all truth;" who should "take of the things" of Christ, and "show them unto them;" and who should demonstrate to them that "all the Father hath" is his; that the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father: then they did not, as Mr. G. has rashly asserted, "invariably style him a man," (vol. ii, p. 9,) but unanimously declared his divinity. Matthew announced him to be "God with us," Matt. i, 28. Peter denominated him "Lord of all,” Acts x, 36. Paul asserted, to the Romans, that he "is over all, God blessed for evermore,' Rom. ix, 5; to the Corinthians, that "to us there is one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things," 1 Cor. viii, 6; and that “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself,” 2 Cor. v, 19; to the Ephesians, that he is "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all," that he is "Christ and God," Eph. i, 23; v, 5; to the Philippians, that "he was in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God," Phil. ii, 6; to the Colossians, that " it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell," Col. i, 19; that "in him dwelleth all the fulness of the godhead bodily," Col. ii, 9; that "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 (that) he is before all things, and by him all things consist," Col. i, 16, 17; to Timothy, that "God was manifest in the flesh," 1 Tim. iii, 16; to Titus, that "the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ gave himself for us," Tit. ii, 13; to the Hebrews that "by him God made the worlds," that he is "upholding all things by the word of his power," Heb. i, 2, 3; that "unto the Son he (the Father) saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever," Heb. i, 8; and that ούτος, "he was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. For every house is builded vπо τινος, by some one, but he that built all things is God," Heb. iii, 3, 4. John asserted that he "was God," and that "all things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made," John i, 1, 3; that he " is the true God, and eternal life," 1 John i, 20. Jude spake of him as "the only wise God our Saviour ;”- -"the only Governor God, and our Lord Jesus Christ," Jude 4, 25.

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While they thus unanimously speak of his godhead, they attribute to him those infinite perfections which belong to no being but the Deity. They represent him as being "be. fore all things," Col. i, 17; as having "all power in heaven and on earth," Matt. xxxviii, 28: and therefore be ing in heaven and on earth: as having in him "all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge :" and as “able to save and to destroy," James iv, 12. (See p. 69.) His godhead, therefore, can be denied only on principles which separate between the divine perfections and the divine nature. (See pp. 70, 71.)

On this ascription of divinity and divine perfections to Jesus Christ, the whole system of apostolic doctrine is founded and the latter so necessarily implies the former, that all must stand or fall together. For instance:

:

1. According to the apostles we are to behold "the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," 2 Cor. iv, 6. But how can God be seen in him, if God be not in him? or how can Jesus Christ display to us the glory of the divine perfections, unless he possess them?

2. The apostles refer us to him for pardon, assuring us that he is "exalted a prince and a Saviour, to give forgiveness of sins," Acts v, 31. Who can forgive sins but God only? How then can Jesus forgive sins if he be not God? Must not he who dispenses pardons be supreme? Must not God be in Christ, to reconcile the world to himself?

3. The apostles attribute to him the new creation. Of this new creation man is the principal subject. He is created "after God, in righteousness and true holiness," Eph. iv, 24. But are not wisdom, power, and goodness equal to what were exerted in making man in the divine image, necessary to this purpose? Who but God can reproduce what once was the perfection of the work of God?

4. The apostles inform us that "whoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved,” Rom. x, 13; and address themselves to the Christian world as to "those that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord," 1 Cor. i, 2. But to what purpose is he invoked, unless he be omnipresent, and can in every place hear and answer, omniscient, and can discern all our wants, omnipotent, and therefore able to remove or pre

vent all the evils which we deprecate, and to bestow all the divine blessings which we supplicate?

5. The apostles teach us to expect that he "shall change our vile bodies, and fashion them like unto his own glorious body." How can he effect this, with power less than that which at first "created man out of the dust of the earth?" or unless he were "able to subdue even all things to himself," Phil. iii, 21.

6. The apostles assert that it is he "who shall judge both the quick and the dead," 2 Tim. iv, 1. But how can he judge mankind, unless he have that power which God exclusively asserts, Jer. xvii, 10, the power to search the human heart: unless he be "he that searcheth the heart and trieth the reins of the children of men, to give unto every one as his work shall be ?" How can he judge between God and man, unless he know-what none but God can know the infinite perfections of the divine nature? Without this, how can he know what is due to those perfections, or what is due from them?

