shall not only rescue them out of your hands, but establish by them what you intend to destroy. 1. What appearance is there that St. Paul, having begun his Epistle by pointing out our Lord as the object of our adoration and prayers, would contradict himself in the middle of that very Epistle? If you do not believe that he wrote by divine inspiration, you should at least allow that he wrote with common sense. 2. When he says, There is none other God but one ;—to us there is but one God, he no more means to overthrow the Godhead of our Lord, which is one with the Godhead of the Father, than he means to overthrow the Godhead of the Holy Spirit, but he evidently opposes the one Godhead of the Father, and of the Word, and of the Holy Ghost, to the multiplicity of heathenish deities, and of Potentates, who, as living images of the supreme Potentate, are sometimes called gods, even in Scripture. 3. To be convinced that this is the true meaning of the two clauses on which you rest your contempt of our Lord's Divinity, we need only consider them with the context. St. Paul speaks of eating the flesh of those beasts which had been offered in sacrifice to idols; and he says, "We know that an idol is nothing in the world (is a mere vanity) and that there is none other God but one, for though there be that are called gods (as there be gods many, and lords many) Yet to us (Christians) there is but one God the Father, of whom are all things, and we of him; and one Lord Jesus Christ (the Word and Son of the Father,) by whom are all things, and we by him." He might have added, as he does, ch. xii. 4, and Eph. iv. 4, and one Holy Ghost, the Spirit of the Father, in whom are all things, and we in him. 4. I have observed in the last letter, that this expression, one God the Father, far from excluding the Divinity of the Son, is as consistent with it, as the idea of a king is consistent with that of a subject: For God being eternally and infinitely perfect, if paternity belong to his essence, so does sonship. The eternal Father hath theu a co-eternal Son, his Word, who in the Unity of the Spirit, is the one God opposed by St. Paul to the many idols and gods of the heathen. "There are three (divine subsistences) that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three [ are one," one Jehovah, in whose names Christians are baptized. 1] 5. That our Lord, with the Holy Spirit, is not excluded from the unity of the Godhead by the text, is evident to those who take notice that the Apostle hath no sooner mentioned one God the Father, but he mentions the Son as the one Lord, in the uusity of the Father and of the Spirit. 6. If you insist that this expression, siç dos, one God, which is applied to the Father, necessarily excludes the Sou; it will follow by the same unscriptural rule, that this expression, aç Kugios, one Lord, which is applied to the Son, necessarily excludes the Father; and thus to rob the Son of his supreme Divinity, you will rob the Father himself of his supreme Lordship! So true it is that Unitarian overdoing, always ends in undoing; and that our Saviour spake an awful truth, when he said, " he that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father!" 7. To be convinced that the one God, and the one Lord are not to be separated, and that while the former is viewed as the Creator, the latter is not to be looked upon as a mere creature, we have only to consider what the Apostle saith of each. He calls the Father the Being OF WHOM are all things, and we in him; and he assures us that the Son is the Being, BY WHOM are all things, and we by him. Now if all things are by the Son, he is prior to all the creatures that have been created, nay, he is the creator of them all, and therefore you endeavour to substitute an absurd tenet to the second article of the Christian faith, when you teach that he is a mere man, who had no existence till he was born of the Virgin. Thus the very scriptures, by which you attack our Lord's Divinity, when they are candidly considered with the context, and the tenor of the Bible, strongly confirm what you rashly deny and St. Paul does not contradict himself when he exhorts the Corinthians to flee from idolatry, and to call upon the name of the one Lord, by whom all things were made. Nor will it avail to object that St. Paul writes to these very Corinthians, that as the head of the woman is the man, so the head of Christ is God: 1 Cor.xi. 3. For we who believe the Divinity of our Lord, as it is set forth in the Scriptures and in the Nicene Creed, grant that as Eve was subordinate to Adam, so the Son is subordinate to the Father: But, at the same time, we assert, that as Eve, notwithstanding her subordination, was truly of one nature with Adam, the Son of God, notwithstanding his subordination to the Father, is of one nature with him also. Thus this second objection, when candidly weighed, becomes another proof of our Lord's Divinity, especially if we consider what St. Paul says in the next chapter. 66 Speaking to the Corinthians of the idols which they once worshipped, he first opposes to those dumb idols, Jesus Christ the Word made flesh, and observes that no man can say, (with a full and lively conviction) that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." 1 Cor. xii. 2, 3. And in the three next verses the Apostle, holding out the doctrine of the Trinity, says, 1." There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit:" 2, "There are differences of administrations, but the same Lord:" 3. "There are diversities of operations, but the same God." And that the Spirit and the Lord are ineffably one with him, whom St. Paul calls the same God, I prove by the context. God, saith he, "hath set some in the church as Apostles, Teachers," &c. God hath endued some with "gifts of healing, and diversities of tongues." Now, He who peculiarly sets some to be Apostles, is the Lord Jesus, who called the twelve Apostles and St. Paul. And he who peculiarly imparts gifts, whether of utterance, of tongues, or of healing, is the same divine Spirit, whose unity is opposed to the diversity of his operations. If you deny that God, who hath set some in the church to be Apostles, is peculiarly Jesus Christ, the same Lord who presides over the differences of administrations: and if you will still assert that the Apostles never give to our Saviour any higher title than that of a man approved of God, I once more prove the contrary, by reminding you, that St. Paul calls the church sometimes the church of God, and sometimes the church of Christ; and that, speaking to the clergy at Ephesus, he exhorts them to feed the church of God, which he (God) hath purchased with his own blood. Acts xx. 28. Now, Sir, God who hath thus purchased the church, is peculiarly God the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who in the unity of the Father, and of the Spirit, is the same one God, whom bible-christians worship in Trinity, because of him, and THROUGH him, and тo him are all things; To whom be glory for ever. Amen. Rom. xi. 36. If you ask, how can St. Paul assert the Divinity of Christ, wheu he writes to the Corinthians that Christ is the image of God? Is there no difference between God and his image? Will you worship God's image as if it were God himself? I reply, that there is an im perfect image, which expresses ouly a part of the external form of its original, and a perfect image which expresses its whole nature, in a perfectly adequate and living manner. Thus four-footed beasts bear a resemblance to men in some things, but a Son who looks, thinks, speaks, and acts like his Father, is a perfect image. Adam was an image of God in the first sense, and our Lord in the second sense. That Christ is this living and perfect image of the Father, I prove, 1. By his own words, "he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father:" and 2. By these words of the Apostle, which follow the text, on which the objection rests; "God [the Spirit, by the light of the gospel, and by the light of faith] hath shined in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of God [the Father] shining in the face of Jesus Christ, who is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person." 2 Cor. iv. 6, and Heb. i. 3. And our Lord's being such an image of God, does not any more cut him off from Divinity, than a human son's being the express image of his father deprives him of the human nature. Therefore, this objection also affords us a new proof of our Lord's Divinity. ADVERTISEMENT. It is uncertain at what time the following Letters were written, or to whom they were addressed; but from some expressions in the commencement of the first Letter, from the decayed state of the manuscript, and the smallness of the character, which could scarcely have been legible to the Author in his latter years, they have been conjectured by the Rev. Mr. Horne, who first published them, to be Mr. Fletcher's earliest production. |