for the coming of our Lord Jesus Chrift, who (though he be a mere man fhall confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of (the fame mere man) our Lord Jefus Chrift. God is faithful by whom ye were called into the fellowship of his fon Jefus Chrift Our Lord (I mean the fellowship of a mere man!')

Now, what a group of abfurdities have we in thefe few verfes! An Apoftle of a mere man! Sanctified in a mere man? Calling upon the name of a mere man! Deriving grace and peace from a mere man! Enriched by a mere man in all utterance and in all knowledge Confirmed unto the end by a mere man! Waiting continually for the coming of a mere man! Surely this kind of language favours more of lunacy than of a found mind, and betrays as great a want of reafon or common fenfe, as of learning or infpiration. And yet, one can hardly open any where in this or in the other Epiftles of this Apoftle, but, on the fuppofition of his being an Unitarian in the fenfe of Dr. Priestley and Socinus, one meets with abfurdities equally numerous and glaring. Thus in the verfes which immediately follow.

Now I beseech you brethren, by the name of our Lord Jefus Chrift, (viz. the name of a mere man!) that ye all speak the fame thing.-Was Paul, (a mere man) crucified for you? or were ye baptized into the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crifpus and Caius, left any fhould fay that I (a mere man!) baptized in my own name, (the name of a mere man. For Chrift (another mere man!) did not fend me to baptize, but to preach the Gospel, not with wifdom of fpeech, left the crofs of Chrift (that is, the crofs of a mere man!) fhould be made of none effect. For the doctrine

⚫ of

of the cross is indeed, to them that perish foolis nefs; but to us who are faved, it is the power of God.-Verfe 23. We preach Chrift (a mere. man!) crucified, unto the Jews a ftumbling. block, and unto the Greeks, foolishness, but unto them who are called, Chrift, (the fame more man) the wifdom of God, and, the power of God!-Of him are ye in Chrift Jefus (viz. in a mere man who af God is made unto, us wisdom and righteousnefs, fanétification and redemption.A mere man, the wifdem of God: and the power of God! Yea wifdom and righteoufefs, that is, the fource and author, of wisdom and righteoufnefs, fanctification and redemption to all that believe! Strange doctrine this indeed, and, very incredible!'

Thus again in the next Chap. I determined not to know any thing among you but Jefus Chrift (that is I determined not to know any thing but a mere man!) and him crucified.-We fpeak the wildom of God in a mystery which none of the Princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have cruci.. fied the Lord of glory,'that is, a mere man!

Again Chap. iii. 11. Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jefus Christ, a mere man: that is, a mere man is the one foundation of the whole church, with all its doctrines, priveleges, and duties! All believers in all nations and ages, are built upon a mere man! And Chap. 5. this doctrine fuppofes the Apostle to speak as follows. In the name of our Lord Jefus Chrift, (that is, in the name of a mere man when ye are gathered together, and my fpirit, with the power of our Lord Jefus Chrift (viz. the power of a mere man! )— to deliver fuch an one unto. Satan for the deftruction of the flesh, that the fpirit may be faved in the day of the Lord Jefus.' Will Dr. Priestley,

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' or

or any of the Socinians tell us how the power of a mere man, confined in the third heaven, could be exerted and felt on earth, and that in thoufands and myriads of congregations at the fame time? And will they inform us how finners of every description could be washed (as the Apoftle expreffes it in the 6th Chapter) fanctified and juftified in the name of this mere man?

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Pafs we on to the 7th. Chapter Unto the mar' ried I command, yet not I (a mere man, as you 'know I am) but the Lord, (another and a greater mere man!) Let not the wife depart from her hufband. But to the reft speak I (a mere man) and not the Lord (particularly, the other and greater mere man.) verse 22, He that is called in "the Lord, being a fervant, is the Lord's (that mere 'man's) freeman.-Likewife also, he that is called, being free, is Chrift's (the fame mere man's) fervant. Ye are bought with a price, be not 'ye the fervants of men.'Howbeit, ye may be the fervants of Chrift, who himself is but a man!

