Next, Jesus being true God, is worthy of divine honours, "Every knee is to bow at his ineffable name," and that not only with respect to his divine, but also to his human nature, because the nature of man in Christ although created, still as it subsists in, and is hypostatically united to the divine person of the Word, is worthy of the same divine adorations which are due to the divine nature; in a word, because although there be two distinct natures in Christ, the divine and human, still as these two natures subsist in one and the same divine Person, they are both inseparably to be adored by the same indivisible acts of adoration and worship; the Son of God and the Son of man being one and the same Jesus Christ, on account of the hypostatical union, one and the same Son of God and Son of man, true God and true man.

Rev. J. Sparks* thinks to have removed every difficulty by the following exposition, " Every knee is to bow, or God is to be worshipped, in his name, that is, in conformity with the spirit and rules of his religion. No text is more explicit 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."

Such is J. Sparks' interpretation, but where is the intepreter's sanction? Where his authority and the grounds on which he advances his fanciful expositions? The constant belief and practice of the christian world for not less than eighteen hundred years stares in his face; for it is an undeniable fact, that. all tribes,people, and tongues from the æra of christianity down to this present time have uniformly believed Christ to be God, and have as such adored him: every knee bowed, and still bows at this name," which is above every name of those that are in heaven, on earth, and in hell." Does J. Sparks seriously think that it would be the part of a rational mind to listen to a bold writer, who at random advances, without a shadow of ground, whatever comes into his head, in preference to the venerable, the weighty, the overwhelming autho

VI. Letter, page 253, 254.

rity of all past generations? J. Sparks is assuredly too modest to have such exorbitant pretensions, and good logic would be too angry with us, were we to act so contrary to every principle either philosophical or theological. J. Sparks will tell us, as he does elsewhere, that he, in unison with his colleagues,thinks so; that the text may, absolutely speaking, bear such a construction'; he will quote great names which in his estimation are, as it were, standards to go by, the name of a Grotius, of a Le Clerc, of a Newcome, of a Vetstein, a Clarke, a Whitby, a Rosenmüller, and what not? But he does not reflect that the question at issue is not at all to know what he or his associates, or any other Socinian or Unitarian writer fancy on this or any other subject, but to know what the God of truth has revealed on it: for it is divine truth we are searching after, it is the determinate meaning intended by the Holy Ghost in this or that passage we are enquiring into, not the uncertain, the wavering and floating opinions of men: for it matters very little what even the most learned men might have thought, or at present think on the signification of any scriptural passage, but it is of infinite importance for mankind, to know with absolute certainty what God was pleased to reveal in it. Now, J. Sparks, with his associates, would have reason to smile at our imbecility, were we simple enough to apply to them in order to know what the Holy Ghost meant to convey to the minds of men eighteen hundred years ago. Such procedure they would justly consider as silly and ridiculous, as if in the case of a doubt arising about the right meaning of an ancient law, we were to consult some young barristers, instead of remounting to the very origin of things, to the very declarations of the legislators and to those who conversed with them, and were charged with the promulgation of it. What then does wisdom direct us to do in the emergency of an ambiguity on the true meaning of any part of the sacred writings, and what means does it point out to us to arrive at the revealed truth, hidden in the Word of God? No other than to interrogate him who has given the revelation, and those that have promulgated it; no other, for instance, in our present case, than to

transport ourselves to the very time in which St. Paul wrote his Epistle to the Philippians, and to listen to the explanation which he gave to the primitive christians of his own writings. For there can be no doubt but the Apostles instructed the first generation of the church, in what sense they were to understand their own writings; since this unquestionably belonged to the faithful discharge of that high commission which was intrusted to them by their divine Master, saying, "Go ye and teach all nations." Math. ultimo. But how shall we know what meaning Christ attached to his divine doctrine, and the Apostles to their own writings; for instance, St. Paul, to the very passage under consideration," that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow," &c.? By interrogating the belief and practice of the primitive christians who saw him, heard him, conversed and lived with him. Now, what did the first professors of christianity learn from St. Paul respecting the pas sage in question? They learnt from him that which they have transmitted to their posterity. And what is that? It is nothing more nor less than what the christian world has hitherto believed and practised, and what it still believes and practices, viz. that Jesus Christ is true God and true man, and that of course he is to be adored, and that "every knee is to bow at his adorable name, of those that are in heaven, upon earth, and in hell."

