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FIVE DISCOURSES 
 
 ON - 
 
 THE PERSONAL OFFICE OF CHRIST, 
 AND OF THE HOLY GHOST ; 
 
 ON 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY; 
 ON FAITH ; 
 
 AND 
 
 ON REGENERATION 
 
 PREACHED IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF BERWICK UPON TWEED, 
 AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF HIS THURSDAY LECTURES, 
 
 BV^THE REVEREND 
 
 WILLIAM PROCTER, Junior, M. A. 
 
 FELLOW OF CATHARINE HALL, CAMBRIDGE, 
 AND LECTURER OF BERWICK. 
 
 WITH 
 
 AN APPENDIX, 
 
 EDINBURGH: 
 
 Printed hy ,/n7ucs fiallantync and Cornjiany ; 
 
 SOI.D BY RIVINGTONS, LONDON ; DEIGHTON AND SONS, 
 
 CAMBRIDGE; CONSTABLE AND CO., EDINBURGH; AND THE 
 
 BOOKSELLERS IN AI.NWICK, BERWICK, AND KELSO. 
 
 1824 
 
TO THE 
 
 MASTER. WARDENS, COURT OF ASSISTANTS, 
 
 AND 
 
 GENERAL COURT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 WORSHIPFUL COMPANY OF MERCERS, 
 LONDON. 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 When I call to mind how totally unknown I 
 wa« to every individual amongst you at tlie time of 
 my first appearance as a Candidate for the Lecture- 
 ship of Berwick, I am at a loss which to admire 
 most, my own boldness in venturing to come for- 
 ward under such circumstances, or your disinter- 
 ested Patronage in appointing me to the office. 
 The only account I can give of my boldness is, that 
 I liad passed the thirtieth year of my age, without 
 seeing any defined prospect of obtaining a perma- 
 nent proWsion from the revenues of the Church, 
 to the service of which I felt obliged in conscience 
 to devote, undivided, the best exertions of the rest 
 of my life. 
 
IV DEDICATION. 
 
 The portion of those revenues which you have 
 conferred upon me, will enable me to pursue 
 the straight-forward path of duty, without fear 
 of penury, as I pray God I may have grace to do, 
 without weariness, and without ostentation. It is, 
 therefore, with feelings of the sincerest Gratitude 
 and Respect that I dedicate to you the following 
 Discourses, which circumstances, mentioned in the 
 Appendix, have induced me to publish. 
 I am, 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 Your most obliged 
 
 and faithful Servant, 
 William Procter, Jun. 
 
 Berwick, 15th December, 1824. 
 
DISCOURSE I. 
 
 ON THE PERSONAL NATURE OF JESUS CHRIST. 
 Preached on ascension-day, 27th May, 1824. 
 
 Phili.ippians, II. 5 — 11. 
 
 " Z^t this mind be in you, tchich was also in Christ Jesus : 
 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not 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 ; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled 
 himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the 
 cross. Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him, and given 
 him a name which is above every name ; that at the name of 
 Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things 
 in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue 
 should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God 
 the Father." 
 
 In these words we have a perfect outline of the 
 history of Christ our Saviour, from " the begin- 
 ning, when He was with God and was God ;"^ to 
 the great consummation, wlien " that same Jesus," 
 now both God and Man, " who," as on this day, 
 
 ' John, i. 1. 
 
 A 
 
" was taken up into heaven, shall so come, in liko 
 manner as the holy Apostles saw him go into hea- 
 ven,"^ viz. when he shall come " with the clouds 
 of heaA'en ;"3 when " the judgment shall be set, and 
 the books opened, and all people, and nations, and 
 languages, shall serve the Son of Man. "-i For " He 
 must reign" as Messiah, as the anointed Prophet, 
 Priest, and King, till he hath completed the pur- 
 pose for which he vouchsafed to assume that pecu- 
 liar character ; " till he hath put all enemies under 
 his feet,"^ and till " every tongue," as well of his 
 abased foes, as of his exalted subjects, " shall con- 
 fess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God 
 the Father." 
 
 To endeavour to fill up from Scripture this ample 
 outline ; by producing to view the several circum- 
 stances of the History of Man's Redemption, which, 
 in its full extent, comprehends the whole of reveal- 
 ed religion ; and so producing them, as not to de- 
 stroy their native force and efficacy, " for the use 
 of edifying ;" — such, my brethren, are the arduous 
 duties of the office upon which I this day enter, not 
 without a deep sense of awful responsibility, and a 
 humble consciousness of my own un worthiness and 
 
 2 Acts i. n. T Dan. vii. 13. -* lb. 10, U. 
 ^ 1 Cor. XV. 25. 
 
3 
 
 nisunioiiMicy. But, praised be God, the iVuit of our 
 labours does uot depend upon our own exertions 
 alone. Our blessed Lord, before bis ascension, 
 thus encouraged the chosen " witnesses and minis- 
 ters of the Word," — " All power is given unto me 
 in heaven and on earth. Go yc, therefore, and teach 
 all nations, baptising them in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; 
 teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I 
 have commanded you : And, lo, I am with you al- 
 way, even unto the end of the world."^ This pro- 
 mise of being present wdth them, in teaching all 
 nations, even to the end of the worlds cannot be con- 
 fined to the " eye-witnesses"' to whom it was im- 
 mediately addressed, but must extend to the whole 
 succession of Christ's teachers, then represented 
 by the Apostles ; that is, to all those who, by 
 an authority derived from the Apostles, are com- 
 missioned to preach the Gospel in any place, at any 
 period of the world. Encouraged, therefore, by the 
 promise of Divine support, I do not faint under the 
 burden imposed upon me ; but enter on the duties 
 of this sacred office with a well-founded confidence, 
 that He, who has given me grace at their com- 
 
 '' Matt, xxviii. 18—20. 
 
mencement to rely on His promised aid, will pre- 
 serve me in their progress from all serious error, 
 and enable me to be an instrument of good to some 
 before the close of my ministerial labours in this 
 place. 
 
 For the improvement of the present occasion, I 
 implore the especial guidance of the Spirit of Truth, 
 and bespeak your most serious attention to the sub- 
 ject, while I endeavour briefly to set before you the 
 mysterious, but vitally important doctrines of Holy 
 Scripture, relating to the p€rso7ial iiature of our Re- 
 deemer, in the three different states in which he is 
 presented to us in the Text, viz. — 
 
 I. In his eternal state of supreme Power and 
 Glory, " being in the form of God," and " equal 
 with God." 
 
 n. In his state of voluntary Humiliation, when 
 " he took upon himself the form of a servant; and 
 being found in fasliion as a man, humbled himself, 
 and became obedient unto death, even the death of 
 the cross." 
 
 III. In his state of Exaltation, the consequence 
 and reward of that humiliation. " Wliercforc God 
 
also hatli highly exalted him, and given him a name 
 which is above every name ; that at tlic name of 
 Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, 
 and things in earth, and things under the earth." 
 
 It is impossible to give a true, however inade- 
 quate, representation of the Messiah in this three- 
 fold state, without suggesting many powerful per- 
 suasives to lead a Godly and a Christian life ; but 
 the application I have most in view at present, is 
 that of St. Paul in the context ; viz. to recommend, 
 by the example of Christ Jesus, the true Christian 
 temper of humility. — " Let this mind be in you 
 whicli was also in Clirist Jesus." — " Let nothing 
 be done through strife or vain-glory, but in lowli- 
 ness of mind, let each esteem other better than 
 themselves."'^ 
 
 First, then, we are led by our Text to consider 
 ChrLst as perfect God, co-equal and co-eternal vni\\ 
 the Father. " Being in the form of God, he thought 
 it not robbery to be equal with God." Wlience the 
 necessary inference is, that he was Gpd; for it would 
 be the most impious and audacious robbery for any 
 one else to pretend to be equal with God. The Soci- 
 
 ' Philipp. ii. 3. 
 
iiians, of course, deny this inference, and sometimes 
 propose different translations ; but it is as unne- 
 cessary, as it would be unedifying, to expose the fal- 
 lacy of their arguments, or the falsehood of their 
 versions, (a) The doctrine of Christ's Divinity is so 
 interwoven with the whole texture of revelation, 
 that it surpasses the power of the most audacious 
 mis-translation to disguise, and of the most inge- 
 nious sophistry to explain away, all the passages by 
 which it may be proved. When a person of plain 
 common sense reads, for example, that Jesus not 
 only accepted the title, " my Lord and my God,"^ 
 which was addressed to him by St. Thomas ; but 
 pronounced a blessing upon all who should have 
 the same belief, without having seen the same proofs 
 of his Divinity : When he reads that " the Word 
 (who "was made flesh and dwelt among us") was 
 in the beginning with God, and was God;"^ or 
 that " God was manifest in the flesh :"^ When, I 
 say, an unbiassed person of plain common sense 
 reads sUch passages as these, (and many such must 
 be found in every book that has the most remote 
 pretensions to be called a translation of the Scrip- 
 tures,) it surpasses the power of the most refining 
 
 (a) Capitals refer to Notes in the Appendix. 
 
 ** John, XX. 28. ^ John, i. 1 and 14. '1 Tim. iii. 16. 
 
sopliistry to persuade liim that tliey do not assert 
 the Divinity of Christ. If, therefore, the word of 
 God be true, Clirist is God. And St. Paul, who 
 so clearly maintains that doctrine in other places, 
 could not speak of his " being in the form of God, 
 and thinking it no robbery to be equal with God,'* 
 without meaning what the words most obviously 
 imply, \'iz. that he ivas God. 
 
 But now comes the most wonderful part of the 
 " great mystery of godliness. God was manifest in 
 tlie flesh,^'- The Almighty Word, very and eternal 
 God, took man's natiu'e in the womb of the bless- 
 ed Virgin, and thus became perfect man, of a rea- 
 sonable soul and human flesh subsisting. He who was 
 God could not cease to be God; and therefore, 
 by a union which it would be vain for any one to 
 attempt to comprehend, the divine and human na- 
 tures were united in his one person ; and so united, 
 that each nature was in itself complete and entire, 
 without, in the slightest degree, impairing the 
 completeness or perfection of the other, with wliich 
 it was personally identified. 
 
 The passages of Scripture already quoted will 
 gerve, in connexion with the words of our Text, to 
 
 ^ 1 Tim. iii. 16. 
 
prove tlic truth of this doctrine ;ilso; which be 
 longs, you will observe, to the second head of our 
 division. " The Word was God." " The Word 
 was made Flesh." " God was manifested in the 
 Flesh." And it is worthy of remark, that the tan- 
 gible proof of his perfect manliood was the very 
 thing which drew fi'om St. Thomas the unqualified 
 acknowledgment of his perfect GodJiead* Without, 
 therefore, pretending to comprehend the manner 
 how, we cannot believe the Scriptures, without be- 
 lieving that " In him dwelleth all the fulness of 
 the Godhead bodily"^ 
 
 And not only was God united in the person of 
 Jesus Christ, to the mortal body ; but also, which 
 seems still more mysterious, to the rational soul of 
 man. To render him a true representative of the 
 whole human race, it was necessary (b) that his man- 
 hood should be precisely the same as ours, naturally 
 exempted from none of its natural feelings or na- 
 tural infirmities. He therefore took our ew^/rc nature 
 in the womb of the blessed Virgin, and came into 
 the world with all the mental as well as bodily im- 
 becility of a human infant. " Jesus increased in 
 wisdom^'' as Avell as " stature;"^ and therefore 
 
 ^ Col. ii. 9. 4 i^uke, ii. 52. See also Pearson on the 
 
 Creed, Art. iii. vol. I. p. 256. 
 
must liave had (distinct from tlic Divine, whose 
 wiRdom is infinite, and yet united in the same per- 
 son,) a human soul, the seat of a finite understand- 
 iiilj. The siime wiis also the seat of liis directed 
 Will, distinct from the Will of his Father.—" Fa- 
 ther, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me ; 
 nevertheless, not my Will, but thine be done.""' 
 Li this impassioned prayer, we discover the human 
 Soul of Jesus, not only in a Will distinct from the 
 Di\'ine, but also in the prevalence of human feel- 
 ings and affections ; which he often experienced, 
 but on no occasion so forcibly as on that, when his 
 '* Sotd was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death."^ 
 This exceeding sorrowfulness unquestionably be- 
 speaks a human soul. And this it was which, when 
 he actually arrived at the point of death, he recom- 
 mended to the Father, saying, " Father, into thy 
 hands I commend my spirit ; and having thus said, 
 he gave up the ghost."'' 
 
 The Man Jesus Christ had therefore a soul and a 
 body, naturally differing in nothing from the soul 
 and body of other men, and thus was perfect Man^ 
 " in all points tempted like as we are, yet without 
 sin."^ Wo have already twice shewn, that the same 
 
 ' Luke, xxii. 42. '"• Matt. xvi. 3H. ^ Luke, xxiii. 46. 
 ' Heb. iv. 15. 
 
10 
 
 Jesus Christ was perfect God ; and, therefore, im- 
 mutahly possessed of all those adorable perfections 
 which are essential to the very being of God. Many 
 are the proofs of his absolute Di\'inity, which he 
 vouchsafed to exhibit during his manifestation in the 
 flesh ; and the essential immutability of the Divine 
 nature compels us to confess, that there never can 
 have been a moment in which he did not possess 
 all the attributes of the Deity. Yes, even when 
 the infant Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes 
 and laid in a manger, — when the Man of sorrows 
 was buffeted,and spit upon, and nailed to the cross, — 
 he was in complete possession of the same Almighty 
 Power, with which he created the universe. 
 
 It is difficult here, not to anticipate our pro- 
 posed arrangement, and dwell with admiring won- 
 der on the extent of that humility and patience, 
 which could condescend so low, and endure so 
 much, and abstain from the exercise of his Al- 
 mighty Power, under circumstances of such un- 
 equalled provocation. But I forbear from pursu- 
 ing that topic for the present, as well as from no- 
 ticing the objections which cross our carnal minds 
 on the statement of these mysterious truths ; and, 
 in order to give a connected view of the personal 
 nature of our Lord, as it is set forth in Scripture, 
 
11 
 
 sliiill now j);u«s on to the consideration of the third 
 state in whieli he is presented to us in the Text, 
 viz. liis state of Exaltation and Reward. 
 
 In examinintr tlie state of humility which began 
 at the Incarnation, and was completed by the Cru- 
 cifixion of our Lord, we shewed, that he then was 
 fierfect God, and perfect Man. We now advance a 
 step farther, and say, that in his state of exaltation, 
 he still is, and ever will be, perfect God, and per- 
 fect Man — Perfect Man, of a reasonable soul and 
 huuian flesh subsisting. 
 
 It is imnecessary to add anything to what has 
 been already said, to shew that he still is perfect 
 God. We have shewn, that he was God from the 
 beginning, and that he was God during every stage 
 of his humiliation ; much more, then, must he still 
 continue to be God in his exaltation. In a word, 
 God is, from everlasting to everlasting, the same ; 
 so that he who was God, can never for an instant 
 cease to be God, of infinite power, wisdom, and 
 goodness, impassible, immortal, immutable. As 
 God, therefore, the Messiah was equally incapable 
 of humiliation and exaltation, of suffering and re- 
 ward. But as Man, he made himself capable of 
 Ixjth. As Man he was despised, and rejected, and 
 acquainted with giief. As Man he was bruised. 
 
12 
 
 agonised, put to death. And as Man he rose again 
 from the dead. 
 
 Wlien he appeared for the first time to his assem- 
 bled disciples, after his Resurrection, " They were 
 terrified, and affrighted, and supposed they had 
 seen a Spirit. And he said unto them. Why are 
 ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your 
 hearts ? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is 
 I myself. Handle me, and see ; for a spirit hath 
 not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."^ Thus he 
 con^dnced his disciples that he was the same Jesus 
 whom they had known before, whose hands and 
 whose feet had been pierced with nails, and his 
 side with a spear. That his body was the same, he 
 convinced them by shewing the hole of the spear, 
 and the print of the nails, and making them handle 
 him, and see that it was, as before his death, the 
 same real body of flesh and blood. And that the 
 same human soul, which had been separated from 
 that body on the cross, was now re-united to it, 
 he proved at this, and every subsequent inter- 
 view he had with his disciples, by the same meek- 
 ness and lowliness of heart, the same familiar ac- 
 quaintance with their minutest circumstances, the 
 
 " I.uke, xxiv, 37—39. 
 
IS 
 
 siimc fooling allowance for their infirmitios, llio 
 same humane attention to their particular wants, 
 and, in short, by many infallible proofs, during the 
 forty da}T; he was seen of them, after his passion, 
 speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom 
 of God.' 
 
 Thus we see that, during these forty days, Christ, 
 who was always the same perfect God, was also 
 the same perfect Man he had been before his Pas- 
 sion. In that same nature, with a human body and 
 a human soul, he ascended up into heaven, in the 
 sight of his Apostles. In that same nature he now 
 reigneth in glory, and will continue to reign, with 
 the peculiar sway belonging to his mediatorial of- 
 fice, till he hath put all things under his feet, and 
 finished the judgment committed to him by the Fa- 
 ther, at the general resurrection, on his coming 
 again. " Tlien cometh the end, when we shall have 
 delivered up the kingdom" — that peculiar king- 
 dom, the whole object of whose estal)lishment will 
 then have been accomplished — " to God, even the 
 Father ;" and thenceforth reign in the unity of the 
 Godhead, without any peculiar jurisdiction, "that 
 God may be all in all."' 
 
 > Acts, i. 3. M Cor. xv. 28. 
 
14 
 
 " Seeing, tlicn, tliat we have a gi*eat liigli-priest, 
 that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of 
 God, let us hold fast our profession. For 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, yet without sin. Let us, 
 therefore, come boldly unto the throne of grace, that 
 we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in 
 time of need."^ If any one let go this " anchor of 
 the soul, both sure and steadfast," because he can- 
 not comprehend the manner in which God and 
 Man is one Christ, the same person must, in con- 
 sistency, renounce all claim to superiority above 
 the natural idiot, or the beasts that perish ; for I 
 defy him to explain, or even to conceive, how he 
 can be possessed of intellectual faculties, which are 
 unknown to the idiot or the brute. We, my bre- 
 thren, who know our ignorance of the nature of 
 our own bodies, and still more of our souls, and, 
 most of all, of the Divine Essence, will not be 
 guilty of the presumptuous folly of passing judg- 
 ment respecting their possible modes of co-exist- 
 ence. We, who believe in the omnipotence of God; 
 have no difficulty in accounting for the existence 
 
 ^ Heb. iv. U— 16. 
 
15 
 
 of thousaiitU of facts which surpass our coinpre- 
 hensiou. And the same solution will satisfy every 
 reasonable man, with respec* to that most incom- 
 prehensible of all facts, viz. That our Lord Jesus 
 Christ is God and Man, perfect God, and perfect 
 Man ; equal to the Father, as touching his Godhead^ 
 and inferior to the Father^ as touching his Man- 
 hood. {^c) 
 
 Nor let it be imag,incd that this is a mere specu- 
 lative doctrine, tlie belief or disbelief of which can- 
 not affect a man's moral character, nor, conse- 
 quently, his expectations in a future state. No doc- 
 trine which God has vouchsafed to reveal to us, 
 can be disbelii'vod, without destroying the founda- 
 tion of all true morality ; without denying the trutli 
 and wisdom and braidng the power of the Most 
 High. The primary use of every doctrine of reveal- 
 ed religion, is to teach the proud spirit of man to 
 bow before the throne of God, with that entire sub- 
 mission of heart and mind, of will and understand- 
 ing, which the clearest dictates of reason and com- 
 mon sense prescribe, and without which there can 
 be no true obedience, no true morality, no genuine 
 hope of pardon and acceptance with God. 
 
 And as tlie doctrine of the Divinity, Humilia- 
 tion and Exaltation of the Son of God, is thus, in 
 
16 
 
 claiming our belief, a test of the spirit of obedience, 
 80 is it, when believed, a most certain guide to the 
 true nature of Christian obedience, and a most 
 powerful motive to pursue it. The character of 
 the second Adam, as traced in the words of our 
 text, is throughout a most striking contrast to that 
 of the first Adam and his rebellious descendants. 
 " The first Adam was of the earth, earthy;" yet, 
 low and impotent as he was, he dared to commit 
 the impious robbery of aspiring to be equal with 
 God. " The second Adam was the Lord from 
 heaven." In him it was no robbery to be equal 
 with God ; yet he voluntarily emptied himself of 
 his glory ; and took upon himself the form of a ser- 
 vant ; the likeness, and fashion, and nature of a 
 man. And the whole course of his life was equally 
 at variance with the general conduct of the chil- 
 dren of tliis world. They begin by being disobe- 
 dient to parents ; or, if they yield an external obe- 
 dience, rebel in their hearts, sighing for the age 
 when they may shake off all restraint, and become, 
 as it is expressed, their own masters, that is, the 
 slaves of their own unbridled desires. Jesus, on 
 the contrary, the Son of God, disdained not the 
 character of the carpenter's son ; he meekly sub- 
 mitted to Joseph and Mary ; and we have strong 
 
17 
 
 reason to believe, if not positive evident^? to as- 
 sert, (i>) that he remained in subjection to tliem for 
 thirty years. Tlie cliildron of men deliglit in riot 
 and dissipation ; lie in seclusion, in abstinence, and 
 prayer. They are proud, over bearings, and revenge- 
 ful, and think nothing so disgraceful as to submit 
 to an injury or insult. He, who made man, and 
 therefore knew in what the true dignity of man 
 consists, was " meek and lowly of heart," patient 
 and forgiving in everything. They, without any 
 power to make effectual resistance, never quietly 
 endure even the word of admonition, much less the 
 infliction of severer punishments, however well 
 merited. He, who possessed Almighty jx)wer ; who 
 could have called down legions of angels to his re- 
 scue, who with a word, or Avithout a word, could 
 have caused the whole of his enemies to fall to the 
 ground, never to rise again ; contented himself with 
 s/ieicing, for our sakes, that he possessed the power, 
 by miraculously causing the sturdy band who came 
 to arrest him to go backward and fall to the ground.'* 
 And having thus shewn that " no man could take 
 his life from him, but that he laid it down of him- 
 self, ha^'ing j)ower to lay it down, and power to 
 
 * John, xviii. 6. 
 B 
 
18 
 
 take it again, "^ he suffered the hand to rise from the 
 ground, and lead him away, " as a lamh to the 
 slaughter." 
 
 Time would fail me to tell of all the horrid indig- 
 nities that were heaped upon him in his progress 
 from the Garden of Gethsemane to the accursed 
 tree, and the astonishing patience with which he 
 submitted to them all ; the true extent of which 
 submission can only be understood by those who 
 bear constantly in mind, that He, who endured all 
 this; who was buffeted and spit upon, hunted down 
 by the clamours of an infuriate mob, scourged, de- 
 rided, crucified ; held the whole powers of nature 
 in his hands, and could, with a single effort of his 
 will, have swept that whole generation of vipers 
 from the face of the earth. When he was called up- 
 on in derision by the chief priests, to " come down 
 from the cross, and they would believe," nothing 
 would have been more easy for him than to answer 
 the summons, and change places with his exulting 
 murderers. But how then could the Scriptures 
 have been fulfilled ? What then would have become 
 of the fallen race of man, to purchase whose re- 
 demption he came into the world ? No, the Son of 
 
 5 John, X. 18. 
 
19 
 
 God was not to be turned aside by any provocation 
 from his deliberate pur|)ose oF love, in tlie execu- 
 tion of which those wicked men were unconscious 
 instruments. He exhausted tlie bitter cup to the 
 very dreijs. He paid the price of our redemption, 
 to the hist drop of liis precious blood : And by thus 
 humbling hi mseff unto the most ignominious death, 
 he crowned the example of human perfection, which 
 it was one of the purposes of his coming to give us, 
 as the want of such example was one of the evil 
 consequences of Adam's trangression. 
 
 It is incredible that any person should hesitate 
 for a moment which of these to take as the object 
 of his imitation ; the first Adam, whose pride and 
 disobedience entailed a curse upon our race ; or the 
 second Adam, whose humility and submission re- 
 moved the curse ; our first parents, whose bodies 
 are still mingled with the dust, as the punishment 
 of their presumption ; or our Redeemer, whom, be- 
 cause " he humbled himself, and became obedient 
 unto death, even the death of the cross," God 
 raised from the dead the third day ; and hath, 
 moreover, exalted him /« his human nature, and 
 " given liim a name which is above every name : 
 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 
 
20 
 
 of things in Iieaven, and things in earth, and things 
 under the earth ; and that every tongue should 
 confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of 
 God the Father.*' 
 
DISCOURSE II. 
 
 ON THE NATURE AND OFFICE OF THE HOLY 
 GHOST. 
 
 Preached on the Thursday before whitsunuay, 1824. 
 
 John, xvi. 7. 
 
 " Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you 
 that I go away ; for if I go not away, the comforter will not 
 come unto you ; but if I depart, I will send him unto you." 
 
 Thus did Jesus himself act the part of a comforter 
 to liis disciples, when sorrow had filled their hearts 
 on the intimation that he was ahout to leave them. 
 IVIany other powerful topics of encouragement he 
 affectionately dwelt upon, for the purpose of pre- 
 paring them for the great change that was at hand ; 
 hut this is the one which he seemed most anxious to 
 impress upon tlieir minds. In 8t John's re])ort of 
 
22 
 
 his conversations with them on the day before his 
 crucifixion, this promise is repeated no less than 
 four or five times, once in the words of our text, 
 once in the xv. and twice in the xiv. chapter. 
 " When the Comforter is come, whom I will send 
 unto you from the Father, even the Spiiit of Truth, 
 which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify 
 of me." " The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, 
 whom the Father will send in my name, he shall 
 teach you all things, and bring all things to your 
 remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." 
 " I will pray the Father, and he shall give you 
 another Comforter, that he may abide with you 
 for ever ; even the Spirit of Truth, whom the 
 world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, 
 neither knoweth him ; but ye know him, for he 
 dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." To which 
 we may add another passage, in the chapter from 
 which our Text is taken, " Howbeit, when he, the 
 Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all 
 truth." 
 
 I have brought these passages together, because 
 they mutually throw light upon each other, and 
 seem sufficient to satisfy any reasonable man re- 
 specting the nature and attributes of the Holy 
 Ghost, the Comforter. 
 
23 
 
 In llic iirst place, it is manifest that the Holy 
 Ghost is a Person. The last quoted passage is ol' 
 itself sufficient to csUiblish this, " When he, the 
 Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all 
 truth." — He, the Spirit of Truth. — The expression 
 is pointed, studiously accurate, and manifestly in- 
 tended to mark the personality of the Spirit of 
 Truth. The other texts produced contain strong 
 confirmations of the same doctrine. " The Com- 
 forter, whom I will send unto you from the Father, 
 He shall testify of me." " The Comforter, which 
 is the Holy Ghost, He shall teach you all things." 
 In both these passages, as well as in the preceding, 
 the j)oiuted use of tlie personal pronoun clearly 
 uidicates the personality of the Holy Ghost. The 
 next contains a different, but not less evident indi- 
 cation of the same truth. " I will pray the Father, 
 and he shall give you another Comforter" — An- 
 other Comforter — Surely it must have been under- 
 stood from these words, that the other Comforter 
 was to be a similar Being to the one who was about 
 to leave them, namely to the Divine, Per^ow who 
 then addressed them. 
 
 Taking, then, these passages together, no one 
 can reasonably wish for clearer proof than tliey 
 afford, that the Holy Ghost is a person. 
 
24 
 
 Nor do they less clearly shew, that he is a dif- 
 ferent person from tlie Father and from the Son. 
 Differeat from the Father, because he is " given 
 by the Father, sent by the Father, sent from the 
 Father," and " proceedeth from the Father." Dif- 
 ferent from the Son, because he is " another com- 
 forter," ' whose coming depended upon the Son's 
 departure ;' because he is " sent in the name of 
 the Son," to " testify of the Son," and because he 
 proceedeth from the Son as well as from the Fa- 
 ther, inasmuch as he is " sent by the Son," and is 
 " the Spirit of the Son,"^ as absolutely and truly, 
 as he is sent by the Father, and is the Spirit of 
 the Father. 
 
 As a person^ therefore, the Holy Ghost is distinct 
 from the Father and from the Son. But, as of the 
 same DiA^ne nature, he cannot be distinguished 
 from either ; for, as we shall now proceed to shew, 
 He is very and eternal God. 
 
 His coming was to compensate, yea, and more 
 than compensate, for the departure of our Lord. 
 " I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that 
 I go away ; for if I go not away, the Comforter 
 will not come unto you." What sort of person, 
 
 1 Gal. iv. 6. 
 
then, must this Comfortor }>c, whose coming is 
 more advantageous than the continued presence of 
 the Son of God ? Surely he must possess equal 
 j)ower, wisdom, and goodness, to protect, instruct, 
 comfort, and su])port the hrethren, during tlie fiery 
 trials that awaited them. But he who is equal to 
 God the Son in power, and wisdom, and goodness, 
 must be possessed of infinite power, infinite ^A'is- 
 dom, infinite goodness, that is, of the power, and 
 wisdom, and goodness of God. Thus the words of 
 our text alone would serve to prove, that the Holy 
 Ghost is God. 
 
 The same inference may be drawn from the very 
 titles by which he is distinguished. " The Holy 
 Ghost,^* that is, the Sj)irit essentially and pre-emi- 
 Tientiy holy, which is the most adorable attribute 
 of God, a glory that belongs to no other. For 
 " there is none holy as the Lord."'- God is " The 
 Holy One ;"3 " the Holy One of Israel ;"-^ " holy 
 and reverend is his name."^ The term holy is in- 
 deed applied, in a subordinate sense, to persons and 
 things that have been sanctified, or that have been 
 consecrated to the service of the Most Holy ; but 
 the whole tenor of Christ's discourse, as well as all 
 
 2 1 Sam. ii. 2. ^ Hos. xi. 9. * Ps. Ixxi. '^2. 
 
 ^ Ps. cxi. 9. 
 
26 
 
 that has been recorded of the office of the Com- 
 forter, shews that it is not applied to Him in any 
 subordinate sense. We never read that He was 
 sanctified or made obedient ; but that, by his own 
 inherent efficacy, and spontaneous co-operation 
 ^vith the Father and the Son,^ He sanctifieth the 
 elect unto obedience J The title Holy is, therefore, 
 applied to the Spirit in its highest and most abso- 
 lute sense. And that it could not be so applied by 
 our Lord to any but God alone, is manifest from 
 the decided manner in which he himself declined a 
 similar title, when applied to him as Man, during 
 his state of trial and humiliation, (e) " Why call- 
 est thou me good ? There is none good but one, 
 that is God."^ So also there is none holy but one, 
 namely, God ; and that Spirit, whose distinguish- 
 ing title is the Holy, must be God. 
 
 A similar argument may be dra\vn from liis be- 
 ing called " the Spirit of Truth ;" for " He that is 
 true," as well as " He that is holy,"^ is God. He 
 is elsewhere called " The Spirit of Wisdom,"^ in 
 that superlative sense in which " God only is \vise."^ 
 And, to crown all his titles, lie is called " The Spi- 
 
 « Compare John, xvi. 13—15, with v. 19—21 ; and see 
 Note (c.) 7 1 Pet. i. 2. » Matt. xix. 17. 9 Rev. iii. 7. 
 1 Ephes. i. 17. 2 judc, 25. 
 
27 
 
 rit ol' God ;"^ but God is a Spirit ; and therefore 
 the Spirit of God, though he may be personally, 
 cannot be esseiitialhf different from God himself. 
 
 Having thus evinced the distinct Personality and 
 absolute Di^^nity of tlie Holy Ghost, we now pro- 
 ceed, with increased reverence, to consider the Of- 
 fice he vouchsafes to sustain in the work of oui* 
 salvation. 
 
 Much confusion has arisen in men's minds, from 
 a want of dut^ circumspection and mutual under- 
 standing in the use of the terms, by which the dif- 
 ferent branches of that Office have been designated. 
 The learned and judicious Bishop Pearson, in his 
 Exjwsition of the Creed, includes the whole under 
 the general term Sanctification, Avhich he suhdi- 
 >ddes into general Revelation, individual Illumi- 
 nation, Regeneration, Assistance and Direction, 
 Union with Christ, Assurance of Adoption, and 
 Ministerial Ordination. 
 
 The chief confusion has been occasioned by a 
 want of uniformity in the meaning attached to the 
 word Regeneration, which is sometimes used to de- 
 note the commencemeTtt, and sometimes the matu- 
 rity of Christian Sanctification. Similar ambigui- 
 
 3 Horn. viii. 9. 
 
28 
 
 ties of speech are of frequent occurrence, and are, 
 perhaps, unavoidable consequences of the imperfec- 
 tion of human language ; (f) particularly when em- 
 ployed upon spiritual subjects, for the clear repre- 
 sentation of which it is altogether inadequate, and 
 can only convey an obscure idea of many most in- 
 teresting truths through the complicated medium 
 of allegorical figm*es. The sources of these figures, 
 again, are circumscribed and confined within very 
 narrow bounds, by the puny capacity of us to whom 
 they are addressed ; so that, from the limited means 
 of representation, and the boundless extent of the 
 subjects to be represented, a very minute change in 
 the former frequently indicates a great difference 
 in the latter. 
 
 Thus, in the case before us, the pardon of origi- 
 nal sin, and admission into covenant with God by 
 Baptism, which is now, generally speaking, the first 
 operation of the Spirit in the sanctification of an 
 individual, is called by our Lord, in his conversa- 
 tion with Nicodemus, " being born again." And 
 the reception of the " spirit of Adoption, whereby 
 we cry Abba, Father ;"'^ that is, whereby we are 
 assured that we are at that moment, and, if we be 
 
 ^ Rom. viii. 1.5. 
 