Now how ridiculous is this language! How unworthy of the lips I will not fay of an infpired Apoftle, enlightened with divine wifdom, but of any rational creature, however illiterate and uninformed! And yet this and fuch like language every advocate for the mere humanity of Chrill, who acknowledges the authenticity of thefe Epiftles, and fupposes their author to have been an Unitarian, puts into the mouth of the Apostle; and makes him utter it almost with every breath, even as often as he has occasion to speak of his Mafter, which, it is well known, is very frequently.

nay,

The Socinians glory much in the 6th. verse of the next Chapter, because the Apostle there afferts, with great plainnefs, the unity of God, but

even

even that paffage affords a ftriking inftance of the abfurd and ridiculous doctrine I mention. For if he affirm that, To us there is but ONE GOD the Father, OF WHOM ARE ALL THINGS, a truth we fhould be forry to difbelieve or deny, perfuaded as we are, that he is what his name imports, the Father of all, even of his beloved Son, who is his offspring; if (I say) he affirm this, he affirms with equal plainnefs that there is ONE LORD JESUS CHRIST BY WHOM ARE ALL THINGS and how all things could be by a mere man, who had no existence till they had been made and preferved at least 4000 years, it may perhaps puzzle even Dr. Priestley to fhew. Nor, have we far to read before we find another proof of the abfurdity of fuppofing St. Paul to hold the doctrine of Chrift's mere humanity. Verfe 12, he fays, When ye fin fo against the bre

thren and wound their weak confcience, ye 'fin againft Chrift; that is, according to this hypothefis, "When ye fin against mere men, ye alfo fin against a mere man!" To this mere man, as the Socinians think him, the Apostle declares himself, in the next Chapter, to be under the law, and Chap. 10. affirms the Ifraelites tempted him in the Wilderness, that is, if the Socinians be right, tempted him 2000 years before he exifted. And while the ungodly among them thus rebelled and vexed the holy Spirit of their Lawgiver, and their Judge, the faithful applied to him as their Saviour, and received falvation from him, for they • drank of that fpiritual rock that followed them, ⚫ and that rock was Chrift,' the rock of ages, and the fountain of living waters to his Church, and yet, according to Dr. Prieftley, a mere man et

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If it feem ftrange to us that persons of fenfe and learning fhould patronize a doctrine which fathers fuch nonfenfe upon an infpired Apoftle,

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our

Four wonder will in fome measure cease if we pafs on to the 12th Chapter of this Epiftle. There the Apoftle both gives us the true reason why men embrace the Socinian hypothefis, and furnishes us with a striking example of the abfurdity of attempting to reconcile it with his doctrine. "I give you to understand (says he) that no man, Ipeaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jefus ascurfed, and that no man can fay that Jefus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghoft.' They hạve not received the Holy Ghoft: They are not enlightened by that divine Spirit: he has not taken of the things of Jefus, and shewn unto them, has not revealed Chrift to them, and therefore they do not, in the true and fcriptural fenfe, call Jefus LORD, but degrade him into a mere man. The Apostle goes on, 'Now there are diversities of gifts, but the fame Spirit' from whom they proceed, and there are differences of admini ftrations, but the fame Lord,' the fame mere man, fays Socinus, that appoints them all, and there are diverfities of operations, but the • fame God, who worketh all in all:' In other words, according to the Socinian doctrine, all the gifts, offices and effects produced in the church of Chrift, are from the Holy Ghoft, from a mere man, and from the felf-exiftent Jehovah!

Permit me, Rev. Sir, to refer you to a few more paffages of this Epiftle, as inftances of the abfurdity of fuppofing the Apostle to have held Dr. Priestley's fentiments concerning the mere humanity of Chrift. Chap. xv. 45. We read, • The first Adam was made a living foil, the laft •Adam is a quickening fpirit,' that is, according to the Doctor, a mere man is a quICKENING SPIRIT! The first man was from the earth, earthly, the • fecond man is the Lord from heaven!" That is, a - mere man defcended from Jofeph and Mary, is

the