SOCINIANISM UNSCRIPTURAL:

OR,

THE PROPHETS AND APOSTLES VINDICATED

FROM THE CHARGE OF HOLDING

THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST'S MERE HUMANITY.

BEING

THE SECOND PART

OF

A VINDICATION OF HIS DIVINITY.

INSCRIBED TO

THE REV. DR. PRIESTLEY,

BY THE LATE REV. JOHN FLETCHER,

VICAR OF MADELEY, SALOP.

If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.

CONTENTS.

PREFACE BY THE EDItor.

LETTER II.

Dr. Priestley is mistaken when he asserts that the pro-
phets always spoke of the Messiah as of a mere man
like themselves, and that the Jews never expected that
the Messiah could be more than a man. In opposi-
tion to this error, this letter proves, that our first
parents expected a divine Messiah, and that the
divine person who appeared to the patriarchs and to
Moses was Jehovah the Son, or Christ in his pre-
existent state.

III.

The subject of the former letter continued.

IV.

The foundation of the proofs of Christ's divinity from

the writings of the prophets is laid in the three

original prophecies recorded by Moses concerning the

Messiah.

V.

All the prophets bear witness to the Messiah as the

Bruiser of the serpent, and the prosperous King

reigning in righteousness over the subject nations:

in other words, they foretel the days of vengeance, and

the days of refreshing which shall succeed them,

under his administration.

LETTER VI.

The testimony borne by the prophets to the Godhead

of Christ.

VII.

The evangelists and apostles bear testimony to the divinity

of Christ.

On the same subject.

VIII.

IX.

Dr. Priestley is confronted with St. Paul: and our
Lord's divine glory is seen in that apostle's writings.

PREFACE.

THE reader will easily observe, that the following letters, by the late Rev. Mr. Fletcher, are almost all unfinished, and are here presented to the public in an imperfect state. It is much to be regretted, especially, that the last of them, on the epistles of St. Paul, is so incomplete, as only two of these epistles had been considered, and very many passages of great importance upon this subject, and such as afford incontestable proof of our Lord's divinity, are to be found in those that he had not examined. It is true, many of these passages have been introduced in the former part of this work, and have been there improved, in some measure, in defence of that important doctrine; yet still, as this was not done by the masterly pen of Mr. Fletcher, the friends of our Lord's divinity cannot but consider it as a loss to the church of Christ, and therefore as an afflictive providence, that this able and pleasing writer was not spared to finish his work, and fully rescue the apostle of the gentiles, as he has done the other apostles, out of the hands of those who so miserably mangle his writings, and cast so great a stain upon his character.

St. Paul has for many ages been looked up to with respect, as an apostle, as a Christian, as a scholar, and as a man of genius; but this new Socinian doctrine, still more adventurous than the old, dares to strip him of his honour in all these respects. It degrades him as an apostle, for it denies that he wrote by inspiration; as a Christian, for it makes him an idolater, and an encourager of idolatry; as a scholar, for it affirms that he reasons inconclusively; and as a man of genius and