ye may be blameless in the day of [the same mere man] our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord,' I mean the fellowship of a mere man!

Now, what a group of absurdities have we in these few verses! Au apostle of a mere man! Sanctified in a mere man! Calling upon the name of a mere man ! Deriving grace and peace from a mere man! Enriched by a mere man in all utterance and in all knowledge! Coufirmed unto the end by a mere man! Waiting continually for the coming of a mere man ! Surely this kind of language savours more of lunacy than of a sound mind, and betrays as great a want of reason or common sense, as of learning or inspiration. And yet one can hardly open any where in this or in the other epistles of this Apostle, but, on the supposition of his being an Uuitarian in the sense of Dr. Priestley and Sociuus, one meets with absurdities equally numerous and glaring. Thus in the verses which immediately follow :

'Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, [viz. the name of a mere man,] that ye all speak the same thing.-Was Paul, [a mere man] crucified for you? or were ye baptized into the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I [a mere man!] baptized in my own name, [the name of a mere man.] For Christ [another mere man!] did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of speech, lest the cross of Christ, [that is, the cross of a mere man !] should be made of none effect. For the doctrine of the cross is indeed to them that perish foolishness; but to us who are saved, it is the power of God.-(Verse 23.) We preach Christ [a mere man!] crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them who are called, Christ [the same mere man] the wisdom of God, and the power of God !-Of him are ye in Christ Jesus [viz. in a mere man] who of God is

made unto us wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption :'-A mere man, the wisdom of God and the power of God: Yea, wisdom and righteousness, that is, the source and author of wisdom and righteousness, sanctification and redemption, to all that believe! Strange doctrine this indeed, and very incredible!

Thus again in the next chapter: I determined not to know any thing among you but Jesus Christ, [that is, I determined not to know any thing but a mere man!] and him crucified.-We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which none of the princes of this world knew; for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory,' that is, a mere man!

Again, (chapter iii. 11,)

Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ,' a mere man : That is, a mere man is the one foundation of the whole church, with all its doctrines, privileges, and duties! All believers, in all nations and ages, are built upon a mere man! And, chapter 5th, this doctrine supposes the Apostle to speak as follows: 'In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, [that is, in the name of a mere man,] when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ [viz. the power of a mere man !]-to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.' Will Dr. Priestley, or any of the Socinians, tell us how the power of a mere man, confined in the third heaven, could be exerted and felt on earth, and that in thousands and myriads of congregations at the same time? And will they inform us how sinners of every description could be washed (as the Apostle expresses it in the 6th chapter) sanctified and justified in the name of this mere man ?

Pass we on to the 7th chapter: Unto the married Í command, yet not I [a mere man, as you know I am] but the Lord, [another and a greater mere man !] Let not the wife depart from her husband.-But to the rest speak I, [a mere man,] and not the Lord, [particularly

the other and greater mere man,] (verse 22,) He that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's [that mere man's] freeman.-Likewise also, he that is called, being free, is Christ's [the same mere man's] servant.-Ye are bought with a price, be not ye the servants of men.'-Howbeit, ye may be the servants of Christ, who himself is but a man!

Now how ridiculous is this language! How unworthy of the lips, I will not say of an inspired Apostle, enlightened with divine wisdom, but of any rational creature, however illiterate and uninformed! And yet this and such like language every advocate for the mere humanity of Christ, who acknowledges the authenticity of these Epistles, and supposes their author to have been an Unitarian, puts into the mouth of the apostle ; nay, and makes him utter it almost with every breath, even as often as he has occasion to speak of his Master, which, it is well known, is very frequently.

The Socinians glory much in the 6th verse of the next chapter, because the Apostle there asserts, with great plainness, the unity of God; but even that passage affords a striking instance of the absurd and ridiculous doctrine I mention. For if he affirm that, 'To us there is but one God the Father, of whom are all things,' a truth we should be sorry to disbelieve or deny, persuaded as we are, that he is what his name imports, the Father of all, even of his beloved Son, his incarnate Word; if, I say, he affirms this, he affirms with equal plainness, that there is one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things:' And how all things could be by a mere man, who had no existence till they had been made and preserved at least 4000 years, it may perhaps puzzle even Dr. Priestley to show. Nor have we far to read before we find another proof of the absurdity of supposing St. Paul to hold the doctrine of Christ's mere humanity. Verse 12, he says, 'When ye sin so against the brethren and wound their weak conciences, ye sin against Christ;'-that is, according to this hypothesis, "When ye sin against mere men, ye also sin against a mere man!" To this

mere man, as the Socinians think him, the apostle declares himself, in the next chapter, to be under the law,' and (chapter 10,) affirms that the Israelites tempted him in the wilderness, that is, if the Socinians be right, tempted him 2000 years before he existed. And while the ungodly among them thus rebelled and vexed the Holy Spirit of their Lawgiver, and their Judge, the faithful applied to him as their Saviour, and received salvation from him, for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ,' the Rock of Ages, and the fountain of living waters to his Church, and yet, according to Dr. Priestley, a mere man !

If it seem strange to us that persons of sense and learning should patronize a doctrine which fathers such nonsense upon au inspired apostle, our wonder will in some measure cease, if we pass on to the 12th chapter of this Epistle. There the Apostle both gives us the true reason why men embrace the Socinian hypothesis, and furnishes us with a striking example of the absurdity of attempting to reconcile it with his doctrine. I give you to understand (says he) that no man, speaking by the Spirit of God, calleth Jesus accursed, and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.' They have not received the Holy Ghost They are not enlightened by that Divine Spirit, he has not taken of the things of Jesus, and shewn unto them, has not revealed Christ to them, and therefore they do not, in the true and scriptural sense, call Jesus Lord, but degrade him into a mere man. The Apostle goes on, Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit,' from whom they proceed, and there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord,' the same mere man, says Socinus, that appoints them all, and there are diversities of operations, but the same God, who worketh all in all :" In other words, according to the Socinian doctrine, all the gifts, offices and effects produced in the church of Christ, are from the Holy Ghost, from a mere man, and from the self-existent Jehovah.

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Permit me, Rev. Sir, to refer you to a few more passages of this Epistle, as instances of the absurdity of supposing the Apostle to have held Dr. Priestley's sentiments concerning the mere humanity of Christ. Chap. xv. 45, we read, "The first Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam is a quickening Spirit;' that is, according to the Doctor, a mere man is a quickening Spirit! The first man was from the earth, earthly, the second man is the Lord from heaven.' That is, a mere man, descended from Joseph and Mary, is the Lord from heaven! I protest by your rejoicing, which I also have in Christ Jesus, [a mere man,] I die daily. Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ; [that is, through a mere man !]-Therefore be ye steadfast, and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, [viz. the work of a mere man!] forasmuch as ye know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord,' [the same mere man!] Chap. xvi. 21,—The salutation of me Paul with my own hand. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, [that is, love not a mere man!] let him be anathema [let him be accursed] Maranatha ; [that is, the Lord, the same mere man cometh.] The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, [viz. the grace of a mere man!] be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus,' [the same mere man !]

You see, dear Sir, the First Epistle to the Corinthians, when interpreted according to the Socinian doctrine, no more appears to have been written with common sense, than the Epistle to the Romans. Nay, if Jesus Christ be a mere man, some parts of it are impious, as well as absurd. It is inscribed to those that call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ ;'— that is, if Jesus be no more thau a man, it is inscribed to idolaters. And both that and many other passages of it manifestly countenance and encourage idolatry. To represent grace and peace as being derived from the Lord Jesus, as well as from God the Father, and to ask grace of him' for the churches :-To speak of being 'enriched by him in all utterance,