L>9 
 
 true to oiirselvefi, may continue to all eternity, 
 ** the children of God," inasmuch iis we feel our- 
 selves " led hy the Spirit of God"^ to yield a will- 
 ing olHHlience to his holy commandments — this 
 happy state, which comprises the greatest maturity 
 of sanctification attainable here below, is called by 
 St John " being born of God." Thus the com- 
 mencement and achievement of all that the Spirit 
 does for an indi\'idual in this life, are represented 
 by figures very minutely differing from each other ; 
 and by not attending to the difference tliat does ex- 
 ist in the signs, too many have lost sight of the im- 
 portant difference in the things signijied. They in- 
 clude l)oth figures under the common name of Re- 
 generation, or New Birth ; and then, arguing from 
 analogy, and from those passages of Scripture 
 which refer to our being " born again," that the 
 new birth is the commencement, and from those 
 which refer to our being " born of God," that it is 
 tlie perfection of human sanctification here on earth, 
 they insist that there is no interval between the be- 
 ginning and the completion of our sanctification ; 
 that tlie Spirit does his whole work at once ; that 
 the transition from absolute darkness to the clear- 
 
 ^ Rom. viii. 1 1. 
 
so 
 
 est light, from gross carnal-mindedness and depra- 
 >ity to the highest state of Christian perfection, is 
 instantaneous ; and that, therefore, wlioever have 
 not " the earnest of the Spirit,"^ and " the love 
 of God shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy 
 Ghost,"^ are " ^\dthout Christ, aliens from the com- 
 monwealth of Israel, and strangers from the cove- 
 nants of promise, having no hope, and without God 
 in the world." ^ 
 
 Would men, however, come to the study of the 
 Scriptures with more humble and teachable minds ; 
 would they more industriously employ the reason 
 which God has given them, and place it more 
 meekly under the guidance of the Spirit of Truth, 
 they might easily discover that it is not thus the 
 Spirit helpeth our infirmities : but that, feeding 
 us first with milk, and then mth stronger meat, 
 he, as an affectionate parent, gradually brings us 
 up from infancy to maturity, from babes in Christ 
 " to perfect men, to the measure of the stature of 
 the fulness of Christ." The very figures employed 
 by our Saviour and by St John, nearly as they re- 
 semble each other, may, if attentively considered, 
 be perceived to be sufficiently different, to mark 
 
 c 2 Cor. V. i. ^ Rom. v. 5. » Ephcs. ii. 12. 
 
SI 
 
 the difftTence of the things tliey represent. The ex- 
 pression born again, clearly refers to a pr«»vi(>iis 
 birth, namely, the natural, ))y which we are "horn 
 in sin, and the cliildren of wrath." It is therefore, 
 with peculiar propriety, employed by our Lord to 
 denote that oi)eration of the Spirit in baptism, by 
 wliich we are delivered from the guilt of original 
 sin, and " made the children of grace ;" being made 
 capable of attaining to true faith and obedience, and 
 thus obtaining '"power to become the sons of God. "^ 
 The expression borii of God has, on the other 
 hand, no reference to any previous birth, but mere- 
 ly to a state in which we were not the children of 
 God. Baptism, though it makes us children of 
 grace, does not necessarily make us at the same 
 time, in this peculiar sense, children ofGod.^o) Tliis 
 is a higher degree, to which we do not attain till, 
 by duly availing ourselves of the grace and power 
 conferred by baptism, we become possessed of a ge- 
 nuine and lively faith in Christ Jesus, a willing 
 heart to obey his commandments, and a meek and 
 quiet spirit, entirely given up to the guidance of the 
 Spirit of God. Then, and not till then, we know that 
 we are the children of God, for " as many as are led 
 
 9 John, i. 12. 
 
32 
 
 by the Spirit of God, they are the cliildren of God;" ^ 
 and " Wliosoever doeth not righteousness is not of 
 God/'- Then, and not till then, we can be said to 
 have been bom of God ; for " Wliosoever belie v- 
 eth," that is, truly and fully bclieveth, " that Je- 
 sus is the Christ, is bom of God."-" " Every one 
 that doeth righteousness is born of Him ;"'' and 
 " Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit 
 sin."^ 
 
 We have all, my brethren, been born again. We 
 have all cause to bless God that we have, by bap- 
 tism, been made children of grace. And, therefore, 
 the most interesting inquiry now is, how may we 
 all attain to the higher and more glorious distinc- 
 tion of being children of God ? 
 
 As " no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but 
 by the Holy Ghost ;"^ and every step of our Chris- 
 tian progress depends upon the agency of the Spi- 
 rit ; a true knowledge of Him is manifestly of pri- 
 mary importance. Before we have attained to a 
 right faith respecting the Person and Divine Na- 
 ture of the Comforter, we are not in a condition to 
 derive any farther substantial advantage from the 
 offices he vouchsafes to perform in the work of our 
 
 1 Rom. viii. 14. 2 i John, iii. 10. ^ 1 John, v. 1. 
 
 * I John, ii. 29. ^ 1 John, iii. 9. ^ 1 Cor. xii. 3. 
 
 11 
 
88 
 
 salvation. But when we havo piiiicd tliat stop, we 
 are conscious by whose jwsistance we liave jrained 
 it ; and being now duly sensible of the dipiity of 
 our imniedijite Helper and Guide, we are duly 
 ajateful for his aid. We are now convinced that 
 " the Spirit of God," who hath wrought this faith 
 in us, actually " dwelleth in us ;"' and knowing 
 that Spirit to be the very and eternal God himself, 
 are impressed with the truth of the Apostle's re- 
 presentation, that we are " the temple of God;"^ 
 and therefore dare not, under pain of the threaten- 
 ed destruction, defile that holy temple ; but anx- 
 iously flee fornication, and every impure, every 
 sinful thought, w^ord, and deed, earnestly desiring 
 to " glorify God in our body, and in our spirit, 
 which are God's."^ 
 
 Knowing that " the Spirit," which " helpeth 
 our infirmities,"^ is the Lord God omnipotent, we 
 do not faint under any trials, nor give way to any 
 temptations, but are " strong in the Lord, and in 
 the power of His might," and " put on the whole 
 armour of God, that we may be able to stand 
 against the vnlea of the devil. "^ Knowing that 
 " the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation,"^ which 
 
 7 I Cor. iii. 16. « Ibid. ^ 1 Cor. vi. 20. 
 
 » Rom. viii. 26. ^ Ephes. vi. 10, 11. 3 Ephcs. i. 17, 1^. 
 
 c 
 
34 
 
 " enlighteneth the eyes of our understanding in 
 the knowledge of God," is the very God of all wis- 
 dom himself, we feel deeply impressed with the va- 
 lue of his instructions ; and therefore, praying for 
 their continuance, apply ourselves diligently to the 
 study of the Bible, employing our understandings 
 in active, but humble obedience to our Divine 
 Teacher. Thus we continually increase in the 
 knowledge of the sanctifying truth of God^s word.'' 
 The more progress we make in tlus sublime science, 
 the more are we convinced of our own natural 
 blindness, and inability to advance a single step 
 therein, without the guidance of the Spirit of Truth; 
 and not only so, but we feel, that should we, by 
 any arrogance or misconduct, provoke Him to for- 
 sake us, all our light would be turned into dark- 
 ness ; all our knowledge into folly ; all our joy in- 
 to bitterness ; all our comfort into despair. This 
 consideration effectually keeps us humble ; and in 
 proportion to our increasing knowledge of " the 
 riches oi his grace," we become more heartily de- 
 sirous to secure them,. and, therefore, more instant 
 in prayer, more constant at church, more frequent 
 at the Table of the Lord ; more attentive to God's 
 
 * John. xvii. 17. 
 
.i5 
 
 word, whetlior read or expounded by His appoint- 
 ed ministers ; more dilif^ent in studying it jit )i(>m<» ; 
 more uniform and earnest in our endeavours to 
 j'ield a full and entire obedience to its precepts ; — 
 in a word, more deeply impressed with true Chris- 
 tian faith, mt)re completely, and submissively, and 
 thankfully " led by the Spirit of God." 
 
 Whosoever has attained to this degree of sancti- 
 fication, cannot fail to reap the rewards of an ap- 
 proving conscience, to experience that heartfelt sa- 
 tisfaction and delight in the service of God, and 
 that enlarged comprehension of his word, which 
 are called in Scripture " an unction from the Holy 
 One ;"^ " the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry 
 Abba, Father ;" when " the Spirit itself beareth 
 witness with our spirit that we are the children of 
 God ;"^ by the delight he enables us to take in the 
 service of God, and the unreserved obedience he 
 enables us to yield to God's commandments. This 
 is also called " the earnest of the Spirit,"^ being a 
 part (however small) of the promised reward, and 
 a security that if we preserve it, and remain true 
 to our engagements, we shall, in due time, receive 
 tlie whole. 
 
 ^ I Jolin, ii. '20. ^ Hoid. viii. i;>, 16, " <2 Cor. i. '2^2. 
 
36 
 
 That this may be the happy experience of every 
 one here present, may God of his infinite mercy 
 grant, tlirough Jesus Christ, our Lord ; to whom, 
 with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all ho~ 
 nour and glory for ever. — Amen, 
 
DISCOURSE III 
 
 0\ THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 
 Preached on the Thursday before trinity Sunday, 1824. 
 
 Matthew, hi. 16, 17. 
 
 ** And Jesus, when he was baptised, went up straiyhtway 
 out of the water ; and, lo ! the heavens were opened unto him, 
 and he saw the Spirit of God dcscendiny like a dove, and liyht- 
 ing upon him ; and, lo! a voice from heaven, sayiny, This is 
 my beloved Souj in whom I am well pleased" 
 
 It has been suggested, that these words do not 
 prove the Sjnrit of God to have descended upon 
 Jesus in the form of a dove ; for the expression, 
 *' descending like a dove," may merely be descrip- 
 tive of the motion with which the Spirit descended. 
 It cannot, however, be denied, that the words will 
 bear the former and more usual interpretation, 
 quite as well as the latter ; and I am disposed to 
 
adhere to it, for three reasons. First, because its 
 being so understood by the majority of readers is 
 a proof that it is more natural and obvious to con- 
 sider *' descending like a dove" as indicating the 
 form and similitude, than merely the kind of mo- 
 tion with which the Spirit descended. Secondly, 
 because it appears, that the Spirit did assume a 
 visible form ; and it is not natural that so extra- 
 ordinary a thing should be mentioned, without 
 mentioning what that form was. And, thirdly, 
 because the form of a dove is expressive of meek- 
 ness and love ; and, therefore, is no less significant 
 an emblem of the effect of the Spirit upon Christ 
 and all true Christians, than the " cloven tongues, 
 like as of fire," were of the peculiar gifts conferred 
 upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. 
 
 The form in which the Spirit descended upon 
 our Lord after his baptism, is, however, of com- 
 paratively small importance. The fact of his hav- 
 ing descended at all, is most interesting, and de- 
 serves our most serious attention. 
 
 Christ gave abundant proofs, during his mani- 
 festation in the flesh, of the completeness of his 
 Godhead. For example, when he said, " Before 
 Abraham was, I am,"^ or, " I and my Father are 
 
 ^ John, viii. 58. 
 
39 
 
 ODe,"- he asserted; aiid when he said to the stormy 
 waves, " Peace, be still,""* and was obeyed, lie 
 proved, tliat he was very God. Yet we see I'rom 
 the jmssajje before us, that as Man, he was, like 
 other men, sanctitied by the Holy Ghost ; who as- 
 sumed a visible form on this occasion, for the pur- 
 pose of demonstrating so im})ortant a truth to the 
 world. 
 
 This truth is important, because it shews that, 
 as the infinite perfections of Christ's Godhead 
 could not be altered by its union with finite and im- 
 l)erfect man ; so the natural frailty, the mereness 
 of his manhood, was not altered by its personal 
 union with God. For, if the human nature of 
 Christ had been already exalted into super-human 
 security and strength by its union with God the 
 Son, there would have been no occasion for the de- 
 scent of God the Holy Gliost. 
 
 It is also important, as shewing that, though of 
 the same Divine nature, which is essentially one, 
 still God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, are two 
 distinct persons ; for the Son was personally uni- 
 ted with the man Christ Jesus before he thus re- 
 ceived the Holy Ghost. And, at tlie same time 
 
 ^ John, X. 30. ^ Mark, iv. 39. 
 
40 
 
 that two persons in the Godhead were manifested 
 to the world by the visible descent of the Holy 
 Ghost upon the God-Man Christ Jesus, lo, a third 
 Divine Person announced himself, in " a voice 
 from Heaven, saying. This is my beloved Son, in 
 whom I am well pleased." 
 
 Thus does the passage selected for our Text con- 
 duct us at once to the great doctrine of the Tri- 
 nity, which is so vehemently assailed in these days, 
 as indeed it has ever been since its first promulga- 
 tion by our Lord. Nor is it sui'prising that the 
 Enemy of ovr Salvation should have been so eager 
 and persevering in his attacks upon this holy doc- 
 trine ; for it is not only one of the chief bulwarks, 
 but it is the very capitol and centre of the king- 
 dom of Christ, to lose or possess which, is to lose 
 or possess the whole. If we give up the Divinity 
 of the Holy Ghost, we give up all the force and 
 vitality of that doctrine which has recently occu- 
 pied our attention, of his regenerating, sustaining, 
 sanctifying influences. If we give up the Divinity 
 of Jesus Christ, we not only deprive ourselves of 
 all those powerful and peculiarly Christian mo- 
 tives to obedience, which are derived from the love 
 of God the Father in sending his only Son to die 
 for our redemption, and the love and condescen- 
 
41 
 
 sion of tluit Son in desiring to be so sent ; but we 
 surrender, as our adversaries themselves declare, 
 all the proper efficacy of the Atonement, which he 
 came into the world to make for our sins ; that is, 
 we surrender every rational and well-founded hope 
 of pardon and acceptance with God. If, therefore, 
 we abandon the doctrine of the Trinity, we aban- 
 don the very life and soul of the Gospel, — we aban- 
 don the whole of Christianity at once. 
 
 The truth of this statement will be most appa- 
 rent to those wlio have most assiduously, and de- 
 voutly, and humbly studied the word of God. But 
 it may be briefly, and, I think, satisfactorily con- 
 firmed, by a reference to our Lord's last instruc- 
 tions to his Apostles, as recorded by the Evangel- 
 ist St. Matthew. 
 
 At his most solemn appearance after his Resur- 
 rection, that appearance in Galilee, which he had 
 announced before his Crucifixion, and to witness 
 which the women, who first learnt that he was ri- 
 sen, were directed by the Angel, and by Jesus' him- 
 self to summon the disciples in general,, his instruc- 
 tions to the Apostles were, " Go ye and teach all 
 nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
 
 * Matt, xxviii. 7 and 1(>. 
 
42 
 
 and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teacliing 
 them to observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
 manded you.""^ These words certainly contain the 
 doctrine of the Trinity ; for they shew, that in that 
 solemn act of religion, whereby we enter into co- 
 venant with God, Ave enter into precisely the same 
 relation towards the Father, towards the Son, and 
 towards the Holy Ghost, thus binding ourselves to 
 render to each of them the same unlimited honour, 
 worship, and obedience. But " it is written, Thou 
 shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only 
 shalt thou serve."^ Each of the three Persons, 
 therefore, to whose service we are dedicated in bap- 
 tism, is the Lord our God. Yet " we know that 
 there is none other God but one ;"^ which Divine 
 Unity is indicated in the form of baptism by the 
 use of the word name in the singular number ; for 
 the expression is " in the name^^ and not in the 
 names^ " of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
 Holy Ghost." Thus we may learn from this single 
 passage, that " the Father is God, the Son is God, 
 and the Holy Ghost is God ; and yet they are not 
 three Gods, but one God." 
 
 And not only is the baptismal form, so solemn- 
 
 ^ Matt, xxviii. 19,20. ^ Luke, iv. 8. 7 i Cor. viii. 4. 
 
43 
 
 ly iiitrtHluced, a proof that the doctrine of the Tri- 
 nity is true ; but such a proof, as shews that it in- 
 cludes all the articles of the Christian faith. It is 
 apjuircnt on tlie very face of the institution, that a 
 full and unfeigned belief in the doctrine of the Tri- 
 nity is sufficient to render a penitent adult a wor- 
 thy recipient of baptism. But, as we may learn 
 from the case of the Ethiopian eunuch, an unre- 
 served assent to all the peculiar doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity is indispensable : for when " the eunuch 
 said. See, here is water ; what doth hinder me to 
 be baptised ? Philip said. If thou believest with all 
 thine heart, thou mayest ;"^ thus requiring of him 
 a hearty assent to all that he had preached unto 
 liim concerning Jesus. " And he answered and 
 said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God," 
 which form of words always implies a full assent 
 to all that Jesus taught. And upon this expres- 
 sion of belief, Philip proceeded at once to baptise 
 him. Since, therefore, it appears from the words of 
 the institution, that a full belief in the doctrine of 
 the Trinity is a si/fficient, and, from other parts of 
 Scripture, that an unreserved belief in all the ar- 
 ticles of the Christian faith is a necessary^ qualifi- 
 
 8 Acts, viii. 36, 37. 
 
44. 
 
 cation for baptism, it follows, that the doctrine of 
 the Trinity includes all the articles of the Chris- 
 tian faith ; and that in the pregnant words of our 
 Lord, which we have quoted from the close of St. 
 Matthew's Gospel, all the doctrines of Christianity 
 are comprehended under the doctrine of the Tri- 
 nity, as all its precepts are under the precept, " To 
 observe all things \vhatsoever I have commanded 
 you." 
 
 That our Lord's concluding instructions were 
 thus understood by the earliest Christians, and, 
 therefore, by the Apostles themselves, to whom 
 they were primarily addi'essed, appears from the 
 practice of the primitive Church, organized and es- 
 tablished under the immediate episcopacy of the 
 Apostles. For their Creeds, or Rules of Faith, con- 
 sisted, at first, simply of a declaration of belief in 
 the Holy Trinity. (") To this they referred all the 
 doctrinal points of instruction which were thought 
 necessary for adult converts, pre%ious to baptism ; 
 as it was to this a full and rational assent was re- 
 quired, before admission to that sacred ordinance. 
 / believe in the Father, and in the Son, and in the 
 Holy Ghost, appears to have been the whole Apos- 
 tolic Creed, in which none of the things to be be- 
 lieved concerning the Deity are recited, but are 
 
45 
 
 considoR'tl as (•oiitaliied, by im])licat!on, in the con- 
 fession of a Tight faith respecting the Persons. 
 
 To counteract particular heresies as they arose, 
 more and more of the details of our faith were, 
 from time to time, introduced into these summa- 
 ries ; hut still the doctrine of one God in Trinity 
 formed tlie outline of every authorized creed ; and 
 all tlie alterations that were ever made, consisted 
 in tilling up that outline from the word of God, in 
 those parts where heretics shewed a disposition to 
 till it up from their own arrogant imaginations, or 
 expressing it more strongly where they attempted 
 to explain it away. The ancient creeds retained in 
 our church, answer exactly to this description ; for 
 they consist of the doctrine of the Trinity, clearly 
 and carefully, and in one of them, strongly and 
 minutely expressed, filled up with certain details, 
 to guard against particular heresies. And it is evi- 
 dent, that if it were required to swell those creeds 
 till they became, instead of summaries, complete 
 expositions of Christian faith, they might still be 
 referred to the same heads ; for every article of 
 faitli must have a reference, direct or collateral, 
 either to God the Father, God the Son, or God 
 the Holy Ghost, or to the united Trinity. 
 
 Were the impugnere of the blessed Trinity ca- 
 
46 
 
 pable of discerning the truth, what has been said in 
 this and our two preceding Discourses might serve, 
 with God's blessing, to convince them of their er- 
 ror, and tlie danger of persevering in it. But, alas ! 
 " this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears 
 are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; 
 lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and 
 hear -with their ears, and understand ^v-ith their 
 heart, and should be converted and healed." They 
 make, indeed, a show of attending to such argu- 
 ments as we have produced, but the answers they 
 give always betray the " e^il heart of unbelief," 
 which prevents their seeing the force of any rea- 
 soning founded on the word of God. One or two 
 fundamental errors, the offspring of pride and im- 
 piety, have poisoned the sources of truth in their 
 minds, and keep them in a state of sla^dsh infide- 
 lity. Thousands of times have these errors been 
 confuted, but still they chain down their miserable 
 victims with the same strong delusion as before. 
 Earnestly, therefore, as I pray for the deliverance 
 of these poor deluded captives, it is not so much in 
 the hope of extricating them, as of preventing others 
 from falling into the snare, that I now proceed, 
 once more, to expose the fallacy of the principles 
 
4' 
 
 which lie at the root of all opposition to the mys- 
 terious doctrine of the Trinity. 
 
 The chief of these is an assertion tliat it involves 
 a miuiifest contradiction, and, consequently, is a 
 doctrine which no proof can establish. For in say- 
 ing " the Father is God, the Son is God, and the 
 Holy Ghost is God, and yet they are not three 
 Gods, but one God," they contend, that we first 
 distinctly Uiune throe Gods, and then immediately 
 contradict ourselves, by declaring that they are not 
 three Gods, but one God. 
 
 Did we indeed say that the three Persons of the 
 Godliead make only one Person, attaching the 
 same idea to the word person in both places, we 
 should be guilty of the absurd contradiction with 
 which we are charged, and might as well maintain 
 that three miles are equal to one mile, or, abstract- 
 edly, three to one. But as there is no absurdity in 
 saying that three miles are equal to one league, so 
 neither is there any contradiction in saying that 
 there are three Persons in the Godhead, and yet 
 but one God. Let no one imagine he can perceive 
 in this, or any other union or combination that can 
 be thought of, the most remote analogy to the union 
 of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in the God- 
 head. Of the nature and manner of this Di\aiie 
 
48 
 
 Union we know, and are capable of knowing, ab- 
 solutely nothing ; and all speculations on the sub- 
 ject have led, and ever must lead, to error and con- 
 fusion. I have, therefore, chosen the simplest il- 
 lustration that presented itself; one not likely to 
 lead to any unprofitable subtilties, while it is quite 
 sufficient to shew that the doctrine of three Per- 
 sons and one God is not of that self-confuting na- 
 ture which no evidence can establish. 
 
 Again, did we say that the Father is a God, the 
 Son a God, and the Holy Ghost a God, making 
 each Person a distinct and separate God, and then 
 declare that they are not three Gods, but one God ; 
 we should not only be guilty of that stupid contra- 
 diction and arithmetical blunder with which we are 
 charged ; but should be guilty of a far more inex- 
 cusable error, namely, that of dividing the Divine 
 Essence, which both reason and revelation declare 
 to be indivisible. We, however, commit neither of 
 these errors ; we " neither divide the substance, 
 nor confound the Persons." When we regard the 
 Persons, we declare that they are three, because 
 there are three distinct Persons, to each of whom 
 the Scriptures ascribe Eternity, Omnipotence, Om- 
 niscience, and all the other glorious and adorable 
 attri])utes of Deity. Each of these Persons, there- 
 
 7 
 
49 
 
 fore, wv are compelled to ackiiowUHle^e is (iod — 
 not a God; for when wo. <*oiit«Min)latc tlio Sii))- 
 stant'e, tliat is the Divine Nature, wliich is thus 
 attributed to each separate Person, our reason con- 
 firms, what revelation declares, that it is essen- 
 tially one and indivisible, bcinj^ utterly void of 
 every mark tliat can distinguish one individual 
 from another. 
 
 Witli regard to the Divine Nature, each Person 
 of the blessed Trinity is Eternal ; which excludes 
 all distinction of time or age : each of them is Al- 
 mighty, so that there is no difference in power: 
 each of them is Omniscient ; whatever, therefore, 
 is known by the Father is known by the Son, and 
 known by the Holy Ghost : (J)each of them is Om- 
 nipresent ; and, therefore, wherever the Father is, 
 there is also the Son, and there the Holy Ghost : 
 whatever also is the mil of the Father, the same is 
 the will of the Son and the will of the Holy Ghost. 
 In short, to whichsoever of the Di\ine attributes 
 we look for a distinction between God the Father, 
 God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, we find 
 tliat the infinite i>erfection of those attributes ex- 
 cludes all distinction ; so that, as touching their 
 Godhead, each of them is in every respect the 
 same as the others, each of them is in every respect 
 n 
 
50 
 
 the same as the whole. In this Trinity none is afore 
 or after other ; none is greater or less than another ; 
 hut the ichole three Persons are co-eternal together 
 and co-equal. 
 
 Thus have we shewn the rottenness of that 
 boasted position of the Socinians, That the doctrine 
 of one. God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, in- 
 volves a manifest contradiction. If, however, in 
 some lucid interval, any of them be enabled to per- 
 ceive its unsoundness, and feel it tottering beneath 
 them ; instead of taking alarm at the dismal gulf 
 that yawns below, and fleeing for refuge to the bo- 
 som of the Church, they entrench themselves be- 
 hind another equally fallacious defence of the king- 
 dom of Darkness, exclaiming. That the doctrine is 
 incomprehensible, and that it is impossible to be- 
 lieve what they do not understand. 
 
 This might be a valid objection were they re- 
 quired to believe any thing respecting the nature ol 
 the Divine union between Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost; or the manner in which the incarnate 
 Word could become inferior to the Father, as touch- 
 ing his Manhood, without impairing his equality to 
 the Father, as touching his Godhead. But the doc- 
 trine of the Trinity contains no speculations on 
 these or any other points which it declares to be 
 
.51 
 
 ificomprthensible. It simply asserts th« truth of 
 certiiiii tacts revealed in Scripture — facts which in 
 no way contradict eiich other, and which, there- 
 fore, no reasonable man, who admits the existence 
 of a Being infinitely superior to himself in power 
 and intelligence, can deny, merely because he is in- 
 capable of understanding them. 
 
 If that be a sufficient ground for denying a di- 
 vine truth, we must strip the Deity of all his 
 Attributes ; we must deny the eternity, the om- 
 nipotence, the omnipresence, the omniscience of 
 God ; for they are all equally beyond our a}>- 
 prehension. Take, for example, his omniscience, 
 an attribute which every one who believes that 
 there is a God acknowledges to belong to him. 
 Consider it not only as to its unlimited extent, but 
 also with regard to its prospective and retrosj>ec- 
 tive view ; and let any one say whether he can form 
 the most remote conception of the nature of that 
 knowledge, which can comprehend at one glance 
 every object of knowledge in the boundless uni- 
 verse, from the highest to the lowest, past, present, 
 and to come, from the beginning to the end of 
 time. By the infinite perfection of the Divine 
 knowledge, the past, the present, and the future, are 
 brought together and identified with each other, l)y 
 
52 
 
 a union quite as inconceivable to us as the union 
 of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost in the 
 Godhead. If, therefore, man's limited comprehen- 
 sion is to be set up as the standard of possibility, 
 we must deny the omniscience of God. We must 
 also deny his eternity, his omnipotence, and all his 
 other Divine attributes ; for they all equally sur- 
 pass our comprehension. Thus religion would be 
 completely driven out of the world, and all man- 
 kind would become atheists. Nor, were they con- 
 sistent in their principles of reasoning, would they 
 stop here ; but would go on to deny their own ex- 
 istence, the union of soul and body, the existence 
 of light and heat, and a thousand other things, of 
 whose truth we are absolutely certain, but the na- 
 ture and manner of which we are utterly imable to 
 explain. 
 
 If, on the contrary, there be amongst the Soci- 
 nians one modest and real inquirer after truth ; one 
 whose doubts respecting the Trinity do not arise 
 from intellectual pride ; such a one may still, with 
 the Divine blessing, be recalled from the paths of 
 infidelity, by reflecting how little he actually knows 
 of the most familiar works of God. How entirely 
 ignorant, for example, he is of the origin of his own 
 existence, and the manner in which it is supported. 
 
53 
 
 ** How the bones do ji^row in the woml) ot" her that 
 \H with child;'" and how food contrihntes to the 
 preserx'ation of life. Knowing, therefore, so little 
 even of his own nature, he will not be offended be- 
 cause he cannot '' find out the Almighty to per- 
 iection ;" and instead of making his ignorance an 
 excuse for continuing still in error, it will now on- 
 ly incite him to a more diligent examination of the 
 Scriptures, for the purpose of certifying himself 
 whether they do indeed contain the doctrine, con- 
 cerning whicli he has Ijeen so unhappy as to doubt. 
 Such an examination, properly conducted, cannot 
 fail to create in him a thorough conviction that the 
 doctrine of the Trinity is contained in the Bible. 
 
 If he still find any difficulty in believing it, con- 
 vinced of the unreasonableness of that difficulty, 
 and that it can only proceed from the obscurity 
 and imperfection of that organ of faith, by which 
 spiritual things ai*e discerned, he will earnestly 
 pray for the illumination of the Spirit. Encou- 
 raged by the promise of our Lord Jesus, saying, 
 " Ask, and it shall be given unto you ; seek, and 
 ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto 
 you ;"=^ he wUl continue reading, searching, pray- 
 
 1 feed. xi. .5. 2 Matt. vii. 7. 
 
54 
 
 ing, inquiring ; till at last, by continual knocking, 
 the door of separation between his heart and the 
 kingdom of heaven shall be opened ; his spiritual 
 eye shall be enlightened, and he shall " behold won- 
 drous things out of God's law,"^ which were be- 
 fore hidden from his view. All his doubts will be 
 dispelled. He will embrace the holy doctrine of the 
 Trinity with full assurance of faith, and through it 
 discover the whole mystery of godliness. And if 
 he continue steadfast in this faith, still diligently 
 searching the Scriptures, with prayer and suppli- 
 cation, and thanksgiving ; resolutely holding fast 
 his integrity and his humility ; and manfully re- 
 sisting every temptation which the devil may throw 
 in his way, he will doubtless go on unto perfection, 
 '' growing in grace, and in the knowledge of our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory 
 both now and for ever. — Amen."* 
 
 3 Vs. cxix. 18. * 9 Pet. iii. J 8. 
 
DISCOURSE TV 
 
 ON FAITH. 
 Preached on the Tlmrsday after trinity iunday, 18'<4. 
 
 Hebrews, hi. 12. 
 
 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil 
 heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God." 
 
 " W^HO knows not the story of Adam's fall? 
 Wlio hath not heard of the sin of Eve, our mother ? 
 If tliere were no Scripture, yet the strange irregu- 
 larity of our whole nature, which all the time of 
 our life runs counter to order and right reason ; 
 the woful misery of our condition, heiiig a scene of 
 sorrow, witliout rest or contentment;" and, above 
 all, the appalling, and otherwise inexplicable vi- 
 sitation of death, to which we are every day liable, 
 
56 
 
 tliougli endowed by our Creator with a living soul ; 
 *' all this might breed some general suspicion, that 
 from the beginning it was not so ; that He who 
 made us lords of his creatui-es, made us not so 
 worthless, and vile, "and transient, " as we now are ; 
 but that some common parent of us all had drunk- 
 en some strange and devilish poison, wherewith 
 the whole race is infected. Tliis poison, saith the 
 Scripture, was the breach of God's commandment 
 in Paradise, by eating of the forbidden fruit." ^ 
 Through "an evil heart of unbelief," man " de- 
 parted from the li^ang God," and yielded to the 
 enticements of the devil ; who, though only permit- 
 ted to appear in the odious, unengaging shape of a 
 serpent, yet succeeded in persuading him to eat of 
 the tree whereof the Lord had commanded him that 
 he should not eat, " for in the day he did eat there- 
 of he should surely die." 
 
 Thus was the devil, as Christ has declared^ " a 
 murderer from the beginning ;"- for all the death 
 and miseiy that have since desolated the world, 
 have been occasioned by this his act of treacherous 
 and deliberate malice. He is also " a liar, and the 
 father of it ;"^ for whereas God assured our first 
 
 ^ Joseph Mcde. ^ John^ viii. 44. ^ Ibid. 
 
Sff 
 
 that ill tlie day they eat of that fruit they 
 should die, *' the Serpent said unto tlie woman, ye 
 shall not surely die," probably accomj>anying the 
 deceitful assertion hy eating of the fruit himself, 
 tliat she miglit see that it wjis fit for food. 
 
 Unhappily, most unhappily, the woman's faith 
 gave way imder the confident assertions and de- 
 signing artifices of her murderous betrayer. She 
 believed the lying serpent ; she disbelieved the God 
 of truth, of whose Avisdom and goodness she had 
 experienced so many affecting proofs. The " evil 
 heart of unbelief" prevailed over her better prin- 
 ciples ; she departed from God, her only strength ; 
 and so fell an easy victim to the farther sugges- 
 tions of the devil ; who, knowing from his own ex- 
 perience the powerful effect of pride in producing 
 disobedience, (k) thug continued his attack. " For 
 God doth know that iu the day ye «»at tliereof, 
 then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as 
 gods, knowing good and evil.""* Had Eve been pos- 
 sessed of the anchor of faith, she would have an- 
 swered, as our Lord did when similarly tempted, 
 " Get thee behind me, Satan :"^ He iu whom I live, 
 and move, and have ray being, hath forbid me to 
 
 * Gen. iii. v. * Luke, iv. 9. 
 
58 
 
 eat thereof, and Him it is my duty and only safetr 
 to obey. But having already made shipwreck of 
 faith, she was destitute of the only stay by which 
 $he could stem the torrent of temptation, and, ac- 
 cordingly, sunk beneath it. Impelled by ambitious 
 pride, and aspiring to be wise like God, she de- 
 serted, as the devils had done before, the station 
 assigned her by Providence. " She took of the 
 fruit and did eat, and gave also to her husband 
 with her, and he did eat."^ 
 
 " No sooner had they transgressed, than they 
 began to reflect upon the guilt, and feel the fatal 
 consequences of so doing. The eyes of their un- 
 derstandings were indeed ' opened;' not in the sense 
 the tempter had promised," nor in the manner 
 they would afterwards have been opened, had they 
 come to eat of the same fruit with faith, and in obe- 
 dience to the command of God ; (l) " but in a man- 
 ner that discovered to them their own folly, dege- 
 neracy, and shame."^ " They became sensible that 
 they were divested of their inward purity, and 
 therefore blushed at their bodily nakedness, of 
 which before they were not ashamed."^ If they 
 gained some knowledge respecting good, it served 
 
 « Gen. iii, 6. 7 Pyic. " Patrick. 
 
