should live with him. Col. i. 20, Having made peace through the blood of his cross. 1 John i. 7, The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin. 1 Peter i. 18, 19, Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, but with the precious blood of Christ. Rev. v. 9, Thou hast redeemed us to GOD by thy blood. More proofs of this point cannot be necessary. Let me now ask, If Christ be not in the strictest sense God, how is it possible that he should become, in this, or any other, manner, a Propitiation for the sins of mankind? If Christ be merely a man, or in any other sense a mere creature; how is it possible, that he should be able to perform any act, which would not be absolutely necessary for his own justification before GOD? The law, by which every creature is governed, requires him to love GOD with all the heart, soul, strength, and understanding; or in other words, to consecrate all his powers supremely, and absolutely, so long as he exists, to the service of God. More than this he cannot do; and, if all this be not done, he is a sinner; and cannot be justified. How then can it be possible for him to perform any thing, which can be accepted on the behalf of another? It is impossible, that any service should be accepted for another, which is entirely due for one's self. It is impossible, that the debt due from another, should be cancelled by my Payment of Money, due for a debt of my own. When I have paid my own debts, if I can offer more money, I may then satisfy the Creditor for the debt of another. The obedience, which a law requires of ine, as my obedience, will satisfy the demands of the law on me; and prove the means of my justification; but cannot be transferred from me to another subject of the same law, so as to answer the demands of the law on him. The Law demands all his obedience of him, and all mine of me but, mine only being rendered; the demands of the Law are not, and cannot be, satisfied.

Supererogatory service, or service not required by Law, is absolutely necessary to the very existence of all vicarious interference. But no creature can possibly perform supererogatory service; because all that he can do is required of him by the Law. Thus exceeding broad, in the Scriptural language, is the commandment; and thus it is impossible, that any creature should become, in any sense, a propitiation for the sins of mankind.

To avoid this immoveable difficulty, Dr. Priestly, and other Socinians, have denied, wholly, the doctrine of Christ's Atonement; and in this denial have, at least in my view, acted in the only manner, consistent with the main part of their scheme; viz. That Christ is a mere man. But in this denial they have at the same time, contradicted the main doctrine in the Christian system, after that of the existence of GOD. According to the scheme of these men, Christ came into the world, or was born, merely to be a Prophet, and Example, of righteousness; or a teacher of the will of GOD to mankind; and died, only to bear witness to the truth of his precepts. In the same manner Moses, and all the succeeding Prophets, came VOL. I. 72

into the World to be teachers, and examples, of truth and righteousness; and, in the same manner, Peter and Paul, both the Jameses, and almost all the other apostles, together with Stephen, and a host of Martyrs who followed him, bore witness to the truth of the precepts which they taught, by voluntarily yielding themselves to death. All these persons taught, the truth of GOD, and practised righteousness; and a multitude of them sealed their testimony with their blood. The only difference, according to the Socinian scheme, between Christ and them is, that he was wiser and better than they. Paul, however, taught more of the Gospel than Christ himself; and both Paul and Peter sealed the truth of their testimony on the cross. Of what consequence, then, was the death of Christ to ma kind, any more than that of Zechariah, Jeremiah, James, Peter, or Paul? Each of these men died as a witness to the truth. Christ according to Dr. Priestly, appeared in no other character in his death. All these men, also, taught the truth: according to Dr. Priestly Christ did no more. Each of these men was an eminent example of righteousness: according to Dr. Priestly Christ was only a brighter example. With what meaning then can it be said, that God hath set forth Christ as a propitiation for the remission of sins; that Christ is said to be the propitiation for the sins of the World; that his soul is said to make a propitiatory sacrifice for sin; that he bare the sin of many; that we are justified, and redeemed, by his blood; that by himself he purged our sins; that he made peare through the blood of the Cross; that he reconciled both Jews and Gentiles unto GOD in one body by the Cross; that by his stripes we are healed; that the chastisement of our peace was laid upon him; and that we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins; together with many other things of the same import; so many, as to constitute no small part of the Scriptures? And why did Christ say he came to give his life a ransom for many? and why did Paul say, Christ gave himself a ransom for all. Could these things be said of Moses, or Jeremiah, or Peter, or James, or Paul? Are we justified by the grace of God through the redemption which is in Moses? Did Paul make peace by the blood of his cross? Was Peter a propitiation; an yaruos; the means of appeasing the anger of God. of reconciling him to us, and rendering him propitiatory to sinners?

