particular gifts, as he did the apofiles, patriarchs, and prophetss but with the Holy Ghoft and with power."

His commiffion from heaven was thus demonftrated with clear and abundant evidence, or thus it appeared that he was the true Meffiah, the fon of God. The wifdom, the power, and the grace of God did eminently dwell in the man Chrift Jefus. Or the power of the Father with the Son was the most adequate and glorious display that was ever made of the one God to the children of men. Hence it is faid that he, the man Christ Jefus," had the spirit without measure, and was anointed with the oil of gladnefs above his fellows;" or that he was hereby greatly diftinguifhed and highly honoured above his brethren who partook of the fame nature with him, or above any of the prophets that went before him, and received a lefs measure of the divine unction.-It has been obferved to this purpose by a learned modern writer, that " by the Chrift, or Meffiah, the Jewish people meant no more than a man endowed from above with power, wisdom and understanding fuperior to all others, knowing the whole will of God, and appointed by the Father to reveal it, and capable to accomplish all the great designs for which he should be fent." (See Dr. Lardner's Serm. vol. II. p. 186.)-We are therefore told, it pleafed the Father that in him fhould all fulness dwell: (Col. i. 19.) and fo I understand those grand expreffions, ch. ii. 3. "In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." And again in the 9th verfe, "In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Ewuatixas, that is really and truly, and not after the manner of types and fhadows. It was by God even the Father that he was replenished and enriched with all thofe heavenly gifts, that were requifite to the discharge of his high important office and appointment.

Eternity, felf-existence, independence, and immenfity, are appropriate to the Father alone; but wisdom, knowledge, and power, and all the communicable attributes of the Deity were confpicuously displayed, and did eminently shine forth in the man Chrift Jefus. The will of God was by him clearly revealed to mankind, and his doctrine confirmed by a miraculous inconteftible power and evidence: for he wrought all his mighty works, as he himself tells us, by a power derived from his Father. See John xiv. 10. "The Father that dwelleth in me, he.. doth the works." And many other places there are to the fame purpose, all of which do ftrongly evince his divine character and miffion, no meffenger or man of God, having ever produced fuch credentials as the man Chrift Jefus.'

In confirmation of this account, our author observes, that for the most part he speaks of himself in the modeft and humble

7

ftile

ftile of the Son of Man (*)? And this character, continues he, was fo far from carrying any aspiring or ambitious mean, ing in it, that was adopted by our Saviour, without doubt, in order to undeceive the Jews and correct their mistaken apprehenfions as to the worldly nature of his kingdom, as also to intimate that, as the Meffiah, he must suffer before he entered into his kingdom.

'Nor does it indeed appear, that he ever meant to infinuate any thing, that should lead others to think him a greater perfon in his original and descent than he really was. He never spake of any existence that he had with the Father from eternity, though fome have drawn that inference from this, and from other texts both of the Old and New Testament, I think, without any foundation. He never made himself equal with God, or faid that he was the fon of God in any prior ftate before he was born of the Virgin. He never affumed to himself the power and authority of God, never made any pretensions to it, or oftentation of it, but was truly and properly the man Chrift Jefus, or the fon of man. Nay, he is far from afferting any thing with refpect to his co equality with the Father in

(*) This phrafe, our author fays, is a Hebraifin, and fignifies no more than the word man. And to fhew that they both mean one and the fame thing, he refers the reader to Mark iii. 28, and Matt. xii. 31, where men and the fons of men are ufed as terms equivalent.

Vorftius, in his Phil. Sacra, ch. 13. has fhewn, that this way of fpeaking is a pleonafm very common in the Hebrew and other oriental languages. See Job xxxv. 8. xxv. 6. and Pfal. viii. 4. What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the Son of man, that thou vifileft him?

It has been faid, that our Saviour ftiles himself the son of man above eighty times in the four Gospels. One would think, fays a certain writer, as on other accounts, fo, to obviate any falfe notions of him, and to prevent the idolatrous practices of his followers in fucceeding ages; well knowing the general proneness of all nations to deify their heroes and eminent men.'

But the learned Dr. Sykes, in his Effay on the Truth of the Chriftian Religion, has taken fome pains to fhew, that this phrafe, whenever it is ufed by our Saviour, is a direct and immediate appeal to the celebrated prophecy in Dan. ch. vii. in which a kingdom is faid to be given to one diftinguished by the character of the fon of man.

Without admitting the doctor's hypothefis, it is difficult to conceive, why our Saviour calls himself xal on, the son of

man.

YOL. XXIV. Nov. 1767. Z

power

power and eternity, or in any of the effential attributes of the Deity, or even from hinting any thing that will warrant our receiving this as a scripture doctrine, or article of faith, that he rather disclaims it, and his language all along feems plainly to point another way.

It must be owned indeed, that he fometimes calls himself the fon of God. But let it be carefully obferved, that this only refers to his being the Chrift or Meffiah; as will appear by many fcriptures compared. Note well, Matt. xxvi. 63. Luke xxii. 67, 70. John i. 34, 41, 49. in which places we see that Chrift and Son of God are equivalent terms.' And we see at the fame time how the two phrases, son of man and Son of God, perfectly harmonize and agree in one and the fame perfon, even Jefus of Nazareth, the son of Jofeph, of whom Mofes in the law, and the prophets did write.—

• If any should furmife, that I intend to depreciate our Lord's character, or to deny his divinity, I anfwer in the negative, and that I have been doing the greatest justice to it, by going as far as the scripture leads me.