59 
 
 ouly to bliew its inecoiicilabI« uppobition to evil, 
 with which they had now become acquainted, and 
 to cx)nvince tliem of* their wretcliediiess and lolly 
 in haviufi^ cliosen the e\'il and loRt the good. It* they 
 acquired, at the same time, some knowledge of hu- 
 man arts or their principles, (»') (as the additional 
 defences now employed to keep the way of the tree 
 of life seem to indicate they did,) it was not a know- 
 ledge that in any way elevated their nature, but 
 merely such as to enable them to obey the restless 
 cra\'ing of many real, as well as imaginary wants, 
 which were inflicted as part of their punishment. 
 For God said unto Adam, " Because thou hast 
 hearkened unto the voice of thy Avife, and hast eat- 
 en of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying. 
 Thou shalt not eat of it ; cursed is the ground for 
 thy sake ; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days 
 of thy life ; thorns also and thistles shall it bring 
 forth to thee ; and thou shalt eat of the herb of the 
 field : In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat 
 bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of 
 it wast thou taken ; for dust thou art, and unto 
 dust shalt thou return."^ 
 
 The«e concluding words explained to them the 
 
 * Cien. iii. 17^19. 
 
60 
 
 true import of the threatened punishment of death, 
 as far as it affected the body : and it is evident, 
 from the terror and dismay with which they were 
 seized, that their consciences had already told them 
 its meaning, as touching the soul; convincing them 
 that creatures so vile and impure as they were now 
 become, must be banished from the presence of 
 that God, who is of purer eyes than to behold ini- 
 quity, and in its converse and communion with 
 whom consists the life and happiness of the soul. 
 From this most dreadful part of the sentence^ 
 however, God, of his infinite mercy, offered them 
 aa immediate, and from the whole, an eventual re- 
 lease, conferring upon them an invaluable oppor- 
 tunity of procuring his pardon, regaining his fa- 
 vour, and, by a patient continuance in well-doing, 
 even still attaining to glory, honour, and immor- 
 tality; though they must now inevitably pass to 
 their immortal state through a vale of sorrow on 
 earth, and through the awfully mysterious valley 
 of the shadow of death. The absolute confirma- 
 tion of the sentence went far enough to shew the 
 inflexibility of God's justice, and his irreconcilable 
 hatred of sin ; while its conditional remission con- 
 verted this new evil, which man's infidelity had 
 enabled Satan to ifttroduce, into a means of un- 
 
61 
 
 speakablo good. For, in the midst of judgment, 
 Go<l thought upon mercy, and promised a Deliver- 
 er, even the " Seed of the woman," who sliouUl 
 *» ]>ruisc the Sorpont's head," and througli faitli in 
 whom, guilty man might obtain pardon and recon- 
 ciliation Avith God, and work out for himself a far 
 more exceeding weight of happiness and glory than 
 that from which, or from the hopes of which, he 
 had fallen. 
 
 From tliis cursory view of the contents of the 
 three first chapters of the Bible, we perceive that 
 the doctrine of salvation by faith is indeed as old 
 as the Creation. In order to guard them from the 
 dangerous influence of pride, mankind have al- 
 ways, from the beginning, been subjected to the 
 attacks of a spiritual enemy, far superior to them- 
 selves in power and intelligence ; under whose de- 
 grading yoke they are then most certainly enslaved, 
 when they exult the most in their own strength 
 and importance ; against whose unceasing attempts 
 to corrupt and destroy them they are utterly un- 
 able to stand of themselves ; but from, whom they 
 have never had any thing to fear, as long as (duly 
 conscious of their own weakness) they placed their 
 whole trust and confidence in the Almighty, and 
 in the means appointed by God for their salvation. 
 
 13 
 
Gi> 
 
 Under the Covenant of Works, established at 
 the Creation, man's continuance in his primitive 
 state of innocence and happiness, and his advance- 
 ment to a still higher state of existence, depended 
 upon faith in God his Creator, through want of 
 which he fell. And under the Covenant of Grace, 
 which was mercifully made with him immediately 
 after the Fall, his pardon, and deliverance, and 
 hopes of glory, depend ui^on faith in God his Re- 
 deemer, the failure of which no less certainly ex- 
 poses him to iiTecoverable misery and destruction 
 than it has already done to degradation and death. 
 
 This great doctrine of Salvation by Faith in the 
 Redeemer was revealed to Adam and Eve, as far as 
 was necessary to enable them firmly to lay hold of 
 the hope set before them in the Covenant of Grace. 
 From them it was transmitted to their descend- 
 ants, at first by oral tradition, which, but for man's 
 perverseness, would have been a sufficiently secure 
 mode of transmitting truth in the days of primi- 
 tive longevity. It was, moreover, typified in the 
 rite of animal sacrifice, which, if not formally ap- 
 pointed, was at least accepted, and therefore, we 
 are sure, suggested by God, at its commencement, 
 as a type of the one true sacrifice, to be once of- 
 fered for the sins of the whole world. (^) And tho 
 
(53 
 
 kiiowlo<1ue of this iloctrine was, fVoiii time to time, 
 revived and eidarii^ed by special revelations, and 
 miraculous interpositions of Providence.* 
 
 The most remarkable of these Divine interfer- 
 ences, was the separation of Abraham and descen- 
 dants to be the more immediate heirs and deposi- 
 taries of the Promise, the remembrance of which 
 was rapidly disappearinij from among the children 
 of men ; who, instead of meekly abiding by the 
 simplicity of the Divine institutions, '' went a- 
 whoring with their own inventions." Instead of 
 using the rite of animal sacrifice, according to its 
 original intention, as an outward and vnsible sign 
 of the inward and spiritual grace of the promised 
 atonement ; mankind, through " an exW heart of 
 unbelief," had almost universally " departed from 
 the living God." Retaining merely the sign, with- 
 out the thing signified ; the body, without the soul 
 of Religion ; they foolishly imagined, that the blood 
 of bulls and of goats could wash away sins. For- 
 getting that the ultimate amount of all that the Lord 
 requires of Man is, " to do justly, to love mercy, 
 and to walk humbly with their God;"* they arro- 
 gantly sought to " please him with thousands of 
 
 • Rtad Blomficld's Dissertation on the Tmdition of the Promije. 
 I Micah, vi. 8. 
 
64 
 
 rams, and ten tliousands of rivers of oil."^ Horri- 
 bly perverting tlie tradition respecting the sacri- 
 fice of the promised seed, they even gave their 
 ^' first-born for their transgression, the fruit of 
 their body for the sin of their souls." " Yea, they 
 sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto de- 
 vils ; and shed innocent blood, even the blood of 
 their sons and of their daughters, whom they sa- 
 crificed unto idols."^ 
 
 In the midst of this general corruption and apos- 
 tacy, " God assayed to go and take him a nation, 
 from the midst of another nation, by temptations, 
 by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by a 
 mighty hand, and by a stretched-out arm, and by 
 great teiTors,"^ that one nation at least might 
 know and consider " that the Lord he is God, in 
 heaven above, and in the earth beneath ; there is 
 none else."* " Out of the heaven he made the Is- 
 raelites to hear his voice, that he might instruct 
 them ; and upon earth he shewed them his great 
 fire ; and they heard his words out of the midst of 
 the fire."^ The grand result of all these splendid 
 miracles was the Sinai tic Covenant, the main 
 scope and object of which was the promised Re- 
 
 « Micah, vi. 7. 3 Ps. cvi. 37, 38. * Deut. iv. 34. 
 * Deut. iv. 39. ^ Deut. iv. 36. 
 
(),J 
 
 (loemor, in wliosf deatli it received its completion, 
 anil wljosoortice and attributes wcresliadowed forth, 
 in t)']>cs and symbols, in the various ceremonies 
 and ordinances of the hiw. 
 
 Before the cominsr of the Messiah, all that it con- 
 cerned any individual to know was, that God had 
 promised redemption and salvation through Him. 
 Wlioever knew that the promise had been made, 
 and duly believed in the power and Avisdom, the 
 truth and faithfulness of Him who had promised, 
 possessed every thing requisite to enable him to re- 
 pose, with full assurance of faith, in the mercy of 
 God through Christ. The ])articular circumstances 
 and time of Christ's appearance in the world, all 
 the details, the express revelation of which would 
 have imposed an unnecessary and dangerous bur- 
 den on the frailty of human faith, (o) were there- 
 fore, in God's mercy, either totally concealed be- 
 hind the veil of futurity ; or very partially reveal- 
 ed, for the purpose of strengthening the faith of 
 those who should live after the events, and must, 
 therefore, be required to believe them. Even the 
 prophets themselves, " who prophesied of the grace 
 that should come unto us," were far from having 
 a full comprehension of " what, or what manner 
 
 E 
 
66 
 
 of time, the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, 
 did si^ify, when it testified beforehand the suffer- 
 ings of Christ, and the glory that should follow ;" 
 insomuch, that when they " inquired and search- 
 ed diligently" into those particulars, " it was re- 
 vealed unto them, that not unto themselves, but 
 unto us they did minister the things that are now 
 reported unto us by them that have preached the 
 Gospel."7 
 
 But " when the fulness of time was come, God 
 sent forth his Son, made of a woman ;" and then 
 took place the full " revelation of the mystery,"* 
 " which in other ages was not made known un- 
 to the sons of men, as it was now revealed to the 
 holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit ;"9 which 
 had been, in many points, " kept secret," or but 
 partially revealed, " since the world began ; but is 
 now made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the 
 prophets, according to the commandment of the 
 everlasting God, made known to all nations, for the 
 obedience of faith."* 
 
 Let us, therefore, my brethren, who live under 
 the clear light of that revelation, of which the re- 
 
 7 1 Pet. i. 10, 11, 12. 8 Rom. xvi. 25, 
 
 9 Ephes. iii. 5. 
 
67 
 
 molest glimpse was held so precious by holy men 
 of old ; lot us (as we are so >atal]y concerned to do) 
 make it at all times the subject of our most serious 
 attention ; but more especially now, when the in- 
 teresting solemnities of a most holy season have 
 left behind them so many powerful admonitions to 
 beware of continuing " dissemblers with God, de- 
 cei^^ng our o^vn selves." 
 
 The qualilication, by means of wliich we are ena- 
 bled to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, 
 and to secure the victory in our spiritual contest, 
 is now, and ever has been, faith. Nor has faith, 
 how much soever its pro^dnce has been extended, 
 and its influence heightened, at all changed its na- 
 ture by the coming of the Son of God. Christian 
 faith does not consist, as the language of some in- 
 judicious teachers woidd lead the unwary to ima- 
 gine, in the overwhelming excitement of undefined, 
 unintelligible yee///i^5, though it cannot exist pure 
 and true without producing feelings, at once of the 
 deepest humiliation and most heartfelt comfort. 
 Nor is it a mysterious spell, by which, in spite of liim- 
 self, the sinner is at once converted into the saint ^ 
 and snatched from the lowest sink of corruption, to 
 be placed the next moment in the same rank with the 
 
68 
 
 glorious company of the Apostles, tlie goodly fel- 
 lowship of the Prophets, the nohle army of Mar- 
 tyrs, and all those holy persons who, through pa- 
 tience and tribulation, have inherited the promises. 
 The faith of the Christian is, what faith has ever 
 been, a firm and unlimited, yet well-founded con- 
 fidence in the means which God has been gracious- 
 ly pleased to appoint for our salvation ; and an en- 
 tire submission of our understandings, hearts, and 
 inclinations to whatever He has vouchsafed to re- 
 veal to us concerning himself and his holy will. 
 Faith, thus defined, comprehends the whole duty 
 of man ; and is the qualification, to the continued 
 possession of which the reward of a blessed immor- 
 tality, (not ioY its merit, but for the merits of Him 
 in whom we believe,) is promised in innumerable 
 passages of the Gospel, and the want of which will 
 as infallibly expose us to everlasting misery and 
 contempt. 
 
 It must be ob\dous to every one who has dis- 
 passionately attended to the unhappy dissensions, 
 which have agitated the Christian world respect- 
 ing the great doctrine of salvation by faith, that 
 the disagreement is, in many cases, more verbal 
 than real ; and that the most lamentable divisions 
 
()0 
 
 have Ik^oii created among the disciples of Ilim, 
 who was ushered into the world as the autlior of 
 peace and good- will, by the vague and indetermi- 
 nate application of the term/aifh. It is melancholy 
 to observe, that many of those who have most stre- 
 nuously enforced the necessity and efficacy of faith, 
 have contributed much to this evil, by the indis- 
 tinctness of their own ideas on the subject, and, 
 chiefly, by the strange, unscriptural distinction 
 which some of them make between a right, or or- 
 thodox, and a lively faith. 
 
 The second chapter of the Epistle of St. James 
 does not, as is too often assumed, make any such 
 distinction, nor afford the slightest ground for pro- 
 nouncing any single article of faith unessential. 
 The distinction there made is not between a correct, 
 but between a speculative, an inefficient, and a live- 
 ly and oiMJrative faitlt. St. James does not pro- 
 nounce the belief of any revealed truth imneces- 
 sar)^ for salvation, but shews that they may all be 
 believed so imperfectly as to render them impro- 
 ductive of holiness here, and, consequently, of hap- 
 piness hereafter. " Thou believest that there is one 
 God," says the Apostle : " thou doest well : the 
 devils also believe and tremble." From which pas- 
 sage no one can infer that it is unnecessary to be- 
 
70 
 
 Jieve in one God ; but that something more is re- 
 quired than a mere conviction of the fact. 
 
 The criterion pointed out by St. James, by our 
 Lord himself, and by the Holy Ghost, in almost 
 every page of the Gospel — the only criterion by 
 which we can ascertain whether our faith be of the 
 true description or not, is its fruits ; " for as the 
 body without the spirit is dead, so faith without 
 works is dead also."^ It may, however, be use- 
 ful to consider, what is the difference in the prin- 
 ciple itself, between a true and a false faith — 
 what it is that causes the one to produce good 
 fruit, while the other remains barren and unpro- 
 fitable. 
 
 The great difference manifestly consists in the 
 application of the doctrines believed, to the case 
 of the individuals who believe them. The devils 
 believe and tremble. None of the comforts, none 
 of the promises, none of the motives or means 
 of obedience, which the Gospel contains, can be ap- 
 plied to them ; therefore, though they know, and 
 cannot help believing, every doctrine of Christi- 
 anity to be true, they are incapable of deriving any 
 benefit or consolation from them. The specula- 
 
 J James, ii. 26. 
 
tive aud merely formal Christiau, also acknow- 
 ledges the doctrines of our holy religion to b^ true ; 
 but he neglects to apply them to his own indivi- 
 dual case, and, therefore, docs not derive any real 
 advantage from them. 
 
 The true believer, on the contrar)^, never forgets 
 his own particular concern in the truths, the pre- 
 cepts, and the promises of the Gospel. He not on- 
 ly believes that God is merciful, and willeth not 
 the death of a sinner ; but he is assui*ed that he 
 himself, weak and ^^le as he is, if he will faithful- 
 ly employ the appointed means, may turn from his 
 wickedness aud live. He not only believes that 
 God is omniscient and omnipresent ; but recollects 
 that He who liateth iniquity. He to whom ven- 
 geance belongs, is ever about his own path, and 
 about his bed, and spieth out all his w^ays. He not 
 only believes that Christ Jesus came into the world 
 to save sinners; but he believes that the precious 
 blood of the Son of God was shed for his sins, even 
 his ; and thus rescued him from a state of hope- 
 less misery, and put it into his power to attain to 
 everlasting happiness, to joy unspeakable and full 
 of glory — a belief which must operate by love. He 
 believes the promise that God has made, to give 
 his holy spirit to them that ask it ; and, therefore, 
 
7^ 
 
 lic asks it instantly for Iiiniseli', nothing' doubting 
 but he shall receive it. He believes that Christ 
 shall come again at the end of the world to judge 
 both the quick and the dead ; and therefore he ne- 
 ver forgets that he must himself stand before the 
 judgment-seat of Christ, to give an account of his 
 deeds, and that his eternal doom of happiness or 
 misery depends entirely upon the course he now 
 pursues. Thus, by embracing to the full extent 
 whatever has been revealed by God, the true be- 
 liever brings home every article of faith to his own 
 heart, and derives from every one of them addition- 
 al motives, and additional power, to conform liim- 
 self to God's holy will. 
 
 And such is the vital energy of Christian faith, 
 thus applied to the conscience by the Spirit of 
 Truth, that it is impossible for any one to be at the 
 same time possessed of it, and neglect any thing 
 that he knows to have been commanded, or com- 
 mit any thing that he knows to have been forbid- 
 den by God.- Every act of disobedience is an act 
 of infidelity. Every departure from the living 
 God is a return to the evil heart of unbelief. " If 
 any pro'Ndde not for his own, and specially for those 
 
 2 Read Jamts, ii. 10—20. 
 
73 
 
 nt' liis own liouse," saitli the Spirit who gpakc by 
 St. Paul, "' he hath denied tlie fiiith, and is worse 
 tlian an infi<h»l."' Wouhl to God tliis were well 
 i-onvsidercd by the hiboiiring poor of this hind 
 W'oidd to God this were well considered by all 
 who profess and call themselves Christians ! for 
 the same reasoning applies to every violation of 
 charity, to every omission of duty, to every con- 
 scious sin committed by one who has believed. 
 To whatever degree of Christian perfection he had 
 previously attained, if he deliberately break the 
 least of God's commandments, " he hath denied 
 the faith, and is worse tlian an infidel." And the 
 greater were his former attainments in faith, the 
 more inexcusable is his present apostacy, the great- 
 er the offence it must cause to Christ's little ones, 
 and, in every point of \4ew, the more aggravated 
 his infidelity. 
 
 " Take heed," therefore, " brethren, lest there 
 be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in de- 
 j)arting from the living God ;" for be assured that 
 such a heart can never be in any one, without the 
 fault of his own perverse will. The devil, it is 
 true, is most active and insidious in his attempts 
 
 3 1 Tim. V. 8. 
 
74 
 
 thus to withdraw our hearts from God, and to 
 " convert the things that should have heen for our 
 wealth into an occasion of falling;" but we may 
 be sure he would not be permitted to tempt us 
 at all, were it not for the purpose of shielding us 
 from some greater, and otherwise inevitable evil ; 
 and we have the promise of God himself, that " he 
 will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are 
 able, but will, with the temptation, also make a 
 way to escape, that we may be able to bear it."^ 
 Whenever, therefore, a man is betrayed by the 
 tempter into unbelief or unrighteousness, it is 
 through his own willingness to be deceived, and 
 through his proneness to trangression, that the 
 temptation is rendered effectual. For the same 
 Scriptures which warn us of the power of the De- 
 vil, assure us, that if we " resist him, he will flee 
 from us;"^ and that God will enable us to be "more 
 than conquerors, through him that loved us."^ 
 Wherefore St. James exhorts us, to " count it all 
 joy when we fall into divers temptations, knowing 
 this, that the trying of our faith worketh pa- 
 tience ;"^ and again, he saith, " Blessed is the man 
 that endureth temptation ; for when he is tried, he 
 
 * 1 Cor. X. 13. ^ James, iv. 7. ^ Rom. viii. 37. 
 
 7 James, i. 2, 3. 
 
75 
 
 shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath 
 promised to them tliat love him."^ 
 
 " Now unto Ilim that is ahle to keep us from 
 falling, and to present us faultless before the pre- 
 sence of his glory with exceeding joy ; to the only 
 wise God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, do- 
 minion, and power, both now and for ever. — 
 Amen." 
 
 8 James, i. 12. 
 
DISCOURSE V. 
 
 ON BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 
 
 Preached on the nativity of st. .iohn baptist, 1824. 
 
 Matthew, hi. 11. 
 
 *' / indeed baptise you witfi waUr unto repentance ; but 
 he that cometh after mc is mightier than I, whose shoes I am 
 not worthy to bear : He shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost 
 and mthjire" 
 
 These words indicate a great superiority, not only 
 in the dignity and office in general, but also in the 
 baptism of Christ to that of John, " I indeed bap- 
 tise you with water unto repentance ; but he sliall 
 baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." 
 The mention oifire is a manifest allusion to what 
 was to take place on the day of Pentecost a few 
 
78 
 
 years after ; as well as to the enlightening, purify- 
 ing, animating effects of the Holy Ghost, upon all 
 who are so happy as to feel and obey his influ- 
 ences. But there is nothing in this declaration of 
 John, except it be contained in the very word bap- 
 tise^ to shew that water was to have any thing to do 
 in the spiritual baptism about to be introduced by 
 Christ. That point was, however, soon decided by 
 the event ; for water was in fact employed^ in all 
 the baptisms which took place under the imme- 
 diate directions of Christ, during his personal mi- 
 nistry on earth; was declared by Christ, in his 
 conversation with Nicodemus, to be for ever essen- 
 tial f and was accordingly appointed by Christ,^ in 
 his most solemn commission to his ministers, to be 
 for ever continued in his church, as the outward 
 and visible sign of the inward and Spiritual grace 
 of baptism. 
 
 But the inward and Spiritual grace, the mysti- 
 cal washing away of the guilt, and other natural 
 consequences of Adam's transgression, by the un- 
 perceived agency of the Holy Ghost, so far apply- 
 ing the benefits of Christ's Atonement to every 
 worthy partaker of that holy ordinance — this being 
 
 1 See John, iii. g2, 23, 26 ; and iv. 1,2. ^ John, iii. 5. 
 5 Compare Matt, xxviii. 19, with Acts, viii. 36; and x. 47. 
 
79 
 
 wliat raises tlu' bajitism of Clirist so inucli above 
 that of Joliii, and above every other baptism, is 
 most pro|R»rly pointed ont in tlie words of our Text 
 as tlie preat distint^nisliing eharacteristic of Chris- 
 tian baptism. In like manner, the inward minis- 
 tration of the Spirit, wliich accompanies all the ex- 
 ternal ordinances of Christianity, renders the Chris- 
 tian ministry in general so much superior to the 
 ministry of John, and every other ministry, that, 
 though " among them that are bom of women 
 there had not risen," before him, " a greater than 
 John the Baptist ; notwithstanding, he that is least 
 in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he ;" that 
 is, the lowest minister in the church of Christ ex- 
 ercises a higher and more holy office than his. 
 
 In confirmation of this view of the superiority 
 of the Cliristian ministry in general, and of the 
 Christian baptism in particular, above that of 
 John, we may refer to the baptism of about three 
 thousand souls on the great day of Pentecost, in 
 compliance with the exhortation of Peter, who 
 said unto them, " Repent, and be baptised, every 
 one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, (p) for the 
 remission of sins ; and ye shall receive the gift of 
 the Holy Ghost." Here the baptism of Jesus Christ 
 is clearly proposed, as a means of obtaining, on re- 
 
80 
 
 pentance, remission of sins and the gift of the Holy 
 Ghost, not only to those first converts, but to all 
 who should at any time be called to the profes- 
 sion of Christianity. " For the promise," added 
 St. Peter, " is to you, and to your children, and to 
 all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our 
 God shall call."4 
 
 The necessary (b) connexion between the ele- 
 mental and spiritual baptism is also apparent in the 
 case of the first Gentile converts, Cornelius and 
 his friends. Though, to remove all doubts from 
 the Judaising mind of the Apostle, the Spirit 
 vouchsafed in their case manifestly to lead the 
 way, this was so far from rendering the adminis- 
 tration of the water unnecessary, that it convinced 
 Peter of the necessity of administering it. For 
 when the Holy Ghost fell on them, and they began 
 to speak with tongues and magnify God, " then 
 remembered Peter the word of the Lord, how he 
 said, John, indeed, baptised with water, but ye 
 sh^ll be baptised with the Holy Ghost."-^ Whence 
 the Apostle argued, " Can any man forbid water, 
 that these should not, be baptised, which have re- 
 ceived the Holy Ghost as well as we ? And he 
 
 ^ Acts, ii. 38, 39. ^ Acts, xi. 16. 
 
 13 
 
81 
 
 vonimaiidrd tliciii to Ix' });i|»tis4Ml in tlu' name <>t \\iv 
 (.or<l."' This case, with tlic A|K)stl(*'s rrasonin«» 
 ujMMi it, confirms in every lu/nit the inference wx* 
 (hew iVom the words ol' our Text ; lor it shews 
 lM>th that the pft of the Holy Ghost has an esta- 
 hlished connexion with the due administration of 
 Ijaptism in the Christian Church, and that it had 
 no such connexion \vith the baptism of John. 
 
 This is farther confirmed hy what we read in the 
 nineteenth cha})ter of the same book of Acts, about 
 the twelve disciples whom St. Paul found at Ephe- 
 sus, and " said unto them, Have ye received the 
 Holy Ghost since ye believed ? And they said, We 
 have not so much as heard whether there be any 
 Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what, 
 then, were ye baptised ? (q) And they said. Unto 
 John's baptism. Then said Paul, John truly bap- 
 tised with the baptism of repentance, saying unto 
 the people, that they should believe on him which 
 should come after him, that is on Christ Jesus. 
 Wlien they heard this, they were baptised in the 
 name of the Lord Jesus, (p) And wli(jn Paul laid 
 his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on 
 them ; and they sj)ake with tonji ues and prophesied." 
 
 '• Acts. X. 47, is 
 F 
 
H2 
 
 Many other proof's might he adduced ol* the 
 necessity and efficacy of haptism in the Christian 
 Cliurch, for receiving nemission of sins and Spi- 
 ritual regeneration ; but none is more satisfactory 
 than tliat which is drawn from the circumstances 
 of the conversion and baptism of St. Paul, as sta- 
 ted in the ixth and xxiid chapters of the Acts of 
 the Apostles, (r) 
 
 Before Ananias came to him at Damascus, he 
 was unquestionably a sincere convert, humbled 
 before God in contrition, and fasting, and prayer, 
 and earnestly desiring to know what his Lord 
 would have him to do. The thing which Ananias 
 was sent by the Lord to tell him that he must do, 
 was " to be baptised ;" and the object of that bap- 
 tism was expressly stated to be, that he might 
 " wash away his sins," and " be filled with the 
 Holy Ghost." With all the dispositions necessary 
 to make him worthy to be a member of the Chris- 
 tian covenant, Paul" " was not actually in posses- 
 sion of the blessings of that covenant, because he 
 had not actually made himself a Christian, by sub- 
 mission to the ceremonial ordinance of baptism. 
 The grace of the Gospel was suspended upon the 
 
 <" Benson on Baptism, Disconrsjc II. 
 
H:i 
 
 lulmiiiistnitioii ot'a sjuMainciit ; jmd holorc liis bap- 
 tism, ho !iad neither wasluul away his sins, nor 
 been filled with tlie Holy (xhost. That measure of 
 the Spirit wliich was necessary to enable him to ful- 
 fil the cimditions antecedent to ha])tiRm ; the grace 
 of repi»ntance towards God, and faith towards our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, it cannot be denied that he had 
 already," to a certain extent, " received ; for he 
 both repented and believed ; and we know that * we 
 are not sufticient of ourselves to do any thing as of 
 ourselves ; but our sufficiency is of God.' But a 
 greater measure of the Spirit was given him at his 
 baptism than he had enjoyed before ; a measure 
 sufficient to enable him to grow in grac^, and in 
 the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ ;" to bring 
 effi?ctually home to his o^vll conscience, to feel his 
 own indi\'idual concern in every article of the 
 Christian faith, ^ and to fulfil to the utmost the va- 
 rious duties which are consequent upon baptism. 
 " He was ^filled with the Holy Ghost,' so far as lie 
 was either capable of receiving or of using his 
 gifts, and," after having duly profited by these 
 gifts for his o^vn edification and instruction, 
 " * straightway he preached Christ in the syna- 
 
 '= Spc |jp. 7(» — 72. 
 
84 
 
 gogues that he is the Son of God, and increased 
 tite more in strengtli, proving that tliis is tlie Tory 
 Christ." The effects of baptism upon St. PanJ 
 may therefore be very accurately described in the 
 words by which our cliurch has defined the naUire 
 of a sacrament. It was the outward and visible 
 sign of the remission of his sins, and the gift of 
 the Holy Ghost; and though not the reason for 
 which, yet the means by which he received the 
 same, and a pledge to assure him thereof." 
 
 The connexion between the ceremonial ordi- 
 nance and Spiritual effects of baptism is less ap- 
 parent in the case of the other apostles ; who were 
 *' baptised >vith water," before the solemn sacra- 
 mental institution of baptism to be a perpetual 
 ordinance in the Christian Church, and " baptised 
 with the Holy Ghost," on the day of Pentecost, 
 ten days after our Lord's Ascension into Iieaven. 
 
 It may indeed be argued, that the regeneration 
 of the Apostles, took place on our Lord's first ap- 
 pearance to them after his resurrection ; when 
 " he breathed on them, and said, Receive ye the 
 Holy Ghost ;" and at the same time, " opened their 
 understandings, that they might understand the 
 Scriptures." But his whole address to them on that 
 occasion, (which may be collected by passing froip 
 
S.3 
 
 X\w 2:U\ \v\>v ul the 2in\i cIiapltT ol St. Joliii, lo 
 the l-Stli verse «»r (ho last c-hapter of 8t. Luke,) par- 
 (ictilarly the las( words w hirh eaeli Evangelist has 
 recorded of that address, shews that it was not re- 
 Cenoration the A])ostles tlien receivcKl, but Minis- 
 terial ordination ; wliieh, with tJie power ol' trans- 
 mitting it to jjostcrity, it was meet they should re- 
 ceive directly and personally from Christ liimself, 
 whoistheHeadof theChureh. They were not, how- 
 ever, allowed to enter immediately on the exereise 
 of their saered office ; but were first sent into Gali- 
 lee, there to be instructed by Jesus himself in " th<' 
 things })ertaining to the kingdom of God." And after 
 forty days ofthis precious discipline, when their mas- 
 tor was about to leave them, he commanded them to 
 '* tarry in the City of Jerusalem, till they shoidd be 
 endued with power from on high,"'' assuring them, 
 that he would send " the ])romise of the Father" 
 upon tliem ; " for," said he, " John tridy ba])tised 
 \\'\{]i water; but ye shall be baj)tised with the Jioly 
 Cihost not many days hence."- These words un- 
 answerably prove that (he A])ostles did not receive 
 the baptism with (he Holy (^host till after our 
 Lord's As<'ension. 
 
 ' J. like, xxiv. !•!». ' Acts, i. .i. 
 
86 
 
 But ten days after that event, " when the day of 
 Pentecost was fully come, tliey were all, with one 
 accord, in one place. And suddenly there came a 
 sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, 
 and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 
 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like 
 as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they 
 were all filled \vith the Holy Ghost, and began to 
 speak with tongues, as the Spirit gave them utter- 
 ance."^ Though the gift of tongues was the most 
 striking and immediately observable, it was by no 
 means the most important effect of the Spirit up- 
 on these first members and ministers of the Chris- 
 tian Church. The Spirit which descended upon 
 them on the day of Pentecost was, emphatically, a 
 Spirit of Comfort, to support them under all the 
 sufferings and calamities that could possibly befall 
 them in this world, by placing before their eyes a 
 clear and distinct prospect of the glory and happi- 
 ness of the next, and enabling each of them to see the 
 way, by which he might secure those inestimable re- 
 (Cards for himself And as consequences of this ge- 
 neral character, it was a Spirit of Charity, dispo- 
 King them to love another for His sake, who so 
 
 2 Acts, ii. 1— i. 
 
S7 
 
 Itnt'd t'Vj'iy (»iiiM»l tluin llial lie laiil down hiH Ht« 
 for ihcir rcdf inption : a Spirit ot* Humility, teacli- 
 iufr ilwui to disn>gai*(l all the pomps, and vanities, 
 and advantafjos of this world, after the example of 
 llim, who, though he was Lord of all, wjis meek 
 and lowly in heart, maile himself of no reputation, 
 and humbled himself even to the death of the Cross 
 for us miserable sinners. It was, moreover, a Spi- 
 rit of Truth, which taii^lit them all things, as 
 Christ had promised, and brou<^ht all things to their 
 remembrance whatsoever he had said unto them ; 
 guiding them at the same time into all truth, by 
 dispelling from their minds the clouds of ignorance 
 and carnal prejudice, and shennng them the true 
 spiritual imjK)rt of every word he had uttered, and 
 the true nature of the kingdom he had come to es- 
 tjiblish upon earth, the extension and administra- 
 tion of which were now delegated to them. Nor, 
 weak, and blind, and cowardly as they had lately 
 been, were they any longer unequal to so high, and 
 difficult, and dangerous a charge. For the Spirit 
 which visibly descended upon them, was also a Spi- 
 rit of Power and of Fortitude — of power, to confirm 
 the doctrines they were commissioned to preach, 
 by miracles and signs — and of fortitude, if jiossible, 
 still more miraculous : for those same disciples, 
 
88 
 
 who, a few weeks before, liad trembled, and lied, 
 and denied their master ; wlio had been scattered 
 every one to his own, and left him alone in the 
 time of danger and of suffering ; those same dis- 
 ciples now openly proclaim the Divinity of Jesus 
 of Nazareth, who had so lately been buffeted, and 
 spit upon, and nailed to the cross. They profess 
 their faith in a crucified Redeemer in the face of 
 all the people, even in the presence of those princes 
 and rulers who had been the promoters of his cru- 
 cifixion ; whose commands of silence they regard 
 not, whose threats and punishments they despise, 
 and whom they boldly accuse of having dipped 
 their sacrilegious hands in the blood of the Son of 
 God. 
 
