LXXII.

Speaking of the facrifices of the Gentiles, which he fays were offered not to God but to devils, St. Paul says, “Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils," 1 Cor. x. 20, 21. Here is manifeftly a declaration made, that the taking the cup of bleffing, and the bread which we break, as the communion of the blood and body of Chrift, is an act of worship to him, adequate to that of the Gentiles' facrifices to their idols. He does not indeed call it a facrifice, nor intimate that it is one, but fays, That it is an afcribing of honour to him, inconfiftent with honour being paid to devils. In the fame manner as our Saviour himself has faid, "Ye cannot ferve God and mammon," St. Paul fhews, that they cannot, confiftently with the worship of the true God, afcribe honour to idols. "What concord hath Chrift with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth, with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God, &c." 2 Cor. vi. 15, 16.

LXXIII.

Our Saviour declared to Pontius Pilate that he was the King of the Jews, Matth. xxvii. 11; and this is by St. Paul alledged to have been a good confeffion, 1 Tim. vi. 13. Chrift Jefus alfo gave himself a ranfom for all, 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6. "O death where is thy fting? O grave where is thy victory? Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jefus Chrift." I Cor. XV. 55, 57. "O Ifrael, I will be thy king;" "I will ranfom them from the power of the grave: I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy deftruction," Hofca xiii. 10, 14. Such is the promife of God to a prophet, and the ftrict completion of it by Jefus Chrift, argues him who per

formed

formed it to be therefore one with the Father, the King of Ifrael, the God who made that promife. But let us fay that this is too large an inference from the paffages here compared, and that no more is affirmed than that "God in his love to us fent his Son to be a propitiation for our fins," 1 John iv. 9; and that Jefus Chrift was the ransom through whom God has redeemed us, and given us the victory over death and the grave; it yet follows, which is equally fubverfive of the Unitarian fystem, that a ranfom was requifite for our redemption, and that "this was obtained by the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himfelf without fpot to God, the juft for the unjust, and hath now once appeared to put away fin by the facrifice of himself," Heb. ix. 12, 26. 1 Pet. iii. 18. Ephef. v. 2.

"We preach not

LXXIV.

ourselves, but Chrift Jefus the These words I produce only to

Lord," 2 Cor. iv. 5. fhew the object of the apostle's preaching, a circumftance to which I am frequently obliged to refer. Paul has also defined the gospel to be "the teftimony of our Lord Jefus Chrift," 2 Tim. i. 8. The preaching of the gospel is therefore the bearing teftimony to him, which I wish to have remembered and carried on in the mind of my reader,

LXXV.

Were I to quote every paffage in the fecond epiftle of St. Paul to the Corinthians that affords a proof of our Saviour's Godhead, I fhould be under a neceffity of tranfcribing the whole epiftle, to which I therefore choose to refer my reader. One paffage however I muft felect, and fhew its weight in the argument, becaufe Mr. Lindfey has taken fome pains to extricate himself from the neceffity of bending under it. It is indeed furprizing, that a man, who has fhewed fo evidently his attachment to what he believes the truth, fhould not be more circumfpect

Q 2

cumfpect in the pursuit of her, but allow himself to be deceived by every painted fallacy that fhall appear ever fo little like the original. I am at a lofs to conceive how the following daubed mask should be taken for the native and unadorned fimplicity of truth, by one who profeffes himfelf enamoured of that fimplicity. But upon the 12th chap. and 8, 9 ver, of 2 Cor. a Mr. Beau5,9 fobre has afforded the following comment, to which Mr. Lindley accedes with the moft fupine facility. "For this thing I befought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me," a Cor. xii. 8, 9. Paul appears here to have directed his prayer to God, the Father, and to have had in his thoughts and to have imitated our Lord's prayer in the garden, the night before his fuffering, when he prayed to God, that, if it pleafed him, the cup of affiction might pass away from him without his drinking it." Beaufobre on the place. Apology, p. 132. Let us take the whole paffage together, and examine it with the context, and then fee whether the apoftle had any fuch ftuff in his thoughts as the dreams of Mr. Beaufobre are made of. St. Paul having faid, " of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities," proceeds to give an account of those infirmities, and to affign the reason why they are an object of glory to him, faying, "left I fhould be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flefh, the meffenger of Satan to buffet me, left I fhould be exalted above meafure. For this thing I befought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me, And he said unto me, my grace is fufficient for thee: for my ftrength is made perfect in weakness. Moft gladly therefore will I rather glory in mine infirmities, that the power of Chrift may reft upon me, Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in neceffities, in perfecutions, in diftreffes for Chrift's fake: for when I am weak, then am I ftrong," 2 Cor. xii. 5, 7, 8, 9, 10. Wherefore

