YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

SCRIPTURE PROOFS
ON THE
PRE-EXISTENCE AND DEITY
OF
CHRIST,
AS THE GOD REVEALING HIMSELF IN THE
PATRIARCHAL DISPENSATION
THE KING OF THE THEOCRACY,
AND THE
MEDIATOR OF THE NEW COVENANT.

1 JESUS CHRIST THE SAME YESTERDAY, TO-DAY, AND FOB. EVER.

WITH
OBSERVATIONS UPON THE
INCREASING EXCESS OF IMPIETY AND INFIDELITY,
As the Prophetic and Natural Indications of the
¦ IftiUennium drawing near :
An Excess in all things having a tendency to produce a re-action and
a change to the contrary, \frhich the Providence of God, and
his Promise, is engaged to render permanent, by the
previous extirpation of the evil.
i
SUNDERLAND ;
Printed and sold by G. Garbutt ;
SOLD ALSO BY LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN,
PATERNOSTER R.OW* LONDON ; k.- RENNEY, BISH02-
WBARMOUTH J AND THE BOOKSELLERS AT
NEWCASTLE, SHIELDS, DURHAM,
STOCKTON, &C.
1819. I- '

TO THE
Inhabitants of sunderlanD
AND THE
TWO WEARMOUf HS,
THIS LITTLE TRACT IS RESPECTFULLY
INSCRIBED,
BY THEIR SINCERE WELL-WISHERj
MAKMORAKIU&

The occasion of it was the controversy
Which arose upon the account of erecting
a marble cenotaph, with a panegyrical
inscription, to the late Mr. Meadley, in
the great room of the SubscriptionLibrary
in Sunderland.

IV

To the erection of any honorary me
morial in that place, fo?' the services alledged,
and more especially bearing an inscription
worded as that is, very strong objections
were urged j inasmuch as those services
were not even equivocal, but decidedly
reprobated by many of the subscribers j
and, upon the best imaginable grounds,
were judged to carry with them the un
qualified disapprobation of a large majo
rity. The event proved, not indeed that
such a candid opinion of the sentiments
of our " neighbours" was unfounded, but
only the truth of a vulgar suspicion, that it
is possible sometimes for men to think one
way and act another. Many of our friends,
influenced by various temporary motives,
forbore to express their sentiments by so
strong a measure as a vote against the
cenotaph, and some even voted for it, who
are not willing* nevertheless, to be consi
dered as approvers of the principles, religious
and political, of the late Mr. M.
This monument of the devotion and
Zeal of the one party, and the apathy of
the other, therefore still retains its station;

and to the dissentients no other alterna
tive is left, but either to withdraw from a
library, which bears upon the face of it
what they deem a great and conspicuous
mark of disrespect to Christianity, (ag
some, in high and well founded indignation
have done ;) or to appeal to the public bjr
a protest against it, either unitedly or in^-
dividually. To withdraw, is a measure whieh ought
not to be decided upon by our party with
quite so much precipitation, as the other
party used in putting the Tablet up.
Offensive measures may be executed at
any time. A pause for reflection is useful
under irritated feelings, and gives time for
a change of opinion and change of mea
sures, which by circumstances unforeseen
is sometimes brought about. Mean while,
the continuance of the Tablet in that situ
ation, ought not to implicate a disgraceful
acquiescence- in those who never can ap
prove, and who openly expressed their dis
approbation. If, for reasons good, they
do not think it expedient immediately to
withdraw, yet they desire nevertheless to

VI

be considered as decidedly hostile to the
principles, which upon this occasion have
obtained a temporary triumph, and which
it is the chief purpose of this marble to
recommend to the public : the man is at
most but a secondary object. Of the
truth of this, they themselves have had
the sagacity to afford substantial proofs,
by the two subsequent publications from
a Newcastle press, to vindicate and en
force these irreligious principles, after such
a triumph, upon the old Vulcanian maxim,
that it is wise to strike while the iron is
hot. ¦
It has been objected, that our opposition
is vexatious and unreasonable, because the
matter was by a hand-bill proposed some
days previously ; and at*the meeting, in
consequence of such notice, the question
was carried by a considerable majority,
and no opposition was then made to it,
except a request that it should be put to
the vote. This is true. And indeed. it is
almost a wonder, that even thus much of
a useless opposition was then manifested, as
it was evident at sight, that the support

Vll

of our side of the question was at that
time inferior. By the effect of ill advice
and irritated feelings, it was therefore no
otherways opposed, but given up as a lost
cause for that time, the hope of a better
success, and more effectual opposition,
being deferred to the time of the annual
meeting a month afterwards. In that
hope we were again disappointed, notwith
standing the most strenuous opposition,
and the additional support of many who
had not appeared on the former occasion.
But although the cause is thus- lost a
second time, still we are not (I presume
any of us) to be thereby persuaded, that
the principles thus brought forward are
right, or the fundamental articles of the
Gospel revelation really disputable, or the
public manifestation of our unconquerable
aversion is uncalled for, or unreasonable.
The contest, to us at least, involves a
question of conscience and principle,
many of us being far removed from the
vulgar and unjust imputation of contend
ing for interests of our own. Our hostility
against the cenotaph is by no means in-

Vlll

tended, except only so far as the vital
interests of religion and evangelical faith
are implicated, to. cast any reflection upon
the memory, or be injurious to the merits,
whatever they may be, of the late Mr. M.
and certainly much less to distress the
feelings of his family. This obvious han
dle has been taken hold of, and a great
deal of coarse unjustifiable censure cast
upon us very undeservedly on this ground.
Mr. M. having publicly advanced into
the ranks as a champion of Infidelity, al
though he is not in a capacity to defend
his principles any more, yet would not
expect them, on that account merely, to
meet with more deference than those of
Hume and Voltaire, and other philoso
phers have met with. All other consi
derations, except those which refer to the
principles, and not the individuals or
their relatives, are totally out of the
question- In a competition between God and Baal,
like that which happened in the days of
Elijah, if in any thing upon earth, firm
ness and decision are required ; and no

IX
conscientious man can possibly halt be
tween two so contrary opinions. " If
Christ be God, follow him ; or if Baal,
then follow him." In any other situation
but that where it now is, and particularly
in any place of common sepulture, where
many notoriously unmerited panegyrics
celebrate departed worth, the wording of
this inscription would not have attracted
attention. It has been additionally objected to me
in particular, that I have been a subscri
ber to this library for several years, yet
never before now expressed any disappro
bation of the management of its concerns,
in regard to the admission of improper
books, either by donation, or purchase out
of the subscription fund.
This is likewise true, and may be ac
counted for Without the implied imputa
tion of versatility, or personal disrespect
to Mr. M. Certes this lays no positive
or insurmountable obligation upon me
to acquiesce in every thing, and object to
nothing in secula seculorum. It is an

X

odd sort of an argument to infer, from a
supineness in time past, which deserved
censure, a necessity to be even more su
pine for the time to come. On the con
trary, even a late review of mistaken
principles, or departure from a line of
conduct not trial proof* is better than a
blameable uniformity ; and at any time,
or in any circumstances, I conceive " it
is good to be zealously affected in a good
thing." I was never a frequenter of this library,
and in fact never, before this occasion, but
once within its walls. And as to Mr.
M. I never saw him in my life, to my
knowledge ; having paid very little defer
ence to his known religious and political
opinions, until the proposal of erecting
an honorary memorial, of very extraordi
nary pretensions, brought them more di
rectly into view, and gave a sort of a
consequence to both them and him, which
otherwise would never Have been attri
buted to either. Having a tolerable pri
vate collection of books of my own, I did

XI

not much feel the want of the public
library, and but rarely availed myself of it
by sending for any book from it. With
little attention to its concerns, (too little,
as it has pleased the gentlemen of the
faction to insinuate) I continued my sub
scription to this, as to other public things,
which are considered as ornamental or ad
vantageous to the community generally,
without any expectation of particular
advantage to myself. The sudden ap
pearance of the Tablet, so precipitately
following the contest upon its proposal,
was enough to awaken alarm in every
breast, not wholly indisposed to " contend
earnestly for the faith once delivered to the
saints — for the primitive " everlasting Gos
pel, delivered a second time, as " the song
of Moses and the Lamb, to our fathers, by
the hands of the martyrs, after passing
through the flames of Popish persecution.
" If any man love not the Lord Jesus
Christ in sincerity," ( 1 Cor. xvi. 22,) to
him any apology I can offer for the part
I have taken in this contest, will not avail
to conciliate him ; and to those who pre-

xif
fer Christianity in its original state, to*
the philosophical edition of it, after the cur-'
tailments and sophistical glosses of the
Serpentine School ; and who like the ex
cellent old English Translation of the
Scriptures, better than the " Improver
Version" of Belsham and Co. under the
assumed name of Newcombe ; no other7
apology than the above will be deemed
requisite. I have already admitted, in behalf of the
religious estimation of our "Neighbours,"
Notwithstanding they have been subse
quently addressed in a very strange sort
of a style from a Newcastle press-, that
I do not think the triumphant majorities,
by which the question has been carried,
are altogether made up of stanch ap
provers of the opinions professed by Mr.
M.— or of the influence he was permitted
to use in the concerns of the library, — or
of the purpose to which he appears to
have applied it,— or af the nature and
tendency of the sort of panegyric, which
they have inadvertently- (some of them at
least) offered to his manes. These kind

Xlll

of things are wont to be done either as
things of course, or as party matters, and
by crafty agents votes are collected, as
poachers catch trout by tickling ; and no
man likes, if it can be by any means
avoided, to give his vote against a previous
engagement, and much more so against
a subscription of five shillings of English
currency paid down, and duly entered to
his credit, for the purchase of a cenotaph j
This account of their temptation and fall
has been since given by some of the con
script brethren, innocent deserters from
our corps, and whose repentance of an
anomaly in their conduct, of the nature
of which they were not fully aware, though
rather of the latest, yet deserves some
praise. But what apology can be made
for those, who without the excuse of
strong temptation, and human inadver
tency, sickness, or other available cause,
have declined giving us their support, and
in a question of this nature and impor
tance, " Because they came not to the help of '
the Lord — to the help of the Lord against
the mighty" f

XIV

It is not for me to say how supineness
under so strong a call can find excuse.
I can only think of one, and that is the
very old one offered by "the mild Founder
of our religion" himself. Luke, xvi. 8.
If they can invent a better, I own it has
not occurred to me.
In order to convince the whole world
of our unreasonableness, and the futility
of our opposition, the victorious party
have published " A Statement of Facts,"
(a sort of vindicatory document, which
usually issues from the party worsted,
in order to prove that they ought to
have triumphed;) and with it are pub
lished the christian and sirnames of the
select Eighty Fratres Conscripti, Enrolled
Tableteers !
Eighty ! — 'tis a number sacred to the
Tablet cause ! — a number, which, for the
remainder of my life, will retain an ap
propriate niche in my memory, as a mysti
cal number ,¦ compounded of eight as a
root, and by sceptical progression, and
chymical sublimation in a ballot box,

XV

secundum artem, at length successfully
turned out to the effect required, Q.E. D.*
Now for this publication of Names,
(seeing they are not all mystical names,

* The following is said to be the Recipe, long and
successfully used, for the transmutation of Christian
metals into Socinian dross, as taken from the papers of
a celebrated Chymist.
R. Cabalistic propositions, No. 8, recently extracted
from the husk or shell of nux vomica, (poisonous only
to rats, or other vermin of bestial kind, but not to those
of human species, occasioning only a nausea of con
science, and a perversion of faith perfectly void of danger.)
Macerate these seven days in proof Spirit of Infidelity,
quant, suf. in a moderate heat of Sceptical Fanaticism.
Let Ihem be carefully sublimed in a ballot box, sec. art.
Q. E. D.
That this is the genuine Recipe used upon the late oc
casion, to muster so overwhelming a force of Tableteers,
we are not permitted to remain in doubt. If the matter
had been otherwise doubtful, the Epinicion, or trium
phal congratulation to our " neighbours," sung upon the
field of battle, still reeking with the blood of the slain,
after the Tablet Victory, and before it had been gazetted,
was admirably well timed. — This explains in full the
secret history of the Tablet Plot, and is a demonstra-
tidn, that mysteries are not all on our side of the hedge.

XVI

neither all disciples who are of the Eighty,)
I verily think the wisdom of the party is
not to be highly complimented. Many
of those names, for reasons given above,
will, I apprehend, be not at all proud of
the association and service, into which, in
a wild frolic of fancy, they thoughtlessly
enlisted, and now begin with severe regret
to find themselves painfully drilled to the
ranks, in which they have no mind to
serve. But to procure their discharge, at
least for the term of their enlistment, is
impossible upon any terms. He must
needs march whom the  's Pandemo-
nian Sergeant drives. The Muster Eoll
is already given in to Prince Posterity by
their Captain, and they cannot desert, but
must stand to their arms, " and fight for
their master's house", (2 Kings x. 38,) al
though a little wrong in point of princi
ples, and although this cause involves
eighty heads instead of seventy, which
was formerly the greatest number, even
in the worst of times, of heads in an awk
ward situation.
This publication of the Muster KolL is
no doubt intended as an intimidating dis-

xvu
play of physical strength, and to those
not in the secret it will imply, as they
expect, just so much positive strength.
But all this, as I have upon substantial
grounds insinuated, is only by computing,
in the Hudibrastic stile of reckoning,
" All reckon'd from profession outward,
But inward 'tis not worth a cow-turd",
so much for their positive strength. It
only remains for them now to publish
another list of names, to exhibit also their
negative strength, or the names of those
who remained neuter, and did not vote
against them. By their method of mus
tering names as well as arguments, every
thing that does not actually tell against
them, (and even some things that do) is
to be reckoned to their account. And for
this rule indeed they have scriptural au
thority. " He that is not for us, is against
us ; and he that gathereth not with us,
scattereth abroad." The ill-timed deser
tion of these half-measure men, our ima
gined allies, if not positive strength to
them, is what does them equal service,
and well merits from them the honour

xvm
of publication ; it is positive weakness to
us, and actual defeat ! — And this in times
most critical and alarming, wherein what
ever affects religion but lightly, ought not
to be esteemed a matter of indifference,
and much more so that which with the
kiss of Judas stabs it to the heart.
Yet, methinks, I would not have even
these Kenegadoes pilloried and posted, by
a publication of their names, as our ad
versaries have punished even their friends
and abettors, God forbid ! — Cruelty was
forbidden by the law of Moses, how much
more so by that of Christ ! Let us leave
them to their own reflections : it will be
a sufficient punishment.

MARBLE TO BE SOLD.

JUST ARRIVED IN THIS PORT,
And fo be disposed of by public Auction, at 11 6 'Clock in the
Morning of Tuesday the 2d of February, 1819,
A VALUABLE
Bematn of Antiquity ;
BEING
A SLAB OF
DELICATE PARIAN MARBLE,
ADORNED WITH THE GREATEE PART OF THE
Original inscription,
UNINJURED BY TIME.

IV
From a Fragment of a Greek MS. accompanying it, the
following Account of this curious Antique maybe collected.
This Production of the Depravity of Human
Genius was erected by a Junto of Epicurean
Philosophers. TO HONOUR THE MEMORY,
AND
PERPETUATE THE EXAMPLE *
OF
CACODCEMONIUS, THE ATOMIST,
who, in virtuous opposition to the vulgar preju
dice of religion, publicly taught that there was
" no devil, nor any future punishments"
This philosopher, on account of the impiety of
his tenets, was little esteemed at Athens ; and
falling into contempt, he determined upon leaping
blindfold into Erebus,f fairly to put his principles
to the test, and dispute against the devil himself,
that he had no existence, except merely as a me
taphysical principle of moral evil, as the Stoicks

• This word is ambiguous, and may be taken in two senses. Example
of imitation ; or a pattern of genuine piety and virtue :— and, per contra
example of warning ; as a lighthouse to mariners, a gibbet to rogues,
and hell to the impious, according to that of St. Jude— " Set forth for
an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."
f After the example of Empedocles, who had shown him the way,
by leaping into the crater of jEtna, to be honoured as a God— Sit jus
liceatque perire poetis,—
Sophists have licence lesser Fools to teach,
By quick and surer steps dark Tartarus to Tenth.

dispute away corporeal pain. Of this Archilochus,
" Three Sceptick Sophists, in Pirceus born,
Which any age or country might adorn," &c.
The Inscription, in Greek hexameters, was the
joint work of three of the disciples of Cacodcemo-
nius.J Each, according to the ability given, sat
down to compose a suitable panegyrick separately.
The three finished works were sent toTrophonius's
cave, for the prophet's approbation, and selection
of the best ~of the bad. But all three were re
turned disgraced, as being equally unfit to do the
work designed. The first, for being so stuft with
fulsome flattery, un appropriate, and notoriously
unmerited, that it might be construed into sarcasm
and ridicule : (| — the next, as a medley of lies,
without truth enough to keep them in some sort
of countenance : — and the last, as a mere effusion
of the spirit of nonsense.
The three Illuminati, determined as their master
in the spirit of the Cacodcemonian philosophy, set
their brains to work again, and culled a nosegay
of flowers from the sweets of each, to sprinkle
over the cenotaph of departed iniquity.
" Dulness exhausted, could no deeper fall ;
-A fourth to make, they club the wit of all.1'
§ The commentator on Aristopfianes has given us their names in the
order of their works. Oxuteros, Ogdogennetos, and Acestes.
1) So our Pope says—
" A vile encomium doubly ridicules ;
There's nothing blackens like the ink »f fools."

Mwnwre& Licinus tumulo jacet, alt Cato parvo.

Scant are the honours to true merit shewn !
Licinus under marble lies*— Cato without a stone.

MARMORARIUS IN> VINDICATION <W HIS
SALE OF MARBLE.

Vi is a common, and I find a true saying, that
Two of one trade can never agree. It is an hard
case ; but I had scarcely landed my curiosities
and announced a day of sale, when some envious
Stone-mason or other puts out a Reply to my
advertisement, to decry my goods, and no doubt,
if he can put me down, to puff some very inferior
article of his own — a modem antique, I'll warrant
himi

VII

By a few Extracts from the fairest parts of .the
Cacodtemonian system, he wishes to insinuate, that
the Greek fragment has misrepresented the tenets
of the philosopher. But the real tenets of a
Sceptick are not, as in other cases, to be known
from creeds, or confessions, for he had none, or
only a temporary and shifting one ; nor from his
select writings, which can give no permanent or
true image of an ever variable mind ; but from
Facts expressive of opinion ; not always to be
understood by, other means.*

'Alluding to tbe exemplary Zealand diligence with which he obtruded
upon the public attention the works of other Sceptick Phffasophert, still
more objectionable than his own. The same commentator on Aris
tophanes (m nulilnis, I. 750 in netis) reports, that rejecting the popular
ioetrinet and sacrifices of his country, for the solace of his conscience
he sent into Thessalia for one of the Enchanters of that order, who, for
the secret purposes of their mysteries, are accustomed to draw down the
Moon at staled interval*, and inclose her in a box. It was the chief
business of this subordinate Sage, by a long incantation to conjure down
the Dii inferni, when, in spite of Theory and Scepticism, they occa
sionally rose up to interrupt his philosophical dreams. If the dogma
of "no devil" ascribed to this philosopher, was oral and not written
ioetrine, like the wisdom of Socrates, l«t those who have leisure for re
search into his abstruse Remains, recent or otherwise, prosecute the
inquiry.

Vlil
Doubtless the writer of the fragment would
on any ordinary occasion have observed the rule—
De mortuis nil nisi bonum—~had not the circum
stances of the case made a departure from it a
matter of indispensable duty here, the outrage
of decency being on the other side of the question.
The insult to the religion of the country, in the
setting up the Philosopher and his example to be
adored and imitated, like another Hercules by
the Athenian youth, made it necessary to point
out the impiety of his tenets, and the impropriety
of exhibiting such an example in such a place.
For it appears, that whether the doctrine of no
Devil, &c. be found in his works or not, yet he,
in the capacity of Curator of the public morals,
and of the reverence due to the Gods, had exerted
no small diligence to supply the Gymnasium, set
apart for the instruction of youth, and accessible
to the uninstructed also, with numerous books,
which maintained the same and other pernicious
doctrines of his sect.
The Philosopher's works, it is true, do yet speak,-
and propagate his philosophy ; but his example
does it still more. For the exemplary books he

IX
has thus obtruded upon the studies of the un
guarded public, go a great deal further than he
himself lias ostensibly proceeded, the progress
towards knowledge, both of good and evil, being
now gradual, although in Eden it was instan
taneous. I therefore humbly hope to sell my Marble to
good effect, at the day appointed, notwithstanding
the invidious remarks of the Stone-cutter.*

• His advertisement is judiciously entitled " A Reply to the Marble
Seller, or an Outrage on common Decency"; and in truth it is jasf as
much of the one as the other.

21st January, 1819.

b

TO

Q. E. D.

" Hear counsel and receive instruction, that thou maysi 5r>
wise in thy latter end." Prov. xix. 20.
The " Short Plea for Toleration of Diversities
in irreligious Opinions," published in consequence
of the discussion at the Subscription Library
Meeting, is a Plea for Latitudinarianism and free^
thinking of the most extensive latitude. It un
settles all possible idea of Christian faith, and
annihilates our dependance upon divine revelation
for any truth or certainty, beyond that of profane
history. These principles, if acted upon, might
justify any degree of Infidelity, or even Atheism
itself, upon the plea of sincerity in otir opinions
and liberty of conscience, both to profess and
propagate what opinions we please, be they ever
so blasphemous, impious, or immoral, without re
straint, or even remonstrance. It appears from
this document, that the Christian Religion, as
professed for 1800 years past, is no better than a
rope of sand, and can neither bind the conscience,
enlighten the understanding, nor amend the heart.
So then — " Let us break their bonds asunder,
and cast away their cords from us." — We'll all

XI
4urn Heathens merrily together, as our good
Neighbours across the water did a few years ago.
" For nuxks of faith let senseless bigots fight ;
His can't be wrong, whose Life is in the right." Pope.
Q-uod E-rat D-emonstrandum ! — an absolute
demonstration against the superstition of religion.
Quantum religio potuit suadere malorum !*
What ills full oft have from religion sprung !
Is it so then ! — and has the mask entirely dropt
off in the eagerness of the affray ? and has so
slight a puff blown aside the Philosopher's robe,
and betrayed the cloven foot of the Dragon ? —
Yet these alarming mysteries are no novelties.
The substance of these eight Queries was twenty
years ago blown into all ears, by the industrious
Tom Paine ; and his expcutors continue on re
publishing them, for the enlightening of the com
mon people, who perhaps will never see the full
and popular answer given to them by Bishop
Watson. For as friend Tom had collected all the
intellectual filth he could possibly rake together,
from the former writers on that side, and put it
into language adapted to the intelligence of the
uneducated, so the Bishop condescended to meet
him on that ground, girt in the same harness ; and
fairly shovelled all the blasphemy, and ribaldry,
* L.uc,ret.

Xll

and vulgar sophistry out of people's way ; that no
honest man needed to tread in a * * * * unless
he wilfully blinded his own eyes. With what
good intention, then, dost thou attempt to throw
it back again ? and again propose these unreason
able and impious Queries to the multitude, (who
may not have answers ready at their tongues' end)
as if they were quite new, — evident as demons
tration itself — had never been answered, — but
were absolutely unanswerable ? This is not fair
play, to bring up the dead, so often killed, and the
last time so very recently, to fill the ranks again ;
although we all know that they are nothing but
the hides of former combatants stuffed with
straw ; with General Paine and Major Priestley
at the head of them ! To kill them over and
over again would, as you say, take up time, and
waste paper, if it must be done hide by hide,
and query by query. And, as you say right again,
great, and wise, and learned men have bestowed
much pains to little purpose in settling these
points, to teach " the blind that have eyes, and
the deaf that have ears." Isaiah xlii. 18, — xliii. 8.
2 Cor. iv. 4. And when they still sat in darkness,
and spake foolishly, other great men and wise
followed in their track ; which shews indeed the
high importance they attached to the subject, and
the untractable ears and hardened hearts they
addressed themselves to. Isaiah vi. 9, 10. Yet
all good Christians feel grateful, and are edified

XI 11
by their useful labours. But this proves no de
fect in the labours of their predecessors ; or any
thing really incapable of defence in revelation,
should the good work be continued to the world's
end. It is well known, that Dr. Kennicot's
Collation of M. SS. has not shewn any error in
the Christian doctrine, of which Providence has
taken good care ; but relates to variations of
reading, of more curiosity than use. It is of no
sort of consequence to ordinary Christians, though
brought up here as a scare-crow to us.
Your Plea is short, and so far good, and con
trived to be inclosed, in all its eight queries, as it
were in a nut shell, to be an antidote to Christi
anity, and all the illiberality of its most earnest
advocates, which your disciples are to keep al
ways at hand, to be ready to throw these proposi
tions in our faces, one by one, as a good and
sufficient answer to any one that asketh you, what
small remainder of faith is still within ? since you
call yourselves still Christians. — Sir, it is an ab
solute Vomitory ! and will discharge the con
science and intellect, in a moment, of any tenet,
principle, or inference from any of them, that sits
uneasy, and must thus be got rid of.
He shall cast up the inference devoured,
Like vomit from his yawning entrails pouJ*d. Sandys.

XIV

Even hell and eternity , have been thus thrown up
by some of you ; of which " J. Simpson's Scrip
ture Language" is an instance in proof — a good
and precious book : it is supplied also by the
gracious providence of Mr. Meadley, for the
library you speak of, with many more such, of
nearly equal utility.
As for poor St. Peter, on whom you choose to
father your admonition of being ready to give
such answers as your queries suggest, to the ad
vocates of faith and divine revelation, I verily
believe he never once dreamt of you, or your
abuse of his authority : if he had, he would have
provided a refutation in readiness for you. And
indeed I will not swear that he has not done it,
and that you are not (under the rose) intended,
in his and his brother Jude's Philippicks, against
the plotters of treason to the Gospel of Christ.
Surely you have not read him ! If you have,
pray read him again. See 2 Peter ii. 1, 2, 8, 17,
19, 21 ; and Jude, ver. 5, 6, 12, 13, 15. As for
St. Paul, you know he is quite against that Lati-
tudinarian spirit of indifference, and innovation
of the Gospel, which has been Gospel, and has
stood the assault of all battering engines for 1800
years, till you came. And so is also the mild
Founder himself. For he severely rated such
vipers, and threatened them with the damnation

XV
of hell. And, in the Revelations, he renews from
heaven his charge against the betrayers of his
cause. See Rev. ii. 9— iii. 15, 16.
As for our warmth in a cause wherein our souls
are at stake, and not ours only, but those of
thousands, it is the very opposite to illiberality,
a& even a Heathen author, and a Poet besides,
might have taught you.

-Absentem qui rodit amicum,

Qui non defendit, alio culpante.
He who malignant tears an absent friend,
Or, when attack'd by others, don't defend, '
That man is vile. Fbancis' Hon.

Your pretence, that our own rule, delivered in
the Gospel, and approved by the wisdom of an
tiquity, " of doing as we would be done by", ad
mits of no exception, is a fallacy We are
strictly charged, and bound in conscience and
fidelity to Christ, not to wink at errors of a fatal
malignity, nor be thus "partakers in other men's
sins." Although not free from error ourselves,
we should be sometimes glad of a little length of
tether to be given us.
Hanc veniam petimusque damusque vicissim.
I owa th» indulgence— such I give and take.
Francis' Hob.

XVI
But in this instance especially,

 ,  Man disobeying.
Disloyal, breaks his fealty, and sins
Against the high supremacy of heaven. •»
Milton.

As for the reflections upon the plenary inspira
tion of Scripture, cast out by Paine and Priestley,
and their worthy Compeers in Infidelity, they
only demonstrate the utter unreasonableness of
that Sadducean Philosophy, and universality of
Scepticism, which no evidence that the nature
of the subject is capable of will satisfy ; and
shews the hard straits they are driven to, and the
natural tendency of such Disputers to descend
lower and lower into the abyss, and to close with
the wily suggestions of the Original Teacher.
M Such wisdom cometh not from above." Gen. iii.
4, 5 ; James iii. 15. All this argues no imper
fection in the Word of God itself, 2 Tim. iii. 16,
which is given by inspiration, and is truly "able
to make us wise unto salvation" ; but only in the
minds which so abuse it. And all doubts of this
nature are so satisfactorily obviated by the afore
said labours of the learned, that they have now
no quarter anywhere, but only in " the evil heart
of unbelief," by reason of which "some who thus
seek to enter in, shall not be able." Luke xiii. 24.
For us, the Holy Scripture, and divine grace in
the use of it, are all-sufficient ; and by that iUu-

xvu
mination only we will stand, or fall. And wc
deem humility, and poverty of spirit, and teach
ableness of mind, to be qualities truly Christian ;
yet not incompatible with zeal attempered with
knowledge, in behalf of the very fundamentals of
evangelical religion. Charity we consider as
-concerned only with the souls and bodies of men,
but not their damnable heresies. 2 Peter ii. 1.
The French Philanthropy, which extends forbear
ance to these also, we have yet to learn. 2 Cor.
iv. 8, 4 ; 2 Thess. i. 7, 8 ; Gal. i. 8.
marmorArius.
February lath, 1819.

TO
MR. THOMAS GRAHAM,
SUNDERLAND.

Still with itself comparti, his Text peruse,
And let thy commeot still be Meadley's muge. Poi'E,

1 SHALL never have done with instruction
out of the works of this Philosopher ! — It is but
a day or two ago, that Areopagita sent me a grip
ing dose of the same medicine, the more nauseous
for being thickened with vulgar satire, and per*
zonal abuse. The Stone-cutter, in comparison
with this writer, is a gentleman. His castigation
is rough, but this is barbarous, and like a Raisor
keen. " Bless me, Sirs !" your Gospel and ours must
be widely different ! Pray, where did you have
it ? and in what modern workshop was it manu
factured? The unevangelical Sophistication,
fathered upon Newcombe, we know, and the
Peryersjon by Wakefield we know ; but whence
is this? Our ideas of Christian charity, which
" beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all
things," &e. are regulated by the Rules the S«rip»

XX
ture gives us.* We therefore have no fellowship
with them that deny our Lord and Saviour. —
"He that is not with me, is against me, said he,
and he that *gathereth not with me, scatteretk
abroad. Charity, as taught by Christ and his
Apostles, is one thing ; and Philosophical Philan
thropy, as taught by Priestley, Wakefield, and
Meadley, is quite another thing.
That you should express such an horror at the
author of the fragment, just mentioning the Gods,
of Heathen times, is surprising! Since your
Christianity without Christ, is not a whit better
than Heathenism; I know not if the refined
Heathenism of the Philosophical Age of Julian
be not better than yours. For we have an odd
prejudice about this matter, and think apostati
zing Christians, like deceitful friends, are worse
than open enemies, and that they will be worse
dealt with. At a future day I may tell you more
of my mind about this.
Your allusion to the Ass, and the dead Lion,.
which is a good fable, where it applies,! ^s nere»

• 1 Tim. iv. 1,2—2 Tim. iii. l—5_Sv. 3.. ..Gal. i 8....S Pet ii. Ii
2. IT, 20, 21....1 John, ii. 18, 19. See " IMMANUEL, or Scripture.
Views of Christ." Part II. Obs. 16th.
t By this rule, death must exempt Voltaire, and even Hobbes, from
censure ; let their works and example be ever so much thrown in our

XXI

from its misapplication. I give Mr Graham full
credit for his good writing, but not for the appli
cation of his Talent. As for Areopagita, he
merits none, on either account. But if I cannot
give him a word or two in reply, he will be dis
pleased. ,
Well then. — He says " the unlearned will stare,
at the hard names of the three Grecian Sophists."
But I rather think they will laugh, at the whim-
sey of his sagacious discovery, of " his three sim
ple neighbours, S-, O — . and T-," lying snugly
concealed under those three names ; for his petu
lance will discover the secret, that himself is one
of them. Most people know that Greek names
of men very often carry a meaning in them ; but
such a meaning as that, who but the acute Areo
pagita would have dreamt of? He also says
further, that CACOD^MONIUS signifies "an

faces I Mr Graham's argument against me, for not attacking M ¦
while living, is not just, as he (M — ) gave me no offence. I did not
know that unhappy man, even by sight, nor he me probably. For I was
no frequenter of the Library. The gross insult of the CENOTAPH,
and the improper EXAMPLE, attempted to beheld up to the publick,
first aitracted my atteation to the name,* and merits, of the DEAD
LION, and his LIVING JACKAL. As for kicking, that is impos
sible now; for, besides Areopagita, the. ASS, which has assumed the
Lion's skin,' stands Guard over his remains, and acts his part so wells
that we are all Terror-struck at sight of him 1

XX11

evil spirit."* If so, the probability is, that *o
significant a name has been put upon the little
CACCY, when, from the eccentricity of his eariy
genius, Yas future Fame was rightly prognostica-
ted. Kor has the fondling term been misapplied,
when given to a Sophist, whose last breathings of
philosophy amount to a denial of the pre- existence*
and incarnation, of the Saviour of the world ; be
fore whom the Dii inferni themselves, less bold
in Scepticism, than he, fell down trembling, and
confessed his Deity, and supplicated his for
bearance. .'
As to the Cave of Trophonius, the air of which
still sits uneasy on his stomach, he owns he does
know something about it ; for, like Goldsmith's
Village Pedagogue, he is too keen to let any
thing escape him. To Sophists of his sect, the
gloomy horrors of that cave of despair seldom fail,
at one time or another, to reveal themselves : but
for him to break my head for the stigma of dull
ness, put upon the three Panygericks at that

* The general exposition now given is, as he says, " Cacos," wicked,
and " Diamon," genius. Some of the other disciples have been leu
fortunate than him, and have derived it from the Greek verb " Caccao,"
or the Latin " Caco," which brings it into close affinity with the DII
STERCOREI, mentioned in Exodus xiv.; which the Jews at that
time privately worshipped, just as some philosophers do CacodsemonitK
Bpw, and wish to press us into the same Idola,tiy,

XX111
Cavern,— does that exhibit his Philanthropy ? —
"Why dost thou shake thy grizzly locks at me ?
— It was not I that did it. !"
Preferable by far is the charity of Mr Graham,
my original antagonist, who, after the Strappado,
gives me a kind shake by the hand at parting. —
Of course I cannot be less polite ; and therefore,
with wishes equally? sincere for his reformation
also, in both doctrine and example,
I remain, &c.
MARMORARIUS.
In taking my leave, I beg to acquaint the
Public, that THE MARBLE is disposed of by
private Contract.
2d February, 1819.

INTRODUCTION.

Nullos esse deos, inane caelum
Affirmat Selius, probatgue ; quod se
Factum, dumnegal hoc, videt beatum.
Martial L. i.
Selius affirms Religion vain,
Its hopes and terrors empty shew ;
Ask him his argument— tis plain
Else how to me could blessings flow.

That levelling spirit of anarchy and impiety,
which burst out into an open flame in the early
progress of the French Revolution, declaring
war and extirpation against kings and priests, had
not been unobserved in its secret workings under
the cover of Philosophy, long before that tre
mendous explosion took place. But the exces-

2
rive state of demoralization to which it hail
already advanced with success, in the seduction
of the great mass of the population of Europe, as
well as the more generally known licentiousness
of the higher orders, could only be conceived from
the event. It is an Evil Spirit which ill brooks
to be laid again, after it has once known its own
brutal strength, and felt the sweets of emancipa
tion from the abyss of hell, where it was engen
dered, and where it had indignantly suffered
coercion, before the time when it was conjured
up by the wands of the Demagogue Magicians*
which they had cut fresh fi-om the Tree of
Liberty, that flourished hard by the brink of the
abyss, and whose leaves distilled drops of human
blood. This spirit of universal change, far frorri yield
ing to the superior force by which its gory
triumphs have been suspended, and after a twenty
years' struggle, and an apparent victory, banished
from Europe for a season ; has never intermitted
its exertions for the good of mankind, hi one
quarter or another. A temporary and convenient
retirement, it is to be apprehended, is the utmost
forbearance and mercy that the world has to ex
pect from the philanthropy of modern reformers,
and a philosophical reformation. The impressions
of the cloven foot, visibly in advance to renew

3
the contest, are obtruded upon observation, in
the daily increasing strides of infidelity, and its
consequent inordinate excesses of impiety, which
now hold in defiance, pretty equally, the laws
both of God and man.
Thus a stimulus is given to the human mind,
to promote and quicken its return back to that
original corruption, to which even under grace
it still strongly inclines ; but towards which its
downward progress is frightfully accelerated,
when once that seal unto the day of redemption
(Ephes. i. 13 — 2 Cor. i. 22) is broken through by
the " evil heart of unbelief," now more fashion
ably called Philosophy.
That indiscreet and premature revelation, which
inadvertently escaped a great Philosopher, at this
time under inglorious exile in America, has laid
bare to public view the real scale by which
honour, gratitude, humanity, and even common
honesty, is measured out in lengths exactly suited
to the occasion, in the leathern and stretching
consciences of the Epicurean and Sadducean
Philosophers of the present day. Yet some still
have that shamefacedness, a grace in which that
celebrated Refugee is wofully deficient, that they
think it good, or at least prudentially ineumbent
upon them, to temporize a little ; and continue

to cover the real face of their designs with the
imposing mask, of Philanthropy.*
This philosophy, as it is derived from a quarter
inimical to divine revelation, so likewise all its
indications are of another spirit, and its efforts
and zeal indefatigably employed in behalf of
another kingdom, that of the Serpent, the first
philosophical disputer against the express revela
tion and peremptory commands of God. (Gen.
iii. 1.— John vui. 44.) The Qualms of conscience
which at first impede the progress of its gay and
libertine votaries, do soon give way to perseve
rance in his lessons, and their proficiency at length
subsides into that staterepresented in the parable,
(Mat. xii. 45.) and they become seven times
more fixed in the principles of infidelity than
before. Rational religion, as they wish to have their
system of Christianity called, or Socinianism, as

* Philanthropy, which means an indiscriminating love of human kind,
in the modern cant of our political and religious reformers, is a sort of
mock charity, which confounds virtue with vice, arid irreligion, scepticism
9»id anarchy, with their direct contraries. Philanthropy knows no bounds,
and observes no distinctions, but hugs with the same warmth of embrace,
'.'him {hatfeareth God and him thatfearith him no*." If such he the degen
eracy of our nature that cajit must .prevail i* all things, then wljjpon
even with cant, is better than cam ifitjunil religion.

it is termed by them without, might more pro
perly derive its title from its original founder in
Eden, and be intrinsically known as Serpentine
Philosophy. For if Socinus were able now to lift
up his ruthless head out of the grave, he would
perceive his own utmost proficiency in theological
licentiousness cast far into the shade, by the supe
rior boldness of the modern disciples of his heresy.
The lessons of the original teacher of apostacy
from God, have been thought very audacious;
yet even these have been rivalled, and outdone
by some modern instructors, without much, if
any, deviation from his original plan.
" Fair creature," said he to our first mother,
" hath God really abridged your liberty, and the
full exercise of your judgment, by so absurd and
useless a restriction ? and under the penalty of death
too, for once transgressing such a law as that ! so
trivial, so harmless an offence, if it can be deemed
such at all ! — Gracious Powers ! what is the ad
vantage of your alledged reason, if it is to be thus
restricted ?. — It is inferior to the instinct of the
brutes ! which can distinguish their own good
with decision, and apply it as nature directs,
without control. Surely you have imposed upon
yourselves, by your own superstitious fears ;—
you have mistaken the terms of the commandment,
-or put a wrong construction upon the intent of it!

—But if that be not the case, then let me speak
a bold word to you. There must be somewhat
more in this needless mystery about an apple*
than you are yet acquainted with. Your own
fine understanding will suggest to you, that there,
is even a virtue in breaking through such a de
grading and servile subjection of reason, more
than in a tame submission to it. " Ye shall not
surely die." There is somewhere such a thing
as envy of your present happiness, and a mean
jealousy of its increase, lest by the known perfec-
tability of your reason, inferiors should draw too
near the throne, come almost into contact, and
seem to be too much like equals ! " For God
doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then
your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as
Gods, knowing good and evil."*

* '• There is a very extraordinary personage mentioned in Scripture,"
says Bishop Porteus, (Works, vol. iii. Sermon 8,) " whose existence it is
the fashion of the present day to doubt, and to deride, and to explain
away some of the most striking effects of his power into allegory, meta
phor, vision, and imagination. He is, notwithstanding, described by the
sacred writers in the plainest and the clearest terms, and represented as
a being of high rank, of great power, and prodigious art. He appears
to be in a state of perpetual hostility against God and Christ, the origin
and -cause of which is not revealed, and has a very considerable influence
in the present world. To this malignant and insidious being was owing
the fall of our first parents, and the introduction of sin and death, and
every kind of moral evil into the world. On the ruins of human na-

The plausible suggestions of this original teacher
are at this day very much in the same style. There
is little other variation but such as the change of
times and circumstances have rendered expedient.
It is suggested now, " that the strong lights of
philosophical discussion are needful to assist the
weaker ones, supplied by revelation alone ; or at

ture did this tremendous spirit erect his infernal throne, and establish
an astonishing dominion over the minds of men, leading them imp such
acts of folly, stupidity, and wickedness, as are on no other principle to be
accounted for." As evidences of the reality of diabolical influence, the
bishop cites the almost universal custom of human sacrifices, and the
atrocious outrages on all decency perpetrated in some of the sacred rites '
of Egypt, Greece, and Hindostan, And What is a proof more to the
point, the frequency of serpent worship, in the idolatry of both ancient
and modern times. See Maurke's Indian Antiquities, vol 1. p. 256,
274, 291. and Bryant's Ancient Mythology, vol. I. de Ophiolatria. To
these might be added the universality of the worship of the sun, which,
with great piobability, some have contended to be the'Tophet, or local
hell,* prepared aforetime in terrorem, and destined after the judgement
to be his final prison. Isaiah xxx. 33. Matt. xxv. 41. This latter text
alone is sufficient to prove a devil against all that has been urged to
the contrary in .Simpson's Essays, Grundy's Lectures, v. 1. p, 80 and %t
where a futile attempt is made to evade Gen. iii. and Matt. iv. 7.-j-—
That so subtile an enemy, who has abused human nature with the adora.
-turn of the serpent, the very instrument he made use of for our destruc
tion, and the worship of devils or infernal spirits, known to be such, and
even of hell itself, the place of his own terror, should dare to attempt
Christ in his great undertaking for our redemption, may surely be wor
thy of credit. This was his last hope, and however desperate, was to be
tried. * See Swinden on Hell.
+ Or by Cappe, Farmer, Wilson, &c
B

least useful to illumine its mysterious darknesses
That reason, divine reason, ever mindful of it*
own perfectibility, must be the interpreter and
ultimate judge of both its authenticity and mean
ing, and how far the authority of Revelation mar
be admissible, when it insults our reason, the
prior and more indisputable gift of the Creator. —
That the alledged inspiration of scripture must
not be held over our heads with too high an hand,
its numerous imperfections being discoverable
enough in various respects, by those whose philo
sophy has been enlightened, by divesting their
minds of prejudice and superstition, That of
course no more than an historical faith in scrip
ture, can be required ; and even that must needs
Be eked out at a pinch by the spirit of alle
gory, to preserve any sort of consistency with the
dictates of reason* or evei> with itself.*

* Particularly in the tale of the fall of 'man in Adam, and the connect-
ed fiction of hit restoration in Christ some thousands of years afterwards ;
and the part which the devil, (a curious, talmudical, allegorical sort of a
nonentity* in nature,) is feigned to have had in that event ; and also by
necetsafy consequence, the odd colloquy, that wily disputant, is vulgarly
believed to have held with Jesus, as the same is jo<?ose'ly related by
Matt. iv. I. These two stories, expounded by reason, entirely break up
the fine spun theory of atonement set up by the tent maker, Rom. v. 17.
1 Cor. xv. 21. See more in regard to the credibility of scripture ib
Priestley's Letter to a Phil. Unb. part ii. pref. p. xiii. and Letter v.

