because " they will believe nothing, the manner and causes of which they cannot comprehend ;" and who therefore, as Price fhrewdly remarks-" must be in the way to believe nothing at all."

Serm. p. 141.

Against the credibility of the miraculous conception-Priestley urges the following weak objections: Hift. Opin. IV. p. 17.

I. "That it was a miracle abfolutely fingular in its nature, there being nothing like it in the history of the Old or New Testament ;"-overlooking most strangely the extraordinary cafes of the birth of, 1. John the Baptift; 2. of Ifaac, when the parents were "old and well ftricken in years"-Sarah full ninety years of age: -and both she and Elizabeth barren before; 3. the cafe of Eve, born without a mother; and, 4. of Adam, born without father or mother, and therefore the immediate "Son of God." Luke iii. 38.

2.

"That it does not appear to be adapted to answer any good purpose whatever; but, on the contrary, a manifeftly

bad

bad one; 1. in making our Saviour's Meffiahfhip too soon and too generally known; or, 2. expofing his mother to undeserved reproach."

One good purpose, at least, we learn from Wakefield; Enquiry, &c. p. 49.

"And yet, who now fhall venture to specify the peculiar purposes of Providence in this extraordinary deviation from the courfe of nature, in behalf of the Chriftian difpenfation? How can we prefume to decide upon fuch a topic, when Revelation herself is filent? It can be no crime however in a lover of the Gofpel to fuggeft, with becoming diffidence, what might poffibly be one object of this contrivance of the ALMIGHTY: It appears to have been his will to exhibit a perfect pattern of human virtue, to which the followers of Jefus might endeavour to form their conduct. Heb. iv. 15, and vii. 26.

"Is it then improbable, that a generation different from that of common mortals who all out of the way of whom way—of

there is none good, no not one-might be

abfolutely

abfolutely essential to the accomplishment of this purpose ?

"But this must be allowed to be a very fublime and myfterious fubject; and we know from good authority, that in the fcheme of Chriftianity, there are other things "hard to be understood," 2 Pet. iii. 16.- and things which angels defire to look into, 1 Pet. i. 12."

O fi fic omnia!

But "Revelation is not filent on the topic;" she mentions other ftill more important ends:-1. "Now, once for all, in the completion of the ages, [or divine difpenfations,] hath HE been manifested for the abolition of fin, through the facrifice of Himfelf;' Heb. ix. 26. -CHRIST JESUS; who was born unto us, WISDOM FROM GOD, and RIGHTEOUSNESS, and SANCTIFICATION, and REDEMPTION 1 Cor. i. 30.-" to whom (Gentiles) hath been allotted a faith equivalent to ours (Jews) through OUR GOD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST's righteousness," 2 Pet. i. 1.

"We

"We entreat you, for CHRIST's fake, be reconciled to THE DEITY: who made Him, though not knowing fin, a fin offering, for our fakes; that we might become GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS, through Him," 2 Cor. v. 21.-Who was indeed-" THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS (IAH-OH),

66

Jer. xxiii. 6.—“ For THE DEITY having raised up HIS SON JESUS-(that righteous branch of David's line), fent Him forth, to bless us, (both Jews and Gentiles,) in turning away each from our wickednesses." Acts iii. 26.

"LINDSEY," we are told, "hath proved, almoft to a demonftration, that the name Iah-oh, (as Iehovah is more correctly pronounced by the Clarian Oracle, law,) is appropriated to THE God and FATHER OF ALL, and is in no one inftance applied to CHRIST;"-in express defiance of the foregoing text of Jeremiah, where it can be applied to no other !!!-How fuch "learned and worthy authors,” as Lindfey and the Unitarian lay-translator of Ifaiah, Note on Ifaiah vi. 1. could be

fo

fo purblind, is amazing-and a melancholy proof that "partial blindness hath indeed befallen our British Ifrael.” - And how both himself, and the Father of English Unitarianifm the pious and worthy Clarke, Trinity No. 597. could not dif cern "the true meaning " of the fublime vifion of the evangelical prophet Ifaiah, vi. 1. that “THE REGENT [LORD] whose glory he faw," was JESUS CHRIST, as exprefsly afferted by John xii. 41. and understood by the celebrated Cyril of Jerufalem, (who died, A. D. 386,) in the following quotation, given by Clarke him-.

felf:

Τον Πατέρα μεν γαρ εδεις εώρακε πωπόλε

tole

“Ο δε τῷ Προφήτη τοτε φανεις, υι ην.

66 [GOD] THE FATHER, no one ever saw:

(John i. 18.) "But He who then appeared to the Prophet, was THE SON."

By a sophism unworthy of such a scholar, Clarke takes the word "faw," in the two different fenfes of" beholding," and "foreseeing," in the fame breath!!

When