Chrift fo inconfiftent. We how view the Almighty the fame, yesterday, to day and forever; by no means changed in his difpofition towards his creatures, but always defigning and working all things. for their good. Here is no need of the felf-contradictory notion of altering an unalterable being; of fatisfying an infinite diffatisfaction; of reconciling a being who was never unreconciled; of producing love in love itself; of caufing an eternal unchangeable friend to be friendly, or of offering a facrifice to the eternal father of our fpirits, to caufe him to love and have mercy on his offspring.

How much more reasonable it is, to fuppofe: surfelves in need of thofe alterations. But unhappily, men have looked at Deity through the medium of a carnal mind, and have formed all their evil tempers in Jehovah; like the deceived aftronomer, who fancied he faw a monfter in the fun, occafioned by a fly on his glass. The creature be-ing in the medium of fight, was fuppofed to be in the object beheld; and though it was fmall in itfelf, and would have appeared fo, could it have been feen where it was; yet, carrying it into the fun, it magnified to an enormous fize. So it is with our vile and finful paffions, could we behold them in ourselves, and view them as they are, they would appear in their finite and limited fphere; but the moment we form those paffionsin Deity, they magnify to infinity. Let a council of aftronomers be called, who are all deceived by the fly; let them confult on the bignefs of the monfter, calculate how long it has been growing,. and how foon it may wholly abforb the fun; let them endeavor to account for its caufe, and analize its conftitution, inform us of the degrees of

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heat its lungs fuftain, and how many degrees hotter it is than iron can be heated in a furnace. But here is room for difagreement, which may give rife to great difputations. To one, it appears much larger than to another; they cannot judge. alike, with regard to its age, nor how much larger it will grow; fome are ready to dispute its being a living creature, fancying it may be an opaque body. They are all agreed, that there is a phenomenon in the fun, but difpute, and even quarrel, about its peculiarities. What would become of all their calculations, the moment they fhould discover the fly? All would be gone, at once, and the fun would be relieved of the bur den of fo ponderous a monster.

How many various calculations have Divines made, on the fury and wrath which they have difcovered in God! How much they have preached and written, on the awful fubject; and how many ways they have invented, to appeafe fuch wrath and vengeance! When we come to fee the error, and find thofe principles in ourselves, all thofe notions vanish at once. The fly on the glass. might eafily have been removed, or deftroyed; but had there been a monster in the fun, what calculations could mortals have made, to remove it? Enmity in man may be overcome with love; but, did it exift in God, it must be infinite and eternal.

To conclude, the fuppofition, that Deity receives the atonement, or any poffible advantage from the gofpel plan, whereby an alteration is effected in him, for the better, amounts to the inexplicable abfurdity of making omniscience more wife, omnipotence more powerful, juftice more juft; and of giving love the power of loving, of making mercy more merciful, truth more true, and good

nefs better; for these are the seven spirits of God, which are in all the earth, and they are without the fhadow of turning.

Having fhown, as I hope, to the reader's fatiffaction, the neceffity of atonement, and where fatisfaction must be made and reconciliation take place, I fhall pass to make fome inquiries into

The perfonage of the Mediator who makes the Atonement, and his ability for performing the work.

I have already ftated fome of the abfurdities con tained in the opinions of moft chriftians, refpecting the Mediator; I fhall now be a little more par ticular on the subject.

I fhall contend, that the Mediator is a created dependant being. That he is a created being, is proved from Rev. iii. 14, where he is faid to be "the beginning of the creation of God." His dependancy is proved, by his frequent prayers to the Father. That he acknowledged a fuperior, when on earth, is evident, from many paffages which might be quoted. See St. John v. 19. Christ here fays, "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he feeth the Father do." He acknow ledged a fuperior in knowledge, fee Matthew xxiv. 36. "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. This paffage implies, that he did not know of that day himself. St. Mark is ftill more explicit, fee chap. xiii. 32.. "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." And further, that he acknowledges a fuperior, even in his rifen glory, may be proved from his own words to his fervant John, on the Isle of Patmos, fee Rev. iii. 12. "Him that overcometh, will E

make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he fhall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerufalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and I will write upon him my new name.' Four times, in the above paffage, he acknowledges a being whom he worfhips. Again, fee Pfalm xlv. 7. "Thou lovest righteousness and hateft wickedness, because God, thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladnefs above thy fellows." The reader will obferve, I have ventured to put the word because, in room of the word therefore, in this quotation; but I have not done it, without the authority of a former tranflation. The difference is fo effential, I cannot dispense with it. Obferve, the writer of the Pfalm addreffes one God, and fpeaks, in his addrefs, of another, fee verfe 6," Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever." This God is dependant on another, expreffed in the 7th verfe, Because God, thy God hath anointed thee, &c. That the names, God, Lord, and everlasting Father, are applied to Chrift, I fhall not difpute; neither fhall I difpute the propriety of it; But I do not admit, that they mean the felf-exiftent Jehovah, when applied to the Mediator. In the quotation from the Pfalm, Chrift is faid to be anointed above his fellows. Fellows are equals. Who are Chrift's equals? Perhaps the reader may fay, they are the Father and the Holy Spirit; but I can hardly believe, that Chrift was anointed with the oil of gladness above his Father, neither do I believe any one will contend for it. I am fenfible, that God fpeaks, by the prophet, of fmiting the man who is his fellow; but this fellowship muft be different from the one juft spoken of, and stands only in an official sense. The

reader will then afk, if I would confider the Mediator no more than equal with men? I anfwer, yes, were it not, that our Father and his Father, our God and his God, hath anointed him above his fellows. See Phillippians ii. 9. See Phillippians ii. 9. "Wherefore God alfo hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name." For this exaltation and name, he was dependant on his Father, and received them from him. This name, which is above every name, is the name of God, named on Jefus. It will be faid, Chrift taught the people, that he and his Father were one. I grant he did, and if that prove him to be effentially God, the argument muft run farther than the objector would wish to have it. See St. John xvii. 11. Chrift prays that his difciples may be one, even as be and the Father are one. The oneness of the Father and Son, is their union and agreement in the great work which he has undertaken; and he prayed that his difciples might be as well agreed in the gofpel of falvation, as he and his Father were, fee verfe 18. "As thou haft fent me into the world, fo have I alfo fent them into the world." The Father of all mercies font his Son Jefus into the world, for a certain purpofe; and there was a perfect agreement between them, in all things. He fays, he came not to do his own will, but the will of him who fent him. And again, My meat and drink, is to do the will of him who fent me, and to finish his work.

The Prefident of the United States fends a minifter to negociate a peace at a foreign court; this minifter muft conduct according to the authority which he derives from him, by whom he is fent ; and as far as he does, he is, in his official character, the power that fent him. It is evident, Chrift re