LXXII. Speaking of the facrifices of the Gentiles, which he says were offered not to God but to devils, St. Paul fays, " Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils," I Cor. x. 20, 21. Here is manifeftly a declaration made, that the taking the cup of blessing, and the bread which we break, as the communion of the blood and body of Chrift, is an act of worship to him, adequate to that of the Gentiles' facrifices to their idols. He does not indeed call it a facrifice, nor intimate that it is one, but fays, That it is an afcribing of honour to him, inconsistent with honour being paid to devils. In the same manner as our Saviour himself has said, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon," St. Paul shews, that they cannot, confiftently with the worship of the true God, ascribe honour to idols. "What concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth, with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God, &c." 2 Cor. vi. 15, 16. LXXIII. Our Saviour declared to Pontius Pilate that he was the King of the Jews, Matth. xxvii. 11; and this is by St. Paul alledged to have been a good confession, I Tim. vi. 13. Christ Jesus also gave himself a ransom for all, 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6. "O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory? Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. xv. 55, 57. "O Ifrael, I will be thy king;" " I will ransom them from the power of the grave: I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction," Hofea xiii. 10, 14. Such is the promise of God to a prophet, and the strict completion of it by Jesus Chrift, argues him who per formed i ! formed it to be therefore one with the Father, the King of Ifrael, the God who made that promise. But let us say that this is too large an inference from the pafiages here compared, and that no more is affirmed than that "God in his love to us fent his Son to be a propitiation for our fins," I John iv. 9; and that Jesus Chrift was the ransom through whom God has redeemed us, and given us the victory over death and the grave; it yet follows, which is equally fubversive of the Unitarian system, that a ransoin was requifite for our redemption, and that "this was obtained by the blood of Chrift, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, the just for the unjust, and hath now once appeared to put away fin by the sacrifice of himself," Heb. ix. 12, 26. 1 Pet. iii. 18. Ephef. v. 2. LXXIV, "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord," 2 Cor. iv. 5. These words I produce only to shew the object of the apostle's preaching, a circumftance to which I am frequently obliged to refer. Paul has also defined the gospel to be "the teftimony of our Lord Jesus Christ," 2 Tim. i. 8. The preaching of the gospel is therefore the bearing teftimony to him, which I wish to have remembered and carried on in the mind of my reader. LXXV. Were I to quote every passage in the second epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians that affords a proof of our Saviour's Godhead, I should be under a necessity of transcribing the whole epistle, to which I therefore choose to refer my reader. One passage however I must select, and shew its weight in the argument, because Mr. Lindsey has taken fome pains to extricate himself from the neceffity of bending under it. It is indeed surprizing, that a man, who has shewed so evidently his attachment to what he believes the truth, fhould not be more circumfpect Q2 1 cumspect in the pursuit of her, but allow himself to be deceived by every painted fallacy that shall appear ever so little like the original, I am at a loss to conceive how the following daubed mask should be taken for the native and unadorned fimplicity of truth, by one who professes himself enamoured of that fimplicity. But upon the 12th chap. and 8, 9 ver, of 2 Cor. a Mr. Beaufobre has afforded the following comment, to which Mr. Lindsey accedes with the most supine facility. "For this thing I befought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me," a Cor. xii. 8, 9. "Paul appears here to have directed his prayer to God, the Father, and to have had in his thoughts and to have imitated our Lord's prayer in the garden, the night before his fuffering, when he prayed to God, that, if it pleased him, the cup of affliction might pass away from him without his drinking it." Beaufobre on the place. Apology, p. 132. Let us take the whole passage together, and examine it with the context, and then see whether the apostle had any such stuff in his thoughts as the dreams of Mr. Beausobre are made of, St. Paul having said, " of myself I will not glory, but in mine infirmities," proceeds to give an account of those infirmities, and to afsign the reason why they are an object of glory to him, saying, " left I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I befought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me, And he faid unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee: for my fstrength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in mine infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in neceffities, in perfecutions, in distresses for Christ's fake: for when I am weak, then ana I strong," 2 Cor. xii. 52 7, 8, 9, 10. Wherefore does St. Paul glory? wherefore take pleasure in his infirmities? that the power of Christ may rest upon him; for, by suffering such infirmities as contribute to perfect the strength of the Lord, (to whom he prayed) in weakness, he is then strong when he is weak: but he glories in his infirmities for Chrift's sake; it is the strength of Chrift then that is perfected in his weakness: but it is the Lord who faid, my strength is made perfect in weaknefs; the Lord therefore who so spoke, is Chrift: but of the Lord who so spoke, Paul thrice befought the departure " of this thing." The Lord then being Chrift, and Paul having thrice preferred his fupplications to him, it necessarily follows, that the Lord Jefus Chrift is a proper object of prayer and religious worship, and there-. fore that he is one with the Father, God. Such is the conclufion from the context; whereas a delufive affertion is inferred by a Mr. Beaufobre, from a partial quotation of but one small part of the passage, in itself proving nothing, but made the subject of the weakest comment that ever obtained the acquiefcence of a man of virtue; a man, whose errours afflict me, as I honour his worth. I cannot see him turn aside from the study of the word of God itself, to the study of the manner in which partial vifionaries have interpreted it, without sensible regret. I do not defire that even my comment should fupplant a fingle inference drawn, by a sensible and candid man, from a perusal of the scriptures themselves; it cannot therefore be expected that I shall indulge Mr. Lindsey in laying afide the use of his own better understanding, that he may adopt the doctrines of a multitude of designing or filly men and wo men, upon whom he places such implicit reliance. I only afk of him, and every other reader, that they will take the uncorrupted word of God itself into their own confideration, and with diligence search the scriptures only, does and thence infer, for their own use, such tenets as the Holy Spirit shall be found to have testified. LXXVI. St. Paul, in his epistle to the Galatians, commences with a declaration that he is "an apostle (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father,") Gal. i. I. Here the Father and the Son are put into oppofition to man, and declared to be the Being from whom the apostle had his authority; and he declares farther, that " the gospel which was preached of me, is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ," Gal. i. 11, 12. Who then is Jesus Chrift who has thus revealed the gospel to Paul, and whose authority is so very high above that of men? One with the Father, God. LXXVII. "For do I now perfuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the fervant of Christ," Gal. i. 10 This is in context with the last cited passages; and the apostle, still preserving the distinction between God and man, shews the Galatians the authority with which he is about to reprove them; and that they may not expect too great lenity, he thews that he does not seek to please them, but Chrift, whose servant he should not be if he neglected to main tain that gospel which some among them had perverted. He diftinguishes himself from those who defire to make a fair shew in the flesh, lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ," Gal. vi. 12; whereas he bore in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus, ver. 17. The fame distinction between Christ and Men is made again by the fame apostle writing to the Corinthians. "He that is called, being free, is Christ's servant. Ye are bought |