worship of Angels and opposed it to holding the head, Chrift, an expreffion which in this connexion manifeftly implies the worshipping him, which we have had already fufficient, and fhall have yet much more abundant proof, that the Apostles and firft Chriftians did? Would he have termed this mere man, as the Doctor thinks him, the life of true believers, and their all in all, exhorting them to forgive one another, as he had forgiven them?--Would he have opposed him to men, and urged fervants, whatsoever they did, to do it heartily as to him (a mere man!) and not to men, knowing that of him, they fhould receive the reward of the inheritance, for that they ferved the Lord Chrift? These enquiries, Rev, Sir, are of deep importance and fuch as on the Socinian principles, I am well convinced Dr. Priestley will never be able to answer to the fatisfaction of thofe who pay any deference to the authority of St. Paul, 1 am, Rev. Sir, Yours, &c. LETTER REV. SIR, LETTER V. R. PRIESTLEY, would fain perfuade us Dthat St. Paul's idea of the Perfon of Chrift, was the fame with that which he entertains. But, were there no other, there is at least one infurmountable objection to this, and that is the different conduct of the Apoftle, from that of the Doctor, with regard to divine worship. The Doctor confines this entirely to the Father. He never, in any inftance, addreffes it to the Son. He judges it would be idolatry fo to do. But we have already feen in many undeniable instances, that St. Paul worshipped Jefus Chrift. To fay nothing of the many other paffages which have occurred in the Epiftles already reviewed, the Benedictions wherewith he has begun and ended thefe Epiftles are incontrovertible proofs of it. For in thefe he asks grace, or grace and peace, of Jefus Chrift, as well as of the fupreme and eternal Father. We have already met with fo many inftances of this kind, that I am afhamed to trouble you with any more. I fhall therefore pass over thofe occurring in the two next Epiftles, (viz. the Epiftles to the Theffalonians,) and I shall also omit mentioning divers texts in thofe Epiftles concerning Chrift, which if understood as fpoken of a mere man, appear equally abfurd with thofe quoted in the four preceding Letters. But two paffages I muft refer to, as affording a plain and evident demonftration, that the Apoftle viewed the Lord Jefus Chrift in a different light from that in which Dr. Priestley beholds him, The one paffage is in the 1ft. Epiftle, Chap. iii. 11, and according to the Doctor's hypothefis, pothefis, muft be interpreted as follows-" Now God himself, even our Father and our Lord Jefus Chrift (a mere man !) direct our way unto you. And the Lord (the fame mere man!) make you to encrease in love one towards another, and towards all men,-to the end he may establifh your hearts unblamable in holiness, before God, even our Father, at the coming of our 'Lord Jefus Chrift with all his faints.' A manifeft and undeniable inftance this, of a format and folemn prayer, addreffed to the Lord Jefus, that is, as Dr. Prieftley will have it, to a mere man! and by one who, he fays, believed him to be a mere man! Surely it behoves him to confider how, on his principles, he can acquit the Apostle of the grofs crime of idolatry !—The other pasfage (2 Epift. Chap. ii. 16,) muft, on the fame hypothefis, be understood in the fame manner. Now OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF (a 6 mere man!) and God even our Father, who hath loved us, and given us everlasting confolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work.' Here again we have a plain inftance of the Apoftle's praying to Chrift, and that at the very time and in the very manner in which he prays to the Father. The Doctor may, pass these things over flightly. But you will agree with me, Dear Sir, that reafon will require him either to allow that the Apostle held a different fentiment concerning the Lord Jefus, from that which he entertains, or to give us proof that he can imitate the Apoftle, and worship Chrift as he did.. While then, he informs his people, in the language of St. Paul in thefe Epiftles, that Jefus Chrift, delivers them from the wrath to come (1 Epift. Chap. i. 10. and that they obtain Salvation thro' him, Chap (Chap. v. 9.) That he is that Lord (2 Epift. Chap. i. 7, that fhall defcend from heaven with a with the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God; who fhall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jefus Chrift, the perfon from whole prefence and from the glory of whofe power fuch fhall be punished with everlasting deftruction, when he (a mere man) fhall come to be glorified in his Saints, and admired in all them that believe: and while he prays to the Father for his flock that the name of our Lord. Jefus Chrift may be glori fed in them, according to the grace of our God and Jefus our Lord: let him approach alfo the Lord Jefus Chrift in prayer after the example of St. Paul. Though this might a little aftonifh fome of his hearers, as being a procedure that they had not been accustomed to, yet it would have more weight than any thing he has yet faid or done to convince the public, that he does not differ fo widely from St. Paul as the generality of mankind in this kingdom fuppofe him to do. But if he cannot confcienticufly do this, as believing it would be grofs Idolatry to worship a mere man in this manner, or fpeak of him in this exalted ftrain, then let him acknowledge that St. Paul and he differ widely in their views of the Lord Jefus. Methinks, Rev. Sir, on the Socinian principles, the remarkable paffage contained in the 2d. Chapter of the latter Epiftle to this people, which has generally been applied by Proteftants to the Pope of Rome, might with much greater propriety be applied to Jefus Chrift. He, you know, has been worshipped as God for 1700 years at least, by the generality of Chriftians, and he, as GoD, hath fat and ftill fits in the Temple Church of God, fhewing fhewing himself that he is GOD; proclaiming him felf the ROOT as well as offspring of David, the ALPHA and OMEGA, the FIRST and the LAST, and declaring that all men ought to honour him, the Son, even as they honour the Father, and that he that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father. Now if he be no fuch Being, but only a mere man, and therefore no proper object of divine worship, it seems it would be no difficult matter, for fo great a master of the art of reasoning as Dr. Priestley, to prove that he is the great Impoftor and Ufurper, primarily meant by St. Paul in this paffage, the grand idol (as indeed he muft think him) of profeffing Chriftians an Impoftor and Ufurper, by fo much greater than the Pope, or any other that hath arifen in the Church of God, claiming divine honours, and exercifing dominion over men's confciences; by how much he hath been obeyed more unrefervedly and implicitly, and hath been worshipped more devoutly and univerfally than they. You know, Sir, it is generally fuppofed that all the mcft remarkable Apoftacies from faith in and piety towards God, have been diftinctly foretold in the holy Scriptures; now, if Jefus Chrift be a mere man, the worship of him fo generally practifed, all over Chriftendom, for fo long a run of ages, muft be the greateft corruption of true religion, and the moft remarkable defection from the fervice of the one living and true God that ever took place in the vifible Church. And it would be ftrange indeed, and what many would confider as an infuperable objection to the Doctor's whole scheme, if this greatest of all Apoftacies fhould no where be foretold in the oracles of God, when Apoftacies far lefs criminal and general, are conftantly found to have been pre |