Epistle of Paul, translates this verse, "Of them, as to his fleshly extraction, Christ is come, he who is over all, God, be blessed forever, Amen." The ability and fidelity of this writer will not be disputed. The Apostle, after enumerating the blessings of the Israelites, says at the close, "God be blessed for it.Amen." He adds a kind of doxology.

6. I Tim. iii, 16. Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit,

&c.

[a] This passage, like No. 4, is a corruption of the text of scripture. The true reading is, "Which was manifest in the flesh," &c. Sir Isaac Newton wrote a treatise to prove that this text and another (I John v, 7.) were corruptions of scripture. The best proof that this is the fact, is, that all learned and candid Trinitarians admit it.

7. Hebrews i, 8. "Unto the Son, he saith, Thy throne, Oh God, is forever and ever."

[a] If this passage is rightly translated, it is evident that the word God is here applied in the inferior sense, for in the same chapter we find plain proofs of the inferiority of Christ to the Father. Verse 2: "whom he hath appointed heir of all things.' v. 4: "being made so much better than the angels," "he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." v. 9: "God, even thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." He then who is called God, has himself a God, and has also fellows, i. e. equals, companions.

[b] Many learned scholars, for example, Gilbert Wakefield, contend that the true reading both of the Hebrew and Greek is "God is thy throne forever and ever."

We have thus considered briefly the seven passages in which Christ seems to be called God. We have seen 1, That not one of them is from our Savior's own words; 2, That two of the most important, viz: Acts xx, 28, and I Tim. iii, 16, are, by the consent of the best Trinitarian writers, perversions of the text of scripture: 3, That three more, Isaiah ix, 6, Rom. ix, 5, Heb. i, 8, can be translated without violence or forcing so as to convey quite a different idea, and 4, That the other two, John i, 1 and John xx, 28, do not necessarily imply that Christ was God. We will now consider another class of texts.

II. PASSAGES IN WHICH CHRIST SEEMED TO IMPLY AN EQUALITY WITH GOD.

8. John x, 30. "I and my father are one."

[a] Christ himself explains himself in the 36th verse to have

meant merely that he "was the son of God." It is remarkable that Christians should have followed the Jews in perverting his words to imply that he was God, and not have noticed that he himself had denied that he had so taught.

[b] John xvii, 20, 21. Christ prays for his apostles that they might be one with him, just as he is one with God.

9. John xiv, 9. "He that hath seen me hath seen the father.” [a] In the 11th and 12th verse he himself explains that his meaning is, that he is in the Father and the Father in him, and that his works and words are God's.

III. CHRIST BEFORE ABRAHAM, &C.

10. John viii, 58. "Before Abraham was, I am."

11. John xvii, 5. "The glory I had with thee before the world was.

99

[a] The fact of Christ's preëxistence would not prove him to be God. Many Unitarians believe that he preëxisted, and created the world.

[b] Or he may have existed in the counsel of God-thus, Jer. 1, 5, "Before I formed thee I knew thee." I Peter i, 20, i, Christ "who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you."

Rev. xiii, 8, "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Eph. I, 4, "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world."

IV. CHRIST SAID TO BE THE CREATOR.

12. Coloss. i, 16. For by him were all things created, that are in Heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, &c.

[a] The question is, did Christ create by his own power, or by power derived from God? Was he originally and independently, or instrumentally the Creator? If the first, he is the Supreme God; if the second, he is God's agent in this great work. Solomon built the temple, the workmen also built the temple, but the one was the original builder, the others his instruments. Therefore, that Christ is called a creator does not prove him to be God till we learn whether he created by his own power or by derived power.

[6] The verse before would show that Christ was not the original Creator, for he is himself a creature-verse 15, "The first born of every creature." And verse 19th teaches that his power was derived, "For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.”

[c] Other passages confirm this view. Thus, Heb. i, 1, 2, "God-has spoken unto us by his son-by whom also he made the worlds." I Cor. viii, 5, "To us there is but one God, the Father, or whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, By whom are all things, and we by him." The same preposition is used in the two texts, (dia) expressing instrumentality.

V. MISCELLANEOUS TEXTS.

13. Philippians ii, 5, 6, 7, 8. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself," &c.

[a] The context refutes the idea that this passage was meant to teach that Jesus Christ was equal with God. For in the very next verse we read, "Wherefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every other name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, &c.—and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Has God highly exalted God, and given the Most High a name? &c.

[b] The phrase "thought it not robbery to be equal with God," would be without meaning if Christ was God-it would then be "thought it not robbery to be equal with himself.".

Neither should it be an example of humility surely, (which the apostle is here inculcating by Christ's example) not to think it robbery to be equal with God.

[c] The true translation of the passage as admitted by learned Trinitarian writers is this: "Who being in the likeness or image of God, did not violently endeavor after equality (or likeness) with God." Jesus Christ was in the world, the image of the invisible God-God's representative, the highest honor created being could obtain-yet he did not think this high honor a thing to be violently contended for, but meekly bowed like a mere man to the cruelties and sufferings of the cross. He laid aside in his last hours the glories he had before manifested by mighty words and actions. He did not cling eagerly to his miraculous powers, but laid them aside. No attentive reader of the gospel, but must have been struck with this very feature in the closing scenes of the life of Jesus. All his outward glory departs-the inward, spiritual beauty of his character is heightened, but there is no more display of mirac

ulous energy over nature or men.

tle alludes here.

To this, no doubt, the apos

14. Acts vii, 59. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!

[a] The word God is inserted by our English translators, as may be seen by its being in italics.

[b] That Stephen, who saw his master standing in the open Heavens, should call upon him, was quite natural, but does not prove either that he is God, or that he is to be worshipped by those who do not enjoy such a vision. To ask a favor of a person whom we see, is not prayer. Prayer is the worship of the invisible.

[c] That Jesus was not believed to be God by Stephen is evident from his own words, v. 56, where he says that he sees Jesus standing on the right hand of God.

[d] Whether we are to pray to Christ or not, depends on his own commands. These appear explicit. (See Luke xi, 1, 2. John iv, 23. John xxi, 23.)

15. Rev. i, 8. "I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."

[a] That this is spoken by God, and not by Jesus Christ, appears from verse 4th and 5th, where John invokes grace from him "which is, and which was, and which is to come," "and from Jesus Christ."

A few other verses, together with these, will be noticed in the following table.

SCRIPTURE COMPARED WITH SCRIPTURE.

TRINITARIAN PROOF TEXTS. Isaiah ix, 6. Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

John xx, 28. My Lord and my God!

John i, 1. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

Verse 14. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

John x, 30. I and my Father are one.

EXPLAINED BY SCRIPTURE.

I Cor. viii, 5, 6. For though there be that are called Gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be Gods many and Lords many), but to us there is but one God, the Father, &c.

John x, 35. He called them Gods, to whom the word of God came.

II Cor. v, 19. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. John v, 19. The son can do nothing of himself.

John xiv, 10. The Father, that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

Verse 28. My Father is greater than I. John xvii, 21. That they all may be one, as thou Father art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.