"The other parts of Divine revelation," (besides those the author had expressly referred to,)" are objects of faith, and are so to be received. They are truths, whereof no one can be rejected; none, that is once known to be such, may, or ought to be disbelieved. For to acknowledge any proposition to be of Divine authority, and yet to deny or disbelieve it, is to offend against this fundamental article and ground of faith, that GOD IS TRUE."9

"Adam, transgressing the command given him by his heavenly Father, incurred the penalty, forfeited that state of immortality, and became mortal. After this, Adam begot children; but they were in his own likeness, after his image,' mortal like their father.

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O God, nevertheless, out of his infinite mercy, willing to bestow eternal life to mortal man, sends Jesus Christ into the world; who being conceived in the womb of a virgin (that had not known man) by the immediate power of God, was properly the Son of God, according to what the angel declared to his mother, Luke, i. 30—35 -The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing, which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God.' So that, being the Son of God, he was, like his Father, immortal, as he tells us in John, v. 26. 'As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given the Son to have life in himself." "1

"That our Saviour was so," (that is in immortality like his Father,)" he himself farther declares, John, x. 18, where, speaking of his life, he says, ' No one taketh it from me, but I lay it down myself: I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again.' Which he

9 Locke, vol. ii. p. 583.

1 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 558.

could not have had, if he had been a mortal man, the son of a man of the seed of Adam, or else had, by any transgression, forfeited his life. For the wages of sin is death;' and he that hath incurred death for his own transgression, cannot lay down his life for another, as our Saviour professes he did. For he was the just one,' Acts, vii. 52;' who knew no sin,' 2 Cor. v. 21; ' who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.' And thus,' as by man came death, by man came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.' "2

Unnecessary as it must appear, I shall add one quotation more from Locke, namely, from his Reply to the Bishop of Worcester, who had attacked his Essay on the Human Understanding.

"I find one thing more your Lordship charges on me, in reference to the Unitarian controversy, and that is, where your Lordship says, that if these (i. e. my notions of nature and person) hold, your Lordship does not see how it is possible to defend the doctrine of the Trinity.'

My Lord, since I have a great opinion that your Lordship sees as far as any one, I should be ready to give up what your Lordship pronounces so untenable, were it any other cause but that of an article of the Christian faith. For these, I am sure, shall all be defended, and stand firm to the world's end, though we are not always sure what hand shall defend them. I know as much may be expected from your Lordship's in the case as any body's; therefore I conclude, when you have taken a view of the matter again, out of the heat of dispute, you will have a

2 Locke, vol. ii. pp. 559, 560.

and

better opinion of the articles of the Christian faith, and your own ability to defend them."3

In this last quotation, Locke expressly pronounces the doctrine of the Trinity to be one of the articles of the Christian faith, which he is sure shall stand firm to the world's end. And in the preceding quotations, he distinctly professes his full belief in the fall of man and original sin; in the immortality, in terms which imply the Divinity, of Christ; in the immaculate conception, the sinless life, and meritorious death of our Redeemer; and pointedly declares that he is no Socinian. What, then, shall we think of the men who go about the world, boldly asserting the very reverse of all this? What shall we think of their pretended SCRUPLES OF CONSCIENCE about the marriage ceremony? Is it not clear that their real scruples are against the existence of the Established Church? and that there is no baseness they would scruple to resort to, for the purpose of pulling down that great bulwark of the true Christian faith? I trust that, in all future sessions of Parliament, our Legislators will know them better, and be more generally awake to a sense of the danger of making any concessions to a set of men, whose conduct is so uniformly marked with falsehood and treachery.

Let me now close this long note, by entreating my more immediate friends and neighbours to BEWAare of THESE DANGEROUS MEN. Read and meditate upon the Scriptures of Truth. Hold fast the profession of your faith without wavering, but without ostentation. Avoid vain jangling. Shun every occasion of strife or conten

3 Locke's Works, vol. i. p. 131.

tion, particularly upon sacred subjects. Be patient, be humble, be charitable, for " THE END OF THE COMMANDMENT IS CHARITY, OUT OF A PURE HEART, AND OF A GOOD CONSCIENCE, AND OF FAITH UNFEIGNED."-1 Tim. i. 5.

(B) P. 8.—It was necessary.

Anti-Trinitarian and Deistical writers are much given to cavil at such expressions as this, as if they amounted to a denial of the Divine Omnipotence. In answer to all such cavils, we need only observe, that a Christian knows of no other law of necessity, but what is founded in the perfect and infallible Will of God. If we ever speak of the death of Christ, or the coming of the Holy Ghost, as necessary for our salvation, we do so without presuming to speculate on the possibility of God's having accomplished it in any other way; or to assert any thing more than the simple fact, that those are the means appointed by Him, who does nothing in vain-the only means by which we can be saved, or conceive the possibility of our salvation, consistently with the holiness of God. In like manner, we do not hesitate to say, it was necessary that Christ's manhood should be altogether the same as ours, because we know it was so ordained by the all-wise and perfect God; and because, knowing it to have been so, we can see a fitness and advantage in it, which we can conceive no other means of attaining.

It may be objected to the unreserved manner in which I state the absolute Humanity of Christ," precisely the same as ours, naturally exempted from none of its natu

3

ral feelings and natural infirmities," that it concedes to the Anti-Trinitarians their favourite opinion of His peccability. Nothing, however, can be farther from my meaning, which no one, I hope, will dispute with me the right of determining. Because "He was in all points tempted like as we are,"1 and the very idea of temptation includes the possibility of yielding to it, I believe that Jesus Christ, considered in his human nature, was liable to all the natural infirmities of man. But because " he was without sin," "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." I believe that the Man Jesus Christ, by the strength of Divine Grace, completely triumphed over every human infirmity, and from the first moment of his human existence, was totally free from all sin, of thought, word, or deed. He "knew no sin," "did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth." This sinless purity made" his body" a fit " temple" for "all the fulness of the Godhead" to inhabit; and it is impossible not to believe that the fulness of the Godhead, thus dwelling in it, must have contributed to keep the temple pure. Still, in all his human actions, the free and distinct agency of the Man Christ Jesus was not destroyed by his union with God the Son: and he continued clear from the taint of sin by the exercise of his own human powers, strengthened, but not superseded, by the assistance of God the Holy Ghost. "Through the eternal Spi

3 "Jesus increased in favour with God," (Luke, ii. 52,) which is a pretty strong indication that he had human frailties to combat. Every one of these, as soon as it assailed him, was subdued; and every fresh victory over the flesh, the world, and the devil, increased his favour with God.

4 2 Cor. v. 21.

51 Pet. ii. 22.

6 John, ii. 19 and 21.