St. Peter furnishes us with many more examples than St. James, either of the erroneousness of the Socinian Doctrine, or of his own abfurdity. Peter, an Apoftle of Jefus Chrift, (that is, favs Dr. Priestley, an Apoftle of a mere man!) to the ftrangers-elect, according to the foreknowledge of God, the Father, through fanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and fprinkling of the blood of Jefus,' that is, the blood of a mere man! Here, St. Peter fpeaks like a Trinitarian. He both names the three that bear record in heaven, and attributes unto each his proper office and work in the economy of our redemption. He alribes our election to God the Father, who, in his divine foreknowledge, marks from the beginning, who will accept of falvation in the only way in which it can be accepted, the way of repentance and faith, and elects or chufes fuch for his children. He imputes our redemption to the Son of God, Jefus Chrift, whose body offered up upon the crois as a facrifice for fin, makes a onement, and the fprinkling of whole blood gives at once peace with God, and peace of confcience to the truly pen tent and believing foul. And, he attributes our fanctification to the Holy Spirit, whole heavenly influence upon the mind, both breaks the power and purges away the defilement of fin, at the fame time that he infpires us with love, joy and peace, with holiness and happiness, and gives us to know that his genuine fruit is in all goodnefs, righteoufnefs and truth.

The fecond of thefe perfons, against whom Dr. Priestley feems to have a peculiar enmity, and who, he thinks, is far too much exalted, when "advanced to the high rank of the first and prin"cipal emanation of the Deity, the vous or λoyes "of the Platonifts, and the dougyog, under God, "in making the world," as being, he believes, a

mere

them.

mere man; this perfon, I fay, even Jefus, the Son of God, is reprefented by St. Peter, a few verses after, as the great object of the faith and love of the faints, and the fource of unfpeakable joy to Whom having not feen, ye love, (ver. 8.) in whom, though now you fee him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unfpeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the falvation of your fouls.' And, is he a more man, whom they thus love, though they have not feen him, and in whom they rejoice with joy unSpeakable and full of glory? Is he a mere man, whofe Spirit, as the Apoftle obferves in the following verfes, was in the ancient Prophets, and spoke by them, and who hath redeemed us, not with corruptible things, fuch as filver and gold, but with his own precious blood, as of a Lamb without blemish and without fpot, who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifeft in these last times for us? Surely, if he be, St. Peter must have mistaken his character, and have viewed him in a very different light.

This appears ftill more manifeft from the next Chapter: As new-born babes, fays he, defire the fincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby, if fo be that ye have tafted that the • Lord, (a mere man, fhall I fay ?) is gracious.'That he means Chrift, is plain from the following words: To whom coming as unto a living • ftone, difallowed, indeed, of men, but chofen of God and precious, ye alfo as lively ftones, are built up a fpiritual houfe, an holy Priesthood, to offer up fpiritual facrifices, acceptable to God, by Jefus Chrift,' that is, fays Dr. Prieffley, by a mere man! Wherefore, alfo, it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion, a chief corner stone, elect, precious, and he that believ

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eth on him (that believeth on a mere man) shall 'not be confounded. Unto you, therefore, that believe, he, (this mere man!) is precious; but, • unto them that be difobedient, the ftone which the builders difallowed, the fame, (mere man!) is made the head of the corner, and a ftone of ftumbling, and a rock of offence, to them, who, difobeying the word, ftumble.' I afk again, can it be fuppofed, that St. Peter confi. dered the perfon of whom he fpake, in thefe words, as being a mere man? The perfon whom he thus reprefents as the one foundation of the Church, and of every member thereof? to whom he applies the words of Ifaiah, in the 8th Chapter of his Prophecy, manifeftly meant of Jehovah? The LORD, whom true believers TASTE TO BE GRACIOUS, to whom they come as to a living ftone, upon whom they are built up, and trusting in whom they fhall never be confounded?—I ask further, is hẹ a mere man, who, as we learn, verse 24, &c. HIS OWN SELF BEARS OUR SINS on his own body, on the tree, HEALS us by his ftripes, and undertakes to be the Shepherd and Bishop of all our Souls, many thousands and myriads, as we are, difperfed over the whole world. Methinks, he who will affirm this, may as well affirm St, Peter to be an idiot, or befide himself.

But, there is no end of the abfurdity of fuppofing the New Teftament Writers to hold the doctrine of Chrift's mere humanity. We have only to read a few verfes further, and we are informed of this mere man preaching in the days of Noah, by his Spirit, to thofe, who, indeed, are now in prifon, but were formerly difobedient, when once the long-fuffering of God waited for the repentance of the old world; and, a verse or two after, are affured that he is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God, Angels, and

Authorities

Authorities and Powers, being made fubje&t unte ' him,' that is subject to a mere man! and, Chap. v. 11. find the Apostle afcribing to him, PRAISE and DOMINION FOR EVER AND EVER, firming his doxology, by a folemn and hearty AMEN!

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The fecond Epiftle of St. Peter is exactly of a piece with the firft. It alfo contains divers paffages utterly irreconcilable with common fenfe, on the fuppofition that the Author of it believed the Lord Jefus Chrift to be a mere man. The following, which I fhall barely quote and interpret, according to the Socinian hypothefis, leaving it to the reader to make his obfervations upon them, feem very remarkable. Simon Peter, a

fervant and an Apoftle of Jefus Chrift,' that is of a mere man to them that have obtained like precious faith with us, through the righteoufnefs of God, and our Saviour Jefus Christ,' that is of the infinite Jehovah, and a mere man! or rather, according to the Greek, through the righteoufnefs of OUR GOD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST, who, however, is a mere man! Grace and peace be multiplied unto you, through the knowledge of God, (felf-exiflent, independent, fupreme, and eternal) and of Jefus our Lord, a weak, peccable, and mortal man!')

For, (verse 16.) We have not followed cun6 ningly devifed fables, when we made known • unto you the power and coming of (this mere man) our Lord Jefus Chrift, but were " eye-witneffes of his majefty, μεγαλειότητος (the majefty of a mere man!) For, (though a · mere man) he received from God the Father, 'honour and glory, when there came fuch a voice from the excellent glory, This (mere man!) is my beloved Son, in whom (mere man, though he be, weak and peccable!) I am well pleased.

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And this voice, which came from heaven,we heard when we were with him in the holy mount.' Let the reader obferve the following prediction. How applicable to the Doctrine we oppofe !Chap. ii. But there were falfe Prophets among the people, even as there shall be falfe teachers among you, who privily fhall bring in damnable herefies, even denying the Lord, that bought 'them, and bringing upon themselves swift de'ftruction. And many fhall follow their perni

cious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth fhall be evil spoken of.'-Would not one fuppofe that the Apoftle was defcribing the prefent times here? For (ver 20) if after they have efcaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jelus • Chrift, (that is the knowledge of a mere man!) they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worle with them than the begin'ning.'

Chap. iii. This 2d Epiftle, beloved. I write unto you, that ye may be mindful of the words which were fpoken before by the holy Prophets, and of the commandments of us, the Apoftles of the Lord and Saviour, (that is, the Apoftles of a mere man !) knowing that there 'fhall come, in the laft days, fcoffers walking ' after their own lufts, and laying, where is the promife of his coming? (hat i. the coming of a mere man !) But, the Lord, (viz. the fame mere man!) is not flack concerning his promife (to fulfil it) but is long-tuffering to usward, not willing that any fhould perifh, but that all fhould come to repentance. But the 'day of the Lord (that is the day of a mere man!) will come, as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pafs away with a great noife. Nevertheless we, according to his promife (the promise of the fame mere man!)

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