9
In Relations, which exceed the known powers
ef nature, it is to be supposed they exceed the
utmost stretch of human credence >too. For to
impute them to such an impossible, cause, as the
ignorance of the Jewish Scepticks .did, was the
effect of their confined ideas and traditionary, edu
cation. (Matt. ix. 34.) These miracles, of which
zealots make so much boast, must be either re
jected in the lump, or imputed to imposture,
practicing upon ignorance and superstition. The
alledged demoniacal possessions in particular,
have been .^hewn to be nothing more than the
sometimes strange varieties of the common dis
eases of epilepsy, and lunacy, and the DeviJ,
according to vulgar theology thus wondrously
divided, and curiously packed, to he merely
moral evil personified, in the usual style of the
Jewish writers. In short, by way of "Searing
the conscience with an hoi iron," that ©o alarming
compunctions may any longer disturb its deep*
lucubrations, or impede its rapid advancement
in this sort of <* kjumledge of good and evil," the
locality, eternity, and even probable being of hell,
and future punishments, are denied; and the
scriptural images, used by our blessed Saviour
to represent some idea of them, are made the
common butt of scorn and derision*
* The sagacious instructor of "the disputers of this world," both in
ancient and modern times, feels very sore upon the^e points, for it ii

10

Even the second death, the most appaling of all
revealed terrors, as it fell from the lips of Christ,

tender ground. (James ii. 19.) He wishes to escape from <he unfevour-
able representation given of him in scripture, as a liar a subtil "adver
sary, walking about continually, seeking whom he may devour " which he
does most effectually by means of insinuations, flattering to flesh and
blood,' and puffing Up also: the fleshly mind But seeing and consider
ing how much. the: tide of philosophy has turne" again of late, and that
the spiritual world, and its supposed existence, are become now the de
rision of the modern as they were formerly of the ancient Sadducees,
he artfully trims his vessel afresh, and sails wih the ride in its refliix. —
He is modestly content to pocket the affront of the denial of his exist
ence, or, at least, not to make a noise about it before company ; reserv
ing himself to make his defence, and bring his argument- with greater
force, at a convenient season, in his own spiritual court. Hence the
Simpsonian Theory of '• No Devil."—" No Eternity.' — " No future
punishments "— or if any be admitted, in compliance to the weak in infi
delity, they are only to endure for an Eternity, that is an jEvum ; and
•re designed for correction and probation, even after death. In short, the
purgatory of popery is revived, or any thing that may but contradict the
, truth of Revelation, and stultify the declared vengeance of God against
incorrigible sinners. By this means hope enters into the region of thc
damned, and despair is annihilated. A gaol delivery is charitably pro
mised to the very devils themselves, to the great strengthening of sin
and comfbff of sinners, who either will hot or cannot repent in this life.-
But all this, wherever the learned author had it, is clearly an ether gospel
diverse from ours, for these arc they for whom Christ either refused to
die, (Matt, xxv, 41. Judc 6. Heb. ii. 16.) or died in vain, (2 Cor. vi, 1.
Heb. vi. 6.) which must also be the case with those who deny his deit),
and reject his atonemept. This apochryphal gospel must be the same
text book from which the first Socinian sermon was preached ; and thus
docs a reasonable Faith in Christ give place to as infatuated credulity,
and the certain hope of eternal life is bartered away for the fallacious as
surances of the serpent,

11
falls from the lips of the serpent in softened ac
cents, " propkecying unto us smooth things, pro-
phecying deceits." — It defeats entirely the object
of Christ's warning in that aweful revelation, and
on the contrary, holds forth a seducing encourage
ment to perseverance in sin ; and a final hope of
amnesty to the most obdurate ingratitude and
unbelief, even of such for whom, if the word of
Jesus Christ may be taken, " it had been good if
they had never been born." But it is no great
wonder that he, who by flatteries and lies, suc
ceeded so well with the first Adam, and though
against hope, yet presumed even to offer a bribe
to the second Adam, " in whom dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily." All these things,
said he, will 1 give thee, if thou wilt fall down
and worship me," should presume to offer the
most palpable contradictions of both divine reve
lation and reason itself, as superlative philosophy,
and demonstration strong

A3 proofs of holy writ
To minds deprived of their proper balance by
self-conceit, (in which t infidelity is invariably
founded,) by the pride of learning, and abilities .
capable of better fruits, but degradingly t ngaged
in another service, through a diabolical infatua
tion,* Coll. ii. 8. 9.-— 2 Thess. ii. 11. l±
" In most of the scripture cases of demoniacal possession, we see the
inferior devils divinely propelled by the terror of the divine presence im

12

The propagators of such detestable principles,
in proportion as their audacity has increased,

>he person of Jesus, to confess their recognition of him, proclaim him
to be the son qftke most high God, and in humble prostration before him
to suplicate his forbearance a little longer. (Matt, viii. 29. Mark v. 7.
Luke viii 28.) But we may suppose the pride and unyielding audacity
of their chief capable of greater firmness, in the personal encounter with
his former conqueror and God, whom a divine impression now com
pelled him to meet, And this idea of the temptation as compulsatoiy on
Satan's part, and improved by him into a last effort of despair, sets atide
the ridicule of Grundy and his associates upon this subject
The .infatuation and insolence combined, which marks a diabolical
tpir.it, suffers oftentimes secrets to transpire, which had more wisely
been kept in close concealment. And this happens both to the incorpo
real devils themselves, and also to those demons incarnate, whom the
scripture calls " spirits of devils " Rev.xvi. 14. That is, men endued
with a spirit of wickedness truly diabolical, and who betray a zeal and
assiduity in the advancement of the kingdom of darkness, which would
not disgrace their master himself. Instances of the imprudence alluded
to above, are not wanting even in our times, neither arc real demoniacal
possessions confined to the primitive ages, A pretty good estimate may
be formed of the present state of the pride of despair and rage, which
actuates the mind of the infernal king, (Isaiah xxx, 33. Matt. xxv. 41.)
from the deplorable case of William Pope, a most awcfully warning
example of the horrible consequences of persevering infidelity. (See
Pike's "Consolation of Gospel Truth," Derby printed, 1817, or the
same in the Methodist Magazine, 1798.) This wretched apostate ex
hibited every symptom of a re$l demoniacal possession, and an hell com
menced upon earth. Amongst other infernal blasphemies which he
was compelled to utter, he gloried and exulted in the hope of " the
devils exaltation to supreme dominion,'' and in the near approach of the
time when that revolution was to take place ; and this without insanity
or even delirium. The death of Voltaire, the prince of infidels, was

13
have met with an increased opposition from the
pens of "many great, and learned, and wise
men," who have powerfully and invincibly advo
cated the cause of sacred truth against them.— -
They haVe repeatedly driven them from the field,
and have even sought them out to renew the
fight, in their most secret retreats, and in the
strong holds of commentatorial sophistry. Unable
to stand to their arms in the ranks of literature,
even with the disgraceful aid of every subterfuge
and fallacy that disingenuous controversy could
supply, they have at length hearkened to the
suggestion, and followed the example of their
wily master, and their battery is removed to a
lower ground. Thus masked, it is less ostenta
tious of power, but more effectual, by the greater
numbers taken off at every discharge ; and in his
calculation souls are souls, no matter of what sort ;
and he swells his ranks by numbers of inglorioU6
victims, little curious in the main as to their lite
rary or otherwise honorable estimation in the
transitory distinctions of this world. His chief

distinguished by ^possession equally dreadful. The whole of the scrip*
ture economy of a devil, and the idea of demoniacal possession, it set
aside as either fabulous or figurative ; two excellent methods of evasion
which are of very extensive Utility to the solution of all difficulties, in
the recent sceptical writers. See Wilson's Archceological Dictionary —
Simpson's Essays— Grundy's Lectures— Farmer's, BeUhsm's, See. works.

14
apostles and their subordinate preachers, have
therefore descended a few steps, and have had re
course to the meanest and most disingenuous
methods of propagating the denudating (Rev.
xvi. 15,) disorganizing tenets of their philosophy,
by means of a subordinate agency, and the dili
gent and extensive circulation of cheap tracts, for
the enlightening of the lower orders. These
want nothing but enlightening, to become useful
members of society, being incompetent to judge
of sucli matters, they will seldom raise any trou
blesome objections, but are rather apt to be capti
vated by novelty, and libertinism, and raillery, in
whatever shape or pretensions offered.*

* That multitude should be an object of ambition and despair enraged,
to the serpent himself, is not surprising, although in competition with
tho Almighty it cannot suggest hope of victory.
Qui nil potest sperare, desperet nihil !
Seneca Med.
Who hope not entertains, he makes despair
For all his certain blows the surest shield. Sidney.

— — — Nor hope to be myself less miserable
By what I seek — but others to make such
As I, though thereby worse to me redound. Milton.
But that any human system, when forsaken of those honest allies of
truth, fair argument, and solid learning, should look also to multitude

15

An agency of this nature does not demand
either great abilities or extraordinary acquire*

for support, and even victory, is an argument of a bad cause, and a truly
diabolical congeniality of spirit, in the determination to support it.—
" Meliora pluribus placere non solent, et argumentum pessimt turba est."
Senec. de Benef. c. 1. 2;
The employment of subordinate agency by the superior "vianitring
tUri' (Jude xii 13.) of modern heresy, in the meaner drudgery of their
master's' work, and the perpetual Use of disingenuous arts and palpable'
falsifications too, has a still worse aspect. Thus under the plausible and
imposing title of '« religious tracts," doctrines the most irreligious and
hostile to both the present and future peace of mankind are vended ; and
ander the sanction of names venerable for piety, virtue, and learning,
*uch as those of Archbishop Newcombe> Dr. Watts,' &c. theological
poison is cheaply sold and given away. It has become perilous in the ex
treme to uneducated persons, to receive any thing in the guise of a reli-
gieui tract into their families, unless they are well assured first that it
comes from an honest quarter.
Dr. Watts' pious hymns have been long and deservedly in great fa*
rour with the religious publick. But they have lately fallen into bad
hands, the Dr. himself, much against his will, having been enlisted and
drilled to serve in the cause against Christ; and his hymns have suffered
an evaporation of their former evangelical spirit. See Grundy,- lee. 2dj
vol. 1. p. 38. and vol. 2. lee. 2. p. 99. Dr. Whitby is socinianized, no
doubt with equal honesty. " Newcombe's New Testament'' is an im
proved version of the same stamp and character, being republished osten-
sively from Newcombe's text, but with convenient variations, sometimes
noticed, and sometimes not; which with the help of notes to meltdown
the christian gold into infidel dross, serves a good purpose foi shew and
doctrine bottS. Authors may thus be converted after they are dead, is
easily as infidels are saved ; and may hold forth from the grave doctrines
which living they abhorred. From the same workshop of the dragon
Rev. Jtvi. 13.) issued likewise Hone's travestie of the "Lord's Prayer,''
"The Litany," and "Athanasian, Creed." Translated thus into the
C

\4
ffients, but the stilityiof it in a cause -which need's
to be thus supported, cannot be disputed, and if
superior abilities should volunteer its services,
such promptitude will not be neglected, but is
worthy of double honour. An air of superior
consequence must be both assumed on the one
part, and conceded on the other, while i t is in
action ; and when its action has ceased, it must be
exalted to posthumous fame, no matter how high
above its proper level, by the ascription of honours
which are the mede of virtue and talent in the
best application. Thus the work of enlightening
and ameliorating the public mind and temper will
not cease to proceed, and future Pains, and Priest
ley's, and Grundy's, &c. will arise with redoubled
strength to turn the soil, and cultivate the seed
sown by the preceding labourers in the serpent'*
vineyard. The change of the workmen will only
excite emulation, and exemplary rewards will
stir up exemplary exertion, in a service where it
seems apathy has no place. (Luke xvi. 8.) They
will all be found worthy of their hire; " Id nobis
maxime nocet, quod non ad rationis lumen, sed
ad similitudinem aliorum vivimus."— Senecai—
Example, in most cases, has an influence beyond
mere precept, but where both are united, the

language of pandemonium, they will be ready for use when their trans
lators arrive there, and on earth they have been greatly admired, and be
come the common song of dhiDkards in every hedge alehouse.

meritorious service that will be performed ist wor
thy to be inscribed upon, a rock of stone !

"mi mi Sparges* avemales aquas. Hor.
Still sprinkling water from avernus-lake.
The erection of honorary monuments to de
parted worth, has my fullest approbation :: but if
there be a strongly expressed and well foundeil
disunion of opinion upon the subject, then there*
are two circumstances upon which no concession
ean be made, viz. the place most fit to be chosen
for their perpetual position, and the wording of
the inscription upoa them. Both these, circum
stances may possibly become matters of the first
importance, even such, that to them all private
considerations must be sacrificed and give way.—
But should such a circumstance ever happen, that
a thing of this nature, which involved an evident
impropriety, were attempted to be obtruded by
artful measures, or by an accidental elective supe
riority, &c. which must have the appearance of
implying the consent and approbation of all, then
an unceasing opposition to it becomes a positive
duty ; and if even that fails, a public protest
against it is the last resource. The weight of cul
pability ought to rest upon those who have in
curred it, and not to implicate dissentients equally

18
with them, which otherwise it must do, so long a9
such a monument of the victory of a party, sup^
posed to be really weaker in physical strength, re
mains in that situation a stigma ot disgrace upon
the public virtue, and reflecting^*, just suspicion
Upon the orthodoxy of the faith of many ostensible
professors of Christianity.*
In a place set apart to be the repository of gene
rally useful and edifying instruction, or, at least*
of knowledge improving, without, at the same
time, debauching and misleading the ingenuous
mind 3 what must the effect of such a measure be
else, but the setting up of an altar to Belial*
giving a perfect sanction to misconduct of this
kind in time past, and inciting those that come
after, by the extraordinary honours paid to it in
this way, and by proposing it as a laudable example
of imitation, to go and discharge the same func
tion in a similar manner? Institutions of this na
ture were originally formed, and thrown open to
the young and uninformed mind upon easy terms,
with the best intentions, and under the idea of con
tributing to a public benefit. But all things how-r

f A merely verbal alteration almost to any extent, would yield but a
poor satisfaction in a case like this, and much less so the concession of
a little particle, in that application significant of nothing else but its own
insignificancy, and which the proposer Upon reconsideration has consent.
fd tp withdraw.

19
ever excellent in themselves, and so much the
more in proportion to their original goodness, are
-susceptible of perversion, when the management
of them falls into improper hands.
Nil prodest quod non l*dere possit idem.
Nought so intrinsically good is found,
But ill from thence may equally redound.
And these commendable institutions have not
escaped a large participation in the general obli
quity of the times. Top many public libraries have
been perverted by an abuse very contrary to their
design, to become the engine of parties in politicks
or religion, and Inve been extensively injurious,
and that far too systematically so, to both religion
and morals. In this corrupting influence, some of
them have come but little short of what we read
of the luxurious times of heathen B,ome, when
even Ovid says, — •

Nil igitur matrona legat, i
Quodcunque attigerit, si qua est studiosa sinistri,
Ad vitium mores instruct inde tuos. Ov. Trist. 1. %.
Let not a lady read — their touch is death 1
Like adder's poison their infectious breath,
Taints guiltless innocence,
The present state of some of these public repo„
sitories, is become such, that an index expurga-

30
torius is highly necessary, and should be set about
speedily ; and many -a costly volume be committed
to the flames, as a sacrifice upon the altar of virtue,
and a vengeance due to the many wounds which
divine revelation has thence received.
Terra salutiferas herbas eademque nocentes,
Nutrit, et urticz pioxima ssepe rosa est.
In the same soil both good and evil grows,
Oft is the nettle neighbour to the rose.
In the mean while the librarian should be in
structed to affix a cautionary docket upon the most
notoriously injurious books, as druggists have been
admonished, by several instances of fatal mistakes
occurring from neglect of a similar kind, to affix a
notice upon their drugs of a dubious character:
"Peril and death to the ignorant."-— "Not a few
books ought to be thus branded with the stigma of
a noli me tangere, until at least they can be better
secured against any danger of their doing farther
mischief, either by the instrumentality of fire, the
best and most effectual remedy, or otherwise by a
strong box with lock and key. Thus guarded,
they might have a certain sort of existence con
ceded to them, such as some of the illuminati
themselves grant even- to the devil ; and might be
still forthcoming when called for by the learned,
for the purposes, of refutation, &;c. or by philoso
phical students, for the. cultivation of their peculiar

21
ideas, and the extension of the "knowledge of go&d
and evil." For there are constitutions by nature
So strong, and by art, and the long habit of swallow
ing the most powerful intellectual drugs of this
sort, so additionally fortified, as to have acquired
the fabled immunity of Mithridates, who when
he wished to avail himself of death by poison, was
hot in a capacity to obtain it by that means.-—
Thus some philosophers are incapable 'of death by
intellectual poison, or even of being injured in
their spiritual health by association with authors
infected with the plague of infidelity ; being se
cured by the spiritual recipe of two famous doc
tors, Jude and Peter : the " twice dead' '-^"pluck
ed up by the roots "—of the one, and the " damna
ble heresies of the other, when mixed secundum
artem, form an elixer salutis of sufficient virtue
to be administered to the prince of darkness him
self! See 1. Pet. ii. 1. Sec— 3. 3. 4— Jude i. 2.
Far from being in many instances, what such
institutions are capable of, a public advantage,
"wvlUqfmh'ation?* or trees of knowledge, wlwse
leaves are for the healing of " the nations," some of
thena, by improper influence employed without
eifectiaal check or remonstrance, are transformed
into uvemal springs, which bubble up noxious
water hard by the clear stream of science. Trees
they are, both in leaf and fruit, like the apples of

m
Sodom* which seem fair and beautiful externally,
but yield to the incautious eater only ashes.
Upon altars of the above description are offered
whole hecatombs of infidel, incendiary, anarchical*
or otherwise infected literature, in sacrifice to the
infernal Gods, by priests of a congenial spirit, and
anxiously concerned for the preservation of the
public health, and the due institution of the rising
generation in religion and morals ; that it may be
still more advanced in philosophical proficiency
than us, their predecessors.
jEtas parentum pejor avis tulit
Nos nequiores, mox daturos
Pfogenicm vitiosiorem. Hor. Catm. r. 3.
More vicious than their father's age,
Our sires begot the present race,
Of actions impious, hold and base,
And yet with crimes to us unknown,
Our sons shall mark the coming age their own.
Francis.
Without offence be it spoken, I really think/
that so great a press of arian, socinian, deistical
and the other varieties of shade of infidel, free-
thinking, or latitudinarian writers, as we are apt
now to fall into company with on almost every
shelf} «nd many times attracted to communicate
with them by fictitious and assumed titles, ought

83
hot to be admitted even by donation, arid much
less by purchase out of the public contribution.*
Whilst tlie disorganizing philosophy of the pre<-
sent times has such resources, and " so great is
the company of them that publish it," Psm. lxviii.
11. and their methods of leading the blind and
ttnteaching the taught, are so many, and various,
and attended with such triumphant success, i we
ought not to wonder that the character of the age
assumes daily a more forbidding and truely alarm
ing aspect, and the predicted perils of the last
times are coming fast upon us. 2 Tim. iii. 1.— 4.f

* Not that I would concede on the other hand, that all religious or
theological works of every description should be rejected; aconcessioni
which in a country where Christianity still predominates, howmuchso-
ever we are divided in opinion upon matters not considered as funda
mentals, ought not to be thought of. A difference in opinion amongst
leal christians has not that pernicious effect of rooting out the very foun
dation of morals, and reverence for the holy scriptures, which is well
known to grow out of the dogmas of sceptical divinity, " Variety is
«harming," it is said, at least different tastes may thus innocently be
indulged ; but such a variety as is offered by the theological works of
Hume, Geddes, Simpson, Farmer, Grundy, Shaftsbury, Priestley, Fel
lows, Wakefield, Disney, Belsham, &c. can contribute little of edifi
cation or improvement either, to any mind in1 which a spark of christian
faith remains alive; but much of every thing contrary; and such
teachers have no business in a public subscription library. Let'gentlemen
purchase for their private use works of that description.
•*- This complaint of the times present being worse than the times
fast, has been so frequently brought forward, that it would obtain little
D

24
From the returns lately made to parliament of
the state of the goals, &c, the increase of crimes
for the last ten or twelve years appears to exceed
all former example ; and " Even within the! last
three or four years, the increase has been almost in
the proportion of two to one ; and comparing the
commitments of last year with those ten years
ago, in some classes of crime they were in the
ratio of nearly three to one ! — a reflection not a
little appalling." The beginning of this increase,
in both the number and malignity of crimes, may
be evidently traced from the time when the level
ling and infidel principles of the French Revolu
tion found a free acceptance here,, and epenedthe
flood gates wide to every immorality. It is ab
surd to attribute the undeniable degeneracy of
morals, as the demagogues do, to the corruption
of parliament, or tyranny of government, &c. As
to the alledged injustice and impolicy of the pe-

consideration, did not facts of' the most alarming nature force it now
Upon universal observation. " Every feeling mind must with regret
perceive the spirit of insubordination and disobedience which prevails
in youth, public seminaries as well as private families, have exhibited
instances of a depravation of natural affection and filial gratitude, as well
as of that respectful submission to the necessary regulations and restraints,
which are indispensable to bothdomesticand academical institutions of
youth. The consequences of the increase of this spirit cannot be con
templated without painful apprehensions. Already the sessions in the
metropolis, and the crowded state of the gaols, and the assizes in the
country, exhibit a melancholy list of juvenile and even infantile offen
ders,"

2-5
ml laws, and the vicious system of prison discip
line, the abuses of the poor laws, &e. much may
be in want of regulation in many of these re
spects ; yet, for the most part, these evils are not
recent, but have subsisted many years, with but
little aggravation, and without the effects now
attributed to them. The true and principal cause
and root of the mischief is therefore to be en
quired after elsewhere, and will "be found to be of
such a nature, as tends to paralize the nerves of
public virtue at their very origin, and dries up the
springs of the national health. It turns "the
sea," or mass of political blood, into a mass of
putrid humours, ready prepared for dissolutioB,
and political, death. Rev. xvi. 4.
To the corruption of moral principle, by with
drawing the accustomed sanctions of religion; to
the annihilation of the force of conscience, and
obliterating the belief or fear of any future account
or retribution ; is the sudden increase of crimes
chiefly to be attributed. If we advert, at the
same time, to the industry and success with which
the disorganizing principles which go hand in
hand with infidelity, have been disseminated
amongst the common people, we need not be
astonished, however alarmed, at the increase of
crime. It is a natural effect.
In the lower walks of life, the portraiture of the
times is drawn in sombre colours, by the murders,

26
robberies, forgeries, and crimes of every horrid
description with which the public prints abound,
and which exceed all former record, as well in the'
atrocity as the number of them. The cool and
determined spirit of wickedness in the perpetra
tion1 of barbarities, and the little sense of repentr
ance, or even fear of future punishment, to be ex
cited by the usual ministrations of religion, upon
the almost obliterated conscience cf the criminals^
has now become a striking feature of the present
times. A wide spreading spirit of anarchy and spoKau, '
tion, irreligion and profanity, seems to pervade a
large proportion of the common people, and has
rendered them a fit tool to be employed by a few
mad designing democrats, ignorant or blind to any
consequences of their own intrigues, in bringing
upon the people of this nation all the calamities of
the French Revolution.
Neither is the prospect before us more exhila
rating, when we contemplate the state of society
in the better educated and more elevated walks of
life. Dissipation and pleasure bear down all con
siderations before them. The wanton forfeiture
of honour, and light sacrifice of character, the
cruel violation of tried friendship, and shameless
breach of trust, have gone now to such an extent
as to have unloosed the bonds of confidence, and

2?
broken through every moral tie and obligation
that can bind man to man. To the decay of reli
gions principles, and of the continual impressions
made by the belief of an ever-present witness of
human conduct, who is one day to be our judge,
can alone be attributed the altered character of the
more elevated ranks, and the unexampled, and
unaccountable suicides, by which a life of dissir
pation and irreligion is so frequently terminated,
Talent, united with industry, and zeal in a
man's vocation, is indeed a sort of merit common-.
ly worthy of honour, but not universally or indis
criminately so. It ought to be first decidedly
established, that these qualities have been wor
thily and indisputably applied to a good purpose,
and from which the public is likely to reap mate
rial advantage. But to employ talents, and learn
ing, and time, in the propagation of those dis
organizing principles, which some theological
doctors of eminent name have brought forward in
their voluminous Works, will not be universally
deemed a sort of service to which any very extra
ordinary tribute of public gratitude is due. The
methods of enlightening the public mind, alluded
to above, by cheap tracts, and extracts from the
fldwers of sceptical divinity,, and by the disco
veries made at that time by the most notorious
spirits of the last and present century ; especially
those which flourished in the time of the French

Revolution ; and all this mass of "the knowledge
of good and evil," reduced into distinct proposi
tions, by way of an antidote to Christianity, to be
contained in a nutshell ; all this sort of application
will scarcely merit the thanks of persons in a
sound mind. This method of philosophizing in
religious and political science, which is now rer
duced to a system, tends not really to enlighten,
but rather to throw in additional darkness, to
minds thus deprived of the illumination of the
spirit of grace, the force of conscience, and the real
feelings of humanity and christian charity, by the
substitution of an artificial and pretended philan
thropy. It is by the over -abundance of such in
structions, and by the dissemination of enervating
and debasing principles, that the heart of the
people is become ferocious and brutalized, as far
as this corrupting influence extends. Isai. vi. 10«
The public body is pampered even to obesity and
bad humours, with the most delicate tit-bits of in
fidelity and sedition. These at once create and
entice a false appetite, which has not, neither can
have, any realities in nature commensurable to it
Genius, thus set to work by superior genius
and machiavelian design, might have found a
wiser and better eriiployment ; and, in point of
recompence, might seem to have been content
with such honours as may be decreed to merit of

29
this kind, in Elysium, without aspiring to a place?
amongst the gOds, with Julius and Julian.
Amplexus est astra, colitur and templis deus;

-" And as he mounts the skies,

Tablets and altars to his glory rise.1'
Religion has, in all ages, been deemed a good
and valuable ally to statesmen and legislator
to answer their first object, the securing of the
peace of society by means of a regular obedience
to the laws.

' AH the volumes of philosophy,

With all their comments, never could invenV
Sd politic ah instrument! Prior.
Every rash departure, prior from this mode of
enlightening and governing a nation, has been in
variably followed by the most direful consequen
ces to the public morals and the general safety,
and eventually to the true glory and prosperi
ty of states, unto the verification of Solomon's
maxim, Prov. xiv. 34. " Righteousness exalteth a
nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."— *¦
The experiment, to the contrary, recently tried
by the philosophical demagogues of France, may
stand in stead of a thousand examples. But more
than this, Religion, even amongst the heathens,
if we except the Epicurus's, Lucretius's, and

Cacodsemonius's of antiquity, the pretenders id
the superior wisdom of atheism, has been ever
esteemed a benefit to mankind, far beyond a
merely political utility. This, Cicero every where
acknowledges, and with him, all the wisest and
best men both of ancient and modern times. —
Amongst the moderns particularly, it is notorious
that all the wisdom and virtue of the world has
ever been on the side of orthodox or vital Christi
anity, morality and political order. The at*
tempts lately made to enlist Sir Isaac Newton and
Xiocke in the ranks of scepticism, are undeserving
even of refutation, and are as futile and palpable
impositions, as the *' improved version of the New
Testament,3' saddled upon Archbishop New-
combe. With what views or expectation of advantage
can men set themselves to work, and exert the ut.
most powers of the human mind, with all the
subtilty and sophistry of the original deceiver him
self, in sowing the seeds of irreligion aud anarchy*
by disseminating the demoralizing principles of
infidelity, in the mass of the undistingUishiag
.multi tude ? " A little leaven leaveneth the whole
lump," and the effect must necessarily be, at no
great distance of time, what prophecy has fore
told, and what partially was exhibited but lately,
to actual observation, in almost every part df
Europe* except our own highly favoured isle ; that

31
the sea, or general population, " became like the
blood of a dead man," Rev. xvi. 3. that is to say,
in the language of Symbols, unfit for any of the
purposes of spiritual or political life. In what
proportion then do persons whose abilities, what
ever they were, and lives, have been laid out in
an occupation contributing to this end, deserve the
thanks and gratitude of mankind?
The setting up of examples for the imitation of
others, that all who are emulous of the praise and
rewards of superior virtue, should also so walk as
they walked, 1 John ii. 6, ought, in these de
ceptive times, to be the work of sound and dis
criminating judgment, and of ail undoubtedly
honest intention. It ought not to be the effect of
partiality to the leader of a faction, or a contemp
tible demonstration of the accidental triumph of
party strength, by whatever means obtained.—
Victory in such contests, is not always a sure proof
of real superiority ; for like Justice, the fickle'
Goddess is represented blind, and she frequently
inclines the scale to the subversion of Truth, and
against the wishes and best endeavours of its best
friends. Example has1 a very persuasive and ex
tensive influence on the mind. It may be an in
centive to virtue and truth, or equally as much on
the contrary a seducing guide to speculative evily
6r an introduction to pernicious heresy.*
* A. mere declamation does not afford a sufficient testimonial for the
honour of literary canonization. A frothy and unmeaning pamphlet, ot
E

When we contemplate the statue of Apollo in
a library, we feel no emotions of disgust on ac-"
count of the divine honours he formerly arrogated
to himself, or the numerous and great public
blessings he boasted to have conferred upon man
kind. Inventum medfcina meum est, opiferque per oibem
Dicor, et herbarum est subjecta, potentia nobis.
''The poweis of plants, and physic's art I found.
The great reliever thro' the world renown'd.''
Sewell's Ovid. Met.
For all will agree, that we are not at presents
many great danger of being seduced to the wor-

Sven two, both alike destitute of serious argument and authorities, in
which bare and bold assertions, and repetition of the equally fallacious
assertions of others, the erambe recocta of empty declamation, stand in
the place of reasoning, and fill the vacant sheet With pompous rant for
lack of matter ; all this I apprehend will be deemed too little to en'
title a man to pass at the bar of Rhadamanthus for so high a degree.—
Nay, should he court popularity still further by throwing the whole, in
two mighty efforts, at the head of a Reverend — — — , celebrated, ht
beyond ordinary reach1, for his very superior abilities and literary merits,
the inexorable judge, I still fear, will not be prevailed upon. A noisy
and feeble attack against such infinitely disproportioned strength, re
minds me of the village Cur, (to borrow a simile from Mr Graham)
which runs open mouthed, and iii fictitious rage, at the heels of the
passing stranger, so long as he is deemed too contemptible to engage the
notice of the horsewhip. But after Smutt has finished his career, who
would think of stuffing his skin, in honour of his excellent services?
and much less so would one think of training other dogs after such a
currish example I

Ship of him, or even to the imitation of 'his ex
ample. Nay, we do not even question his pre
tensions to occupy his post upon his pedestal; his
antiquity, and high testimonials from the poets,
exempt him from severe discussion or enquiry, as
to how he came there, or wherefore? But the
case would be materially altered should a modern
deity assume his office, and be obtruded upon our
veneration, to a much higher degree than Apollo
himself, even to be henceforwards the tutelar
genius of the place, and the pattern of imitation ;
nay, I had almost said, the inspiring Apollo, un
der whose auspices we must in all times to come,
submissively sit down to pursue our uncongenial
lucubrations, with what appetite and content we
may. For shall we not have ever upon our
minds a vivid impression of the heathen pogts, —
" Eris mihi magnus Apollo !" — Enough in con
science to. dissipate our cogitations! — besides a
multitude H>f other extraneous floating ideas,—
"Example" — " Correct and extensive knowledge"
¦ — " Religious, political, and literary," — " Great
and irreparable loss," — together with a grateful
feeling of the blessings, already shed upon us by
his literary providence ? What honours greater
than this sort of literary beatification have we in
store, (and how can we, with any due regard to
decorum, bestow less,) to confer upon the learned
gentleman himself, who upon that occasion pre
sided in the chair, whensoever bis own apotheq-

34
sis shall take place ? May it, for the good of
mankind, and of the society in particular over
which he so ably presides, be, at least for an
iEvum, postponed !*
Alterum in lustrum, meliusque semper,
Proroget ./Evum I Hon
O let each Mra still presage,
Increase of wit, and sense, from age to age 1
Francis.
It is the general declaration of holy scripture,
that the latter ages of the world will be distinT

* Not to stint him ; the iEvum meant, is one of those invented by
the ingenious J. Simpson, as a philosophical substitute for the scriptu
ral Mod, or Eternity, to which, in common with many of his sodality,
he had taken a particular antipathy. On the. basis of his own idea of
the /ton, rather a slight one, he has argued away the terrors of the fu
ture pumishments of the damned, which he preves to be only temporal in
duration, and of the nature of a purgatory for the extrication of a malig"
nity of sin no otherwise curable. The purpose of this remark is to con
gratulate ike Church of Rome upon the great probability of success which
now appears in that plan of hers, so long pursued rather hopelessly by
her order of Jesuits ; viz, the endeavour to convert the protestant world,
back into popery, by first perverting them to infidelity. This sagacious
plan may now, by that blessed order lately revived, be puisued with bet
ter prospects ; as infidelity has, since the period of their political decease^
made a gieat progress, and voluntarily advanced two fair steps towards an
happy reunion with the Holy Church; first, by their canonizations of
peculiar sceptical merit ; and, secondly.'in the revival and liberal adop
tion of (he doctrine of purgatory. Little more remains to be conceded,
but only to worship Socinus in the room of Christ, whom they have ex
punged, and they may be received with open arms by the scarlet Lady.

35
guished by a rapid advance of knowledge, both of
a good and bad description. By the blessing of a
merciful providence upon the praise- worthy exer
tions of his steady witnesses, in the midst of an
evil and adulterous generation, " The earth shall
be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the
waters cover the sea !" Isaiah xi. 9. " The light
of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and
the light of the sun shall be seven-fold, as the
light of seven days." Isaiah xxx, 2o. But this
ultimate state of happiness will not be achieved
without a previous contest first, with the opposing
powers of moral and intellectual darkness, and the
gigantic growth, and sometime prevailing efforts
of sceptical science, and philosophy, falsely so
cidhd. 1 Tim. vi. 20. Insomuch that about the
time of this great revolution, or at the coming of
the Son of Man, as it is figuratively called, he
shall scarcely find faith remaining upon earth. — .
For it is but too natural, when iniquity and infi
delity abound and carry all before them, for " the
love of many to wax cold." The studies and la
bour of a whole life of the sceptic philosopher, is
devoted to the accelerating of this expected crisis ;
for he also foresees that, "there is a march in
things, ever tending towards the perfectibility of
human reason" which the serpentlthat cannot lie,
priginally promised. But this happy consumma.
tion seems to be attainable only by means of con
founding both language and ideas, and perverting

36
every thing to the most forced and unnatural
senses. Psm. Ivi. 5. 2 Pet. iii. 16. An artificial
darkness can be easily raised, in the clearest light,
by a cloud of sceptical dust, and strained authori
ties may be brought up in proof of the most un
warrantable theories, (Isaiah v. 20. — viii. 20.)
upon which, if the natural light were suffered to
break in, it would greatly impede valuable dis-.
coveries, as well as disturb the beautiful arrange
ment of the blindfold system. The beauty and
true nature of this system of religion is finely
illustrated by the invention of the Kaleidoscope*
An instrument which derives its name from exhk
biting an endless variety of beautiful forms, which
have no reality in nature, but depend upon a bit
of broken glass. By looking into a darkened tube,
agreeably the deluded beholder contemplates forms
of things, new and surprising, and which cannot
be seen by those who use their eyes only as rea
son and nature direct, whether ignorant or wise-
But these fleeting forms have no more reality
than the visionary theory of irreligious phantoms,
seen by looking into Simpson's Socinian Kalei
doscope, which is effected by inclosing the Bible
in a dark box, depriving it of the light of revela*
tion, and turning it topsey turvey. The distorted
and grotesque appearance of the sacred oracles,
afford a surprising delight to eyes accustomed to
vision in this way. As for the futile opposition
which the spirit of philosophizing encounters at

37
every turn from scriptural objection, and difficult
ties apparently insurmountable, the modern rule
of dressing and pruning makes every thi ng of that
sort quite easy. The stubborn text that will not
bend to the space of wall allowed to it, and the
handsome training required, muse receive a gash;
until it will comply without breaking, and a
workman of skill, and practice knows how to do it
neatly, and with perfect security. For it is fit
while we have so many propositions, and logical
tools to work with, that the ruggedness of revela
tion should be made to prophecy smooth things,
and the text which stands in the way, should be
Compelled to submit to system ; and not system,
or reason, or genius to a text, or a chapter, or a
book — so long as Wakefield can supply a dis
secting knife, or Priestley and Belsham a drop of
Avernus water, to neutralize it into a dead letter.
In this state of things, the magnitude of the dan
ger which threatens society is augmented much
beyond what many seem to apprehend, by that
appetency for indiscriminate reading, and the
eager and general disposition to acquire know
ledge, which now prevails, and supports so many
public reading rooms, and subscription libraries.
This is, in nlany cases, a sort of a false appetite*
which outstrips the competency to make a proper
selection, (in the midst of a literary chaos, where
specious truth is mixed with pernicious falsehood,)
of such books only as may safely be depended

38
upon to yield only wholesome nourishment to the*
mind. Truth is said to lie at the bottom of a
well, and in these times must be drawn up thence
With a spirit of judicious discrimination, lest in
stead of truth, imposture may happen toriieiri
the bucket.*
Knowledge of good and evil is indeed in our
days facilitated, by means of intellectual pumps,-
beyond all conception of our ignorant fathers !•—
There are concise views, abridgements, familiar
guides, &c. to all sorts of knowledge ; and science
is measured out according to the demand of
modern customers, in the precise modicum that
may be asked for. If any are Wavering in the
faith, or halting between two opinions, they may,'
by this convenience of a scientific pump, be

* I may be told perhaps that there is no danger of that sort. The
bucket is much too tedious and laborious a method of access to the
spring, for an age of luxury and softness. The pump is universally sub
stituted in its stead. But if the water is impregnated with unwholesome'
mixture and is bitter, it is so much the worse, that it is raised with greater
facility, and in a more copious stream. The water of life became thus
fouled with the heresy of Arius, which St John predicted by the falling
if a star from the ecclesiastical heaven '¦ into the waters, and they be
came wormwood ; and many died of the r&atcrs, because th ey were made
bitter." Rev. viii. 1 1. But a plague still more pernicious than even
that hath fallen upon us since, by which they have been already once
turned into blood, and it is much if the same cause does not yet again
work the same effect, should the providence of God not speedily inter
pose some effectual check to its progress.

39
readily supplied with the water of Lethe, and
guides to conduct them through all the gradations
of rational religion, and from one stage of sceptic
eism to another. If any have eyes too weak to
endure the full splendour of the gospel sun, at this
mart they may procure darkening glasses to any
degree of opacity, mOst agreeable to the present
state of mental vision ; or a collyrium may be had<
at an easy price, which will gradually extinguish
the eye of faith entirely, without either pain, or
even sensibility to the loss of it. Isai. v. 20. John
iii. 19- 20. Indeed, in the regions of the serpen
tine philosophy, [a. spiritual kaleidoscope, or ca
mera obscura, the invention of an association of
sceptical opticians, is now pretty generally sub
stituted in the stead of the old book. This in*
genious device, of the old gentleman's suggestion,
gives us quite another view of, many curious ob
jects, which we are tired with viewing for ever in
the same light, and erect position. It is delightful
to see them thus posited in new lights and shades^
in various degrees of declination from the upright,.
and many of them ludicrously enough set upon
their heads, with their heels uppermost. In the
genuine scriptures, which none but fanatics now
use without lowering, the delicate' stomach of
scepticism is for ever nauseated with a mouthful
of the marvellous, the miraculous, the prophetical,
and, above all intolerable, the mysterious f-^merd
incrustations all ! and contracted like the brief
F

interpolations here 'and there, by their passing*
through barbarous hands in barbarous ages.-*-
The inferences drawn from all these, are but so
many "corruptions of Christianity," which the
sceptical kaleidoscope can free it from, presenting
us with a pure heathenism, the dross of both
Jewish and christian prejudice being left behind,
like a caput mortuum, in the crucible of sophisti
cal criticism. The curators, therefore, of subscrip
tion libraries, as caterers for the public appetite*

*-  -¦ ¦' ¦ n- ' "i Si munus Apolline dignum
Vis complerc libi is, et vatibus addere calcar,
Ut studio majore petant Helicona virentem. Hor,

If you would offer to the God of witf
Such volumes as his best protection, claim ;
Or would you warm them in pursuit of fame,
Bid them the hills of Helicon ascend,
Where ever green the flowery lawns extend-
Francis's Hor. Epist.,
Rave a certain degree of responsibility upon tBem>
and ought to be chosen from men who have some
shreds and parings of conscience left, ahd a mo
dicum of feeling for the future state of the public
health, which is of somewhat more significancy
than the philanthropy of modern philosophers.
They ought to be men who are not already quite
blind, and far gone in philosophy, beyond the
reach of any collyrium to restore, or even relieve,,

41
the decay of evangelically intellectual vision.. —
Rev. iii. 17. Lest by the long neglect or total
disregard of .such prudential caution in the choice
of directors, it should unfortunately come to pass»
that a library, indiscriminately accessible to the
public, should be more than over-eharged with an
-undue proportion of sceptical, infidel, atheistical,
blasphemous, impious, immoral, or otherwise
corrupting books. They may thus labour un
der two opposite diseases at the came time, a
plethora of socinianism, and an emaciated scarcity
of antidotes, either in a nutshell or any other con
venient form, to be taken along with the vomi
tory poison, to settle the stomach again, and if
possible prevent the intended effect of the wily
prescriber. On the contrary, some of the compo
sitions, labelled as antidotes to impiety, prove, on
being analyzed, to be more deeply deleterious
than the dose mistakenly swallowed. Of this
sort are Grundy's Lectures upon evangelical
Christianity, which proves to be unitarianism!
and the improved version of the New Testament).
which concedes every tittle of scripture, that has
a single iota of saving efficacy in it, to the de
mands of Socinus and Co. And what is a less
venial, because less easily discoverable deception,
many a real christian is here seen to hold princi
ples he abhorred, and to preach socinianism even
from the grave.