"However highly Christ is exalted," Mr. Sparks continues, we are told it is God, who has exalted him :" whence Mr. Sparks infers, that "God the Father is superior to Christ." To Christ as man, I readily grant it, because in his human nature Christ positively declares that the "Father is greater than He," but it would be a strange kind of reasoning to conclude, that because Christ is inferior to the Father as to his human nature, he is so likewise with respect to his divine nature, or that besides the human Christ has no other nature, or that in fine that same human nature is not to be adored together with the divinity of Christ, because, although but a created being when considered abstractedly and in itself, still, as that created be ing subsists in, and is inseparably and indivisibly Vol. II.-No. VIII.

united in virtue of the hypostatical union with the divine person of the Word, it is to be adored by one and the same divine worship; for the hypostatical union of the two natures in Christ has necessarily this effect, that God and man, the Son of God and the Son of man, are one and the same Jesus Christ, because subsisting in one and the same divine person.

Let the reader bear in mind that the above answer is equally applicable to all the Unitarian objections against our holy doctrine. Objections, indeed, which all originate in a profound ignorance and mistaken conception of the said mysteries, so that he that is but slightly acquainted with ecclesiastical antiquity and the nature of our mysteries, is at a loss to conceive how scholars of that eminent character, as Messrs. Channing, Professor Norton, Jared Sparks, &c. are, could urge with so much seriousness such silly and insignificant objections, as a christian child solidly instructed in his religion is, at first sight, able to resolve. Indeed, I am inclined to think, that had our Unitarian writers given a serious attention, I do not say, to all the deep and impressive homilies which the great St. Leo, who in the middle of the sixth century adorned the chair of St. Peter not less by the sanctity of his life than the solid brilliancy of his talents, has left us on the mysteries of the Trinity and the incaration; had they, I say, only attentively perused the admirable Epistle of this great Pontiff to St. Flavian, Bishop of Constantinople, they would have been · ashamed of their own work; for they would have perceived, that the flood of that heavenly light which flashes forth from every sentence of that luminous comment, is of itself suffi cient to disperse the mists, which Unitarian writings are intended to thicken around our divine mysteries.

The Apostle there

VI. Testimony.

Colossians, ii. 9.

speaking of Christ says, "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead, corporally." There is not a word in this text that has not particular weight to

prove the divine nature and essence of Christ. First, it is said, "all the fulness of the Godhead," not a portion only, not simply some participation, consisting either in grace, or miracles, or other gifts, but " the fulness," that is, the totality of the divinity, or as the Greek text has it, of the "Godhead," the fulness not of some divine perfection only, but "of all fulness," that is to say, of the whole Deity. Next, it is said, "dwelleth in him," that is, not only outwardly attends him, not only is in him by a moral union, as Nestorius taught, but "dwelleth in him," i. e. is intrinsically inherent in him, and that" corporally," or, in other words, by a true, physical, and hypostatical union, by which "the Word was made flesh." St. John, i. 14.

VII. Testimony.

Hebrews, i. 3.

Christ here is called by the Apostle," the splendour of his glory, and the figure of the substance of God;" in the Greek xágáxrng "of his substance," or, as he says to the Colossians, i. 15. "the image of the invisible God," but what is the character of substance, the image of the invisible God, but the most perfect and substantial image of God; but if so, Jesus Christ is true God; therefore, &c.

THIRD ARGUMENT.

CCXII. From the Divine Attributes which are Predicated of Jesus Christ.

In the old law God is used to be particularly described under the following titles and characteristics, viz. He is called the Creator of all things, the First and the Last, the King of Glory, the Searcher of Hearts, the Lord and Redeemer of Israel, the Judge, our King, God the most High, the All-powerful God; but all these characteristics are attributed to Christ in the new law, as it is manifest from the following passages.

Coloss. i. 15. Christ is called "the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature: for in him were all things created."