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It cannot be a matter of furprize, that a being, defcribed by them as a fuper-angelic fpirit, fuperior to the highest order of angels, and excelling them all in wisdom and understanding, himself excelled by the one felf-exiftent God alone, fhould be qualified to fubmit to an excruciating death, rather than commit fin, neglect his duty, or defert the cause of God's love and goodnefs for the falvation of man. We may rather venture to declare, that this extraordinary pre-existent incarnate Deity, this demi God, or God man, would have been inexcufably reprehenfible, if he had been found unfaithful in the difcharge of the merciful divine commiffion, with which he was intrusted. But, admitting, for argument sake, that your Meffiah was fuch a God-man, in that cafe, the abfurdity of his propofing himself as an example to be imitated by his difciples, who were mere men, is fo glaring, that it may well be termed truly exemplary: And yet he exprefsly informs them, that he leaves them an enfample," and injoins them to follow his fteps.'

It is true indeed, that we are enjoined to be perfect, even as our heavenly father

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is perfect,' that is, not abfolutely fo, for he alone is all-perfect, but relatively, or to the extent of human perfection. But that we may not misunderstand our Lord, as though he meaned, that we fhould follow his example in the like general and limited fenfe, the evangelift John particularly directs us to copy Chrift in that higheft inftance of his obedience, his death, viz. He,' Chrift, laid down his life for us; and we ought alfo to lay down our lives for the brethren,' John iii. 16. if by fo doing, we can promote their welfare, or the goodnefs of the Chriftian caufe. Accordingly, many witneffes to the truth of the Gofpel have, like the proto-martyr, Jefus, fealed their teftimony with their blood, have cheerfully fubmitted to death, the most severe trial of their conftancy, rather than deny the truth of this merciful difpenfation of God to man. But, in this most fignal instance of their love of God, they being mere men, and therefore, according to the Arian hypothefis, intelligent beings of an order lower than Chrift, have furpaffed the higher being, the God-man, Jefus Chrift, in moral worth and excellence; and instead of their looking up to him as their great exemplar,

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emplar, he should look down on them with reverence and aftonishment, and with a blush acknowledge, that they, bis inferiors, in mental abilities, are not only his equals, in the practice of the most effential point of obedience to the will of God, but his fuperiors in this refpect, and in a ratio proportioned to the elevated rank the Arians fuppofe him to hold, among created intelligent beings, above that of men, and, confequently, in a ratio immeasurably great, in as much as he, is fuppofed by the Arians to be a being inexpreffibly transcending every class of rational creatures in understanding and knowledge, and fubordinate to none, in any one natural perfection, his own Creator, the one fupreme God, excepted.

I should think this just representation of the unavoidable confequences of the preexiftent hypothefis of the Arians can have no other effect than to expofe the great abfurdity of it, even in their own estimation, and to convince them that Jesus Christ was a non-pre-exiftent being, and a very man ; who having exhibited, throughout the whole tenor of his life, fufferings, and death,

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the uniform conduct of a man without fin, and without guile, with great propriety, and a manifest consistency, injoins his difciples and brethren, or fellow-men, to imitate the illuftrious example he has fet them, in the complete practice of every species of moral rectitude.

On the other hand, the pre-existent subordinate Jehovah, or little God, and postexiftent God-man of the Arians, could not be an example, either to men, angels, or any other class of rational creatures throughout the univerfe; as alfo, admitting Jefus, on the general Socinian fcheme, to be fupernaturally born of a virgin, he could only be an example to a fpecies of creatures thus miraculously created like himself. But, as well in these two fuppofed cafes, as on the Athanafian plan, being confeffedly without a compeer, or having none like to, or coordinate with himself, he could not become an example to any one being whatever, in the ftrict literal and abfolute fenfe, in which Jefus Chrift propofes himself to men for i their imitation,charging them to follow him, not at a distance, longo intervallo, as Iulus did Æneas, but paffibus æquis, exactly and completely

completely in every particular, the fignal

inftance of his obedience unto death not only not excepted, but expressly injoined.

On the footing then, as well of reason, as of Scripture, which never contradict, but ever fupport each other, the non-pre-exiftence and the natural conjugal birth of the man Chrift Jefus are uncontrovertibly established. There is one particular circumftance, which now occurs to me, in the fuppofed miraculous conception of Mary, which I think muft fully expofe its philofophical forgery. All the works wrought by the mighty power of God,given to Mofes and Chrift, in confirmation of the truth of their respective divine miffions, which are ufually ftiled miracles, or wonders, because they are produced in an extraordinary manner, and inftantaneously without the ufual procefs of the intermediate fteps obfervable in the common established courfe of things, were exhibited in open day-light, in the face of the world, that is, in the prefence of a multitude of eyewitneffes to thefe marvellous tranfactions." But this pretended miracle of the supernatural conception was, like the miracles of

Gregory

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