42
By better care, as above recommended, another
bad consequence might be avoided, viz. the un
due estimation of the fame and memory, of the
donors of such questionable contributions, which,
instead of being honoured with tablets of marble,
adorned with heroic verse and hyperbolical pane
gyric, ought to have had a vote of censure, or some
other stigma of public reprobation affixed in the
same place, and with the same solemnities. So
injurious a breach of public confidence ought thus
to have been pointed out, as an example of warn-.
ing, to every succeeding curator of the public
morals, upon his election to his office, as a noli
peccare ! " Take heed, lest thou alsp come into
the same condemnation !" The paths of corrup
tion are too easy to be found, even without
treacherous instructors, and false lights hung out,
to betray the unwary into them. " For wide is
the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth tp
destruction ; and many there be which go in
thereat,* Matt. yii. 13. "Nihil magis cavendum, *

* Yet as wide as it is, so much wider spreading are the various rami.
fications of modern infidelity, that Jo admit them, even the wide gate itsr
self must be taken down and widened still more, to give entrance to
them, This has been accordingly done by the superlatively adventrous
architect J. Simpson. See bis scripture language on the second death.— -
Adventrous indeed the man must be, who. will adventure upon such %
work, in such a country I ! !

43
quam ne pecorum ritu sequamur gregem nos ante.
cedentium, pergentes nonquaeundum est, sedqua
itur.'V-Senecca. " To follow in the beaten track
of the multitude before us, at all adventure, is
the way of the world, but not the course a wise
man will pursue." The religion of Socinus is too
indulgent to human nature and the pride of seh>
opinion, not to be fashionable ; it needs not the
expectation of a posthumous worship, to be held
up as an additional seduction.
Before the close of these reflections, a remark
upon one or two of the properties of this philoso
phy, which appear to be somewhat singular, may
not be unreasonable.
1. Considering Socinianism as a renunciation
Of the vantage ground, on which the great under
taking of Christ on our behalf hath placed us,
and as a wilful casting away of that spiritual ar
mour, which he hath furnished for our protection
against external seduction, (Ephes. vi. 16) in vul
gar terms, " the wiles of the devil," I cannot but
remark the infrequency of any effectual return
into the path of life, by those who have made any
considerable and persevering aberration from it.
The examples of escape out of the toils which the
wily adversary lays in this walk, frequent, and
of double strength, as being his original and
favorite mode of entrapping souls, are few and

44
most discouraging ; for the reality of some con
versions have been doubted. The generality of
unbelievers have been kept quiet and secure, tri
umphantly scoffing, and hugging the chain that
holds them, as if it were the only liberty, (2 Pet. ii.
19,) till at length when the day of grace is spent,
a mere trifle oversets them, and the last sad scene
of a death bed opens their eyes to a full perception
of their error. What must be the hell of reflec
tion in such circumstances ! It is too late then to
retrace their steps, though they feel the promised
support of reason and natural religion sinking
before them ; and no foundation for hope remains,
no invitation to repentance is vouchsafed ; for
" other foundation can no man lay than that which
is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1 Cor. iii. 11. and
"it had been better for them not to have known the
way of righteousness, than after they have known
it to turn from the holy commandment delivered
mto them." 2 Pet. ii. 21.
In ordinary eases of unchristian aberration, a
sullen insensibility to the spiritual aids which
religion affords is not very common ; but even
after criminality of the deepest stain, a ray of
hope may be excited. Though the " sin be fed
like crimson, it shall become white as wool,"
(Isa. i 18,) through faith in the blood of Christ,
" the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of
the world." By this sovereign application, the

4*5
symptoms of spiritual life return, and the grace
of repentance, even at the last hour, is vouchsafed
by him which alone " openeth, and no man shut*
teth, and shutteth, and no man openeth." The
ruthless murderer, who finds no intermission of
the pangs of guilt, but haunted by the insuppor
table terrors of an invisible Judge, is compelled
to confess his crime, and deliver himself up to
human justice ; even he by this first step of mere
remorse, and fear of an eternal Avenger, feels a
remission of the hell within him. He is accessible
to the force of awakening exhortation, and real
penitence and faith, long strangers to his breast,
or which perhaps never had entrance there before,
now touch his callous heart. Hope founded upon
Mm who died for all, excludes despair, and at
length the unspeakable consolations of the peace
of God draw out the sting of sin, and " the bit
terness of death is past" But oh with how
fearful a difference do the last minutes of the ex
piring Infidel pass aWay, without improvement,
and withont hope ! If shame of his inexcusable
folly, and the stubbornness of pride, on which it
was founded, permit him to recant his errors,
alas 1 the acceptable time, the proper season of re
traction, is gone by, and cannot be recalled f
Fully aware, now, of the insufficiency of that
support which he had substituted for the faith in
Christ's atonement, and the deplorable horror of
such a condition, yet he feels no call to repentance^

46
and indignantly spurns the intreaties and prayers
of his ineffectual comforters, or sinks into eternity
in a sullen calm, more dreadful than the irrepres
sible fury of despair.
Regret of opportunity lost, and grace abused/
which nevertheless still remains sullen* unhum-
bled, and unrecanting, is not repentance unto life,
but is that sorrow of the world, which worketh
death, and needs even itself to be repented ef.
2 Cor. vii. 1 0. It is even declared to be a thing
impossible, and by many deplorable proofs found
to be really so, to renew in the soul any effectual
repentance, where the very foundation it should
have been erected upon is rotten and irrecover
ably decayed. Heb. vi. 4—6 ; x. 26, 27. We
are divinely assured, " there is a sin unto death"
in behalf of which no prayers of human inter-,
cessors can be accepted* since for this the blood
of the alone available Intercessor cannot atones
Math. xii. 31. 32.— 1 John v. 16 ; John viii. 24*
In such a case, if the Master of the house hath

* The very nature of the propdsal made to the Jews, shews that their
rejection of it in the first instance, however sinful and full of danger,
was not in every case absolutely fatal j buf that perseverance in the denial'
and rejection of Christ, would sooner in this line of sinning become*
irretrievable, than in any kind of moral turpitude. Every sin before it
becomes fatal, supposes a space of trial, and movements to repentance
to precede. But perseverance in^this sin, shews an'incurable depravity
of heart, and devotedness of affection to the opposite interests ; and

47
risen and shut to the door, none can open it again'.
Math. xxv. 10. — Luke xiii. 28;
If then the abode in the tents of Kedar, the^
enemy of spiritual peace,- be so full of danger, and
any hopeful return from infidelity at an early
period be unfrequent and, dubious, what hope of
an escape therefrom 'can we indulge at the close
of life ? Wherever true and timely repentance,
upon Christian principles, really appears, there is
well founded hope. But even this can scarcely
consist, in cases of this nature, unless the recant
tation of errors, the very fame and example of
which is pernicious, be as public as the previous
profession had been notorious. For if in every
case, " with the heart man belieVeth unto righteous*
ness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation ;" how much more ought it to be in
this !— " There is no peace, saith the Lord, unto
the wicked." Isa. xlviii.- 22. — Jer. viii. 11.
2. The strong tendency which clings to this-
species of rebellion against the sovereignty of

therefore the sentence of excision is the sooner pronounced, although
it be long before the unfruitful tree falls. But if a certain poison be
not quickly fatal in One dose, shall we therefore venture upon a perpe
tuated use of it ? or shall we continue in sin of the most deadly nature ^
because grace is still reluctant to depart, and permit the irreversible
-sentence to be sealed ?

49
Christ, to plunge to still greater depths in scep
tical wisdom, and remove to further and still fur
ther distances from the means of reconciliation-.
This, which is a never-failing mark, is alone suffi
cient to detect the hand of the concealed artificer,
the fomenter of the quarreL From a simple in
difference to religion, a nothingness of Christian
profession, grows an insensibility to the love of
Christ to us, (l John iv. 10.) and a graceless in
gratitude for his atonement. It is an easy step
to fall into a doubt of the reality and disbelief of
the necessity of it : after this, all difficulty is re
moved, and a triumphant course is open to infi
delity. Of a false friend and useless ally to
Christianity, the sceptick becomes an opponent,
and at last an active and bitter enemy. Com
mencing with a denial of the Lord that bought
hitoy he proceeds to crucify him afresh, and put
him to an open shame. This "march in things?
towards the perfectibility of reason" by sinking
deeper and more deep in the gulph of scepticism,.
as "the evil heart of unbelief " gains more strength,
is a common occurrence to philosophers ; and by
the more ingenuous part of them is not dis
owned, but considered as only the natural and
necessary consequence of enquiry, freed from the
impediments which prejudice and superstition^
threw in their way before.* This is the very
* See Fuller's Calvinistic and Socinian Systems compared, p. p. 348,
851—357. The gradations of unbelief m Dr. Ptiestleyr and his ae-

43
method pursued by the original lecturer in Eden,
and the effect of his lessons was precisely the
same. The Holy Spirit of inspiration in Scrip
ture, from the beginning to the end, points to
Christ ; but the Lectures of Priestley, Grundyy
and Satan, point from Christ to human reason,
" This wisdom descendeth not jrom above, but is
earthly, sensual, devilish"
3. The very remarkable frequency with which,
in this species of aberration, the scene is abruptly
closed upon the proficient, without admitting of a
moment of leisure for cool reflection, to re
examine the merits of the cause, and the safety of
the ground he stands upon, " so that he cannot
deliver his soul, nor say, is there not a lie in my
right hand ?" Isai. xliv. 20. But what startles the
feeling and reflecting mind the most, is the un
avoidable observation, that in a great many in
stances this sudden termination of existence, as it
is fashionably ealled, is voluntary, and happens
sometimes in minds of a superior cast, and with
such circumstances as evince no just conclusion of
a derangement of intellect, but rather of princi
ple. Upon whatever dictates of philosophy sui
cide may be attempted to be justified, it is a vio
lation of the first law of nature, as well as an out-

knowledgment that his progress was still retrograde, without one step
in return to the orthodox system of Christianity.

50
rage of the revealed law of God. It is so diame
trically in opposition to all the lessons of resigna
tion, humility, and faith, which our founder both
taught, and himself practised, that it cannot possi
bly be traced to any other origin than the pre
vailing suggestions of that assiduous adversary of
both God and man, who was a liar and a mur
derer from the beginning, and who only can gain
such an influence by the previous destruction of
christian principle, James, iv. 7. Luke, xi. 22.
Ephes. vi. 11. Philosophy and reason are very
good allies to virtue and wisdom, when in subor
dination to the superior guidance and consolations
of the holy spirit of grace, but very poor comforters
of an heart from whence the Paraclete, or true
Comforter, hath taken his departure.* All the
previous treasures of human wisdom, the stores of
science, and the united advantages of great abili
ties and professional skill, excellence of temper
and moral character, and the accumulation of all
worldly advantages that could make life most

* According to the reveries of the modern illuminators, he was never
there at all. But that is another hard task they have undertaken, to
quash the promise of the Comforter, (John xv. 26.) or prove at least his
abiding with the faithful forever,- to be a privilege confined to the
apostles alone ! See a silly critique to that effect in the Menthly Repo?
sitory, v. 2. p. 83 — The prompter of such conceits, will often laugh in
his sleeve at the easiness with which he catches his gudgeons by such tort
of baits.

51
precious, are insufficient to counterbalance the
blackness of darkness that is within, when recti
tude of christian principle has been abandoned. — .
The stamina of spiritual life are gone, which, in
the oppressive hour of trial, should support the
desponding soul, and convert the secondary props
of human consolation, into comfort that can pene
trate to the heart, absorbed in the contemplation
of its own forsaken wretchedness.
Frohibere ratio nulla periturum potest.
Ubi quis mori constituit, et debet mori.
Senecca Hyp.
No tears, no reason, can the hand lestrain,
Which meditates to cut the silver cord in twain,
A death to fate is due.
It is in such circumstances, that the guide and
supporter of the genuine christian most of all
shews his power, and pours the balm of ineffable
consolation upon the sinking spirit. And should
even hope of earthly succour fail, and death alone
be able to release the sufferer from present misery,
his divine comforter will not forsake him, but
point to a chearing hope beyond the grave.
Though in the paths of death I tread.,
With glppmy horrors overspread,
My steadfast heart shall fear no ill,
For thou, O Lord, art with me still,

52
Thy friendly crook shall give me aid,
And guide me thro' the dreadful shade,*
Psm. xxiii. 4. Addison.

" Divine grace to the christian is every thing ; to the unbeliever it is
nothing but an unmeaning word, or worse than unmeaning j it is a badge
pf servitude, and a mark of ignorance, being an appendage of the super
stition of the doctrine of redemption by Christ. The pious editors of,
the Socinian New Testament, or improved version, leave it out of their
system entirely, along with the other essentials of Christianity, and ren.
der the word jjj«f>is " favour." It might just as well, in the gospel
application of it, be rendeied by the more polite word »' compliments,"
And this would have answered their views of scripture, and the economy
of grace far better, as it would give a delectable air of burlesque to the
assumed gravity of holy writ. Try it upon John i. 17, — or 2 Cor. xiii.
14. &c. In most passages of the same kind, it makes the economy of
grace a jest, as the word '* favour" makes it a nullity. How is it possi
ble that scoffers can expect to avai) themselves in the hour of distress, of
the support of divine grace, which they have thus rejected and trampled
under foot in better days ! — even in " the appointed time, the day of ' salva,
lionf" 2 Cor, vi. 2. We find universally, and in the most favourable
cases, that they cannot. And thus, even a light affliction, which a little
time and patience blow over us, and divine grace enables us to support
with fortitude, becomes, to the inconsolable infidel, the cave of Trophc-
nius, " a land of darkness itself, and of the shadow of death, without
any order, and where the light is as darkness." Job x. 22.
The pitiable shifts to which so great a man as Dr .Priestley confessedly
became reduced in his dying hours, as reported by his son, ought to be
a warning against forsaking the J&aek of our Salvation. He professes
to receive the purest pleasure (not a word of comfort or inward strength)
from a daily reading of the Scriptures ! those Scriptures vulgarly called
holy, but which to him had become a dephlogisticatefl Caput mortuum)
being by his own efforts robbed of their irispiration, and no longer a
means of grace, or capable of Conveyifljj the knowledge of salvation I
But preferably to these, he hands over to his son, as an invaluable
treasure, containing his own sentiments, a belief in which wsuld be a
support to him in the most trying circumstances, as it had proved to

53
It is certainly here that the self-sufficiency of
reason is most severely put to the proof, and the

himself I — what? — " J. Simpson, on the duration of future punishments."
Upon this deleterious trash, and infernal gospel, which gives the lie to
Christ, and the general voice of holy Scripture in every paragraph, so
great a man is forced to repose his dying head, only a few hours before?
the scene was closed, and even to recommend to his son, and his deluded
followers, this blind guide, as superior to Apostles, Evangelists, and
Prophets. His only ground of consolation was Simpson's promise,
" that the Gospel system, as taught by Christ, was a delusion. That the
Purgatory of Popery is infallible truth* That only a certain degree of
the discipline of hell was requisite to qualify him for final happiness ;
and not only him, but even the most diabolical of the damned, and the
devils themselves." Thu» the inspiration of Simpson is worthy of a
dying man's belief, but that of Christ is not worthy of a thought.— See
Grundy's Lectures, Lee. 14, vol. 2, p. 206. So large a fly caught in
the infernal spider's web was to be kept up, at all adventure, not to be:
tray the- cause. But it fares worse with some. — David Hume was
another singular exception to the sinking, which otherwise invariably
occurs on this treacherous ground.

Nondum expiatis uncta cruoribus J
'  incedis per ignes
Suppositos cineri doloso. Hor. Cam.
And arms with Latian blood imbru'd,
Yet unaton'd  -
You treat adventurous, and incautious tread
On (ires with faithless embers overspread. Francis.-
Hume sported playful on the very brink of the grave, and Colonel
Despard dried up the tears of his wife with the philosophical assurance,
that he was about to sink into non-existence, as a beast perisheth ; and

54
increasing frequency of the most deplorable sui
cides of late years, since these detestable principles
have been so industriously disseminated, as well
as the surprising increase of every other species
Of moral turpitude, decides the question against
it. Times have been, wheri self-murder was
looked upon with the same degree of horror as
any other murder* and it was considered as " a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God" by any sudden or premature death ; inso-
much* that it is the subject of a Christian's daily

manfully despised all prayers and sacraments, as weakness. Heroes of
this mould are secured from disgracing the cause, by a double searing of
the conscience, in defiance of the Poet,
" Men rriay live fools, but fools they cannot die,"
Hobbs was not so happy ; but was forced to have two men to guard'
him from the premature assaults of the devil, whom he denied I And
the celebrated philosopher, Tom Paine, was reduced ts the very same
disgraceful necessity. Outraging all consistency of character, he cried
loud and incessantly to Christ for succour, yet without recantation or
confession I Being at length reminded of the inutility and inconsistency ;
his pride felt the reproof, and he sunk in silence into the sullen gloom
of hopeless infidelity..  The death-bed scene of Voltaire was too ter
rible for the stoutest heart to stand; the infernal fury of his despair
far exceeded all description. That of Orestes could give but a faint idea1
of it. See Pikes' " Consolations," &c. Yet in all these eases, the
associates of the infidels laboured to support an even tenor of principle
and to stifle repentance ! and after death, in such deplorable circum
stances, they propagated in their names, the infidelity they had taught,
ascribing honours to their memories, and holding up their examples to
future disciples!

55
prayers to be protected from so unprovided a Calls
notwithstanding we are by profession bound to be
always ready. But the now almost daily occurs
rence of suicides, which exceeded all probability*
and some which cast a gloom of deep regret and
lasting commiseration, over every mind capable of'
feeling, have made us as it were to become fami
liar with horrors. What can we infer from such
a multitude of examples, but the weakness of
that philosophy which is unable to sUpport its
Votaries when they most need its aid, and the
strength of that infatuation which induces the
reflecting mind, after mature deliberation, to give"
a preference to the reasoning of Hume above the
terrors of God, and agonizing nature, which uni
tedly forbid the deed.
It is but too evident, that the plea of insanity
is, in a great many instances, little more than a
pretence, to enable the humane feelings to exert
themselves in the only way that is left, by throw
ing a veil over the error that cannot be retrieved.
But the deplorable truth is, that sceptical philoso„
phy had previously thrown her mantle over the
victims of delusion, and marked them for he* fu
ture prey. Occasion alone is wanting! and some
incident to strike the spark of strong excitement.
Incoercible horror of mind ensues, reflection serves

n

56

but to aggravate despair, or make preparation of
the means, and the catastrophe is inevitable1.*

* It has been remarked in all ages, that in the defence of the ground
they have chosen, and for their zeal in making proselytes, " the children
of this world are wiser than the children of light." Our Saviour noted
the same of the corrupt Pharisees. Matt, xxiii- 15. On what princi
ple is this to be accounted for ? Christ assures us that " his yoke is easy
and his burden is light." And the glorious liberty, wherewith Christ
hath made us free, is'the perpetual and most equitable boast of the New
Testament writers through out. Contrast it with the opposite service,
either in the grosser walks of vice, or the less suspicious path of specula
tive error, and its oertainty will appear. How hard a service the origi
nal tempter hath imposed upon the whole human race, for yielding to
his first seduction, we all feel and deplore; but how much this hardship
h increased upon those who, under all the advantages of the grace of
Christ, accept his yoke, to the renouncing of their baptismal privilege,
by infidel opinions, may be understood from the event at the close of
the service. They wear not the chain long before they feel its weight,
and perhaps make some ineffectual struggle against its stronger hold.
But they are again entangled, and more securely held. The same self.
opinion, the same evil communications and ill example, and the same
mutual hardening against remorse or rising misgivings of mind, now
make sure the captivity they at first occasioned — and nothing remains
bat to stifle all remaining scruples by greater hardihood and bolder ad
vances, and accession of numbers, and ascription of great names however
falsely ; and, in a word, the extinguishing of light. This is the walking
through dry places in search of rest, and finding none — the stamina of
spiritual rest are destroyed — it remains only to seek it in the accustomed
resources of infidelity, and fortify himself in his post, with seven-fold
labour and drudgery, to gratify an unthankful master. This accounts
for the zeal we so commonly see in a perverted application, There
may be apathy and disgraceful slackness in the service of Christ. — But
in the opposite cause it is impossible— once deeply enlisted, and the sol
dier must march.

57
The philosophy of the serpent has shed its du
bious illumination upon all ranks, and upon the
recommendation of Mr Hume, or the strong sug
gestions of Mr Hume's adviser, a leap in the dark
has become the fashionable and easy way of dis
charging ruinous incumbrances, and eluding all
the inextricable difficulties to which unprincipled
genius is exposed. A spirit which disdains to be
humbled, soons learns to reduce theory into prac
tice, or without theory, follows the example of
congenial spirits, as it were without concern or
eeremony. A soph, of the true breed, disdains
even the venial weakness of taking a previous
peep downwards into the dark profound, or so
much as to stay for the decent tucking up of his
skirts. Give him but a trifling displeasure and
off he goes, in search of better quarters, and with
a scrap of philosophy in his mouth, instead of a
text of scripture.
Qui Styga tristem non tristis videt,
Avdetque vitse ponere finem,
Par illeregi, par superis erit
O quam mise-rum est nescire mori !
Senecca Agam.
When woes assail or horrors press
The vicious or the pennyless,
A royal spirit dares to shew,
Defiance to the pow'rs below,
Great as a God is he who braves them so 1
All this may be very philosophical, and, in
heathen times, might have been more generally

58
allowed so, but we surely cannot admit there is
much of Christianity in it. The standers by, with
mingled feelings of commiseration and horror will
exclaim — Do we still live in a christian land ?—,
Or is atheism become the prevailing opinion of
mankind, and we only are in ignorance ? If there
be any dependance upon Revelation, what must
the Lord and Giver of Life say to such a rational
insanity, such a reflecting and premeditating con
tempt of his authority, and preference of the sug
gestions of his enemy ? That, says Dr Priestley,
is out of the question, for reason was prior to
scripture, and is therefore superior to it, besides,
that human understanding is various, and must,
in all cases, be the first and last judge both of text
and comment ! So ! upon the principles of free-
thinking, all difficulties are speedily resolved, and
the knot which cannot be untied, may easily be
cut.

Facilis descensus averni-

To gain, by sharpenM steel, or hempen node,
A speedy transit to death's daik abode,
No effort asks— but to retrace the road —
There lies the rub.1
Influenced by considerations of this nature, I
was once a dissentient at a meeting convened, not
many years ago, to discuss a question of this na*
ture, relating to the conferring of some very ex-

59
traordinary posthumous honours, in a case suscep
tible of much variety of opinion. As I thought
then, so I still think, that it would have been
much better if the altar or tablet of honour, or
what you please to call it, other than a monument
of human folly and perversity, had been suffered
to drop into that oblivion, to which its object must,
soon after the bustle about nothing is over, natu
rally subside. Such a waste of honours appeared
to me not unlike the insult offered to the Roman
people by the tyrant Caligula, who decorated his
horse with the honours of the consulship. The
quantum of real merit, in both cases, according to
my judgment, was pretty equal, and the honours
conferred equally an incitement to imitation, of
the brutal perfections of the one, and the infidel
audacity of the other. It is not, however, said by
the historian, that the four-legged consul had ever
published or propagated any principles subversive
of order, or of the established faith and religion of
his country. The anomaly jof such an example
brings to mind the epigram upon an infidel of
real great name and abilities.
I have no hope!—tht Earl he said and died,
" In sure and certain hope " — the Bishop cried,
Both can't be right I — which of the two has lied ?*

* Whether the pompous panegyric engraven on marble has lied, or
the strong and indignant sense of impropriety it mistaken, which is en-

60
graven on the hearts of all who have that feeling of respect for religion,
which becomes the profession of Christianity; still the anomaly, in this
case, remains, because the example held up to our imitation is an am.
biguous one. Are we to take for our pattern the living, or the dying
example? For they are said to be contrary the one to the other, so that
we cannot tell which we are exhorted to follow! The friends whospeak
more wisely of the philosopher, than his eighty disciples have done,
whisper about a great change in his views of religion at the last; and talk
of a recantation, or at least a significant, though not expressed retrac
tion, of the sentiments formerly held, and zealously propagated; such a
retraction and example, as was Baalam's, when he cried out involuntarily,
but without suitable conduct following, " Let me die the death of the
righteous, and may my latter end be like his,'' whereas, the previous
profession and example, which seems rather intended for us, was that of
the rebellious ass. It was in vain that the superior reason of the prophet
laboured to cudgel him out of his prejudices, until an irresistable con
viction overcame, as it were in a moment, the stubbornness of philoso
phy.

SCRIPTURE PROOFS

ISAIAH XXX. 30, &C.
* Write it before them in a tablet, and note it in
a book, that it may be for the time to come, for
ever and ever. That this is a rebellious peo
ple, lying children, children that will not hear
the law of Jehovah. Which say to the seers,
see not, and to the prophets, prophecy not unto
us right things, prophecy deceits. Get you out
of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the
Holt One of Israel to cease from before us.'*
Amongst the numerous proofs of the Fall of
Man, from a state of original innocence and peace
with his Creator, and with his own mind, which
the present state of the world affords, it is not easy
to mention any so strong and convincing, as the
i

6&
abuse of the invaluable vouchsafements of heaver?
in divine revelation, and the gifts of grace, by the
gross and wilful perversion of human reason. In
consequence of the degeneracy|of our nature, thus
contracted, there is, in all respects, a manifest ap
titude to evil rather than good. This the philo
sophers amongst the heathens were fully sensible
* of, and founded all their rules of moral virtue
upon it, as a first principle of ethics, notwithstand
ing which, it is exploded by the wiser sophists of
modern times, as an enthusiastic conceit, which
originated in ignorance and prejudice. But the
real prejudice is, in fact, on the other side of the
question, and the facility with which such doubt
ful and dangerous speculations are entertained,
(which, in points of the most awful consequence;
give the lie in effect to the oracles of heaven,) is
by far the most satisfactory proof that all is not
right with those boasted guides, the reason and
conscience of man. God, of his infinite mercy,
" Has at sundry times, and in diverse manners,
spoken unto us by the prophets, and in these last
times by his Son." He has communicated to us
knowledge of the most interesting* and beneficial
kind, which was by no other means obtainable, as
it were only to be insulted in the absolute rejec
tion of the offered grace ; or, which amounts to
the same thing in the event, the grossest perver
sion of it, by torturing the words into every possi
ble sense but the natural one, and that which can

63
alone answer the purpose of the giver, thereby to
rescue his creature out of the snare of the devil. —
In this abuse of the powers of reason and con
science, there have been rational Jews in the days
of the prophets, as we perceive by the specimen
before us ; and others their predecessors, who fol
lowed Moses in the wilderness in a no less rational
manner, and who entered not into the earthly
Canaan, the type of the heavenly, through un
belief. There are now, in like manner, rational
christians, who, allowing for the change of times
and circumstances, are in much the same predica
ment, and to whom, throughout the whole of the
sacred oracles of the gospel, the same recompence
of reward is promised. The principles of their
philosophy are, in nature and substance, so identi
cally the same, that the one restiff and stiff-necked
animal only needed to have changed time and
place with the other, to have exhibited the very
same rational conduct ; both being placed, by in
finite wisdom and goodness, in a state of probation,
to which no advantages, suitable to a rational
creature, were wanting, and the evidences and
sanctions of both being unimpeachable by unper-
verted reason.
The rational Israelites had lately suffered much
under the yoke of Egyptian bondage, and had
been delivered from it in a manner which ought
to have made a deep and indelible impression lipon

64
their grateful memories ; yet, upon the continued
absence of Moses, for forty days, they apostatized
from their faith, and renounced their allegiance to
Jehovah, having still before their eyes the testi
mony of the tabernacle, arid the mountain burning
with fire, the original evidences of their divine
conductor. Arid a pretty specimen we have here,
of the equally philosophical spirit Of the ra
tional antagonists of Isaiah, in the above recited
words, which the ever-living God commanded fcb
be cut on a tablet of marble, and fixed up in the
place of public meeting, there to remain, for a
perpetual memento of the perversity and wicked
ness of human Wisdom. O philosophy, the wis
dom of the old serpent ! when shall thy triumphs
over truth, and the abused reason of mankind, and
the ineffectual light of the divine revelation,
attain to their height, or reach the goal, beyond
which they shall not proceed ; when the King of
Righteousness shall say to this speculative flood,
" Hitherto Shalt thou come, but no further ; and
here shall thy proud waves be stayed.'" Job
xxxviii. ll.
Sceptical philosophy was as little justified in
the daring attempt to bear down, by the reason
of the natural man, the divinely revealed religion
of their country, in the days of these Jews, as it
is in ours. For it was supported by a series of
the niost stupendous miracles, a priesthood, and a

65
prophetical ministration, altogether super-natural;
but which carried each its own evidences along
with it, in the occurrences of every day. The
deity himself presided over it, as the angel of the
covenant, and the king of their theocracy,* by
perpetual tokens of his immediate power and pre
sence, and such as were unanswerable, and could
be judged of, both by the outward senses, and the
reflecting powers of reason ; yet what is there so
clear or so reasonable, that the wisdom of the ser
pent cannot suggest an argument, either to dis
pute its reality, or defeat its intended effect* by
perversion of its sense ?f

* This is evident from Exod. iii. 2. in the explanation at the burning
bush, which Jesus Christ assumed to himself, as the mediator of both
covenants, when he said, " before Abraham was I am," John viii. 58. and
the same is attributed to him by St Paul, "they drank of that spiritual
rock which followed them, and that rock was Christ." I Cor. x. 4.—
So I. Sam. xii. 12. "Ye said, nay, but a king shall reign over us,—
when the Lord your God was your king I"
f See Leslie's short method with the deists, this argument of the cer
tainty of the evidences afforded to the Jews, by their passage through the
sea, &c. triumphantly stated. In Leslie's Socinian Controversy there is
an amusing curiosity, which the author, by good fortune, though with
great difficulty, had procured, by a translation from the Arabic. "It is
a letter addrest to the Morocco ambassador, by two of the socinian fra
ternity in England, who called themselves single philosophers, and pro
posed a religious union with the Turks, the said socinians having dis
covered that the Turks and themselves were so nearly of one opinion, that
very little was wanting on either side, to unite them in the same com
munion. Dr Horsley, bishop of Rochester, lighted upon the same

66

This proneness to improve upon divine revela
tion by the eccentricity and conceits of perverted
reason, through the unacknowledged corruption
of our nature, is the cause that the religious pro
fession of mankind has been pushed in different

thing many years afterwards, and has referred to it in his works, to shew
how naturally the religious theory of the socinians ends in the enthu
siasm of Mohammed." I have shewn above (p. 34.) two striking coinci
dences between it and Popery. There is, in short, a wonderful latitude of
accomodation to every species of error, as is very natural, in the wisdom
of the serpent ; it affords facilities of union with every thing' but truth
and christian integrity. See " Works of Bishop Home, edited by W.
Jones, M. A.) vol 1. p. 64 and 411. — Mosheim iv. 192. 8 vo.— Stilling.
fleet on the Trinity, p. 59—62.
An equally amusing story, but rather more recent than Leslie's, is in
currency, which shews, in a curious light, the easy terms upon which
persons, very incompetent to decide on such matters, take up the soci
nian theory of evangelical truth, as Grundy calls it; and, at the same
time, the facility with which it may be repelled. " When you enter
the shop of Mr , a socinian preacher, said one to his friend,
look well to your principles, for he will immediately lay the ax to the
root of the tree, and fell the absurdity of your faith by his never-failing
axiom, There is but one God!'' This accordingly happened. "Sir,
said the infallible preacher, the world lieth in darkness and disgraceful
bigotry. Let priestcraft say what it can in behalf of Diana and her
shrine, yet there is but one God !" — " True, said the other, there is>but
one God, and Mohammed is his prophet." To this no answer was in
preparation, and the brief controversy ended where it began. The Holy
Prophet, it seems, was a sott of an incumbrance upon the unitarian
scheme, which had not yet entered into his dreams, and he could not
presently tell how to accomodate him in his scanty creed. But, alas •
the doctrine of the Trinity is not the only bar in the way of so desirable
a coalition.- The plurality of wives must be conceded, and the marvel
lous stories of the Alcoran swallowed wholesale, to cement a firm unity
between the Socinian and the Mussclman!

67
ages, to the most ridiculous and contrary ex
tremes. The philosophizing Jews beheld with
discontent their own superior privileges in the
honourable service of the Lord, when they re
flected upon the vicious latitude of free-thinking
principles, and unrestrained licentiousness of mo
rals, in which the surrounding heathen were gra
tified by their more indulgent gods. They, there*
fore, tampered with the prophet, to relax the reins
a little and simplify his message ; to soften down
the frequent asperities in the word of the Lord,
or if he wished to act as became the children of
enlightened reason, it would be more accomoda
ting to suppress it altogether. " Cause the Holy
one of Israel to cease from before us."*

* This was going to the root of the grievance at once, — " Prophecy
not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophecy de
ceits.'' It was a sort of blunt contempt of sophistry and disguise, in
which our modern sceptics would do well to imitate them, as they fol
low close the E x amp le of their infidelity and hatred of truth.
It is for a similar simplicity and openness, that many are so great admi
rers of Gilbert Wakefield, who when scholarship failed to torture the
sacred text to his purpose, or explain away any thing that stood in the
gap betwixt philosophy and him, took to his dissecting knife, and cut
away, with great judgment and pomp of learning, every untractable
shoot, and shortened every difficulty to a mere stump ; the loppings,
chapter after chapter, amounted sometimes to the whole book. To the
same idomitable spirit of ¦ critical daring, after dethroning the
King of Glory, the christian world has been obliged for a demonstration
-against the use of prayer to the deity at all I What could his master him-

68
This was simplifying with a vengeance, and
with as little ceremony of respect to the Holy one
of Israel, and the word of Jehovah, and the sanc
tity and. integrity of the prophetical character by
which it was delivered, as is now shewn to Jesus
Christ and his gospel, and the existing credentials
under Avfiich his ministers now preach it. It
must be acknowledged however, the present en
lightened tiroes we live in being considered, that
many of the philosophers go as far in concession,
or rather indulgence to vulgar prejudice, and the
weakness of Jong established superstition, as the
perfectibility of reason, in its prejsenthigh state of

self do more admirable than this ? For, at the same time, that it totally
freesiree-born spirits of > from the yoke of religion, it demonstrates
the natural sinking tendency of scepticism to go deeper and deeper, till
hell itself opens upon them p
Gilbert has been followed, but at an humble distance, by the editors
of the !'N.ew Version." For these do not like G. and Paine, cut away
entirely offending chapters or books, but kill them first with a few drops
of avernal water, as artists do quicksilver with fasting spittle; and then
suffer them to stand, a dead letter, in their former post, a monument of
critical skill, like Lot's wife, a spectacle of wonder in the plain of So-
dom. The N. B. on the back of it, that it it spurious and apochryphal,
prevents the apprehension of further miscliief from it. The second
chapter of 2 Peter is thus fietrifi.e/1, for the offence that apostle has given
through the .whole, but particularly in one verse. ¦*' There shall be/alse
teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, EVjEH
denying the Lorp.th^tbquc.ht them, and. bring uponthent-
selves swift destruction. Poor St Jude has shared t,he same melancholy
fate from these critics, for a similar offence.

(59
tultivation, will admit of. For the Uluminati of
the Geneva School, (a place, where once the cha*
racter of JesUs and his philosophy, and the Salva
tion believed to be attached' to his namej were
differently appreciated,) have conceded a great
deal indeed ! They not only admit the probabi
lity that such a man really existed, but more, that
after all that is credible in the scripture account
of him, and all that authors on both sides have
written, due allowance being made for the igno
rance of the times, and barbarity of the people
amongst whom he flourished, his character, upon
the whole, is not unworthy of respect from man
kind ! See the new Catechism, of Geneva.
Now this is saying a great deal to some pur-
pose,Jand must greatly recommend the philosophy
of Christ. Yet enthusiastic christians think it
Uot enough ! Such honour done to their founder
they deem vagUe and inefficient, and alledge that
it will neither benefit the soul of man, nor satisfy
God, who himself bare witness to Jesus, by art
audible voice from heaven twice; first, at his bap*
tism to his ministry, and again at his transfigura
tion on the mount* when Moses and- EliaS
appeared with him in celestial glory, the one to
resign his authority} as the minister of the first
covenant, the other to ratify and attest the com
mencement of the second* " For we have not
followed cunningly devised fables, when we made
K

70
known unto you the power and coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye witnesses of his
majesty." Says St Peter. For he received from
God the Father honour and glory, when there
came such a voice to him from the excellent
glory, " This is my beloved Son, in whom 1 am
well pleased." In whose expiation of human
transgressions, my wrath against the fallen race
of Adam is appeased. 2 Pet. i. 17. — Matt, iii.
17. — xvii. 5.
" The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of pro
phecy," Rev. xix. 10. and from its attestation we
learn that he was to be the founder of a new dis
pensation of grace and truth, the mediator of a
better covenant, which was to be the substance of
all that was prefigured by the types, and shadows,
and prophecies, of the first. He was that prophet
foretold by Moses, with a solemn charge to beware
how they slighted his communications, or rejected
his laws ; and he was pointed out, by the pro
phetic Elias, as the person intended in prophecy
upon an immediate indication of the Holy Spirit,
saying, " Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sins of the world," John i. 33. Both
before his conception and at his birth God gave
testimony to him, as the promised Immanuel, or
incarnate God, the Saviour Jehovah, besides
whom, according to the tenor of Isaiah's nume
rous prophecies, there is none other either God

71
or Saviour.* Compare Isai. xliii. 11. with 2 Pet.
iii. 18.
If these, and numerous similar testimonials of
the dignity and nature of Christ, may be depended
upon, then it seems that a bare historical faith, or
mere admission, that once such a man existed,
will not serve the turn. This, Julian, Celsus>
Porphery, and other opponents of Christianity,
which lived nearest the primitive times of the
gospel, cannot deny. But as Jesus said of the

" But not to press this subject of the dignity of Christ in this place,
as it will more properly fall in with the particular argument of his pre-
existence hereafter; I would only add here, that Christ himself always
asserted his own divinity and equality with the Father, as being of the
same essence, " I and my Father are one.'' "He that hath seen me,
hath seen the father." John xiv. 9. Having seen the Messiah, the
Holy of Holies. (Dan. ix. 24.) The logos, or Word of God, which is
God. John i. I. Whereas, with respect to the person of the Father,
or the invisible essence of the Deity, " No man hath seen God at any
time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he
hath declared him." John i. 18.
As Christ is ab origine, partaker of that essence, it is commanded us
" that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father." —
That is, with faith, and worship, and obedience. " He that honoureth
not the Son. honoureth not the Father ; John v. 23. nay, he giveth the lie
to the positive testimony which he (the Father) hath given of his Son."
" He that hath the Son, hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God,
hath not life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." I John v. 10.
12. The atonement for sin is wanting. Furthermore, "as the Father
hath life in himself, (i< Jehovah, the self-existent and eternal God,) so
hath he granted to the Son to have life in himself," or to be the Jeho-
vah by eternal filiation and unity. John v. 26. Therefore we conclude,
/hat " he that believeth not the Son shall not see life! " John iii. 36,

72
worldly wise ones of his own days, " Except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousnes of the
Scribes and Pharisees]" — so may it be said again,
" Except your faith shall exceed the faith of the
Unitarians,Mor rational christians, ye shall in no
case enter into the kingdom of heaven."
As the Jews of old were for simplifying too
much, so those in the time of Christ's personal
appearance, had, on the contrary, overloaded reli
gion with many useless additions, but still in the
same serpentine spirit of improvement upon reve
lation ; being wise above that which is written.—
Rom. i. 22.< — 1 Cor. iii. 18. Again, in the primi
tive times of Christianity, philosophy was not idle ;
but in the days of the apostles, and in the very
teeth of some of them, self-conceit and perverted
reason had set to work, to simplify the gospel on
the one hand, or amplify it on the other, in vari
ous modes of heretical aberration, as far as the
influence of their respective sects extended. St.
John, the last surviver of the apostolical college,
and of the inspired writers, at the instance of the
orthodox believers, wrote his gospel, to vindicate
and re-establish the original faith in the pre-
existence and deity of Christ.*

* This Evangelist is, by the allegorical painters, represented with an
eagle by his side, as that bitd {lies with the strongest pinion and boldest

73
And, at the suggestion of the Holy Spirit, he
also put the last hand to inspired vision, and seal
ed up prophecy, by his book of the Apocalypse ;
in which the ever-blessed Jesus again appears in
the original august character, and with all the at.
tributes of Deity, which he held throughout the

flight, and is imagined to have an eye capable of looking at the sun.—
St. John has neglected most of the matters handled by the other three
Evangelists, and which wanted not any farther amplification, and con
fined himself chiefly to the points in immediate request. His gospel
affords the gentlemen of the serpentine school, so much trouble to stul
tify and silence its testimony, without descending into the region of non
sense, (whence the editors of the New Version do very often, with great
labour, scarcely make good their escape,) that it is a pity they cannot
find a spunge capable of wiping it out of the sacred canon altogether.—
The first chapter of this gospel must ever remain an asses' bridge to
them, and expose, to pity and contempt, their wilful blindness, not to
see the entrance into life open before them, and their stubbornness, that
(hey cannot be driven into it; whatever be their fancied success, in the
resolution of other testimonies into the original principles of the ser
pent. The Essex parson, the far-famed new translator of the sublime pro
phecies of Isaiah into Travestie, takes a more decided, and therefore a
wiser, part in two respects. First, he still retains his Ch. Benefice,
which shews, that although grace has forsaken him, common sense has
not, except in the peculiar chord in which his madness eofresponds to the
vibration, for he still knows on which side his bread is buttered. And,
secondly, he rejects the inspiration of scripture in toto, and looks upon
the decalogue, or ten commandments, as the only part of scripture con
sonant to reason, and therefore, probably, originated from a divine sugges
tion. See «' Hebrew Criticism and Poetry," by Geo. Somen Clarke,
vicar of Great Walt bam, in Essex, IS 10, The preface.

