your fyftem, Is not this the Carpenter, the Son of Mary? the brother of Fames and Simon? and are not his fifters with us? Mark vi. 3. But before you adopted fuch a fyftem, fhould you not, Sir, have gone on to the end of the verfe, and taken notice that the people, who thus fpeak, are thofe who are offended at our Lord, thofe who ftumble against the precious corner ftone laid in Sion, even thole proud, unbelieving, ftubborn Jews, to whom our Lord declared it would be more tolerable for the finners of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for them. But if you will know farther what St. Mark's own fentiments were on the fubject we confider, he will tell you, after the second Witnefs in Heaven, The Son of man (the Meffiah, even whilst he appears in the form of a Servant) is Lord alfo of the Sabbath: [Supreme and divine Lawgiver, he hath power to difpenfe with his own law, and of confequence with the fourth commandment.] Mark ii. 28. And who hath this fupreme Lordfhip, but the Lord God of Sabbaoth, the Lord of the Sabbath and of the heavenly hofts? Unless therefore you can prove that Mofes, Samuel, or fome man approved of God hath been called the Lord of the Sabbath by St. Mark, you muft grant that your affertion is overthrown by that Evangelift.

St. James ufes indifferently the titles of God, and of LORD, the latter of which, you yourself, Sir, will grant to be the ordinary title of Jefus, in the new Teftament, as it is of Jehovah, in the old. If any man, (fays that Apoftles) lack wifdom, let him afk it of Gop; but let him afk in faith; for let not the man, who wavers, think, that he fhall receive any thing or THE LORD: Jam. i. 5, 7. And accordingly he begins the next chapter by pointing out the Meffiah, not as a mere man, but as the great object of faith, jointly with the Father, Have not, says he, the faith of OUR LORD Jefus

Ffus Chrift, the Lord or GLORY, with refpelt of perfons: Jam. ii. 1. The fecond LORD is not in the original, but it is properly fupplied in our Tranflation, because it is the only word which can be grammatically fupplied to compleat the fenfe. And JEHOVAH, THE LORD, Giver of Wisdom, Object of our Faith, and LORD OF GLORY, is certainly a title never given by the inspired Writers to any mere man, let him be ever so approved of God. St. James therefore, confutes your af fertion, as well as St. Mark.

St. JUDE wrote but one fhort Epiftle, and yet attention and candor can see a bear of our Lord's Divinity fhining through the very firstverse. St. James calls himself the Servant of God, and of the Lord Jefus Chrift, but St. Jude, calling himself the Servant of Jefus Chrift [only,] infcribes his Epiftle to them, that are fanctified by God the Father, and preferved in [or by] Jefus Chrift. Now what unprejudiced Perfon does not fee (1) That if there is GOD THE FATHER, there muft (by neceffity of oppofition) be alfo GOD THE SON: And (2) That this divine SoN is the Lord Jefus Chrift, by whom the Faithful are preferved; it being impoffible that any one, who is not God, fhould preserve a countless number of men through all countries, and for hundreds of generations. See 1 Pet. i. 5. Hence it is that St. Jude, in the fourth verfe, represents it as the fame capital offence, to deny the only Lord God and the Lord Jefus Chrift, the words

I confider this verfe as it ftands in our tranfla tion. But when I look into the original, I find, that St. Jude prophecies of certain men crept in unawares, who deny" τον μόνον δεσποτην θεον και κυριον ημων τησεν χρισον, our only Lord God and Saviour Jefus Chrift-or according to the best copies, which omit Jt0v, our only Mafter (or Lord) and Saviour Jefus Christ,

words only Lord God being put here [as in John vii. 3.] to exclude from divinity, lordship and dominion, all who by nature are not God; and nor to exclude our Lord Jesus Christ, who, in thể very fame verse, is joined to the Father, who, in the unity of the Father and of the Spirit, is God over all, and whom the Father of glory hath fet at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but alfo in that which is to come: Eph. i. 20, &c.

