law, there is the Shekinah among them; * you christians shall say, where two or three are gathered together in Christ's name, there is he in the midst of them. You are my body, and you shall be animated with the fulness of me, who fill all in all.+ The reverend Mr, Lindsey says, "that the Lord Jesus is intrusted with a mighty extensive power and dominion for the good of his church and people, is plainly and expressly revealed to us, Matt. xxviii. 18. 20. John xiv, &c. How and in what manner he exerciseth this power is wholly unrevealed, and therefore unsearchable by us, as much as the way and manner of God's providence, under which Christ acteth, and which superintends and over-rules all things." So then! This scheme does not answer its end; like ours it proposes some articles to the belief of its professors, which it does not condescend to explain. I give, however, the preference to the old system of Christ's divinity, because, while it requires me to believe the mighty dominion of Jesus, it reveals his godhead, and so accounts for his exercise of it: whereas the new scheme of his mere humanity gives him a dominion in all worlds, while it confines his person and presence, and consequently his influence, to one place, and so leaves his government, not only unsearchable and unrevealed, but absolutely impossible. The believer of Christ's divinity speaks consistently he says, the man Jesus is in one place at one time; but the deity united to the man fills heaven and earth. The believer of Christ's mere humanity says, the man Jesus is confined to one place at one time, yet he exerciseth a dominion over all places at the same time; and when we ask, how can these things be? we are told, they are unrevealed and unsearchable. Who believes mysteries now! Whose faith is fitted to transubstantiation now! If the divinity of Jesus be allowed, we can believe, that he, whom the heavens retain until the times of the restitution of all things, stood by Paul at the castle at Jerusalem; || that he, who, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin, FOR EVER SAT DOWN on the right hand of God, ¶ APPEARED unto Saul to * Poli Synops. in loc. † Eph. i. 23. † Apol. p. 136. § Acts iii. 21. Ibid. xxiii. 10, 11, ¶ Heb. x. 12. make him a witness both of the things, which he had seen, and of the things in which he WOULD APPEAR again unto him.* Now I understand how he can be present with his apostles in heaven, and with their successors on earth;† making war upon the wicked on earth, while he appears in the presence of God, making intercession for us.‡ Page 22. Compare the works of Jesus with the claims of Jehovah. 1. Had I been born a Canadian savage, I should certainly have thought, that the GREAT SPIRIT CREATED the world.§ Had I been born a Greenlander, I should have said, " My kajak did not make itself. More skill is displayed in the structure of the meanest bird, than in that of the best kajak, and more still in that of man than in the composition of either. Certainly there must be some Being, who MADE all these things, a Being that always was, and can never cease to be." 2. These dictates of nature, ideas of a creating first cause, obtained by sensation and reflection, I find to have been the ideas of civilized heathens. Quisquis fuit ille deorum Cœlo terras, et terris abscidit undas, Et liquidum spisso secrevit ab aere cœlum.¶ 3. The inspired oracles of Judaism preserve and refine, expand and explain these ideas. Job the Arabian prince, and David the royal prophet, Solomon the wisest, and Amos the meanest of mankind, unite in saying to me, seek him, who maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: who calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out on the face of the earth, the LORD is his name.† *Acts xxvi. 16. † 2 Cor. v. 8. Matt, xxviii. 20. ‡ Rev. xix. 11. Heb. ix. 24. § Charlevoix's Voyage to Canada, Let. xxiii. Crantz's Hist. of Greenland, vol. i. b. iii. c. 5. ¶ Ovidii Metam. i. 1. 1. 17. 2. 1. &c. * Orpheus ap. Just. de Monarch Clem. Alex. Strom. v. † Amos. v. 8. 4. The new testament confirms me yet more, if possible. It tells me, the invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. What invisible objects does a Creator prove by creating? His own eternal power and Godhead. St. Paul's CREATOR is the incorruptible God, who is to be worshipped and served, and who is God blessed for ever.* Yet this same St. Paul affirms, all things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, were CREATED by Jesus Christ, and for him. The divinity of Jesus may be rested on this article alone. St. Paul's decision is final; he, who made all things, is God.‡ 5. There is no way of getting over this evidence. If some form a creed, and say, the new testament ascribes to Jesus only a figurative creation by the gospel; Dr. Clarke will reply, nothing can be more forced and unnatural than such an interpretation.§ If others say, the Father first created Christ, and then empowered Christ to create the universe; we reply, create the universe who would, he, who created all things is God. In vain they talk of a subordinate instrumental god, the Creator himself denies the idea. Thus saith the Lord, that created the heavens; God himself, that formed the earth; I am the Lord and there is none else. Is there a God beside me? Yea there is no God, I know not any.