Of the deity of the Father, and of the divinity of the Son, I have very different ideas. Divinity and humanity may unite, and very well agree to one and the fame individual person; but not godhead and manhood. This is agreeable to my conceptions. The word, divinity, does not always neceffarily convey an idea of the one God, or of the fupreme Deity; but is rather to be understood of those gifts and endowments of any kind which proceed from the Deity, and in which we may be faid to imitate or refemble the one God; and accordingly, it is often applied to men of distinguished worth and excellence for their fuperior knowledge, wisdom, piety, and great abilities, or to fuch as were so veusor, divinely illuminated. Thus it is used in various languages, and by various writers. And this divinity is eminently afcribed to the man Christ Jefus. He was truly speaking a divine perfon. "Grace was poured into his lips, and he spake as never man spake”. (Pf. xlv. 2. John vii. 46. Luke iv. zz.)-The fpirit of the Lord was upon him, and he was replenished with all the divine gifts. In this light we juftly reverence his divine character, and are called to pay all due honour to him, as the perfon whom his Father hath honoured, and to whom he hath given a name above every

name..

"What I believe concerning Jesus' Chrift is, that he was the promised Meffiah, a man raifed up by God, in a. fingular and extraordinary manner, to be the light of the world, and the Saviour of mankind;-that he was eminently inspired, or illuminated, beyond any of the ancient prophets;— that he gave

full proof of his divine character and miffion by many great and wonderful works ;-that grace and truth appeared in every doctrine and precept which he delivered;-that he had the fpecial extraordinary prefence and power of God with him, in all that he did, and taught, and suffered here on earth; that, in reward of his obedience to God, even to the death, he is now advanced to the higheft dignity, dominion, and glory ;-that he is the only appointed mediator between God and man ;that he is now constituted the one Lord, the head and king of all created beings, whether angels or men; and will ere long come again to be the final judge both of the quick and the dead: and that it is therefore incumbent upon us all, if we would ever answer the wife and benevolent purposes of heaven in this wonderful difpenfation, to receive and entertain Christ, as a meffenger fent from God, to hearken to his teachings, and be obedient to his gospel, which is able to make us wife' to falvation.'

These are some of the outlines of this performance, which appears to be written in an ingenuous, clear, and fenfible manner. The author proposes his fentiments with an air of modefty; and, on that account, if he errs, his work is entitled to a candid reception from every friend of truth, reason, and free enquiry.

This, however, is but a new exhibition of the Socinian fcheme, and liable to many objections. For muft not be have been more than man, who could difcern the secret intentions of the heart? Can we suppose that any human being, however diftinguished by his office, would have used this language? As the Father knoweth me, even fo I know the Father; I am with you always, even unto the end of the world; I came down from beaven, καταβέβηκα εκ του ουρανου. Is not this descent from heaven as plainly implied, as his afcenfion, in these words, What, and if ye shall fee the son of man afcend up where he was before? Is he not faid to come from the Father in the fame fenfe as he is faid to go to the Father, in this paffage, I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again I leave the world, and go to the Father ? Could he with any propriety have afferted, that he HAD a glory with the Father before the world was; or, that the Father LOVED him before the foundation of the world, if at that time he had no existence? How fhall we understand St. Paul, when he calls him the Lord from heaven, in oppofition to Adam, if their nature and origin were the fame? How shall we explain those words in the epiftle to the Hebrews, by whom he made the worlds, the ages, or dispensations, Tous alwvas, if we do not admit our Saviour's pre-existence? In what fenfe could the Ifraelites, in the time of Mofes,

be faid to have tempted Chrift, if we do not suppose that he conducted them in the wilderness; or, as the prophet Ifaiah fpeaks, redeemed them, and carried them all the days of old? Chap. lxiii. 9. Laftly, to whom, if not to him, fhall we afcribe all the appearances of a divine perfon or reprefentative of Jehovah, under the patriarchal and Mofaic difpenfations?

We mention these objections as they occur, without attempting to reft the controverfy upon them. Learned and orthodox divines, we make no doubt, may propofe many others, of more weight and validity. At the fame time, we must do this writer the justice to acknowledge, that it is no eafy matter to answer all the arguments which he has advanced against the Athanafian system. The fubject is indeed, on all fides, attended with difficulties:

"Nubes obducta tuenti

Mortales hebetat vifus."

To this treatise is fubjoined an Appendix, containing fome strictures upon the first chapter of St. John's Gofpel; in which the author endeavours to prove, that the Logos is the supreme God; or that the wisdom of God, the Spirit of God, the power of God, the word of God, &c. denote that infinite and eternal mind, or intelligence, who is all-wife, all-powerful, poffeffed of every natural and moral perfection. The divine ability, or power, can never be separated from the idea of God; fome exertion, or manifestation of the Deity must be understood, when he is contemplated, either as Creator, or as Lord, and Governor ; and that very exertion, he tells us, is, in the facred language or idiom, ftiled more ordinarily the word of God. In explaining this paffage-The Word was made flesh,—he says, the evangelift, by this ftrong and expreffive language, must be understood to convey the fame idea with St. Paul, namely, that the Word, or God, was made manifeft in the flesh; i. e. manifested in human nature, or in the perfon of the man Chrift Jefus ; or, as it is elsewhere, the life was thus feen and manifefted, even that eternal life which was with the Father. Thus was the love of God manifefted; thus were his power, his wisdom, his truth, and all his other attributes made known to the world, in the most illuftrious manner.

The author fupports this hypothesis with great ingenuity; and appears to be a writer of no inconsiderable abilities; tho' we apprehend that the doctrine he maintains will not be approved by the generality of his readers; as it seems to derogate from the character of our Saviour, and fubverts the eftablished fyftem.

III. Con