they immediately after say, "of a truth thou art the Son of God." Acts xiv. 33.

But would not one be tempted to infer from these very words, that they adored him as God? The Christian world hitherto certainly drew that inference.

"But the world was till now mistaken," say the Unitarians, with Mr. J. S. "The Son of God cannot be true God."

And why not?

"Because he would make with the Father one and the same being."

That is to say, he would have one and the same divine nature with the Father, and thus be one and the same God with him; but it would not follow that he would be one and the same person with the Father.

But Mr. Sparks cannot conceive this.

And I neither: but if we are determined to believe nothing but what we can clearly understand, then let us disbelieve our own existence. (See, No. I.)

"And if we allow Christ to be the Angel, mentioned in Revelations, conversing with John, he there not only renews his command to "worship God," but implies in strong language, that he himself is not to be worshipped."

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But Mr. J. S. must know that we do not allow Christ to be the angel Christ was not the angel, but he was he who had sent the angel, as we learn from the 16th verse of the last chapter, "I, Jesus, have sent my angel, to testify to you these things in the churches." Would it not seem that he who can use this language, and who has his angels, is more than a mere man? The words of the angel to St. John, by which he refused his adoration, and commanded him to adore God, is an additional proof that the word adoration, imports, in the NewTestament, supreme worship. The same meaning is unquestionably implied, in the fact of the man born blind, John ix. 35-38. "And when he had found him, ( the man born blind,) he said to him: dost thou believe in the Son of God? He answered, and said: who is he. Lord, that I may believe in him? And Jesus said to him, thou hast both seen him, and it

is he who talketh with thee. And he said: I believe, Lord, and falling down, he adored him." Here we have an additional argument of the Divinity of Christ. For, first, how could Christ call himself constantly the Son of God, the onlybegotten, the only-begotten Son of the Father, of the living and blessed God, if he had been but a mere man, and an adoptive child of God, like other just men? Surely, on that supposition, his affectation of calling himself by that extraordinary title, would be inconceivable, and contrary to the use of human language? What saint, what patriarch, what prophet, ever presumed to take such a name?

2dly: Christ demands here faith in himself as the son of God, a faith equal to that which we owe to the Father, John xiv. 1, "you believe in God, believe also in me." Now that we may believe any one whom we deem worthy of credit, is incontestable; but it is incontestable, too, that we cannot believe in Christ, the Son of God, unless he be the true, natural, and consubstantial Son of God, that is to say, the one and the same supreme God with the Father. For, to believe in one as we are obliged to do in regard to Christ, and as Christians have always done, as appears from the Apostles' creed, “I believe in Jesus Christ, the only Son our Lord," is not only to offer homage to his veracity, but to acknowledge and worship him, in whom we believe, as the supreme and eternal truth, the supreme and ultimate object of our hopes, and our sovereign God; this act of faith, therefore, implies necessarily the worship of the heart and of the mind, by which we tend unto God as our first principle and last end; as therefore, we are bound to believe in Christ, Christ must be true God; for otherwise he could not be the object of our faith; for the meaning of these words, I believe in Christ, is no other than this: I trust in Christ, and submit myself to Christ, as, to the way, the truth, and the life, I pant after Christ as the only object of my desires, and repose in Christ as my only God.

Page 252. "Certain passages of scripture are supposed by some to afford an evidence that prayers were offered to Christ, because mention is made in them of calling on his name. But

this is an erroneous interpretation of the phrase. Calling on the name of the Lord Jesus does not signify the act of addressing him with prayers or suplications, but it barely means to embrace and obey the religion of Jesus Christ."

1. To this I reply, that to call on the name of the Lord Jesus, at times, signifies the very act of addressing him with prayers, and this is its meaning, Acts xxii. 16., "And now, why tarriest thou? arise and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord;" calling on the name of the Lord cannot mean here to embrace and obey the religion of Jesus Christ, because this was already sufficiently expressed by the words, "be baptized and wash away thy sins," but it means the actual exercise of prayer, by which, as a necessary means and preparation, the apostle was to dispose himself to receive the effects of baptism, the washing away of his sins.

