That God is a real person, appears from the following beautiful passage in Daniel: "I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool; his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the judgment was set, and the books were opened.' "I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him, his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed." Dan. vii. 9, 10, 13, 14. If God's personal essence fills all boundless space, this passage must be false. How could boundless space be clothed? or sit on a throne? or ride on wheels? how could a fiery stream issue and come forth from before boundless space? or how could Jesus Christ come to, or be brought near before boundless space? Surely the clothes, the throne, the wheels, the fiery stream, the multitude, and Jesus Christ, must all be in space; then if God fills all space, how could they be around him? under him? come forth from before him? stand before him? or be brought near before him?

Gabriel explains the four beasts, the ten horns, and the little horn in this vision as an allegorical representation of the four great empires that should rule the world, and the antichristian power that should make war against the saints. As all these, and the Son of man, and the great multitude that stood before the Ancient of days, have shape and local habitations, and as shape and locality are as much ascribed to him as they are to them, by what analogy are we to conclude that he has no shape, nor local habitation?

If God's person fills all space, he can have no shape, because shape always implies superficies, and that which is unbounded, has no surface. Whatever is too subtle

to have any shape, must be quality, and a quality, or attribute, has no existence separate from the being that possesses it, therefore, if God is nothing but a quality, he cannot be an agent, nor an intelligent being; hence the conclusion is irresistible, that if he has no shape, he has no real existence, because the being that exists in no shape, exists not at all.

The Presbyterian confession of faith says, "God is without body, parts, or passions." In my view this is equal to Atheism; because if we divest him of these, there is nothing left that would constitute being, or that would be perceptible to the mind.

Ears, hands, and eyes are parts of an intelligent ruler, and if God has none of these, he cannot hear, handle, nor see us. If he is without passions, he has no mercy, love, nor anger, and therefore cannot forgive us, love us, nor be angry with us, because if he has not these pas. sions, he cannot exercise them. If it were possible for the divine Being to exist without body, parts, or passions, he would be to us neither desirable, dreadful, nor useful.

The

It is only from the Bible that we learn the existence of God, and that book ascribes to him nearly all the members of the human body, and represents him to be in the shape of a man. That various members of the human body are ascribed to him, appears from the following texts. "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. face of the Lord is against them that do evil." Psal. xxxiv. 15, 16. "He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom." Isa. xl. 11. "I will turn my hand upon thee." Isa. i. 25. "The Lord is a man of war, the Lord is his name.' Exod. xv. 3. "And God said let us make man in our image, after our likeness." "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him." Gen. i. 26, 27.

Some suppose that being created in the image of God, only means that man was made holy; but I think we should not restrict the word to the quality, it certainly extends to the personal appearance of the man; because in scripture the words image and likeness, are most gene

rally used to represent the bodily appearance. Thus in the fourth commandment we read, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." Exod. xx. 4. Here the words image and likeness are used to represent the appearance of any thing in the heavens above, or on the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. The Jews did not understand the words image and likeness to mean moral perfections, they could not think that their God forbid them to copy the moral perfections of birds, beasts, or fishes, but they well knew, that when they made gold into the shape of a calf, they broke his commandment. That the image of God, in which man was made, respects the shape of his person, is evident from his being made of the dust of the ground; because if he was made of the dust of the ground, and at the same time made in the image of God, that image must consist in the modification, or fashioning of that dust. That this image of God in which man was created, signifies the configuration of his person, is still more evident from this consideration, that he possessed it before he was endowed with any moral perfections, or the breath of life was breathed into his nostrils; which appears from the following text: "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Gen. ii. 7. James, speaking of the tongue, says, "Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made in the similitude of God." Jam. iii. 9. The apostle here says not that men were, but that they are made after the similitude of God. This most probably respects their personal appearance, because their minds, in their present fallen state, are not similar to God.

Paul intimates that a man bears that resemblance to God, which a woman does to a man; hence he says, "For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, for as much as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man. 1 Cor. xi. 7. As Paul speaks of man in general, and that in his present fallen

state, he must mean that he has the image of God in the shape of his person, because in a moral point of view, man is not in that divine image. Besides he must mean,

that man is the image and glory of God, in the same sense that the woman is the glory of the man, and all will acknowledge that to be her person.

There is no truth in scripture more plainly declared, than that Jesus Christ in his pre-existent state, and in his states of humiliation and exaltation, has always been in the shape of a man. Paul says, he is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person [Greek hupostaseos, substance.] This text shows beyond doubt, that God's person, or substance, is in the shape of a man. It does not say, that he was the image of God's moral perfections, but it says he was the express image of his person. Heb. i. 3. Paul to the Collossians, says of Christ, that he is the image of the invisible God. Col. i. 15. God's moral perfections have been revealed, and are visible to every believer, therefore, it must be his person that is called the invisi. ble God, then Jesus Christ is the image or shape of that person.

Paul says: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God." Philip. ii. 5, 6. Form is distinct from quality, and always relates to arrangement or shape. This shows that Christ was in the form or shape of God, before he emptied himself of that glory he had with the Father, in his pre-existent state. And we all know that in his early appearances to the patriarchs and prophets, he appeared in the shape of a man, and was frequently called a man. If he was in the

form of God, and that form was the shape of a man, then God is in the shape of a man. It is not probable that by taking on him the form of a servant, Christ materially changed the shape of his person; the more probable meaning is, that he emptied himself of his lustre and glory, and was changed from the condition of a great king to that of a servant. When Mark says of Christ, that he appeared in another form unto two of his disciples, he does not mean that the Saviour appeared in the

shape of some being entirely different from a man, but that he was so changed in his external appearance that they did not know him. If the word form means moral perfections, then it follows that he emptied himself of God's moral perfections, and took on himself the form, that is, the moral perfections of a servant. Whether the form of God that he had before he took the form of a servant, was the shape of man or not, it was the form or shape of God, therefore it remains a fact that God has a shape."

Mr. Lane replied, by observing, that what Dr. Priestley and Mr. Kinkade had said and written, could have no application to the object of the present debate; for though all Mr. Kinkade had written were erroneous, though Dr. Priestley and Thomas Jefferson were infidels, and the people called Christians altogether as bad as his opponent could represent them, the admission of all these charges would not establish either the positive or negative of the doctrinal proposition which they had assembled to investigate. He avowed his desire to stand or fall alone, without being implicated in the faith or infidelity of any man; and therefore he did not consider the character of the connexion to which he belonged, as in any degree exposed to jeopardy, by the sayings or doings of a single member, for as such he had undertaken this discussion.

After complaining that his opponent had spent so much time without adducing any argument to sustain the position which he had assumed, he would not delay to recriminate, but endeavour to call attention to the subject of discussion. He acknowledged his belief, that Jesus is a divine person, but expressly denied that he is the su preme and eternal God. Declaring his conviction that the testimony of scripture was in accordance with his views on this subject, he consequently expressed his willingness to meet the Goliath of the Presbyterians!

Mr. Lane then explicitly avowed his opinions concerning the person of Christ, and opened an ample field for the trial of all the abilities and prowess of his oppo