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Let us not be astonished at difficulties, we are still in the preludes of our knowledge: let us not be satisfied with these first elements: let us desire to behold: and, in the mean time, let us content ourselves with believing." B. Bossuet, Tom. x. page 299, and following-last edition.

UNITARIANISM

PHILOSOPHICALLY AND THEOLOGICALLY EXAMINED.

NO. VI.

On the God-head of Jesus Christ.

« Γίνεται δε κατα τέτον τον χρονον Ιησεσ σοφα ανηρ, είχε ανδρα αυτον λεγειν χρη; ην γαρ παραδόξων εργων ποιητής, διδασκαλΘ ανρωτων των ηδονη τάληθη δεχομένων Και πολλές μεν Ιεδαίες, πολλές δε και το Ελληνικό επηγαγετο. ο Χριςος ετοσ ην. Και αυτόν ενδείξεις των προτων αν δρων παρ ήμιν, ςαυρω επιτετιμηκοτα Πιλατε, εκ εξεπαύσαντο οι γε πρω τον αυτον αγαπησαντες, εφάνη γαρ αυτοις τρίτην εχων ημεραν παλιν ζων, των θείων προφητων ταυτα τε καὶ αλλα μυρια θαμασια περι αυτό ειρηκότων, εισετι τε νων των Χρισιανων απο ταδε ωνομασμένων εκ επελιπε το φύλον.” Josephus, lib. xviii. 3.

"About this time lived Jesus, a wise man, if man, indeed, he can be called; for he wrought astonishing works, and was the instructer of those who embrace the truth with readiness. He obtained, as well among the Jews as among the Gentiles, a multitude of followers. He was the Christ: who being accused by the leaders of our nation, was sentenced by Pilate to the death of the cross; notwithstanding this those that loved him from the beginning, did not cease to be devoted to him. For on the third day he appeared to them living again, as this and many other wonderful things had been foretold of him by the Prophets; and moreover the race of the Christians who have derived from him their name, continues to exist to the present day."

"Oui, si la vie et la mort de Socrate sont d'un sage, la vie et la mort de Jesus sont d'un Dieu.”

"Yes, if the life and death of Socrates are those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God." J. J. Rousseau. Emile, Tom. III. page 189,

PREFACE.

CLIV. It is painful in the extreme to reflect, that in the eighteen hundredth year of the christian æra, we should be under the necessity of vindicating the Divinity of him, whom, in unison with the whole christian world, during the long lapse of eighteen centuries, we have hitherto adored as our God and our Maker; and in whom men have, to this present day, placed No. VI.

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all their hopes of felicity, both in time and eternity: doomed as we are, to witness with what fury and perseverance this new band of giants leagued "against the Lord and his Christ" rage against him, who redeemed them, and how determined they seem to be, not unlike the insane and proud builders of Babel in their ungodly design of dethroning the only begotten Son of God, we can scarce refrain from exclaiming with a primitive Father, "Bone Deus, in quæ tempora me reservasti!" Good God, for what times hast thou reserved me!* Is it possible, that there should exist a class of men, and of men, too, who style themselves philanthropists and friends to mankind, who should make it their ill-advised business to bereave poor, miserable, and wretched men of all their comforts here below, and of all their bright prospects of an hereafter? For if Christ be not true God, how can man, in his trying hours, under the frowns of fortune, place his confidence in him, since it is written, "accursed is the man who confideth in man?"† And if Christ be not true God and true man, and if he has not atoned for our sins, what becomes of our cheering prospects of a happy eternity, and how can we expect life everlasting through him, who has not, and who, if he be no more than what we ourselves are, could not do any thing for us? It is, thereofore, the cause of all mankind we are promoting, when, although conscious of our inadequacy to so momentous a task, and although more inclined to bow down in deep adoration before the insulted Deity than to dispute, we step forward to vindicate the divinity of him, whose praises the church has been singing with the Ambroses and Augustins for these twelve hundred years past. "We praise thee, O God-the holy church throughout all the world does acknowledge thee Father of an infinite Majesty; thine honourable, true, and only Son, also the Holy Ghost the Comforter; Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ; Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father, &c."‡

* St. Polycarp, disciple of St. John and Martyr. Hymn, "Te Deum Laudamus."

+ Jeremiah, xvii. 5.

But does the eternal Son of God stand in need of the exertions of his creatures to defend the rights of his everlasting throne? No, looking down from the seat of his glory upon the foolish projects of his enemies, he views them as an army of moles, whose work shall not stand: His holy church resting upon his solemn promises as upon an immoveable rock, and viewing in the total defeat of her former enemies the fate of the present and future ones, addresses them in the lofty strain of the royal Prophet, "Why have the Gentiles raged, and the people devised vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes met together, against the Lord and against his Christ. Let us break their bonds asunder: and let us cast away the yoke from us. He that dwelleth in heaven shall laugh at them: and the Lord shali deride them. Then shall he speak to them in his anger, and trouble them in his rage," Psalm ii. 1-6. The church of God has learnt from the mouth of her divine founder himself, that the faith of Peter, "thou art Christ, the Son of the living God," shall be unshaken in the hearts of his children as long as "the sun endures,"* "to the consummation of time."t Conscious of her divine extraction and of her strength from above, she is sure that the prediction of her divine spouse shall be literally accomplished: "And whatsoever shall fall on this stone (Christ) shall be broken but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder," Matth. xxi. 44. This stone, i. e. the divine religion of Jesus Christ fell upon Paganism supported by all the might of the high powers of the earth, and it ground it to powder; next a long train of powerful heresies fell upon this stone, and they were broken to pieces. She, in fine, knows that she is invincible, and that all her enemies shall come to nothing: and thus her grand prerogative, which no other shall share with her, is, to be able to sing " Often have they fought against me from my youth: but they could not prevail over me. The wicked have wrought upon my back, they have lengthened their iniquity. The Lord who is just, will cut the necks of

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