l( have in general believed it for some time, 6< and not come to disbelieve it, till they " had long disregarded it." Another 11 says the same thing in effect; for by " popular " superstition," he manifestly intends the established faith, and by " a rational sys- " tern of faith," the unbelief of the Unita- rians. " Men," says he, " who are most " indifferent to the practice of religion, 6i and whose minds therefore are least at- " tached to any set of principles, will ever " be the first to see the absurdity of a po- <( pular superstition, and to embrace a ra- " tional system of faith." Holding such g Priestley, Letter to a Philosophical Unbeliever, vol. ii. Preface, p. 9. h Belsham's Sermon on the Importance of Truth, p. 82. CONCLUSION. 211 maxims as these, how can it happen other- wise, than that they should attack the esta- blished religion in whatever form it may be found ? And in fact they have always been the enemies and revilers, in Protes- tant countries of the Reformed, in papal countries, where they have dared to shew themselves as such, of the Roman Church; in short, of Christianity itself, and for its own sake : for it is not against any abuses peculiar to any nations, but against the Godhead of our Redeemer, that their at- tacks are directed. Their comfortless doc- trine sacrifices to human vanity that great- est of all consolations, which we derive from the doctrine of the Atonement. It annihilates, so far as they can effect their purposes, that love of Christ which was the motive of all his acts of mercy, and is the foundation of all encouragement to mortal frailty. For if his Godhead be done away, there is an end to his grace, to his sponta- neous sacrifice for sin. If he were a mere creature, sent to do his Creator's pleasure, that love on which the Gospel dwells so emphatically, that love which the Apostles R 242 SERMON VIII. and primitive Christians regarded as pass- ing man's understanding, fades away into nothing. The act which is done from obe- dience in a creature to his Creator, how- ever beneficial to others, calls not for their gratitude towards him ; because their be- nefit is not, in that case, the object which excited him to the act : it is a mere act of obedience, and would have been equally performed, if it had tended to their preju- dice. I need not labour to prove how ut- terly repugnant is such a theory to the whole tenor of Christianity, which always dwells, and takes pleasure in dwelling, on the love of Christ. If therefore the Person of the Son be not united in the Godhead of the Father, and so a sharer in all his acts, he can have shewn no love towards mankind in any thing which he has done. What then becomes of those Scriptures whose authority is acknowledged by all parties, which describe such love as the motive to all the acts in which Christ ever has conferred, or ever shall confer, bene- fits on mankind ? Even the Jews, though they also deny CONCLUSION. 243 Christ, can perceive and expose that de- ceitful profession, which sets forth as Chris- tians those who reject his Godhead. They consider the admission of that doctrine which our Church holds in this matter, to be essential to the real profession of the Christian faith. They consider that every Christian holds Christ to be the very Son of God, and not, as the Unitarians say, the son of Joseph \ They argue so far truly, that if he were not the Son of God in & 1 " Your doctrine is so opposite to what I always un- " derstood to be the principles of Christianity, that I " must ingenuously confess I am greatly puzzled to re- u concile your principles to the attempt. What ! A " writer that asserts that the miraculous conception of " Jesus does not appear to him to be sufficiently au«-