 Much of the error and controversy, which exist 
 on the subject of the New Birth, has arisen from 
 not sufficiently attending to the wide and manifest 
 difference between the case of these first-born of 
 the Spirit and that of ordinary Christians. The 
 wisdom and goodness of God induce him to act by 
 general rules in the spiritual as well as in the na- 
 tural world ; nor does he ever deviate from those 
 rules, except when such deviation is conducive to 
 great and beneficial purposes. But whenever there 
 is an adecjuate cause of this descri|it,lGiij lie who 
 
89 
 
 cMciaiinMl tlu' laws of nature and of spiritual a(>4Mi- 
 cy, can susjwncl or^altcr thoin at pleasure, as the 
 records of Seripturo boar ample testimony that he 
 tre<iuently has, in the one case and in the other. 
 Now, it* ever there were persons who required a 
 greater stren^^th and variety, and a more rapid ac- 
 quirement of spiritual g^fts than God had destined 
 for the generality of Christians, they were tlic 
 Apostles and first ministers of tlie church, who 
 were to go forth to all the world, and preach the 
 Gosj>el to every creature ; having to contend, not 
 only against the prejudices and perverseness of 
 ordinary men, but against principalities, against 
 powers, against spiritual wickedness in In'gh places; 
 having to bear up, not only against the severest la- 
 bours, difficulties, and privations, but against the 
 most cruel mockings and scourgings, against bonds 
 and imprisonment ; being stoned, tempted, slain 
 with the sword, destitute, afflicted, tormented. 
 Accordingly we find, that, to jn'eparc them for the 
 fiery trial which was to try them, they were en- 
 dued with miraculous powers and extraordinary 
 graces, and were brought forth at once in all the 
 strength and vigour of spiritual luanhtHxl. 
 
 A siniilai' departure iVoni \\hat experience has 
 since shewn t«i bo the (»rdinary rides of spiritual 
 
90 
 
 agency* is also conspicuous in the ciise of St. Paul : 
 and is observable, in different degrees, in most ol' 
 the instances of early conversions recorded in 
 Scripture. " To one was given by the Spirit the 
 word of wisdom ; to another, the word of know- 
 ledge by the same Spirit ; to another, faith by the 
 same Spirit ; to another, the gifts of healing by the 
 same Spirit ; to another, the working of miracles ; 
 to another, prophecy ; to another, discerning of spi- 
 rits ; to another, divers kinds of tongues ; to an- 
 other, the interpretation of tongues : But all these 
 worked that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing 
 to every man severally as he willed,"^ according to 
 the exigencies of their situations, and the parts they 
 were to have in the propagation of the Gospel. 
 These, however, were extraordinary gifts, which, 
 though they sometimes, as in the case of the Apos- 
 tles, accompanied the New Birth, yet formed no 
 essential part of it, and were generally conferred 
 after it, by the imposition of the Apostles' hands. 
 But when, by means of the astonishing power, 
 wisdom, zeal, patience, courage, and other excel- 
 lent qualities that were conferred by the Spirit u]>- 
 on these primitive saints, confessors, and martyrs, 
 
 •" 1 Cor. xii. 8 — 11. 
 
91 
 
 the Christian Churt-li had extfiidt'd her iiitlueiice 
 over tlie most powerful empires of the world; 
 when, iiisteiul of having to contend against prin- 
 ci{Kdities and powers, kings liad become lier nur- 
 sing fathers, and (jueens lier nursing mothers; these 
 miraculous displays of spiritual power were no 
 longer necessary for her support. God, therefore, 
 who never does any thing in vain, no longer con- 
 ferred upon men these extraordinary gifts ; which 
 had been most useful before, but now, having no 
 suitable field of exertion, would probably have done 
 more liarm than good, by gendering strife and spi- 
 ritual pride ; as we find they sometimes did, even 
 in the days of 8t. Paul, who rebukes the Corin- 
 thums for their abuse of such gifts.-* 
 
 Still, however, the promise of God in Christ Je- 
 sus remains, that his Spirit shall " abide with us 
 for ever ;" and, accortling to his declaration to Ni- 
 codemus, it still is, and ever must be, im[)ossible 
 for a man to enter into the kingdom of heaven, 
 " except he be born again." In what^ then^ does the 
 New Birth now consist ? This is a question, at the 
 true solution of which we are much concerned to ar- 
 rive : and wifii a view to which I have entered so 
 
 * I (\tr. \iv. ^^fj— :i(». 
 
92 
 
 Fill ly into the case of the AjK)stles ; for it appears 
 to me that the most satisfactory solution of it is to 
 be obtained by considering, first, in what respects 
 our regeneration agi'ces, and then in what respects 
 it differs from that of the Apostles. 
 
 The regeneration of every one must agree Avith 
 that of the Apostles, in all that is necessary to ren- 
 der him capable of entering into the kingdom of 
 God ; in all that is essential to the truth and pro- 
 priety of that figurative appellation which was cho- 
 sen by the Son of God, as giving the most accu- 
 rate idea of its nature that could be conveyed by 
 the imperfect medium of human language. It must 
 agree with that of the Apostles, therefore, in being 
 a transition from a state of spiritual darkness in- 
 to light ; a deliverance from that spiritual death, 
 which passed upon all men by Adam's transgres- 
 sion; and a co7n7nenceme?it o^ thsit spiritual life, which 
 has been restored by Jesus Christ. 
 
 But this, like the mistical washing away of sin, is 
 a very general description of the effects of regene- 
 ration. Let us endeavour, therefore, to ascertain 
 more particularly what it is that the Spirit doeth 
 for us, by inquiring what change he produces in us 
 when we arc born figain; what new quality oi- ca- 
 
9.'i 
 
 |)acity ]w thru confers upon us. nlilcli l»y nature 
 we cannot liave, and without wliicli wc cannot en- 
 ter into the kinc^doni of (^od, hut must ever remain 
 in a^state of spiritual darkness and spiritual death. 
 The conversation of our Lord witli Nicodemus fur- 
 nishes us witli this important information also ; 
 thus at once declaring the necessity of rec^cncra- 
 tion, and explaining in what it consists. For Christ 
 there twice itssures us, that " whosoever believcth in 
 him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." 
 Whether, therefore, you consider the kingdom of 
 God as denoting the visible church on earth, or the 
 iR^'isible church in heaven, it is manifest that who- 
 soever believcth in the Son of God is qualified to 
 enter therein. But " except a man be born jigain, 
 he cannot see the kingdom of God." Whosoever, 
 therefore, truly and fully believcth in our Lord 
 Jesus Christ has been born again; and Christian 
 faith, or the power of attaining to it, is the gi'eat 
 (jualification then conferred upon us, by which we 
 are enabled to pass from death into life. This in- 
 ference is solemnly confirmed by our Lord himself 
 in another place. "' Verily, verily, 1 say unto you, 
 he that heareth my word, and helieveth on Him 
 that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not 
 
94 
 
 come into coii<l(MTiTi{ition, but is ])assedfr(nn death 
 unto lifeJ'^ 
 
 The faith to whicli these happy effects are as- 
 cribed is, be it remembered, true Christian faith. 
 Not that general assent of the understanding- with 
 which " the dcAdls also (who know tliat Jesus is 
 « the' Holy One of God') believe and tremble,"^ 
 but that particular application, that reception into 
 the heart, which can exist in none but a Christian, 
 who knows, not only that Jesus is the Holy One 
 of God, but that he himself is one of those for 
 whom the blood of that Holy One was shed upon 
 the Cross. This is that faith which " is the gift 
 of God ;"7 for " no man can" thus " say that Je- 
 sus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost,"^ who 
 " regenerateth us to a lively hope,"^ by conferring 
 upon us the power of attaining to this faith, and 
 thus becoming Sons of God. Before he passes 
 through the " Laver of Regeneration," an adult 
 person may have grace to be heartily sorry for his 
 sins, and earnestly desirous of partaking of the be- 
 nefits of that atonement, which he firmly believes 
 the Son of God to have made for the sins of man- 
 kind. But it is not till, by complying with Christ's 
 
 ^ John, V. 21. " James, ii. 19. 7 Ephes. ii. 8. 
 
 « 1 Cor. xii. 3. •' 1 Pet. i. f^. 
 
95 
 
 ordiiiaiirr, lu* lias Ixm'h adinittctl into tlu» churfli, 
 that he is in a condition to WhA himsrll" actnally in 
 |M>sseission of tliosc hcnrfits, and so attain to that 
 trnt» and lively faith, wliieh worketh by love, and 
 proiluees unreserved obedience to all the command- 
 ments of God.i 
 
 Ilavinc^ now seen in what respect onr Spiritual 
 birth iujrees, let us next consider in what it differs 
 from that of the AiK)stles. 
 
 One difference has already been pointed out, 
 namely, the absence of these miraculous endow- 
 ments whicli accompanied^ ])ut did not, I conceive, 
 form part of the reyeneraiion of the Apostles; which 
 were necessary at first to secure the triumph of 
 Christianity over the persecuting malice of its ene- 
 mies ; but which, in times of tranquillity, were not 
 required for the safety of actual Christians, or the 
 conversion of others, and would probably have been 
 more prejudicial than advantageous to the persons 
 who possessed them. 
 
 The other difference, which has also been in 
 some measure anticipated, is of a similar nature, 
 and may be similarly accounted for. The Apostles, 
 
 ' See in). 70 — T.*?, and s:{. 
 
9C 
 
 who had enjoyed extraordinary advantages of nur- 
 ture during tlic lengthened period of tlieir prece- 
 ding spiritual existence, no sooner came to the 
 birth than they burst forth, in all the strength and 
 vigour of spiritual manhood; and many of the 
 early converts seem likewise to have attained at 
 oncefo considerable degrees of maturity in Christ. 
 This was required by the exigencies of the Church 
 in those days of persecution and blood, and must 
 have had an excellent effect in convincing others, 
 by the sudden and striking change produced in 
 those who had embraced the Gospel. But it was 
 contrary to God's usual mode of proceeding, the 
 grand characteristic of whose operations is the pro* 
 duction of important effects, by uniform, unobser- 
 ved, imperceptible degrees. As soon, therefore, as 
 the church was sufficiently established to maintain 
 lier ground by the agency of more ordinary means, 
 God hastened to put an end to this anomaly in his 
 spiritual kingdom. 
 
 Nor had it ever been admitted farther than was 
 absolutely necessary. The rapid progi'ess made by 
 the early converts, in Christian faith, may in a 
 great measure be naturally accounted for by the 
 stimulating circumstances in which they were 
 
 U) 
 
97 
 
 placinK aiul by the advantages wliich many of tTiem, 
 a8 well as the Apostles, enjoyed before rei!:enera- 
 tion, in that state of spiritual existenee which cor- 
 responds io tlie life of an infant in the womb. St. 
 Paul, who luid not enjoyed those previous advan- 
 tages, was not qualified to appear as a Christian 
 teacher till about three years after his baptism; 
 but, as we learn from the beginning of his Epistle 
 to the Galatians, when he had been called and bap- 
 tised, '"• immediately he conferred not with flesh 
 and bl<M)d, neitlier went up to Jerusalem — but 
 went into Arabia, and," having there become qua- 
 lified, by searching the Scriptures and other spi- 
 ritual discipline, for the office to which he was 
 called, he " returned again to Damascus ;"- and 
 then it was that, as we read in the Acts, he " was 
 certain days with thediscipleswhich wereat Damas- 
 cus, (s) and straightway he preached Christ in the 
 synagogues, that he is the Son of God."^ We read 
 also in the New Testament of babes in Christ, who 
 w^ere fed with the pure milk of the word ; who, by 
 diligent application of the appointed means, <//eM' in 
 grace, and advanced Irom strength to strength, to- 
 
 2 Gal. i. k;, 17. 3 Acts, i.\. U), 'Zi). 
 
98 
 
 wards the state of perfect men^ the measure of the 
 stature of the fulness of Christ. 
 
 This description answers exactly to the case of 
 every one, who, in these present days, having been 
 born of the Spirit, continues therein. The New 
 Birth, being the commenceTnent of his spiritual life, 
 does tiot conduct him at once to maturity; but sim- 
 ply removes from him the incapacity under which 
 he lay before, of attaining to any measure of true 
 Christian faith, and brings him within reach of 
 those means of grace, by the due use of which he 
 may go on from strength to strength, daily advan- 
 cing in all virtue and godliness of living ; and thus 
 secure to himself a happy transition from the king- 
 dom of God on earth, to his glorious and eternal 
 kingdom in heaven. But if the spiritual child be 
 not fed with the sincere milk of the word, and 
 other spiritual nurture, the daily bread of the soul, 
 which our Father in heaven freely gives to all who 
 duly ask for it, he may sicken, pine, and die. In 
 short, the spiritual or inner man is subject to si- 
 milar vicissitudes of sickness and health with the 
 body, according to the neglect or attention that is 
 paid to its proper nourishment and support. 
 
 With respect to the time when the New Birth 
 
99 
 
 takes place, we have she^v^ that, as our church de- 
 clares, it takes place in baptism. If any one ask, 
 Wliat connexion there can be between the outward 
 wasliinij of the Ixxly and the purifying of the soul 
 from the stain of sin ? we answer, Simply that 
 which our Lord has seen fit to make, by so joining 
 them together, that the one, when duly adminis- 
 tered and received according to his institution, 
 should always be accompanied by the other. 
 
 That they liave been so joined together by Christ, 
 has been already shewn in this Discourse. It is 
 like\vise apparent from that passage in the Epistle 
 to the Romans, where it is written, " We are bu- 
 ried with him by baptism unto death ; that like as 
 Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory 
 of the Father, even so we also should walk in 
 Neivness of Life"^ Surely, my brethren, there 
 must have been some connexion in the A|K)stle's 
 mind between this Newness of Life and the New 
 Birth ; and it is scarcely possible we can be mis- 
 taken in considering that connexion to be, that as 
 the natural birth is the commencement of the natural 
 life, so the New Birth is the commencement of New- 
 ness of Life, But it is by baptism we are bu- 
 
 ^ l{oni. iv. \, 
 
100 
 
 ried unto death, that we may thenceforth walk in 
 Newness of Life. Baptism, therefore, is the means 
 by which we are enabled to begin to walk in New- 
 ness of Life, that is, by which we obtain the New 
 Birth. 
 
 The same inference may also be drawn from our 
 Lord's conversation ^vith tlie ruler of the Jews, 
 from which, as we have before learnt^ the neces- 
 sity and the nature of regeneration, so we may al- 
 so learn the time when it takes place. Nicodemus 
 ha\dng requested an explanation of what our Lord 
 meant when he so solemnly declared, " Verily, ve- 
 rily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, 
 he cannot see the kingdom of God." " Jesus an- 
 swered. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a 
 man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot 
 enter into the kingdom of God." These latter 
 words being an explanation of the former, it fol- 
 lows, that to he horn again is to he horn of water and 
 of the Spirit ; that is, the New Birth takes place in 
 baptism, wherein the water, being used accord- 
 ing to Christ's institution, is always accompanied 
 by the benign, though unperceived cleansing of the 
 Spirit. And so far are we from ha\dng any ground 
 
 5 See pp. PI ami 93. 
 
101 
 
 to e\'|K»ct tliMt {\w Spirit will ever act ifi the work 
 of Uetjnieration^ without tlic em|)loyment of \\ator, 
 that the New Birth is (h'chire<l ))y our Lord to de- 
 ]H?nd upon tlie one as niueli as tlic otlier. 
 
 I trust I never shall afjpaiu he induced to trespass 
 so lonor ujK)n the patience of any congrepition ; but 
 the doctrine of baptismal regeneration is one of 
 great importance and difficulty : and I have al- 
 lowe<l myself to enter into it so much at large on 
 the present occasion, because 1 shall have no oj)- 
 portunity of resuming the subject for four months 
 to come, having already continued these Lectures 
 l)eyond the customary day of closing them for the 
 sciison. 1 have endeavoured, with as much brevity 
 as was consistent with clearness, to state and con- 
 firm from Scripture, what, in exact conformity 
 with the standards of the Church of England, ( ' ) I 
 conceive to be the true Aiew of the doctrine, with- 
 out noticinL*" any <d" tlic ])opular objections against 
 it. 
 
 Most of those objections proceed from an as- 
 fiitmptiofi, that regeneration gives a certainty of 
 final salvation, which cannot be true ; for St. Paul, 
 in an Epistle addressed, not to all the Philippians. 
 but to *•* the saints in Christ which are at Phi- 
 
102 
 
 lippi,"^ " partakers mth him of grace ;"" in whom 
 the Holy Ghost had " begun a good work," 
 which the Apostle was " confident he would per- 
 form until the day of Jesus Christ."^ Writing, I 
 say, to these holy men, whom he certainly consi- 
 dered (as St. Peter did the chosen sojourners of 
 the dispersion) to be regenerate, or " begotten 
 again to a lively hope,"^ St. Paul, notwithstanding, 
 exhorts them to " work out their own salvation 
 with fear and trembling,"^ urging the inestimable 
 value and sole efficacy of the spiritual grace they 
 were partakers of, as the very reason why they 
 should be so tremblingly careful to make a good 
 use of it. " Work out your own salvation with fear 
 and trembling ; for it is God that worketh in you 
 both to will and to do, of his good pleasure." And 
 by this very principle St. Paul regulated his own 
 conduct; for though he doubtless had been bom- 
 again, so far was he from being sure of final salva- 
 tion, that, to the very last, he wrought it out with 
 fear and trembling, " keeping under his body, and 
 bringing it into subjection, lest by any means. 
 
 « Philip, i. 1. 7 Philip, i. 7. 8 phiJip. i. 6. 
 
 9 1 Pet. i. 3. ^ Philip, ii. 12. 
 
108 
 
 when lie luul proaclicil to olhcrR, lie himself' should 
 l>e a cast-away."- 
 
 Another chiKsof ohjectionsapiinst the iieceKsity 
 and efficacy of Christian haptism are deprived of 
 all their force by the plain and ob^^ouK principle, 
 that whatever terms are proposed in Scripture as 
 necessarj' to salvation, are proposed to those to 
 whom they are jrrojiosed^ that is, to those who live 
 in a Christian countrj^, and have the means of 
 learning, and tlic power of complying with the 
 t«rm8 required. 
 
 This same principle also removes a most popu- 
 lar objection against the condemning clauses of 
 the Athanasian Creed. Add to this another prin- 
 ciple equally undeniable, namely, that it is a Creed, 
 and all the common arguments against it immedi- 
 ately fall to the ground. A Creed is a summary 
 confession oi faith, an abstract, or statement of 
 doctrines, which are believed to be contained in the 
 Bible. The Creed of St. Athanasius, therefore, 
 professes not to state any thing which the Church 
 of England decides on her own authority to be 
 true ; but professes, in every clause, to state what 
 she believes to be the doctriiie of Scripture. And the 
 
 « 1 Cor. ix. 27. 
 
104 
 
 gi'eater are the terrors of any doctrine contained 
 in Scripture, the more dangerous it is for any one 
 concerned to remain ignorant of it, and, therefore, 
 surely not the less incumbent on the church to pro- 
 vide for its being clearly and faithfully brought be- 
 fore them. 
 
 Keep these principles continually in view, and 
 proceed with due caution, diligence, and humility, 
 in the investigation of Divine truth; and I am 
 persuaded you will soon see the futility of all ob- 
 jections against the doctrine of baptismal regene- 
 ration, with which we have now been occupied, 
 and against the doctrines contained in the Atha- 
 nasian creed, which have occupied our attention in 
 four preceding Discourses. And, as grace has 
 been given to us this day, by the confession of a 
 true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal 
 Trinity, and, in the power of the Divine majesty, 
 to worship the Unity ; so let us daily beseech God 
 that he would be pleased to keep us steadfast in 
 this faith, and evermore defend us from all adver- 
 sities which might impede our progress to those 
 happy mansions, where, if we arrive, we shall join 
 the ecstatic chorus " of all nations, and kindreds, 
 and people, and tongues," who stand before the 
 
105 
 
 thrniu' ami ht'tiue the Lamb, and cry wllli a loud 
 voice, ascribiiiG^ •"■ salvation t<> our (jod, wliicli sit- 
 tetli u|MHi the tlirono, and unto tlic I^andj." — 
 '* Blossiuii, and qlory, Jind wisdom, and tlianks- 
 jj^iving, and lionour, and power, and mio^ht, hv 
 unto our God, for ever and ever — Amen.""* 
 
 * Rev. vii, 9—V2. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 (a) p. 6. — The falsehood of their versions. 
 
 As it may fairly be presumed, that every one who can 
 read Greek has ready access to a Greek Testament ; and 
 these Notes are intended chiefly for the use of persons 
 who cannot ; I sliall abstain, as much as possible, from 
 the introduction of Greek words, lest the si<^ht of those 
 unknown symlx)ls should deter any froni reading such ap- 
 peals to the original language, as are rendered necessary 
 by the industrious propagation of Hyper-Socinian delu- 
 sions in the parish with which I have hitherto been most 
 nearly connected, and in whose spiritual welfare I must 
 ever feel the most lively interest. Should I be induced, 
 in a few instances, to consult the convenience of the 
 Greek student, or to avoid a clumsy circumlocution, by 
 putting down a Greek word or phrase, those who are un- 
 acquainted with the characters will find no difficulty thus 
 introduced. The utmost notice I shall ever re(|uire them 
 to take of such words is, occasionally, when two of tliem 
 stind near together, to observe that they are different 
 words. In other cases, they have only to read straight 
 on, without taking any notice of the (ireek; or, if tho 
 
110 
 
 sentence require it, to substitute *' the Greek ivord" or 
 *' phrase/' in the place of the unknown symlwls. 
 
 Of the versions by which Anti-Trinitarians have tried 
 to destroy the force of the words, " Thought it not rob- 
 bery to be equal with God," the following have fallen in 
 my way. 
 
 1. " Thought not of the robbery of being equal with 
 God." 2. " Did not arrogate (or lay claim to) any equa- 
 lity with God." 3. " Did not catch at, or vehemently de- 
 sire to be equal with God." 4. " Did not think he ought 
 to make an ostentatious display of his resemblance to 
 God." 
 
 Of course, none of these renderings will avail them, till 
 they have first made good the assertion of their champion, 
 Belsham, and his associates, that the preceding expres- 
 sion, " being in the form of God," implies merely an eX" 
 ternal resemblance, an appearance to the sight ; and shewn 
 how it can be applied to Christ, as he existed upon earth ; 
 that is, how the Man of Sorrows, who " was without 
 form or comeliness," and who, " when 7ve saw him, had 
 no beauty that we should desire him," can be truly said 
 to have had an external resemblance to God, which ap^ 
 peared to the sight. The Anti-Trinitarians profess to ba- 
 nish all mystery fi*om religion ; but surely here is a mys- 
 tery of their own creation. And, in order to get rid of one 
 great mystery relating to the nature of the Deity, whom 
 it is manifest no finite being can ever find out to perfec- 
 tion, they create thousands such as this, relating to hu- 
 man language as applied to earthly occurrences, which 
 are completely within the grasp of human intellect, and 
 concerning which there ought to be no mystery at all. 
 
 But, supposing them to have proved the truth of this 
 wonderful paradox, and so to have convinced the world, 
 
Ill 
 
 that by Christ's " beirtg in the Jorrn of God," is meant 
 that he tras nothing viorc than man ; still any jwrson 
 of sound understanding, witliout knowing a word of 
 Greek, might see that none of the three first of the abore 
 quoted renderings of the words that follow can be true. 
 The A|X)stle's declared olyect is to exhibit Jesus as a pat- 
 tern of humility and freedom from self-love ; and accord- 
 ing to these glosses, the first instance he produces of 
 those virtues is, that being nothing hut a were man, he did 
 not claim or aspire to eqnaliti/ with God. There is no 
 danger of our adversaries' persuading any sober-minded 
 Christian, that the inspired Apostle could talk such non- 
 sense as this. They must first subvert the whole fabric of 
 revelation, by shewing, as they labour so hard to do, that 
 inspiration gave no security from mischievous error, and 
 establish their blasphemous assertion, that the inspired 
 penman, St. Paul, is a very blundering theologian and 
 inconclusive reasoner. It is unnecessary to bring forward 
 any separate argument against the fourth of the above 
 versions ; for even if the words of the original could be 
 tortured into that meaning, (and I shall shew they can- 
 not,) it would, as we have seen, avail the Socinians no- 
 thing, except they could first satisfy the world, that the 
 despised Nazarene had a resemblance to God, which had 
 nothing to do ivith internal nature or essence, but which 
 was altogether external and apparent to the sight. 
 
 As to their connexion with the original, the first of the 
 four is the only one that has even the ap{Tearance of a 
 translation ; and it affords a very fair s|)ecimen of the fi- 
 delity of Sociuian translators in general. The word >»yii- 
 <r«T« is very properly rendered in our Bibles by the word 
 " thought," that is, judged, esteemed, considered, or held 
 (in opinion) ; but it never does, nor can signify '* thought 
 
112 
 
 of," that is, meditated or devised, as it is made to do in 
 that false version. Tlie other tliree are more like glosses 
 or paraphrases than translations, and are founded upon 
 pretended metaphorical meanings of the vrord u^Trcty^eg, 
 the literal meaning of which is allowed, on all hands, to 
 be " robbery," an act of theft or dishonest violence, or a 
 thing acquired by such means. The true literal transla- 
 tion of the clause, therefore, is, " Thought it not robbery 
 (or usurpation) to be equal with God." 
 
 The only metaphorical interpretation for which I have 
 seen any sound authority, seems to be founded on a thiev- 
 ish proverb, still current in the world, that '*^ Stolen 
 things are sweet, or precious." In the state of society 
 which so long ago existed in Greece, similar to that of 
 the Scottish Border a few generations back, every one va- 
 lued himself most upon those possessions which had been 
 acquired by predatory acts of theft or violence. Hence 
 u^TTuyf^oij a thing acquired by predatory theft or violence, 
 would naturally come to signify a thing upon which the 
 possessor valued or prided himself ; and, in process of time, 
 would be used in this latter sense, without any regard to 
 the manner in which the thing had been acquired. Ex- 
 tending this figurative sense to the cognate word u^Tcuy- 
 ^cg, the first part of our text might be thus rendered — 
 " Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Je- 
 sus, who, being in the form of God, thought not (even) 
 his being (not merely appearing) like or (more literally) 
 equal to God,'a thing to value or pride himself upon ; but 
 made himself of no reputation," &c.^ The metaphorical 
 
 ^ The three passages quoted by Whitby from Heliodorus, but 
 not, I think, correctly explained by him, are strong confirmations 
 of this interpretation ; which is the same as that of Theodoret, 
 a learned Greek father of the fifth century. 
 9 
 
ll.'J 
 
 interpretation, therefore, is, in truth, more fatal t() the 
 Soeiiiians than the literal; but finding that it may have 
 a metaphorical sense, they take occasion to twist and tor- 
 ture the passage into any form that suits their purpose, 
 in ])ursuanoe of the laudable design before mentioned, of 
 banishing all mystery from the doctrines of Scripture, 
 though it be at the expense of involving in impenetrable 
 mystery the meaning of every word. 
 
 How striking is the contrast between the laboured, 
 mystical, deceitful glosses of the Sociuian versions, or ra- 
 ther perversions, of Holy Scripture, and the honest, un- 
 designing simj)licity of our own excellent Translation. 
 Few and unimportant are the instances in which it fails 
 to give the exact sense of the original, in the plainest and 
 best words that the English language affords ; nor have 
 I ever met with an instance in which the translators ap- 
 pear to have been inHuenceii by the slightest desire to fa- 
 vour or disfavour any particular tenet by their mode of 
 rendering a particular passage. Their whole conduct is 
 marked by an earnest desire to unfold the truth, and so 
 to acquit themselves of the awfully responsible duty im- 
 posed upon them, that they might, on the great day of 
 account, be able to " take you," their fellow-country- 
 men, " to record, that they are pure from the blood of 
 all, not having shunned," but earnestly endeavoured, 
 clearly and truly, " to declare unto you all the counsel of 
 God."- Whenever there was a doubt or difference of opi- 
 nion among them, as to which of two ways of rendering a 
 particular word or phrase would convey the meaning best 
 to an English reader, they printed both, one in the text 
 
 « Acts, XX. 26, 27. 
 H 
 
6 
 
 114 
 
 and the other In the margin. The marginal readings are 
 almost always the most literal translations; and it is 
 much to be regretted, and may be doubted whether it be 
 quite legal, that Bibles should ever be printed without 
 them, or without the marginal references of the original 
 translators. 
 
 To the united learning, industry, and caution of forty- 
 seven of the best divines and linguists that this country 
 has ever produced, we are indebted, under Providence, 
 for the most faithful translation of the Scriptures that ex- 
 ists in any modern language. It is free from all wilful 
 corruptions, as well as from every sort of error that can 
 mislead an honest mind in matters of importance to sal- 
 vation ; for which we can never be sufficiently grateful to 
 God, who enabled them to make it so far faultless. But 
 to say that it is altogether faultless, or free from errors of 
 every description, would be to claim for the translators as 
 high a degree of inspiration as that which guided the ori- 
 ginal penmen of Holy Writ. As men, they were liable to 
 errors of judgment ; and I think they have committed 
 one in their mode of expressing Philippians, ii. 7^ in our 
 Text, where they have fallen into a fault, by no means 
 common with them, of not making tlie translation suf- 
 ficiently close ; and thus, though they have not altered 
 the meaning, they have impaired the spirit and clearness 
 of the original. Many of my readers will be obliged to 
 me for bringing them acquainted with the following de- 
 monstration of the pre-existence and Divinity of our Sa- 
 viour, from Bishop Pearson's Exposition of the Creed, 
 vol. i. pp. 198-202, in which the more correct rendering 
 of the said verse is also shewn. 
 
 " He who was subsisting in the form of God, and 
 
115 
 
 thought liiiiisolf tobee(jiuil with God, (iii wliich thought 
 lie could not be deceived, nor l>e injurious to God.) must, 
 of necessity, be truly and essentially God ; beciiuse there 
 can be no equality between the Divine Essence, which is 
 infinite, and any other whatsoever, which nuist be finite. 
 But this is true of Christ, and that antecedently to his 
 conception in the \'irgiu's womb, and existence in his 
 human nature. For being (or rather suhsisting) in the 
 form of God, he thought it not robhcrij to be equal with 
 God ; but emptied himself, and took upon him the form 
 of a servant, and tvas made in the Ulcaiess of men, (Phil, 
 ii. 6, 70 Out of which words naturally result three 
 propositions, fully demonstrating our assertion. First, 
 that Christ was in the form of a servant as soon as he was 
 made man. Secondly, that he was in the form of God be- 
 fore he was in the form of a servant. Tliirdly, that he 
 was as much in the form of God, that is, did as truly and 
 really subsist in the Divine nature, as in the form of a 
 servant, or in the nature of man. 
 
 " It is a vain imagination that our Saviour tlicn first 
 appeared a servant, m hen he was aj)prehended, bound, 
 scourged, crucified. For they were not all slaves which 
 ever sufl^ered these indignities, or died that death ; and 
 when they did, their death did not make, but find them, 
 or suppose them servants. Besides, our Saviour, in all 
 the degrees of his humiliation, never lived as a servant 
 unto any master upon earth. It is true, he was subject 
 at first, but as a son, to his reputed father and undoubt- 
 ed mother. When he appeared in public, he lived after 
 the manner of a Prophet and a Doctor sent from God, 
 accompanied with a family, as it were, of his Apostles, 
 whose Master he professed himself; subject to the com- 
 mands of no man in that office, and obedient only to G(k1. 
 
116 
 
 The foriHy then, of a servant, which he took upon him, 
 must consist in something distinct from his sufferings, or 
 submission unto men, being the condition in which he 
 was when he so submitted and so suffered. In that he 
 was madejiesh. sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, ^ subject 
 unto all infirmities and miseries of this life, attending on 
 the sons of men fallen by the sin of Adam : In that he 
 was made of a woman, made under the law,^ and so obli- 
 ged to perform the same, which law did so handle the 
 children of God, as that they differed nothing from ser- 
 vants : In that he was born, bred, and lived in a mean, 
 low, and abject condition ; as a root out of a dry ground, 
 he had no form nor comeliness ; and when we saw him, 
 there was no heauty that we should desire him ; but was 
 despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and ac- 
 quainted with grief :^ In that he was thus made man, 
 he took upon him the form of a servant. Which is not 
 mine, but the Apostle's explication ; as adding it, not 
 by way of conjunction, in which there might be some di- 
 versity, but by way of apposition, which signifieth a clear 
 identity. And therefore it is necessary to observe, that 
 our translation of that verse is not only not exact, but 
 very disadvantageous to that truth which is contained in 
 it. For we read it thus — But made himself of no reputa- 
 tion, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was 
 made in the likeness of men. Where we have two copu- 
 lative conjunctions, neither of which is in the original 
 text, and three distinct propositions, without any de- 
 pendence of one upon the other ; whereas all the words 
 together are but an expression of Christ's exinanition, 
 with an explication, shewing in what itconsisteth ; which 
 
 » Rom. viil 3. * Gal. iv. 4. * Isa. liii. 2, 3. 
 
117 
 
 will c'learlv appear by this literal translation, But emptied 
 himself, taking Ihc J'vrm of' a servant, being made in the 
 iikencss of men. Where, if any man doubt how Christ 
 enij)titMl himself, the text will satisfy him, by taking ihc 
 form of a servant ; if any still question how he took the 
 form of a servant, he hath the Apostle's resolution, by 
 being made in the likeness of men. Indeed, after the ex- 
 pression of this exinanition, lie goes on with a conjunc- 
 tion, to add another act of Christ's humiliation : And be- 
 ing found in fashion as a man, being already, by his ex- 
 inanition, in the form of a servant, or the likeness of men, 
 he humbled himself, and bceame (or, rather, becoming^ 
 obedient unto death, even the death of ihc cross. As, there- 
 fore, his humiliation consisted in his obedience unto 
 death, so his exinanition consisted in the assumption of 
 the form of a servant, and that in the nature of man. 
 All which is very fitly expressed by a strange interpre- 
 tation," (j. e. a foreign, separate, or distinct interpreta- 
 tion, written without any thought of this passage,) "in 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews. For whereas these words 
 are clearly in the Psalmist, Sacrifice and offering thou 
 didst not desire, viine ears hast thou opened ;^ the Apostle 
 appropriateth the sentence to Christ, When he cometh in^ 
 to the norld, he sailh. Sacrifice and offering thou wouldesl 
 not, but a body hast thou prepared me^ Now, being the 
 boring of the ear, under the law, was a note of perpe- 
 tual servitude f being this was expressed in the words 
 of the Psalmist, and changed by the Apostle into the pre- 
 paring of a l)ody ; it followeth, that when Christ's body 
 
 fi Ps, xl. 6. ■ Heb. X. 5. 
 
