and properties peculiar to deity, are striking proofs of a plurality of persons in one essence. God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; Gen. i. 26. Behold the man is become like one of us; chap. iii. 22. Let us go down and confound their language; chap. xi. 7. When shall I send, who will go for us? Isaiah vi. 8. And respecting all other objects of worship, Jehovah's language is, Produce your cause, saith the Lord, bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob; let them shew the former things what they be, that we may consider them. Or declare us things to come that we may know that ye are Gods; yea, do good or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together. Isaiah xli. 21, 22, 23. Again, to stain the pride of man and curb human arrogance, he asserts his divine prerogative in the following solemn and instructive interrogations. Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? And, before time, that we may say he is righteous? I beheld and there was no man, no counsellor, that when I asked them could answer a word; Isaiah xli, 26, 28. From these and many more instances which might be produced, it is evident, that there is a plurality of persons in the one eterual God, even the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and that these three are one.

In

the name of which sacred three the holy ordinance of baptism was ordered to be administered.

The adversaries of Christ's divinity being conscious, that the scriptures treat of a plurality of persons employed in creation, &c. and lest the artful manner of treating the argument respecting person and essence as aforesaid should not block up the way leading to the divine glories of Jesus, have invented another stumbling-block to render the path of faith in Christ's divinity quite impassable, which is (3.) the pre-existence of Christ's soul. It is acknowledged some have maintained this sentiment without any designed injury to the doctrine of the Trinity. But it is equally evident that some of the most virulent enemies to Christ's divine personality, find it impossible to give their scheme of opposition even the appearance of consistency, but as aided by the aforesaid hypothesis; therefore great pains have been taken to render it plausible, in consequence of which it has proved a stumbling-block

to some.

But that it was not a human soul which existed with the father before time, and which made the world, and to which God spake, saying, Let us make man, &c. &c. but his own infinitely glorious Son, will appear, if the following things be duly considered. He who was with the fa

ther, was with him from everlasting, rejoicing always before him, and whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting; Mic. v. 2, and who should be called, though clothed with humanity, the Everlasting Father, the mighty God. Isaiah ix. 6. But it is absurd to suppose a creature to have existed before time began. Every

creature once was not; to suppose a creature always to have been, is to form an idea of a creature which was never created; all things were made by Jesus Christ, without him nothing was made that was made; but according to the aforesaid opinion, there was a creature made which Jesus Christ was no ways concerned in the formation of; for a creature cannot be thought to have created itself, without absurdly supposing it to have been before it was, to exist prior to its existence, or to act whilst it was nothing, in order to be something, the above absurdities are unavoidable; if the scripture account of the creation (as the production of a plurality of persons) be credited, and the divinity of Christ be denied.

As a soul could not create itself, so neither could it be the author of the other parts of the creation, which Jesus Christ is positively declared to be. For by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or

dominions, principalities, or powers: all things were created by him and for him; Col. i. 16. If a human soul be the author of creation, various creatures would be above their creator. Angels, for instance, would be superior to their Maker, and excel him in strength; for man (which Christ is asserted only to be) is naturally inferior to those celestial spirits. Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; which supposes the angels were, when his humanity was made; Heb. ii. 7. The acknowledgment of Christ as creator, renders the denial of his proper divinity inexcusable, and saps the foundation of not only revealed but natural religion; for, if Jesus be the former of all things, the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse who glorify him not as God; Rom. i. 20, 21. Some assert that Christ was only an instrument in creation; but creation work was of such a nature, as to exclude the idea of an instrumental creator. An instrument, if concerned at all, must have been employed either before or after the production of being, for there was no medium. Not before, because prior to creation there was not any thing existing for an instrument to act upon, or to be employed about. Not after, because when a creature does exist,

it is too late for an instrument to be employed in producing it. Nothing short of infinite agency could possibly be concerned in creation; the persons so engaged were properly divine, and essentially one. However, that there was no instrument concerned is beyond all dispute, if what Jehovah says be duly regarded; for he declares there was none such with him; Prov. viii.; Mic. v. 2. Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb; I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretcheth out the heavens ALONE, that spreadeth abroad the earth BY MYSELF; Isaiah xliv. 24. Which ALONE spreadeth out the heavens; Job ix. 8. Hence it appears, that though there were distinct persons employed in creation, yet they were so united as to be included in the one all-creating Jehovah.

4thly, To render the scheme of opposition to Christ's divinity more consistent, and the idea of the soul existing before time, instead of the Son of God, less exceptionable; it has been thought proper to exclude the body from being an essential constituent part of a man. Such an exclusion to be sure was an happy thought, and quite necessary; for without it the all-creating creature would not have been properly either God, angel, or man. But that it might be considered as belonging to some scale or class of being, "It