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not consider Christ as merely his natural descendant, but as a Being of superior dignity. This our Lord would not have done, had he been a mortal man; neither would he have left the Jews under a misapprehension of his meaning, when they said, "How is it that he saith, I came down from heaven?" The candour of our Lord would surely have induced him to undeceive them, if they had misunderstood his words. Again, in that long discourse, which he held with the Jews in the Treasury, though they were perplexed at his saying, “I know whence I am,” and “ I am not of this world," he was so far from explaining away his words, that he concluded with this memorable declaration : "Before Abraham was, I am.” }

The same train of sentiment runs through the writings of his Apostles and Evangelists. John declares, that the Word was with God in the be ginning; that the world was made by him; that he became flesh, and dwelt among men.' The author of Hebrews says, that "he was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, and took part of flesh and blood, that he might taste of death for every man;*" phrases that would be totally inapplicable to a mere man. Lastly, it is expressly said, that "by him were all things created;" and this in several places. I

* Heb. ii. 9, 14.

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shall at present add only one quotation more, which assuredly cannot, in any sense, be applied to a mortal man. "He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every Creature; for by him were all things created, that are in heaven and in earth; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist."*

These are a few of the Texts, which speak directly of the existence of Christ previous to his incarnation. The indirect expressions implying the same thing, and taking it for granted, are too numerous to be recited. I shall only mention one, which our Lord evidently applies to himself. In the parable of the "householder, who planted a vineyard;" the expressions; "they will reverence my Son ;" and "this is the heir: come let us kill him; and the inheritance shall be ours;" manifestly imply, that Christ was a person of superior rank, dignity and birth to the prophets; or servants, who had been sent before; and whom the husbandmen or Jews had put to death. The passages of both descriptions occur so frequently, that, though a degree of doubt were thrown on some, the remainder would be more than sufficient to establish, the Doctrine: but if, by any degree of critical ingenuity, the meaning of them all could be rendered doubtful, we must abandon all confidence in the signification of language, and

*Col. i. 15.

all faith in the Word of God. The same per version of meaning, which has been attempted with respect to some of these Texts, would ex tract any meaning from any set of words, that would best suit the purpose of the critic. But even this distortion of particular Texts, is not thought sufficient to invalidate this Doctrine; for some who deny it are forced, at the same time, to expunge the commencement of Matthew and Luke, and this without any warrant or authority from manuscripts.2

Beside the express declarations of Scripture, the whole tenor of Revelation implies the Superior Nature of Christ, and would be inconsistent and unaccountable on any other supposition. This will appear, whether we take a view of History or Prophecy.

We have every reason to believe, that the Patriarchal and Mosaical Dispensations were con-: ducted, under God, by the agency of one supereminent Being, denominated the Angel of the Covenant, the Angel of the Lord, and Jehovah; and we are expressly told, that they were ordered by the Ministry of Angels. We are also instructed, that the whole of this great process was only preparatory to the Ministry of Christ, and the Redemption of the world by him. Is it then to be supposed, that after these Spiritual Beings had conducted this magnificent system of dispensations to the very eve of the Christian Reve

of one and the same individual and numerical essence, seems to burlesque the Holy Scriptures, or give them an uncouth and absurd sense, from the beginning of the Gospel to the end of the Epistle.”—Whitby's Last Thoughts, p. 510.

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I cannot but conceive it to be both unnecessary and presumptuous to say, that except every one do keep them (the Athanasian faith) whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly."-Bp. of Lincoln, Elem. of Theology, ii. 222, 228.—Month. Rep. iii. 276.

Archbishop Tillotson, writing to Bishop Burnet, says of the Athanasian creed: "I wish we were well rid of it." (Burnet's life, p. 719.) and Archbishop Sharpe, going to church with the Minister, who was to officiate, the Minister took notice, that it was one of the days appointed for reading the Athanasian creed; and, said he, "I had like to have forgotten it:" upon which the Archbishop replied, "and why could not you have forgotten it?" intimating, that he would have been as well pleased, if he had.-Emlyn's Life, p. 58.

On the 2d of February, 1756, Dr. Clayton, Bishop of Clogher, made a speech in the Irish House of Lords, which is reviewed in the Monthly Review for July, 1757, and moved, that the Nicene and Athanasian creeds should be omitted out of the liturgy. Upon a division the proposal was laid aside, as an improper mode of proceeding; the house being of opinion, that such a plan should rather be laid before his Majesty by humble remonstrance.

Bishop Smalridge is reported to have said to W. Whiston, "I dare not examine; I dare not examine; for if we should examine and find, that you are in the right, the church has then been in an error for many hundred years."

The scriptural professions of faith, were calculated to comprehend and unite all who believed in Christ; human creeds and texts, to exclude and disperse. The Nicene was the first. The Arians were so pliable, or their heresy so minute, that it exercised the ingenuity of the Council to find a word, that would effect the desired schism. They, at last accomplished

it by the smallest letter in all the alphabets, proverbially used by our Lord to denote minutest points of doctrine; and found a shiboleth and sibboleth in homoousian and homoiousian. From that time the true point of orthodoxy has been varying like the tremulous magnetic needle, or the shifting weather cock.

"I like not," says Calvin, this prayer, 'O holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity;' it savours of barbarity. The word Trinity is barbarous, insipid, profane, a human invention, grounded on no testimony of the word of God: the popish God, unknown to the prophets and apostles."-Calvin, Admon. I. ad Polon.

Extracts on the Generation and Eternity of the Son.

When the Son is said to be the first born of every creature, and the beginning of the creation of God, nothing can be more evident than that God, of his own will, created or generated, or produced the Son before all things, endued with the Divine nature, (divina natura præditum.)—Milton's C. D. p.

127.

Him, who was begotten from all eternity, the Father cannot have begotten, at any time, (nunquam;) for what was from all eternity, was never in the act of being made: him, whom the Father begat from all eternity, the Father still begets: he, whom he still begets is not yet begotten, and, therefore, is not yet a son: for an action, which has no beginning, can have no completion. Milton's C. D. p. 133.

The Supreme God is self-existent: but he, who is not selfexistent, but was begotten, is not the first cause, but the effect, and therefore is not the Supreme God. He, who was begotten from all eternity, must have been from all eternity: but if he can have been begotten, who was from all eternity, there is no reason, why the Father himself should not have been begotten, and have derived his origin also from some paternal essence, (& habuerit patrem.)-Milton's C. D. p. 135.

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