Chrift, on account of the dignity of the perfon who conferred it. For it immediately follows, ver. 13. But to which of the angels faid he, that is, the great being to whom this description belongs, Sit thou on my right-hand until I make thine enemies thy foot-ftool. Or, fince this quotation from the pfalmift defcribes a perpetuity of empire in God, it may be intended to intimate a perpetuity of empire in Christ, who holds his authority from God, and who muft hold it, unlefs God himself be unable to fupport it.

Acts xx. 20. Feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood. In the moft ancient manuscripts this text is, Feed the church of the Lord; which generally fignifies Chrift. Also in fome copies it is, which he purchased with blood; that is, the blood of his fon. As the blood of God is a phrafe which occurs no where elfe in the fcriptures, we ought to be exceedingly cautious how we admit fuch an expreffion. If Chrift was God, his blood could not be his blood as God, but as man.

VI. I fhall here introduce a few texts, which are not reduceable to any of the above-mentioned heads, being either interpolations, or mif-tranflations of the fcriptures, or having no relation to the fubject, in favour of which they have been quoted.

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Mat. xxviii. 19. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy ghost. This form of baptifm feems to be intended to remind chriftians of the different parts which God, and Chrift, and the holy fpirit, acted in the scheme of man's redemption; God fending his fon on this gracious errand; the fon faithfully performing the work which God gave him to do, and being made head over all things to the church; and the holy fpirit confirming the word of truth by miraculous gifts. But it is quite an arbitrary fuppofition, that, because they are mentioned together upon this occafion, they must be equal in all other refpects, partaking of divinity alike, fo as to be equal in power and glory. The apoftle Paul fays, 1 Cor. x. 2. that the children of Ifrael were baptized unto Mofes but he certainly did not mean that Mofes was their God.

Col. iii. 10. And have put on the new' man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: where there is neither greek nor jew, circumcifion nor uncircumcifion; Barbarian, Scythian, bond, nor free, but Chrift is all, and in all; that is, there is no other diftinction to be made now, but only whether a man be a real christian.

I Cor. i. 2. With all that in all places call upon the name of Jefus Chrift, our Lord, both theirs and ours.

That

That adoration, fuch as is due to the one living and true God, was not meant by the apoftle in this place, is evident from the very next words ; Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jefus Chrift; where Chrift is evidently spoken of as diftinct from God. It is probable, therefore, that the apoftle meant nothing more than fuch as call themfelves by the name of Christ, or who profeffed christianity.

Act vii. 59. And they ftoned Stephen, calling upon God, and faying, Lord Jefus, receive my spirit. The word God is not in the original, as our translators have fignified, by their directing it to be printed in the italic character, fo that this text by no means implies that Stephen acknowledged Christ to be God, but only informs us, that Stephen addreffed himself to Chriff, whom he had juft feen in person, in a state of great exaltation and glory; as we read, ver. 55, 56. He, being full of the Holy Ghoft, looked Aedfastly into heaven, and faw the glory of God, and fe us standing on the right-hand of God; and faid, Behold, I fee the heavens opened, and the Son of man ftanding on the right-hand of God. This very language clearly implies, that he confidered the fon of man, and God, as diftinct perfons.!

The word, which is here and in 1 Cor. i. 2. ren... dered to call upon, is far from being appropriated to invocation, as peculiar to the divine Being. It is the fame word that is rendered to appeal to, as when Paul

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Paul appeals to Cæfar; and is used when a person is faid to be called by any particular name; as, Judas, called Ifcariot, &c. There can be no doubt, therefore, but that it has the fame meaning both in 1 Cor. i. 2, and alfo in Acts ix. 21. Is not this he that detroyed them who called on this name in Jerufalem? that is, all who called themselves chriftians. It is so ren. dered, James i. 7. Do they not blafpheme the worthy Name by which ye are called? or, as it is more exactly rendered, which is called, or impofed, upon you? that is, by which ye are diftinguished. Had it implied adoration, it would at leaft have been which is called upon by you.

1 John v. 7. There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghoft; and these three are one. Sir Ifaac Newton, and others, have clearly proved that this verse was no part of John's original epiftle, but was inserted in later ages. It is not to be found in any ancient manufcript, and has been omitted in many printed copies and tranflations of the new Teftament, at a time when the doctrine which it is fuppofed to contain was in a manner univerfally received. I fay fuppofed to contain, because, in fact it expreffes no more than that these three agree in giving the fame teftimony, which is the only kind of union which the Spirit, the water, and the blood, in the verfe following can have.

1 Tim. iii. 16. And without controverfy, great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifeft in the flefh, juftified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. Sir Ifaac Newton has fully demonstrated that, in the original, this text was not God manifeft in the flesh, but who was manifeft in the flesh, and a very small alteration in the manner of writing greek is fufficient for that purpose. The oldeft manufcript in the world, which I have examined myfelf, has been manifeftly altered from the one to the other, as appears by the difference in the colour of the ink. Befides, it is even literally true, that God was manifeft in the flesh of Chrift; fince he himself acknowledges, that the very words which he spake were not his own, but the Father's who fent him, and that the Father, who was in him, did the the works. It was therefore with the greateft propriety that our Lord faid, John viii. 19, If ye had known me, ye would have known my Father also, the wisdom and power of God being confpicuous in him. They who will have this text to be a proof of the godhead of Chrift, muft fuppofe him to be the Father, or the firft perfon in the trinity, and not the Son, or the fecond.

Zach. xiii. 7. Awake, O fword, against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow, faith the Lord of hofts. So fays our english verfion, but the word in the original fignifies a perfon that is near, or joined