Thus is the divinity of Jesus Christ everywhere interwoven with the apostolic system of doctrine.

On

But Mr. G. confidently affirms that St. John, who "was left to censure whatever opinions arose, contrary to those taught by Jesus and his apostles," (vol. ii, p. 10,) has censured none but those of the Gnostics, who denied the proper humanity of Jesus Christ. The question of the true origin and character of the Ebionites, at whose errors, also, both the gospel and the First Epistle of St. John are generally supposed to have been levelled, we leave for the ecclesiastical historians to determine. this subject the reader will do well to consult Bishop Horsley's letters to Dr. Priestley. Whatever the Ebionites were, St. John's gospel begins with the eternity and divinity of the Word: which he asserts in such plain terms that Mr. G. is forced to concede, pro tempore, that "the Word was no other than God himself." (Vol. i, p. 197.) As the pre-existence and divinity of Jesus Christ are thus asserted in the beginning of that book, the proofs of those doctrines make up the substance of it. The evangelist having thus asserted that the eternal and divine "Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us," he subjoins, " And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only

begotten of the Father," John i, 14. He then proceeds to show how his glory was seen, in all the testimonies concerning him, and in all his sayings and miracles, by which his divine nature or his divine perfections were manifested. All these, he professes, he wrote " that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God," John xx, 31. This declaration of his purpose is immediately connected with the confession of faith which Thomas made, (My Lord and my God,) our Lord's approbation of it, and his benediction on those who should believe, like him, on the testimony of his apostles. It is true, a Socinian can see no divinity implied in that phrase, "the Son of God." When his prejudice is removed he will see that St. John, in his first epistle, has not censured the Gnostics only, who denied our Lord's humanity, but those also who denied his Messiahship and his divinity. On the one hand he has indeed said, "Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God, and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof you have heard, that it should come," 1 John iv, 3. But, on the other hand, he has also said, "Now are there many antichrists. They went out from us, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? he is antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son," 1 John ii, 18-22. "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God," 1 John iv, 15. "Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God," 1 John v, 5. "These things have I written unto you, (not merely to show that Jesus Christ was a real man, but) that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God," 1 John v, 13. And that this design might not be misinterpreted, he concludes that epistle with these words, in which he declares the true deity of the Son of God: "We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true: and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life," 1 John v, 20.

The Holy Spirit is never in the sacred Scriptures denominated either a person, or God the Holy Ghost. Our Lord, however, in speaking of him, often gave him the

strongest distinct and personal characters; and to his authority, on this subject, we have made our appeal. (See pp. 117, 118.) He also denominated the Holy Spirit the Spirit of God, Matt. xii, 28, and by that appellation indicated his proper divinity. Now this is precisely the doctrine on which we insist.

On the whole: After Thomas had addressed Jesus Christ as his Lord and his God, and had been commended in the presence of his brethren for this confession of his faith, our Lord gave commandment to his disciples to "teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," Matt. xxviii, 19. This was the summit of what our Lord taught to his disciples, and this institution was a summary of the instruction which he had previously given to them. He did not say that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are three; but he did not make it impiety for us so to count them. It was not necessary to teach that three are three. He did not say these three are one: or that the Father, the Son, or the Holy Ghost is God; but he appointed that, by a religious rite, the faithful shall be devoted to them, though he had also taught that "the Lord our God is one Lord, and him only we should serve."

According to this institution, by which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are held forth as the one object of the faith and obedience of the Christian church, the apostles initiated every believer into this doctrine. And this doctrine, as well as the baptismal vow which was founded on it, they perpetuated by a form of benediction which is a counterpart of the form of baptism : "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all."

In this simple form this great subject was left by Christ and his apostles. It would be arrogance to suppose that any addition which has been made to it is an improvement. The religious controversies of some of the first ages introduced a phraseology to which the sacred writers, we find, were perfect strangers. Such an unscriptural phraseology a Bible Christian might easily be persuaded to relinquish, if the sacrifice were to be made in favour of the truth as it is in Jesus. But the Socinians prohibit a recantation of the former, by identifying it with the latter; and almost