74
Old Testament, as the Holy One of Israel,
his Creator, Redeemer, and King.
In the dark ages of Popery, religion became
again overlaid by the meretricious pomp, and tra
ditionary doctrines of the Lady of Babylon. —
Isai. xlvii. 5. — Rev. xviii. 7. But no sooner had
the light of the Reformation arisen, and detected
the multifarious amplifications in this kind, than it
appeared, that along with it had arisen the ignis
fatuus of sceptical philosophy, and other strange
and unhallowed fires, which had no derivation
from the altar of revealed truth. By the instru
mentality of depraved reason, while men slept
the enemy had been sowing tares, and deadly
weeds, amongst the good seed, freshly sown by
the gospel husbandman.
This view of " the corruptions of Christianity,"
is far from proving what the philosophers so con
fidently assert, that religion is a nose of wax,
which may be set awry at pleasure, and, without
any injury to it, or the least violation of decorum,
(as Dr Geddes conceives,) by a contrary twist,
may be set strait again, or turned in an opposite
direction, full as easily, and not a whit less grace
fully, in the eye of the Deity. It is far from
militating against the authenticity or plenary in
spiration of the scriptures, the source of our most
holy faith, (Rom. x. 17.) that they should quietly

75
be given up, to be the subject of the most licer)*
tious criticism, or considered as a fair mark of
sceptical ridicule. It proves, on the contrary,
that human reason, when she forsakes the guide
of her youth, is only bewildered in the maze of
error, by the dubious and unacknowledged light
of perverted revelation. In short, that the under
standing and conscience of man are really in that
state of original depravation, which, as christians,
we attribute to the introduction of sceptical phi
losophy into Eden, some thousands of years ago,
and of which holy scriptures alone can give any
probable or rational account.
In these times of peculiar trial of the obedience
of faith, when temptation assaults the unwary at
every turn, and in every variety of form, a man of
sober mind will take heed to the wise king's ad
vice ; " Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and
lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy
ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy
paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes ; fear the
Lord, and depart from evil." Prov. iii. 5. &c.
A very fair parallel may be drawn between the
inconvertible objectors against the pretensions of
Jesus in person, and the cavillers and unbelievers
of modern times, which will shew the infidelity of
the one, in a point of view not a whit less unfa
vourable than that of the other. For Christ told

76
them plainly, that their unbelief was without ex*
cuse, and could not expect any pardon. " If I had
not done amongst them works which none other
man did, they had not had sin; but now haw
they both seen and hated both me and my Father."
John xv. 24. The miracles, to which he appeals,
were the more striking evidence, as they were the
*. accomplishment of a remarkable prophecy, that
the sera of Messiah should be thus distinguished*
after a long cessation of the prophetic spirit ; " In
those days will I pour out my spirit upon all
flesh, &c." Joel ii. 28, 29.— Acts ii. 17, 18.— Isai.
lxi. 1, 2.-^-Luke iv. 18. And the miracles Christ
actually performed, were those ascribed to him in
prophecy, to which circumstance he referred the
inquirers sent by John Baptist; "Go and tell
John those things which ye do hear, and see, &c."
Matt. xi. 4.
The rejection of him by " his own," in the midst
j of such evidence, could scarcely be ascribed to any
tiling less than a personal hatred against thd
Sender, as well as the Sent, who had all the full
ness of the Godhead dwelling in him bodily, and
was the true Immanuel, the Prince of Peace,
and the everlasting Father, by virtue of filiation
and union of nature ! His reproach was therfe
fore just. " For judgment am I come into this
world ; that they which &ee not, might see ; and
they which see, might be made blind." Are we

77
blind then, said the Pharisees ? Jesus answered,
" If ye were blind, (or by natural deficiency in*
capacitated,) ye should have no sin ; but now ye
say we see ; therefore your sin remaineth." John
ix. 39, 40, 41.— Isai. lxiv. 9- The appeal was
made to their senses of hearing, and seeing, and
personal handling of the word of life, as well as to
their understanding and conscience, by the mani*
fest accomplishment of innumerable prophecies, of
so peculiar a nature, that no other single person,
but that of one subsisting in two distinct natures,
in perfect union, such as the God^-man Christ
Jesus could possibly accomplish. It was on ac
count of his pretensions, to the entire satisfaction
of this mystery, that they would not hearken to
any evidence.
And in what respect is the wilful blindness,
and invincible incredulity of modern infidels more
venial ? The miracles, which the others saw, and
experienced, and could not gainsay, are as good
evidences to ns, as they were to them; being-
handed down upon testimony which is unimpeach
able, and verified even by the early enemies of -
the faith, who best could have disproved them,
had they been imposture. They were attested,
in the first instance, by. the blood of the apostles
and first believers. And the prophecies, which
relate to the establishment of Christianity, upon
the "foundation of the apostles and prophets*

78
Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone," come
down to us with a still greater credibility and
clearness, than it did to them, as they are now
better understood, and more clearly explained,
both by the writings of the apostles, who have de
clared unto us the whole counsel of God, (Acts
xx. 27.) and the numerous commentators, from the
primitive times to the present. It were needless
to say any thing of the additional evidence which
we enjoy above the primitive believers, in the
continuation of the testimony of prophecy, (which
will be attended to in another place,) to which St
Peter recommends our attention, as to a light
shining in a dark place, until the day-star arise
and the morning of a brighter day begins, to
break.*

* One principal cause of the apostacy and infidelity of the Jews, as
we learn from Josephus, was the little respect they paid to their own
prophets- And it is scarcely to be supposed, that if they had believed
Moses, or David, or, Isaiah, who all spake of Jesus so very explicitly, they
would have dis-believed himself, when he appealed to their testimony.
Their rejection of him was always ascribed, by him who best knew the
heart, to the bad motives of preconceived opinion, self-conceit, and love
of the world. It is much to be suspected, that the same principles
still operate the same effects, against equal light and undeniable evi
dence. V f
/
To those who cast unmerited reflections upon the authenticity tnd
plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, to which Christ and his Apos
tle* 'appealed, and in which they authorise us to look, for our hope and
title to sanation, there lemains. no possible, meant of a successful ap.

79
The same objection which was urged against
Christ, on account of the mystery which accom
panied certain parts of the Gospel of life and im
mortality, which he brought to light, is still
pressed upon us by modern sceptics of every
species and degree ; but with much less reason.
For so long as the Son of God was to sustain the
character of a living man amongst men, being
made of a woman, made under the law, 8f. Gall*
iv. 4. it was impossible that he could speak more
explicitly of the mysteries which related to him
self, and his unity in the divine nature, than he
did. But after his ascension into heaven, to re-
assume " the glorg which he had with the Father
before the world was," (John i. 1, 2, — xvii. 5, 24y)
these difficulties, which are inseparable from the
divine nature, were reduced to a system ; and the
foundation of them in the original Scriptures
was pointed out, and is evidently to be traced

peal to their conscience and reason. For we can only speak of those
" things unseen," of which the only evidence, that of the Spirit, is re
jected, or invalidated already. John xiv. 17— 26. The slight regard
to prophecy, (our modern, subsisting, and perpetuated, evidence of the
finger of God,) is therefore a natural symptom of the spiritual disease
of the "evil heart of unbelief," which accompanied it in all ages, from
the garden scene in Eden, to this day. But it is, as we have also seen,
a fatal symptom, and forebodes the approach of death. The contempt
which is put upon the spirit of prophecy, is everywhere conspicuous
in the sceptical and infidel writers, -from Dr. Priestley, down even to
q. e. a

80
from the very beginning of divine revelation to
the end.*
The objection' to mysteries in religion, is from
the same school of a simplifying philosophy ; and
proceeds upon as little grounds of just reasoning,
as any of the? other arguments ofTnfidelity,'when
we consider the inscrutable Being with whom
we have to do • ' and it will remain, to the end of
time, an objection and a stumbling block to un-
humbled minds ! But nothing can be less reason
able, since we know that rriysteries are not pecu- '
liar to Christianity alone, but common to what-1
ever claims to be divine revelation ; and' that' no
part of philosophy and science is without their
own inscrutable mysteries. Even the mode of
of our existence, and the formation arid growth
of all things, aud even our own bodies, are mys
terious. How much more then the nature and
mode of existence of the eternal God !

* It is by the agency of the Holy Spirit, which after Christ's de.
parture the Father was to send in his name, that the chief both evi
dence and illustration of the faith of the Gospel was to be given.
<l He when he Cometh shall convince the world of sin, of righteousness
find of judgment ; — of sin, because they believe not on me : — 0/
righteousness, (or the sufficiency of my atonement, and justification of
sinners,) from this proof, that the Spirit is so sent as I have promised ; —
Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged." The erinttly
and ill designs pf Satan are detected and laid open, and at the same
tjme frustrated by grace, to them that believe.

81
The difficulties of that nature which are ob
jected, against,, as either unworthy of God for
their author, or unsuitable to the reason of man,
are nevertheless so interwoven with the very
frame and constitution, with the entire substance
and essence of Christianity, that it cannot exist
without them, and both must stand or fall to
gether. It is not . denied, that mysteries are
found in the Gospel, and are intimately blended
and incorporated with those moral precepts,
and evidences of a resurrection and a future
state, which are on all sides allowed to be di
vine ; nor can they be separated from it, and
their connection with it dissolved, without un
dermining the whole fabric of Christ's religion,
and defeating the chief purpose for which he
came into the world. " Without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness ; God was
manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen
of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on
in the world, received up into glory." 1 Tim.
iii. 1 6. St. Paul seldom mentions the Gospel
but as a mystery altogether, as well he might.
" We speak, says he, the wisdom of God in a
mystery." 1 Cor. ii. 7, " Even the mystery
which hath been hid from ages, and from genera
tions, but now is made manifest to his saints."
Col. i. 26. A mystery contained indeed in the
Scriptures of the Old Testament, but unknown
to the princes or rulers of this world ; for had

82

they understood their own Scriptures, " tliey
would not have crucified the Lord of Glory*

* Christ patiently suffered the agonies of crucifixion, and the insults of
the populace, and their more brutal rulers, and bowed the head to death
upon a cross, to achieve the redemption of the world. The original
compact, alluded to in Psalm xl. 7. "In the volume qf the Book it is
written of me, CSc." made it incumbent -upon him, by such a sacrifice of
infinite merit, to purchase salvation for his church, with the the
Blood of God. Acts xx. 28.
St. John is very particular in his testimony to the fact of piercing his
side, and the issuing of blood and water ; John xix. 34, 35, and he again
alludes to it in his Epistles. 1 John v. 6, 8. Not only as a certain to.
ken of his real death, and of the accomplishment of the prophecy, " A
bone of him shall not be broken;'' but as typical of the two Christian
mysteries and sacraments, founded upon his blood, with the attestation
of the Spiiit. The one initiatory into the covenant, the other preser
vative and restorative, according to his solemn charge, and last com
mands ; " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his
blood, ye have no life in you." John vi. 51. His death was therefore
not exemplary merely, but expiatory, which could not be, except in re
spect to his Deity. Psm, xlix. 7, 8.
The Socinians, therefore, rejecting all mysteries, as " corruptions of
Christianity,"

-Suspicion sleeps

At wisdom's gate, and to simplicity
Resigns her charge. Milton.
Yet they have undertaken an hard task, to prove a person, of whose
pie-existence and divinity, even on earth, such things are spoken, to be
no more than a human creature ; rewarded merely for his exemplary
obedience, with a state of pre-eminence above all principalities and

88
The resurrection of the body, to be reunited to
the soul, an idea of which the heathen world had
no conception, and ridiculed it when it was pro
posed to them by Paul at Athens, is one of the
Christian mysteries. " Behold I shew you a
mystery, &e." 1 Cor. xv. 51; But a greater
mystery than that meets us in the union of Christ
with his church and elect. Ephes. v. 32. And
a greater still in the plurality of persons, in the
Deity, without dividing the unity, which St
Paul calls, " the mystery of God, and of the Fa
ther, and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge" Coll. ii. 2.
praying that their hearts might be knit together,
unto all the riches of the full assurance of under
standing, unto the acknowledgment of it; a
prayer which is still by no means unseasonable.*

powers 1 ! Such a partiality to a man were enough, indeed, to have
excited the envy of the angelic orders put under his feet, and ministering
unto him as their Lord, even in his humiliation ; as it did heretofore
that of Satan. The mysteries in this Socinian Gospel are not less nume
rous, but far less rational, than those in ours.
* Crellius would have it, that the conjunction xj here distinguished
Christ from God, as well as from the Father; but if so, it distinguishes
the Father from God equally. The fact is, it is a plain declaration of
the Trinity of person?, a doctrine essential to Christianity, but unaccept
able to the world, and therefore so earnestly recommended to their
humble acknowledgment. " The ecclesiastical tradition, saitn Irenceus,
teaches us to believe in God the Father omnipotent, and in one Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, incarnate for our salvation, our Lord, God, Sa-

84
The evidences of a plurality combined with
unity in the Old Testament, are very j numerous*

tiiour, and King, to whom every knee shall bow.." L. 1. c. 2. — If
the k. be translated «' etiam " in the one clause of the sentence, it must
be so in the other equally.
The same three persons are distinctly set forth in other passages, and
not invariably in 'the same order. Thus, " The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and the- Love [of God, and the Communion of the Holy Ghost/'
2 Cor.' 13, ; 14. '• Baptizing thtm. in the Jnanie of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Matt, xxviii. 19. These two texts are
direct evidences of a three-fold personality in the Deity, if that other in
1 John v. 7. were even given up, which is by no means necessary,
" There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and
Holy Ghost, and these three are one."
The one is the initiatory form of baptism into the faith, and equal
worship of the God of Christians, delivered by Christ, as his last per
sonal commands on earth ; in which he would be cautious of establish
ing a mistake, or giving his sanction to useless mystery, and much
more so to blasphemy. He could not otherwise ordain these to be made
the primary articlesof our faith, and indispensable to salvation ; insomuch
that " he that believeth not shall be, damned" as appears, by, the parallel
passage in Mark xvi. 1 6. fully supported by other texts to the same effect.
The other is the common form of blessing,' iii the name and peculiar
grace of each Person of the Deity, which would be .equally improper
and idolatrous, if each person be not equally the one God, eternal and1
almighty; and had not so peculiarly distinguished his mercy and grace
in the united achievement of human redemption.
The same triunity of personality is abundantly proved also, by way
of inference, in other passages from both Testaments, almost innu
merable. And that proof by inference, where plainer proofs are by
circumstances forbidden, is good proof, we have Christ's Own authority
and example, who thus proved the resurrection of the dead, against the
Sadducees, (Math. xxii. 81,) and his own Deity against the Pharisees-
John viii. 58.

85
and are now strikingly brought forward ; although
delivered originally in such a way as not to at>
tract particular notice, until the doctrine was
published under the new covenant in explicit
terms, not to be rejected, but at the peril of our
souls. Dr. Clark, in his " Scripture Doctrine of
the Trinity", has wholly omitted the evidence
afforded by the Old Testament ; a circumstance
which has a Very unfavorable aspect as to his
sincerity. But this is an article which, on his
s ide of the question, is wont to be dealt out in
very scanty measure.
Very remarkable is the form which, in Num.
vi. 24, was prescribed to the high priest, whereby
he was to give the blessing of God to the con
gregation of Israel.
" Jehovah bless thee and keep thee.
Jehovah make his face to shine upon thee, and
be gracious unto thee.
Jehovah lift up his countenance upon thee, and
give thee peace !"*

* See the Observations of " Jones on the Trinity'? on this text.
There can be no other reason for a threefold blessing in the name of
JehoVah, bearing a strict analogy to the grace ascribed'in the Chris
tian form to each person individually, and directed to a people addicted
to idolatry, from whom this nvpstcry was hidden, (Col. i. 26 ;) and de*
signed to remain so, except it was designed to be in theproper season,
M

86
So again in Isaiah vi. 3. The TbisagioU is
another proof similar to the above : — " I saw
Jehovah sitting upon a throne— and the seraphim
cried one to another, and said, Holy — Holy— •
Holy is the Lobd of Hosts." Now there is
a manifest personality here, as in the Christian
form ; because, first, more persons than one are
here set forth, and that in unity nevertheless, as
appears from ver. 8 : — " Also I heard the voice
of Jehovah saying, whom shall I send t and who
will go for us t" — And, secondly, because it is
applied to Christ by John xii. 41, " These things
said Isaias, when he saw his (Christ's) glory, and
spake of him", who consequently is Jehovah,
and the Lokd of Hosts. And by the parallel
passage, Rev. iv. 8, he is proved to be " God
Almighty." And, thirdly, it is applied in
the Acts, xxviii. 25, to the Holy Ghost :
" Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaias the pro
phet unto our fathers, saying," &c. then follow
the words spoken by the Lord of Hosts. The
seraphim " are not content," says Origen, " to say
it once or twice, but take the perfect number of

a collateral proof of the previous existence of the mystery, when it
should be 'afterwards delivered in a more pertinent and express form
than mere inference affords. Petrus Alphonsi, a converted Jew in the
beginning of the 12th century, learnedly presses his Jewish brethren
with this text, as a plain argument, that there are three persons, to
whom the incommunicable name of Jehovah is applied.

m
the Trinity, thereby to declare the manifold holi
ness of God, which is a repeated intercommunion
of a three- fold holiness ; that of the Father, of
the only begotten Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
Orig. in Horn, in loc. Mr. Jones here demons
trates, that the seraphim in this Doxology did
really celebrate all the three Persons of the God-
head ; which is further evident from the use of it
in the Revelations, iv. 8, {after the three-fold per
sonality was distinctly set forth in the Gospel,
and received in the church) with the addition of
eternity, in the clause, " which was, and is, and
is to come."
That the plural word aleim is not a, peculi
arity of the Hebrew language, but an intentional
note of a plurality of persons in the unity of the
divine nature, is substantially proved by numerous
writers upon this subject ; being sometimes joined
in construction with plural adjectives, and verbs,
though generally with singular ones ; both for
obvious reasons, The plurality of the Deity, and
at the same time the unity, are well illustrated by
the Rev. R. Wardlaw, in his " Discourses on the
Socinian Controversy." See Disc. i. p. 12. 2d ed.
From the very text Deut. vi. 4, which most pe
remptorily insists upon the unity ; and which
was pronounced by our Saviour to be " the first
and great commandment." Mark xh. 29, 30.

88
For this more than one reason might be as
signed ; — as, first, because the love of God is the
first of human duties. Second, The importance
of avoiding polytheism in our idea of him is next.
And, thirdly, of equal importance it is to retain
in mind the true Christian exposition of that
iinity of essence, as subsisting in the personality
of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost : — all which the
original text imports. " Hear, O Israel, Jehovah
our aleim, (literally Gods) is one Jehovah."
Which words, if we do not charge them with a
mystical sense secretly couched therein, would be
an unmeaning tautology, particularly now, when
the use and power of language is better under
stood, and attended to, than it was by the ancient
Jews. But if understood in a christian sense,
they are full of meaning of the utmost impor
tance, and express, " that the self-existent and
eternal Being subsists in a plurality of persons,
yet is but one self-existent, eternal God."
Another proof of a plural personality in the
Deity, arises from God speaking of himself in the
plural number, when the act or thing spoken of
is such, as must exclude every being, short of in
finite and divine perfection, from any participa*
tion in it; as Gen. i. 26. "God (aleim) said,
let us make man in our image, after our likeness"
"And Gen. iii. 22, the Lord God said, behold the
man is become like one of us" Gen. xi. 7.

89
" Let us go down, and let us confound their lan
guage." To the Jewish and Sociniin gloss upon
such passages, which imply a plurality of persons
in, action, and in consultation togeth-er, the answer
of the Apostle is sufficient. "Who hath known
the mind of the Lord ?— -or who hath been his
counsellor?" And St. Peter, speaking of the
mysterious plan of human redemption, says,
" Which thing the angels desire to look into." — ,
t Pet. i. 12. And St Paul. "To which of the
angels said he at any time, thou art my Son, this
day have I begotten thee!" Or, "Sit thou on
my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy
footstool." Heb. i. 5, 13,
But it is not my wish to enter into so wide a
field, as " the doctrine of the Trinity " opens be
fore us, but only to advert to a few of the princi
pal arguments, which the Scripture suggests, in
support of the Pre-existence and Deity of
Christ, and by consequence, the validity and
reality of the atonement, made, by his death,
for the sins of the world.
These doctrines, from the very earliest times,
have been essential articles of faith to the ortho.
dox Christian, and of attack and outrage to the
wily adversary and his adherents. They have
pledged their fidelity to his service, without fee
or reward, and have not forfeited the praise of an

90
indefatigable diligence, or a bold defiance, worthy
of a better cause, and a more honourable service.
If these, the out- works of the City of God, " which
hath Salvation for walls and bulwarks," be sur
prised by the attack of sophistry from without, or
betrayed by apathy from within, it is to little pur
pose to contend for a sort of spurious Christi
anity, by such a collusion, deprived of the Christ
of the Holy Scriptures, and robbed of the evan
gelical shekina, its glory, and its vital efficacy.
1 Cor. i. 23. — ii, 2. When " the eternal Son of
God is trodden under foot ; the Blood of the
Covenant, counted an unholy thing, and despite
done unto the Spirit of Grace." Heb. x. 29 
(See Meadley's Second Letter to the Bishop of
St Davids, p. 7.) the remaining posts of defence
must quickly become undefensible, or scarcely
worth defending.
Were we to estimate the real importance of
these reputed articles of the Christian faith, from
the light manner in which they are contemplated,
and the trifling sophisms, by which they are at
tempted to be set aside by our opponents, it might
seem almost a pity to hazard the forfeiture of
their favourable opinion, by a contumacious de
fence of them. But we conceive, that loss may
happen to be incurred, and without any actual
breach of charity on our part, by that decent con
tention for the faith, which fidelity to our master

91
demands, before we can, with any consistency,
give him up. The seasonable warnings, we think
it incumbent upon us to subjoin to our defence,
to those who are otherwise minded, and too easily
removed from that foundation, other than which
can no man lay, will contribute to the odium we
shall incur.
There are those who reject the inspiration of
Holy Scripture, the Deity of Christ, and the
mysteries, in toto, which result from the belief of
them, with as much ease and indifference, as if it
was a mere matter of verbal criticism, and all
error, in these respects, had been declared venial,
and no serious consequences were to attend the
misleading of thousands into it. It is the glorious
privilege of these free-thinking days, to break
through all the absurd rules of our formal ances
tors, in both politics and religion.

¦•" It matters not

Of whom descended ; or by whom begot."
Talent, that is prolixity, and a flow of words,
sound, no matter for sense, or argument, makes
a good, modern, popular leader ; and for religion, it
is indifferent what be the articles of a man's creed,
or whether he has any creed at all ; so that he
can ring the changes upon the key note, either to
affirm, or to deny. Both have their admirers.

92
" But we have not so learned Christ," — and carl
concede nothing upon this ground in any wise. —
We are persuaded that in him, "mercy and
truth have met together, righteousness and
peace have kissed each other." Psm. lxxxv. 10.
There is no other name which carries Salvation
in it but his ; " Who of God is made unto us,
wisdom, and ri&hteotjsness, and sanctifica+
tion, and redemption." 1 Cor. i. 30. To any
man of unprejudiced mind, reading the Holy
Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, sup
pose for the first time, what will be the ideas that
must occur to him, as he proceeds, upon the fol*
lowing topics ?
1, Concerning the character of Jesus Christ, his
nature and origin, declared by himself, to be
" not of this world," but '-from above ;" together
with the qualifications he possessed for the office
he assumed of the Messiah, and Mediator between
God and man.
2. Respecting the manner in which he made
good, by suitable pledges, his high pretensions,
and corresponded to the reasonable expectation
of the world, as " the desire of all nations." An ex
pectation not formed from either Jewish tradition
and glosses, or Christian prejudices, but the real
necessities of man, and the uniform tenor of the
prophetic Scriptures.

3. The nature and tendency of the claims hd
asserted to pre-existence and Deity ; even abso*
lute equality with God, in respect of filiation, and
a mysterious unity of nature and essence.
4. The uniformity with which he persisted in
those claims, as circumstances would admit of,
and without any retraction ; but on the contrary,
with a constant appeal to the prophecies prece
ding, and the testimony of the Father, and the
Holy Spirit, accompanying him, and the works
he wrought, and the doctrine he delivered.
5. The additional attestation given to his pre
tensions, after his death, by his resurrection and
asscension, and the sending the Holy Ghost, and
his authorising the Apostles to perpetuate the
belief of his Deity, as the last act he did upon
earth. 6. The clearness and unanimity with which his
disciples taught the same doctrine, as his wit
nesses, appointed for that purpose ; sealing their
undeviating testimony with their blood.
7. The unqualified ascription to him in their
writings, of worship and prayer, faith and hope,
which are only proper to God himself, of names, and
titles of offices, which are inapplicable to any but
the Divine Being; and these, with a reference to
N

94
the Scriptures and the corresponding character of
Jesus, of which they had been intimate eye wit
nesses. 2 Pet. i. 16. — 1 John i. 1.
8. The absolute exercise of the attributes and
power of God, as from himself occasionally, al
though generally with a prayer to his Father and
God, as he was the Messiah, one sent, and anoint
ed to an office ; and as he was the Son of Man, as
well as the Son of God. Thus, as from himself,
he said, "I will— be thou clean!* Luke v. 12.
13. He searched the hearts and reins — pardoned
sins — commanded the elements — created human
sustenance of the body — and supplied sustenance
for the soul — cast out devils — and triumphed over
death, and him that hath the power of death.
In a word, he offers himself as the only life
and light of the world, and in all respects is pro
posed by his inspired Apostles in such terms,
as are inapplicable to the highest angel, and much
more so to one really " lower than the angels," and
not entitled to estimation higher, in any respect of
pre-existent dignity, It was in the full persuasion
of his Deity, that St Stephen committed his soul
to him, as into the hands of a faithful Creator and
God. And St PauL rejecting all other confidence,
rests his hope solely upon the blood of his cross, *
which he had once resolutely opposed. And none
establishes the pre-existence and Deity of Christ,

95
upon stronger grounds'than he does. To any one
thus giving their due weight to all these conside
rations, and attending to the general structure of
divine revelation, as in every part testifying to
Christ, the inference must be unavoidable. —
*' Truly this man was the Son of God.'.
Were it consistent with the above considera
tions, or even common sense, to admit a doubt of
the Deity of Jesus, what other idea can we enter
tain of him than that which the Jews had, when,
to prove his pre-existence to Abraham, he. refers
to Exodus iii. 1 4. — see John viii. 58. — and claims
to be the self-existent God Eheje. "Ita dices
filiis Israelis, Eheje misit me ad vos." Which
the Septuagint renders "O'Xlv. "O "£lv emcfsoiK ^ woot
Cfi£e. And which is again given to Christ in the
Revelations, i. 8. — iv. 8. — in the latter text, as
the second person in the Holy Trinity. This is
also implied in the word rPHN, Eheje, assumed as
a proper name intercommunicable to the three
persons of the Holy Trinity. It is the first per
son, future tense, of the verb of existence, of
which sacred word mST Jehovah is the third per
son. Both signify the self existence and eternity
of the Godhead, and are inapplicable to any but the
Almighty himself.
Had it not been meant in the natural sense of
the words, and even as the Jews understood it,

96
would he have quoted such a text, to such a pur
pose ? Or if he had been betrayed into an over
sight of that blasphemous nature, by mere infirmi
ty, being only annan, would he not have retracted
it in some future time, of less irritation and dan
ger ?
The softening is contemptible which the Soci
nians put upon John x. 30. " / and my Father
are one." And the argument, by which Christ
justified the assertion, viz. that it was not less
reasonable in him, " the Messiah, — sanctified, and
sent, to be the world's restorer — to claim equality
with God by filiation, than it was to give the
title of Gods, in a mere figurative sense,, to Magis
trates, as God's representatives' This was no re
traction or evasion, but a positive confirmation
by inference ; as far as present circumstances
could admit.
To evade the argument from the title Eheje —
"I am," — they are reduced to the necessity of
perverting the text, and render it — ¦"/ was" —
But it is the peculiarity and ungrammatical con
struction of the words, in which the force of the
name " I am " resides — and the. use of the plural
noun OWN aleim, (see p. 84 above) with singu
lar verbs, is an argument of the same nature,
which canSonly be got rid of by the same per
version. At any rate the Apostle would have

97
Supprest so flagrant a proof of blasphemous im
posture, had it been such, and not suffered it to
stand in the Gospel, had he not meant to confirm
it for a truth, as he does in the most positive
terms. We may add to the above idea of Jesus Christ,
that he proposed himself as Isaiah had proposed
him, as the only true sacrifice and atonement for
human transgression. His harbinger proposed
him in the same light, and all the Apostles,
especially St. Paul, as the great Sacrifice offered
once for all, " in the end of the ages," or the
Patriarchal and Mosaical dispensations, to which
all other typical sacrifice referred. Heb. ix. 13,
26. And except upon this ground, there is no
rational account to be given of the universal pre
valence of bloody sacrifices ; and especially the
institution of them under the revealed law of
Moses, wherein " without shedding of blood is no
remission." And therefore Christ said to the
unbelieving Jews " If ye believe not that 1 am
he, ye shall die in your sins" ; all other typical
atonement failing of any efficacy after the true
Sacrifice had been offered.
The two Christian sacraments which he insti
tuted in the room of circumcision and bloody
sacrifice, to be commemorative of his death, and
the outward means of grace, to those who be-

98
lievingly receive them, were instituted in his own
name, and upon absolute terms of equality with
the Father ; and they were founded upon the
sacrificial and infinite merit of his own blood, vo
luntarily shed for us. But unless he be both God
and man in one Christ, they cannot avail to that
end, nor even be acquitted of presumption. Yet
there is a clear and undeniable reference to the
blood of the atonement in these sacred rites, and
they were instituted with that view by himself ;
the one with the strong and afflicting impression
upon his mind, of his near approaching sufferings
and cruel death ; and but a few hours before his
apprehension : — the other after the truth of his
mission and pretensions had been fully authenti
cated by his resurrection, in which he was " de
clared to be the Son of God with power" ; (Rom.
i. 4,) and it was appointed to be the perpetual
means of initiating all generations into the bene-
fits of the new covenant, even to the end of the
world. In both, then, we have the fullest assu
rance of the certainty of our hope in Christ ; as
it cannot be supposed, that in such circumstances,
any rational being would himself have instituted
such a perpetual memorial of his own death ; or
if by the impulse of enthusiasm he had so done,
it is absolutely incredible that it should have so
well coincided with all prophecy. And still more
incredible, , had it not been founded in truth, that
it should have been attested in so undeniable a

99
manner, both before his death and after it, by the
divine approbation. " To him gave all the pro
phets witness— and, him God raised up the third
day,jmd shewed him openly," &c. Acts x. 40, 43.
" He that believeth on the Son of God,
hath the witness in himself : He that believeth not
God, hath made him a liar, because he believeth
not the record that God gave of his Son," &c.
1 John v. 10, 11, 12.
So long as the rite of circumcisipn and the sa
crifice of the passover remained in use, it was im
possible for any Jew of honest principles to doubt
of the deliverance out of Egypt, by the angel of
the first covenant, who appeared to Moses at the
bush, by the name of Eheje, the self-existent
God of the Patriarchs ; and while the two Chris
tian sacraments are perpetuated in the church, it
is equally impossible to dispute the fact, of which
they are the memorials ; or to doubt that it is the
same divine Mediator, and under the same name
of Deity, even " Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
to-day, and forever," who substituted these sacra
ments in the place of the former.
The two sacraments are therefore standing and
unquestionable pledges of the truth of Christi
anity in its essentials, in which all real Christians
are agreed — the Deity of Christ and his
atonement. And the plenary inspiration and

100
authenticity of the Holy Scriptures, to whick
Christ and his apostles gave their testimony, will
not be given up as an insufficient guide, or of
doubtful authority, for the frivolous objections,
and captious sophisms of the Serpentine Oracles,
no more in the nineteenth century than they
were in the primitive times ; to "cause the Holy
One of Iseael to cease from before us."
The idea of the character of Christ, as the Ad
vocate, (1 John ii. 1.) and Mediator of both Cove
nants, (Heb. viii. 6 — xii. 24,) under the same God,
and Spirit, and Lord, in unity of essence, (1 Cor.
12, 5,) is that which is consonant generally to the
plain and manifest sense, and always to the spirit
and context of the Scriptures ; and which has ac
cordingly prevailed in the Christian world almost
universally. And on that account it is to be pre
sumed more probably a just idea than the opposite
opinion, which inverts and frustrates a positive
ordinance — " That all men should honour the
Son, even as they honour the Father." John
v. 23. " Whosoever denieth the Son, hath not
the Father — He is Antichrist that denieth the
Father and the Son !" 1 John ii. 22, 23.*

* Because universal judgment, even of angels, is committed to him
— that is, a participation in equal power with the Father, over all cre»
ated existence, by the divine attributes of Omniscience, Omnipresence,

101
Universality in this case, is an argument of al«
most equal strength with the common consent of
all mankind in the being of a God. First, because
it proves that this is the prominent feature in
divine revelation, as: the other is of the first
principles of reason and conscience in human
hature; so that all men* except a few of singu*
lar prejudices and views, are struck: with it, in
the same manner. Secdndly, because the chief
characteristic of the Gospel is simplicity, in the
moral and practical part, insomuch, that " he that
runneth may read and understand ; and the way
faring man, though a fool, needs not err therein."
It was our Lord's just boast, that ,the poor have
the Gospel preached unto them. Hab. ii. 2.— -Isai.
lxi. 1, 2» And even in the ; mysterious part of
Revelation, ,;the inscrutable Being has conde
scended to the incapacities of human intellect, as
far as is necessary or useful to us in a state of pro
bation ; insomuch that there is nothing shocking
or contradictory to reason in the Christian mys
teries, the incompatibility of the subject to ideas,
drawn only from the things of , this world, being
allowed for. The Gospel of Christ is a 'manual

Omnipotence, &c. It is by Christ alone that we are to come unto
God,— by faith in him,— prayer to hirfli— and to God only in arid
through him — love — obedience—" doing all, in word or deed, in
the name of the Lord Jesus'", our righteousness, and sanclification, and
redemption ; *' who is over all, God blessed for ever. Rom. ix. S.-«
Jer. xxiii. 6, 27. O

102
of divine and familiar instruction, calculated for
the edification of all men : the simple and igno
rant, as well as the wise and the learned, may
equally profit from its invaluable stores. Had it
been more philosophical, or more explicit in the
exposition of its mysteries, it had been less worthy
of credit. These at present are the touchstone of
our humility, and put to the proof our faith in a
Teacher, worthy of such a prostration of human
pride, for the satisfying evidences of truth he
has vouchsafed to give us in other respects.
Had Christianity really been what the Deist
alledges, and what the numerous negations of the
Sceptics reduce it to, a series of cunningly de
mised fables, like theTheogony of Hesiod, or the
Alcoran of Mohammed ; or had it lost any thing
of its authenticity ; or had its evidences been
weakened by the effect of time, according to the
rule of Sceptical computation, in that case made
and provided, — some plea, to real purpose, might
then be offered in behalf of Infidelity. Yet still
that spirit of opposition, and indefatigable hosti
lity, which, when argument runs short, and even
sophistry fails, has recourse to the most disinge
nuous artifices, to proselyte the world to its party,
would be destitute of all excuse. For truth
needs not, and cannot be propagated by deceptive
means ; and that zeal only is commendable which

103
is according to knowledge, and suppresses not
the truth. Rom. x. 2. — Gal. iv. 18.
It is the perversity of the " evil heart of un
belief" which Christ, with so much severity of
truth and justice, objects against the majority of
his opponents. " This is the condemnation that
light is come into the world, and men will not
come unto it, lest conviction of preconceived
error, should happen unto them." Amongst the
learned and the wise of the Jewish dispute*?,
" Light shined in darkness, and the darkness
comprehended it not" ; and the inconvineibifity
of modern Scepticism is not a whit less perverse '
now, in " putting darkness for light, and light
for darkness." " Because ye say, we see ; there
fore your sin remaineth."*
No truth which God has revealed can eome to us
with stronger attestations, than that he whom the

* The unreasonableness and danger of speculative trifling on such
grounds, is not lessened by the absence of those signs and miracles,
which failed to make any impression upon cavillers, aud would still
fail for the same reasons, were they now offered. No rational and fit
means of appeal to their consciences has been left untried. " One has
risen from the dead" — The Comforter has also come," — but both are
rejected, with a pertinacity truly approaching to hatred. " Now have
they both seen and hated both me and my Father'', said Christ. " He
that hattth me, hateth my Father also." John xv. 23, 24. Prav. i. 29,

104
modern Sadducees crucify afresh, " is both Lord
and Christ." Acts ii. 36. " The Second Adam is
the Lord from heaven." 2 Cor. xv. 47- "The
Lord our Righteousness." And that " he is
the propitiation fir our sins, and not for ours
only, but also for the sins of the whole world."
1 John ii. 2. And the evidences of divine truth
are so far from having failed, that if we take into
the account the additional weight of prophecies
fulfilled* and still fulfilling, they are as strong and
Utterly damning to Infidelity at this day, as
they were under the ministery of Christ and his
apostles. As indefectable they are as the foun
dations of the world itself, being constructed by
the same divine wisdom which framed that, "and
calculated to endure to the commencement of
eternity. When it is declared, that the gates of
hell shall not prevail against them, it is meant,
that however overclouded for a time, by the
temporary triumph of Infidelity, which is fore
told to be the case, yet can they never absolutely
fail ; but provision is made for the emerging again
of the " everlasting Gospel," as it has done once
already out of the long night of Popery. In
every age, down to the end of time, it will con
tinue to work the effects expected from it, for
the effectual probation of the children of men,
and be found in sufficient integrity of test, clear
ness of dpctrine, and authenticity of its divine
authority, to be opened at the last day, as the

105
book of judgment ; (John xii. 48,) out of which
will be judged all who have lived under the op
portunities of salvation and the means of grace,
which, without respect of persons, it equally im
parts to all.*
To come now to the more direct scriptural
proofs of the Deity of Christ, in the New Testa
ment, with a reference to their foundation and

* It is evident, that the Pre-existence and Deity of Christ, are at
this day proposed upon the same evidences, both of the Old Testament
and the New, without losing any thing of their force, which were
offered to the first believers ; and are now opposed by arguments equally
futile, and for the most part the very same. If we are mistaken, then
Christ must have been mistaken i for we follow close in his track ; we
also " are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us :
we pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God." 1 Cor, v. 20.
The interchanging of the names, God and Christ, in this text, shews
the same person to be entitled to both, if the construction of language has
any meaning to direct us to its sense. (See Jones on the Trinity.) Of
such inferential proofs the Scripture is full ; and they are not to be
neglected, since in a composition " which has God for its author, truth
without any mixture of error for its object, and salvation for its end",
they are not to be admitted as inaccuracies, or supposed to be without
design. The subscribers to the opinions of Dr. Priestley will perhaps
have other ideas, and, with their leader, deem the inspiration of the
Scriptures, even those to which Christ refers as his vouchers, unworthy
of regard, and Jesus himself a mere man, apt to be misled by enthusiasm
and the errors of a bad education — " Moses' history of the fall, &c. a
lame account,'' and Paul's illustration of it as the foundation of a prin
cipal doctrine of Christianity, a monument of the extravagance of hu*
man credulity and folly ! See Priestley's Lett, to a Phil. Unb, Part II,
Pref. p. xiii. Also Lett. V. Dr, Etskine's Sketches of Ch. Hist. No.
IJt. p. 95, 71,

106
origin, in the Old Testament, "being witnessed
by the law and the prophets."
Notwithstanding the positive assurance of Dr.
Priestley, that " in no sense whatever, not even
in the lowest of all, is Christ so much as called
God in all the New Testament." (Letter i. to
Mr. Bum.) We find Jesus Christ called ex
pressly, " God — God over all — the true and great
God — whose name is Jehovah— the Lord of
Hosts — the first and the last — which is, and
which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."
1. St. Paul tells us, that the mystery of the Gos
pel Revelation consists in this, that "God was
manifest in the flesh." Tim. iii. 16. And the
Evangelists minutely relate circumstances, and
the manner of the infinite and eternal God be
coming incarnate, and having the names Im-
manuel, and Jesus, ascribed to him, as being both
expressive of his nature, and the errand of mercy
and peace, on which he submitted to be sent by
the Father. In their relations, a direct appeal is
made to the prophecies, particularly of Isaiah
vii. 14. — ix. 6. — xliii. 3, 11. — Ixv. 15, 21, &c. —
The miraculous birth, of a virgin mother, was
also foretold by Jer. xxxi. 22. " The Lord hath
created a new thing in the earth, a woman shall
compass a man." St. Luke reports the annuncia
tion by the angel, in terms which, in strict con-

107
sistency, can only apply to Isaiah's prophecy of an
incarnate God. The conception of the blessed
Jesus, in the womb of the holy virgtn, being an
act of creation, in respect of Ms human nature, by
the same divine agent who created woman origi
nally out of the body of Adam, by a creative ex
ertion of almighty power. " Therefore, said the
Angel, to ayytav, that ineffable, Holy Being,
which shall thus ' become flesh,' shall be called,
(that is, in the universal idiom of the Scripture
language, shall be) the Son of God * Luke v.
35.