 ' Exod. xxi. 6, and Dcut. xv. 17. 
 
118 
 
 first was framed, even tlien did lie assume the form of a 
 servant. 
 
 " Again, it appearetli out of the same text, that Christ 
 was in the form of God before he was in the form of a 
 servant, and, consequently, before he was made man. For 
 Christ is first expressly said to be in the form of God, 
 and being so, to think it no robbery to be equal with 
 God, and, notwithstanding that equality, to take upon 
 himself the form of a servant, therefore it cannot be de- 
 nied that was before in the form of God. Beside, he was 
 not in the form of a servant, but by emptying himself, 
 and all exinanition necessarily presupposeth a prece- 
 dent plenitude ; it being as impossible to empty any 
 thing which hath no fulness, as to fill any thing which 
 hath no emptiness. But the fulness which Christ had, 
 in respect whereof, assuming the form of a servant, he is 
 said to empty himself, could be in nothing else but in the 
 form of God, in which he was before. Wherefore, if the 
 assumption of the form of a servant be contemporary with 
 his exinanition ; if that exinanition necessarily presup- 
 poseth a plenitude as indispensably antecedent to it ; 
 if the form of God be also coaeval with that precedent 
 plenitude, then must we confess, Christ was in the form 
 of God before he was in the form of a servant ; which is 
 the second proposition. 
 
 " Again, it is evident from the same Scripture, that 
 Christ was as much in the form of God as in the form 
 of a servant, and did as really subsist in the Divine 
 nature, as in the nature of man. For he was so in the 
 form of God, as thereby to be equal with God. But no 
 other form beside the essential, which is the Divine na- 
 ture itself, could infer an equality with God. To whom 
 
119 
 
 rvill ifc liken me, or shall I be equal ? saith the Holy One.^ 
 There can be but one infinite, eternal, and independent 
 IxMug; and there can be no comparison between that and 
 whatsoever is finite, temporal, and dependin«:^. He, there- 
 fore, who did truly think himself ccpial Mith God, as be- 
 mgr in the fi»rm of God, must be considered to subsist in 
 tliat one infinite, eternal, and independent nature of God. 
 Again, the phrase, in the Jhrm of God, not elsewhere 
 mentioned, is used by the Apostle with respect to that 
 other, o( the Jhrm of a servant, exegetically continued in 
 the likeness of men ; and the resi)ect of one unto the 
 other is so necessary, that if the form of God be not as 
 real and essential as the form of a servant or the likeness 
 of man, there is no force in the Apostle's words, nor will 
 his arguments lie fit to work any great degree of humi- 
 liation upon the consideration of Christ's exinanition. 
 But by the /orm is certainly understood the true condi- 
 tion of a servant, and by the likeness infallibly meant the 
 real nature of a man ; nor does the Jashion, in which he 
 was found, destroy, but rather assert the truth of his hu- 
 manity. And, therefore, as sure as Christ was really and 
 essentially man, of the same nature with us, in whose si- 
 militude he was made ; so certainly was he also really and 
 essentially God, of the same nature and being with Him, 
 in whose form he did subsist. 
 
 " Seeing, then, we have clearly evinced, from the ex- 
 press words of St. Paul, that Christ was in the form of a 
 servant as soon as he was made man ; that he was in the 
 form of God before he was in the form of a servant ; that 
 the form of Gtnl in M-hich he subsisted doth as truly sig- 
 nify- the Divine, as the likeness of men the human na- 
 ture ; it necessarily followeth, that Christ had a real ex- 
 
 ' Isa. xl. 25, and xlvL 3. 
 
120 
 
 istence before he was begotten of the Virgin, and that the 
 being which he had was the Divine essence, by which he 
 was truly, really, and properly God." 
 
 The refusal of our adversaries to be distinguished by 
 any name which we can concede to them, produces much 
 inconvenience and embarrassment. We would not will- 
 ingly quarrel about a name, nor call them by any name 
 which they dislike ; but till they choose one by which 
 they can fairly be distinguished from other denominations 
 of professing Christians, we are obliged to continue the 
 use of that by which they have been known for upwards 
 of two centuries, and which they never, till lately, con- 
 sidered a term of reproach, viz. Socinians. They insist 
 upon being called Unitarians, an appellation which I, 
 for one, can never concede to them ; for I am myself a 
 Unitarian, and so was Bishop Pearson,* and so is every 
 person who holds the true Christian faith, as it is laid 
 down in the Athanasian Creed. To allow an appellation, 
 which belongs to the whole Christian world, to be appro- 
 priated as a distinguishing title by a few individuals, 
 would be, not only to involve ourselves in endless confu- 
 sion, but to sanction palpable dishonesty. And the dis- 
 honest use our adversaries make of the name thus disho- 
 nestly assumed, by triumphantly appealing to the jDroofs 
 of the Divine Unity as proofs of their exclusive Unita- 
 rianism ; by falsely claiming illustrious individuals, now 
 no more, as their partizans ; by publishing to the world 
 that large bodies of men, (for example, in Ireland and 
 America,) \vho actually hold their opinions in abhor- 
 rence, are Unitarians, meaning it to be understood in 
 that restrictive sense in which they know it is not true ; 
 and by deliberately planning, and endeavouring to avail 
 
121 
 
 themselves of tl»e laxity of the term, to decoy individuals 
 and classes of men into their association, not doubting 
 but contact with them will soon destroy whatever ortho- 
 dox principles men may have when they join their ranks 
 — these, and other dishonest practices,^ by which they 
 abuse their usurped name of Unitarians, shew that it is 
 not only inconvenient and wrong, but also dangerous to 
 permit that usurpation. Besides, they are not Unitarians, 
 in the true sense of the word Unity, which speaks of the 
 Union of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in the God- 
 head. " The Lord our God is one God," but not a soli- 
 tary God. They maintain that he is solitary, and the 
 words one God, in their mouths, mean always a solitary 
 God. If, therefore, they wished to have a name which 
 they could honestly call their own, they would take that 
 of Solitarians. Or, since the only reason they give for dis- 
 claiming their old name of Socinians is, that Socinus did 
 not go far enough in unbelief, why should they not call 
 themselves Hyper-Socinians } I am glad to see that 
 they do sometimes take the name of Anti-Trinitarians, 
 which designates their blasphemy ^o fully and so exactly, 
 that no one can dispute their claim to it ; and therefore, 
 I most willingly resolve to use it. 
 
 False names, false versions, false deductions, false as- 
 sertions, — these compose the four main pillars of Anti- 
 Trinitarianism. The preceding part of this note may 
 suffice to give some idea of the nature of the two tirst spe- 
 cies of falsehoo<ls, and their mode of employing them. Of 
 false deductions I select the following, from many very cu- 
 rious specimens that occur in a book, lately published at 
 Alnwick, entitled, ** Lectures on the Principles of Uni- 
 
 ' For proofs of these dishonest practices, see Magee on Atone- 
 ment, vol. ii. p. 802—823, 
 
122 
 
 tarianism, by J. S. Hyndman, Minister of the Unitarian 
 Chapelj Alnwick." 
 
 Having altered '^ the Word was God," John i. 1, to 
 " God was the Word/' this advocate for '' the use of rea- 
 son in religion" deduces the following most rational in- 
 ference. " John, by saying that ^ God was the Word,' 
 teaches thera that the Logos" (or the Word) " was 
 not, as they supposed, an intelligent being." I do assure 
 my readers that there is nothing either preceding or fol- 
 lowing this sentence which throws the least light upon 
 its meaning ; so that, if it have any meaning, it must be, 
 that, in the opinion of Mr. Hyndman, St. John (like a 
 modern French philosopher) assumed, as the basis of his 
 si/stenif that God was not an intelligent being. I shall 
 not insult my readers by extracting from Mr. Hyndman's 
 heavy pages any more of the mystical blasphemies with 
 which they abound, thus triumphantly confuting them- 
 selves. 
 
 He can, however, sometimes write an intelligible sen- 
 tence ; and the following is no mean specimen of argumen- 
 tative declamation. Referring to his text, John, xvi. 23, 
 '' In that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I 
 say unto you. Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in 
 my name, he will give it you" — He energetically ex- 
 claims, " The text, the very text, my brethren, proves 
 that our sentiments, as Unitarians, with respect to the 
 proper object of religious worship, are correct— wholly 
 and undeniably correct. Let orthodox ingenuity be call- 
 ed into exercise, as it frequently is on other points, and 
 what can it do to overthrow the firm foundation on which 
 our principles rest } Speaking of the day in which he 
 was to ascend into heaven, Jesus, in the most express 
 terms, declares to his disciples, ' In that day ye shall ask 
 me nothing ; whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my 
 
123 
 
 uamCj he m ill give it you.' We regulate our worship 
 according to this rule. We are therefore right, and of 
 course the multitude must be wrong in worshipping 
 him, who thus to his disciples declares that when remo- 
 ved from the sphere of sensible communication, they 
 should ask him nothing. Where is there an express com- 
 mand to worship Jesus, as there is here an injunction 
 not to worship him ?" 
 
 I confess I was a little startled when I first discovered 
 this brilliant passage. But recollecting the many power- 
 ful arguments which had led me to hold fast till now the 
 doctrine of Christ's Divinity, and the spiritual comfort I 
 had experienced from communing with him as God, nei- 
 ther my feelings nor my reason would permit me to for- 
 sake at once the God of my fathers, and bow down be- 
 fore the idol^ of the Socinians, without farther examina- 
 tion. I determined, therefore, in the first place, to ex- 
 ercise a little " orthodox ingcnuitjj" upon the text appeal- 
 ed to, for the purpose of ascertaining whether it really 
 bore the meaning upon which this triumphant argument 
 had been founded. Accordingly, I opened my Bible, in 
 pursuance of an orthodox rule, which I strongly recom- 
 
 ' " And we know that the Son of God is come, and liath given 
 us an understanding that we may know liim that is true: and we 
 are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the 
 true God, and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from 
 Idols." 1 John, v. 20, 21. " The true God is Me that was * in 
 Christ, reconciling the world to himself;* there is none other but 
 He ; and if this great characteristic be denied, or any otlier as- 
 sumed in its stead, a man is left without God; after which he may 
 call himself a Deist," or he may call himself a Unitarian^ " if he 
 will ; but his God is a mere idol of the imagination, and has no 
 corresponding reality in the whole universe of beings."— Jo n'es's 
 Cath. Doct. of Trin. p. Ixxxvi. 
 
121 
 
 mend to all who are desirous of knowing the truth. Never 
 to decide upon any point of doctrine from a detached 
 verse^ till it has been carefully compared with the con- 
 text. Reading from the beginning of the chapter, the 
 first thing that struck me as bearing upon the text un- 
 der consideration, was the use of the verb ask in the 5th, 
 as again, in the 19th and 30th verses, in the sense of 
 askitig a question, asking for information. The following 
 is my conclusion from the whole context, beginning at 
 the xiiith chapter. 
 
 Want of faith had prevented the Disciples from under- 
 standing2 what Jesus had told them^ respecting his ap- 
 proaching departure. Vague apprehensions of impending 
 danger pressed heavily upon their spirits, while the de- 
 grading consciousness of spiritual blindness filled up the 
 measure of their sorrow, (xvi. 6,) and made them asha- 
 med to ask for clearer information, either in the first in- 
 stance, by repeating^ the question. Whither goest thou } 
 (v. 5,) or afterwards, by asking the much desired expla- 
 nation of the words, " A little while, and ye shall see me ; 
 and again a little while, and ye shall not see me." (vv. I6- 
 19.) Jesus, however, the Divine Jesus, " needed not that 
 any should ask him, (v. 30 ;) but *^ knowing all things," 
 replied at once to their thoughts. In both instances. 
 His object was, to encourage their hearts against the fear 
 of the world, and to give them a motive to bear M^th pa- 
 tience their present distressing uncertainty about many 
 things, the knowledge of which they were not yet able to 
 bear (v. 12.) This motive was, in both instances, the 
 same, viz. the prospect of having the veil removed from 
 
 2 See xiii. 36, 37, and xiv. 5—1 1, 22. 
 
 ^ xiii. 31—33, and xiv. 2, 3, 19. * xiii. 36, and xiv. 5. 
 
125 
 
 their minds ; for, said he in the former case, " When He, 
 the Sj)irit of Truth, is come, He shall guide you into all 
 truth," (v. 13) ; and in the latter, ** I will see you again, 
 and your lieart shall rejoice, and your joy no njan taketh 
 fr(»m you," (for '* I am with you alway, even unto the end 
 of the world."^) " And in that day," (or iimc/' viz. of en- 
 during joy,) " ye shall ask me nothing," either verbally 
 or (as on this occasion) mentally, so completely shall 
 your present distressing ignorance have been removed, 
 by my own personal instructions, (Acts, i. 3,) and by the 
 illumination of the Spirit of Truth. Our Lord then pro 
 ceeded to suggest a topic of encouragement against the 
 fear of the world, different, or at least exhibited in a dif- 
 ferent point of view from that (viz. the promise of the 
 Comforter, v. 7,) which he had employed in the former 
 instance, and from that which he had " now plainly spo- 
 ken" (v. 29) in tlie present, (viz. the promise of an abi- 
 ding joy from his own return, v. 22,) though all the 
 three consisted in a promise of Divine protection. This 
 third promise, as relating to " his Father and tlieir Fa- 
 ther," and being peculiarly adapted to remove their ap- 
 prehensions of being left *' orphans,"7 even for a single 
 instant, he introduces, in his most solemn and impres- 
 sive manner,® " Verily, verily, 1 say unto you, Whatso- 
 
 * Matt, xxvWi. 20. « Compare c. xiv. 19, 20, and xvi. 25, 26. 
 ^ See cli. xiv. 18, margin. 
 
 * Our adversaries are capable of suggesting that this transition 
 from one topic to another would not be made in the middle of 
 a verse ; but few, I trust* are ignorant enough to be so misled. 
 Christ did not speak in verses. The Evangelists did not write in 
 verses. The division into chapters and verses is altogether ar- 
 bitrary, and a modern invention, very convenient for tlie purpose 
 o( reference, and intended for that purpose alone. 
 
126 
 
 ever ye shall ask the Father in my name. He will give 
 it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name ; 
 ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full." The 
 same two promises, of clear instruction, (v. 25,) and of a 
 favourable and aifcctionate answer to all their faithful 
 prayers, (verses 26, 27,) Christ immediately reiterated 
 in other words, more fully, but in the same order as in 
 verse 23 ; thus strongly confirming our interpretation of 
 that verse. 
 
 If any doubt remained of the soundness of that inter- 
 pretation, it would vanish at once when we turned to the 
 Greek Testament ; for there we find, in the first mem- 
 ber of the said verse, a verb, {t^eornairt,) which is the same 
 verb as is used in verses 5, 19, and 30, and which usually 
 signifies, as it does in all these places, to ask in the inters 
 rogatory sense, as asking a question ; and in the second 
 member of the verse we find a diiFerent verb, (Jnrn(mrij) 
 which signifies to ask in the 'precatory sense, as asking a 
 favour or benefit. The former verb is indeed sometimes 
 used in the precatory sense ; but still its most common 
 and familiar signification is decidedly the interrogatory, 
 which that of the latter verb never is. No one who reads 
 the verse in Greek, even "without thinking of the context, 
 can for an instant doubt of its meaning ; the change of the 
 verb so naturally and obviously marks a change from one 
 kind of action to another, from asking for information, to 
 asking for a gift or benefit. 
 
 What now becomes of Mr. Hyndman's triumphant ar- 
 gument ? It falls to the ground along with the false in- 
 terpretation upon which it was founded ; and leaves to 
 him ; instead of the glory of having brilliantly " burnt to 
 ashes that fabric of mysticism," (meaning, of course, the 
 orthodox faith, or rather the established church,) " which," 
 
li>' 
 
 says he, " has been reared by the learning of some ages^ 
 the i«;norauceof others, tlio su|)orstition of weak, and the 
 craft of designing men ;" nothing but the wretched alter- 
 native, whether (in addition to the character, to M'hich 
 our first quotation abundantly shews his chiini, of a blind 
 leader, and a mifstical blasjdienier of holy mysteries,) he 
 chooses to be considered an ignorant pretender to learn- 
 ing, or a deliberate, designing falsilier of God's Holy 
 Word. It would be easy to establish liis right to both 
 these titles ; but either of them is sufficient fur my pur- 
 pose, which is merely to put my neighbours on their 
 guard against his pretensions, and to protect the igno- 
 rant from being imposed upon by the profusion of Greek 
 words with which he interlards his speeches, and illumi- 
 nates his pages in Italian characters. Thus the words, 
 IcitourgeOy latreuo, sebomai, and proscuchomai, form one 
 most imposing line in the Lecture, whose exordium we 
 have been considering ; and Mithout turning over a page, 
 we see proskunco, eplkaleuma'i, hocselai, eplkalcomai, ju- 
 diciously dispersed at proper intervals, as rear and ad- 
 vanced guards. Can the person, who speaks so fluently 
 about the meaning of Greek verbs, be supposed to have 
 been ignorant of the difference between erotao and aiteo ? 
 Or must we suppose him to have known it ; but basely 
 and impiously concealed it, for the purpose of robbing 
 his^ Hedeemer of his Glory } Besides, m hat arc Me to 
 
 ^ Yes, his Redeemer ; for whether he avail hims.elf of that re- 
 demption, or impiously reject it, the full price of his redemp- 
 tion has hern paid. "When Christ washed his disciples* feet, typify- 
 ing that except their sins were washed away hy his blood they 
 could not be saved, he did not pass by the traitor Judas, but 
 washed liis feet also ; thus shewing that His blood was shed for 
 him, as well as the others. The full ransom was paid for the soul 
 
128 
 
 think of the question, with which our extract from the 
 exordium of his seventh Lecture closes ? By asking, 
 '' Where is there an express command to worship Jesus ?" 
 does he not in fact deny that any such command exists ? 
 Consult Philip, ii. 10, Heb. i. 6, John, v. 23 ; and then 
 say what dependance is to be placed upon Mr. Hyndman's 
 assertions. 
 
 Indeed, the boldness with which he ventures upon false 
 assertions is truly astonishing. The following instances 
 occur within the compass of four pages of what he calls 
 General Considerations. 
 
 I. He roundly asserts, that " The only declaration of 
 Moses that appears to have reference to Christ, is the fol- 
 lowing : ' A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up 
 unto you like unto me, &c.' " Thus does the " Minister 
 of the Unitarian Chapel, Alnwick,*' with a single stroke 
 of his pen, cancel the promise made to our first parents, 
 and totally blot out the promises made to Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob, which are referred to in all the leading 
 circumstances of the History and Law of Moses. See 
 Gen. iii. 15, vi. 18, xii. 3, xxii. 18, xxvi. 4, xxviii. 14, 
 xlix. 10. Also Luke, i. 54, 55, 70 — 75. Acts, ii. tig. Matt, 
 iii. 9, with John, viii. SQ. Rom. iv. 13—16. Gal. iii. 6 
 — 17« Whether any mental reservation led Mr. Hynd- 
 man to choose the ambiguous expression, *' Declaration 
 of Moses," it is not for me to judge ; but he proceeds as if 
 by one assertion he hsid proved ^ that no other declaration 
 regarding Christ was contained in the books of Moses. 
 
 of the traitor; and if he remained in the hands of the Devil, it 
 was his own choice. Life and death were set before him, (as they 
 are before every human being,) and he chose death. 
 
 9 
 
129 
 
 II. Advancing to the prophets, lie 8:iys, " Not once 
 are their conipt)sitioMs iiitianied with what, Jiad tliey 
 known of it, must liuve higlWy exalted them — the Deiti/ of 
 Jesus Christ. On this, they are silent." Consult Isaiah, 
 ix. (), xl. () — 11, where the marginal translation of the 
 9th verse is hest; Jeremiah, xxiii. 6, where the marginal 
 and literal translation is, " Jehovah our Righteousness." 
 Zechariah, ii. 8 — 13, with Isaiah, xlviii. 12 — 17- Also 
 Psalm xlv. (), 7, and cii. 2o — 27, with Heb. i. 8 — 12; 
 and Psalm ex. 1, with iMatt. xxii. 43 — 45. 
 
 III. '" Going forward to the New Testament," after 
 gravely asserting that *' for alx>ut thirty years after 
 Christ," (that is, while the eye-witnesses were still alive, 
 ' and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, 
 and confirming the word with signs following,') " no other 
 means of information on these subjects existed," but *' the 
 G ospel of Matthew ;" he thus proceeds, — *' And how many 
 passages in it are thought to have any reference to the 
 Deity of Christ ? Only two, from which it is contended 
 that it can be inferred, while it is directly opposed by the 
 general tenor of the wholq," Need I take the trouble of 
 confuting this audacious falsehood ? I shall just mark 
 down enough for the puri)Ose, and then barely enumerate 
 the remaining untruths, crowded into these four pages. 
 Matt. i. 23, iii. 3, (with Is. xl. 3,) viii. 8—13, viii. 26, 
 ix. 2 — 7, X. 8, xxii. 42—45, xxiv. 30, 31, xxv. 31, 32, 
 xxviii. 19, and xxviii. 20 — eleven passages, Cach contains 
 a distinct recognition and separate proof of the Deity 
 of Christ : and in rapidly turning over the pages of that 
 gospel to select these, I passed by a much greater num- 
 ber, from which if is rnrffevrfrrf, and truly contended, /Aa/ 
 it may he inferred. 
 
 1 
 
i:iO 
 
 IV. and V. His disgusting falsehoods thicken as we 
 advance. The following short sentence contains twoj if 
 possible, more daring than any of the preceding. " It is 
 remarliable that in the Gospel of Mark, there is only one 
 passage claimed by Trinitarians; and in the Gospel of Luke 
 only two." In the first chapter of St. Mark's Gos- 
 pel, there are tivelve, if not more, passages '^ claimed by 
 Trinitarians," viz. in verse 2, (with Mai. iii. 1,) 3, (with 
 Is. xl. r>.) 7, 8, 11, 13, 24, 25, 31, 34, 41, and I think 
 14, for Christ is the King of " the Kingdom of God;" 
 also verse 1, for Christ is '' the Son of God," in a pecu- 
 liar, even a Divine sense : see note F. And in the first 
 CHAPTER of St. Luke, there are five, viz. in verse l6 with 
 17, 32 with ^S, S5, 43, and 76. 
 
 VI. " These Gospels," (viz. the three first,) " are 
 ushered into the world for the purpose of teaching men 
 all that is necessary to be believed, each independently 
 professing to give all saving knowledge." Not one of 
 them contains any such profession ; so that the short 
 clause, " each independently, &c." involves, in fact, three 
 violations of truth, though we here only count it as one. 
 
 VII. " They contain confessedly nothing on the grand 
 points of Christian Doctrine, except a few incidental de- 
 tached passages, from Avhich the details of orthodoxy can 
 be deduced." No such confession was ever made; nor 
 can any thing be farther removed from the truth, than 
 that which we are falsely asserted to have confessed. 
 Here again, therefore, if we chose to be strictly just in 
 our reckoning, we should count two falsehoods, instead 
 of one. 
 
1 'M 
 
 VIII. " Is not this a decisive j)roof thnt the Deity of 
 Jesus wastotally unknown to tliewritcrs?" (viz. Mattliew, 
 Mark, and Lnke.) 'J'liis may jiossibly be denied to be a 
 falseho{Kl, because it comes in tlie sliapc of a q\icstion ; 
 and st»unds like an ar«^ument, being an inference drawn, 
 by a peculiar species of Reduclio ad Absurdian, from his 
 own admission of the very reverse : see his words in False- 
 hoods, iii. iv. and v. That the Deity of Jesus was un- 
 known to these Evangelists, or to any of them, is how- 
 ever as false as it is possible for falsehood to be. 
 
 IX. "Even in the Gospel of John there are not, avow- 
 edly, above a few," (delightful expression! above a few,) 
 " passages that Trinitarians can bring into their ser- 
 vice." This is too contemptible to deserve contradiction. 
 
 He then goes on to establish, by the same species of 
 argument he had applied to the throe first Evangelists, 
 (see Xo. viii. above,) founded on an equally false assump- 
 tion as to the contents of the Acts of the Apostles, that 
 " Paul, Peter and Philip," (why does lie not mention Ste- 
 phen ? see Acts, vii. .'59^ 60,) " had no knowledge, and no 
 belief of such a system," as that which maintains the Di- 
 vinity of Christ. And pretending to" look into the Gospel 
 Epistles," he unblushingly declares, that " In the Epistles 
 addressed to the Thessalonians and the Galatians, and in 
 those of Philemon, James, and 2d Timothy, it is not 
 pretended that there is a single passage that supports 
 the orthodox opinions. And in the rest, it is not contend- 
 ed that there are more than a few incidental, scatter- 
 ed passages that countenance those doctrines." But this 
 quotation brings me into a fifth page ; and I am already 
 weary of the disgusting task of dragging to light the 
 baseness of 50 despicable an oppom-nt. 
 
132 
 
 After seeing nine such atrocious falsehoods extracted 
 from four pages of his book, no one can pay the least re- 
 spect to any assertion of Mr. Hyndman's. " A cause 
 that stands in need of falsehoods to support it, and an 
 adversary that will make use of them, deserve nothing 
 but contempt ;"^ which is the only answer I shall grve to 
 the rest of Mr. Hyndman's book, or to any thing he may 
 think fit to publish hereafter.^ It is glory to be calumni- 
 ated by one so incapable of adhering to the truth. It is not, 
 therefore, because he has asserted in his preface that the 
 system which he teaches *' was embraced by Newton and 
 Locke;" but because the same and similar assertions, 
 though often refuted, are continually repeated by modern 
 Socinians in general, just as familiarly as if their truth 
 had never been called in question, that I now proceed to 
 repeat the public exposure of them, as base and design- 
 ing calumnies. 
 
 The following is part of a letter, dated Belfast, June 
 10, 1813, addressed by Dr. Bruce, an Irish dissenting 
 Clergyman, to the Editor of the Monthly Bepositori/, 
 which is the organ of the modern Socinians ; for so Dr. 
 Bruce very properly calls them, protesting against their 
 usurpation and abuse of the title of Unitarians, After 
 clearing himself and his dissenting brethren from the im- 
 
 . * Locke. Second Vindication of the Reasonableness of ChrisliaTUlt/, 
 ^c, at the beginning. 
 
 '^ " Several other" Lectures, he says, are reserved for publica- 
 tion : and doubtless, if the first volume meet with purchasers, the 
 love of gain will secure to the public a liberal supply of poison 
 from the same laboratory. Happily, however, for the healtli of 
 Souls, the sample now offered for sale is so heavf/t and fetid, and 
 unpalatable, that the demand cannot be sufficient to keep the ap- 
 paratus employed. 
 
13.5 
 
 putatiou of Sociuiaiiisin, cast upon tiieni in the nuniJ)cr 
 of the Repository for Dec. 181'2, Dr. Bruce thus pro- 
 ceeds. 
 
 '* The excessive spirit of prosel\ tisni, which actuates 
 so many of your correspondents, is not always confined to 
 the living. It is a favourite opinion among them, that 
 Newton and Locke were Socinians. The evidence for this 
 is brought forward in your number for July, 1810, 
 though, I think, little to the satisfaction of the writer 
 himself. Sir Isaac Newton is claimed on the strength of 
 verbal expressions, which he is said to have used to a Mr. 
 Ilaynes. For the truth of this we are referred to a Mr. 
 Baron, himself a Socinian, who says that Mr. Haynes, 
 from whom he had it, was the most zealous Socinian he 
 ever knew ; and therefore, surely, not an unexception- 
 able witness. For this quotation from Mr. Baron's tract, 
 we are again referred to Mr. Lindsey's apology. This i8 
 slight ground for forming an opinion of the sentiments of 
 so great a man, who wrote so largely on religion. As to 
 the quotation from Sir Isaac's own writings, it might as 
 well come from an Arian, or indeed from any Protestant, 
 as from a Socinian." ^ 
 
 Dr. Bruce, be it observed, acknowledges himself to be 
 an Arian, and therefore, certainly, would have been glad 
 to discover that Newton was of the same opinion. But 
 he is too honest to draw an unfair inference from a de- 
 tached passage in the writings of that great man ; and so 
 he honestly avows, that the quotation referred to does not 
 even convey an Arian, much less a Socinian sentiment. 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton, the least discursive of writers, never 
 deviated a single hair's breadth from the direct line of 
 
 ^ Quoted from Magee, ith EH. vol. ii. p. 80.^. 
 
134 
 
 liis argument ; and therefore, though be always men- 
 tioned Christ with the honour that is natural to an or- 
 thodox believer, he never had occasion to declare expli- 
 citly, (except in the public congregations of the Church,) 
 his belief in the Divinity of our Saviour. The following 
 sentence, in his Observations on the Apocali/pse of St. 
 John, chapter iii. comes nearer to such a declaration, than 
 any thing else that I have met with in his writings. Re- 
 ferring to Revelation, ii. 9, he says, " By ' the blasphemy 
 of them which say that they are Jews, and are not, but 
 are of the synagogue of Satan,' I understand the idolatry 
 of the Nicolaitans, who falsely said that they were 
 Cltristians." Now the Nicolaitans, in common with the 
 other Gnostic Sects, denied the Deity of Christ, which 
 was probably the chief cause of Newton's opinion respect- 
 ing them. At least that error alone fully justifies his 
 opinion ; for nothing more is required to make their sys- 
 tem deserve to be considered blasphemy, to be called ido- 
 latry,^ and to exclude them from the denomination of 
 Christiiv-S' Were we, therefore, to infer from this passage, 
 that Newton considered the denying of the Divinity of 
 Christ, to be blasphemy, to be idolatry, to be an error that 
 renders its maintainers unworthy of the name of Christi- 
 ans, I am sure the inference would be far more fair and 
 probable, than any that our opponents can di'aw from 
 any part of his writings, on the other side of the ques- 
 tion. 
 
 As to Locke, he certainly was led into errors, as well 
 in his Reasonableness of Christianity, as in his Para- 
 phrase and Notes on the Epistles to the Galatians, Corin- 
 thians, Romans, and Ephesians, by a passion for simpli- 
 
 * See Note at page 123. 
 
3 35 
 
 fyiug, and a too great dependarue on his own powerful 
 uiuierst;uHlin«j. But none of his errors justify the Soci- 
 nians, in claiming him as their partisim ; and it is quite 
 inconceivable how they can liavc the ertVontery to j)ersist 
 in that claim, in tlie face of liis on n most ])ointed decla- 
 rations to the contrary. I trust these gentlemen will 
 allow Mr. Locke to know his own opinions. Hear then 
 wiiat he says on this subject in his J indications of' the 
 Rcasonohlcncss of Chrialianitii. 
 
 " I shall leave the Socinians themselves to answer his* 
 charge against them, and shall examine his proof of my 
 being a Socinian. It stands thus, ' Wlien he (the Author 
 of the Reasonableness of Christianity,) proceeds to men- 
 tion the advantages and benefits of Christ's coming into 
 the world, and ap|)earing in the llcsh ; lie hath not one 
 syllable of his satisfying for us ; or by his death purchas- 
 ing life or salvation, or any thing that sounds like it. 
 This and several other things shew that he is all over 
 Socinianized.' Which in effect is, that because I liave 
 not set down all that this author perhaps would have done, 
 therefore I am a Socinian. But what if I should say, I 
 set down as much as my argument retjuired, and yet am 
 NO Socinian ? Would he, from my silence and omission, 
 give me the lye, and say, I am one ? Surmises that may 
 be overturned by a single denial, arc poor arguments, 
 and such as some men would be ashamed of : at least, if 
 they are to Ik? permitted to men of this gentleman's skill 
 and zeal, they ref|uire a good memory to keep them from 
 recoiling upon the author. He might have taken notice 
 of these words in my book, * From this estate of death 
 Jesus Christ restores all mankind U) life,' And a 
 
 * Mr Edwards who cliargcd Locke with favouring Socinian- 
 i*m. 
 
136 
 
 little lower, ^ The life vvliicli Jesus Christ restores to all 
 men.' And, ' He that hath Micurred death by his own 
 transgression, cannot LAY down his life for another, 
 as our Saviour professes he did.' This, methinks, sounds 
 SOMETHING LIKE Chi'ist's purchasing life for us by his 
 death. But this Reverend Gentleman has an answer 
 ready. It was not in the place he would have had it in ; 
 it was not where I mention the advantages, and benefits 
 of Christ's coming. And, therefore, this and several 
 other things that might be offered, shew that I am ' all 
 over Socinianized.' A very clear and ingenious proof, 
 and let him enjoy it. 
 
 " Another thing laid to my charge, is my ' Forgetting, 
 orrather wilful omitting some plain and obvious passages, 
 and some famous testimonies in the Evangelists, name- 
 ly. Matt, xxviii. I9, and John, i. 1, and J 4,' Mine it 
 seems are all sins of omission."^ 
 
 '' If the omission of other texts of Scripture, (which 
 are all true also, and no one of them to be disbelieved,) 
 be a fault, it might have been expected that Mr. Ed- 
 wards should have accused me for leaving out Matt. 
 i. 1 8 to 23, and Matt, xxvii. 24, 35, 50, 60, for .these 
 are ' plain and obvious passages, and famous testimonies 
 in the Evangelists.' "7 
 
 " Soci?uanism, then, is not the fault of my hooky whatever 
 else it may he. For, I repeat it again, there is not one 
 
 WORD OF SoCINIANISM IN IT."^ 
 
 The following quotations are from the book itself, the 
 Heasonahleness of Christianity , c^'c, thus vindicated from 
 the charge of Socinianism. 
 