does

does St. Paul glory? wherefore take pleasure in his infirmities? that the power of Chrift may reft upon him; for, by fuffering fuch infirmities as contribute to perfect the ftrength of the Lord, (to whom he prayed) in weaknefs, he is then strong when he is weak; but he glories in his infirmities for Chrift's fake; it is the ftrength of Chrift then that is perfected in his weaknefs: but it is the Lord who faid, my ftrength is made perfect in weaknefs; the Lord therefore who fo fpoke, is Chrift: but of the Lord who fo fpoke, Paul thrice befought the departure" of this thing." The Lord then being Chrift, and Paul having thrice preferred his fupplications to him, it neceffarily follows, that the Lord Jefus Chrift is a proper object of prayer and religious worship, and there- . fore that he is one with the Father, God. Such is the conclufion from the context; whereas a delufive affertion is inferred by a Mr. Beaufobre, from a partial quotation of but one fmall part of the paffage, in itself proving nothing, but made the fubject of the weakest comment that ever obtained the acquiefcence of a man of virtue; a man, whofe errours afflict me, as I honour his worth. I cannot see him turn aside from the ftudy of the word of God itself, to the ftudy of the manner in which partial vifionaries have interpreted it, without fenfible regret. I do not defire that even my comment fhould fupplant a single inference drawn, by a fenfible and candid man, from a perufal of the fcriptures themselves; it cannot therefore be expected that I fhall indulge Mr. Lindsey in laying afide the use of his own better understanding, that he may adopt the doctrines of a multitude of defigning or filly men and women, upon whom he places fuch implicit reliance. I only ask of him, and every other reader, that they will take the uncorrupted word of God itself into their own confideration, and with diligence search the fcriptures only,

and

and thence infer, for their own ufe, fuch tenets as the Holy Spirit fhall be found to have testified.

LXXVI.

St. Paul, in his epiftle to the Galatians, commences with a declaration that he is an apostle (not of men, neither by man, but by Jefus Chrift, and God the Father,”) Gal. i. 1. Here the Father and the Son are put into oppofition to man, and declared to be the Being from whom the apoftle had his authority; and he declares farther, that the gofpel which was preached of me, is For I neither received it of man, nei

not after man.

ther was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jefus Chrift," Gal. i. 11, 12. Who then is Jefus Chrift who has thus revealed the gospel to Paul, and whofe authority is fo very high above that of men? One with thę Father, God.

LXXVII.

"For do I now perfuade men, or God? or do I feek, to please men? for if I yet pleafed men, I should not be the fervant of Chrift," -Gal. i. 10 This is in context

with the last cited paffages; and the apoftle, ftill preferving the diftinction between God and man, fhews the Galatians the authority with which he is about to reprove them; and that they may not expect too great lenity, he fhews that he does not feek to please them, but Christ, whofe fervant he fhould not be if he neglected to maintain that gospel which fome among them had perverted. He diftinguishes himself from thofe who "defire to make a fair fhew in the flesh, left they should fuffer perfecution for the crofs of Chrift," Gal. vi. 12; whereas he bore in his body the marks of the Lord Jefus,

ver. 17.

The fame diftinction between Chrift and Men is made again by the fame apoftle writing to the Corinthians. "He that is called, being free, is Chrift's fervant. Ye are

bought