* St Matthew i. ii. I. tells us, the reason why the name of Jesus,
that is Saviour, was given to the infant Christ, was because it expresses
his office as the world's Saviour and Peace. To which St Luke ii. xxi.
1. adds, that this name was, by especial and divine ordinance, imposed
" by the ministry of the angel, before he was conceived m the womb." Is
it not manifestly the design of the Holy Spirit of Revelation, to- refer us
to those texts of the evangelical prophet Isaiah, which repeatedly assure
us that beside; Jehovah there is no other God, or Saviour ? And is it not
in the same spirit that he is called, the Saviour, Phil. iii. 20* and God
the Saviour? Tit. i. 3. — ii. 10.— 1 Tim. i. 1.— Jude xxv-
Jesus was called the Saviour, because there is no other Saviour under
any dispensation. Psm. cvi. 21. And Christ is, -and was, and is to come,
unchangeably " the same,, to-day,, yesterday, and for ever." The name
"I am" has just the same propriety of application to him, although
stifly denied by both ancient and modern Sadducees, that the prophetic
title, given by Jeremiah, has, "This is the name whereby he shall be
called, the Lord our righteousness." That is, Jehovah himself became a
propitiation for our sins. So in Acts iii. 14. he^is called, " the Holy Oner
and the just, the Prince of Life!"— all three titles incompatible with a

108
2. To vindicate the faith of the church in his own
time, in respect to the Deity of Christ, and accor
ding to Epiphaiiius and Chrysostom, but a little
before his death,* St John wrote his Gospel.—
And he not only asserts, by every possible variety
of phrases, that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, in a manner in which no
mere man ever enjoyed the inspiration of the
spirit, and that in him dwelt all the fulhess of the
Godhead bodily, (o-a/juenxoic); that is by incarnation1;
but far more, that he was the only begotten Son of
God, by filiation, from all eternity.

man, and which are in the mouth of an inspired apostle, as strong infe
rential proofs that his divinity is meant thereby, as Jesus himself drew
from the acknowledgments of the Pharisee in calling him good, which
was as much as to admit his Deity. It is notorious, that Jesus always
affected to be the Son of that Father, "of whom, said he, ye say that he
is your God." That is, as the Scripture expresses it, the only begotten
Son of God, in a sense peculiar to himself, in which he was the "bright
ness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person." Men are
the " Sons of God in a figurative sense, by adoption and grace ; but
Christ, by filiation tf nature; which, as it refers to the Deity, and his:
mode ]of subsisting in three persons, in a unity of essence, we are content
to accept as a mystery, necessary to be believed, but not to be explained.
See John ix. 35. x. 36. xix. 7> xx. 31.
* When he was 90 years old, said EpiphaniUs, Haer. 51. or according
to Chrysostom, Serm, de St Johanne, Ap. tom. 6. p. 505. when he was
an 100. It is Certain that it was a considerable time before the destruc
tion of Jerusalem. " The only begotten Stm of God, says Schlcusner.
is a title specially and metaphorically applied to Christ in the N ew Tes*
tsment, to express his exalted nature, which is above every created exis
tence,

109
That he Mas, or had an existence in the begin
ning of the existing mundane system,* or as it is
otherwise expressed* " before the foundation of the
world," (John xvii. 24.) which was laid by his
hand, (Isai. xlviii. 13. — John i.) and was with the
Deity, and was himself a participator in the unity
of God.
Nothing can be more evidently guarded than
the phraseology of St. John is, in expressing
the dignity of the Son of God, in his Gospel,
and Epistles* and Apocalypse; The idea recurs
again and again, and always with equal precision.
(See John i. 1, 3, 10, 14.— 1 John i. 1.— 'V. 7.—

* The absurdity of the Socinian gloss by which this passage
(John i- 1,) is attempted to be evaded, is intolerable. The whole
of the context invincibly demonstrates, that he who was the Crea
tor of all things, could not have had his beginning in time, tkat
Christ was the Lamb slain in a figure before the foundation of the world,
does not prove any thing against his pre-existence ; but is merely an
allusion to the original contract, mentioned Psalm xl. 7— Heb. x. 7,
which he voluntarily made for the redemption of the world, when its
ruin by the successful malice of Satan was before knoWn in the counsels
of heaven, even before the world was. " Father, thou lovedst me be
fore the foundation of the world", surely implies an existence in the
object beloved. ' But if not, a very solid proof arises from his being
declared, not only by St. John, but Isaiah, the Creator of the world, to
whom the peculiar title of the First and the Last belongs. Isai. xlviii. 18—
Rev. i. 17. "lam he : I am the First, I also am the Last. Mine
hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hatBc
•panned the heavens." So John xvii. 5, " Glorify thou me with thing
own self, with the glory which I had with thee before tht world was,
T

110
Rev. x»ix. 13. — also 2 Pet. iii. 5.) His xtryee, or
word of God, is manifestly a person, and not a
mere qUality, or perfection of Deity communi
cated to him, but is the to" aym of St Luke, i. 35.*—
and the *yw «y«w, or " most Holy Being," in Dan,
ix. 24. The Anointed, or Messiah, or Christ.
3. The same sacred person is described in Prov.
viii. 22. 31. in similar terms, under the name of
Wisdom. And, in both authors, he sustains a
character of Majesty and Deity, which can com
pete with nothing less than the Supreme God, in-
the one he is pre-existent, in the other incarnate,
as the prophetic Immanuel. In this latter state
he is described by Isaiah as a God-man, and sus
tains the character of the spiritual Shepherd of
God's flock, as the Messiah. A character which
he completely fulfilled, and a title he peculiarly
delighted in, saying of himself, " J am the good
shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of
thetH. John x. 14. Thus the prophet. " Prepare
ye the way of Jehovah, make strait in the de
sert an high way for our God ! The glory o£
JeHovah shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see
it together. Say unto the Cities of Judah, be
hold your God! — Behold the Lord God
shall come, his reward is with him, and his work
before him. He shall feed his flock like a shep+
herd, he shall gather the lambs, &c. Isai, xl. 1 1.
So again in Isai. xlii. 1, 2, 3, 7, the gentleness with

Ill
which he discharges the pastoral office, is finely
retouched, " a bruised reed shall he not break, nor
quench the smoking flax, he shall bring forth
judgment unto truth," &c. which is in exact cor
respondence with the Gospel history, and cited by
St. Matthew, xii. 20. To this, it may be added,
that as the blessed Jesus applies this prophetic
character to himself, as the good shepherd ; and
intimates that there is no other shepherd but him
self, John x. 2. — 16. and that there shall be one
fold and one shepherd ; if the prophecy has been
truely fulfilled, Jesus must be Jehovah aleim,
the Lord God himself.
In Isaiah xxxv. 2. it is said, " they shall see the
glory of Jehovah, and the excellency of our God"
But how were these to be displayed, the glory and
personal excellence of God being invisible ? The
manifestation was to be made by miraculous
works, worthy of a merciful and righteous God,
and the certain tokens of his approbation. "Then
shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the
ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall
the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of
the dumb shall sing." So again — " The deaf shall
hear the words of the Book, and the eyes of the
blind shall see, the meek shall increase their joy in
the Lord, and the poor amongst men shall rejoice
in the Holy One of Israel." Isai. xxix. 18. 19.
Now this is the very character of Jesus in the

112
Gospel. The poor had the Gospel preached unto
them, and rejoiced in Christ, as their temporal
and spiritual Saviour, their Shepherd, and King 5
crying, " blessed is he that cometh in the name
of Jehovah ! Hosannah in the highest !" These
were the works of almighty power, to which he
appealed as his testimonials ; and to these words
of the prophet he referred the disciples of John,
which were sent to him to receive conviction from
his own mouth, and from the miracles performed
in their sight. Matth. xi. 4, 5,
IV. It was thus that the glory of the second
temple, over the foundations of which the old
men wept, and which was far inferior in all re
spects to the temple of Solomon, was predicted to
be greater than that of the first. Because the
ImManuel, the desire of all nations, and the
glory of Israel, should there appear, " and there
give peace." And he, who in the form of a ser
vant, or one sent, to do the will of another, and
to deliver his words to mankind, and so far in
ferior to the sender, was yet greater than Solomon,
and greater than the temple, (Math. xii. 6, 42,)
his own house ; (Mark xi. 1 7,) and greater than
Jacob and Abraham, the most celebrated of the
Patriarchs, and pre-existent to them. (John iv.
12,— viii. 53.) All which declarations, from the
mouth of him, who is " the way, and the truth
find the life", (John xiv. ft,) would be no better

113

than hyperbolical fictions, and figurative impossi
bilities, and would indeed degrade the character
of Jesus to that level to which the Socinian
doctrine reduces him, except upon the admission
ef his Deity.
Therefore, in proving Christ to be a man, they
nevertheless do nothing, unless they could prove,
by better arguments than the stale quibbles We
are every day presented with afresh, that he is
nothing more than man. His real manhood is
an essential part of our creed ; and that " it be
came him, for whom are all things, and by whom
are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory,
to make the Captain of their salvation perfect
through sufferings ; — for which cause he is not
ashamed to call them brethren" Heb. ii. 10, 11,
V- The stumbling block of his cross, and the
foolishness of his atonement, are old objections ;
and both remain to this day. That fine picture
of his passion, in Isaiah liii. commences with a
declaration of the infidelity which would pursue
the Gospel, after all the evidence which could
be reasonably offered in its behalf: " Who hath
believed our report, and to whom hath the arm
of the Lord been revealed ?" And St. John,
after reciting several instances of the surprising
infidelity of the Jews, refers to another prophecy
of Isaiah, that so it should be. " And he said,

114
go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but un
derstand not ; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
Make the heart of this people fat, and make their
ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with
their eyes, and hear with their ears, and under
stand with their heart, and convert, and be
healed." Our Saviour himself reproached them
with this prophecy, as an accusation justly charge
able upon them : Matth. xiii. 1 3, 14. There was,
therefore, nothing of destiny in it, but much of
the pride of the serpentine philosophy, and ilie
spirit of this world. But the unbelief of the
Jews, his own people, affects not the credibility
of his pretensions, but every way adds additional
testimony to it, as the accomplishment of pro
phecy. In allusion to another prophecy of Tsaiah,
and also of the Psalmist, " The stone which the
builders refused" &e. and which is quoted by
St. Matthew, xxi. 42, St. Peter says, " The stone
which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling,
and rock of offence." 1 Pet. ii. 7, 8. But by a
reference to the prophecy of Isaiah here quoted,
it appears that the Messiah, who was thus to be
despised and rejected, and made an occasion of
falling to Israel, was none other than the Lord
of Hosts himself ! " Sanctify the Lord of
Hosts himself — and let him be your fear, and
let him be your dread ; and he shall be for a
sanctuary", (to them that believe and receive him,

115
John i. 11, 12,— Rom. v. 11,— Isai. viii. 16 ;) but
for a stone of stumbling and rock of offence to
both houses of Israel." Isai. viii. 13, 14, 15, —
xxviii. 16. Compare Isai. liii — Jer. Lam. i. 12,
with Psalm xxii. a most literal prophecy, and
quoted by the blessed Sufferer himself, as he
hung in agony upon the cross, " Eli, Eli, lama
sabacthani."* When the blessed Jesus was brought forth by
Pilate, to sustain the insults of his enemies, wear
ing the mock ensigns of royalty and the crown
of thorns, with an Ecce homo ! — Behold the man !
— what an amazing and awful scene was here ! —
And when the pusillanimous governor, in his
weak endeavours to save the Saviour of the world,
made the appeal to their consciences, and their
belief of their own prophets, " Shall 1 crucify
your King ?" with how many woes was that
dreadful answer charged ! — " His blood be on us,
and on our children .'" — " O Israel ! if thou hadst

* Upon this topic of the voluntary humiliation of Christ, as a con
vincing proof of his pre-existent dignity, see the unanswered and un
answerable Arguments of Dr. Magee, on Atonement and Sacrifice, against
the absurd cavils of Belsham and Priestley j particularly hi, observations
upon the verb Effrvx,1*1™' " he became poor," who before was rich.
2 Cor. viii. 9. V. 2. p. p. 481-611. And tKlmow sa/irov, sesc
inanivit, " he emptied himself," (Phil. ii. 7,) V. I. p. 11. 4th edit, de-
positing for a time bis pre-existent glory, and assuming the character tf
a servant, one sent on the will of another.

116
known, even thou, in this thy day, the things^
which belong to thy peace ! but to this hour they
are hidden from thine eyes." Luke xix. 42.
The Person who was thus ill treated, when "in
the fulness of time" he came unto his own, and his
own received him not, had not " his beginning of
days" at his birth, in a miraculous manner of the
holy virgin ; but, according to the testimony of
all prophecy, was one " whose generation and
origin no tongue can declare," Isai. liii. 8 ; —
' WJiose goings forth were from everlasting."
Micah v. 2. For at the same time that he was
born as a human child, he was none else' but
" the everlasting Father," or Father of eternity.*

• «« The Father of the age to come.'' — That is, the Founder of the
Christian dispensation in person, as, in fact, he was the Mediator and
Messiah, or Angel of the Covenant, (Psa. xl. 7,) under all dispensations.
To " this new name** is the allusion in Isai. lxii. 2. — lxv. 15.
The unity of Christ with the Father, in respect of essence, is, to the
full, as strongly marked as this distinction from him in person, and his
inferiority, as to his office of Messiah, in human nature. Thus, although
it was the Son of God, which, as Immanuel, died for us upon the cross ;
yet, in quality of the consent and acceptance of the Father, and that
participation which each person of the Holy Trinity had in the re
demption of man, the act is ascribed to each, and the church " is pur-'
chased with the blood of God." Acts xx. 28. And although Jehovah
supreme says of himself, " I am Jehovah; that is my name: and,
" my glory will I not give to another!' Isai. xlii. 8. " I, even I, am
the Lord } and beside me there is no Saviour." Isai. xliii. 3, 11. Yet
he announces his Son as the Saviour, and the Lord, — besides whom is
no other Saviour. Lukeii. 11. Acts iv, 12.

117
One of the council of Deity* the Almighty
God, or supreme Jehovah; ranqsepemie as he is
called by St John. Rev. i. 8.^-And as the title
Jehovah Sabaoth, Lord of Hosts is tran
slated by the JSeptuagint. Thus he became the
Immanuel, or God-man, by his two natures in
one Christ, and " the Prince of Peace" Isai. ix.
6. In respect to his humiliation and voluntary
poverty, and his under taking, as our redeemer
and sacrifice, he says of himself, " my Father is
greater than I." John xiv. 28." The servant is
not greater than his Lord, neither he that is sent,
greater than he that sent hint. John xiii. 16. —
and x. 29, 30.— "My Father which gave me my

* The title of "Counsellor," in^the midst of such an assemblage
of other titles incompatible with any ereated being, must necessarily
also imply Deity ; and serves to explain those passages which repre
sent the Deity in terms of plurality, and, as it were, acting upon consul.
tation. (See Gen. i. 26.— iii. 22, — xi. 6, 7.— Isai. vi. 8. g.) For as
God would not so reason, and in plural terms, With himself alone, with
whom, or with what, less than infinite in divine perfection, could thd
Almighty take counsel? Isai. xl. 13. 14.
Of a similar signification is also the title " wonderful,* or myste
rious) a name which is again given to Christ, Rev. xix. 12.- "and he
Ifad a name written, which no man knew but he himself "." It is added
8fterwards, "and his name^is called, y^oyo: in Sss. The word orf
God, which, I presume, is little less than mysterious.

118
sheep, is greater than all;" subjoining immedi
ately, " / and my Father are one,"* » *«t* ™ yiwc,
although in person we are two, and as his Mes
siah I am inferior.

* "I and my Father are one." When the character of Jesus for wis
dom, meekness, and plain unaffected simplicity, is considered, the equivoca
tion and sophisms urged against the natural and obvious sense of this
text appear highly unreasonable ; and carry their own refutation along /
with them. For, first, such an expression, had it not been true, and
necessary to be insisted upon, as it repeatedly has been, could not have
proceeded out of the mouth of any mere man in his right intellects,
since "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaieth.'' But what
must have been the arrogance of any treated being, so to affiliate himself
with the Most High, and upon terms of equality, of intercommu
nity of all things, and of unity, thus to compare himself with God?—
John x. 33. The pride of Lucifer, and the blasphemy of Anti-Christ,
both dwindle into nothing in comparison with this. Isai. xiv. 12.—
Jude vi. 2 Pet. ii. 4. 2. Thes. ii. 4. " To whom wil 1 ye compare
me, that we may be like ? — Isai. xlvi. 5. " What likeness will ye
compare to him?" Isai. xl. 18. — Except it be one of the same essence,
and who is " the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of
hit person.'1''
Secondly, Upon the Unitarian supposition, it could not have been ut
tered by Jesus, because it implies much mare than a mere comparison, sig,
nifying Unity and essential identity j not of person, but of
nature. The neutsr numeral sy must refer to some neuter substantive,
which must manifestly be yevoc, and the sense in which the Jews undo
stood him was the right sense. Otherwise his expressions upon many
other occasions, implying the same intercommunity and equality, must
he deemed equally improper. " All things that the Father hath are mru.y'
John xvi. 1*. 15. "All mine are thine, and thine are mine." John
xvii. 1Q. To such a unity ofnatMrt, as subsists between the persons of
the Godhead, these expressions can apply, b«t certainly not to such aa
union of faith, hope, and charity, as constitutes the unity of the church

119
VI. The high importance Which, both in pro
phecy and the estimation of our Lord himself,

in Christ. See I. Cor. iii. 4. xii. 13. Gal. iii. 28. Ephes. iv. 45.
This shews that it is only a comparative and sentimental unity in the
one case, but a real and essential one in the other. No argument Can
sustain more weight, than the subject is capable of, or be urged farther,
than the context and citcumstances require, lest it prove too much. The
things compared in respect of their. unity are not alike, and therefore the
comparison must be understood in different respects, in which it is pos
sible for each to subsist. But the unity of the persons of the Godhead is
proved by many texts ; such an unity in the other case by none. The
first, is demonstrated by an appeal to works which betoken the indwelling
of the Godhead, and the exercise of divine attributes ; the second, by
unanimity of faith and obedience to Christ, proper to the nature of man.
The same expression, as applied to the Church by Christ, occurs in
the Song of Solomon, vi. 9. " My dove, my undefiled, is but one."—
So in Ephes. i. 10. " That in the dispensation of the fulness of times,
he might gather together in one all things in Chiist, both which are in
heaven, and which are on earth. And again, Ephes. ii. .14. " For he is
our Peace, who hathma.de both one, o iroiriTovr rx aptptn sooth,—
hath cemented an union between two hostile parties, the Jews and Gen.
tiles, in Christ. The text in Genesis xli. 25. " The dream of Pharrnh,
is one, does not mean that he had but one dream, but that the two were
of one signification. This may apply to the unity of the Church, but not
to that which implies an union of nature, and identity #ara rro yivoc.

Thirdly, The impropriety would have been -the greater, (if any had
existed) from the order of the words, " / and my Father," which not only
implies equality, but gives the precedency of order to the crellture be
fore the creator. The expression " ego et rex meus," "I and my king,"
was justly deemed an extraordinary presumption in Cardinal Wolsey }
but it would have been, in this case, still more presumptuous. But we
find the order of the sacred Persons of the Trinity not invariably the

120
toas attributed to the office and character of John
Baptist* although he was destitute of the usual
externals of the prophetic dignity, rest upon the
same footing. lie was to be the voice crying in
the wilderness, Isai. xl. 3. &c. The Messenger of
the Lord of Hosts," — who was to prepare the way
before Him. Mai. iii. 1. The figurative Elijah,
sustaining a character very similar* in times of
equal degeneracy. Mai. iii. 1. — Matt. iii. 10. — •
Yet so little was his character understood, that it
was necessary, for Jesus to point him out, even to
his own disciples, Matt. xi. 10. 14. as a prophet,
and the greatest that had ever before appeared ;
the others foreshewing Messiah darkly, and at a
distance, but John " saying to the Cities of Judah,
behold your God." Luke i. 76, He is called
the Prophet of the Highest, and ordained to "go
before the face of the Lord," — the Lord of
Hosts — (as appears from Malachi quoted above,)
tf to prepare his ways." According to Isaiah, — :
" to prepare the way of the Lord, (Jehovah,) and
an high way for our God." Thus the Messiah
was tp be preceded by his harbinger, like a real
earthly prince, and which duty was executed by
John, for the blessed Jesus. It was the glory of
Jehovah which was tp be thus manifested, and

same ; as it were to confirm the faith of Christians, in the divine equality
of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

121
all flesh shall see it together," that is, it shall be
come incarnate, and visible in signs and wonders,
and mighty deeds. John xx. 30  2 Cor. xii. 12.
To any one disposed to read the Gospel history
without prejudice, and with the prophecies in his
hand, these coincidences, so exceeding numerous,
and all depending upon so many contingencies,
which no human sagacity could foresee or provide
for, and which no malice, or power, exerted to
prevent them could defeat, — -the simple narrative
must be abundantly convincing ; but to the evil
heart of unbelief, pre-engaged in apostatizing from
the living God, no evidence is sufficient.
That Christ was acknowledged as God by his
apostles, evangelists, and first disciples, is every
where conspicuous in their writings St. Thomas
was permitted to doubt, in order that proof might
thence arise for the entire confirmation of our
faith ; and he expressed his conviction in a pious
ejaculation of worship, which coincides with the
similar expressions of his fellow apostles — " My
Lord, and my God.'\ John xx. 28*
" See the Reply of Whitby tp WoltzoQEJJius's perversion of
this text, as not meant for an answer to the reproof of his previous in
credulity, but a mere expression of surprise, as. Dr. S. Clark also takes
it. But much more consistently, Mr Jones collates it with that of St. ,

122
VII. St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews,
gives a laboured demonstration of the Deity of
Jesus, as the only begotten Son of God, from the
typical nature of the law of Moses as expounded
by the prophecies, and fulfilled by the coming of
Christ, the true Messiah. He shews, by many
proofs, the pre-existence, mediatorship, and un
created dignity of Christ, from God the Father
calling him his Son, one of the same nature with
himself, and exercising the same powers, and en
titled to the same adoration from angels and men.
Heb. i. 6. One " who being the brightness of his
glory, and the express image of his person, and
upholding all things by the word of his power ;
when he had by himself purged our sins, sat
down on the, right hand of the Majesty on high."
Here, it is evident, a distinct personality in the

Paul, one of the most strenuous advocates of the Deity of Chiist.
''To us there is but one God, the Father." The Father is here a
name, like Jehovah, expressive of the divine nature itself, under
which Christ himself, as God, is also comprehended. This corresponds
with John *.. 30, "/ and my Father are one." The Lord's Prayer
is an address to the Trinity in unity, or the divine nature, Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, to whom we are dedicated in body and
soul at our baptism ; and it is constructed upon this basis by that infinite
wisdom which taught us thus to pray, and thus to conceive of the ob
ject of prayer. The service of the Church of England is constructed
also upon this principle, as she first supplicates the three sacred persons
separately, and then sums up her devout aspirations collectively in the
Lord's Prayer.

12S
divine nature is asserted, and omnipotence, and
ineffable glory are ascribed to Jesus.* " For unto
which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art
my Son, this day have I begotten thee ?" And
" I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me
a Son." And again, " Let all the angels of God
worship him !"— " Thy throne, O God, is for ever
and ever : a sceptre of righteousness (th«j peculiar
attribute of Jesus throughout the Scripture) is
the sceptre of ihy kingdom. Thou, Lord, in the

* St. Paul's words are ypocurHO Tur woa-rcto-stoc amis, the im
pression or representation of his essence ; a description which cannot
compete with any created being. "The logos," saith Philo, " is the
eternal image of God,— the image of God, by which the whole world
was made." The Jews say of the angel, which God sent io go
before Israel, and of whom he says, " provoke him not, for my name
is in him," (Exod. xxiii. 21) that he was " the Angel of God's face,
because in him the glory of God was visible." And the same is here
confirmed by St. Paul, who tells us elsewhere, that this Angel, or
Messiah, was Christ ; who was the Sen of God, and the Creator of the
universe. And St. John says the same, and that he was with God, and
was God ; the object of worship to all the angels of God, and which did
so worship him at his incarnation, as the to ceyisv, or Immanuel.
With what conscience or reason can we deny such a Being to be truly
God, even that God Eheje, and Jehovah, which will not give kit
glory to another? Isai. xlii. 8. St. Paul's saying, " in whom dwelleth
all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, alludes by the word so-hevojo-bv,
inhabitat quasi in tabernaculo, to the tabernacle, in the wilderness, and
the Shekina, or visible glory of God, which dwelt in it, and in the first
temple,' but was wanting to the second ; but dwelt in the body of Christ
in a peculiar manner, which gave to the second temple a glory superior
to that of Solomon.

124
beginning, hast laid the foundation of the earth ;*
and the heavens are the works of thine hands",
&c. Heb. i. 3. — Psalm xiv. 6, 7.
7. It is a strong expression which St. Paul
makes use of in 1 Tim. iii. 16. •' Feed the
Church of God, which he has purchased with his
own blood." With the blood of Christ, Rev. v. 9.
who was the proper Son of God, b povoyevns wxox
tsxrooc, filius a patre unigenitus. Johni. 14.

* It is clear, that St. Paul does not coincide with Mr Belsham and
Co. in the sense they put upon the word h.o%i\, "The Beginning,"
as applied to Christ in St. John's Gospel, i. 1. " In the beginning was
the Word.'1 That is, say they, his origin was in the days of John
the Baptist, who proclaimed'his approaching kingdom in figurative terms,
" The context," says Schleusner, " must determine the sense of the
wbrd. In' John i. 1. it means, ante mundum conditum, before the
creation of the world," Nothing can be more determinate than the
context here to that sense, to which all Scripture agrees. St. Paul', in
several places, repiesents Christ as the Creator vf the universe, as St.
John himself here does ; and he quotes the Psalmist, in proof of the
creation and redemption of the world by Christ ; the Father seating
him at his own right hand, there to await the issue of his conflict with
the powers of darkness. The conclusion of the Second Psalm, to
which he alludes is very remarkable for the admonition which it holds
out to the unbelieving, to make their peace with him ere it be too late.
" Kiss, the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the Way." For he
alone is " the Way and the Life." The same was said of him under
the. first covenant— " Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke Mm,
not ; for he will not pardon your transgressions j For my ' name js in
HIM."

125
When Christ, in the character of Messiah, pro-
fesses to speak not of himself, but from the Father j
and to have come to do not his own will, but the
will of him that sent him, and the like ; all this
does by no means imply that he was a mere man,
but a God-man, or ImManuel ; having the pro
perties of both natures, necessary to a mediator
between both. But when he saith, "All things
are delivered unto me of my Father*, and no one
knoweth who the Son is, but the Father, and who
the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son
will reveal him," (Luke x. 22.-~Matt. xi. 27.)
We must conclude, that he cannot be a mere man.
This mysteriousness of his own nature, coinciding
with the prophetic title VOD, mirabilis, ascribed
to Messiah by Isai. ix. 6. and in Rev. xix. 12, 13,
16. "And he had a name written that no man
knew but he himself— His name is called the
Word of God.— On his thigh a name written,
King of Kings, and Lord of Lords — to which
add, his own intimate knowledge of the invisible
and inscrutable God, with whom he was h doxn,
in the beginning. John i. 2. This altogether
proves him to be himself God. It can only be ex-.
plained by that of 1 John iv. 14. "The Father
sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.' W
And though he were a Son, yet learned he obe
dience by the things which he suffered* Heb,
v. 8.

B

126
The word was made flesh, says St John, and we
beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father$vl\ of grace and truth, in reference
to his death in this capacity, and the atonement
for sin to be made thereby. 1 Pet. i. 18, 19> 20.
"All things under the law, were purged witft
blood." Heb. ix. 22. And referring still to this
divine and everlasting sacrifice, under the Gospel,
Christ himself says, " myfle&Lis meat indeed, and
my bhod is drink indeed." For, as I have shewn
above, (p. 97.) unfcss we admit the blood of Christ
to be expiatory for sin in reality, as that of the
Paschal Laraibwas in type, and to be, by virtue of
his two natures, the blood of God, we vacate alto
gether the whole meaning and efficacy of the
Jewish sacrificial ordinances^ and the Christian
sacraments, and are " without Gad in the world."
For as there is but one true God, and he has
given mankind the knowledge and the means of
grace and salvation, only by two -covenants res
pectively,, ithey who refuse to comply with hi*
merciful and gratuitous offer, at so great a price
purchased, must, without .question, " come short
of the glory wf God." Rom. iii. 2S. And of thi*
we have positive proofs, in the rejection of .the
Jews in the wilderness under Moses, and their
descendants still icontinuing sunder , the imprecation
df'Chrisfis blood, which -their fathers shed, and
which they tread under their feet in persevering
unbeliefs To them, and equally so to all Anti-

127
Christian despisers, he is a stone qfstumbhng and
rock of offence; but a sanctuary and a refuge to
believers. " For if when we were enemies, we
were reconciled to God by the death of his Son,
much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by
his life." Rom. v. 10. — viii. 32.
IX. St. Paul says again, (2 Cor. v. 19.) " God
was in Christ, reconciling the world unto him
self" And he explains this indwelling, to be "all
the fullness of the Godhead." Col. ii. 9. " The
fulness of him that filleth all in all." Ephes i. 23.
" It is allowed on all hands, that it was to the one,
true, and supreme God that the world was thus
reconciled. But this very same God was in
Christ, and manifest in the flesh, and reconciling
the world unto himself." The word Gob, though
of the singular number, is therefore plural in com
prehension ; for here are two persons, the Father
and the Son, or God and Christ, and God is the
person to whom the reconciliation is made, and at
the same time, the person making the reconcilia
tion in Christ, to himself, agreeably to that of
John xiv. 11. "J am in the Father, and the
Father in me. I and my Father are one." John
x. 30. See Jones on the Trinity.
X. The intercommunity in action between
Christ and the Father, may be observed in places
innumerable. In respect to the creation of the

128
world, Gen. i. 1. — Rev. iv. 11. — John i. 10. —
Ephes. iii. 9. — Heb. i. 10. its redemption, Luke
1. 47. — Hosea xiii. 4.— Lukeii. 11. — John iv. 42.
andjudgment. For in Psm; 1. 6. " God is judge
himself— the judge of all the earth." Gen. xviii.
25. " The Lord my God shall come, and all the
Saints with thee." Zech. xiv. 5. These texts
can no ways be reconciled with the following,
which commit all judgment to Jesus Christ, as
the Son of God and Son of Man, but only upon
the admission of his Deity. See John v. 22. —
Matt. xxv. 31.~^-Ronl. xiv. 10. — In the latter
text, the interchange of the word Christ and
God, (v. 10. 12.) and both referred to Isaiah's pro
phecy, (see p. 134.) shew clearly that Christ
is. God, as well as judge. " For to this end Christ
both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be
Lord both of the dead and living"
The intercommunity of nature is marked
strongly in the whole structure of the Old Testa
ment, by the plural terms of expression respecting
the diving nature, which cannot be represented in
the translation, but are pointed out by the com
mentators. But in the New Testament, it is
especially unfolded, by the setting forth of three
persons distinctly, as objects of the faith, and wor
ship of Christians, equally and respectively. By
the distinct personality and Deity ascribed to the
Poly Ghost> and the eternal filiation applied t®,

129
the second person of the three* the ^V0; or word,
which " was made flesh" and through whose
death, on our behalf, we are redeemed, and "pur
chased as by the blood of God."
The Sonship of Christ was unreservedly and
openly declared by himself, insomuch that the
Jews "sought to kill him, (as a supposed blas
phemer*) because he said that God was hit proper
Father, {vxrkoa'ihov) John v. i 8. thus "making
himself equal with God." Which filiation St.
Paul expresses by the same appropriate word,
Rom. viii. 32; for our sakes, says he, '• God spared
not his own proper Son." It is not an imputative
filiation therefore, but an actual intercommunity
of nature, which bears the character and impres
sion of the Father, " being the brightness of his
glory, and the express image of his person." —
Heb. i. 3. 8. Insomuch that Christ, " being in
th e form of God, {& #wfp»T. 9ea.) The dignity
and rank of Deity, he thought it no robbery to be
equal with God ; yet (such was his humility) he
emptied himself of this glory, and took upon him
the form (the condition) of a servant, (the Mes
siah ) Phil. ii. 6. 7,
The deposition of a superior state for a season,
and elevation to it again, ascribed interchangeably
to the Father, as his act, and to Christ, as his own(
(compare Psm. viii, 5,-tHeb. ii. 7, 9, 10.— -Ephes.

130
L 20.— with Heb. ii. 16.— Phil. ii. 7-— Ephes. iv.
8. — Rev. i. 11, 17, 18.) do not imply inferiority of
nature, but great humility, and inexpressible love
to mankind, in the person who is subjected to
these changes of condition. But even in the very
act of his submitting to outrage and death, which
he might have repelled, (Matt. xxvi. 53, 94>.) —
he is acknowledged in prophecy, as one equal to
the Most High. " And one shall say unto him,
what are these wounds in thine hands ? And he
shall answer, those with which I was wounded in
the house of my friends. Awake, O sword,
against my shepherd, against "123 the man that is
my fettow, saith the Lord of Hosts." Zech. xiii.
6. 7. This again proves the intercommunity of
nature, &c. For Christ, who is the Lord of
Hosts, (see p. 86.) is here a man, his associate
— and in the Gospels his proper and only Son.—
" The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of
the Father." John i. 18. — Luke i. 32. — See also
page 129. Thus, in positive terms, he asserts his
own pre-existence and divinity to Nicodemus.—
"No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he
that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man
who is in heaven." John iii, 13. — See also
Ephes. iv. 8, 9, 1 0. Where his ascension is said
to be his return to that place, from whence he had
descended first. It was a re- assumption of the
glory which he had with the Father before the
world was.

131
XI. Nothing less than an intercommunity of na
ture can account for what the prophets say of the
Messiah, as the Son of God, and Son of Man,
compared with the Gospel history of Jesus Christ.
(Compare Isai. vii. 14. — -ix. 6.. ..Luke i. 35. — John
i. 13.) " For what the law could not do, in that it
was weak through the flesh, God sending his own
Son in the likeness op sinpvl flesh, and for
sin, condemned sin in the flesh. Rom. viii. 3. So
St. Paul, enumerating the advantages derived to
the believing world, through the intermedium of
the Israelites, themselves cut off through unbelief,
"of whom, as concerning the flesh, says he, Christ
came ; who is over all, God blessed for ever,
amen." Rom. ix. 5. The antithesis between his
fleshly descent from Abraham, and his pre-
existent Deity, and supremacy over all, is not to
be evaded here, except by interpolation and a cor
ruption of the text, wresting it to another sense.
It is not less marked, than that with which Jesus
entangled the Pharisees, when they came with a
design to entangle him in some knotty argument.
" What think ye of Christ? — whose Son is he? —
They say unto him, the Son of David. He saith
unto them, how then doth David in spirit call
Mm Lord, saying, the Lord (Jehovah) said un
to my Lord, (Christ) sit thou on my right hand,
until I make thine enemies thy footstool." If
David then called him Lord, how is he his
Son?— Matt xxii. 42, &c— Psm. ex. l.-~Heb, i.

132
13. The very same mystery is repeated in the
revelation, given St. John. " I Jesus have sent
mine angel to testify these things in the churches.
I am the root and the offspring of David." Rev.
xxii. 16. In the same place he repeats, for a con*
elusion, the sanction of authority with which this
prophecy began. " I am Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the end, the first and the last."^-
These things cannot consist upon any other ground
but the pre-existence of Christ, and an intercom
munity of nature with the Father, and first per
son of the Godhead, as they are the incommuni
cable titles of him besides whom there is no other
God." Isai. xliv. 6.
XII. Righteousness and Salvation are ascribed
to Christ* as God, in both Testaments, and he
alone is the author of salvation to men. From
St. Paul we learn* that it Was he whom the infi
del and idolatrous Jews tempted, and provoked,
forty years long in the wilderness* 1 Cor. iv. 9. —
Psm. xcv. 6. to the end. He whom they thus
provoked is called, '-God their Saviour," —
Psm. cvi. 21. and "the most high god."-—
Psm. Ixxviii. 56. — By Isai. Ixiii. 9. he is stiled,
«' the angel of God's presence. The same of whom
God said to Moses, "provoke him not, for Mf
name is in him." Exod. xxiii. 21. And who
declares himself to be the self-existing or living
God FPPlN, Exod. iii. 14. which very name, and

133"
GtKJiimstance of his thus appearing to Moseij
at the bush, is brought forward by our Saviour*
in proof of his own pre-eXistence. The second
psalm is* as it were, an epitome of the Gospel, and
diseribes its fare in the world. It represents the
unavailing efforts of the Jewish rulers* and the
kings of the earth, against Jehovah, and against
his Messiah and Son, whom he is determined to
establish on an irremovable throne, upon his holy
hill of Sion. tt concludes with an awful warning
to beware of the consequences of an infidelity
altogether destitute of arty truly rational plea of
excuse, the Scripture testimony being so full and
explicit to the divine nature and infinite dignity
of the Son of God, by whom alone righteousness
and justification can be obtained^ "Kiss the
Son lest he be provoked* and ye perish from the
way: If his wrath~*^t? wrath of the Ibamk, (Rev;
vi. l6.)-»be kindled, but a little, blessed are all
tfeey that put their trust in him." This psalm is
quoted by St. Paul, Hebe i. 5. with others, to the
same effect of establishing the Deity of Christ* as
the Son of God,
It is true, the blessed Jesus, in his assertion of
these scriptural testimonies, was disbelieved by
the Jews, and accused of blasphemy upon account
of them. Yet, at no time, even at the peril of in
stant death* and in the presence of his powerful
enemies, did he retract what he had said ; bufc
s

134
affirmed its truth, and justified the necessity of
affirming it. Yet no impropriety, on this account,
is imputed to him by the narrator, who might
have concealed the whole matter, if he had deem*
ed it any disparagement to- his master. See John
viih 58. But, far from this, he wrote his own
gospel, to establish the Pre-existence and Deity of
Christ, against the Anti-Christianism of heresy
which began to abound. " In the beginning was
the word, (rjoyos) and the word was with Godr
and the word was God. The same was in the
beginning with God. ' He was in the world, and
the world wasinaade by him* and the world knew
him not." John i. 1 , 10.
¦ It is he who offers himself to all nations, as " a
just God, and a Saviour, besides whom is none
else." Isai. xiv. 21. And, in the same place, he
confirms the prophecy of the calling of the Gen
tiles, by anciath, that " to him every knee shall bow,
epery tongue shall swear, and all that are incensed
against him shall be ashamed." But this very
passage is applied to Christ by St. Paul. " We
shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ,
for it is. written, as I live, saith Jehovah, every
knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall con
fess unto God." Rom. xiv. 10. 11. The inter
change of the words Christ, Jehovah, me,
God, shews clearly that the same Divine Being
is meant by all ofthem ; otherwise the Apostle's

135
allegation, that we shall all be judged by Christ
as God, is not proved by such a citation, from
Isaiah. But that his proof is good, is confirmed
by the same Apostle. Phil. ii. 10, 11. God, saith
he, hath 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 — (and the same Lord Jehovah, the living
God, else the argument is not conclusive, and
worship would be directed to a creature,) to the
glory of God the Father.
This even his enemies and crucifiers them
selves shall at length be brought to confess, when
the veil is removed from their hearts. u For I
will pour upon the house of David the spirit of
grace and of supplications, and they shall look up
on me, whom they have pierced. Zech. xii. 10. —
'• He was wounded for our transgressions, he was
bruised for our iniquities. Isai. liii. 5. Ezekiel
unites with Zechariah in the same representation
of the faith of repentant and converted Israel —
" I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye
shall live,-^.and then ye shall know that I am the
Lord Jehovah." Ezek. xxxvii. 5, 6, The above
prophecy of Zechariah, is expressly applied by St.
John, xix. 37. to the piercing of Christ's side, by
the spear, as being the accomplishment of those

136
remarkable words, " Th$y shall look on him whom
they pierced"
XIII. The denying of Christ is called, agree
ably to all the above prophecies, " denying the
Lord that bought them, ' 2 Pet. ii. 1. " denying
the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus
Christ." Jmle iv. This, as it stands in our ex
cellent translation, is a strong text, since it makes
the denial of Christ, to be Lord and Jesus, or
the Saviour of mankind, equivalent to a denial of
God. But it is clear from the construction of the
word in the greek, that the terms are intercom-
municable, and the sense is, "denying our only,
supreme (?fyd and Lord Jesus Christ*
In Acts iii. 14. the denial of Christ is said to be
equivalent to the same thing — " But ye .denied,
rtv aytw xa] Mxatov, THE HOLY and the JUST ONE,
two terms, which are both of them incommuni
cable to man, and appropriate to Jesus; first
as he is the proper and eternal Son of God ; and,
secondly, as he is the only one of all that are bom
into the woyld, who was free from sin. It is also
declared to be the same in effect, as denying both
the Father and the Son, *¦' Whosoever denieth

* See this argument incontrovertibly enforced by Jones on the Tiir
ppy, p. 27.