 '"' Locke's Works, Folio, 1740. vol. ii,p. 590. ' Ibid. p. 591. 
 « Ibid. p. .592. 
 
137 
 
 *' The other parts of Divine re\ eliitiou/' (besides thoM 
 the author had expressly referred to,) " are objects of 
 faith, and are so to be received. They are truths, where- 
 of no one Ciin be rejected ; none, that is once known to 
 Ik? such, may, or ought to be disbelieved. For to acknow- 
 ledge any projwsition to be of Divine authority, and yet 
 to deny or disbelieve it, is to offend against this funda- 
 mental article and ground of faith, that God is true."® 
 
 ^*^ Adam, transgressing the command given him by his 
 heavenly Father, incurred the penalty, forfeited that state 
 of immortality, and became mortal. After this, Adam 
 begot children ; but they were ' in his own likeness, after 
 his image,' mortal like their father. 
 
 " God, nevertheless, out of his infinite mercy, will- 
 ing to bestow eternal life to mortal man, sends Jesus 
 Christ into the world ; who being conceived in the womb 
 of a virgin (that had not known man) by the immediate 
 power of God, was properly the Son of God, according to 
 what the angel declared to his mother, Luke, i. 30 — 35 
 — ' The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power 
 of the Highest shall overshadow thee : therefore also that 
 holy thing, which shall be born of thee, shall be called 
 the Son of Gfxl.' So that, being the Son of God, he was, 
 like his Father, immortal, as he tells us in John, v. 26. 
 * As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given the 
 Son to have life in himself.' "^ 
 
 " That our Saviour was so," (that is in immortality 
 like his Father,) " he himself farther declares, John, x. 
 18, where, speaking of his life, he says, ' No one taketh 
 it from me, but I lay it down myself: I have ])ower to 
 lay it down, and ])ower to take it up again.' Which he 
 
 • Locke, \ol. ii. i>. oM. ' Il»id. vol. ii. p. 568. 
 
138 
 
 could not have had, if he had been a mortal man, the 
 son of a man of the seed of Adam, or else had, by any 
 transgression, forfeited his life. For * the wages of sin 
 is death ;' and he that hath incurred death for his own 
 transgression, cannot Jay down his life for another, as 
 our Saviour professes he did. For he was ' the just one,' 
 Acts, vii. 52 ; ^ who knew no sin,' 2 Cor. v. 21 ; ' who 
 did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.' And 
 thus, ^ as by man came death, by man came the resurrec- 
 tion of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ 
 shall all be made alive.' "2 
 
 Unnecessary as it must appear, I shall add one quota- 
 tion more from Locke, namely, from his Reply io the BU 
 shop of Worcester, who had attacked his Essay on the 
 Human Understanding. 
 
 " I find one thing more your Lordship charges on me, 
 in reference to the Unitarian controversy, and that is, 
 where your Lordship says, that ' if these {i. e. my no- 
 tions of nature and person) hold, your Lordship does not 
 see how it is possible to defend the doctrine of the Tri- 
 nity.' 
 
 " My Lord, since I have a great opinion that your 
 Lordship sees as far as any one, I should be ready to give 
 up what your Lordship pronounces so untenable, were it 
 any other cause but that of an article of the Christianfaith. 
 For these, I am sure, shall all be defended, and stand firm 
 to the world's end, though we are not always sure what 
 hand shall defend them.- I know as much maybe expect- 
 ed from your Lordship's in the case as any body's ; and 
 therefore I conclude, when you have taken a view of the 
 matter again, out of the heat of dispute, you will have a 
 
 ' Locke, vol. ii. pp. 559, 560. 
 
139 
 
 l)etter opinion of the articles of the C luistian faith, and 
 y»>ur own ability to defend them/'^ 
 
 In this last quotation, Locke expressly pronounces the 
 diK'trine of the Trinity t(j be one of the articles of the 
 Christian faith, which he is sure shall stand firm to the 
 u'urld's end. And in the preceding quotations, he dis- 
 tinctly professes \\\s full belief m iix^fallofman and ori- 
 ginal sin ; in the innnortaliti/, in terms which imply the 
 Divinity, of Christ ; in the immaculate conception, the sin- 
 less life, and vierilorious death of our Redeemer ; and 
 pointedly declares that he is no Socinian. What, then, 
 shall we think of the men who go al)Out the world, boldly 
 asserting the very reverse of all this ? What shall we think 
 of their pretended scruples of conscience about the 
 marriage ceremony ? Is it not clear that their real scru- 
 ples arc against the existence of the Established Church ? 
 and that there is no baseness they m ould scruple to re- 
 sort to, for the purpose of pulling down that great bul- 
 wark of the true Christian faith ? I trust that, in all fu- 
 ture sessions of Parliament, our Legislators will know 
 them better, and be more generally awake to a sense of 
 the danger of making any concessions to a set of men, 
 w hose conduct is so uniforndy marked with falsehood and 
 treachery. 
 
 Let me now close this long note, by entreating my 
 more immediate friends and neighbours to beware op 
 THESE DAXfJEUors 3IEX. Read and meditate upon the 
 Scriptures of Truth. Hold fast the profession of your 
 faith without wavering, but without ostentation. Avoid 
 vain jangling. Shun every occasion of strife or contcn- 
 
 ' Lnckj's Works, vol. i, p. 131. 
 
140 
 
 tion, particularly upon sacred subjects. Be patient, be 
 humble, be charitable, for " the end of the command- 
 ment IS CHARITY, OUT OF A PURE HEART, AND OF A 
 GOOD CONSCIENCE, AND OF FAITH UNFEIGNED." 1 
 
 Tim. i. 5, 
 
 (b) p. 8. — It was necessary. 
 
 Anti-Trinitarian and Deistical writers are much given 
 to cavil at such expressions as this, as if they amount- 
 ed to a denial of the Divine Omnipotence. In answer 
 to all such cavils, we need only observe, that a Christian 
 knows of no other law of necessity, but what is founded 
 in the perfect and infallible Will of God. If we ever 
 speak of the death of Christ, or the coming of the Holy 
 Ghost, as necessary for our salvation, we do so without 
 presuming to speculate on the possibility of God's having 
 accomplished it in any other way ; or to assert any thing 
 more than the simple fact, that those are the means ap- 
 pointed by Him, who does nothing hi vain — the only means 
 by which we can be saved, or conceive the possibility of 
 our salvation, consistently with the holiness of God. In 
 like manner, we do not hesitate to say, it was necessary 
 that Christ's manhood should be altogether the same as 
 ours, because we know it was so ordained by the all-wise 
 and perfect God ; and because, knowing it to have been 
 so, we can see a fitness and advantage in it, which we can 
 conceive no other means of attaining. 
 
 It may be objected to the unreserved manner m which 
 I state the absolute Humanity of Christ, " precisely the 
 same as ours, naturally exempted from none of its natu- 
 
141 
 
 ral feeliu«;s and natural infirmities," that it concedes to 
 the Anti-Trinitarians their favourite opinion of His pec- 
 raliility. Nothinj^, however, can he farther from my 
 meanirt;;, wliieli no one, I hope, will dispute with me the 
 ri«;ht of determininj^. Because " He was in all points 
 tempted like as we are,"^ and the very idea of temptation 
 inchules the possihi/ili/ of yielding to it, I helieve that Je- 
 sus Christ, considered in his human nature, was liable to 
 all the natural infirmities of man. But because " he was 
 without sin,'" " holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from 
 sinners."* I believe that the Man Jesus Christ, by the 
 strength of Divine Grace, completely triumphed over 
 every human infirmity,^ and from the first moment of 
 his human existence, was totally free from all sin, of 
 thought, word, or deed. He " knew no sin,"^ " did no 
 sin, neither was guile found in his viouth."^ This sinless 
 purity made " his body" a fit " temple"*^ for " all the ful- 
 ness of the Godhead" to inhabit; and it is impossible not 
 to believe that the fulness of the Godhead, thus dwelling 
 in it, must have contributed to keep the temple pure. 
 Still, in all his human actions, the free and distinct 
 agency of the Man Christ Jesus was not destroyed by 
 his union M'ith God the Son : and he continued clear 
 from the t^int of sin by the exercise of his own human 
 powers, strengthened, but not superseded, by the assist- 
 ance of God the Holy Ghost. '' Through the eternal Spi- 
 
 » Heb. iv. 15. » Hel). vii. 26. 
 
 ' ** Jesus increased in favour with God," (Luke, ii. 52,) wliich 
 is a pretty strong indication that he had human frailties to com- 
 bat. Every one of these, as soon as it assailed him, was subdued ; 
 and every fresh victory over the flesh, the world, and the devil, in- 
 creased his favour with God. 
 
 * 2 Cor. v. 21. ' 1 Pet. ii. 22. « John. ii. 19 and 21. 
 
142 
 
 rit he offered himself without spot to God."" Tljis ap- 
 pears to be the doctrine of Scripture upon the subject ; 
 and certainly gives us a far more exalted idea of the ex- 
 cellence of Christ's manhoodj than if we supposed him na- 
 turally exempt from the possibility of sinning — a suppo- 
 sition which would take away the idea of his manhood al- 
 together. 
 
 Very different is the doctrine of the Anti-Trinitarians 
 on this most mysterious subject. " The Unitarian doc- 
 trine," says Mr Belsham, '' is, that Jesus of Nazareth 
 was a man, constituted in all respects like other men, 
 subject to the same infirmities, the same ignorance, pre- 
 judices, and frailties." Observe, this is all they offer 
 us in the place of the Redeemer, whom they call upon us 
 to abandon. They deny the existence of God the Son and 
 God the Holy Ghost ; and reject, with contempt, the 
 idea of any personal union between Jesus of Nazareth and 
 God. According to them, therefore, '^ Jesus of Naza- 
 reth was a man," and nothing more ; begotten, Ijorn, and, 
 in short, '^ constituted in all respects like other men ; 
 subject to the same infirmities, the same ignorance, pre- 
 judices, and frailties ;" and possessing no peculiar advan- 
 tages, no union with God, no spiritual aid to combat his 
 natural infirmities. With these sentiments, so fearfully 
 contrary to the truth of God's word, it is no wonder that, 
 unconvinced by Is. liii. 9. 1 Pet. ii. 22, 2 Cor. v. 21, Heb. 
 iv. 15, vii. 26, and ix. 14, 1 John, iii. 5, &c., they should 
 think it doubtful, " whether, through the whole course 
 of his private life, Jesus was completely exempt from the 
 errors and failings of liuman nature." " This, however," 
 
 ^ Heb. ix. 14w See also Luke ii. 40, and p. 39. 
 
14.,3 
 
 Nfr lic'lshaiu adils, " is a (juestion of iiu ^^reut intrinsic 
 TiKuiicnt." 
 
 (ortaiiily not, to tliein mIio will not receivo hini as 
 '* the Lamb of (iod, which taketh away the sin of the 
 world.''^ But to us Mho are bowed down by the conscious- 
 ness of our own sinfuhiess, wliich we feel must consif^n 
 us to eternal misery, except Me be Mashed by His blood 
 — to us the purity of that blood is of inestimable value. 
 We feel now, M'hat they must one day feel — fVo be to ux 
 if ti'C believe not the Gospel, M'hole and undetiled. Ever- 
 more preserve us, therefore, O Lord Jesu Christ, from 
 these ])estilent errors ; as Mell .as from all false doctrine, 
 hardness of heart, and contempt of thy word and com- 
 mandments. 
 
 The precedinn^ paraphrastic explanation of Mr Bel- 
 sham's Mords, is not founded upon unauthorised infer- 
 ences from the words themselves, but upon hisoMii clear, 
 and often re|)eaied declarations. That explanation un- 
 questionably exhibits the sentiments m hich Mr Belsham 
 avows, and which he gives out (though in this sentence, 
 for the purpose of proselytism, with studied laxity,) as 
 the " Unitarian Doctrine." If any one, calli?ig himself 
 a Unitarian, disclaims these sentiments, none will Ikj 
 more happy than I to acquit him of the charge, which is 
 not made by me, but by Mr Belsham, the undisputed 
 leader of the party, with M'hich no person who is openly 
 associated, can reasonably complain of being supposed to 
 hold its sentiments. 
 
 The in)j)erfection of human language renders it ex- 
 tremely dithcult, if not impossible, to sjieak on tlie great 
 niystery of " (Jod manifest in the ilesh," in terms that 
 
 • John, i. 29 
 
144 
 
 are not capable of being misinterpreted : but much of the 
 inconvenience arising from that imperfection would be 
 avoided;, if men were always willing and desirous to un- 
 derstand words in the sense in which they are meant by 
 him who uses them. On this principle I have interpret- 
 ed Mr Belsham's words. Let the same principle be ap- 
 plied to mine above quoted from page 8, and to those in 
 the lower paragraph of page 9, and in the second para- 
 graph of page 39, and it will be obvious, I think, to every 
 one, that I speak in those places of the nature of Christ's 
 manhood as it actually existed, or was to exist, without 
 meaning to say any thing about the manner in which it 
 came into existence. In that, indeed, Christ's manhood 
 differed immensely from ours, and in consequence of that 
 difference was free from the taint of original sin ; so that 
 in every respect, from the first instant of his human 
 existence, " in him was no sin."^ It must be equally ap- 
 parent to every one who is willing to understand me, 
 that the words frailty, feelings, infirmities, as applied to 
 Christ, are confined to the idea of rendering it possible 
 for him to sin.* The word natural is added for the pur- 
 pose of excluding all infirmities ingi-qfted on our nature 
 by vicious education, example, or habit ; and the word 
 naturally is prefixed to the words exempted and differing, 
 in pages 8 and 9^ for the purpose of admitting the high- 
 est degree of exemption from infirmity, and difference 
 
 9 1 John, iii. 5. 
 
 • The word peccable strrctly means no more than liable to sin, 
 withm the possibility of sinning ; but it may also convey the idea 
 of actually wiful. This ambiguity is the reason why Anti- Trini- 
 tarians delight in applying it to our Lord, and therefore is an 
 ample reason for us to resist the application. The same observa- 
 tion applies to the woxA fallibk. 
 
 10 
 
145 
 
 from otlier men, tlint cm Ur coiiceivod ti) In- ac<[uired by 
 the c\enis(» of the bist Imniaii ([ualitics, aidt-d by the 
 highest dcprreeof Spiritual, Mhicli is supcrnalural power. 
 After all, I do not commit my first, and probably my 
 last publication to tlic world, without con.^idorable appre- 
 hensions that the laiiguajre used in tlie j)hiccs before re- 
 ferred to may be considered, by some of my best friends, 
 injudicious and rash, as too liable to be misinterpreted by 
 designing, and not exempt from the risk of being misun- 
 derstood by honcirit men ; and had not the pages that 
 contain them been already printed off, I should have 
 endeavoured to make some alteration, to diminish, as 
 much as possible, the risk of misapprehension, though 
 to remove it altogether is, I am persuaded, impossible. 
 No one will charge Bishop Pearson with being rash or 
 injudicious, yet his words, quoted in page 116, line 5, 
 viz. '' that He was subject unto all infirmities and mi- 
 series of this life, attending on the son^ of men fallen 
 by the sin of Adam," are not less ambiguous than mine, 
 '* that his manhood should be precisely the same as ours, 
 naturally exempted from none of its natural feelings and 
 natural infirmities." No one will say that the Articles 
 of the Church of England are carelessly worded ; yet 
 these words in the xvth Article, " Christ in the truth 
 of our nature was made like unto us in all things, sin 
 only except," seem as capable of being misinterpreted 
 as the words by which I have expressed the very same 
 sentiment: " The Man Jesus Christ had a soul and a 
 body naturally differing in nothing from the soul and 
 body of other men, and thus was perfect man, * in all 
 points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.' " No 
 one, short of a Unitarian, falsely so called, will dare to 
 charge St. Paul with inaccuracy ; yet his expression of 
 K 
 
146 
 
 " God having sent his Son in the likeness of sinful 
 flesh,"2 may be misconstrued and perverted to a sense 
 altogether different from what he, writing under the 
 guidance of the Spirit of Truth, intended. 
 
 If I thought there was any thing, either in the ex- 
 pressions I have been considering, or in any other part 
 of these pages, Hkely to mislead any honest and serious 
 inquirer after truth, I would either cancel it, whatever 
 might be the expense, or suppress the book altogether. 
 But, fully persuaded that nothing in it can mislead, and 
 humbly trusting that in some parts it ma}' prove a use- 
 ful, as I have endeavoured in all to make it a faithful, 
 guide to the less learned of my friends who are desirous 
 of walking in the way of truth, and being sanctified 
 thereby,^ I commend myself and my book to the can- 
 did judgment of all who are at the pains to read it, in 
 the words of the venerable Bishop Sanderson, who thus 
 closes the Preface to his Sermons, written December 
 31, 1655, when he was, as he tells us, 69 current. — " I 
 shall hope to find so much charity from my Christian 
 brethren as to shew me my error, if in any thing I have 
 said I be mistaken, that I may retract it ; and to par- 
 don those excesses in 7nodo loquendi, if they can observe 
 any such, which might possibly (whilst I was passion- 
 ately intent upon the matter) unawares drop from my 
 pen. Civilities which we mutually owe one to another 
 — damns hanc veniam, petunusque vicissim — considering 
 how hard a thing it is, amidst so many passions and in- 
 firmities as our corrupt nature is subject to, to do or say 
 all that is needful in a weighty business, and not in some- 
 thing or other to over-say or over-do. Yet this I can 
 
 ' Rom. viii. 3. ^ John, xvii. 17. 
 
14' 
 
 fay, with sincerity of heart, ami with comfort, that my 
 desire was (tlie nature of tiie business considered) both 
 to speak as plain, anil to ofFend as little, as nii«ijht be. 
 If I can approve my carriage herein to the judgment 
 and consciences of sober and charitable men, it will be 
 some rejoycing to me ; but I am not hereby justified. 
 I must finally stand or fall to ini/oivn Master y who is the 
 only infallible judge of men's hearts and ways. Hum- 
 bly I beseech him to look well if there be any way of 
 wickedness or hypocrisie in me, timely to cover it him- 
 self, and discover it to me, that it may be, by his grace, 
 repented of, and pardoned by his mercy; by the same 
 mercy and grace to guide my feet into the ways of peace 
 and truth, and to lead me in the way everlasting." 
 
 N. B. — Several Anti-Trinitarian arguments are found- 
 ed on the assumption that it is admitted on all hands, or 
 not disputed, that the mind of Jesus was one. On the 
 contrary, we maintain that Jesus had a human mind, 
 distinct from the Divine, which also dwelt in him. The 
 assumption, therefore, is false ; and no argument built 
 upon it is worth a moment's consideration. 
 
 (c) P. 15. — *' Equal to the Father, as touching his God- 
 head ; and inferior to the Father, as touching his Man- 
 hood," 
 
 This clause of the Athanasian Creed ought to be 
 made familiar to the memory of every Christian ; for it 
 ** may be," and even in these pages has been, " proved 
 by the most certain warrants of Holy Scripture ;" and 
 when proved, affords a most ready and complete answer 
 to almost all the arguments pretended to be drawn from 
 
148 
 
 Scripture, against the Deity of the Saviour. As soon 
 as our adversaries have produced a passage which shews 
 that Christ is Man, or inferior to the Father, they tri- 
 umphantly call upon the orthodox believer to abandon 
 him as God. He, however, who has once satisfied his 
 mind as to the truth of the above sentence, will, in a 
 moment, expose the want of connection between the 
 premises and conclusion of such an argument, by ob- 
 serving, that Christ is indeed Man, and as Man inferior 
 to the Father ; but He is also God, and as God equal 
 to the Father. No wonder our adversaries should be 
 angry with a principle which acts so readily in subser- 
 vience to the Divine purpose, by enabling *' the foolish 
 things of this world to confound the wise*' in their own 
 conceits. They call it a subterfuge, and accuse the or- 
 thodox of always resorting to it. But it is a truth found- 
 ed upon the Word of God, to whom they, who call it a 
 subterfuge, must answer for their blasphemy; and truth 
 is sterling stuff, which does not perish nor grow worse 
 by the using. 
 
 1 Cor. XV. 24-, 28, and Acts, x. 42, are two of the 
 many passages from which Christ's inferiority to the Fa- 
 ther may be inferred, and which, therefore, are claimed 
 by Arians and Socinians, as supporting their heresy. I 
 select them, partly because of their bearing upon an 
 important point, slightly glanced at in my first Dis- 
 course, p. 2, line 6, &c. and p. 13, line 10, &c. but 
 chiefly from a desire to call the attention of the reader 
 to the masterly manner in which the learned and excel- 
 lent Jones, in his Catholic doctrine of the Trinity, has 
 taken them out of the hands of the enemy, and, at the 
 same time, illustrated the truth of the above Article of 
 
I M) 
 
 Belief, by which an unlearned man might have done the 
 same thing in fewer words. 
 
 By the side of 1 Cor. xv. 24, " Then cometh the 
 END, when He shall deliver up the kingdom to God, 
 even the Father," Mr Jones places Luke i. 33, *' Hl 
 shall reign over the House of Jacob for ever, and of 
 His kingdom there shall be no end," and then argues 
 thus — 
 
 *' This of Luke being a contradiction in terms to that 
 of the Apostle, shews the former to be spoken only of 
 Christ's humauilii ; as the latter relates onlif to his Di- 
 vlnilt/. Wlien both are laid together, it is evident to a 
 demonstration, that Christ is perfect God, as well as per- 
 fect Man. As man, he received Si /(/wgr/am, which again, 
 as luaut he shall deliver up, when his mediatorial office, 
 for which he look the nature of man, shall be at an end 
 Bui there is a ki)iu:dum pertaining to him which shall 
 have no end ; and this cannot be true, unless he is a 
 Person in that God, who, after the Humanitij has deli- 
 vered up the kinirdom, shall be fdl in all. The distinc- 
 tion in this case between GWand 7nan in the joint-per- 
 son of Christ Jesus is warranted by another part of the 
 chapter, wherein the Apostle has given us a key to his 
 own meaning. ' Since by Max,' says he, * came death, 
 by ^L\N came also the resurrection of the dead. For as 
 in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made 
 alive.' Here, it is evident, he is drawing a contrast be- 
 tween the man Adam and the man Christ ; so that, un- 
 less it be done on purpose, no reader can easily mis- 
 take the meaning of what follows. — * Then cometh the 
 end, when Hk (that is the tnan Christ, the second 
 Adam) shall deliver up the kingdom,' is:c. ; for so it 
 
150 
 
 must be, according to the tenor of the Apostle's dis- 
 course. 
 
 " The New Testainent abounds with expressions of 
 this nature ; but they have no difficulty in them, if it be 
 only remembered that Christ is man as well as God, 
 which Arians are willing, upon all occasions, to forget. 
 And it has been chiefly owing to an abuse of these 
 texts, that they have been able to put any tolerable 
 gloss upon their heresy. The Old Testament, seldom 
 speaking of Christ but as a Person of the Godhead be^ 
 fore his Incarnation, does not afford them so many op- 
 portunities ; and hence it is that most of them confine 
 their inquiries to the NeWf which is the history of him 
 after his Incarnation, when he appeared as * the first- 
 born among many brethren'^ * anointed above hhfeU 
 loivSf {mankindjY receiving authority and dominion 
 from Gody who, by a power superior to that of his hu- 
 man soul and body, ' put all things in subjection under 
 his feet.* 
 
 " But some, for whose sakes he thus humbled him- 
 self, and became obedient in the flesh, instead of re- 
 ceiving it with humility and devotion, even cast it in his 
 teeth, and make it an argument against him, vainly ima- 
 gining that they do honour to their supreme God, while 
 they say with Peter — < Lord, be it far from thee ; this 
 shall not,' it cannot * be unto thee.'^ And it is worth 
 their while to consider whether they may not fall un- 
 der the same rebuke, when it will be too late to retract 
 and change their opinions." 
 
 With equal felicity does the same admirable writer 
 
 * Rom. viii. 29. ^ Ps. xlv. 7, and HeU. \. 9. 
 
 * IMatt. xvi. 22. 
 
151 
 
 Uirn against our adversaries the following text, which 
 they direct an:ainst their God and their Redeemer. 
 
 Acts, X. 42. — " That it is IIk which is ordained of 
 God to be the judge of quick and dead." 
 
 *• This passage will help us to detect, once for all, 
 tliat common fallacy of our adversaries, in misa})plying 
 such words as relate only to the human nature of Christ, 
 and erecting arguments thereupon to the degrading of 
 his supreme essence. Christ is ordained of God, it is 
 true ; and the nature that receives power must be infe- 
 rior to the nature that confers it. But is his Godhead, 
 therefore, ordained ? 
 
 " The Scriptures declare the contrary. ' God,' (saith 
 St. Paul,) ' hath appointed a day wherein He will 
 JUDGE the world in righteousness by that man (m xr^^i, 
 IX that MAN,) whom he hath ordained.'' The supreme 
 God that was ' manifest in the flesh,'" and, ' in Christ, 
 reconciling the world to himself,'^ shall remain in the 
 same personal union with him, till he has judged the 
 world, and is ready to deliver up the kingdom.' And 
 though our Judge shall even then retain the character 
 of a Man, yet, as God who orcUiincd him, shall be pre- 
 sent with him in the same person, the act of the last 
 judgment is equally ascribed to both natures. In the 
 text, just above cited, it is said — ' He (God) wlW Judge 
 the world ;' though it immediately follows, that a Man, 
 even the Man Christ, is ordained to this office. And so 
 we have it again in the Epistle to the Romans. — ' We 
 shall all stand before \.\\q judgmeut-seat of Christ. For 
 it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall 
 bow to ME, and every tongue shall confess to God. So 
 
 ' Acts,xvii. 31. ^ 1 Tim. iii. 16. ^ 2 Cor. v. 10. 
 
152 
 
 then, every one of us shall give account of himself to 
 God/^ We shall all give account of ourselves at the 
 judgment-seat of Christ. And how does the Apostle 
 prove it ? Why, because it is written, that we shall all 
 confess to God, who livdh for ever and ever. But un- 
 less Christ, who is a Man, be also this living God and 
 Lord, this proof is not to the purpose." And that he 
 is so in the Apostle's contemplation, is rendered, if pos- 
 sible, still more clear by the conclusion of the argu- 
 ment, which I have added to Mr. Jones's quotation ; for 
 there, viz. in v. 12, the word God is substituted for 
 Christ in v. 10, in a way which unanswerably shews, 
 that in the Apostle's mind, God and Christ were one 
 Person. 
 
 As I have no intention of ever appearing again in 
 this controversy, or imposing upon myself the irksome 
 task of reading any future pubhcation that may issue 
 from the Anti-Trinitarian press at Alnwick, I shall here 
 just point out the antidote to the poisons which our ad- 
 versaries actually extract for their own use, and wick- 
 edly attempt to impart to others, from a few other 
 portions of the pure milk of God's word. Several per- 
 sons, I know, will read these pages in consequence of 
 their particular connection or acquaintance with me, 
 who could never be persuaded to read the elaborate 
 work of Pearson on the Creed, or even Jones's short 
 Tract on the Catholic Doctrine of aTrinitj^ If, there- 
 fore, it had no other eifect but that of surprising such 
 persons into a perusal o^ the extracts I have made from 
 those excellent v/orks in this and a preceding note, my 
 publication would not be altogether unproductive of 
 good. 
 
 1 Rom. xiv. JO— 12, and Is. xlv. 23. 
 
15.i 
 
 Tlie clause of the Athaiiasian Creed which staiuUat 
 the head of this note, is a full and sufficient correction 
 of the Anti-Trinitarian perversions of the six texts next 
 followini^, marked thus ;* hut I shall subjoin to one or 
 two of them, a short note from Jones. 
 
 * John, xiv. 28. — *' My Father is p^reater than I," — 
 That is, Christ is ** inferior to the Father, as touching 
 his Manhood." 
 
 * 1 Cor. xi. 3. — " The head of Christ is God." — 
 *' This text is capable of a good illustration from Gen, 
 iii. 15, where we read, that the //tr/of the promised seed 
 should be bruised : by which the church has always un- 
 derstood the sufferings of his hiwuin nature, metaphori- 
 cally represented by the inferior part in man. So, in 
 this place, his Diiifiifi/ or superior na/ure is aptly signi- 
 fied by the head or .superior part of the human body." 
 
 * Mark, xiii. 32. — " But of that day and hour know- 
 eth no man, no, not the Angels which are in Heaven, 
 neither the Son, but the Father." 
 
 " It is declared of Christ in another place, that he in- 
 creased in wisdom. Why should it be inconceivable then, 
 that during the whole term of his humiliation in the 
 Hush, something should t^till be left, which, as man, upon 
 earth he did not know ? If you suppose him to be igno- 
 rant of this matter, as Cwd," or in his wholenature, how- 
 ever regarded, " how is it that St. Peter confesses him 
 to be omniscient, without receiving any rebuke for it, 
 or being reminded of any particular exception? — * Lord, 
 thou knowest all things.' **- 
 
 * Acts, X. 4*0. — " Him God raised up and shewed 
 HIM openly unto us, who did eat and diink with him 
 after he rose from the dead." 
 
 - John, .xxi 17. Sec al«o xvi. 30. 
 
154 
 
 John, X. 18. — '* I have power to lay it (my lite) 
 down, and I have power to take it again." And 
 John, xxi. ]. " After these things Jesus shewed him- 
 self again to his disciples, at the Sea of Tiberias : and 
 on this wise shewed he himself." 
 
 " The former text takes something from Christ, as 
 man; in which capacity he was at the disposal of the 
 Father. But the" two^ " latter restore it to him again 
 as God ; under which character he is at his own dis- 
 posal, and in unity with the Father. The same is to be 
 said of the two articles which follow." 
 
 * Eph. iv. 32. — ** Forgiving one another, even as 
 God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you." 
 
 Col. iii. 13. — ** Forgiving one another, — even as 
 Christ hath forgiven you." 
 
 * John, vi. 38. — *' I came down from Heaven, not to 
 do MY OWN WILL ; but the will of him that sent me," 
 
 Matt. viii. 2. — " And behold there came a leper, and 
 worshipped him, saying. Lord if thou wilt, thou canst 
 make me clean. And Jesus said, I will ; be thou 
 clean." 
 
 John, iii. 16.—" God so loved the world, that he 
 GAVE his only begotten Son." 
 
 Ephes. v. 25. — " Christ loved the Church, and gave 
 himself for it." 
 
 The former of these texts has no reference to Christ's 
 manhood. See the conclusions of notes F and G. 
 
 Matt. XX. 23. — " To sit on my right hand, and on 
 my left, is not mine to give ; but it shall be given to 
 them for whom it is prepared of my Father." 
 
 " Yet our blessed Saviour has promised elsewhere, to 
 
 * Jones only quotes one of the two, viz. John, xxi. 1. 
 
15. 
 
 bestow this rcwanl in his awn righl, * To him that OTcr- 
 Cometh will I on a NT to sit with ine in my throne.' 
 Rev. iii. 21. This is sufficient to rescue the text from 
 any lieretical use that may have hecn made of it." If 
 there remains any difficulty, it arises from the words by 
 which the elh'psis is supj^lied in the latter clause of Matt. 
 XX. 23. So scrupulously conscientious were our honest 
 translators, that they never supplied the commonest 
 ellipsis without warnins: their readers of what they had 
 done, by printing the words supplied in Italics. The 
 words, // shall be £^/re« io them, in this verse, have no 
 words corresponding to them in the original language, 
 and therefore, in all legitimate copies of the Bible, are 
 printed in Italics, The verbatim translation therefore is 
 as follows, " To sit on my right hand and on my left is 
 not mine to give, but for whom it is prepared of my 
 Father." This is elliptical, but sufficiently intelligible ; 
 and it must be apparent to every one, that our transla- 
 tors have supplied more words than are required, or 
 than are at all likely to have been in the contemplation 
 of the original penman. All that need be supplied to 
 make the sense complete, is the antecedent to the rela- 
 tive whom, thus, ** To sit on my right hand and on n\y 
 left is not mine to give,** but to them for whom it is pre- 
 pared of my Father." 
 
 " The scope of the text therefore," (to resume the 
 words of Mr. Jones,) '' is to shew that nothing can be 
 granted even by .Almighty power itself, where there is 
 not a suitable merit or disposition in the persons who 
 claim it. ' God will give this honourable place to those 
 for whom it is prepared by an invariable rule ofjustice ; 
 
 * Compare lliis in the (ireek, with MarW, ix. 8, Matt. xvii. 8, 
 and xix. 1 1. 
 
156 
 
 whose victory of faith being foreknown and accepted, a 
 seat is allotted them according to it.' The two pass- 
 ages laid together, supply us with this principle. As if 
 our Saviour, who is the speaker in both places, had 
 said, — ' Though it be not mine to give, save to them 
 for whom it is prepared of my Father ; yet, to him that 
 overcoraeth, will I (even I myself) grant to sit with me 
 in my throne ; because for him it is prepared.* 
 
 " It is not owing to any defect of power in the Trinity, 
 or in any Person of it, that the Divine purpose cannot 
 be changed ; but because it is impossible for the All- 
 perfect God to break in upon the order of his distribu- 
 tive Justice. And it is upon this account only that we 
 read of Christ, Mark, vi. 5, ' He could there do no 
 mighty work/ For the power of doing a miracle was 
 always present with him ; but the place being hnproper 
 because of their unheliej\ made the thing impossible. In 
 the same manner^ that declaration of the Lord in Gen. 
 xvii. 22, is to be accounted for — * Haste thee, escape 
 thither, for I cannot do any thing, till thou be come 
 thither.' No man would hence conclude, that the hand 
 of God is straitened, or his power limited ; but only 
 that he does, and by his own nature viust, act agree- 
 able to the disposition of things and persons known to 
 himself." 
 
 John, V. 19 and 30. — " The Son can do nothing of 
 himself. — I can of mine own self do nothing." 
 