That St. Jude makes it the fame capital offence to fpeak against the Dignity of the Son, as to infult the Majesty of the Father, and that the men crept in unawares, against whom St. Jude prophecies, are principally the malicious oppofers of our Lord's divinity, appears from the context: For St. Jude, in verfe 21, and 25. confidering again Jelus Chrift as on the throne of the Godhead, with his Father, exhorts the christians to keep themfelves in the love of God the Father, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jefus Chrift, unto eternal life; Now who can read these words without wondering at the certain men who creep in unawares, who come into the Church of Chrift, as if they would purge it from corruptions, and pour contempt upon the very divinity of the fupreme Lawgiver, and Judge of the univerfe, and who dare tell us that the Apostles give Jefus Chrift no higher title. than that of a mere man approved of God, when they call him THE LORD to whofe mercy we are to look for eternal life; as if a mere man could, in the day of God, shew us mercy unto etérnal life t

How different is the idea which St. Jude gives us of Him, after Enoch, verfe 14. Behold THE LORD cometh with ten thoufand of his faints to execute judgment

judgment upon all, and to convince all the ungodly of their ungodly deeds, and of all the hard fpeeches which they have fpoken against HIM. Now, Sir, we Trinitarians never heard of the Saints of Mofes, or of a mere man, but we have heard of the Saints of God, we have heard of that Great Being, who is called the Lord of Hofts and the King of Saints, because all the armies of the Saints and Angels are His Own: And therefore we conclude that the Lord who fhall come with myriads of his Saints, is the Son who will punish obftinate unbelievers for their hard fpeeches, not against a mere man, but against HIM who faid when he was in the form of a fervant, The Son of Man [refuming his form of God] fhall come in his glory, and all his holy angels with him, and they fhall gather his Elect, &c. Mat. xxiv. 31. and xxv. 31.

Now Sir, this LORD of glory whose are the Saints, the Angels, and the Elect, is our Lord Jefus Chrift, whom St. Jude, in the laft verfe of his Epiftle, calls [in the unity of the Father's Godhead, mentioned verfe 1 and 19,] the only wife God our Saviour, to whom be glory, majefty and dominion, both now and ever!

Should you ask me, Sir, how I prove that this doxology belongs peculiarly to our Lord Jefus Chrift, I reply, that St. Jude himself furnishes me with a proof, for, verfe 24, fpeaking of this God our Saviour to whom he afcribes glory, he describes him thus: Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to prefent you faultlefs before the prefence of his glory with exceeding joy, &c. And that this defcription peculiarly belongs to our Lord, I prove by the following references. Speaking of himself as the good Shepherd, the keeper of the fheep, he that keeps obedient believers from falling into fin and into hell, he says, I and

my

my Father are one; and explaining how he is, with the Father, this GOD SAVIOUR who keeps the Sheep from falling, he fays, I give unto them eternal life, none hall pluck them out of my hand: My Father [alfo] who gave them me is greater than all [the powers of earth and hell] and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. John x. 28, 3.

If this equality of the Father and of the Son in KEEPING US FROM FALLING proves that St. Jude's doxology refers to our Lord, as well as to the Father; the following remark on St. Jude's words, God our Saviour is able to prefent you faultless with great joy, &c. prove it ftill more clearly. Is it God the Son, who will prefent us to the Father, or God the Father who will present us to himself? St. Paul will inform us, You (fays he) that were fometimes enemies, hath he reconciled, in the BODY OF HIS FLESH, through death to PRESENT you unblamable in his fight. Col. i. 22. Now Sir, fo furely as the Father was never manifeft in the FLESH, the Prince of life, who died to PRESENT us blameless, is Jefus Chrift, whom St. Jude [in union with God the Father] calls GoD OUR SAVIOUR, For it is OUR LORD, who peculiarly loved the Church, and gave himfelf for it, that he might cleanfe it, and PRESENT it to himself without spot and blameless: It is our Lord, who, for the joy [the great joy] that was fet before him, endured the cross, and will one day fay (as Mediator) to the Father, Behold, I and the children whom thou haft given me. Compare Eph. v. 25, &c. Heb. ii. 13 and xii, 2,

From thefe obfervations it appears, that St. JUDE alfo gives to Chrift higher titles than that of a man approved of God, fince he calls Him not only Jefus our Lord Meffiah, but God our Saviour. I have dwelt the longer on this Apostles teftimo

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