2. To call on the name of Jesus may signify, too, to embrace and follow the religion of Jesus, but not in what manner soever, but in this specific manner, that those who profess it, be in the habit of praying to him whose religion they profess. Whether this be the meaning of calling on the name of the Lord, Acts ix. 14, and ii. 21, is not necessary for us to determine, for both significations equally establish the position that prayers may be offered to Christ. The reason which induces Mr. J. S. to think that the text, Acts ii. 21, 66 Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved," cannot be understood of the actual act of addressing the Lord by supplications, is strange indeed, "because," says he, "no one can suppose that by this alone (prayer) salvation can be procured."

And why not? And does not the Son of God assure, that by prayer we shall obtain all the rest?" Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you; for every one that asketh, receiveth." Matt. vii. 8.

That we may address our supplications to Christ our Lord, is incontrovertible, from St. John, xiv. 14, "If you shall ask me any thing in my name, that I will do," nor have we less

clear scripture evidence to prove that prayers have been actually addressed to him; for what else were those admirable words of his blessed mother but an exalted prayer, "They have no wine," John ii. 3? Did not the apostles pray to him when they said "Lord, save us, we perish," Matt. viii. 25., did not the father of the young man, who had a dumb spirit, pray to him, crying out with tears "I do believe, Lord, help thou my unbelief," Matt. ix. 23.; did not the two blind men crying out and saying, "Son of David have mercy on us," Matt, ix. 27, xv. 22, &c. did not St. Paul exclaim" Lord, what wilt thou have me do," Acts ix. 6. and St. Stephen, " And they stoned Stephen, invoking, and saying: Lord Jesus receive my spirit. And kneeling down, he cried out with a loud voice, saying, Lord lay not this sin to their charge." Acts vii. 59. did not, in fine, the robber on the cross, pray to him, saying, "Lord, remember me when thou shalt come into thy kingdom?" Luke xxiii. 42.

Page 243. "Philip ii. 9, 10, 11, "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name, which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

"The meaning of this passage is very clear," says Mr. J. S. "it is expressive of the exaltation of Jesus, and of the extent and authority of his religion. Every knee is to bow, or God is to be worshipped, in his name. No text is more explicit than this in expressing the superiority of God the Father to Christ. However highly Christ is exalted, we are told it is God who has exalted him."

6.

Vain attempts these! the text itself is too plain, the context shrinks from this awkward torture, and all the creatures in Heaven, upon earth, and in hell, in bending their knees before the adorable name of Jesus, combine in concert to condemn the Unitarian interpretation; the angels in Heaven in adoring the only begotten Son, in compliance with the express injunction of the Father, "And again, when he introduceth the first-begotten into the world, he saith, and let all

the angels of God adore him," Heb. i. 6. Men upon earth, all the nations of the globe, who, for the space of eighteen hundred years have now adored Jesus as the supreme Lord and Master of the universe, according to the prediction of the royal prophet, "Before him the Ethiopians shall fall down, and his enemies shall lick the ground. And all kings of the earth shall adore him; all nations shall serve him." Psal. lxxi. 9, 11. Finally, the devils in hell, who cannot stand the infinite majesty and power of the adorable name of Jesus, and whom the primitive Christians were wont to cast out from possessed persons by the sole invocation of this most holy name, as we learn from St. Justin, in his first Apology for the Christians towards the end of that work.

The genuine sense, therefore, of this important text, is this: The most sacred name (Ines) derived from the Hebrew root y he has saved, signifies saviour, or salvation itself, or saviour by excellence, hence Matth. i. 21, " Thou shalt call his name Jesus, said the angel to Joseph, for he shall save his people from their sins."

This adorable name is above all other names. "For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved." Acts, iv. 12. Why so? Because this ineffable name, Jesus, is the proper name of the incarnate word, or of that man that is at once the only-begotten Son of God and the son of man, true God and true man, Christ Jesus.

In this adorable name every knee is to bend, or every creature in heaven, upon earth, and in hell, is to adore Jesus as God-man, as at once the Son of God and the son of man, by one and the same indivisible act of adoration, because the eternal word and the human nature in Jesus, make but one and the same Christ, because subsisting in and united to one and the same divine person of the word. Here, therefore, is question of an act of supreme adoration, which is due to him, who is at once in the form or nature of a servant, and in the form of God, and who, notwithstanding the distinction of natures, is but one Jesus Christ, and for this reason, every tongue is to confess that the Lord Jesus Christ

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