137
the Son, the same hath not the Father," (1 John
ii. 23.) even " God, manifest in the flesh." This
is a positive proof of the intercommunity of
essence, and of an equal acceptance of the homage
of the creature, by each sacred person of the one
undivided Deity. And, by consequence, the
denial of Christ exposes the ungrateful and un
believing apostate, to the certain assurance of being
himself denied by him, before his Father, and
before the whole assembled world, at the day of
judgment. Luke xii, 8, 9.
If men will still persist, therefore, in denying
unto him who is able to present them faultless be
fore the presence of his glory ; denying the only
wise God our Saviour, that glory and majesty,,
dominion and power, now and for ever, which as
God— *the living and immutable God — is so mani
festly declared to- be due to the second person of
the Holy Trinity ; what is this but to repeat the
very offence of apostatizing from the living God.
through the evil heart of unbelief, which was the
cause of excision to his own people Israel ? It is
the very sin for which the Jews were made so se
vere an example of the wrath of God, and remain
to this day, a lasting monument and witness of
the assured consequences of this foul infidelity, to
all who imitate them in it, We do not indeed
see or hear the sad and unavailing regret of that
day of grace mispent, which can be no more

138
offered, 2 Cor. vi. 2. yet the certainty of it cannot
be doubted. What is it else, but to co-operate
with the original rebel and apostate, the malignant
destroyer of God's works, the ruthless enemy of
his glory, and of the salvation of men, in laying
waste God's vineyard ? What is it, in a word,
but to stultify the holy spirit of divine inspiration,
and pervert the leading sense which runs through
the Book of God, from the beginning to the end,
and which cannot be evaded but only by such
contemptible arts of sophistry, and laboured per
versity of criticism, as may be required to force
any sense, or support any system, upon the prin
ciple of the wilful and rash critic, who read—
" hang all the law and the prophets !"*

* See in Bishop Berkley's Minute Philosopher some curious instan
ces of philosophical readings. When St John says, " In the beginning
was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God ; the
same was in the beginning with God ;— and the word was made flesh,
&c." — What a solemn trifler does Belsham, Wakefield, Grundy,—" Et
hoc genus omne," — make of the inspired writer, when they limit all
this grand apparatus to the days of John the Baptist, and the extraor
dinary vouchsafements of wisdom to the man Jesus of Nazareth 1 Thus
G. Somers Clarke makes the most sublime of the prophets, a Jack Pud
ding ; and Tom Paine represents him as a Bedlamite ; and Dr Priestley
avers both him, and;Moses, to be a couple of Ignoramuses, and blunder
ing, lame writers 1 But is not the fault, here rather in the indisposition
of the ciitics, who are themselves more probably the real buffoons, and
madmen, and blunderers, and spirits of devils. An exposition of John
i. 1. much better than that of these writers, may be derived from the
§qthpr of tbp bogk <tf Proverbs' yiii, 30.— who, speaking of the original

139
XIV. The Deity of Christ is declared in the
most express terms by St. Peter. "To them
which have obtained like precious faith with us,
through the righteousness of our God and Sa
viour Jesus Christ, according as his divine power
hath given, &c. 2 Pet. i. 1. That this is the na
tural rendering of the original words, is admitted
by our translators, in the margin. But it is cer
tain, that no words capable of such an obvious
sense, would have been delivered by an inspired
Apostle, (writing to the Church of Christ, under
a special promise of the superintending guidance
unto all truth, by the Holy Ghost, which was
actually given, according to that promise,) if that
had not been the sense intended. With this com
pare St. Paul's similar description of the saving
grace of the Gospel ; " Looking for that blessed
hope, and the glorious appearing of our great
God and Saviour Jesus Christ. Titus ii. 1 3. —
This again is the natural rendering of the words ;
and we are compelled, by the circumstances of the
case, to put this construction and sense upon
them. For it is Christ who is expected thus to
appear. Acts i. 1 1 . "So Christ was once offered

chaos, out of which the present beautiful system of the heavens and
earth was framed, by the word of the Lord, Psm. xxxiii. 6. — Heb. xi. 3 —
says, •' Then I was by him, as one brought up with him, (as a Son> and,I
was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him." &c.

140
to bear the sins of many ; and unto them that
look for him shall he appear the second time, with
out sin unto salvation." Heb. ix. 28. But we
know that "no man hath seen God (the Father)
at any time, or can see." John i. 18.— '1 John iv.
12.— I Tim. vi. 16. "Behold he cometh with
clouds ; and every eye shall see him, and they also
which pierced him." Rev. i. 7. Compare John
xix. 37.— Zech. xii. 4. See page 135.
In another place St. Paul ascribes to Christ the
attributes of divine majesty, which are appropri.
ated to the Supreme Being. " Keep this com
mandment until the appearing of our Lord
Jesus Christ ; which in his time he shall shew,
who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of
Kings, and Lord of Lords." — 1 Tim. vi. 14.!—
That this is meant of Jesus Christ is demonstrable
from the title here given to him, of " King of
Kings, and Lord of Lords," which is, that by
which he is peculiarly distinguished when he
appears most in character in the revelations, as
being then triumphant over his enemies- Rev.
xix. 13, l6*-«ompare Psm. ex. L
The appearing of our blessed Lord at the end of
the world, as the judge of quick and dead, is
one of the most generally admitted articles of the
Christian faith. But he could be no competent
judge, if he be not superior in nature to men, and

141
angels ; since not only the secrets of the hearts eft
men are to be subjected to his judgment, but the
fallen angels also. Rev. ii. 23.— 1 Cor. vi. 3.—
Matt, viii. 28. We read in psalm 1. 6. that " God
is judge himself" And Gen - xviii. 25. that he is
" the judge of all the earth." " The Lord my
God shall come, and all the Saints with thee." —
Zech. xiv. 5. Now these texts must be under
stood at least intercommunieably of Christ, as the
Father is invisible* and as it is Christ who is thus
to come in a visible manner, accompanied by his
Sfiints and Apostles at his first advent, and by his
holy Angels at his second, when he appears as
judge of all the earth. For the Father judgeth
no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the
Son, — because he is also the Son of Man. John
v. 22, 27. "For we must all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ." Rom. xiv. 10. Before
him shall be gathered all nations; Matt. xxv. 32.
And as Christ is the judge of the world, so
also he is the only potentate, because all power in
the mediatorial kingdom is committed into his
hands, " who is gone into heaven, and is on the
tight hand of God, angels, and authorities^ and
powers being made subject unto him." 1 Pet. iii.
22. " God hath set him at his right hand, in the
heavenly places, far above all principality, and
power* and might, and dominion, and every name
that is named, not only in this world, but also in
T

142
that which is to come. Ephes. i. 20, &c, — Acts
ii. 35.— Heb. i. 18.
But St. Paul expressly calls Christ both Gor>
and Saviour, without any softening, notwith
standing both those titles are exclusively arro
gated to himself by the one only God, in the Old
Testament. " For this is good and acceptable in
the sight of God our Saviour." 1 Tim. ii. 3.-—
This manifestly includes both the natures of
Christ : his Deity in the first, and his manhood
in the second, to which, more especially in res
pect of the atonement in his blood, the titles of
Saviour and Redeemer have a reference, both
in the prophecies and the Gospels, for I have al
ready shewn he could be no Saviour of men, un
less he be both God and Man. Psm. xlix. 7.—
cxliii. 2. — Rom. v. 18. 19.—" For there is one
God, and one Mediator, between God and Man,
the man Christ Jesus," who being in the nature
of God, submitted to the nature of man, and the
death of the cross, that the world, through his
poverty, might be made rich. " We trust in the
living God, who is the Saviour of all men. Tit;
vi, 10. " After the kindness of God our Saviour
appeared." Tit. iii. 4. " According to the com-
Bnandment of God our Saviour." 1 Tim. i. 1 . —
"Which he shed on us abundantly, through
Christ our Saviour." Tit. iii. 6. " That they
fflaay adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, in

143
all things." Tit. ii. 10. « Now to ithe only wise
God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion
and power, now and ever, amen." Jude xxv.
If there be any meaning in words, what is a
plain unsophisticated mind to conclude from these
expressions, but only that God was in Christ by
unity of nature, reconciling the world unto him
self? Or in his own words, " I am in the Father,
and the Father in me." " I and the Father are
one, And we are in him that is true, even in his
Son Jesus Christ ; this is the true God, and eter»-
nal life." 1 John v. 20.
XV. The elevation of the blessed Jesus to this
high rank in reward of his obedience, is alledged
as an argument against his divinity ; but with as
little reason, as his previous degradation had been;
both having a reference to his human nature. —
The essence of the Deity is, indeed, immutable*
and incapable of any addition to that glory and
happiness which it had with the Father, as the
eternal Son of God, before the world was. John
xvii. 5. But St. Paul, in his epistle to the Hebrews,
has illustrated this matter by his quotation of Psm.
xl. 6. from the Septuagint. In explanation of
the atonement for sin once for all offered in the
sacrifice of Christ, he says, " It is not possible that
the blood of bulls and of goats should take away
sins. Wherefore when the pre-existent Messiah

144
cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offer
ing thou wouldest not ; but a body hast thou pre
pared me." In the Hebrew it is, •' but mine ears
hast thou bored." This deviation from the literal
sense, Dr. Whitby thinks, was not made by the
seventy translators without the suggestion of the
Holy Spirit, as it so well coincides with the real
purport of the passage, and to Gentile ears, for
whose use Providence ordained that translation to
be made; it even explains it better than the
literal sense would do, because the understanding
of what was meant by boring the ears of a ser
vant, could only be had from the law of Moses. — r
Exod. xxi. 6. — Deut. xv. 1 7,— It was a solemn
devoting of an affectionate servant, who would
not accept his liberty, to continue with his master
in a faithful obedience until death. The altera*
tion of the words, therefore, expresses more intel
ligibly the affectionate obedience of Christ, in the
capacity of servant, to the will of him that sent
him. God prepared a body wherein the Son of
God was to become incarnate, and fulfil his wish
for the redemption of man, by the offering of such
a sacrifice, as mere man could never pay.
Had this been an interpretation incompatible
with the original intent of the passage in that pro
phetic psalm, the inspired apostle would not have
quoted the sense of it from the Septuagint, but
from the Hebrew, or at least he Would have varied

145
the expression so much as was necessary. But so
far from it, that he directly confirms it in another
place, where, recommending humility to us after
the pattern of Christ, he affirms, Phil. ii. 6. that
he was originally in the form or nature of God, in
whidi to plead equality would have been no de
rogation to the Divine Majesty ; but that he took
upon him the form or condition of a servant, and
a child of mortality, passing by the higher order
of angels, which would have been an unspeakable
condescension in him who was their Creator. To
do this, he emvtied himself of his glory, and took
upon him the form of a servant — and was made in
the likeness of men." Every clause expresses a
voluntary degradation, and devotion to the merci
ful design of his Father, similar to the affection of
the servant under the law. The apostle, adopting
the Septuagint sense, "a body hast thou prepared
me," gives an admirable comment upon the
Psalmist's prophecy of the incarnation of the Son
of God,
He says again, Gal. iv. 4, when the fulness of
the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law. Had he not been in
deed the Son of Man, St. Paul could not have rea
soned thus in proof of the insufficiency of the Jew
ish law, after Christ— there had been nothing ex
traordinary in his being made of a woman, if all

146
men were so, in the same sense, even admitting the
prophecies, as to the fulness of time, to have been
duly fulfilled. Neither could it avail either Jews
or Gentiles unto redemption, that Jesus, being a
mere man, had been made under the law. But
in the Septuagint sense of Psm. xl. 6. adopted in
Heb. x. 6; a body hast thou prepared me, the say
ing here, that he was " made of a woman, — made
under the law," is surely speaking to the purpose.
So is also that in Rom. i. 3. " Our Lord Jesus
Christ was made of the seed of David, according
to the flesh, that is as to his human nature ; and
it is enforced by St. John i. 14. " The word was
made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his
glory, the glory as of the only begotten Son of
God, full of grace and truth."
If the condescension of Christ, in his incarna
tion, thus opposes no insurmountable objection to
his pre-existent Divinity, his exaltation, after his
sufferings and death, to supreme'dominion in the
same capacity of Mediator in his own kingdom,
needs not oppose any neither. The blessed Jesus,
of his infinite goodness, voluntarily submitted to
the degradation, necessarily annexed to the under.
taking of a Mediator between two natures of in-i
finite disparity, in which he must necessarily
stoop to the lower himself, and in that capacity
Jesus Christ negociates peace for the abused

147
children of disobedience. But when the conquest
over death and hell had been thus painfully
achieved, and the mediation and intercession was
to be continued for ages to come, it was equally
necessary that the human nature, so assumed,
should participate in the glory of the divine to
which it was united. " Then cometh the end,
when he shall deliver Up the kingdom to God^
even the Father, that God may be all in all.— -
But he must reign till he hath put all ene
mies under his feet." When death, the last
enemy, shall be destroyed, then the mediatorial
kingdom shall cease, and the power, delegated
to the Son of Man in quality of his office, will
subside, and merge in the divine nature. — This,
so far from contradicting the divinity ascribed
to Christ, confirms it more effectually, by veri-<
fying his own assertion, •' I and my Father are
one. XVI. And equally so does that passage of St.
Paul, Col. i. 1 5, &c. which is brought forward to
the contrary. — " Who is the image of the invisible
God, the first-born of every creature, for by him
were all things created, that are in heaven, and
that are in earth, visible and invisible ; whether
they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or
powers ; all things were created by him, and for
him ; and he is before all things, and by him all

148
things consist." This is clearly the character of*
a Being self existent, eternal, and infinite in power.
He is called " the first-born of every creature,"
not as being a creature himself, but the origin and
creator of all things that subsist, and " the first
born from the dead," as rising first, the first fruits
of the harvest ; and being himself the resurrection
and the life. The Creator and Almigh ty God can
not be himself a creature, but uniting himself
to human nature, he is metaphorically called the
second Adam, the restorer of the human race, the
captain of our salvation, " the first-born among
many brethren." Rom. viii. 29.
It is therefore clearly in consequence of the
union of two natures in Christ, that, along with
the titles and attributes of Deity, there are, not
uncommonly, intermingled things which seem
unsuitable to it ; that being predicated of Im-
manuel* which is inapplicable to God. Thus the
hostile sword prevails, and Satan triumphs over
him that is fellow to the Lord of Hosts.— The
spear of malice and infidelity pierces the side, and
cruel wounds are inflicted in the hands, of him
who is almighty to save ! — " The chastisement of
our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we
are healed." Isai liii. 5. — Ixiii. 1 . And he who
knew the hearts of all men, and Game to lay down
his life a ransom for all, is betrayed to death by a

149
treacherous friend, and and sold for thirty pieces
of silver.* The evidence is not less convincing in fa
vour of the pre-existence and divinity of Christ*
which arises, by way of inference, from the won->
derful circumstances of his hjrth, life, and ministry,
death, resurrection, and ascension, as recorded by
the Evangelists, the eye witnesses of the greater
part of them, and attested by their coincidence
with prophecy.
I. " When the fulness of the time was come*
God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made
Under the law." The first circumstance positively
evinces the pre-existence of the person sent ; fo£
he could not be sent before he existed, or before
the fulness of the time fixed in the decree of God,
and even fixedly predicted in prophecy for his
Coming, (Dan. ix. 24.) for his birth, as an human
child. Isai. ix. 6. The argument of St; Paul*
Heb. i. 6. is to the same effect. "When he
Jfringeth in the first begotten intotheworld, hesaithj
" Let all the angels of God worship him." Her©

* See (p. Il4.) the exposition of Isai. viii. 13. where Christ, as The
Lord of Hosts, is rejected, and become •' a stone of stumbling'' to
modem Israel, as he was before to their idolatrous forefathers, who said«
"Cause the Holy One or Israel to cease from before us."

150
also are two propositions ; first, the bringing into
this visible world a person who had not his begin
ning here, but was pre-existent, as the eternal Son
of God. Secondly, the proposing this great
Being, even in the state of humiliation, which his
becoming man supposes, as the proper object of
divine adoration, even to the angels of God F —
And how literally this prophecy of the Psalmist,
as to the angels worshipping the infant Christ, was
fulfilled, we learn from St. Matthew and St.
Luke. The Deity as well as the pre-existence of
Jesus, is evinced from the same circumstance, for
although now, the Son of Man, as an human child
born of a woman , he is antecedently the Son of
God. But the Son must be of the same nature as
the Father is, whose proper Son he is. But this was
the accusation against Christ, to which he made no
objection, but added immediately arguments in
proof, when "the Jews sought to kill him, because
he had said God was his proper Father, thus
making himself equal with God." John v. 18.
The second circumstance, that he was " made
%nder the law" was a proof that he was the true
Shilo of Jacob's prophecy : The Messiah, or pro
mised seed, to whom, as we have already seen,
the inalienable titles and attributes of Deity
are ascribed all through the Old Testament.—'
The circumstances of the actual birth of Christ,
were not inferior to all this magnificence and an-

151
tiquity, of the preceding apparatus ; but still with
a strict adherence to the usual order of nature, and
the retired and humble walk of life, in which he
was destined to move. There was thus afforded
to mankind a sufficient room for the exercise of,
humility of mind, and the obedience of faith, to the
revelation of the mysteries of the Gospel, as well
as a trial of the practical obedience which is due
to the religious ordinances, and moral laws, which
Christ enjoined. His nativity was not the mere
birth of a child, which had been predicted in pro
phecy, as Josiah and Cyrus were by name, and
who was to make a conspicuous figure in the
world ; but it was the incarnation of one already
existing in a prior state. It was the very act of
the eternal Son of God, condescending to become
the Son of Man ; the bright effulgence and ex
press character of the invisible Father, taking
upon him the visible and tangible form and nature
of a servant, the Messiah ; his service being as
peculiar to himself alone as his Sonship- We are
figuratively the Sons of God by adoption and
grace, through faith, and the Servants of God, by
obedience, accepted, in the beloved ; but Christy
in both capacities, stands alone. John iii. 18. — »
Isai. lix. 16,
Now was to be fulfilled the original promise of
fallen man's redemption* grounded upon the piti
able circumstance of his having been deceived to

152
his ruin, by one more experienced in both good
and evil than himseF, and not being of his own
conception and rebellious spirit, the author of hi$
own destruction. Provision had been made, in
the course of so many ages, by the supreme super
intending providence of God, that the prophecies
of this great event, depending upon so many con
tingencies, should not be defeated ; but should be
literally fulfilled, by the free will, and unrestrained
actions of men, who were, by both interest and
prejudices, disposed to defeat them. The Supreme
Judge had said, " I will put enmity between thee
and the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt
bruise his heel." The enmity, thus originated,
was to be perpetuated, and at length to come to
a crisis, in which the seed of the woman should
suffer much affliction, but the serpent should re
ceive a fatal wound in the chief seat of his power.
Christ was that seed of the woman, and the world
of the unbelieving and disobedient is the seed of
the serpent, which, notwithstanding the wound in
his head, is still able to make a powerful and de.
^tractive opposition, to the progress of human re
demption, in the hand of Christ. John viii. 44.
For what reasons the Almighty Ruler suffers
the existence and hostile agency of such a power
ful Being, as the Devil is represented to be in
Scripture, remains secret to us ; but his action, as

153
it repects us, is under peremptory controul, as
implicitly as the elements of the natural world,
and his sinister designs are foreknown ; and
sufficient warning, and provision of grace is
afforded, to them that will ask and receive such
aids. It is the consummation of his skill, that as
he triumphed originally over self-confidence and
pride, in the days of original ignorance, so, by the
same means, he still triumphs over'peifectible, but
not yet perfected reason, in the enlightened days
of the nineteenth century. Another great crisis
is approaching by hasty strides. His seed and
representatives have not been idle, in turning and
cultivating the soil, for the production of the
coming harvest; in which, disappointment will
once more frustrate his hope of man's ruin, the
original suggestion of his own envy and despair.
It was not in his power to prevent the birth of
Christ, or so much as to frustrate any of those
very numerous distinguishing circumstances, de
pending upon many contingent events, by which
it had been announced in the prophecies. He
coqld only oppose, as far as his influence extended,.
the effect of it, to the universal salvation of men ;
and so he will still oppose, and still continue to
make war against " the remnant of the seed of the
woman" The original promise of an avenger, to be born
of the seed of the woman, alludes to the atone-

154
ment thus to be made for human transgression.*
Had Jesus been any thing less than God, such an
opportunity of cutting him off in a state of the
utmost degree of human imbecility, would not
have been neglected by the wily foe. He did all
that was possible to be done by natural means, or
diabolical suggestion, to the excitement of human
opposition. For the infernal attempt of Herod
(Matt. i. 18. — Jer. xxxi. 15.) seems to transcend,
in horror and wickedness, the conception of any
merely human spirit. Neither can the enmity of
Satan ever succeed in any case, except by human
instruments, and through the perverted reason
and depraved minds of men, his disciples and
children. John viii. 44.
I have already shewn that the annunciation tt)
the holy virgin, and likewise that to the shep
herd's, were circumstances of the birth of Christ,

* "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made
alive," " He shall destroy the face of the covering cast over all people,
and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death
in victory, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all
faces, and the rebuke of his people (the children of God by faith) shall
he take away from off all the earth. And it shall be said in that day,
lo ! this is our God." The remedy for the seduction and fall of
man was to be as extensive as the imputative sin, and contracted depra
vity. The promise made to repentant Adam, and that to believing
Abraham, were both to be thus made good ; " In thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed."

155
every way impossible to be reconciled to the birth
of any mere man. The only effectual way of
evading such a proof, is that to which the neces*
sity of the case has at length fairly driven the
most determined of the Serpentinians, the rejec
tion of the plenary inspiration and authenticity
of the Holy Scriptures. There is, after this, no
thing left to say to such as are thus far gone. It
must infallibly come to this issue at lastc " They
have Moses and the prophets, let them hear
them — nay, but father Abraham, if one went un
to them from the dead, they will repent. 1 say
unto you, if they hear not Moses and the pro
phets, neither will they be persuaded though one
rose from the dead."
Stimulants are in vain applied to those in whom
life is extinct ; so are arguments to no purpose pro-
jibsecl from the sources of divine inspiration to those
who aspire to the perfection of carnal reason, and
expect to become as Gods, by a promise of wis
dom drawn from another quarter. The angelic
sounds of the Gospel of life, " to you is born in
the City of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the
Lord" are heard, with as much effect, as the
whistling of winds in the crevices of the rocks.—
Yet they are words worthy of such a messenger ;
(Luke ii. 11.) and they undeniably prove that,
unless there be two only Saviours, and two Lordsr
to each of whom exclusively the title of God Je-

156
hovah is appropriate, Jesus must be pre-exi stent,
and divine. (See above, p. 86 — 110 — i 14.)
The title hvphc, the Lord, which is given to
Christ in this divine annunciation, and throughout
the New Testament, is of various signification,
accordingly as it is connected in context. It is
applied to the Supreme Being himself very com*
monly in the Old Testament, and from its ambi
guity in that respect, was probably made use of
upon this occasion, that the etidence of the incar
nate God should not be altogether overpowering*
but that room should be left for the prostration of
the understanding before the word of God, the ex
ercise of humility, and faith in a distressed and
low born Saviour. The word answers to the
Hebrew TIN, Dominus, and is applied to God in
Gen. xviii. 3. — xix. 2, 18, &c. It is especially
given to Christ, says Schleusner, to indicate his
divine nature and mission, and he quotes Matt.
iii. 3. and Luke i. 43, 76. The latter text being
an allusion to Malachi, and Isaiah's prophecies of
the figurative Elias, who was to go before the face
of Jehovah.
In the Alexandrine version, and in the vulgar
English translation, the word xueioc, the Lord, is
very commonly put for Jehovah, the proper name
of God ; and which denotes his self-existence and

157
eternity. This very name was appropriated to
himself by Jesus. See p. 95. United as it is here
in the angel's annunciation, with the Christ, or
anointed of the Lord, the predicted seed of David,
and Abraham, and Adam, agreeably td the tenor
of Isaiah's prophecy, ix. 6 ; if it does not signify
every thing that is equal to that prophecy* it sig
nifies nothing; and so celestial an apparatus is
truely, according to the Socinian system, like the
salt which had lost its savour, (Luke xiv. 34.) it
is totally destitute of either significancy or effect,
and good for nothing but to be thrown to the
dogs that are without. Rev. xxii. 1 5.— Phil. iii.
9. — Matt. vii. 6.
The title of "Lord," irt preference to that of
Rabbi, was in familiar use with the apostles, in
their common address to their master, and when
he forbad the application of such titles to men, it
was with an exception to his own claim, (Matt.
xxiii, 8* 9, 10.) who is Lord of all. When he
called himself, as he usually did, the Son of Man,
and the Son of God, he meant to be considered
in himself, unquestionably, all that which the pro*
phets have ascribed to both of these titles, as
applied to the Messiah. In this acceptation it is
manifest that the apostles understood them, after
his resurrection. When he had opened their un
derstanding to a true sense of the Scriptures con
cerning himself; and St. Thomas* even before that,
x

158
upon his recovery from hi* temporary doubt, up*
on the sight and feeling of the real body of Christ,
risen from a state of real death, expressed his con»
viction, by fixing the word Lord to its proper
meaning, " My Lord, and my God."
Applying now the prophecy of Isaiah ix. 4r. to
the birth of the infant Jesus, which was its real
accomplishment, however idly the learned pains
of infidels have been employed, in searching out
other comparatively frivolous events, to be adapted
to it, of what nature must that child be, to whom
so many extraordinary and absolutely divine titles
should be appropriate ? It is altogether impossi
ble to suppose that a prophet, writing to genera
tions to come, upon a subject which should in
volve the eternal interest of every man of them,
and under the immediate inspiration of the Holy
Ghost, should not have been especially guided
into the truth, and guarded in particular in the
use of such terms as should not betray it, and se
duce his readers into idolatry For they inevita
bly lead us into the idea of Jehovah, to become in
carnate, and being found in fashion as a man, and
manifest in the flesh, to dwell with men. And
they cannot, by a fair use of any critical inge
nuity, be wrested to. any other sense. " The titles
of Wonderful — Counsellor-rrGod Almighty — the
Everlasting Father — the Prince of Peace to us
men," cannot signify a mere human child, and

159
nothing more ; particularly so, when this august
personage is directed to be soughtfor in a situation}
and in outward circumstances, the very contrast to
this high prophetical character. The lineage and
family of David was, at that timer, reduced to the
lowest degree of obscurity, and the personal pover
ty of Jesus was such* that he was- worse provided
for, than the foxes of the earth, and the fowls of
heaven; These were inconsistencies not easily to
be reconciled to either prophecy or human reason*1
and could only be admitted upon the testimony
of the heavenly host, and the subsequent convic
tion arising from a series of corresponding proofs,
in the future life and actions of Jesus. But it is
thu$j by most unpromising means, many times, _r
that the secret designs of God's mysterious provi
dence are brought to pass, whose " ways are not
as our ways, neither his thoughts as our thoughts*"
The kingdom of heaven, even from the first,
cometh not with observation, or signs of worldly
significancy. Its indications were of another na
ture, yet sufficiently convincing, except to those
who were spiritually blind, which did err in their
hearts, and had no knowledge of his ways. " Great
is the mystery of Godliness I God was manifest in
the flesh. 1 Tim. iii. 16. The word was made
flesh, and dwelt among us." John i. 14. "If our
Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost ; in
whom the God of this world hath blinded the
minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the

160
glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of
God, should shine unto them," 2 Cor: iv. 3, 4.—
The miraculous conception and birth of Christ,
now derided and rejected by Skeptics, was the re
velation of that mystery which the angels of God
desire to look into, but do not perfectly comprev
hend — which was kept secret since the world be
gan, but now is; made manifest; and, by the
Scriptures of the prophets, according' to the com
mandment of the everlasting God, made known
to all nations, for the obedience of faith. Rom.
xvi. 25, 26, ,..-.;
H. But not only from the remarkable circum
stances of his own birth, must the divinity of
Christ be inferred, but also from those which
attended the birth of his harbinger; the figurative
Elids. The birth of John the Baptist was also
announced by an angel, in terms similar to those
of Malachi the prophet. " Behold I will send
my messenger, and he shall' prepare the way be
fore me. And the Lord, whom ye seek, shall
suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger
of the. covenant, whom ye delight iri ; behold he
shall come saith the Lord of Hosts. Mai iii. 1.
i — iv. 5, 6.— Luke i. 17. The person here pro
mised is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts, and
is to prepare Ms ways, and to go before his face.
And the parallel prophecy in Isaiah xl. 3. is to the
game effect, " The voice of him that crieth in the

161
wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make
strait in the wilderness an highway for our
God." The Baptist was announced by the angel to be
this very remarkable character,— "Many of the
children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their
God* And he shall go before him, in the spirit
and power of Elias," &c. Luke i. 16,17. He
was to be, not the real, but figurative Elias, and
sustain a similar character of austere piety. After
his birth, his father Zacharias was filled with the
Holy Ghost, and prophecied, saying — "And thou
child shalt be called, (that is, Shalt be) the prophet
of the highest, for thou shalt go before the face

* It was to Christ that the Baptist turned his converts, and professed
nothing more of himself, than to be his forerunner, who, although
coming after him, was to be preferred before him, for thai he was before
him, and was greater than him ; even one " whose shoes' laichet he was
not worthy tp unloose.*' Now unless these expressions be understood,
of the pre-existence of the Messiah as God, according to the before cited
prophecies, they are unintelligible contradictions. For not only was
John six months older than Jesus, but his parents were in a much higher
station of life than Joseph and Mary. The distorted idea which Mr.
Fellows labours to present to the world, of both the naiivity of John, and
the incarnation of Christ, as mere natural occurrences, approaches very
near to Burlesque, particularly his curious evasion of the prophecy of the
virgin-born Immanuel. (vol- 1. p. 37.) Were it possible to rid them
selves of the incumbrance of this prophecy, by such contemptible per
versity, it is but one of a thousand which prove the Deity of Christ. See
-Fellows1 Guide to Immortality, vol! _l«-sec'. .7.

162
of the Lord, to prepare his way. To give the
knowledge of salvation unto his people, by the
remission of their sins.
Now these prophecies bring the matter home
to the very time, fixed by divine revelation, for
the appearance of the Messiah, who accordingly
did so come, and for such a purpose, and no pre
tender after him, had these, or any of the other
characteristic marks, by which Messiah was to be
distinguished. They bring it home to the indivi
dual persons of the blessed Jesus, and John the
Baptist; the first, as the incarnate logos, the pre
dicted Immanuel, the eternal and only Son of
God, in form, and appearance* and reality of na
ture also, the Son of Man ; the other, as his pre
dicted harbinger, the Elias, who ** must first
come, and restore all things ;" the former sent by
the Almighty Father, to " bring life and immor
tality to light through the Gospel," and make an
atonement for the world's peace ; the other, to pre
pare the way by his preaching and baptism, for
this Prince of Peace, and the kingdom of God,
and to point out Jesus, as the only true expiation
for sin.
John was not only divinely ordained, from his
birth, to "go before the face of the Lord — to be
the prophet of the Highest—and prepare in the
desert an high way for our God" — but he was

163
himself fully sensible of the nature of the office",
hi the economy of grace, which he filled, and
took every opportunity of bearing his public tes
timony to Jesus. The message he sent by two
of his disciples, saying, art thou the Christ, "he
that should come," or must we still expect some
one else? though it has the appearance of
doubting, yet was in the prophetic manner, and
the very contrary to doubt. For he expected,-
that his wavering disciples would receive a fuller
conviction from the circumstance ; and Jesus, on
that fvery occasion, pronounced John to be a a
prophet, yea, and more than a prophet;" none that
had been born into the world, until that time,
being greater than he, who was the harbinger of
the great King, Messiah.
After John's ministry in the wilderness, the
Lord, whom all expected, came suddenly] to his
temple, with the effect of " a refiner's fire, and like
fullers soap ;" " and he shall purify the sons of
Levi, that they may offer unto the Lord an offer
ing in righteousness." Mai iii. 3. And thus did
Christ sharply correct the obliquity of the religi
ous guides of his time* and " purify unto himself
a peculiar people, zealous of good works." The
suddenness of his coming, relates to the unprepar-
edness of the people of Israel at that, time, for the
worthy reception of so divine a visitant, through
the influence of a corrupting philosophy, which,

164
like a cancer, had eaten out the whole vitality of
their religion and faith, in the two contrary direc*
tions of superstition, and infidelity; the like
whereof will again be the state of the world, no
minally Christian, at the time of Christ's second.
advent. The unbelief of the great majority of the
Jews, in consequence hereof, Occasioned a dread
ful accomplishment of the prophecy. " But who
ntay abide the day of his coming? and who shall
stand when he appeareth ?", And the same awful
warning is given to the men of this generation, of
the near approaching conflict with unbelief and
Anti-christianism, in their utmost strength, which
yet awaits ;them; and whose coming will be
equally sudden* although the footsteps of it are
already imprest upon the features of the times.: — ¦
"Behold I come as a thief, blessed is he that
watcheth and keepeth his garments, (an upright
conscience, and an evangelical faith,) lest he walk
naked, and they see his shame."
The Jews denied the Holy One and thejust,.and
crucified the Lord of Glory. And they have
been vagabonds upon the face of the earth from
that time; reluctant witnesses to the very truth
they deny, that Jesus was " indeed the Christ,
the Son op the Blessed." The Skeptics and un
believers of our days crucify him afresh, in a man
ner more unpardonable ; in as much as the seduc
tion of interests apparently contrary, and the heat

165
of passion and prejudice are gone by, and leisure
has been allowed merl coolly and reasonably to
consider the daily augmenting weight of the evi
dences of Christianity. With such, therefore,
the pleading of the Lord of Hosts in judgment
will be more brief ; the full execution of his
vengeance being reserved for another state, (2 Pet.
2. 9.) " For he will finish the work; and cut it
short in righteousness ; because a short work will
the Lord make upon the earth." Rom. 9. 28*
III. The life and ministry of JesuS affords
humerous proofs, by way of inference, that
he is not only more than man, and pre-exis-s
tent, but the infinitely perfect Being, which
corresponds to our ideas of God. There was no
other sort of falling off frpm the august pomp of
his introduction into the world, the worship of
&ngels, and the adoration of tnen<, than such as
was natural, and necessary to one whoy as a man
¦was to pass among men, (and thme not of the
mc-st accommodating dispositions) upwards of
thirty yeats of his existence. The brightness of
Mr Father's glory, and the express image of the1
invisible God; was to be concealed under a veil of
flesh, that the prophecies of the rejection and
sufferings of Christ should be fulfilled* and there
by the redemption of the whole world* both
before and after, might be achieved. Yet sufife
eient evidence was to be afforded, to minds 6ap*&~

166
ble of rational conviction, that he Was indeed the
Son of God, as well as the Son of Man ; and
consequently a sufficient Mediator between God
and man; and his death an effectual sacrifice and
atonement for sin. Intimately conversant in a
sinful world, he was himself to be, although
subject to our blameless infirmities, yet without
sin — " holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from
sinners." Heb, vii. 26.
His life, actions, and discourses abounded with
incidents, which cannot be accounted for upon
any of the principles of human conduct and
reasoning, without admitting his own plea of
justification, that he acted upon an higher author
rity than any that this world can give ; and was
doing no more than merely sustaining a character
which really belongs to him, and had been given
to Messiah in prophecy. But as the testimony
of the prophets was overlooked, from having been
misapplied and perverted by tradition and false
glosses,, and his own better interpretations of
them were despised, and his heavenly wisdom
ridiculed by the worldly wise, he appealed to his
works, such as none other man ever did, yet
still without effecti
The miracles of Christ, were many of them of
such a nature, as discovered the hand of the original
workman, infinite in wisdom and omnipotence.

167
wbo had put the vast frame of the universe to
gether* and ordained its laws ; and was therefore
the Lord also of the sabbath day, which had been
instituted by himself, the Creator, upon the con
summation of his work, to be the perpetual me
morial, and evidence of it. Some of them demon
strated the God upon earth, particularly the fori
giveness of sins, followed by the miracle of heal*
ing, as the ostensible voucher of its reality, and of'
the divine authority of him that spake the word ;
and the effect immediately ensued. Matth. ix. 2,
&e. His enemies deemed this a blasphemous and
wicked usurpation of a power not given to, man.
But Jesus, who knew their thoughts, also re
proved their unjust conceptions of him, and per?
formed the miracle in their sight, as a testimony
against them. He who was " the Searcher of the
heart and reins, and needed not that any should
testify of man, for he knew what was in man",
might also exercise the other attributes of God —
the shewing mercy, and pronouncing of sin par
doned ; giving at the same time, as from himself,
a proof of his infallibility and infinity in all
things, In one case of this nature, the giving sight to
the man that had been born blind, the alledged
objection, that he* being a man, took upon him
the title and authority of God, was more seriously
urged ; and Christ was arraigned as a sinner, and

168
one incapable of doing any miracle, unless through
a collusion with Beelzebub ibe prince of the
devils. To God alone, and not to Christ affecting
powers divine, the praise was directed to be give©.
But more wisely, it was argued by the poor man,
as a proof of the most assured union with God,
that God heareth not sinners : and this was a
/ Cod.like act of nfeucy, and no fictitious prodigy,
like the miracles of Satan. In this justification,
his reasoning was confirmed by Jesus. John ix,
85f &c.
Were it reasonable tp account for the stupem
dous and numerous miracles he wrought, upon
the skeptical principle of divine favour, commu-i
nicatcd to the man Jesus, beyond what had been
vouchsafed even to the man Mobes himself, still
this wolild leave several of his assertions in great
peed of apology and explanation, or, as they now
stand, destitute of all reasonable grounds of credit
bility. For he assumed to be, as mentioned
above, himself^ Lord of the sabbath! that is,
to all intents and purposes, Almighty God the
Creator. He declared, that he had Ijfe in himself
pr, in other words, was the self-existent Jehovah ;
and that it was he which was the principle of life,
pven life eternal, to all created rational beings
capable pf it.»— That by a conspicuous exertion
pf this attribute of essential Deity, he had power
Jo lay down his own life, and power p resume j|

169
again, at his own will : and that he would do so,
in the very midst of his enemies, and of human
violence, which should be incapable of taking
away bis life, except as a voluntary sacrifice, by
his own consent offered to God. John x 15, 17,
18,r— ,-That he would in three days restore the
temple of his body* from its ruins in death ; and
he even 'added, that after he was thus risen in
tlt£ body, he would ascend into heaven, " where
he was before", (John vi. 62,) resuming that
glory which he had with the Father " before the
World was", (John xvii 5,) which is described
by the Psalmist, Ps. xxiv. 7, and lxviii. 18, and
applied to Christ, Ephes. iv. 8, and John iii. 13,—-
vi, 62, — xx. 17. And he said* that as the Son of
Man, it was incumbent upon him to be elevated
upon a cross, and die the death of a malefactor,
as an expiatory sacrifice for sin, to all that will
believe on him ; and that the brazen serpent of
Moses, and the temporary death and resurrection
of Jonas; were typical predictions of his deaths
John iii. 14-r*-Matt. xii. 40. — That "as the Father

* The Jews made this, in a political sense, a capital article against
him, to condemn him to death. " But he spake parabolical ly of the
temple of his body," which was in more than a figu>e so called, seeing
the fulness of the Godhead dwelt therein, as the Shekina formerly in the
Tabernacle. St. Paul adds cajJuxtMrnc, bodily* to distinguish this case
from that of ordinary pious Christians, whose bodies, are figuratively
*' temples of the Holy Ghost." 1 Cor. iii, 16,— vi. 19,

170
knew him,even so he knew theFather." John x. 15.
" No man but himself knew the Father, neither
any man knew him, who, or what he is, but the
Father only." Matth. xi. 27.— That the Father
was in him* and he in the Father ; and that "he
and the Father are one." John x. 15, 30. —
That all men should honour the Son, and should
believe in him, even the very same as they do to
the Father. And, finally, that whosoever had
beheld him, had seen the Father ; for that it was
he who, in a pre-existeht state, had appeared to
Moses, under the name Eheje, or I am, the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So the Jews
understood his words in these and the like asser
tions ; and the Christian world has agreed in the
same sense ever since, with comparatively few
exceptions, In these declarations, which are entirely eonsis„
tent with his introduction into the world, and the
manner of his quitting it, after having " witnessed
a good confession before Pontius Pilate and Cai-
phas," it is impossible that he could either be de
ceived himself, or design to deceive the whole
world of believers and worshippers of his Deity.
His apostles, and the first Christian writers, under
stood these things as we now do; and it is only by
the consummate perversion of criticism, that their
words* as well as his own, have been wrested to a,
contrary import. Wherefore, we infer, that the

171
evidence arising from the life and ministry of
Christ, is not dissonant from that of prophecy
beforehand, but both tend unanimously to the
same conclusion, that " to him every knee shall
bow* and every tongue confess* that Jesus Christ
is Lord, {xuoioc) to the glory of God the Father.''
Phil. ii. 11*

* The affectation of critical ingenuity is surely ill employed, which
labours to make Christ, who is truth itself, equivocate and draw in his
own words, in John a. 34. The natural construction of his words is
not a denial, but a confession of his claim to be the Son of God, and one
with the Father. For if the title of Gods be given in Scripture to ma
gistrates, and even to idols, much more may it be assumed by One
sanctified as the " Holy of Holies," (Dan. ix. 24,) and sent by the Father
from a pre-existent state, and out of his own bosom, into the world.
It is claimed by him who is in nature the Logos, and is only made flesh
by the incarnation of Deity, as the Immanuel, or God with men.
And so again, in another place, by a similar mode of apprehension
and arguing, a false inference is drawn from Matth, xix. 17. " Why
tallest thou me GOOD ? there is none good but one, that is God."
Jesus argued here after the Lawyer's own manner, from the meaning of
his own words. In calling him good, he had ascribed to him one of the
incommunicable attributes of Deity, and which cannot be applied to a
creature ; and yet he was of the party of those which did not acknow
ledge him to be Messiah, who, as appears from the Sd Psalm, was to
be the eternal Son of God, and to sit on the throne, at his right hand.
This was an inconsistency in the Lawyer's theology, but not in the pro- <
fessions of Christ. He was really good and holy, even holiness itself, and
consequently God. Compare Psa. xvi. 10; Dan. ix. 24 ; Luke i. 35.
He who proclaimed himself the good Shepherd, one sanctified by the
Father, and specially sent ; the life and light of the world, and the-
atonement for its sins, &c. cannot be supposed to equivQcate^and deny
himself here. That the Greek original does not support the Socinian-
quibble upon this text, is clearly proved by Mr Jones on Trin, p. 13.

m
IV. The remarkable circumstances in the dtaiii
and resurrection of Christ, were not less signifi
cant of his Divinity* The spiritual and the na
tural world, of both of which he is the Creator and
Ruler, equally felt as it were the throes of death
along with him. The heavens were covered with
a supernatural darkness. The earthquake was
so extraordinary, that the rocks were rent, and
the veil of the temple divided from the top to the
bottom. The graves were opened, and many
bodies of saints, Which slept in death/ arose, and
Came out of the tombs after his resurrection,-
and went into the holy city, and appeared unto
many." These symptoms of cpnyiilsion, which threat
ened a dissolution of the frame of nature, indi
cated, that he who thtis received in his dying
agonies the sympathy of nature, was Nature's
God, and not an ordinary man. This natural
idea broke forth from the Centurion and the
guards, who were appointed to watch the execu
tion, though it was stifled in the infidel hearts of
the Jews, " Truly this man was the Son of God."
Mark xv. 37, 39.*

* As Jesus Christ was to be THr great ex'piatiori for the sins of
the world, it appears,ifrom the' best accbuhts, that he was crucified twr the
great day of at O N p: v E ;.' T, at thepassover, and afterhaogitrg. in agbnieV

m
Iri the whole proceedings of bis mock trial, and
the sufferings he underwent both in body and
mind; before, and during his crucifixion, (which
Continued six hours, or from nine in the morning,

inexpressible, upon the cross for six hours, he expired at the time of the
evening sacrifice, at the very hour when the pascal lamb was to be slain.
The sun was darkened, as by a total eclipse, though it was then full
moon, and a natural- eclipse consequently impossible; besides that a
total eclipse does not last above fifteen minutes, whereas this darkness
continued three hours, or front noon till about three o'clock;
At this time, and while Caiphas, as' Doddridge with great probability
supposes, was himself offering incense before the golden altar, the great;
earthquake happened, and the veil of the temple, which seperated the
holV from the most holy place, was rent in two, in the midst,
from the top to the bottom, and the sacred oracle exposed to full view.
The very rocks were rent by the viblepc* of the earthquake, cemeteries*-
or tombs excavated in the solid rock, 'were laid open, from whence,
after Christ was risen, -many bodies of saints, lately buried* and therefore
personally known to many inhabitants of Jerusalem, arose, and went
into the htfy city, and appeared unto many. *' Mr ^lemming tells us, (in
his Christology, vol ii. p. 97, »8) that a Deist, lately travelling through
Palestine, was converted upon viewing one of these rocks, which still
remains an evidence of this fact, being torn asunder, not in the weahesi
fart, but across the veins, contrary to the order of nature." Doddridge.
Such a combination of prodigies seems to have had no effect upon/
Caiphas and the priests, by whose Conspiracy Christ was thus unjustly
put to death, and their wicked designs were still prosecuted after his
death, a fact which wonderfully shews the blinding nature, and wicked
spirit of infidelity t It is at first voluntary, but if persevered in, against
reasonable evidence*' and sufficient and repeated warning, it becomes judfc
cjal, and itself the foreboding and commencement of that punishineni
which it has provoked.

