come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God has set forth to be a propitiation, through faith in his blood; to declare his righteousness in the remission of sins that are past: in the forbearance of God, to declare at this time his righteousness: that he might be just and the justifier of him who believeth in Jesus." "Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." "Now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometime ago were far off are made nigh, by the blood of Christ; for he is our peace." When ye were yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die : yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, by the death of his Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life; and not only so, but we also joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement." (Or, if it be rendered the reconciliation, it amounts to the same thing.) "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Therefore, said Paul, “ Yea, doubtless, I count all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord : for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them as dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having on mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God, by faith." "For it hath pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; and having made peace by the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself, whether they be things on earth or things in heaven. And you that were sometime ago alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled, in the body of his flesh through death, to present you

holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight," &c. He tells the Thessalonians, "Ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come." He affirms to Timothy, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." He elsewhere says of the Saviour, "He loved me, and gave himself for me." He remarks to Titus, "After that the kindness and philanthropy of God our Saviour appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

Many more quotations might I adduce from the writings of Paul, especially from his Epistle to the Hebrews: and expressions equally strong occur in the Epistles of Peter and John, as well as in the last book of the New Testament; which it would require immense critical labor to explain away, or to reconcile to the Socinian scheme. In short, the whole of the sacred writings must be pulled to pieces, to get rid of the doctrines connected with the divinity of Christ, and consequently with the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity.

When I had an interview with the venerable Daniel Turner of Abingdon, a few months before his death, he told me that one of these gentlemen affirmed to him, that the blood of Jesus Christ had no more to do with our salvation, than the blood of Alexander the Great.' The good old man exclaimed, "Where should I be then? with the sins of fourscore years and ten! But oh," said he, "it is precious blood!" So said Peter long before him; and all the saints in glory confess the same in their songs, to him that loved them, and washed them from their sins in his blood.

It would be easy to adduce a large number of passages, respecting Christ's care of his people, now he has left this world as to his bodily presence. "David said, "Jehovah is

my shepherd, I shall not want." If Jesus be not Jehovah, David was better off than we; but he whom Peter calls "the chief Shepherd," and who styled himself " the good Shepherd," did not only lay down his life for the sheep, but has also declared, "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any one pluck them out of my hand." He speaks of his protection as equally securing them from danger with the protection of the Father, for he adds, "My Father who gave them me is greater than all, and no one is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one." Accordingly Peter, long after his ascension, spoke of him as "the Shepherd and Bishop of souls."

Surely he knows but little of the worth of his soul, or of the dangers to which it is exposed, who would dare to leave it in the care of a mere man, who is no more in this world. Certainly Paul had an higher idea of him, when he said, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him against that day. Accordingly, in a season of peculiar trial, he says, "I besought the Lord thrice, and he said unto me,' My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Most gladly therefore will I glory in mine infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me; for when I am weak, then am I strong." As he elsewhere declares, "I can do all things, through Christ, who strengtheneth me." Whereas Christ had told his disciples, "Without me ye can do nothing." What an extravagant expression must this seem, to one who disbelieves his divinity, even if its meaning had been confined to the time when he was conversant with his disciples in this world! but how much more extravagant if it is to be applied to all his future disciples, even to those who were born after he had left the earth, and now his human nature resides in some distant region of the universe! What can he there do for us, any more than Enoch and Elijah, who are probably in the same place?

Paul, in most of his Epistles," invokes grace and peace" for the Christians to whom they were addressed, “from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:" and for Timothy and

Titus he implores "grace, mercy, and peace," from the same source. Would not Socinians justly exclaim against us, if we durst to pray for grace and peace from God the Father and Calvin; or from God and Whitfield, or Jonathan Edwards? Or would they presume to pray for grace and peace from God our Father, and Socinus, or Priestly? Would they excuse us, by allowing that though we joined the names of those good men with God the Father, yet doubtless we never meant to worship them? Or could they justify themselves, by alleging, that they did not mean to ascribe, to Socinus or Priestly, power to influence the hearts of men, but only to wish they might imitate their virtues? Surely, they who so boldly charge Paul with reasoning inconclusively, might as well, if their views of Jesus were correct, charge him with praying inconsiderately, if not impiously! Who would dare thus to connect the name of God and any other good man, in the same devout aspiration? Never did any of the Jewish prophets invoke grace and peace upon Israel, from God and Moses; nor from God Almighty and Abraham. Never would the Apostle have put up a prayer of this sort to our Lord Jesus, if he had not believed him to be, what he expressly called him, "God over all, blessed for ever."

Direct declarations in the language of men seem more liable to be explained away, than the more indirect implication of a number of passages, which demonstrate the exalted idea the writers had of the person to whom they refer. I have been very forcibly struck with the metaphorical illustration of our Lord's singular character, in which he is represented as related to his church as the bridegroom is to the bride. This allusion is made repeatedly in the Old Testament, particularly in Psalm xlv. whence the Apostle quotes that expression, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever." See also Isa. liv. 5. But not to dwell on these passages, let us notice how the same metaphor is employed in the New Testament. If we conceive of Christ merely as a teacher sent from God, a fallible, peccable man, Why is the kingdom of heaven said to be like a King, who celebrated the nuptials of his SON? Matt. xxii. Does this accord with the idea of the king's son being co-ordinate with the servants, or with

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those who were invited to the feast? Or does it not represent him as a unique character? All the propriety of the parable seems lost, if we lose sight of the incarnation of Christ, and of the work of redemption. Of the same import is the language of John the Baptist. John iii. 28-36. "I am not the Christ, but am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease. He that cometh from above is above all; he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all," &c.

But notice, especially, the use which the Apostle makes of this metaphorical representation, not in a poem, nor in a high-flown oration, but in a plain didactic epistle, wherein he intended to enforce the relative duties of persons in the conjugal relation. "Wives submit yourselves to your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the Saviour of the body. Therefore as the the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it, with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it unto himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish, &c. No one ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church, &c. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church."

Now, it is evident, that the Apostle here represents Christ as standing in that relation to the whole church, or the collective body of good men, even all of our race that shall be finally happy, in which the husband stands to the wife. Is he not represented as more than equal to them all, as giving himself for them all, and as having a propriety in them all? Really, this would appear to me downright nonsense and absurdity, if I imagined, that he had done no more for their