of Jesus Christ. If there be such a thing as drawing a fair inference from sure premises, we may certainly conclude that St. Paul thought Jesus Christ was God.

Let us recapitulate these articles, and let us see the insuperable difficulties, which attend the denial of the divinity of our Lord.

The new testament writers taught the heathens to call Jesus Christ God; however, they only meant to inform them, that Jesus Christ was an extraordinary man. They knew the heathens had for ages been accustomed to deify every extraordinary man; they intended to eradicate this idolatrous custom; and they undertook to do so by putting into their hands the history of a man, whom they called God, and to whom they ascribed ́more and more beneficent acts, than poets, philosophers, and historians had ever thought of ascribing to heathen deities.

The writers of the new testament described Jesus Christ to the Jews; a people zealous to superstition of every name and title of the one living and true God, by those very names and titles, by which that nation had for time immemorial described God; however, they only meant to inform the Jews that Jesus was an extraordinary man!

The writers of the new testament ascribed to Jesus Christ those attributes and perfections, which no mortal had ever pretended before to ascribe to any except to the Almighty God, and they did this in order to shew that he, who possessed these perfections, was a great man!

The writers of the history of Jesus declare, that he created the world, and that he preserves it; that he redeemed the church, and that he sanctifies and saves it; that he is the master of all, and that he shall be judge of all mankind. All these works, the performance of which, requiring infinite perfections, had always been ascribed to God, these writers ascribe to Jesus for the sake of convincing the world that he was an extraordinary man!

The writers of the new testament actually worshipped Jesus Christ THEIRSELVES; they said, THE FIRST MARTYR died invoking him; they declared, that ALL THE ANGELS of God were commanded to worship him; they said, they saw ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands round about the throne, and heard them say, Glory and honour be unto the Lamb for ever and ever; they required EVERY KNEE to bow at the name of Jesus, every knee in heaven, every knee in earth, and every knee under the earth; they demanded this homage to be paid to Christ by men, who had always protested against the paying of such homage to any but God; however, they never intended to persuade men to worship Jesus as God, they only meant to procure a high degree of veneration to him as a very great man!

The writers of the new testament applied a great many prophecies, which foretold works to be performed by Almighty God, to Jesus Christ; they fixed on certain events in his life, and they declared that the production of these events was the accomplishment of the forementioned prophecies: yet

they did not mean to insinuate that Jesus was God Almighty; they only meant, that his doing what the prophets had said another should do, proved him to be the servant of that other, and a very extraordinary man!

The prophets had foretold, that Jesus should destroy idolatry, and bring men to worship the one living and true God of Israel. Jesus and his apostles endeavoured to fulfill these predictions: but, without their foreseeing what would happen, the disciples of Jesus worshipped him, a man, and not the God of Israel, and the bulk of christians have continued to do so for upwards of seventeen hundred years, and are likely to do so to the end of the world.

The Lord Jesus encouraged his followers to believe, that the spirit of truth should abide with them for ever: yet it appears by the event, Jesus Christ did not include in the promise that first great truth of christianity, on which all the rest are founded, the doctrine of his person; the Turks are in possession of this truth, the generality of chris. tians have lost it. It is a point, which christians have always studied in those records, which are alone capable of informing them; it is a point, which Turks have never studied, being destitute of records, and of inclination to procure them; and yet the Turks are in possession of the true notion of Christ's person, and the generality of christians have embraced a false one.

Finally. A great many expressions peculiar to revelation are easy and natural, if the divinity of

Christ be allowed, which, if Christ be a mere man, either have no meaning, or a very absurd one; and yet Jesus is a mere man, and the expressions in question are capable of a very proper meaning by the help of learned and critical remarks, which criticisms, although essential to the understanding of those expressions, can never be understood by those plain readers, for whose sakes the expressions were written !

I appeal to any one of you, my brethren, whether the doctrine of our Lord's divinity be embarrassed with any difficulties equal to these ; and whether these considerations ought not to induce us to allow St. John's proposition, He, WHO WAS MADE FLESH, WAS GOD.

A christian, who admits the truth of this proposition, walks in a plain and easy path. He reasons thus. The inspired writers call Jesus God: therefore he is God. The writers of the new testament describe Jesus by the same names, titles, attributes, and works, by which the prophets described God therefore he is God. Jesus is worshipped by all the host of heaven: Jesus teaches his followers to do the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven therefore I will worship Jesus on earth, as the angels worship him in heaven.

Some gentlemen have seen the evidence of this proposition, and have been forced to allow, that Jesus is God; who yet have endeavoured to explain the meaning of it away, and have allotted him only a delegated deity. Let us take a little circuit in order the more effectually to discover the

truth. We will suppose a plain honest man endeavouring to obtain a right notion of the doctrine of our Saviour's person, with only the help of scripture, and common sense. We will give him six propositions to examine, and hear his conclusions.

PROPOSITION I.

Jesus was an Impostor.

If Jesus were not a good and virtuous man, he was certainly a very wicked person. A man, who could act that part in the world, which he did, must have been either virtuous or vicious in an extreme. Now I am able to prove, that a mind extremely depraved by vice could not have comprehended, much less would it have recommended, such a morality as Jesus Christ taught. Jesus must have been a serious, thoughtful, VIRTUOUS MAN.

PROPOSITION II.

Jesus was a good man, and taught a better morality than any other philosopher had taught.

Jesus was a GREAT as well as a good man. A long succession of prophets foretold his coming. His advent was announced by miraculous events. His life was a perpetual display of beneficent works, and after his death he rose again, and ascended to heaven. Societies, formed under his direction, embracing his doctrine, and practising