Farther; in what sense was the death of Christ necessary, as a testimony to the truth of his precepts? Were not his miracles, and the unspotted excellency of his life, ample proofs of the sincerity of his declarations, and the reality of his mission from GOD? Are they not now appealed to by Dr. Priestly, and most if not all other divines, as the chief proofs? Is not his death rarely appealed to for this purpose? And is it not manifest from this fact, that it is a testimony, plainly inferior to his life, and miracles?

If, then, this was the end, and amount, of Christ's death; is it not evident, on the one hand, that the end was in a great measure

useless, and very imperfectly accomplished: and, on the other, that the amount of Christ's death was no more than the amount of the death of Paul and Peter; that they, as truly as Christ, were a propitiation for the sins of the world; and that we are as truly jusfied by faith in them, as in him; and by their blood, as by his ? I shall now proceed,

III. To show, That the Jews, according to the Unitarian doctrine, are unjustly charged with guilt in putting Christ to death.

The Law of GOD, as given by Moses, required the blasphemer to be stoned. Christ, in his conversation with the Jews, recorded John v. declared himself to be the Son of GOD. By this phrase the Jews, as I mentioned in a former discourse, understood him to declare, that himself was GOD, or equal with GOD. Their own construction they declared to him, For a good work we stone thee not; but because thou, being a man, makest thyself GoD, John x. 33. St. John also, as I then observed, understood the phrase in the same manner. Therefore, he says, the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that GOD was his father; making himself equal with God. This is the Apostle's own construction of Christ's averment; and is plainly alleged by him as being that of the Jews also.

When Christ was brought before the Sanhedrim, after several vain attempts to convict him of any crime, the High Priest adjured him, that is, put him upon oath, to tell him whether he was the Christ, the Son of the Blessed GOD. In answer to this question thus solemnly put, Christ said, I am; and, as a proof, that he said this truly, added, and ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of Power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. In reply to this declaration the High Priest rent his clothes, and declaring all further testimony needless, pronounced him guilty of blasphemy for this saying; in consequence of which, the Evangelists inform us, they all condemned him to death.

gelist.

Now, it is evident, that Christ was understood by the Jews to declare that he was equal to God, and was GoD, by asserting himself to be the Son of GOD. Of this there cannot be a doubt, because it is asserted, both by the Jews themselves, and by the Evangelist. If, then, Christ was a man, merely; he was, for aught that can see, truly a Blasphemer. For, when he declared himself to be GoD, or equal with God, he plainly declared GOD to be neither greater, wiser, nor better than himself. But, to assert in any form of words, that the infinite JEHOVAH is of the same character with a man, and possessed of no more greatness, excellency, or glory, than that which is human, would be acknowledged in any other case to be blasphemy; because it would be a denial of all the perfections of GOD, and an ascription to him of all the frailties of Man. If this be not blasphemy, what can be?

But if Christ was a blasphemer, he was justly put to death. The Law, which He as well as the Jews, acknowledged to have

been given by God himself, required the blasphemer to be stoned: as a blasphemer, therefore, he was according to the requisitions of a divine, and therefore a just, Law, deservedly condemned to death.

Thus according to this scheme the Jews, instead of being guilty in putting Christ to death, acted meritoriously; for they only obeyed the divine law.