|| I the Lord made all things, I stretched forth the heavens ALONE. I spread abroad the earth BY MYSELF.¶ Reduce my Creator to a creature who can, make creeds who will, my faith shall never be circumscribed within the narrow dreary dens of their words, it shall soar in the wide expanse of divine revelation. Nescit enim Cæsar, (quamvis deus omnia norit) Ultimus hic qua sit conditione locus! Magna tenent illud numen molimina rerum; Hæc est cœlesti pectore cura minor.* Qui gentes omnes, mariaque, et terras movet, * Rom. i. 20. 23, 24. † Col. i. 16. Heb. iii. 4. Doct. N. 550. Isa. xlv. 18. xliv. 8. ¶ Isa. xliv. 24. de Pont. El. iii. † Plaut, de Rudente Prol. § Script. * Ovid. Page 26. The scriptures claim religious worship for JesusChrist. 1. By Jesus Christ in this article I mean the Godhead that united itself to the man, whom we commonly call Jesus. The man is not deified by this union, consequently the manhood is entitled to no religious worship. The humanity is, so to speak, the temple in which the deity dwells. 2. The scriptures distinguish civil respect from religious homage; but it knows nothing of supreme and subordinate religious worship. 3. Religious worship supposes its object in possession of all those inconceivable perfections, which constitute the eminent greatness of the Supreme Being. The scriptures ascribe this eminence to Jesus. In Christ dwelleth ALL the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 4. Religious worship supposes its object displaying all those communications, which constitute the eminent goodness of the Supreme Being. The scriptures ascribe those communications to Jesus. He is the Creator, the Preserver, the Redeemer, the felicity of mankind. 5. Religious worship supposes its object holding and exercising universal empire. The scriptures ascribe universal empire to Jesus. He reigns over heaven, and earth, and hell. 6. Right to religious worship is incommunicable, because supreme greatness, supreme goodness. and supreme empire, the grounds and reasons of worship, are incommunicable. When we suppose these excellencies in any being, we have obtained an idea of what we call God, and that of a creature is lost. The communication of Godhead is impossible in the nature of things; it would be to make that, which had a beginning, have no beginning, and so on. Worship is action founded on reason; when the reason is absent, the action must not appear. 7. God, who has a natural right to the worship of his creatures, may acquire, and does actually acquire, new rights to that worship every day by his exuberant goodness in favour of his worshippers. It is no objection therefore to Christ's natural rights, that he hath acquired by his beneficent acts in our favour new rights. We bow the knee to him as well be cause of his natural dignity, as because he tasted death for every man. 8. Jesus Christ is worshipped by those celestial intelligences, who, having never sinned, derived no salvation from him; and who, being of an order superior to the human, could derive no protection, much less creation, from a nature lower than their own. Their worship therefore, is founded on his deity. What odd propositions are these? Jesus Christ is a mere man. Jesus Christ created angels. creature created creatures more excellent than himself. That is to say, a 2. When it is objected to us, all power is given to Jesus, therefore he is not God: We reply, all power is given to Jesus, therefore he is God. We prove our conclusion thus. The gift of all power in heaven and earth either means,in the sense of our opponents, the gift of an empire to govern, or the gift of ability to govern it.The first alone is impracticable, the last is impossible. The gift of empire, without the gift of ability, is the putting of a sceptre into the hand of an infant. The gift of ability is impossible; for the exercise of ALL power in heaven and in earth requires an infinity of perfections; the governor of all worlds must be in all worlds at the same time; he must maintain the order of his empire by an universal all pervading action, by an ubiquity proper to God, and incommunicable to creatures. The word give is equivocal. Our opponents take it for the conferring of a right: we take it for the acknowledgement of a right. The word is very vague, and wo be to the system, that rests on its precise etymology. What a fine inference is this! Magistrates give glory and strength, and worship unto Jehovah; therefore Jehovah is not God; at most he is only a subordinate God; for he derives glory from magistrates! All power is given to me, said our Redeemer; that is, all heaven allow what the Jews deny, that I am Lord of all. The Father hath given me power over all flesh; that is, the Father allows and approves of my right as God, and he has constituted the display of it in me, Jesus, the man. 10. It is asked, if Jesus be God, why did he say no more about it? We answer, Jesus never expressly said, he was the Messiah in Judea; when people enquired, he referred them to his works. If Jesus be God, we can shew a reason why he |