When the Apoftle hath confidered the Son of God in his divine nature, left we fhould lofe fight of his condefcending love in becoming our brother, He concludes the Epiftle by fhewing him in his inferior character, as a divine man by whom alone we have accefs unto God. To God only wife, fays he, be glory through Jefus Chrift for ever! Rom. xvi. 27. This care of the Apostle is a proof his wifdom, for having fhewed us the infinite height of the ladder by which we rife to glory, he kindly fhews us that the foot of it is within our reach, reminding us that this very Jefus, who, in the unity of the Father and of the Holy Spirit, is God over all, is nevertheless, in confequence of his union with our nature, man who graciously mediates between God and

And left we fhould think that divine man mere man, St. Paul, in the context, represents him again as a wonderful perfon, in whom, by virtue of an indiffoluble union with Deity, are all the treasures of divine wisdom and power. For whereas, in the first chapter of this Epiftle, he had wished the Romans Grace and Peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jefus Chrift, in the laft chapter, he fhews that in Chrift dwells the fulness of the Godhead, and gives twice his bleffing in the name of the Son only, faying, The Grace of our Lord Jefus Chrift be with you all, Rom. xvi. 20, 24, an apoftolic bleffing this, which upon your plan would be both abfurd and wick·ed: (1) Abfurd: For how can a mere man have grace enough to fupply the wants of minions of millions in all ages? And (2) Wicked: Because it puts Chriftians upon believing in, and praying to Jefus Chrift for the fulness of divine grace, which would be tempting them to grofs idolatry if he were a mere man,

But

But fo far was St. Paul from entertaining any fear in this respect that he begins his next Epiftle by defcribing true Chriftians as men who are fanctified in (or by) Chrift Jefus, and who in every place call upon the name of Jefus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:-1 -As people who wait for the coming of our Lord Jefus Chrift, who shall confirm them unto the end, that they may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jefus Chrift, felfewhere called the day of God] Cor. i. 2, 7, 8. These words, Sir, demonftrate our Lord's Divinity, unlefs you can prove that all Chriftians, in all ages, and in every place, are to call upon a mere man, for fanctifying and confirming grace unto the end of the world.

But oppofing St. Paul to himfelf, you try to fet afide this ftriking proof of our Lord's divinity, by faying after the Apoftle: There is none other God but one. To us [Chriftians] there is but one God the Father, of whom are all things: 1 Cor. viii. 4, 6.

As you, Sir, and your brethreni, perpetually deceive the fimple, by affirming that our Lord's Divinity is incónfiftent with thefe words, I fhall not only refcue them out of your hands, but establish by them what you intend to deftroy.

(1) What appearance is there that St. Paul, having begun his Epiftle by pointing out our Lord as the Object of our adoration and prayers, would contradict himself in the middle of that very epiftle? If you do not believe that he wrote by divine infpiration, you should at least allow that he wrote with common fenfe.

(2) When he fays, 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 oppofes the one Godhead of the Father, and of the Word, and of the Holy Ghoft, to the multiplicity of heathenish deities, and of Potentates, who, as living images of the fupreme Potentate, are fometimes called gods, even in Scripture.

(3) To be convinced that this is the true meaning of the two clauses on which you reft your contempt of our Lord's divinity, we need only confider them with the context.

St. Paul peaks of eating the flesh of thofe beafts which had been offered in facrifice to IDOLS; and he fays, 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 he 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 Jefus Chrift, (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 Ghoft, the Spirit of the Father, in whom are all things, and we in him.

(4) I have obferved in the last letter, that this expreffion One God the Father, far from excluding the divinity of the Son, is as confitent with it, as the idea of a King is confiftent with that of a Subject: For God being eternally and infinitely perfect, if paternity belong to his effence, fo does Jonfhip. The eternal Father hath then a coeternal Son, his Word, who in the unity of the Spirit is the one God oppofed by St. Paul to the many Idols and Gods of the Heathen. There are three divine fubfiftences) that bear record in heaevn, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost and these three [101 EV] are one, one Jehovah, in whofe name Chriftians are baptized.

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(5) That

(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 Apoftle hath no fooner mentioned one God the Father, but he mentions the Son as the one Lord, in the unity of the Father and of the Spirit.

(6) If you infift that this expreffion 5 Seas ONE God, which is applied to the Father, neceffarily excludes the Son; it will follow by the fame unfcriptural rule, that this expression ELS Kugios ONE Lord, which is applied to the Son, neceffarily excludes the Father, and thus to rob the Sox of his fupreme Divinity, you will rob the FATHER hintelf of his fupreme Lordship1 So true it is that unitarian overdoing, always ends in undoing; and that our Saviour fpake an awful Truth, when he faid, He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Fatner!

(7) To be convinced that the one God, and the one Lord are not to be feparated, 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 confider what the Apostle faith of each. He calls the Father the Being oF WHOM are all things, and we in Him: And he affures us that the Son is the Being, BY WHOм 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 fubftitute an abfurd tenet to the fecond article of the Chriftian faith, when you teach that he is a mere man, who had no exiftence till he was born of the Virgin. Thus the very Scriptures, by which you attack our Lord's Divinity, when they are can-. didly confidered with the context, and the tenor of the Bible, ftrongly confirm what you rafhly deny:

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 Chrift is God: 1 Cor. xi. 3. For we, who believe the Divinity of our Lord as it is fet forth in the Scripture and in the Nicene Creed, grant that as Eve was fubordinate to Adam. fo the Son is fubord nate to the Father: But, at the fame time, we affert, that as Eve, notwithstanding her fubordination, was truly of one nature with Adam, the Son of God, notwithstanding his fubordination to the Father, is of one nature with Him also. Thus this fecond objection, when candidly weighed, beomes another proof of our Lord's Divinity, efpecially if we confider what St. Paul fays in the next Chapter.

Speaking to the Corinthians of the Idols which they once worshipped, he first opposes to thofe dumb Idols, Jefus Chrift the Word made flesh, and obferves that no man can fay (with a full and lively conviction) that Jefus is THE LORD, but by the Holy Ghoft: 1 Cor. xii. 2, 3. And in the three next veries the Apostle holding out the Doctrine of the Trinity, fays (1) There are diverfities of gifts, but the fame SPIRIT (2) There are differences of adminiflrations, but the fame LORD: (3) There are diverfities of operations, but the fame GOD: And that the Spirit and the Lord are ineffably one with Him, whom St. Paul calls the fame GOD, I prove by the context. GOD, faith he, hath fet fome in the church as Apoftles, teachers, &c. GOD hath endued fome with Gifts of healing and diverfities of tongues: Now, He who peculiarly fets fome to be Apoftles, is the Lord Jelus, who called

the