 I have great pleasure in referring my Alnwick read- 
 ers to James Crozer's Substance of a Debate in the Uni- 
 tarian Chapel, page 24, (omitting the preceding com- 
 parison, which rather spoils it,) for the true answer to 
 the heretical argument founded upon these words. Like 
 those last considered, they speak of one of the adorable 
 
157 
 
 Attributes of the Deity, namely, tlie wonilerful and to 
 us inconceivable perfection of the Unity between the 
 Three Persons of the Godhead. This arises naturally 
 out of the infinite perfection of the other Attributes, as I 
 have shewn in page 4-9. So complete is this Divine 
 Union, that whatever is done by one of the Three Per- 
 sons of the (iodhead. is at the same time done by the 
 other two ; and, therefore, none of them can do any 
 thing of himself. Jesus himself has explained the words 
 in the 19th verse exactly in this manner, — " The Sou 
 can do nothing of liiaiself, but v/hat he seeth the Father 
 
 do: FOU WHAT THINGS SOEVER He DOETII, THESE 
 ALSO DOETH THE SoN LIKEWISE." lu COnSCqUCnCe of 
 
 the same harmonious Union of the Divine Nature, Je- 
 sus says of the Spirit, in John, xvi. 13 — 15, " He shall 
 not speak of himself ; but whatsoever he shall hear, 
 that shall he speak. He shall glorify me : for he 
 .SHALL RECEIVE OF MINE, and sliail slicw it unto 
 you. All things that the Father hath are mine : 
 therefore, said I, that he shall receive of mine, and shall 
 shew it unto you." 
 
 Tliis all-perfect Unity, this identity of action and 
 purpose and thought, is an essential and most adorable 
 attribute of the one God in Trinity, whom alone 
 the Bible teaches us to worship ; and the argument 
 (hawn from that attribute r.gainst the omnipotence of 
 God the Son, or (iod the Holy Ghost, is exactly of the 
 same value as that which might be drawn from Tit. i. 
 2, '* God, that cannot lie." 
 
 1 Cor. viii. 4, 5, 6. — ** Tiiere is none otlier God 
 but one. For though there be that are called gods, 
 whether in heaven or in earth, (as tlu.'ie be gods many 
 and lords many, (but to us iherc is hut one God, the 
 
158 
 
 Father, of whom are all things, and we in him ; and 
 ONE Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and 
 we by him." 
 
 "To us THERE IS BUT ONE GoD, THE FaTHER," is the 
 
 favourite motto of the Anti-Trinitarians, and they pro- 
 nounce it decisive against the Deity of the Son and of 
 the Holy Ghost. It would be easy to shew, and per- 
 haps I may have occasion to shew by and by, that 
 these words, taken Inj themselves, do not lead to any 
 such conclusion ; but let us first consider them in con- 
 nection with the passage of which they form a part. 
 Whoever does so, must immediately see that the ex- 
 pression, " one God, the Father," is not to the exclu- 
 sion of the Lord Jesus Christ, more than the expression, 
 " one Lord, Jesus Christ," is to the exclusion of God 
 the Father ; but that both are to the exclusion of the 
 gods many and lords many of the heathen nations. " In 
 these words," says Bishop Pearson, " as the Father is 
 opposed as much unto the many lords as many gods, so 
 is the Son as much unto the many gods as maiiy lords, 
 the Father being as much Lord as God, and the Son as 
 much God as Lord." Every argument that pretends to 
 prove, from this passage of Scripture, that Jesus Christ 
 is not God, must prove, exactly on the same grounds, 
 that the Father is not Lord ; and thus leading to a con- 
 clusion which every one knows to be false, must be a 
 false argument. It proves too much, and therefore no- 
 thing. 
 
 The Anti-Trinitarian exposition of this passage is 
 founded upon an assumption that the word Lord, which 
 throughout all the Scriptures is familiarly applied to the 
 supreme God, is here used in a subordinate sense, in 
 which it is not applicable to Jehovah : and that in hea- 
 
159 
 
 then mythology the lords were inferior to the gods; 
 thoun^h, before assenting to that distinction, I should 
 like to see a single passage from any (Ireek author in 
 which the words ««{<•? and 6u^, lord and god, are used 
 in that relative sense. Without such authority, they 
 cannot expect any reasonable man to admit the last 
 mentioned part of their assumption ; and even if that 
 were not doubted, he must find out a sense of the word 
 Lord inapplicable to Jehovah, before he can assent to 
 the former part. And suppose the assumption were as 
 probable and well founded, as it is improbable and ar- 
 bitrary, it would only add one more to the many texts 
 in which the human nature of Christ is distinguished 
 from the Divine. For upon that assumption, the only 
 way,and in /rw/A thebestway to understandtheword/'tf- 
 thcr, in the expression, " One God, the Father," is, not 
 as the distinguishing title of the first Person in the Tri- 
 nity, — (a sense, by the bye, in which Anti-Trinitarians 
 can never understand it,) but as " our Father," or ^' the 
 Father of all," in either of which senses it is applicable 
 to the whole Trinitij in Uniti/, and therefore can have 
 no tendency to exclude the Deity of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, from the Unity of " the one living and true God." 
 See note G. 
 
 John, xvii. .3. — " And this is life eternal ; that they 
 might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, 
 whom thou hast sent. 
 
 Here the Man Jesus Christ addresses himself in 
 prayer to God, his Father, in Heaven. This prayer 
 seems to be addressed more particularly to God the 
 Father: but no true worshipper can address the Father 
 to the exclusion of the Son and the Holy Ghost, with 
 whom He is perfectly united and identified ; and that it 
 
160 
 
 is the united Trinity, vith whicli himself as God was 
 one, (v. 22,) that Jesus here recognises as " the only 
 true God." The texts, " The God of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ/' or " the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ/' recognise, in a similar manner, the distinction 
 between the manhood and the Godhead of our Saviour. 
 Such things are too wonderful and excellent for vs. O 
 Lord, who can attain unto them ? Those who are here- 
 after admitted to see thee as thou art, will understand 
 more of them in a moment, than the wisest man upon 
 earth could discover by ages of deep contemplation. 
 
 (d) p. !?• — We have strong reason to believe, if not posi- 
 tive evidence to assert, that he remained in subjection to 
 them for thirty years. 
 
 " When he was twelve years old," Jesus accompanied 
 his parents in their annual visit to Jerusalem, at the 
 feast of the Passover. And having there, in his conver- 
 sation with tlie doctors in the Temple, given astonishing 
 proofs of the wisdom with which he was filled, and the 
 Spiritual strength which he already ])0ssessed, through 
 the grace of God that was upon him, " he went down 
 with Joseph and his mother, and came to Nazareth, and 
 was subject unto them."^ From this time till he was about 
 thirty, all we are told about Jesus is, that he continued 
 to " increase in wisdom and stature, and in favour with 
 God and man."2 When he was " about thirty years of 
 age ;*'3 when all the people m ere resorting to John to be 
 baptised, ^^ in those days it came to pass, that Jesus came 
 
 ^ Luke. ii. 40—51. ' Luke, ii. 52. ' Luke, iii. 23. 
 
 10 
 
161 
 
 frwn Nnzardk of Galilee, and Nras baptised of Joliii in 
 Jordan."^ 
 
 It is clear, therefore, tliat, up to the thirtieth year of 
 his age, Jesus continued to live in the same village ; nor 
 could one so much raised ab<ivo all worldly and personal 
 considerations, have had any motive not to continue to 
 live in the same house, with his reputed father and un- 
 doubted mother. But it is the duty of every one, as long 
 as he remains under the parental roof, and indeed of 
 every inmate of a family, whether constant or occasional, 
 to yield obedience to all the innocent regulations enjoined 
 by the father, or head of the family, for the orderly go- 
 vernment of the household committed to his charge. The 
 father and mother of a family are responsible to God for 
 the well governing thereof; and therefore must have, 
 by the will of God, a right to be thus obeyed by every 
 person under their roof. But Jesus never failed in the 
 performance of a single duty; therefore, whatever rea- 
 son we have to think that he remained for thirty years 
 an inmate of Joseph and Mary's house, we liave the 
 same reason to believe that he remained in subjection to 
 them for that period. 
 
 The boldness of his mother in suggesting to Jesus his 
 first miracle at the marriage in Cana of Galilee,' seems 
 to indicate a habit of having her requests com])lied with 
 by him : And the rebuke, with which he accompanied his 
 compliance in this instance, seems to have been intended 
 to counteract that habit, by apprising her, that though 
 he had hitherto oljeijcd her as being her son, living as a 
 private individual in the house <»f which she was mistress, 
 neither she n(»r any human being must presume to dic- 
 
 ♦ Mark^.iO, ^ John, ii. 1 — l- 
 
162 
 
 tate to him in matters relating to the high and holy of- 
 fice, on the public exercise of which he was now about to 
 enter. 
 
 The above considerations amount, I think, to a pretty- 
 strong reason for helieving that Jesus remained in sub- 
 jection to Joseph and Mary till his thirtieth year, and 
 there is a way of translating Luke, iii. 23, which would 
 give us positive evidence to assert it. The first clause of 
 that verse is thus rendered in our authorised version — 
 " And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of 
 age." The word " began" answers to two words in the 
 Greek, h u^^ofuvo?, was begmning. A^^^o^ivo^ is either 
 the middle or passive participle present of the verb «§>i«, 
 whose primary signification is to cause to begin, the 
 meaning corresponding to which in the middle voice is io 
 begin, and in the present participle, beginning. But since 
 to cause to begin is an act of precedence or authority, the 
 same verb, e^^x^y ^Iso signifies to take the lead, to com-' 
 maud, and thence, in the present participle passive, 6e- 
 ing comma?ided, and therefore subject to command, or in 
 subjection. If we adopt this signification of u^xofcucq, in- 
 stead of the more literal one adopted in the authorised 
 Translation, Luke, iii. 23, would be rendered thus — 
 "And Jesus himself was in subjection about thirty 
 years, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph," &c. 
 
 (e) p. 26. — " Why callest thou me good ? There is none 
 good but one, that is God." — Matt. xix. 17. Mark, x. 
 18. Luke, xviii. 19- 
 
 " If it should here be asked, for what reason Christ put 
 this question — ' Why callest thou me good ?' I answer/' 
 
16S 
 
 (says Mr Jones,) ^' for the same reason that he asked the 
 Pharisei»s why Darid in Spirit called him Lord ;^ and 
 that was to try if they were able to account for it. This 
 ruler, by addressing our Saviour under the name of 
 frood Master, when the inspired I'silniist had afHrnied 
 long before that ' there is none that doeth good, no not 
 one,*' did in effect, unconsciously, allow him to be God ; 
 no mere man, since the fall of Adam, having any claim 
 to that character. And when he was called uj)()n to ex- 
 plain his meaning, for that God only is good, he should 
 have replied, in thcMords of St. Thomas — ' My Lord and 
 my G(xl ;' which would have been a noble instance of 
 faith, and have cleared up the whole difficulty." — Cath. 
 Doct, of Trin. chap. I. sec. xxiv. 
 
 This view by no means contradicts what I say in p. 
 26, " that our Lord declined the title good Master when 
 applied to him as man, during his state of trial and hu- 
 miliation." For the ruler did apply it to him in that 
 character alone, and our Lord, by pointing out the im- 
 propriety of such application, declined the title as man, 
 while at the same time he tacitly laid claim to it as God, 
 
 (f) p. 28. — The imperfection of human language, parti' 
 cularlif ivhen emploi/ed upon spiritual subjects. 
 
 It is only a very obscure insight, that the most en- 
 lightened Christian is enabled to obtain on earth into the 
 glories of God and his heavenly kingdom. We have no 
 natural faculties for the perception of spiritual objects, 
 except, perhaps, of our own souls. With regard to these 
 
 « Matt. xxii. 13. ' Psalm xiv. .3. 
 
164 
 
 objects, therefore, we cannot walk hj sight, nor form the 
 most remote conception of them, without the interven- 
 tion oi faith J which is a spiritual organ, supernaturally 
 conferred by the Holy Ghost, with which spiritual things 
 are discerned, darkly reflected, as in a glass or mirror, 
 from known and sensible objects. Our best ideas of the 
 invisible things of God are necessarily formed, by analogy 
 and comparison, from the things we are acquainted with 
 here below ; nor can we speak of the things pertaining 
 to the kingdom of God, without employing language 
 which is more properly applicable to the things of this 
 world. It requires the constant exercise of faith unfeign- 
 ed to prevent this unavoidable imperfection of human lan- 
 guage giving us gross and unworthy notions of God, and 
 his operations, and attributes. 
 
 For example, the word Person, which is applied to the 
 Holy Ghost in page 23, and which is also applied to the 
 Father and the Son, is the best word that our language 
 supplies to express the idea intended. The idea itself, 
 however, the best idea we can form of the personality of 
 the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is 
 very obscure and inadequate ; and the word employed is 
 very inadequate to express even that imperfect idea. 
 
 Again, the words Father and Son are the best that can 
 be found to express the relation of the first and second 
 Persons of the Trinity to each other ; but it requires the 
 eye of faith and sincerity to discern the true meaning of 
 those words when so applied. While infidels blasphemous- 
 ly cavil, like their Alnwick missionary, at " the notion of 
 a begotten God," the humble-minded believer readily per- 
 ceives that the expression " only begotten Son," as ap- 
 plied to the Saviour, either before or after his incarna- 
 tion, is not intended to teach us any thing respecting the 
 
16. 
 
 munnir n\ which GihI the Soil derived his bein*; from 
 God the Father. This, he at once sees, can K'ar no ana- 
 logy to any thinf; within the reach of human apprehen- 
 sion, and, therefore, he is not guilty of the presumptu- 
 ous folly of attempting to form any idea upon the sub- 
 ject. All that lie can understand by the expression "on- 
 ly begotten Son of God," is, that (jod the Son has deri- 
 ved his existence from God the Father in a peculiar man- 
 ner, different from that of every other being ; and tliat the 
 relation resulting from that peculiar generation is l^est 
 represented to us by the relation between father and 
 son. I say best represented, but still very imperfectly ; 
 for the most perfect equality of nature, and unity of 
 counsels and desires, that we can figure to our imagina- 
 tions between father and son, still falls infinitely short of 
 the Divine reality. 
 
 A similar observation may be made respecting the man- 
 ner in which the Holy Ghost derives his being from the 
 Father and the Son. Not a syllable is contained in Scrip- 
 ture, from which even the most daring mind can venture 
 to form an idea uj)ou the subject. We are told expressly 
 that he " proceedeth," that is, derives his existence, 
 " from the Father ;"^ and indirectly,^ that he proceedeth 
 from the Son ; but as to the manner in which he pro- 
 ceedeth from the Father and the Son, we are told no- 
 thing, and can know nothing. 
 
 This necessary imperfection of human language 0])ens 
 a wide field for the cavils of unbelievers ; m ho, blinded 
 by pride and perverseness of heart, are continually affix- 
 ing gross, pagan ideas to Christian words, and then tri- 
 
 » John, XV. 26. 
 
 ' See p. 24; and compare Matt. x. 20, 1 Cor. ii. 11, with Gal. 
 iv. 6, Rom. viii. 9, 1 Pet. i. 11, Phil. L 19. 
 
166 
 
 umphing in the demolition of the phantoms thus created 
 by themselves. 
 
 The system which they uphold, the idol which they 
 worship, is also of pagan origin. The God of the Soci- 
 nians is the same as the God of the Epicureans, a soli- 
 tary God ; who, antecedent to all creation, had existed 
 from eternity, supremely happy in the contemplation of 
 his own unexercised perfections. The communication of 
 his happiness and perfections is, on the contrary, essen- 
 tial to the happiness, and is the highest perfection of our 
 berievolenl God, the only true God, revealed in Scripture. 
 Since, therefore, it were impious, as well as absurd,, to 
 suppose that the unchangeable God can be less happy, or 
 less perfect at one time than at another, it is certain that 
 there never can have been an instant in which the hap- 
 piness of God was cbiifined to the solitary enjoyment of 
 his own perfections. Reason, therefore, compels us to be- 
 lieve that God the Father must, from all eternity, have en- 
 joyed the society of one or more co-equals ; and revelation, 
 by proclaiming them all eternal and Divine, shews that 
 God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, 
 three Persons in the same Divine Essence, have all ex- 
 isted from everlasting, supremely happy in the perfect 
 union and communion of all their perfections, counsels, 
 wishes, and enjoyments. If it be objected, that we cannot 
 reconcile the eternity of God the Sou and God the Holy 
 Ghost with the derivation of their existence from the Fa- 
 ther, I answer, that our intellects are totally inadequate 
 to grapple with eternity, or to give a definite decision up- 
 on any thing into which that incomprehensible idea en- 
 ters. Nothing can be more absurd than for us to pretend 
 to have an opinion respecting the origin of any thing 
 ETERNAL ; and we are quite as incapable of conceiving 
 
167 
 
 the eternal existence of the Deity at all, as that particu- 
 lar mode of it, mIucIi the Scriptures iuform us is the true 
 one. 
 
 Even were the Deity comprehensible in /every thing 
 but his eternity, the incomprehensibleness of that eter- 
 nity would demonstrate the folly and absurdity of all spe- 
 culations relating to the eternal generation of the Son. 
 This absurdity is immeasurably increased by our utter 
 inability to form an ade(|uatc conception of the Deity in 
 any of his attributes. Wise and happy are they who hum- 
 bly acquiesce in this necessity of their nature, and never 
 torture their //w/7c understandings by vainly attempting 
 to make them comprehend in/ifiih/. But if any person's 
 mind be so vitiated with vain philosophy, as not to be 
 able to repose in the simple doctrine of Scripture as to 
 the relation of God the Sou to God the Father, without 
 some analogy to reconcile that relation M'ith their co-eter- 
 nity ; or if any one wish for such analogy to stop the 
 mouths of gainsayers ; since " God is a Spirit," he must 
 seek for that analogy in the spiritual world, where he 
 knows nothing sufficiently to found an analogy upon, but 
 his own rational soul. It is by analogies drawn from its 
 qualities and operations, divested, as far as the imagina- 
 tion can divest them, of all faults and imperfections, that 
 we are able to form our Ix'st conceptions of all the acts 
 and attributes of God. Very inadequate must ever be the 
 ideas thus formed, even M'hen there does exist something 
 in our minds resembling, at an infTnite distance, what is 
 revealtnl to \is of the Deity ; and it is impossible for us 
 to form any idea whatever of the viinmer of the eternal ge- 
 neration of the Son from the P'ather alone, {fMnti U ftevou,) 
 to which there is nothing in the operations (»f our minds 
 that bears even an infinitely distant resemblance. I-rt no 
 
168 
 
 one, therefore, so far deceive himself as to imagine that 
 he can discern in the following passage, translated from 
 the Thesaurus of Cyril of Alexandria,* anj^ thing more 
 than a faint illustration of the possibility of a spiritual 
 generation, coeval with the existence of an incorporeal 
 spiritual parent. 
 
 " If any one would investigate the generation from 
 liimself, (viz. of God the Son from God the Father,) he 
 ought to consider the fructifications of intellect, and to 
 endeavour rather to compare with them (than with phy- 
 sical propagations) the generation of the Word ; and not 
 to say that God is less capable of generating than body, 
 because he generates not in a corporeal way. That the 
 human intellect generates good thoughts, must necessa- 
 rily be confessed. If it be impious to suppose that the 
 human intellect is unfruitful, how much more absurd to 
 think that the Supreme Intellect should be unproduc- 
 tive, and to deprive it of its proper fructification.?"^ 
 Thus St. Cyril compares the generative faculty (if the 
 expression may be allowed) of the Divine Nature to the 
 necessary fecundity of Intelligence. And in another 
 place he says, " it may be conceived that the Son is in 
 
 • Made Bishop of Alexandria, a. d. 412. ".His Thesaurus is 
 a work upon the Trinity, in which he lays down thirty-five pro- 
 positions about the Divinity and consubstantiality of the Son and 
 Holy Spirit, which he proves exactly after the manner of the 
 scliools, by texts of Scripture, upheld and supported by arguments 
 and syllogisms in form, which he uses to subdue the Arians and 
 Eunomians, and to retort upon them those testimonies of Scrip- 
 ture which they commonly alleged. He propounds their objec- 
 tions in the same manner, and answers them with like subtilties." 
 — Du Pin's History of Ecclesiastical Writers. 
 
 2 See Bishop Horsley's Tracts in Controversy with Dr Priest- 
 ley. Disquisition iv. p. 521. 
 
169 
 
 sucii sort iK'i^ottcM of tlio FatluT, as wisdom is of intel- 
 lect. " lUit this is carry in«j: tlic matter too far, and propo- 
 sing un explanation of an inexplicable mystery, instead of 
 merely an illustration of its possibiliiij. For this latter 
 purpose, such comparisons as Cyril's are the best that can 
 be found, and, 1 think, (juite satisfactory ; but the mo- 
 ment we attempt to raise them into theories for explain- 
 iog the inaitfier o( the Eternal Generation, we get beyond 
 our depth, and involve ourselves in error and confusion.^ 
 It is stated in the Athanasian creed, as a Doctrine of 
 Scripture, that " the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Ghost, is all one; the glory equal, the 
 majesty co-eternal. — And in this Trinity, none is afore 
 or after other, none is greater or less than another ; but 
 the whole three persons are co-eternal together, and co- 
 equal." In that they are co-equal, none is greater or less 
 than another : in that they are co-eternal, none is afore 
 or after other. But though there is this perfect equality 
 in eternity, in power and glory ; still there is a distinc- 
 tion of order and of office, by which the Father is the 
 first Person in the Trinity, the Son the second, and the 
 
 ' ** In a subject so far above the compreliension of the human 
 mind, as the doctrine of the Trinity must be confessed to be in 
 all its branches, extreme caution should be used to keep the doc- 
 trine itself, as it is delivered in God's word, distinct from ever)' 
 thing that has been devised by man, or that may even occur to a 
 man's own thoughts, to illustrate or explain its difficulties. Since 
 the human mind in these inquiries is groping in the dark, every 
 step that she ventures to advance beyond the point to which the 
 clear light of revelation reaches, the probability is, that all these 
 private solutions are, in different ways and in different degrees, but 
 all, in some way and in some degree, erroneous." — Housllv's 
 TracU, ^c. Disq. iv. 
 
170 
 
 Holy Ghost the third. This is inferred from the very 
 names. Father and Son ; from the fact of the Son ha- 
 ving derived his being from the Father, and the Holy 
 Ghost from the Father and the Son ; and from the Son's 
 having been given^ and sen0 by the Father, and the Holy 
 Ghost by the Father and the son."* 
 
 (g) p. 31. — In this peculiar sense, children of God. 
 
 Men are called Children of God, and God their Fa- 
 ther, in various senses. 
 
 I. God is the '•' Father of all," as the author and 
 preserver of their being. See Ephes. iv. 6, 1 Cor. viii. 6, 
 Acts, xvii. 28, 29. Luke, iii. 38. Mai. ii. 10, Is. Ixiv. 8. 
 
 n. Since the Holy Ghost is God, God is in a more 
 peculiar sense the Father of all who are " born of water 
 and of the Spirit ;" that is, of all who " have been buried 
 by Christ by baptism unto death,"^ having thus in the 
 appointed way, " washed away their sius,"^ those deadly 
 enemies of the soul, and received " the gift of the Holy 
 Ghost,"7 to enable them to *' walk in newness of life."^ 
 In one or both of these senses, we are all instructed to 
 address God as " Our Father." See Mat. vi; 1, 4, 6, 8, 
 9, 14, 15, &c. and xxiii. 9. 
 
 III. Not only all Christians ; but all who at any time 
 have professed to worship the true God, have professed 
 
 ' John, iii. 16. ^ John, iii. 17, and 1 John, iv, 9. 
 
 * John, xiv. 26, and xv. 26. ■' Rom. vi. l. ^ Acts, xxii. 16. 
 " Acts, ii. -Sa 
 
171 
 
 (see Juhu, viii. il,) to bo iu a peculiar seuse Children of 
 God, and have occasionally been distinguished by that 
 Title, as in Gen. vi. 2. 
 
 IV. But only they who actually worship God in spirit 
 and in truth ; who obediently "' hear God's words,"** and 
 " love" him who " proceeded forth and came from God,"^ 
 are indeed the Children of God, in the sense to which 
 that title is confined in the Epistles of St. John. As " they 
 which are of the faith, the same are the children of Abra- 
 ham,"^ because they imitate the faith, and ''do the works 
 of Abraham ;"'^ so are they also called " children of 
 God,"^ because they are sincere" followers," or imitators 
 " of God, as dear children,""* because they cultivate true 
 love even towards their enemies, " that they may be 
 children of their Father w Inch is in Heaven ;^ heartily, 
 yet humbly endeavouring, " in the power of his might,"^ 
 to be " perfect even as their Father which is in Heaven 
 is perfect."' 
 
 The expression " born of' God" in St. John's Epistles, 
 means having become children of God. To be born, or 
 more literally to have been born of God, to be of God, and 
 to be Sons o/' God, are one and the same thing : and the 
 first time St. John uses the first of these expressions, he 
 distinctly explains in what sense we are to understand 
 it, namely, in the sense above deduced from his Gospel 
 and other parts of Scripture, " If ye know that he is 
 righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteous- 
 ness is born of him. Behold what manner of love the 
 
 " Jolin, viii. 47. ' Jol)n, viii. 42. 
 
 ' Gal. iii. 7. '^ John, viii. 39. ' Rom. ix. a * Ephes. v. I. 
 
 * Matt. V. 45. « Ephes. vi. 10. ^ Matt. v. 48. 
 
172 
 
 Father hath bestowed upon us, that we sliould be called 
 the Sons of God."^ 
 
 None can be said in this sense to be chUdre?i of God, 
 nor consequently to he of God, nor born of God, but these 
 who are actually ahidbig in true faith, and sincere obe- 
 dience ; for " Whosoerer abideth in Him sinneth not,"^ 
 and " Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin ; 
 for his seed remaineth in him ; and he cannot sin, because 
 he is born of God."^ — " The seed is the word of God -"^ 
 for " of his own will begat he us with the word of his 
 truth," saitli the Apostle James, i. 18. The meaning of 
 the above verse, (l John, iii. 9,) therefore is, '* Whosoever 
 is born of God doth not commit sin ; for if it be true that 
 he is born of God, he is a Son of God, earnestly desirous 
 of imitating his Father in Heaven ; and the seed of the 
 word remaineth in his heart, teaching him how to bring 
 his holy desires to good effect ; so that, strengthened by 
 Divine Grace, he cannot fail in his sincere endeavours to 
 do the Will of God : thus his freedom from sin is the test 
 and sign of his being born of God, the fruit of the seed 
 which remaineth in his heart." This interpretation of 
 the verse is abundantly confirmed by the context. Read 
 from the 6th to the lOth verse inclusive, and you will see 
 that to abide m God, and to be born of God, and to be 
 children of God, all mean the same thing in the Apostle's 
 mind ;* and that brotherly love and freedom from sin are 
 proposed as tests or signs by which the children of God 
 
 8 1 John, ii. 29, and iii. 1. ^ 1 John, iii. 6. ^ 1 John, iii. 9. 
 
 ^ Luke, viii. 11. 
 
 * Read also chap. ii. vv. 24 — 29, for a confirmation of the 
 identity of these expressions ; v. 24, as also v. 14-, are additional 
 proofs that in St. John's sense, " The Seed is the "Word of God." 
 
173 
 
 may l»e known, and tlio contrary qualities as marks of 
 the oliildren of the devil. 
 
 St. Peter describes tlie numerous class of men to whom 
 his first Epistle was addressed, as " elect accordin«^ to 
 the fore-knowled«^' of CmhI the Father, throufjh saiictifi- 
 cation of the spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the 
 blood of Jesus Christ;"^ and in their name and his own 
 blesses the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, 
 according to his abundant mercy, had hcgoticn them again 
 unto a lively hope."* The circumstance of the expres- 
 sion being applied, indiscriminately, to a large lx)dy of 
 men, as well as other considerations arising out of the 
 context, and the expression itself, " begotten again," i. c. 
 regenerated, shew that it is the grace of baptismal rege- 
 neration, and admission into the Christian Church, upon 
 which the Aj)ostle congratulates " the strangers scatter- 
 ed throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and 
 Bithynia." See p. 170. ii. p. 31, and p. 91 — 100. And it 
 is the same regeneration to which he refers, when he 
 exhorts them, in consequence of it, to brotherly loFe, 
 " See that ye love one another with a pure heart fervent- 
 ly ; being born again not of corruptible seed, but of in- 
 corruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and 
 abideth for ever."^ To them, therefore, as to every 
 adult convert, the word of God was a means employed to 
 convey the incorruptible seed of the Spirit, of which 
 tliey were Itorn again. I have heard it argued from the 
 incorrupt ibleness of the seed, that all who are born again 
 must " live and abide for ever." This opinion gains I 
 know not what fallacious plausibility from the words 
 " which liveth and abideth for ever," at the end of the 
 
 5 1 Pet- L 2. * V. 3. "• V. 23. 
 
174 
 
 verse. These words, however, manifestly apply either to 
 the antecedeut " God," or *' the word of God ;" and, 
 however they be applied, can add nothing to the force of 
 the epithet, '' incorruptible," which is applied to the 
 '' seed." Whether the word " seed," in this verse, be un- 
 derstood to mean *' the word of God" itself, or (which is 
 a more natural construction) the mysterious influence 
 of the Spirit which accompanies the Sacrament of Bap- 
 tism ; it is certain that seed is ^' incorruptible," or im- 
 mortal, and therefore liveth and abideth for ever. Other 
 seeds " are not quickened except they die ;" but this Di- 
 vine, immortal seed remaineth ever sound and fresh, how 
 great or how small soever be the growth arising from it. 
 In some soils it may hardly strike root, in some it may 
 produce a sickly, and in some a healthy plant ; but the 
 difference is owing entirely to the difference of the soil or 
 culture ; for the seed everywhere is, and always remains, 
 the same, ready to make vigorous shoots whenever it 
 meets with a genial soil. The Spiritual plant, if not 
 duly tended, may, at any stage of its progress here below, 
 wither, pine, and die to the very root, without in the 
 slightest degree impairing the inherent fecundity of the 
 " incorruptible seed," which liveth and abideth forever. 
 
 We may observe by way of corollary, to the four mark- 
 ed heads of this note, that the title Father, when applied 
 to God with reference to Men as his children, is not ne- 
 cessarily confined to the first Person of the Trinity. See 
 particularly the second head. See also Isaiah, ix. 6, 
 where the Son of God is called, " The mighty God, the 
 everlasting Father." In our daily prayers, we address 
 the united Trinity as " Our Father in Heaven." 
 
 We may also observe, that all the reasons why men may 
 be called children or sons of God, apply equally to the 
 
175 
 
 Man Jesus Christ. The fourth reason in ])articular, ap- 
 plies to him, witli infinitol y greater ])ropriety tl)an to any 
 other man ; for he alone of men has attained /';/ perfec- 
 tion, that resembhince to Gotl in which this exalted spe- 
 cies of Sonship consists. The Man Jesus Christ had, 
 moreover, a peculiar claim to " be called the Son of God," 
 arising from his miraculous conception, (see Luke, i. 35,) 
 and again from his rcsurrtH'tion, (see Acts, xiii. 32, 33, 
 and Col. i. 1 8.) But the highest and most strictly proper 
 sense, in which our Lord Jesus is culled the Son of God, 
 is that which we considered in the preceding note, ap- 
 pertaining to his Gmlhead ; in which sense he was " the 
 only begotten Son of God," before he was " sent into the 
 world ;"^ before all creation ;" " in the beginning,"^ even 
 from everlasting ; being begotten of the Father, '* by 
 eternal generation, in the same Divinity and Majesty 
 with himself."^ 
 
 (u) P. 44. — Their Creeds, or Rules of Faith, consisted 
 at Jirst simply of a declaration of belief in the Holy 
 Trinity. 
 
 " Immediately l)efore the ascension of our Saviour, he 
 said to his Apostles, All jxuvcr is given unto me in hea- 
 ven and in earth, Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, 
 baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, 
 and of the Holy Ghost. From this sacred form of bap- 
 tism did the church derive the Rule of Faith, requiring 
 the profession of belief in the Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost, l)efore any could be baptised in their name. 
 
 • John, iii. 16, 17, and 1 John, iv. 9. , ' Col. i. 15. 
 
 ' John, i. 1. ' Pearson on the Creed, vol. I. p. 66. 
 
176 
 
 Tliey who were converted unto Christianity were first 
 taught, not the bare names, but the Explications and De- 
 scriptions of them, in a brief, easy, and familiar way ; 
 which, when they had rendered, acknowledged, and pro- 
 fessed, they were baptised in them. And these, being 
 regularlyand constantly used, made up the Rule of Faith, 
 that is, the Creed. The truth of which may sufficiently 
 be made apparent to any, who shall seriously consider the 
 constant practice of the church, from the first ages un- 
 to the present, of delivering the Rule of Faith to those 
 which were to be baptised, and so requiring of themselves 
 or their sureties, an express recitation, profession, or ac- 
 knowledgment of the Creed." — Pearson, vol. I. pp. 55, 
 56. 
 
 In confirmation of this statement, Bishop Pearson 
 quotes, in a note, the Creed delivered to Constantine 
 by Arius and Euzoius, upon the exhibiting of which they 
 were restored to the communion of the church by the sy- 
 nod of Jerusalem. '^ We have derived this faith from the 
 holy Gospels, where our Lord says to his disciples. Go 
 ye, teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." In the 
 same manner, Eusebius delivered his Creed unto the 
 Council of Nice, concluding and deducing it from the 
 same text. And Vigilius* Tapsensis, in a Dialogue or 
 Conference, in which he introduces the opponents, Atha- 
 nasius and Arius, as speakers, makes them agree in the 
 following confession of faith. " We believe in God the 
 Father Almighty; and in Jesus Christ, his Son, our 
 Lord ; and in the Holy Ghost. This is the rule of our 
 
 * It is a prevailing opinion tliat this Vigilius, who was Bishop 
 of Tapsus, in Africa, near the end of the fifth century, drew up the 
 Athanasian Creed. 
 