174
Until the evening sacrifice at three o'clock,) he
never betrayed the cause he had undertaken* or
retracted the least tittle of his pretensions*. But,
on the contrary, his peremptory reply to Caiphas*
and to Pilate, affirmed them all, and afforded
a pretext for his condemnation as a blasphemer.
The attestation which was thus given to Jesusj
even in his greatest distress, by several so remark
able prodigies, was still farther confirmed by his
resurrection on the third day after; according to
his own prediction, and in defiance of all the
means of precaution used by the Jews, to defeat
the alledged imposture, of which they propagated
an improbable tale. His resurrection was attested
by the ministry of angels, as his birth had been;
a certain x proof that it was the continuation and
consummation of one and the same plan of human
redemption, which had the fullest approbation,
and participation of the Almighty God. In his
discourse to Mary Magdalene, immediately after
his resurrection, we find him using the same ex
pressions as before, and calling God his Father,
saying to her, " touch me not, for I am not yet
ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren,
and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and*
your Father, and to my God and your God."
This was surely very tender ground, for he had
suffered on this very account, and a clear and ex-

175
plieit explanation must now have been given, had
not our blessed Lord meant the words in the same
sense in which he had ever spoken them before. —
That to him, in respect of his divine nature, God
was his proper Father, and to us a Father by
adoption, through the sacrifice of Christ just
offered. To him he was his God, in quality of
his office of Messiah, in which, " though he were
a Son, yet learned he obedience (as a servant) by
the things which he suffered." Heb. v- 8. — Rom.
y. 19. In the same sense he cried out upon ,the
cross, in the words of the twenty second Psalm,
" My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me." The description of this whole transaction* which
St. Peter gives, by divine inspiration, (Acts ii.)
ascribes it to the determinate counsel and fore
knowledge of God, that Christ should so suffer
for the expiation of sin, according to the consen
taneous voice of prophecy, and so rise from the
dead the third day, because it was impossible that
he, who had life in himself, (John v. 26.) and the
promise of a speedy resurrection* should, be holden
of death. For David in the spirit, and speaking
of the Messiah, says, w my flesh shall rest in hope,
that thou wilt not leave my soul in sheol, or
hades, the separate state of the dead, neither wilt

176
thou suffer thine Holy One* to see corruption*
Psm. xvi. 10.
The impossibility that Christ could be holden of
death, implies that he was more than man, even
the same who, from all eternity, had the keys
of hell and death in his own hands, the power of
them being only suspended while he was upon
earth. First, as man himself, it was necessary
that he must go through all the changes incident
to man's nature, to be born, and to grow in wis-*
dom and stature, to die, and undergo the usual
phanges wbich happen to mortals during life, and

THDn properly, ?' thy merciful one," applied to Christ, as Park-
hurst observes, with a singular propriety in the act of laying down his,
pom life an expiation for sinners. John xv. 13.— Rom. v. 8. St. Paul
also applies this passage as St. Peter had. done. Acts xiii. 3$,
It also signifies holy, and is translated Top arm aov, by the seventy,
and is to quoted from thence. Had Christ been a mere man, this term,
in either sense, could not have been applied to him. Holiness is an attri
bute inseparable from God, and which cannot be applied to that which
is not God, It is in prophecy ascribed to the Messiah, as we have seen,
above, as the Son of God, and himself God.
IS it be taken in the lower sense, "thy merciful one,'' it then draw*
after it an acknowledgment of the cause of so singular an exemption
from the common lot of men, the laying down his life as an expiation for
sili, which necessarily implies, that he is more than Man, and is' all that
the prophets have represented him, the Immanuel of Isaiah, the Holy of
Holies of Daniel, or the to otyiov ym^evoy or Holy Being of St. Lujje.

177
in death, and afterdeath, with the exception of
corruption in the grave. Whatever necessarily
occurs to the soul, in its separate state, all that
Christ would pass through, being in all things
made like unto his brethren. But the necessity
that his mediatorial kingdom should commence
immediately, made it impossible that he should
be long detained in the state of separate souls, or
see corruption.
Secondly, it Was morally impossible, also, in
respect of the decree of God, by which, as the
treacherous seduction of man was foreknown be
fore the world began, so the mode and the means
of his redemption were planned and determined
Upon also, If the action of the Deity in the
man Christ Jesus, was so suspended during the
time of his death, as the union of the soul with
the body is dissolved, or suspended, in the ordi
nary death of mere man,: — and all the formalities
of death, in respect of both worlds, were complied
with, except the dissolution of the body, which
is a work of time, this most arduous part of the
Mediator's office and duty, " that he should taste
death for every man," (Heb. ii. 9,) was duly dis
charged, although the time was short. According
to the tenor of the original promise, he " through
death was to destroy him that had the power of
death, that is the devil ; and-deliver them who,
through fear of death, were all their life- time sub-

178
ject to bondage." Heb. ii. 14, 15. But all this
Jesus could not have engaged for, and much less
could he have performed it, had he not been more
than man himself, even that great Almighty
Being, who " took not on him the nature of
angels, and consequently was pre-existent, and
higher than they, but took on him the seed of
Abraham, and was made in the likeness of sinful
flesh. It was necessary that he should be bound with
the bands of death, that the certainty of his dis
solution might be every way placed beyond disr
pute, but not that he should be held of it longer
than the third day. The piercing of his side
even to the heart, with a spear, and the issue of
blood and water, are, for the same reasons, so
strongly insisted upon by St. John, xix. 34, who
saw the fact ; as an additional and most indisputa
ble proof of his real death, as well as of the
prophecy annexed to it, declaring who it was that
was thus pierced.—™" They shall look on me whom
they have pierced." Zech, xii. 10. This circum
stance, as an indisputable proof* that he who had
been truly dead, did at that time stand before
him assuredly alive, Christ himself mentioned to
Thomas, " Reach hither thy finger, and behold
my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust
it into my sideband be not faithless, but believing."
So he says afterwards in the Revelation, " I am

1?9
the First and the Last •, I am he that liveth, and
teas dead ; and behold I am alive for evermore*
amen, and have the keys of hell and death."
But that no sort of sensible proof of the pre
tensions of Christ might be wanting, the accom
plishment of his own prediction, that he would
ascend into heaven in their sight, and those of
the prophets, were made good, in the presence of
many of the believers, assembled by him, to be
the witnesses of his ascension. After his resur
rection, he was seen of five hundred brethren at
once, as St. Paul assures us, 1 Cor. xxv. 6. And
though the time is not mentioned, the greatest
probability is, that it would be at his ascension,
that all might ha^e the fullest assurance of so
important a confirmation of his mission. He
had himself opened their understandings, saying,
Ought not Christ, according to the truth of
Scripture, to have suffered these things, and thus
to enter into his glory ? (Ps. ex. 1 ; Luke xxiv. 26,)
the glory which he had with God before his hu
miliation, John xvii. 5. And while the disciples
stood gazing after him into heaven, a vision of
angels assured them that he was gone into heaven*
and would, in the same manner, fulfil his other
promise of coming again in the clouds of heaven,
to judge the world. Acts i. 11;
St. Luke tells us, that when the disciples be
held him, after so many signal proofs of his Deity,

i

180
thus parting from them, they worshipped hiin :*
and their following ministry, and their writings/
which yet remain* witness for their sincerity, and
perseverance in the same sentiments of their Lord
and God. "For no one hath ascended up to
heaven* but only he that came down from heaven
even the Son of Man which is in heaven." John
iii; 13. In proof of this, St. Paul applies Psalm
lxviii. 19, to the ascension of Christ, " when he
ascended up on high, he led captivity (that is death )f
captive, and gave gifts unto men." Eph. iv.
8. This was the effusion of the Holy Ghost,
another verification of his Supreme Deity, in
sending the Comforter, according to his promise,
as the Father had sent him, to fulfil his will. Of
this St. Peter says* that Christ "being by the
right hand of God exalted, and having received

* The word worship is so far of ambiguous meaning, that it signifies1
Sometimes only an honorary respect, and at other times divine adoration.'
But the circumstances of the case are sufficient clearly to distinguish
which is meant. After the accomplishment of so many prophecies in'
the person of Jesus Christ, which undeniably fix upon him the titles'
and attributes of Deity, and closed at last by his resurrection and ascen
sion as the " King of Glory," leading man's captivity captive*- it cannot
be doubted in what sense they worshipped him. Their testimony to
his Divinity, which followed, clears this point. They worshipped him as
John, in the Rev. xix. IO-'-xxii. 9. twice attempted to worship the angel,
and was twice forbidden. But neither did Jesus or the attendant angels
forbid the worship of Christ, to the faith and worship of whom, as God,
one with the Father, we are dedicated at our baptism.— " Ye believe tn-
God/ believe also in me." John xiv. I.1— ix. 35.

181
of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he
hath shed forth this, which ye do now hear and
see. For David himself is not ascended into the
heavens, but he speaks of Christ* where he says,
the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right
hand, until L make thine enemies thy footstool"
Acts ii. 33. But this* as St. Paul assures us, was
spoken to the Son of God, the brightness of his
Father's glory, and express image of his person ;
who when he had taken away our sins, sat down
on the right hand of the Majesty on high. Heb.
i. 3, 13. Ps. xxiv. 7. Truly great, then, is the
mystery of Godliness, " God was manifest in the
flesh" ; and after he had achieved the conquest of
our destroyer, was " received up into glory.''
1 Tim. iii. 16.
In the last place, to consider the evidences of
the pre-existence and Deity of Christ, which arise
from the prophetical character of the Messiah, as
he was to be a Priest, Prophet, and King. In
each of these capacities, the character of the bles
sed Jesus came up to the previous description in
types and prophecies of him that was to come,
notwithstanding the difficulties which seemed to
the Jews impossible to be reconciled, without the
supposition of two Messiahs.
I. As a Priest, the mysterious character of
Messiah is by St. Paul illustrated from the 110th
A A

182
Psalm, — " The Lord hath sworn, and will not re^
pent, Thou art a Priest for ever, after the order
of Melchizedeck." The object of this Psalm, as
is clear from our Lord's quotation from it, to con
fute the contradiction of the Pharisees, was to set
forth the pre-existence and dignity of the Messiah,
as the Son of God. This was also established
by several other Psalms, as St. Paul has shewn at
large in the Epistle to the Hebrews. He argues
from the antiquity of the order of the Priesthood
here ascribed to Messiah, and confirmed by an
oath, his priority in time, as Well as in dignity,
to the Aaronical Priesthood ; and further illus
trates his proof from the perpetuity of his mi
nistration, seeing " he ever tiveth to make in
tercession for us." For Melchizedeck, being
abruptly introduced, and no termination of- his
life being recorded in the sacred history, is thereby
a type of the everlasting priesthood of Christ. —
This man, says the apostle, who was greater than
our father Abraham, inasmuch as that pariarch
payed tithes to him, as the minister of the true
God; being in the Scripture record •* without
father, without mother, without descent ; having
neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made,
in this respect, by the sacred historian, like unto
the Son of God." For he was in reality that
eternal Being, which Melchizedeck only was in
type; "he abideth a priest continuaUy." The
priesthood of Melchizedeck was therefore figura-

183
tively in existence, when the Levitical priesthood
was instituted by Moses. And when this became
inefficient upon the actual coming of the Messiah,
and the offering up the great sacrifice of atone
ment upon the cross, once for all, then the original
order of Melchizedeck was revived, and the sym
bols of bread and wine, which had been used by
him eucharistically, and typically of the future
sacrifice of Christ, were again restored, in per
petual commemoration of the blessing conferred.
Jesus Christ really offered this sacrifice "in his
own body on the tree," and therefore he was the
antitype of Melchizedeck, and a Priest more
ancient, and of an order superior to the Levitical
Priesthood ; being the very substance of which
the sacrifices and other ministrations, under the
law, were but the shadows,*

* The whole of the epistle to the Hebrews might be brought in proof
of this, and most of St. Paul's writings, who is far from being popular,
on this very account, with the advocates of the simplifying plan. Every
thing that carries an air of mystery, or cannot be resolved into a mere
natural occurrence, meets with no quarter here, since the time that
Beelzebub, the Prince of the Devils, has been cast out, as a non
entity.
The prophecies themselves, and even the prophetical ipirit, have had
hut little respect shewn them by Dr Priestley and his school; and of
course the types, which are the twin brethren of prophecy, are cast out
in the lump. Yet some of them are quoted by Jesus Christ, as eminently
prophetical of himself, particularly that of the brazen serpent, so very
expressive of the death of Christ upon the crist, and the cure of the sting

184
The very name of Melchizedek, carries the
sound of salvation in it. First, being by inter
pretation, " King of Righteousness, and after that
also, King of Salem, which is, King of Peace." —
Both of these titles are appropriated to Christ in
the Old Testament and the New. " For we who

of sin, to be obtained by no other means than by looking to him with
the eye of faith. (Isai. xiv. 22. — Matt. xi. 28, 29.) The temporary
death, and burial, and resurrection of Jonah, is just such another, not
withstanding the superabundance »f the marvellous, which some gentle
men charge upon it. These two, in particular, were applied to himself
by Christ, in the prophetical spirit; and in respect to events then future,
and not at all either probable, or intelligible. That man must have *
Urge portion of sceptical fanaticism about him, who can deny these to be
prophetic, and make them merely accomodations of one thing to ano
ther somewhat like it-
The incompatible history of Joseph, sold to death, or si avery, by his
brethren, but who eventually proved the saviour of his race, and received
the homage of his parents, has little to do in the sacted history, except
as a type of human redemption through Christ, who was David's Lord,
as well as his Son ; who is exalted to the right hand of power, and re
ceives worship from his brethren according to the flesh. The paschal
lamb, and the sprinkling of its blood on the door posts of the Israelites,
being the means of their temporal salvation. (Heb. xii. 24.) The
passage through the sea, under the conduct of Moses, and the salvation
of the germ of the future world in the ark of Noah, are, by the apostles,
shewn to be types of our baptism into the death of Christ, the Captain of
our salvation: (Heb. xi. 7,-r-l Pet. iii- 20, 21.— 1 Cor. x. 2 — Rom.
vi. 3,) Surely there must he something more than a mere exemplary vir
tue in the blood of Cb?ist, and the atonement of sin which he effects to
offer us therein, and which his apostles beseech us not to reject ; teeing
such a variety of representations are given of it, which cannot possibly
have any other meaning.

185
were far off, are now made nigh by the blood of
Christ,; for he is our Peace." (Ephes. ii. 13, 14.)
In prophecy he is called " the Lord our Righteous
ness," and amongst other titles of Supreme Deity,
incommunicable to a creature, he is called " the
Prince of Peace." The blessed Jesus was named
of the angel* by an appellation which is to the same
effect, and with such a reason assigned for it, "for
he shall save his people from their sins." And he
was pointed out by the prophetic Elias under the
same character ; " Behold the Lamb of God, which
takeih away the sins of the world."
The priesthood ascribed to Christ is therefore
no innovation, although he was not of the family
of Aaron, or even of the tribe of Levi ; but rather
the priesthood instituted by Moses was such : and
it was interposed for a time, " by reason of trans
gression, until the promised seed should come,"
the circumstances of the people requiring, and the
wisdom of God adopting, such an inter-medium.
But when the substance is come, the representa
tive shadows of it are withdrawn, and the more
simple eucharistical elements of bread and wine,
now once more represent to the eye of faith, what
was but representatively done by " the blood of
lambs and of goats, which, Without reference to
that of Christ, could never take away sin." Heb.
x. 6.

186
To satisfy the prejudices of the Jews, (who are
too justly charged in Scripture with laying more
stress upon the sacrifice itself, than upon the true
object of it in the eye of faith, the atonement to
be made by the promised seed, when he should
come,) St. Paul argues the case with them at large,
and shews, that the sanctity ascribed to the Mosai-
' cal priesthood was imputative only, but that of
Christ was real, Heb. vii. 26. for he, who in him
self was the Son of God, was made a priest to his
elect, "not without the oath of God" y. 20. an ever
lasting priest, whereas these were successional, and
" had need to offer for themselves, as well as for
the people," entering into the holy place, the sha
dow of the true, with representative blood, but
Christ, with his own blood, offered a sacrifice
divine, universal, and of perpetual efficacy. Heb,
viii. 1, &c.
From the whole of this argument, the pre-
existence and Deity, as well as the eternity, and
perfect holiness of " Christ our passover sacrificed
for us," must necessarily be inferred, inasmuch as
without reference to him, neither the Levitical
bloody sacrifices, nor the original and more sim
ple oblation of bread and wine, are any thing at
all; and if we believe not that Jesus is the Christ,
the most holy, the promised seed, the true Lamb
of God — himself both Priest and Sacrifice, " we
are yet in our sins." To him give all the pro-

187
phets witness, that through his name, whosoever'
believeth in him shall receive remission of sins."
" This man," says the Apostle, to the great com
fort and satisfaction of Dr. Priestley, who is un
able to see any thing else but mere manhood in
Christ, " after he had offered one sacrifice for sins,
(an atonement surely) forever sat down on the
right hand of God, from henceforth, expecting,
till his enemies be made his footstool." Heb. x. 12,
13. But this man, as it has been shewn from pro
phecy, and other proofs in the preceding pages,
was like Melchizedeck himself* a mysterious cha
racter, not clearly comprehended by the angels
who worship and believe in him, as God the Sonf
as we ourselves do. Ps. ex. 1, 4.— ii. 2, 7.
Infidelity, and pride its root, in respect to the
original promulgation of the Sonship and Deity
of Christ, seems to have been the occasion of the
apostacy and fall of Satan and his angels. Hence
we may account for that animosity, and the infi
nite variety of artifices, by which he propagates
an hostility to that vital article of faith, and the
sole ground of hope to mankind. It is an audacity
of unbelief which is unpardonable, whether in
angel, or man ; in Jew, or professor of nominal
Christianity ; to reject a proposition of this nature,
respecting the mode of the existence of the Deity,*
on account oi the mystery attached to it; if there
be sufficient authority given for the belief of it.—

1S3
And the ill effect of such an apostacy and fall, in
regard to the depravation of their nature, will be
very similar, to rebels and infidels of both classes.
The one, as well as the other, will necessarily con
tract such a malignity of nature, and opposition
to God and his ways, that they cannot cease from
sin, though they thereby add to, and seal the
irrevocable sentence of their own condemnation,
and expulsion from the seats of, peace and bliss*
John iii. 18, 19.
Zechariah (vi. 12, 13.) prophecied of Messiah
as a regal priest, in allusion to his exaltation to
the throne of his Father David* a state of the
mediatorial kingdom, whieh is the subject of many
prophecies. At this period, the two offices of
Priest and King were to be unitedly exercised,
as they were originally by Melchizedeck, agree
ably to the simple manners of the ancient times. — ¦
" Behold the Man, fePN, whose name is the branch,
and he shall grow up out of his place/and he shall
build the temple of the Lord," or be the founder
of the new covenant, as Moses had been of the old
one. This appears to be the meaning, as in v. 1 5.
it is added, " and they that are far off shall come
and build in the temple of the Lord," alluding to
the accession of the Gentiles, and particularly the
general conversion, in the last times, to the faith
and worship of the true God, under the adminis
tration of Christ, as Priest and King of the me-

189
diatdrfal kingdom. "And he shall bear the glory \
and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he
shall be rt Priest upon his throne ; arid the council
of peace shall be between them both," Peace on
earth, and good will towards men, shall be conci
liated for us, through his atonement, as our great
High Priest, and secured by his power, as the
great and only Potentate in the kingdom of God.
Thus Isaiah Calls him the Prince of Peace; and
Jesus himself declared, " all power is given unto -r
file, in heaven and earth." It was his delight to
call himself " the good shepherd," and to take
charge of the faithful, as the sheep of his pasture ;
and he is prophetically described in- that-capacity
by Isaiah, in the most tender and delicate' strains^
David, in the 100 psalm, has recognized him as5 +
the Creator of mankind, and his Redeemer, ot the
¦gfettt Shepherd qf&od?s sheep ; two of the most
striking characteristics of Christ in the New Tes
tament. (Jdhii x. 9, 11.— Heb. xiii. 20.— 1 Pet.
8. HS.-^V. 4.) " Acknowledge that the Lord; he
it) &bd, it is he that hath made us, and not we
Ourselves,- tee tire his people, (called by a heW
Hslme, Isai. Ixii. 2.^1&v. 15.) and the sheep of Ms
ptmtt? Psm, ft
II. In his prophetical character, the demdrtstra*
tions of Christ's Pre-existence and Deity are not
less clean He was announced to the people* of
Israel, by tkeir great lawgiver Moses, aiaptopUt
b b

190
like unto him, who should have a special commis
sion to deliver the divine will to mankind, in a
manner, and with an authority, to which no other
prophet, not even the royal prophet David him
self, could pretend. And a strict charge was
added, to take heed how they refused to hear and
obey the divine communications that Prophet
should have to propose to them. Deut. xviii.
18, 19. — Heb. xii. 25. — Acts iii. 22.
Now the principal features of the divine lega
tion of Moses were,—
First, The wonderful redemption he effected
for the people of God out of the bondage of
Egypt, and from the tyranny of Pharoah, by a
divine commission, and through the power of the
self-existent and eternal God, Eheje, which was
present with him. This great deliverance was
therefore signalized by a visible display of the
divine power, in a series of the most stupendous
miracles, particularly the passing of the whole
army, and their followers, through the sea, iii
which the pursuing army of Pharoah, destitute of
the same means of protection, yet presumptuously
following them, was destroyed.*

* A lively type of the presumption of infidelity, and of the overthrow
. of the armies of the alien*, which " know not the Ltr4,n or rather Pha>

191
Yet Moses, with whose glory no mere man
can compare, was but a temporal deliverer, and
his redemption, a type of that which was to be
effected by Jesus Christ ; he is a spiritual, eternal,
and infinite Saviour and God. The same which
wrought all the wonders in Egypt, by the minis
try of Moses ; and offers himself, (in prophecy, as
a Saviour to all the ends of the earth. The
bondage, from which he sets us free, (John viii.
32, 36.) is that of eternal death, and from that
most desperate of tyrants, the devil, he offers us
emancipation. So that the faithful Christian can
exultingly say, with St. Paul, " To me, to live is
Christ, and to die is gain." — " O death, where is
thy sting ? — O grave, where is thy victory ?" To
them who accept Jesus, as the prophet foretold
by Moses, and to whom, at his transfiguration,
Moses a second time gave attestation, these are
words full of the hope of immortality ; but to the
unbeliever they are unintelligible figures, and
words without a meaning. Such are likewise the
parallel words of Isaiah xxv. 8, 9. — Hosea xiii. 14.
— 1 Cor. xv. 54. The same words which, to the

roah like, will not know him, but resist every evidence to the last. —
These men will be their own saviours, and resolutely march oh into the
gulph of eternity, in the midst of a worse than Egyptian darkness, and
under the conduct of a guide which cannot save himself. The luminous
pillar of the cloud, from whence shines forth light and salvation to the
faithful, is, to the adversary, only darkness visible.

modern Egyptians, are but. as the dark side of the
pillar of the clovd, and, need the aid of sophistey
to resolve them wXq a meaning amounting: t®
vacuity of sense, are, to the people of Christ, and
the sheep of his pasture, the. w,ox$s of eiermk
life.. Of such jgw# Qhfi]8tiafis~ only can it he pro
nounced, " blessed aye the dead whieh die in tke
Lordl'-~ that Lord which died far them ^— which;
" hath the keys of hell and death" Jtev, i 18.—.
xiv. 13*
In the same sense St. Paul said of the Gospel,
in his ministration of it, that it was. to ihem tiaat
received it " the savour of life unta life," but to
such as rejected it, " the- samur of de®kM. unta
death." 2 Cor. ii, 16, And St. John says the
same,— ^that although Christ was rejected of his
own, he had other sheep, which were not of that
fold, which would hear his voice, and to- wgm gave
he power to become the sons of God* tbrpugk faith,
inh&npme. John i. 11, &c.i — x. 1@,
Moreover, Christ is in himself that Divine
Being, " the Angel of the Covenant" in whose
name, and by whose Spirit, Moses wrought all
his. miracles in Egypt •„- — who in process of time
was to assume our nature, and converse familiarly
with man, in order to lay a sure foundation for
Jhajt eternal redemption, whicji was to be achieved

193
by his death; *« That which we have heard and
seen, and dUr hands have handled of the Logos,
or Word of Life, declare we unto you,"
Secondly, as a Lawgiver to the people of God,
and the founder of God's first covenant of mercy
and acceptance, the high pre-eminence pf Moses,
above all other prophets, was conspicuous. In
this respect, also, Christ was a Prophet like unto
Moses, being the author of a new and better
covenant, of which the Mosaieal was merely a
continuation of types, serving as a schoolmaster
to introehiee mankind to Christ. " The law and
the prophets prophecied until John''— until the
ministry of the Baptist, — '¦" but grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ." Heb. ix. 8. The divine
sanction given to Moses was verified by external
signs, (2 Cor. iii. 13,) and a visible glory. But
in Christ was no external beauty, (Isai. liii. 2») be
yond that of other men, to recommend him ;
but within dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead.
Safy-w?, of the divine essence or nature. Col. ii. 9v
The word xa7«*st, " dwelleth," is a manifest re
ference to the tabernacle of Moses, in which God
dwell by a visible glory. And St. John, in the
Gospel, expressing the incarnation of God, the
ebmpletion of Isaiah's prophecy of Immanuel,
the Father of Eternity, (Isai. ix. 6 — vii. 14,) makes
Use of a word expressive of the same ideai— -

194
emtmuo-ev, he pitched his tent, and dwelt among us,
John i. 14.*
Even Mr. Fellowes reluctantly admits, that the
Logos of St. John is a person ; for his personal
actions and character are the subject of the Gospel
which follows. Yet, by a note, he softens it down
to a mere quality. But it will [not answer his
purpose. For the same was " in the form, or na
ture of God," as St. Paul tells ; " the brightness
of his Father's glory, and the express image of
his person. The same afterwards, passing by the
angelic natures, became man. These things can
not be said of a mere quality, They imply real,
distinct, personal existence, and election. The
brightness of Deity was veiled by. the union

* This coincidence with a fact, notorious to the whole Jewish nation,
— and with another fact, the subject of many prophecies, viz. the incar
nation of God, for the redemption of mankind, happening in two writers
under the influence of divine inspiration, — could not be the effect of
chance, but must be an emanation from the Spirit of Truth. And it is
in vain to weaken such a testimony, by confounding it with the
expression in Eph. iii. 19, " that ye may be filled with all the
fulness of God," That is, sanctified by the communication of his
grace, which is sufficient for us. And so we are figuratively partakers of
the divine nature, and sons of God ; but Christ is absolutely and really
both. — These mysterious expressions, concerning the divine nature of
Christ, are strangely tortured,, and held up like false lights, to deceive
and mislead the ignorant in our days ; " and many shall follow these
pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil
spoken of." 2 Pet. ii 2.

195
with human nature in the body of Christ, as for
merly by the cloud in the tabernacle. He waS
to be the Anointed ZPtinp imp, (Dan. ix. 24,) or
the Holy One of the Holy Ones, designated to
an office, by unction, as the promised Messiah ;
which Holy Ones, as appears from Isaiah vi. 3,
and Rev. iv. 8, are to be worshipped in unity.
The distinction of personality being as plainly
expressed as is the unity of nature. And the
same is still more remarkable in the initia
tory form of Christian baptism. * In a word,
he was that to ymapmv aytov, of a nature and holi
ness, indescribable otherwise than by the word
Immanuel, the proper and eternal Son of God,
whose birth the angel announced, and ancient
prophecy had foretold ; whose mysterious gene.
ration no tongue of men or angels could declare,
(Isai. liii.) " whose goings forth have been from
of old, from everlasting," and whose nature, who
or what he is, none knoweth but the Father only.
Matth. xi. 27 ; Luke x. 22. For his name im
plies a mystery to be adored in silence. Rev.
Xix. 12.

* The aytov cvyiav of Dan. ix. 24, is not unlike that mysterious
expression in Rev. xvii. 11, which denotes a characteristic identity of
nature subsisting, with a distinction of personality in the individuals. '*
The character in question was to be personally the seventh, as an head
of the seven heads, and of one nature and stock with the seventh ; but is
a government of Rome, he was numerically the eighth, »«' <*vloc. tryiaoc
i;i xcu £jc toiv vntce set.

196
In these important particulars, Jesus Christ* In'
bis character of a Prophet, sent the last of all,
{ Matth. xxi. 37*) td deliver to mankind the will
of God, is to be distinguished from all the pM*
phets which preceded him, ahd from Moses hiri*.
self, whom in some respects he resembled* Heb.
i. 1, 2— xii. 25.
Thirdly* In those respects which are more im
mediate tokens of a prophetical arid divine mis
sion, as miracles, arid the prediction of things to
come, Jesus Christ was also a prophet like unto
Moses ; but with that difference, wbich denoted
one the master of the house of Crpd^ and the other
the servant. " Moses verily was faithful in all his
house* as a servant, for a testimony of those
things, which were to be spoken after, but Christ
as a Son over his own house."* Heb. iii. 5, 6. >
In this capacity, as the prophet foretold by
Moses, who was to deliver the last revelation of
God's will to mankind, from the highest authority,
Jesus was acknowledged by a voice from heaven,

* h is incumbent upon the impugner's of Christ's divinity, to shew
ftr what the pre-eminence of his Sonship above that of Moses consisted,
if bath weiC mere men alike. The free access to the divine presence',
which Mioses enjoyed, could riot be exceeded, except by the prerogative
of a really divine filiation.

197
which said, " This is my beloved Son; hear ye
hi*u» The beautiful parable; dt the king's son, who
Was .sent immediately from the father, after all the
previous messengers had been despised and ill
treated, and who himself was used worse than any
Of them, arid killed, and cast out of his own vine
yard* is, at once, a specimeri of the prophetical
function of Jesus^ and his Pre-existence and
Deity, as the Son of God. The other prophefts
were the servants of the king, but Christ was his
own Son.
As a prophet like urito Moses, iri all these res'*
petits, therefore, Christ was attested at his trans
figuration on the mount, by the appearance of
Moses and Elias, conferring with him about the
consummation of his office, which he was shortly
after to accomplish at Jerusalem. (Luke ix. 31. —
2 Pet. i.- 17,) Nothing could mote deafly denote
Christ to be the prophet foretold by Moses, than
this vision did, in which Moses resigned his
authority to Jesus, who, by his approaching deaths
was to lay the foundation Of a new and better
covenant. This change, as St. Paul argues, not
withstanding the prejudice of the Jews, in be^
half of their law given by M^ses, as having been
calculated for eternity, is plainly intimated h?
prophecy. Jer. xxxi. 31, 32, 33.— -Ezek. xvi.
e e *

198
61. — Heb. viii. 13. Daniel mentions the Con
firming the covenant, " to make an end of sins,
and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to
bring in everlasting righteousness*' In Ezekiel
xxxvii. 24. the restoration of the Jews is predicted,
Upon their acknowledging, in accents' of peniten
tial sorrow, and in revived faith, Christ to be that
great prophet of whom Moses spake. In Isaiah
xlii. &c. the prophetic office of Messiah is de
scribed, exactly as it was executed by Jesus
Christ. And the excision, threatened by Moses,
to them who Would not hear that future prophet,
is predicted by Isaiah lxv. 15. where it is declared
of Israel, under the indignation, in the midst of
spiritual famine, " ye shall leave your name for
a curse to my chosen, for the Lord God shall slay
thee, and call his servants by another name''—
Isai. lxii. 2. Thus Christ, as a prophet, " hath
brought life and immortality to light, through
the Gospel." " For he is our peace, who (through
faith) hath made both (Jews and Gentiles) one— -
He came and preached peace to us who were far
off, and to them that were nigh. For through^
him we both have an access through one spirit
unto the Father." Ephes. ii. 14, &e.
Upon the whole, when we consider the authori
tative manner in which he exercised his pro
phetical functions, expelling devils at a word out
of the bodies of men, and driving out of the tern-

199
pie, as the Son of God, the mercenary huckster
which profaned the courts of his Father's house,
not to mention the obvious fact of his delivering
several prophecies, many of which received a
speedy accomplishment, and some are now fulfil
ling ; we cannot avoid inferring the truth of his
claim to Pre-existence and Deity, as the Messiah
and Son of God. " For he spake as one having
authority, and not as the Scribes." And when it
was demanded of him "by what authority he did
these things?" he refused to give any other
account to man, than what was obviously to be
drawn from his miracles, and the finger of God
which was visible in them, and the public attesta^
tion of the Baptist, the figurative Elias. For
these were the indications of Messiah assigned in
prophecy. III. As a King, the Pre-existence and Deity
of Christ, are eminently conspicuous in the Old
Testament, and his very enemies themselves were,
by a divine impulse, unconsciously the publishers
of his claims. For as the devils, which he cast
out, proclaimed him to be the Son of the God most
High, so the malicious Jews, which put him to
the most ignominious and cruel death their hatred
could devise, fixed up his title upon the cross, in
the three languages then most generally under-
stood. John xix. 19, 20. The very judge, which
reluctantly passed sentence of death upon him,

200
was himself the occasion of the boldest testimony,
to a dangerous truth, that ever was uttered.— •
Pilate, most probably deeming him more a fana
tic than a dangerous disturber of the public peace,
said unto him, in the contemptuous manner in
which such persons are commonly addrest, "Art
thou a king tkent< — Jesus answered, thou sayest
(right) that I am a king ! — To this end was I
born, and for this cause eame % into the world,
that I should bear witness unto tiip truth?" John
% viii. 37. ;
The wicked intention of his mockers, to de»
grade him in the eyes of the people, and withdraw
from him that divine veneration, as of the true
Messiah and Son of God, which they had expres
sed, in terms very offensive to their rulers, was of
no avail to defeat the prophecies, but only fulfilled
them the more punctually. The putting into his
hand a reed for a sceptre, and a crown of thorns
Upon his head, arraying him in the purple robe,
and bowing the knee before him, with "hail King
pfthe Jews;" was, to "the Lord oj Glory" a real
inauguration tp his prophetical kingdom; for in
a stile not unsuitable he rode into his capital, "tlte
City pfthe great King" upon '? an ass, and a colt
the foal of an ass," " And those things which
God had before shewed by the mouth of all his
prophets, that Phrist should suffer, he so fulfilled,5''
Acts iii. 18,

201
The Jews themselves, when it was too late to
rectify the oversight, were forcibly struck with
the manifest coincidence with the prophecies ; and
would have had the inscription altered or with
drawn, but could not obtain their desire. How
accurately this momentous transaction, upon
which the salvation of the whole world was sus
pended, has been represented in the book of
Psalms, is well known to every admirer of that
most beautiful and affecting portion of inspired
Scripture ; the mournful part of it in Psa. xxii.
and the triumphant part in Psa. ii. and Psa. ex.
In vain is the treachery of Judas, the machinations
of the rulers, and the power of the Romans, or
even the combination of anti-christian foes in after
ages, against Jehovah, and against his Christ, or
Anointed One. He who acknowledges him as
his eternal Son, and his King, has decreed to
him an everlasting throne, while the mediatorial
kingdom subsists. " Yet have I set my King
upon my holy hill of Sion. — Rule thou in the
midst of thine enemies,"
The rebellion and apostacy of his own nation
affects not the truth of his claim, or the reality of
his present exercise of universal dominion. How
contumeliously soever he was treated when, as the
King's Son, he was sent to receive of the first
fruits of his father's vineyard, in the hope, that
£frey who had abused his servants, would yet

202
reverence his Son ; or, as the King of Israel,
[Hosea x. 15* — Zeph. iii. 15 — John i. 49,] whd
came, with an heart overflowing with love, unto
his own, and his own received him not ; although,
as " ihe Creator of Israel, his Redeemer and King,
the Lord of Hosts, the First and the Last," he
was preceded by his harbinger, by divine ordir
nance sent before his face, to prepare his way;
and announce hi s approaching reign-»-sent to a
people his witnesses to all generations — a people
formed for himself— which nevertheless cried out
against him, we will not have this man to reign
over us — not this man, but Barabbas ! — and they
slew him, and cast him out of his own city — the
city of the great King, Messiah !
In the same manner he still suffers under the
rebellion of modern scoffers, which crucify him
afresh, and send their defiance after him into the
heavens, where he now sitteth at the right hand
pf God. Nevertheless, his kingdom will remain
unshaken, and its brightness, ere long, will emerge
from the clouds and darkness, which more or less
surround his throne, and for a short time is to
collect in more than usual blackness, and threaten
desolation to every thing that stands in its way.
But at length he will come forth conquering and
to conquer. " The Lord at thy right hand shall
strike through kings in the day of his wrath, He
shall judge among the Heathen, he shall fill the

203
places with the dead bodies ; he shall wound the
heads over many countries. He shall drink of
the brook in his way, therefore shall he lift up his
head." Psalm ex. 5.
The kingdom of Christ will be as irresistible
as his priesthood is unchangeable, and both are
founded upon his pre-existent Deity. This is
the purport of the promise to the Son of David,
and David's Lord, " Sit thou at my right hand,
until I make thine enemies thy footstool." There
may be differences of administration, yet one and
the same Lord ; (1 Cor. xii. 5,) even Jesus Christ
the Second Adam, or representative of the human
race, who in direct contrast to the earthly Adam,
is the Lord from heaven." (1 Cor. xv. 47.) " The
King of Kings, and Lord of Lords" ; Jesus
Christ, the same Being, infinite in wisdom and
power under all dispensations. He who was
Adam's Promised Seed, and Abraham's " exceed
ing great Reward", Gen. xv. 1 . The Root and
Offspring of David, even Jesus the? King of the
Jews, which rode into his capital in the midst of
hosannahs in the highest, and shortly after bowed
his head upon a cross, and died ! being numbered
amongst the transgressors !
But " there is a march in things", as a great
luminary of the present day has observed, which,
by the perfectibility of reason, will at length con-

204
duct the children of the earth to the consumtria-*
tion of wisdom and happiness. In this conclusion/
both the opposers and the applauders of his philo
sophy are agreed ; only the one expect it will re<s
suit in the overthrow of the Christian superstitioni
the other in the entire establishment of evangeli
cal faith, and submission to the Deity and king
dom of the Son of God. " And behold, one like
the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven,"
— (his coming was obscured, and not distinctly
discernable, but by the fact)—" and he came to
the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near
before him. And there was given him dominion
and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations,
and languages, should serve him. His dominion
is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass
away, and his kingdom that which shall not be
destroyed." — Dan. Vii. 13, 14. " He nCust reign
till he hath put all enemies under his feet." I Cor.
xv. 25. — Even the unyielding and infidel spirit of
the people that crucified him, shall at last submit
to his sceptre. " They shall stay upon the Lord,
the Holy One of Israel, in truth. The remnant
shall return, even the remnant of Jacob, unto the
mighty God, Isai. x. 20. 21. "VGJI 7t*, £** Sew mama.
The words are the same which make a part of
his appropriate titles in Isai. ix. 6. See Rom. ix.
27, 28. St. Paul applies this passage to the con
version of the Jews to Christ. Of the happiness
and glorious state of Israel at that timer the

205
Prophet Zepheniah, iii. 14, 15, says thus, " Sing,
O daughter of Zion ; shout, O Israel, be glad and
rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.
The Lord hath taken away thy judgments ; the
King of Israel, even Jehovah, is in the midst of
thee ; thou shalt not see evil any more.
It cannot be denied, that the King of Israel, of
whom the prophet here speaks, is God; even the
same divine King of Israel whom Isaiah saw
sitting upon a throne, as the Lord oj Hosts, amidst
trisagion hallelujahs, demonstrative of a three
fold personality in mysterious unity of essence.
Isai. vi. 1, 3, 5. See p. 86. It is still the same
everlasting King of Israel, whom in very late
times, still future to us, the repentant children of
Israel are to sue to for pardon of their own un
belief, and their fathers' apostacy, under the figu
rative name of David their King, as being, ac
cording to the flesh, the Son or descendant of
David, and in the style of prophecy called David
himself. Hosea iii. 4, 5. Ezekiel says the same,
with the addition, that then they shall acknow
ledge him to be Jehovah, when the figurative
David shall " raise them out of their graves," or
restore them to spiritual life, and political exis
tence, from being a nation of dry bones, which is
their present state of apostacy, the curse being
yet unremoved. Ezek. xxxvii. 13, 24, 25.
D D

206
If any doubt, who the prophetical King of
Israel is, could reasonably remain, seeing the time
here spcken of is that in which t»ie remnant of
Israel (v. 1 3,) shall renounce their father's apos
tacy, and shall seek the Lord, and David their
King, Hosea iii. 5 ; and all nations shall turn to
the true God in a pure religion, (v. 9,) there is
another prophecy in Zechariah ix. 9, which brings
it home to the ever-blessed Jesus, being quoted
by St. Matthew, upon the occasion of its accom
plishment. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion,
shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold thy
King cometh Unto thee ; he is just, and having
salvation, lowly, ("»3y, afflictus, pauper) and riding
upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass." Matth.
ii. 1, 2 ; Luke xix. 38 ; John Xii. 14. This cannot
be called an accommodation of a contingent fact
to prophecy. It was the very circumstance, and
Jesus was the very person in the prophet's eye ;
and never was it, or ever will it be fulfilled by any
other King of Zion. For he was not only just,
but righteousness itself, even Jehovah our righte
ousness" And he was lowly, afflicted, and poor,
that through his poverty we might be made rich.
2 Cor. viii. 9.*

* The poor condition, in this world's advantages, which the Saviour
of mankind submitted to, was voluntary, and one of the most striking
characteristic! of Messiah, (see Isaiah liii.) it is in perfect contrast with
his state of pre-existent dignity, as the messenger of the covenant made

207

The prophetic title of " King of Israel," ap
plied to the Messiah in prophecy, and freely ac
cepted by the meek and lowly Jesus, in the Gospel
history, as his proper title, (see Matth. xxi. 5 ;
John i. 49 — xii. 13 — xix. 14,) is found in the Old
Testament every where connected with attributes
of Deity, and titles of the supreme God, incom
municable to any created being, — such as " Jeho
vah — The Lord of hosts — The Holy One of Israel
— His Creator, Redeemer, Saviour — The First
and the Last — The mighty God — besides whom
there is no other Saviour, Lord, or God." The
title, King of Israel, therefore, implied all this,
and is applied by the Father, in Psa. ii. 6, 7, to
the Son, as his Messiah : " Yet have I set my
King upon my holy hill of Zion. Thou art my
Son, this day have I begotten thee"; which is by
St. Paul applied to Christ. Heb. i. 5. Compare

at Horeb, and all along conducted by him, as the Captain of the Lord's
host, and the King of the Jewish theocracy, 1 Sam. xii. IS. In which
state, his unity in essence with the two other persons of the Deity, is
set forth in the vision made to Isaiah, vi. And in the Trisagion halle
lujah of the angels, which corresponds with that in Rev. iv. 3, soon
after the return of the blessed Jesus from bis victory over our conqueror,
to that place and rank (poppt) Sea) <n heaven, which he had with the
Father from all eternity. It was these apparent contrarieties which
drove the Scribes to the idea of two Messiahs ; one triumphant, the
other afflicted and poor. And it was thus that he was at the same time
David's Son, and hit Lord and Saviour.

