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forth from the Father, and, what if ye shall fee the Son of Man afcend up where he was before? and that folemn Addrefs of Chrift to the Father, juft before his Paffion, and Now, O Father,Glorify me with thine Ownself, with theGlowhich I had with Thee before the World was. And again, No man has afcended into Heaven, but He that came down from Heaven, the Son of Man who is in Heaven; which being Spoken by our Lord, while he was yet on Earth, implies, that he fo came down from Heaven as fill to be in Heaven, that is, in refpect of his Divinity, by which He is Everywhere prefent. But not to multiply Texts in a matter fo clear as this is to every one, that without Prejudice or Prepoffeffion has ever read the Gospel; If Chrift were a meer Man only, as the Herefy, that grows and thrives fo much daily among us (if without Allowance or Encouragement, yet without Check or Controll) pretends, to what purpofe does our Saviour and his Apostles lay fo great stress upon God's fending Him into the World to redeem it? Why do they fo frequently and fo Emphatically magnify and extoll this Action, as the Higheft and chiefeft Mark of God's Love to Mankind? God so loved the World, that He gave his only begotten Son! fays He himself; and St. John, In This was manifefied the Love of God, because that God fent his only begotten Son into theWorld,

that

that We might live through Him. If we look upon all this as no more, but that God should cause a Man to be born after another Manner than the reft of Men, and then deliver Him up, who by his Own Nature was Mortal, to dye for the Expiation of the Sins of the whole World; if the Death of a Man could in this Cafe avail any thing, what fuch mighty and wonderful Expreffion of his Love to Us can we discover, in this way of Redemption, more than would have appear'd if he had redeem'd us any Other way? It had been indeed a greater and more wonderful Love to Chrift, if He had been Man only, for God to employ him in this Glorious work; and for his reward to advance him, if fuch a thing were poffible, to the Partnership of his Own Divinity. For it is more to make One Man a God, than to make all Mankind Kings and Saints, and capable of Enjoying God, and reigning with him to all Eternity. But it is not God's Love to Chrift in this Wonderful Dispenfation, for He gave Him for Us, He fpared not Him, that He might spare Us, but God's Love to the World, to the whole Race of loft Mankind,that the Scripture every-where fo juftly magnifies and extolls. Nor is it fo much the Redemption it felf, as the furprizing Method and Means of it; and the infinite dignity of the Redeemer, that both Chrift

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Chrift and St. John aim at in the forecited places, as the higheft Recommendation, and most astonishing Inftance of the Divine Love. And furely, the fending His Only Begotten Son, The Giving Him for the Sins of the World, the Not (paring his Own Son, carry a much higher and diviner fenfe, in the language of Our Saviour and his Apostles, than to deferve to be fo blafphemously trifled with, as they and the most clear and express Texts relating to theDivine Nature of Chrift have been, and continue to be, by being spuriously Criticiz'd upon, and Pedantically debas'd, out of all their NobleSignificancy, into a Meaning, Low, Contemptible and Abfurd! We might poffibly, without danger to the Truth, venture the whole matter of Debate, between Us and the Denyers of the Lord that bought 'em, upon this Iffue. We will out of the Gospel produce our Texts for the Divinity of Our Saviour, and then be content to refer it to any Difinterested Heathen or Jew; or, if they please, to any of their Own dear Friends among the Mahometan Unitarians, whether the Truths that we fo earneftly contend for, as the Faith once deliver'd to theSaints, be not clearly laid down, and manifeftly contain❜d in them? And confequently, if they believ'd thofe Paffages to be immediately infpir'd from God, as these Men, that we have to deal with, pretend to

do,

do; and, as their great Mafter, with great ftrength of Reason, Once by Him rightly employ'd, has prov'd that they are; whether they would not gladly embrace 'em, and readily fubfcribe to 'em? And if fo, are not Jews or Turks, or profeft Infidels, in this Cafe, more excufable than these Perverters of those Revelations, which they themselves acknowledge to be Divine? Certainly it would be much more Ingenuous, roundly and frankly to reject at once the whole Gospel, than thus to Ufe it. And this proceeding would better become that Candor and Freedom of Spirit, and Philosophical Plainnefs and Natural Probity,that is fo much pretended and boafted of by fome Men. But to vex and wreft Scripture at the rate they do, to expound it to any Senfe, by the most forc'd, improper, and unusual Interpretations, as the Socinians freely Own they do, and will do, rather than acknowledge any Doctrine in it which feems to contradict their Reason, particularly this of the Incarnation of the Son of God, is to affume fuch a Power over Divine Writ, as over any Human Writing would never be allow'd or endur'd; nay worse, is to make the Oracles of the True God, defign'd to enlighten and inftruct Mankind, as ambiguous and obfcure as those deliver❜d by the falfe Gods of the Heathen, on purpose to deceive, that is, according

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cording to a very Great Man of Our Own Church, but one who was never accus'd of harshness of Expreffion, or too great an Inveteracy or Prejudice against Them, to treat theWord of God like thelord of the Devil. And now I leave it to every ones impartial Judgment, whether They, who by denying Christ's Divinity, pretend to a more pure and rational Chriftianity, can, without, or indeed, with putting Charity to the utmost ftretch, be allow'd fo much as the Name of Chriftians.

II. Secondly, We are to confider the Reality of Chrift's Human Nature, which was as Neceffary as the Other, to his being a Mediator between God and Man. Therefore the Apostle teaches us, There is One God, and One Mediator between God and Men, the Man Chrift Fefus. The Second Adam was as truly a Man as the First, That fince by Man came Death, by Man alfo should come the Refurrection from the Dead. But I fball wave infifting on the Proof of the Manhood of Chrift; for tho' He, that is both God and Man, was as early deny'd to be Man as God, yet the Now moft prevailing Heresy, and from which at prefent the True Faith is in moft danger, is so far from taking from Him the True Nature of Man, that it will allow Him to have Truly no Other. I shall

there