 11 
 
177 
 
 faitli, whicli tlie Lord delivered with Divine authority to 
 
 his AjM»stles, saying, Cio yo, baptise/' ^:c. 
 
 The followiiifj passage, quoted by Archbishop Usher 
 in his Diatribe de lioniana; EcclesicB St/tnboio Ajwstolico, 
 t^Y:., from the Preface of an Ex|Kisition of tlie Creed, writ- 
 ten by Rufjinus of Aquileia about the end of the fourth 
 century, adds some degree of confirmation to Bishop 
 Pearson's statement, though contrary to the writer's own 
 opinion. — " I think it not improi)er to mention, that in 
 these forms of words, (Creeds,) some things are found to 
 have lx»en added in ditferent churches. In the church of 
 the city of Rome, liowever, this is not discovered to have 
 been done ; which I consider to be for these reasons, botli 
 because no heresy has originated tliere, and because the 
 ancient custom is there observed, that they who are about 
 to receive the grace of baptism repeat the Creed jiublicly, 
 that is, in tlie hearing of the body of believers ; and so the 
 audience of those who have gone before in the faith, pre- 
 vents the addition of a single word. But in other places, 
 as far as we can learn, somethings, by which opinions of 
 modern doctrine were thought to be excluded, seem to 
 have been added on account of particular heretics." 
 
 Mosheira, in his Ecclesiastical History, cent. i. part 
 ii. chap. iii. writes thus about the origin of the Apostles' 
 Creed. " There is extant a brief summary of the prin- 
 cipal doctrines of Christianity, which Ixjars the name of 
 the Apostles' Creed, and which, from the fourth century 
 downwards, was generally considered as a production of 
 the Apostles.* There is much more reason and judg- 
 
 • Ruffinus of Aquileia, above quoted, who died a. b. 410, "de- 
 clares that the Apostles had a conference together, to compel 
 
178 
 
 nient in tlie opinion of tliose who tliink that this Creed 
 was not all composed at once, but from small beginnings 
 was imperceptibly augmented, in proportion to the growth 
 of heresy, and according to the exigences and circum- 
 stances of the Church, from which it was designed to ba- 
 nish the errors that daily arose." 
 
 In every stage of its progress, from the simple decla- 
 ration of belief in God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
 to the form in which it appears in our liturgy and office 
 of baptism, this summary would naturally retain the name 
 of the Apostles' Creed ; for the express design of every 
 authorised addition to it has been to preserve the true 
 meaning of each article, as it was taught and cocpound- 
 ed by the Apostles. In the viiith Article of our Church, 
 it is described as " that which is commonly called the 
 Apostles' Creed," to shew that we are not to consider it as 
 a particular form of words, drawn up by the Apostles, 
 but as a Creed containing the fundamental doctrines 
 which they taught. In like manner, that " Confession of 
 Christian Faith, commonly called the Creed of St. Atha- 
 nasius," is not supposed to have been written by Atha- 
 nasius, but it bears his name, because he was a most zea- 
 lous defender of the tenets it contains, against the Arian 
 heresy. 
 
 " Much less objection would have been started against 
 the Athanasiau Creed, if the circumstances which occa- 
 sioned the several expressions in it had been duly consi- 
 dered. This Creed, it may safely be allowed, has appa- 
 
 the Greed, before they divided, that so they might teach all whom 
 they should convert by the same common Creed. That it is call- 
 ed Symbolum, either because it is the result of a conference be- 
 twixt several persons, or because it is the mark of distinction 
 whereby Christians are known.*' — Du Pm. 
 
179 
 
 rentlti the fault wliich lias been cliarp;c<l upon it, of at- 
 tempting to tlcfine witli accuracy, and to reduce within 
 the conipass of language, matters which are confessedly 
 lx»yond the reach of human intellect, and not to be ex- 
 pressed by any terms of human invention. This fault, 
 however, did not arise from the intention of those who 
 framed it. They were called upon to guard against the 
 erroneous opinions of different heretics, who had intro- 
 duced, on the subject of the Trinity and Incarnation, va- 
 rious subtilties of explanation, tending to degrade reli- 
 gion, and sanction positions inconsistent with just views 
 of Revelation. In these circumstances it was necessary 
 to multiply articles, for the purpose of meeting heresy 
 at every point ; and to make various affirmations of 
 trutli, not so much for the purpose of defining what men 
 ought, as of excluding what they ought not to believe." 
 The Athanasian Creed Vindicaledy S^^c. hy the Rev. James 
 Richardson, M. A. of Queen's College, Oxfordj ^c. 
 who refers to Quarterly Review, No. XI. October 1811, 
 p. 192. 
 
 (i) P. 4-9. — Whatever is known hi) the Father is knonn 
 by the Son, and known by the Holy Ghost. 
 
 I annexed the letter of reference to these words as 
 they were passing through the press, with the intention 
 of here considering the Socinian objection to the senti- 
 ment they contain, founded upon Mark, xiii. 32. But 
 that purpose has Ixjen anticipated in Note (c) p. 15.3. 
 There, two passages are produced, to prove the omni- 
 science of Christ, as God. Instances of this omniscience 
 are frequent in the Gos|)els. One of them (John.i.^.'i — 
 
180 
 
 50) at once convinced Natlianael that he was the Son of 
 God, the Messiah, or King of Israel. Another (John, iv. 
 17 — 29) produced a like conviction in the woman of Sa- 
 maria. And it was the overpowering consciousness that 
 he knew, and could expose, their most secret sins, which 
 caused the Scribes and Pharisees and all the people, to 
 steal out of the Temple one by one, when Jesus challen- 
 ged him that was without sin to come forward, and first 
 cast a stone at the adulteress. (Johi., viii. 3 — 9.) See 
 other proofs of the Son's omniscience in Luke, v. 22, vi. 
 8, ix. 47, xi. 17. 
 
 As to the omniscience of the Holy Ghost, it is a branch 
 of his peculiar office to reveal to us the counsels of God. 
 " For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of 
 man ; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by 
 the Holy Ghost." 1 The Apostles and Prophets of the 
 New Testament also were inspired by the Holy Ghost, 
 who " guided them into all truth," ^ <' brought all things 
 to their remembrance," " taught them all things."^ If 
 these, coupled with the general proofs of his Divinity, be 
 not sufficient to stop the mouths of the gainsayers, and 
 make them confess the omniscience of the Holy Ghost, 
 refer to that decisive passage, 1 Cor. ii. 10, " The Spi- 
 rit SEARCHETH ALL THINGS, YEA, THE DEEP THINGS 
 
 OF God." 
 
 (k) p. 57. — Kncytvingfrom his own experience the power' 
 Jul effect of 'pride in producing disobedience. 
 
 The most direct information we possess respecting the 
 case of the fallen angels, is contained in 2 Pet. ii. 4, and 
 
 1 2 ret. i. 21. '^ John, xvi. 13. ^ John, xiv. 26. 
 
181 
 
 Judo, G ; from Mliirh passages it appears that tliey were 
 created in a state of liappiiiess aud perfection C(»rrespond- 
 ing to their angelic natures ; and that the sin which occa- 
 sioned tlieir fall was PRIDE, ambitious and rebellious pride. 
 "The angels which kept not their first estate," saith St. 
 Jude, " but left their own habitation," (aspiring, doubtless, 
 to a higher and more glorious abode than had been assign- 
 ed them by the wisdom of their Creator,) " he hath reser- 
 ved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judg- 
 ment of the great day." The words in Isaiah, xiv. 12 — 15, 
 are, indeed, figuratively applied to the King of Babylon ; 
 but they have a clear allusion to the fiill of Satan, from 
 which the metaphor is manifestly borrowed, * and there- 
 fore are a strong confirmation, or rather a demonstration, 
 of the truth of the above view of the sin of Satan and his 
 angels. '' How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son 
 of the morning ! how art thou cast down to the ground, 
 which didst weaken the nations ! For thou hast said in 
 thy heart, I will ascend into heaven: I will exalt my 
 throne alxjve the stars of God : I will sit also upon the 
 mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north : I will 
 ascend above the heights of the clouds : I will be like the 
 Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought dow n to hell, to 
 the sides of the pit." That pride was the sin for which 
 the angels fell, is also apparent from 1 Tim. iii. 6. " Lest, 
 being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation 
 of the devil." 
 
 The preceding paragraph contains, I believe, the sura 
 total of what is revealed to us in Scripture, which is all 
 we can know, concerning the primary origin of evil, by 
 the apostacy of Satan and liis relx-d host. If it be not 
 
 * Compare Is. xiv. 1:^—15, with Luke, x. 18, and Rev. ix. 1, 11, 
 
18!^ 
 
 sufficient to satisfy the vain curiosity of man, it is amply 
 sufficient to vindicate the power and goodness of God, 
 which is the only purpose for which it concerns us to know 
 any thing upon the subject. Liberty of will, and a power 
 of regulating his actions by the dictates of that will, are 
 essential to the perfection of every rational being. With- 
 out freedom of judgment, reason cannot exist ; and that, 
 without liberty of acting according to his judgment, 
 would render reason a perpetual torment to its possessor. 
 But this power of judging and acting for himself must, 
 in every created and subordinate being, include the pos- 
 sibility of judging and acting wrong. The very existence 
 of rational creatures, therefore, implies the possibility of 
 evil : and with regard to the particular evil which caused 
 the first disobedience both of men and angels, viz. pridEj 
 we may observe, that the very excellences which are 
 given as a security against other evils, prove a temptation 
 to this ; and the more perfect and excellent the creature 
 is, the greater is this temptation to Pride, the mother of 
 evil. 
 
 (l) p. 58. — Nm- in the manner they would afterwards have 
 been opened, had they come to eat of the same fruit with 
 faith, and in obedience to the will of God. 
 
 The mode of conveying spiritual instruction by sym- 
 bols and visible signs, serving at the same time as exer- 
 cises of faith, and means of coil.lrming it, is a leading fea- 
 ture of God's intercourse with man in every period of the 
 world, and seems to be peculiarly suited to the constitu- 
 tion of human nature. " For since," says Archbishop 
 King,^ " man has a body as well as a soul, senses as well 
 
 ' In a Sermon on the Fall of Man. 
 
183 
 
 as uii(lor>taiuli!i«; ; and that tlie soul docs make use ^ti' the 
 or«:aiis of tlie lK)ily and of the senses for its information ; 
 an<l that this is the natural course of our acquiring kn(»w- 
 ledge ; it wore a violence to the nature of man to invert 
 the method, or separate the one from the other. And 
 tlierefore G(k1, in his communications with us, seems in- 
 dustriously to have avoided it. 
 
 " Now, this being the manner of God's entertaining 
 ail intercourse m ith man through the whole Scriptures, 
 it is very evident tliat the two remarka))Ie trees of Para- 
 dise, that of Life and that ofthe Knowledge of good and evil, 
 were designed for these mystical jmrposes, and intended 
 as settled and visible means to su])ply man with God's 
 influence and assistance." These trees Mere truly sacra- 
 mental. They were outward mid visible signs, to which 
 Go<l had actually attached an inward and Spiritual grace; 
 so that to have partaken of their fruit with faith, and in 
 olxidience to the Divine Will, would assuredly have pro- 
 cured, in one case, a happy Immortality,and in theother, an 
 elevating Knowledge of things spiritual, pure, and holy ; 
 but if partaken of unworthily, and in defiance of God's 
 commands, the former would doubtless have entailed an 
 eternal Life of misery, as we know that the latter did a 
 degrading and corrupting Knowledge of all things carnal, 
 sensual, devilish. And as the sinful eating of the fruit 
 of the tree of Knowledge brought death, and degradation, 
 and misery into the world, so there seems, no ground to 
 doubt, that had man persevered in his faith and obedi- 
 ence, the fruit of the tree of Life, and of the tree of Know- 
 ledge, would have l)een the means through which God 
 Avould actually have conferred uj)on him the rewards of an 
 enlightened and blessed Immortality, of which lie had ap- 
 jiointed them the tokens and ])ledges. Till, however. 
 
184 
 
 man should have rendered himself, by a humble^, faithful^ 
 and patient continuance in well-doing, fit for the secure 
 possession of glory, honour, and immortality, the fruit of 
 the tree of life seems to have been mercifully placed 
 beyond his power of attaining, by any knowledge he then 
 possessed ; and of the fruit of the tree of knowledge he 
 was forbid to eat on pain of death. 
 
 (m) p. 5Q. — If they acquired, at the same timcj some know- 
 ledge of human arts or their principles. 
 
 Knowledge is Power. And had the first parents 
 of mankind been intrusted at once with all the intellec- 
 tual power their faculties were capable of, their corporeal 
 weakness would have rendered them peculiarly liable, 
 through the influence of pride, to abuse that power, and 
 thus to fall into the same sin and the same condemnation 
 as the more perfect angels had done before. God, there- 
 fore, seems mercifully to have withheld from them at first 
 all knowledge but such as was essential to their happi- 
 ness in the circumstances in which they actually were, 
 and to have placed them in a state of probation admira- 
 bly calculated to strengthen their faith, and so prepare 
 them for the secure enjoyment of a more exalted state of 
 happiness, consisting in a nearer approach to God, and a 
 clearer insight into the wonders of his Almighty power. 
 The fruit of the tree of knowledge was the appointed sa- 
 cramental means of conveying to man this enlargement 
 of understanding. An enlargement of understanding wavS 
 the necessary consequence of eating thereof; but whether 
 the increase of knowledge so acquired should be good or 
 evil, a blessing or a curse, depended entirely upon whc- 
 
185 
 
 tliL'i tlic Iruit were eaten in ((iKnlienco or disobedience to 
 the coniuitUid of God. 
 
 (n) p. 62.— •y4«i/w«/ sacrifice y if not fotmallif apixjinled, 
 was at least accepted, and t/iercfore, we arc sure, sug" 
 iicslcd hij God, at its commencement, as a type of the 
 one true Sacrifce, to be once offered J or the sins of the 
 whole world. 
 
 " All holy desires, all goo<l counsels, and all just works 
 do proceed from God." Whether, therefore, the " faith by 
 which Abel offered unto God a more exceUent sacritice 
 than Cain," and " by which he obtained witness that be 
 was riijhteous, God testifyinjj^ of his gifts,"^ — Whether 
 that faith were demonstrated by obedience to a positive 
 eonnnand, or by prompt compliance with a holy sug- 
 gestion, in either Ciise the rite of animal sacritice origin- 
 alcd in the Will of God ; and its general adoption in the 
 world can only be accounted for by the existence of such 
 a persuasion, whether solely produced, or only confirm- 
 ed, by the " respect" which the Lord manifested " to 
 Alx,d and liis offering."^ This consideration brings Mr. 
 Benson's views on the subject into nearer accordance 
 with those of other divines than he himself seems willing 
 to a(bnit ; and admiring, ;is I do, the acuteness of all, and 
 acknowledging the tnitli of mo~st of his observations in 
 xth, xith, and xiith Hulsean Lectukes for 18ii2, I 
 still maintain the primitive Divine institution of animal 
 siurifire as typical of the sacritice of Christ. The inward 
 suggestion and risihle acceptance of Abel's offering are 
 
 ' lUb. xi. 1. ' Gen. iv. 4, 
 
186 
 
 quite sufficient to constitute a Divine institution, with- 
 out having recourse to the arbitrary supposition of a pre- 
 vious eo'press command. And with regard to the typical 
 nature of the institution, the beautiful ideas thrown out 
 by Benson in th« conclusion of his xiith Lecture, make 
 it not improbable that Abel might have some perception 
 of the significancy of offering animals, whose skins were 
 appointed to cover the bodily nakedness of fallen man, as 
 an expression of gratitude for the effectual covering to be 
 provided, through Christ, for their moral nakedness. To 
 perceive this, however, he must have had a farther insight 
 into the plan of redemption than he could obtain by his 
 own reason alone, from the terms of the promise, as re- 
 corded in Genesis, iii. 1 5. But the same Spirit who sug- 
 gested the propriety of the offering, could likewise so far 
 enlighten his understanding, as to enable him to see its 
 suitableness in this point of view, and, perhaps, to per- 
 ceive some faint resemblance between the slaying of a vic- 
 tim and the bruising of the Deliverer's heel. 
 
 (o) P. 65. — All the details, the express revelation of 
 which would have imposed an unnecessary and danger- 
 ous burden on the frailty of human faith. 
 
 Had the circumstances of Christ's history been predict- 
 ed by the Prophets, with the same distinctness and ful- 
 ness with which they are recorded by the Evangelists, it 
 would have required a greater degree of faith than has 
 ever yet been required of Man, for those who preceded 
 the accomplishment to believe them all : whereas those 
 who were eye-witnesses of the facts, or who have such de- 
 monstrative evidence as we possess, that they have actu- 
 
187 
 
 ally taken place, cannot «li^bolicvc tlioni witliout doing 
 violeuce to coninion sense. To us an exact knowledge of 
 particular facts, so far from overcliar'^in<;, supports our 
 faith ; for every circumstance recorded of Christ adds, ei- 
 ther as a fulfilment of prophecy or an evidence of Divine 
 Power, or Wisdou), or Goodness, to the accumulated proofs 
 of his Divine Mission, on the truth of which every article 
 of our faith depends ; but to those who lived before his 
 coming, the j)rediction of sucli circumstances, so far from 
 tending to add credibility to the simple declaration, tliat 
 the Messiali should be sent from God, would manifestly 
 have produced the very contrary etfect. 
 
 (p) P, 79- — " Repent and be haptised every one of you 
 
 IN THE NAME OF JeSUS ChRIST." 
 
 In Acts, xiv. 20, 21, we read that Paul " departed 
 with Barnabas to Derl>e : and when they had preached 
 the Gospel to that city and had taught many, they re- 
 turned, &c." Here an obvious distinction is made be- 
 tween preaching the Gospel and teaching. They are said 
 to have taught many, in a manner which obviously im- 
 plies, that they did not teach all in that city, to whom 
 they preached the Gospel. Those only who profited by 
 their preaching, and consequently embraced the Chris- 
 tian Religion, are here said to have been taught by the two 
 A|>ostles. The distinction is intelligible even as it is ex- 
 pressed in the English Bible ; but it is much clearer in 
 the original, wliere the word answering to /rt//if/// has in- 
 deed all the meanings of the English verb teach, but 
 would l>e more literally rendered (as it is in the margin 
 
188 
 
 of the very useful Edinburgh 8vo Bible,^) by made du- 
 ciples. The true meaning and iDost literal translation 
 of Acts, xiv. 21, therefore is, " And when they had 
 preached the Gospel to that city, and made many Dis- 
 ciples, they returned, &c." 
 
 The same verb, which signifies to teach, but more li- 
 terally to make disciples, is used in Matt, xxviii. 19 ; and 
 is different from the verb used in the next verse, which 
 could only be adequately rendered, as it there is, by the 
 word teaching. The most close and expressive transla- 
 tion of Matt, xxviii. I9, 20, is, therefore, that supplied by 
 the Scotch Margin Bible, " Go ye and {futhrtvTuri) 
 make Disciples (or Christians) of all nations, baptising 
 them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of 
 the Holy Ghost ; (^^^.j^rxovrg?) teaching them to observe 
 all things whatsoever I have commanded you." 
 
 In pursuance of these instructions, St. Peter tells those 
 who were pricked to the heart at his preaching on the 
 great day of Pentecost, that they must " repent and he 
 baptised in the name of Jesus Christ ;" and in two of 
 the places where the same expression occurs, viz. Acts, 
 viii. 16, and xix. 5, it might be rendered, '' baptised into 
 the name of the Lord Jesus." Hence it appears, that to be 
 baptised in the name of Christ, is to be made his Disciples, 
 to assume the name, enter into the engagements, and ob- 
 tain admission to the privileges of Christ's followers, by 
 his appointed ordinance of Baptism, administered in 
 
 THE FORM PRESCRIBEI> BY HIBISELF, in Matt. XXvili. 
 
 This interpretation of the phrase, baptised in the name 
 of Jesus Christ, is confirmed by 1 Cor. i. 12, 13 ; where St. 
 
 * Vulgarly known in Scotland by the name of the Margin 
 Bible. 
 
189 
 
 Paul reproves the Corinthians for sayings, '' I am of Paul, ' 
 ^c, hy JUikini^, " Wero ye baptised in the name of Paul ?" 
 Dill ye in Uiptisni profess yourselves disciples, followers, 
 or servants of Paul ? It is farther confinned, by Acts, 
 xxii. 1(), where the more usual expressi<»n, Ixiptlscd In the 
 name of the Ixyrd, is replaced by the etjuivaleut ex})res- 
 sion, baptised, calling on the name of the Lord: for to 
 call on the name of the Lord, means, in Acts, ii. 21, 
 sincere! 1/ to profess, and in Acts, ix. 14, opcnli/ to profess 
 the Christian Religion, wliich includes the worshipping 
 of Christ, or calling upon his name in prayer. 
 
 (o) P. 81. — ^' Unto ivhat then were ye baptised?" 
 
 This is an incidental confirmation of the fact of bap- 
 tism having been administered in the apostolic age 
 exactly according to the form prescribed by our Lord 
 in Matt, xxviii. 19. St. Paul manifestly took it for 
 granted that these disciples had received Christian Bap- 
 tism, which they might have done without having re- 
 ceived those sensible gifts of the Holy Ghost which were 
 wont to be conferred after baptism, by the imposition 
 of the Apostles' hands. But when they said that they had 
 not so much as heard whether there be any Holy (ihost, 
 he immediately saw that they could not have received 
 Christian Baptism ; for if they had, they must at least 
 have heard that there was a Holy Ghost, that baptism 
 being administered in the name of the Father, and of 
 the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 
 
190 
 
 (r) P. 82. — The circumstances of the Conversion of St. 
 Paul, as stated in the ninth and twenty-second chaptas 
 of the Acts of the Apostles. 
 
 One of the most daring of the modern blasphemers of 
 God's wordj in a publication entitled, not Paul, but 
 Jesus ; the avowed object of which is to destroy the 
 authority of the great Apostle to the Gentiles, by re- 
 presenting him as an impostor, and, consequently, 
 the accounts of his conversion as deliberate falsehoods ; 
 pretends to have discovered various disagreements in 
 those accounts as given in Acts, ix. xxii. and xxvi. The 
 most plausible of the instances he points out, and the 
 most likely to effect his diabolical purpose of perplex- 
 ing the minds and unsettling the faith of unlearned 
 men, is the apparent contradiction between Acts, ix. 7, 
 and xxii. 9. 
 
 ^* And the men which journeyed with him stood 
 speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man." — 
 Acts, ix. 7. 
 
 *' And they that were "with me saw indeed the light, 
 and were afraid ; but they heard not the voice of 
 
 IHM THAT spoke TO ME." ActS, Xxii. 9. 
 
 Now, to grant the adversary all that he can pos- 
 sibly demand in this argument, I will admit that these 
 two verses do contradict each other, if there be no sense 
 in which the same voice can be truly said to be heard, 
 and yet not heard by the same persons at the same time. 
 But that there is some such sense, familiar to the writers 
 of the New Testament, is evident from Matt. xiii. 13. 
 " They seeing, see not; and hearing, they hear not, 
 neither do they understand." No one has any difficulty 
 
191 
 
 in giving to this verse a perfectly consistent meaning, 
 viz. that though they see and hear, they are no wiser 
 or better lor either ; their outward senses are affected, 
 but no impression is made upon their minds, which re- 
 main exactly in the same state as if they had neither 
 seen nor heard. 
 
 A person addressed in an unknown tongue, or in his 
 own language by one whose articulation is indistinct 
 and unintelligible, or a person whose hearing is im- 
 perfect, or who, from any other cause, does not make 
 out the meaning of what is said, though he hears the 
 sound of the voice, may very truly, and properly say, 
 / do fioi Itcufy — or I hear, hut do not hear what is said. 
 And, with exactly the same propriety, it may be said 
 of them who journeyed with St. Paul, that hearing the 
 voice, thet/ still did not hear the voice of him that spake. 
 Had the two accounts been compressed into one, and 
 thus expressed, every person would have understood its 
 meaning as readily as that of '' hearing, they hear not," 
 in Matt. xiii. 1j, or of Dryden's " And sure he heard 
 me, but he would not hear." 
 
 The consistency of the two accounts is, however, 
 much more apparent in the original language, (^Kovoini; 
 
 mi ^ft»»»!? Tijy ipunni ovK viKova-av ; for the verb xkovm^ «to- 
 
 verning, as in the first place, a genitive case, merely 
 implies that the sense of hearing is acted upon hi/ the 
 voice ; but the same verb governing, as in tiie second 
 place, an accusative case, implies something in the per- 
 son that acts upon the voice, viz. the understanding. 
 If farther proof be re([uired that this verb does some- 
 times signify to understand^ as well as simply to hear, 
 turn to 1 Cor. xiv. 2, where it is translated, and properly 
 
192 
 
 translated, understand — ov^ii^ yec^ ukovu, "for no man un- 
 derstandeth/' literally " heareth," as in the margin. 
 
 The expression, *' stood speechless/' in Acts, ix. 7, 
 does not imply that they stood upon their feet; but sim- 
 ply expresses how they stood affected, or were affected 
 by what they saw, viz. with speechless terror. Nothing 
 is more familiar than the use of the verb to stand in Eng- 
 lish, (as of stare in Italian,) to express, somewhat more 
 emphatically, the meaning of the verb to be, generally 
 with an idea of continuing ; thus, to stand in need, to 
 stand reproved. "• Why stand we in jeopardy }" 1 Cor. 
 XV. 30. — " I stand resigned." — Dry den. — " And the 
 world's victor stood subdued by sound." — Pope. 
 
 See Johnson's Dictionary, fifteenth meaning of the 
 verb stand, 
 
 *' The men stood speechless ;' therefore, in Acts, ix. 
 7? means simply that they were, or remained speechless, 
 and is no way inconsistent with Acts, xxvi. 14, where 
 it is said that they all fell to the ground. The Greek 
 verb t<7Tvi^i, used in Acts, ix. 7> has a similar meaning in 
 John, viii. 44, — Rom. v. 2, — Col. iv. 12. ^' passim. 
 
 Without accusing the soi-disant Gamaliel Smith, Esq.* 
 
 * We are told that Jeremy Bentham is the cowardly assassin who 
 meaks under this assumed name. If so, he cannot get off on the 
 plea of ignorance ; for Bentham is certainly a man of some learn- 
 ing. His taste and judgment are more questionable. Of the for- 
 mer he has erected a lasting monument in his invention of that 
 portentous compound Chubch-of-Englandism ; and of the latter, 
 in his proposal to conduct the worship of Almighty God by the 
 ministry of Reading-boys, to be flogged, I suppose, round the 
 congregation, whenever they miscalled a word, or stumbled at a 
 proper name in the Old Testament. I am happy to say, that I 
 am pure from the knowledge of any thing more of his writings 
 than what I have seen at different times in Reviews. All I know 
 
 7 
 
!!);$ 
 
 «f much learning or juda^mcnt, it is impossible to give 
 him credit for so much ignorance as not to have been 
 aware of the abvoe obvious modes of removing all ap- 
 parent contradiction in the two instances referred to. 
 At the same time, therefore, that he produced them as 
 proofs of falsehood, he must, I fear, have been conscious, 
 that they are strong marks of truth in the Scripture ac- 
 counts of St. Paul's conversion ; for they shew that ab- 
 sence of study, that straight-forward indifference about 
 words and phrases, which nothing but truth can give. 
 It is painful to be compelled to make an observation 
 which savours so much of uncliaritable judging; but 
 when the fiendish design of uttering every insinuation, 
 however destitute of truth, that may chance to unsettle 
 the faith of a single weak brother, is so apparent, as it 
 is in this and other writers of the Satanic School, bro- 
 therly KiNDN'Kss AND CHARITY Command us to hold 
 them up in their true characters, as dishonest, deceitful, 
 dangerous men, designing "madmen, whocastaboutfire- 
 brands, arrows, and death,"i in the desperate hope that 
 some of them may take effect to the destruction of an 
 unwary soul. Let every one who values his eternal peace 
 beware of such writers as this. Trust not yourselves to 
 read their blasphemies and impurities ; for as 
 '* Tliere are sins 
 Whose very dread infects the virgin's soul, 
 Tainting tlie fountain of her secret thoughts;" 
 80 are there sentiments, whose revolting impiety cor- 
 rupts the sources of our devotions, by being associated 
 in our memory with things the most sacred. If this c^~ 
 
 of NOT Paul, blt Jesus, is from the extracts in the Cambridgk 
 QlARTERLY, No. II. 
 
 ' Prov. xxvi. 18. 
 
 N 
 
194 
 
 feet of association were duly considered by writers of a 
 totally different description, we should less frequently 
 have the pain of seeing religious subjects placed in a lu- 
 dicrous point of view. 
 
 (s) P. 97. — And then it was, that^ as we read in the Acts, 
 he was certain days with the disciples which were at Da- 
 mascus, SfC. 
 
 The apparent inconsistency between Acts, ix. 19—26, 
 and Gal. i. 16 — 18, though noticed and explained by the 
 earliest Christian writers, is nevertheless continually pro- 
 duced by modern Socinians and Deists as a new disco- 
 very, in hopes of triumphing thereby over the faith of 
 some who neither know how to reconcile the apparent 
 inconsistency themselves, nor how it has been done 
 by others. St. Paul's going into Arabia (Gal. i. l7) is 
 not at all noticed in the Acts. I conceive its place in 
 the ixth chapter of that Treatise to be in the middle of 
 the 19th verse of our modern arbitrary, and sometimes 
 injudicious division; because, if .^t. Paul had been cer- 
 tain days with the disciples at Damascus, immediately 
 after his baptism, he could not have said, Gal. i. 16, 17, 
 " IMMEDIATELY I Conferred not with flesh and blood, 
 neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were Apos- 
 tles before me; but I went into Arabia, a7id returned 
 again to Damascus :" and because the Greek particle 
 ^g, here translated then, cannot mean the?i for at that 
 time, but then for afterwards, or afterwards therefore. I 
 am inclined to think it here signifies afterwards therefore, 
 pointing back to the preceding part of the narrative as 
 
195 
 
 the reason why St. Paul " returned to Damascus," and 
 there began to preach that Christ is the Son ofCiod. 
 
 Nothin*:^ is more familiar to those who liavc studied 
 the New Testament with attention, than the inartificial 
 manner in which each writer has stated the tacts that 
 were impressed upon liis mind as important to be record- 
 ed, without noticing connecting facts or circumstances. 
 This omission of intervening circumstances necessarily 
 gives to events, that stand next to each other in the nar- 
 rative, the appearance of having happened in close suc- 
 cession, though there may have been, in reality, a con- 
 siderable time between them. Let any one read a portion 
 of the History of England in Goldsmith's abridgement, 
 and then read the corresponding portion in Hume, and 
 he will see that this is the necessary effect of abridging 
 to the extent that we know, from John, xx. 30, and xxi. 
 25, that the Evangelists did. 
 
 It will be sufficient to quote one decisive instance, ex- 
 actly similar to that before us, and from the same inspi- 
 red penman, St. Luke. Having related our Lord's ap- 
 pearance to his Apostles on the first evening after his 
 resurrection ; imniodiaf«'ly aftor His address to tLem on 
 that occajsion, the Evangelist adds, ** And he led them 
 out as far as Bethany ; and he lifted up his hands and 
 blessed them. And it came to pass, that while lie blessed 
 them, he wai parted from them and carried up into hea- 
 ven." Had this been the only account transmitted to 
 us, the universal impression would have been, that Jesus 
 appeared only once to his Apostles after his resurrection, 
 and closed that interview, by leading them out as far as 
 Bethany, and there ascending into lieaven ; whereas, the 
 very same writer has told us, that lie was seen by the 
 Apostles after his passion, during forty days. There is 
 
19i5 
 
 therefore, between verses 49 and 50 of Luke, xxiv., an 
 omission of forty days, exactly similar to the omission of 
 at least two years between the first and second clauses of 
 Acts, ix. 19. And the similarity is more complete in the 
 original ; for it is the same Greek particle h, which in 
 Luke, xxiv. 50, is rendered " And," and in Acts, ix. I9, 
 " Then." In both places, that particle means either 
 Moreover, Again, implying simply that what follows is 
 an additional circumstance which the writer saw occasion 
 to mention ; or Afterwards, implying that it is subse- 
 quent in point of time, but leaving it quite indeterminate 
 by how long. 
 
 (t) p. 101. — In exact conformity with the standards of 
 the Church of England, 
 
 " What is the inward or spiritual grace" in baptism ? 
 
 " A death unto sin, and a new birth unto righteous- 
 ness ; for, being by nature born in sin, and the children 
 of wrath, we are hereby made the children of grace." — 
 Catechism. 
 
 " Baptism is not only a sign of profession, and mark 
 of difference, whereby Christian men are discerned from 
 others that are not christened ; but it is also a sign of 
 REGENERATION, or NEW BIRTH, whcrcby, as by an in- 
 strument, they that receive baptism rightly, are grafted 
 into the Church." — xxviith article. 
 
 " Seeing now, dearly beloved brethren, that this child 
 is REGENERATE, and grafted into the body of Christ's 
 Church." 
 
 " We yield thee hearty thanks, most merciful Father, 
 that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this infant 
 
197 
 
 with thy Holy Spirit." — Office of Baptism for In- 
 fants. 
 
 " We yield thee humble thanks, O heavenly Father, 
 that thou hast vouchsafed to call us to the knowledge of 
 thy grace, and faith in thee. Increase this knowledge, 
 and confirm this faith in us evermore. Give thy Holy 
 Spirit t« these persons ; that, being now born again, 
 and made heirs of everlasting salvation, through our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, they may continue thy servants and at- 
 tain thy promises, through the same Lord Jesus Christ, 
 thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity 
 of the same Holy Spirit, everlastingly." Amen. — 0/^ 
 Jice o/' Baptism for such as are of riper years. 
 
 FINIS.