208
Psa. xxiv. 7 — lxxxix. 18 ; Isai. vi. 5 — x. 20, 21 —
xliii. 11, 15 — xliv. 6 — Hosea iii. 5; Zeph. iii. 15.
According to these prophecies, then, Jesus
Christ, if he was the true Messiah, was truly the
Son pf God, and the King of Israel. And St.
Matthew's application of the prophecy of Zacha-
riah, is so far from being an accommodation to a
prophecy of some other fact, or, according to the
Serpentine mode of exposition, a random shot,
as their brethren the Deists affirm, like many in
the Prophecies, which had no particular aim, but
were left to obtain an hit by good luck, at some
time or other; that St. Matthew says of it, "All
this was done, that it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by the Prophet, saying, Tell ye the
daughters of Sion, behold thy King cometh unto
thee," &c. Such a number of rare coincidences
as meet together in the accomplishment of this
prophecy ", would be a strange occurrence under a
wise and gracious Providence, if Jesus be not the
King of Israel; and his presumption in assuming
it to himself, would be not at all inferior to his
blasphemy in taking to him a pre-existence to
Abraham, and the incommunicable name Eheje,
or " I am." For all this Was done by his own
express order, with the design of fulfilling this
prophecy. Thus, on another occasion, he said to
John Baptist, " Suffer it to be so now, for thus it
becometh us to fulfil all righteousness" or to do

209
that which is needful to be done, for the accom
plishment of all that the prophets have written.
This is observable in the most minute circum
stances, which relate to so highly important a
character, for its entire verification. John xix.
24, 28, 36, 37.
Jesus could not omit any thing of his prophetic
designation, not any thing at least of this humble
pageantry of his entry into Jerusalem as her
King, wherein so shortly afterwards he was as
her King to be crucified, and pierced. " And he
shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them,
as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to
swim." Isai. xxv. 11. Having wounds in his
hands, treasonably afflicted in the house of his
friends, (Zech. xiii. 6,) where he was despised and
rejected, (Isai. liii.) and sold for thirty pieces of
silver. Zech. xi. 12. 13. It could not be evaded,
any more than the crown of thorns, or the in
scription upon the cross. For as he was the King
pf Israel in pre-existent glory, so was he the
King of Israel when, " in his humiliation, his
judgment was taken away," (Acts viii. 33 ; Isai.
liii. 7,) and who shall declare his generation f
When the multitude strewed their garments
in the way, and shouted Hosannah in'the highest,
blessed be the King pf Israel that cometh in the

210
name of the Lord, peace m heaven,* and glory in
the highest, he refused to restrain their accla
mations, because they were so justly due to the
occasion, that if these had held their peace, the
very stones, by divine impulse, would have ac
quired a voice of praise to the present Deity, and
of reproach to the apathy and ingratitude of
men! It was in this character that the guiltless Natha
niel did homage to him, after report had been
made to him of the works and the wisdom of
Jesus, which had been confirmed by a proof, that
it is he which searcheth the heart and reins. (Rev.
ii. 23.) " Nathaniel answered and said unto him,
Rabbi, thou art the Son pf God; thou art the
King of Israel." John i. 49.
We cannot avoid inferring both the Pre-
existent Deity, and kingly power of Christ, from
his own mournful and prophetic lamentation over
the devoted city, on account of the calamities
which were coming upon her children, and the
long and exemplary desolation which awaited

* Peace in heaven, or the redemption of our souls, is, in the true Gos
pel, declared to be the object of Christ's mission. In the Socinian
Gospel another designation is assigned to it. The Pre-existence and
Deity of Christ, and his atonement for the sins of the world, must stand
or fall together.

211
herself, for her persevering infidelity. If words
have any determinate meaning, here is the plain
est allusion that present circumstances would per
mit, (John xvi. 12.) to the frequent overtures of
grace that had been made to that stiff-necked
people, (but ever in vain) as the King of their
theocracy, their Saviour, and God, under the
Mosaic Covenant, " O Jerusalem ! Jerusalem !
which killest the prophets, and stonest them that
are sent unto thee ! How often would I have
gathered thy children together, as a hen doth
gather her brood under her wings, and ye would
not." Matt, xxiii. 37. All their rebellions are
recited by David, in the seventy eighth psalm. —
" How oft did thep provoke him in the wilderness,
and grieve him in the desert ! Yea, they turned
back and tempted God, and limited the Holy
One of Israel !" And again in the ninety-
fifth psalm, where his principal characteristics as
the Creator, Shepherd, King, and God of Israel,
which provideth a rest for the people of God
(Heb. iv. 9-) are enumerated, as designating the
person against whom their provocations of forty
years' continuance were directed. And that per
son, as we are assured by St. Paul, was Christ.*

* rov %q i;cv, Christ.— This reading ought not to be questioned, says
Whitby, for we find it not only in Hiliary the Deacon, St. Chrysostom,
Oecumenius, Theophylact, but in Iren«eus, !• 4. c xiv. Hence Pr*n».

212
1 Cor. x. 4, 9-— See also Psm. cv. and cvi. . And
to the same effect is the rebuke which the pro
phet Samuel gave them, when, in contempt of
the theocracy of Christ, Jehovah, the Holy One
of Israel, they desired a visible king to be set
over them, " when Jehovah their God was
their King!" 1 Sam. xii. 12.
In perfect consistency herewith we see in the
Gospel, that he spake of Jerusalem as " the City
of the great King," so mentioned in the prophets,
and always with some appendage which fixes
that title and character upon the Messiah, the
Son of God, and Son of Man, and boldly affirmed
himself, in the presence of them which sought
such a pretext for taking away his rife, to be in
deed a King,— and the King pf the Jews. — Ah,

sius of old proved the Divinity of Christ, as being that God whom they
tempted. Psm. cvi. 14. Besides it is clear that St, Paul's meaning is
such, for in the fourth verse he had applied the whole to Christ, as the
Conductor of Israel in the desert ; and Jesus applied it to himself, when
he' claimed a pre-existence to Abraham, and assumed the name Eheje,
the God of Israel. It is perfectly consistent, both with the Psalmist's
doctrine of Messiah, and of St. Paul preaching of Christ. That it should
not please the Socinians is unfortunate, but very natural. Whoever
wishes to see a masterly vindication of this text against the idle cavils of
Belsham and his followers, may find it in the admirable work of Dr
Magee, on atonement, vol. 11, part ii. p. 675. fourth edition. See also
in the preceding Scripture Proofs, other arguments to substantiate the
pre-existence and mediatorship of Christ, under both covenants, p..
100, 109, &c-.

213
unhappy City! "Righteousness once lodged itf
thee, but now murderers !" — •• We speak, says the
apostle, the wisdom of God in a mystery, which
none of the princes of this world knew : For had
they known it, they would not have crucified the
Lord of Glory." 1 Cor. ii 7, 8.—" The light of the
Gentiles, and the glory of his people Israel" ;— at
that happy time when, according to Isaiah, xxiv.
23, he shall resume his original dignity of the
theocracy, as the Lord oe Hosts, " and reign
oVer his ancients gloriously." For he said,-
surely they are my people, children that will
not lie, so he was their Saviour. In all their
afflictions he was afflicted, and the angel of his
presence saved them. In his love, and in his
pity, he redeemed them, and he bare them, and
carried them all the days of old." Isai. Ixiii. 8, 9.
Thus I have endeavoured to shew, from the
evident tendency and bearing of the types and
prophecies,- and the whole structure and economy
of the Mosaic Covenant/ in its perpetual reference
to Messiah, and from the assumption of these by
the blessed Jesus, and the application of them to
him as the true Messiah, with the unanimous con
sent of the inspired writers of the New Testaments
that Jesus is the Son of God from all eternity, the
same yesterday, to-day, and for ever His pre-
existence and Deity are throughout asserted in
terms as explicit and clear, as his existence irt
E E

f#"

214
human nature ;- and his death is declared,' botnr
before and after that event, to have been the sacri
fice and atonement offered, and accepted of God,
for the redemption of the worlds in terms so ex
press and explicit, and under so many varied
forms of representation, that it cannot be evaded
by the sophistry of men, or defeated by the malice
of devils. The truth or falsehood of this conclu
sion, in which the Christian world in general has
agreed from the beginning of the Gospel dispensa
tion, is a matter of so great importance to our sal
vation, that if it cannot be ascertained from the
Scriptures, with the most sure conviction, those
sacred witings would indeed deserve to be treated
with that levity, and contemptuous licentiousness
of exposition, which they have most profanely
and undeservedly met with at the hands of the
modern illuminati. Whereas, they are consecrated
to our veneration and faith, by the ardent recom
mendation of the apostles, and Christ himself, as
an everlasting Gospel, the living oracles of God,
which are able, in a proper and sober use of them,
to make us wise unto salvation ; but capable, by
a contrary abuse, of being wrested to the destruc
tion both of our own and other men's souls.;
Jesus himself professes to have come to teach
us " the way, and the truth, and the life." And
so long ago as the time of David, the world has
been warned to be reconciled to the faith of the

215
JSofi pf God, as the only means of escaping " the
wrath to come." Psm. ii. 12. And Christ, in
the most peremptory manner, left it in command,
by his last words on earth, that mankind should
be initiated into covenant with God, in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost ; whieh implies, beyond all contradiction,
an equal faith and worship due- to each; adding,
" He that believeth and is baptised, shall be saved,
but he that believeth not shall damned."
Is it to be supposed then, that here is any error, or ,
•evensuperfluity, which the superior wisdom of man
may cut off, in this, the first principle of Christ's
religion,— a principle which, upon the most care -
ful examination and comparison of it with the
Scriptures, is found to be in strict conformity with
their doctrine, from the beginning to the end,
wherein " Christ is the first, and with the last"? —
On the contrary, was not the opposition of the
Jews under Moses, against the same divine Me
diator; was it not still against the same King that
they rebelled under Samuel j and the same Lord
that they hated, when they cried to the prophet,
" Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from be
fore us ?" In a word, the same " Lord of Hosts,"
who became, when manifest in the flesh, a stone
of stumbling, and a rock of offence to both houses
of Israel, and for the rejecting of whom, and cru
cifying the Lord of Glory, they remain, to this

216
day, a warning against similar infidelity, and a
type of that real eternity, of unavailing repen.-
tance, which awaits it.
And as any error or even inaccuracy, in the
setting forth the first principles pf our faith and
worship, cannot be imputed to Christ himself, so
neither would it have been seconded, supported,
and confirmed, by the subsequent writings of the
apostles and early Christians, as it is, had there
been any misconception in the orthodox, or com
monly received idea of Christ, or if it had not been
indispensible to salvation. The whole Christian
world is witness, that the natural apprehension of
the Scriptures, in every fair and candid translation
of them, as well as in their originals, has led man
kind to the adoration of Jesus Christ, as truely
God, of one nature and essence with the Father,
find the Holy Ghost, And the present essay is
an humble attempt to shew, that the more closely
they are examined by comparison, or by contrast ;
by inference, or direct declaration ; the same
truth is but the more solidly confirmed, against
the perverted sense fastened upon them by un
believers. Infidelity is ascribed by him, who
" knew all men," (John ii. 25.) to the perversion
of the heart from " the love of the truth," rather
than of the understanding, from a capability of
apprehending it. " The evil heart of unbelief,"'
and the philosophical skepticism of levolters, in

217
very distant ages, proceeded from the same in,
structor, operated upon the same subject, the
vanity and other corrupt passions of the human
heart, and have in every case the same effect, to +
bar the gate that leadeth to life eternal. Psa.
-xcv. II ; Heb. iii. 18, 19— iv. 11,
The high commendations which the Spirit of
God has bestowed upon the faith of Noah,
Abraham, Daniel, and other worthies, who, upon
less perfect evidences than those vouchsafed , to
us, yielded the obedience pf faith, and the homage
of the understanding, to the revealed Word of
God, affords us a proof, that to such a trial every
man must be exposed. For to what purpose are
the faculties of the mind bestowed upon us, if
they do no I lead us to an acknowledgement of the
wisdom and goodness of our Creator, in whatso
ever manner it has pleased him to communicate
to us that portion of the knowledge of himself,
of which we are capable ? Let us give credit to
the assurances of divine revelation : that where
men fail to do this, the true cause is not in the
mysteriousness of the revelation, or the insuffi
ciency of its evidences; but it lies congealed from
us in the deceitfulness of our own hearts, and
will, without doubt, expose them that give any '
quarter to skeptical opinions, to the judicial blind
ness and perversity, which is the wilful sin, and
pt the same time the punishment of it threatened

218
to unbelievers, " with all deceiveableness of un
righteousness in them that perish, because they
received not the love of the truth, that they might
be saved. And for this cause, God shall send
them strong delusion, that they should believe a
lie" 2 Thess. ii. 10, 1 1. " For if our Gospel be
hid, it is hid to them that are lost ; in whom the
god of this world hath blinded the minds of them
which believe not, lest the light of the glorious
Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
Shine unto them." 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. Here is a
cause assigned for the prevaleney of Infidelity—
an adequate cause, and the true one ; that with
which the Holy Spirit commences its saving
communications to mankind; (Gen. iii. ],) to
which it bears a frequent testimony in its progress
through the Scriptures. " For I said, it is a
people that do err in their hearts, and they have
not known my ways." Psa, xcv. 10. And with
the same idea divine revelation concludes. " And
he said unto me, It is done. — I am Alpha and
Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give
unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the
water of life freely. He that overcometh, shall
inherit all things ; and I will be his God,* and

* The particular purpose for which this text was introduced, is in
confirmation of the fact, that infidelity to divine revelation originates
still, as it did in Eden, from external suggestion and temptation, but ,
which can only prevail against us through our own neglect, and con-

219
he shall be my son. But the fearfiil, and unbe*
lieving, and all liars, (not excepting those who
exert their faculty in sophisticating, and falsifying, *
and wresting the word of divine truth,) shall
have their part in the lake which burneth with
fire and brimstone ; which is the second death."
Rev. i. 8, 17 — xxi. 6, 7, 8 — xxii. 13, 1 5.
But he engages to be the Author and Giver of
all grace to the faithful, and that he will be his
God and Father. This confirms what was re
marked before, that God, although a singular
word, is plural in comprehension, and includes the
whole three persons of the sacred Trinity. " Our
Father," in the Lord's. Prayer, is to be considered
as an* address to the Three in One, the Trinity
in Unity, without dividing the essence or con
founding the personality.

tempt of God's offered grace. " / will give unto him that is atkirst of
the fountain of the water of life freely ." And that if any by these means
are lost, the heart is in fault, and not the head. The sin, therefore, is not
the more venial, except in the case of our first parents, that through
temptation we fell; for Christ himself was not exempt, being in all
points tempted, like as we are, yet without sin. Heb. i v. 15. But besides
this* we have here as noble a proof that Christ is God, as any that ha»
before been produced. For it is he who is the First and the Last, the
Alpha and the Qmtgai See also p. 109.

FINIS.

INDEX.

Adam — his fall not an allegory, p. 5, 8, 152* 154. Ex
isting proofs of it, 7, 10, 12, 61. The Second
Adam, 11, 104, 203.
Advocate of Skepticism — a new one descends from
the flying island of Laputa, and does exploits, ' x.
His method of evacuating the remnants of Christian
faith, xiii. Raises recruits from the realms of
Pluto by galvanic process, p. xii. Tampers with
St. Peter, Jude, and even with Christ, to corrupt
and degrade the Gospel ; but his overtures are re
jected, xiv. 90.
JSvtjm — a beautiful substitute for eternity, to those who
do not like the Scriptural terms, 10, 34.
Affinity — of Socinians to Musselmen, p. 65. They
advance, uncalled, three steps towards Popery, 34.
Willing to embrace every thing except Christianity,
137.
Agency — a mechanical method of propagating Infidelity,
13. Its prodigious utility to mankind, 14, and
honours, 15.

222
Aleim — a plural noun, and plural forms of speech, why
applied to God, 87,
Angel — of the Covenant — of God's presence — King of
the Theocracy — Messiah, &c. titles of the office of
Mediator, who was one and the same under all dis
pensations, 65, 100, 123, 132, 192, 207, 211, 213.
Apathy — not chargeable upon unbelievers, and where
fore, 56.
Apothesis — modern example of, 33.
Apollo— the antique preferable to the modern, 32.
Apostacy — The punishment of the unbelieving Jews
for it, 137. A warning to wavering Christians,
and a type of the actual eternity, under wrath, to
come upon modern Infidels, 77, 126, 137, 164. Has
the effect, more or less upon all, which it had upon
Satan, the first apostate, 103* 187. (See Unbelief.)
Atonement — Doctrine of the, one of the principal nega
tions in the Serpentine School, for obvious reasons, 8,
82, 89, 97, 183, 169, 186. The original compact, 82.
Attributes— of Deity, exercised by Christ, (see Evi
dences) or appropriated to him, 94, 135, 141, 147,
167, 168, 169, 170, 182.
Authors, pious and orthodox, " being dead, yet speak,"
and are forced to preach Infidelity from the grave,.
15, 41, and holy Scripture to bear witness against
itself, 10, 138.
Baptist— the Elias of the Prophets, 120, 160. His
testimony to Christ as the most high God, 120,
162.
Battle of the Books — gives occasion to the Tablet
war, and much ink shed, xvi, (in the Dedication)
xii.

223
CacodjEmonius — a Grecian Sage, iv. Denied the ex
istence of the Dii inferni, yet had the weakness to
retain a Thessalian Magus, to conjure down their
occasional risings, vii. His perilous experiment
of the power of philosophy and logic, iv. Was
worshipped after his descent to the realms of Pluto,
and became the head of a powerful sect, viii. His
philosophy being controverted, a premature apo
theosis, contrary to an oracle of Trophonius, in
volves his disciples in trouble, vi. They pray to
the philosophers of Laputa, and receive comfort by
a shower of ink, &c* and support by a legion of
Printers' Devils, xiii.
Charity — its ancient Christian meaning become obso
lete ; a counterfeit virtue, under the name of Phi
lanthropy, usurps its exterior, xv, 4. The busi
ness of this mockery of liberality and evangelical love,
is to make full concessions of the vital principles of
Christianity to all demandants, and especially the

" After several campaigns, there appears to have been little or nothing
of any other ammunition expended on the part of the Tableteers. It
is manifest in this great war, as heretofore in most others it has been,
that the incident which gave rise to the hostilities, was not the true
cause of the ill blood which ensued. <See Dedication, p. viii. xi.) It
was triumph, and not truth, and the entire prostration of the Christian
faith at the feet of the Serpentine Philosophy, which was the real object
of ambition. Why otherwise should this Goliah introduce himself into
the battle by an address to " our simple, unsuspecting Neighbours," insi
diously eradicating their dependence upon the Word of God, for its
plenary inspiration and authenticity ? p. 79, 90. This was surely a pre-
mature discovery of the cloven foot, ill concealed, by the philosopher's
gown j p. xvi. 155.

224
three claimants, which are predicted in sacred writ to
begin about this time to flourish. Rev. xvi. 13, 14.
These are, first, Infidelity " out of the mouth of
the Dragon." Second, Popery. Third and last,
but not least in importance, out of the mouth of the
new beast, Democracy, an indescribable swarm of
contradictory spirits, Levellers and Quietists, or
Antinomtans of a novel species, piously, and on
Scripture testimony, demanding the surrender of
all law, and penal terrors, and temporal punishments ;
as their philosophers, marching in the van, have al
ready expunged that Bugbear the Devil, and eternal
punishments. Nothing now remains to be overthrown
but that fleshly devil, " the hangman," and that ex
perimental hell, "a jail," in accordance with Scripture.
Psa. xii. 4. " Our necks are our own. Who is Lord
over us ?" Paraphrase and variation, without ac
knowledgement, is the spirit of modern quotation !!!
3, 12, 138.
Christianity— a nose of wax in the hands of Skeptics,
74. The idea of it, if taken from Scripture without
preposession, favorable to its truth, 92, 102, 105,
216. Universality of this idea an evidence in its
behalf, 101. Its evidences lose nothing by the lapse
of time, 102, 104.
Concession — the cry of the modern symbolical Bca^t
against both church and state, 91. Victory and
triumph not truth, the object of Philosophy. (See
Charity.)
Conversion — of unbelievers after death, a promise of the
Kaleidoscopopoietical theory, 10, 15, — and of 6c-
lievers, equally marvellous, 15, 41.

225
Corruptions of Christianity — according to the phrase
of philosophers, are its essential doctrines, 40, 82, 105.
The evacuation of them recommended, by means of
an intellectual emetic, of eight ingredients, to be
contained in a nut-shell, xiii, 28. Another valuable
recipe, good against the poison of Christian Fanati
cism, xv, (Dedica.) Drops of avernal water for the
same, 37. Easy method of obtaining it, .^8.
Crime — increase of, a feature of the last times, 24.
Amongst various causes assigned, the most fertile
cause overlooked, 3, 13, 15, 25, 28, 30.
Cur — village, not a good pattern for the training of dogs,
32.
Death — a severe test of skeptical principles, 53 ; yet
with some remarkable exceptions, 54, 57. The
Second Death, licentious exposition of, 10, 42,
Death of Christ — not merely exemplary, but expiatory
of sin, 82, 99, 126, 154, 186, 198. (See Atone
ment.)
Divinity — of Christ. (See Jesus. Also, HumanNature.)
Demoniacs — resolved into natural causes, 9. But proved
to be supernatural, by modern instances of the like,
12, 54.
Denial of Christ — as the eternal Son of God, amounts
to a rejection of all the benefits of the baptismal
covenant, 48, 136. (See Apostacy, Unbelief, &c.)
Devil — the belief of his existence very generally denied
by Socinians, 6, 8, 10, 162. His good humour,
notwithstanding the disgrace, 5, 10, 12, 14. Once
an angel of light, he fell through unbelief and pride
when in a state of probation, 187. Through ma-

226
lignity, he introduced Serpent worship, as a tri
umph against God ; and even the worship of tht sun,
supposed to be the tophet or local hell, prepared,
amongst other uses, to be his future prison, 7.
He is stigmatized in Scripture as " the Old Serpent"
57. His seed perpetuated, 152. He was compul
sively drawn to the temptation of Christ, to restore
the triumph he bad gained, 12. Is not deficient in
devices, to amuse his children of modern time, 39,
153. Recommends the worship of reason, the wor
ship of himself immediately being deemed too gross,
49. Is an hard master to his best servants, 56.
Devils, " Spirits of" — men of free opinions so designated
in the homely language of the Apocalypse. Rev.
xvi. 14. Particularly distinguished in three depart
ments of speculative aberration. (See Charity.)
Eheje— 65, 95, 132, 170. (See Jehovah.)
Eternity— of future punishments as taught by Christ,
set aside by Philosophy, 34, 52. Upon the same
principle of inspiring audacity into the wicked, and
strengthening the kingdom of darkness, (10, 24,) is
the modern outcry against temporal punishments.
(See Charity, Crime,) 10, 24, 30.
Eighty — a mystic number, by which great miracles have
been wrought, at the shrine of Saint Cacodaemonius,
by his worshippers, xiv, Dedica.
Evidences — of Christianity, not weakened by time, 102,
104. (See Jesus.)
Example — a word ambiguous, iv. Curious instance of
it, 60. Examples to be set up for imitation with
caution, 31. (See Unbelief.)

227
Faith— in Christ, equally as in the Father, 170, 180,
(see Denial.) Obedience of faith, 63, 75, 92,
103, 215. Historical faith, 8, 68, 71. Reason
set up against faith, 5, 58, 75. Faith of the Scrip
ture worthies, 217.
Fall of Man — scoffed at, as introducing the doctrine
of Atonement, 8, 152. Proof of it in the tendency
of Philosophy, 62, 75, 154.
Father— our — a general name, comprehensive of all
the Persons of the holy Trinity, like Jehovah, and
God, 116, 122.
Fanaticism — not confined to religionists, 12, 1.5 28
37.
Filiation — or Sonship of Christ, 129, 196, 150 ; in re
spect of both natures, as Son of God, and Son of
Man, 174. His filiation was prior to his incarna
tion, 143, 151.
God — a word singular, yet plural in comprehension, 87,
122, 127. (See Trinity.) Christ called God, but
denied to be so by Priestley, 106. (See Titles.)
Grace — divine, 51. A word obsolete, and without a
meaning, in the Socinian new Testament, 52. The
very existence of the Comforter unknown in the-
tents of Kedar, 50. Philosophical illumination a
a succedaneum for the grace of Christ, but a bad
one, 12, 49, 53.
Hell — in Scripture called Scheol, and Hades, generally
signifies the state of the dead,, previous to judgment
and the final retribution, 175. But sometimes it
signifies Tartarus, or the place of future torment,
(Luke xvi. 23 ; Psa. ix. 17.) A local and real hell

228
is the doctrine of Scripture, 7, 9. Probability that
the immense body of the solar orb is the site of it,
7.
Human Nature of Christ — vainly contended for, 113,
117, 125, 130, 131, 144, 159. Contrasted with the
divine, 146, 148, 175, 188, 209. His poverty, 117,
200, 206.
Jehovah — 95. The incommunicable name of God*
which signifies the having life in himself, or existing
without a cause prior to himself. The name Eheje,
which signifies the same, is, therefore, likewise in
communicable. Both are derived from the verb, of
existence, of which they are only different persons,
consequently implying a personality in God, as the
word Aleim, God, implies plurality in the divine
nature ; which is declared to be combined with unity.
Jesus Christ — a name which signifies " the anointed
Saviour." For, according to Calmet, Jesus was
pronounced. Jchoshua, or Joshua, that is, " He that
shall save." And Christ, in the Greek, is the same
as Messiah in Hebrew, that is, " the Anointed." The
anointing of the Most Holy to the office of Mediator,
which he accepted "before the foundation of the
world," The fall of man being foreknown and pro
vided for, is the principal subject of ancient Pro
phecy. — The two names, Jesus and Christ, were by
divine interference given to our Lord, before his
conception ; and when it was announced, to denote
his office, and the rank of him who undertook it.
Evidences of Ike Divinity of Christ,
I. He is God incarnate, 106. Jehovah ourRighteous-
ness, 117, 194.

229
U. The Son of God, by nature divine, and pre-existent,
108. The Creator— The First and the Last. 109,
III. As the good Shepherd, he is God and Man, 110,
130. Jehovah revealed to mortal sight, 111,120.
122.
IV. Is the glory of the Second Temple, and greater than
it, 102.
V. The Lord of Hosts himself, even in his state of hu
miliation, 113. Jehovah, and the everlasting Father,
&c. 116. (See Father.)
VI. Proved to be such by his harbinger, 119, 160.
VII. The visible character of the invisible essence of
Deity, 122, 140.
VIII. The blood of Christ is called the blood of God,*
124.
IX. The indwelling of God in Christ, can only he ex
plained by the prophecy of Immanuel ^ompleafced
in the nativity of Christ, 127. See 108, 119, 160,
193.
X. Intercommunity with the.Father in action, 127, and
in nature, 129.
XI. Christ is spoken of by the New Testament writers
with a constant reference to two natures, " as con-

* The frivolous dispute about the word God, in 1 Tim. iii. lfi,
could it even be carried on the side of unbelievers, would avail them
nothing against so prodigious a balance of the most powerful evidences,
not to be disputed on any such grounds of various reading. • JBesides
that, even if taken in their own way, it proves the blood of Christ to
be the atonement of sin, and the price of human redemption, and by
consequence his Deity. See Dr. Magee on Atonement. "Vol. II. Partll.
Postscript to Appendix, p. 564, where the shameful' management «f
Unitarians to get rid of this text, is shewn to be without effect'.
G G

230
cerriing the flesh,1' and as concerning the " Logos,
which was made flesh" ; or as the Son of Man, and
the Son of God, 131, 146, 148.
XII. As the Fountain of Righteousness, and Salvation,
132. A just God and a Saviour, besides whom is
no other Saviour, 134, even to the latest time, 135.
XIII. Denying of Christ, is denying the only Lord God,
and the Holy Orie and the Just, (attributes insepa
rable from God) 1S6, and amounts to a rejection of
the Father also, 137.
XIV. Christ is called God in express terms, 130, 142,
and must be God as Judge of the world,* 141.
XV. The elevation of Christ to dignity as a reward for
service, stands upon the same footing as his humilia
tion, in acceding to the mediatorial covenant, 143,
147, 206, 175, 201.
XVI. Is necessarily uncreated himself, as being the
Creator and Preserver of all creation, 147.
Evidences from his life and ministry.
I. His nativity properly an incarnation of God, 193,
148, ; 158. The true Shilo, 150. The promised

•As the judgment of the world is ascribed by intercommunity to "God
himself," and to "Christ himself ," (see p. p. 140, 141,) so also the appear
ances in the Old Testament of him " -who is invisible,''— -whom no man
hatfi seen at any time,'' must be understood of Christ in unity with the
Father, and who speaks of himself in the first person, and is called by
Moses, Jehovah — Eheje— God — Jehovah Aleim — The Almighty
—The God of Abraham, &c. InGen. xii. 7, Moses says of him, 'there
Jehoy'ah appeared' unto Abraham — and there he built an altar unto
Jehovah .who appeared unto him.'' So St. Stephen says, "/The God or
Glouy appeared unto our father Abraham,'' &c.

231
Seed, 152. Meaning of his title of « the Lord," 156.
Explained by the other titles, 158, 204.
II. A confirmation of the above application of the pro
phecies to Christ as God, by the testimony of a
divinely accredited witness, 160.
III. The miracles, doctrine, and life of Jesus, also con
formable to the prophecies of an incarnate God, 165.
In every other view of it, the character of Jesus
must be given up as indefensible, as it has been by
the more determined Socinians, together with the
inspiration and authenticity of the Scriptures, and
prophecies, which support it, xiii, 170, 183.
IV. Corroboration of the argument from the circum
stances of his death, resurrection, and assen-
sion, 172, 174, 179.
Evidences from his threefold character in Pro
phecy.
I. Priest, 181. His Priesthood the original one, arid
.eternal as time, 183, His own blood the offering,
186. Amalgamation of Deity with Manhood in
Christ as the Branch, 188. Shepherd of God's
flock, 189, compare 201. God's Messiah, and King,
and Son, 205, 207. The Lord of Glory crucifiedy
203, 209. The Holy One under the bands of
death, 176. Jehovah pierced, 148,178.
II. Prophet, 189. Like Moses, as the Master is repre
sented by the servant sent before him, ,196. At
tested by Moses after the death pf that prophet,
197.
III. King, 199. Jesus accepts the divine title, " King
' of Israel," 200, 207, 210. Designedly fulfils all
that was requisite to the verification of it, 206,208.
The incommunicable divinity of this title, 86, 205,

207.— Christ was a King afflicted and poor, 206.
Rejected of his own, 202. Inaugurated really,
though in mockery, 200. Crucified afresh at this
day, 202. Will shortly hereafter be acknowledged
by the Jews as Jehovah, 205.
Infidelity. — See Unbelief— Skepticism.
Index— expurgatorius, recommendation of, 19. A tem
porary succedaneum, 20.
Inspiration — of Holy Scriptures, a stubborn witness
to Christ, 37, 42, 67, 215. The invalidation of it,
,or total rejection, a short method with Gospellers
and Fanatics, xvi, 10, 52, 73, 155. This render's
laborious proofs nugatory* and saves time, xiii* 5, 8,
67, 78, 99* 187, 216. (See Scriptures.)
•>' *
, Kaleidoscope— Socinian, its marvellous properties, 10,
* 36, 39* 42. (See Conversion.)
Kingdom— of Christ, mediatorial, began at the fall, 145,
152, 177. Will endure to the end of time, 147,
201,, 204.
Knowledge — progressive in opposite directions, 35, 48,

Levity — of Skeptics, in removing the Rock of Ages,
90.
"Labourers — in the vineyard of the Serpent, 12, 155.
Worthy of their hire, 16. No apathy there, 50,
* 54, 56. Zeal and gratuitous exertions of Infidels,
11, 89, for an ungrateful master, 12, 56. Skeptical
fanaticism, 15.
Libraries— become through abuses an equivocal good,

233
T8. Scraps of conscience necessary to the curators
of them, 40.
Loud— in what sense applied to Christ, 8, 15, 156— Of
the Sabbath, 16&— Of Life, 168— Of Glory, 164.
Memorials — hofior&ry, iv, viii, xiii, Dedica. 17 — Do not
always speak truth, iv, Dedica. 33, 59, or hold up
examples worthy of general imitation, jv, 27, 31 — are
sometimes a waste of honours, v, 18, 59. Memorials
sometimes need to be set up in terrorem, iv, 42.
Miracles — of Christ, 166.
Mystery — one of the titles of Messiah in prophecy, in
both Testaments, 117, 125, 195 — Exists in the very
name, as well as nature, of God, 88. Mysteries
not denied a place in true Christianity, or Judaism,
except by Infidels, 81, 108. Not inconsistent with
a revelation from God, 83. Abound throughout
the universe, 80. Are not all on the orthodox side^
Dedica. xv, 83.
Obedience— of Faith, a principal part of human pro
bation, 44, 151, 160. The probation of Adam
entirely that of his faith, 5. The praise1** of the
Scripture worthies demonstrates the acceptability of
this homage of the understanding, 217. Obedience
of Christ, 175. (See Jesus, No. XVI. 125, 143.)
Original Sin— the Heathen philosophers sensible of the
fact, but ignorant of the cause — both are denied by •
modern philosophers, 62.
Parallel— between ancient and modern Skepticks, 75,
77. -

234
Philanthropy — 'the Charity of Philosophy, according
to the new Nomenclature. (See Charity.)
Prayer — the Lord's, its comprehensive nature, 122.
Prayer offered to Christ as God, and not rejected
121* 180. Denied to him by Socinians, and by some
even to the Deity, whom they acknowledge, 67.
Philosophy — r64, or " Science falsely so called." The
origin of it, 5, and tendency, 12, 46, 56. Its busi
ness not to illustrate, but prevent the natural appre
hension of divine revelation, 92, 102, 105, 216.
The warnings against it given to the early Christians
not superfluous to those of the 19th century, 52.
Philosophical readings, 139, and comments upon
Scripture too bold, 50. Illumination by an ignis
fatuus, 74 — a substitute for the grace and consolation
of the Paraclete, 53. Simplifies Christianity to
a pure Heathenism, 68.
Prophecy— 78. In little estimation with the opposers
of Christ's divinity, 183, 208. Scripture types ap
pealed to by Christ as prophetic, 183.
Punishments, future — strange fanaticism of Infidehty,
-tb accept '* strong delusions, and believe a lie," upon
a subjeotof which nothing can be known except
from the Gospel, which it rejects, 10, 34* 53. Upon
the same principle of philosophical philanthropy,
liberality, &c. proceeds the relaxation and progres
sive abolition of temporal authority, and the penal
laws, winch will shortly double the effect that theory
"has already produced, 14, 24, 26.
Purgatory — restored by the Philosophers, with emenda-
tidns, 34.
Reason— >the perfectabihty of — a charming bait to catch
* gudgeons, 50.

235
Recantation — of dangerous ertor, the first step to an
hopeful repentance, 47.
Retract [on— not chargeable on Christ, 119, 133, 171,
174, 199.
Retraction — or evasion, not justly chargeable against
Jesus, 119, 133, 171, 174, 199.
Sacraments — the two, 98. Instituted by Christ in his
own name equally with the Father's, and by his own
authority, 98, Are as indelible monuments of the
Deity of Christ, and our redemption by^his blood,
as the sabbath was of the creation, and the passover
of the Mosaic redemption of Israel, 99, •
Scriptures, holy — the plenary inspiration of, to be de
pended upon, 158. Recommended as sufficient by
Christ and his apostles, but invalidated by Priestley,
et hoc genus omne, 78, 155, 188, 16 1. A contempt
of their own prophets, a similar feature, of Jewish
Infidelity, and the prelude to their destruction, 78,
Perversion and denial of divine revelation the first?
lesson of the Dragon, 6 — imitated by His offspring,
78, 155. Licentiousness of Skeptical commentators,
73, 105, 138, 161, 219. The Holy Scriptures "will
be opened at the kst day, as the Book of^Judgment,
105. They testify to the Deity of Christ, from be
ginning to end, 80. (See Titles.
Sin — the irremissible, "too lightly accounted of in modern
times, 46. Original sin, (see Fall.)
Skepticism — a relinquishment of the vantage ground*
43. Its perpetual tendency to plunge. to still greateP
depths, 42, 48. At .last, by an unavoidable 'con-<
strain t, seeking rest in dry places, it advances'to the
utmost limits of divine forbearance, 56, 6ji, 155.

236
Suicide — Heathenism of, 57. Not always rightly attri
buted to natural derangement, 55.
Tablet — one erected to the honour, and to promote the
propagation of Skeptical principles, iv, 17, 59 —
Another, by divine command, for a contrary purpose,
64. (See Battle.)
"Tampering — with the Prophets, 67 — with the Apostles,
xiv, 7.% 89 — with dead authors, (see Authors.)
When tampering will not do, force must be applied,
xiv, 37, 68, 73. Levity of some commentators
upon the most sacred topics, scvi, 90, 100.
Temple — the body of Christ peculiarly such, 112, 123,
127, 169, 194.
Titles of Deity — applied to Christ, or assumed by
him, 207. Saviour, 107,116, 134. Saviour God,
142, besides whom is none else, 132. Eheje, or the
Self-existent, 95, 170. Jehovah, 111. Jehovah
pierced, 135, 178. Lord of Hosts, 86, 114, 120.
The First and the Last, 109, 132. 179. The
Father everlasting, 116. " Who is, and was," &e.
107. The Almighty, 117,158. The Highest, 120,
162. The mighty God, 204. Logos, 110, 123,
129, 134* 194. The Holy One, 107. Immanuel,
107, 176, 195. The Holy One and Just, 136, 176,
The Holy of Holies, 195. The true God, 143,
and Eternal Life, or Jehovah, 143. God our Sa
viour, 137, 142. Also, Christ our Saviour, 142.
But there are not two Saviours both God, 155. The
great God and Saviour, 189. The Lord God, 111,
136. The Holy One of Israel, 111, The Lord
God, 110, 136, 161.

237
Trinity — doctrine of, 83, 195. May be traced through
the whole of the Old Testament, 81, 84, 87, 12S,
~15. In many places thereof, plainly set down,
yet not proposed to the ancient Jews, 85. Clearly
delivered as an article of saving faith, in the Gospel,
84,215. Personality of God, 194. The acceptance
of it pressed upon Christians, 83. The divine na
ture still mysterious even to the angels, 160, 187,
(see Mystery.) The profane contempt of either
fallen angels or fallen men, lessens not the absolute
truth of the fact, or abates any thing of either its
present necessity, or future importance, 201, Tri
nity in unity, 122.
Unbelief — 103, Its fatal consequences to the Jews,
63 ; and still more fatal to apostate Christians, with
their example and their evidences before them, 78,
103, 105, 127, 165. Modern Infidelity contrasted
with theirs, 64, 164. Infidelity a disorder of the
heart, and not of the head, 121, 190, 216, 218. In
troduces a depravation of the moral faculty, 188;
and insensibly contracts the nature of hatred, 14
44, 48, 76, 103. Has a necessary sinking prepon-
derancy to greater depths of aberration, 48, 203,
217.
Unity — of Christ with the Father, — Objections, 118,
170, 195.
Universality — in the belief of Christ's divinity, 101.
The Gospel a revelation designed not only, or pri
marily, for philosophers, but for the teachable, and
truly wise, 102, (See Christianity,)
HH

Worship— the ambiguity of the word easy tb be settled,
by thp circumstances in ^hich it is applied, 180.
Divine worship, faith, and honour, equal to those
paid to the,Fstther, required hy Christ, and ascribed
to him by the apostles, grc. 71, 93, 94, 121, 180,
210, 215 ; imd also by the angels, S3, 123. Such
b,pno,urs; refused by the angels, but accepted by
Christ, 158, J80.

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