But it will be said, Christ did not intend by this declaration to assert that he was GOD; nor that he was equal with GoD. This indeed is said, and must be said, by the abettors of the Unitarian schemes. I answer: It is clear, that the Jews thus understood him, and that he knew them thus to understand him. They had formerly attempted to stone him for using the same language; and had then told him, in express terms, the manner, in which they construed the phrase. The Sanhedrim, also, sufficiently explained to him their own views of it by pronouncing it blasphemy. In consequence of this mode of understanding the phrase, he saw them now about to imbrue their hands in his blood. If it was a mistake on their part, he was bound to remove it. He was bound not to suffer his own character to be stained, in their view, with the crime of blasphemy. He was bound to use language as he knew it would be understood. He was bound not to lose his own life, nor suffer them to incur the guilt of taking it away, merely through a mistake of theirs. If, then, they are supposed in this case to have sinned at all; they sinned only through a mistake, which Christ himself voluntarily declined to remove. The sin, therefore, so far as I can see, lies on this supposition, primarily at his door. What, then, shall we say of the solemn and awful charge, brought against the Jews by St. Peter? Him ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified, and slain! What shall we say of the whole body of Scriptural representations on this subject? What shall we say the terrible destruction of their nation of their judicial blindness: and all the calamities which had befallen them, as monuments of the divine indignation, for more than seventeen hundred years?

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IV. The Prophets and Apostles, according to the same doctrine, cannot be vindicated from leading mankind into the sin of Idolatry. The Prophets and Apostles have, in a great variety of places, called Christ GOD, The true GoD, The great GoD, The mighty GOD, JEHOVAH, and I AM. They have declared him to be Eternal, self-existent, incomprehensible, Almighty, Omnipresent, Omniscient, and immutable. They have attributed to him the crea tion, preservation, and government, of all things; and the acts of giving life, forgiving sin, judging the World, and rewarding both the righteous and the wicked. They have ascribed to him the infinite relations of Creator, Preserver, Possessor, Ruler, and Final Cause, of all things. Beyond this, they have on many occasions worshipped him themselves; and have taught us, that God requires him to be worshipped, and that he is in fact worshipped, hy saints and angels in earth and heaven. They have also exhibited

Christ, when on earth, as challenging these things to himself, and as receiving them from others without reprobation or censure. They have further declared him to be the only Saviour of the World: a character evidently demanding infinite attributes; and, according to their account, challenged by JEHOVAH, as exclusively his own.

Beyond all this, they have informed us, that he was condemned. to death, for declaring under the sanction of an oath, that he was the Son of GOD: a phrase which he knew was understood by them, to be no other than a declaration, that he was GOD. Yet, though knowing this; and though directly charged with blasphemy; although on two occasions they attempted to stone him, and on a third pronounced him guilty of death; instead of explaining, softening, or at all modifying, the declaration, he proceeded directly, in two of the instances, to allege proofs, that he used this declaration with exact truth and propriety; proofs, which in themselves are a direct arrogation of the divine character. The Scriptures of truth they also declare to be his Word; and inform us, that the Holy Ghost, who inspired them, received them from him; and that Christ himself, when promising them the gift of inspiration, personally told them this wonderful truth. In this account they have taught us, that the Scriptures, which they every where styled the Word of God, are no other than the Law of Christ himself; partly uttered by his own mouth, and partly taught by the HOLY SPIRIT in conformity to his pleasure; and accordingly in his own name, and by his own authority, explained, altered, and annulled, by him, as he thought proper. And that the HOLY SPIRIT, whom, as we shall see hereafter, they pronounce to be a divine person, was commissioned, and sent by him into the world, to execute his purposes; an act of authoriry on the part of Christ, to which there is no parallel in the Universe, except his own mission from the Father. Finally, in the view, which is given us of the heavenly system in the Revelation of St. John, we find the same exalted character completely recognized. In that world we behold him sitting on the throne of infinite dominion, styled the Throne of GOD and the Lamb; unfolding, and declared by the Heavenly Host to be worthy to unfold, the Book of GOD's counsels; which, they also declare, no being in the Universe to be worthy, or able, to do; being, together with the Father, the everlasting temple of Heaven; controlling all the affairs of this world, of heaven, and of hell; the light and glory of heaven; and the bestower of future and everlasting happiness. In all these wonderful characters he is also worshipped, in that glorious world, with the highest ascriptions, which were ever made, or which can be made, to JEHOVAH. Worthy, they cry, is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Every creature, says St. John, which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in