opinions from other fources befides the genuine apoftolical doctrine, and particularly from that very philofophy which, manifeftly contrary to any thing that the Jews could poffibly have learned from their facred books, exprefsly taught the doctrine of the pre-existence of all human fouls, and their emanation from the divine mind; which was, in fact, the doctrine and language of the pretended orthodox Fathers?

In

Without examining the merits of the question, probability will certainly incline us to take the part of the poor Jewish converts. deed, their poverty and illiterateness made them despised by the Gentile chriflians, who were captivated with the wisdom of this world: Juftin Martyr, however, the earliest Gentile chriftian writer, speaks of them and their opinions with more respect than they were afterwards treated with. He was one of the firft of the philofophizing chriftians, and therefore might know that their doctrines were those of the bulk of chriftians in his time; and perhaps, at that time, few thought differently from them, befides a few fpeculative perfons like himself. See Edit. Thyrlby, p. 235.

2. It is evident, that the moft intelligent of the Jews expected nothing more than a mere man for their Mefliah *; nor can it be faid that

any

"They," fays Trypho (the Jew speaker in Juftin Martyr's Dialogue) "who think that Jefus was a man, and, being chofen of God, was anointed Chrift, ap66 pear

any of the ancient prophecies give us the leaft hint of any thing farther. Had the prophecies not been explicit, there feems to have been the greatest reafon why our Lord, or his apoftles, fhould have exprefsly observed that they were fo; or if they had been univerfally mifunderstood, or perverted, we might expect that this fhould have been noticed by our Lord, as well as other abuses or mistakes which prevailed in his time. Or if a discovery of fo great importance would have ftaggered the faith, or checked the freedom of the difciples of our Lord, when they were fully apprized of the tranfcendent greatnefs of the perfon whom they had confidered as a man like themselves, we might have expected that this great discovery would have been made to them when their minds were fully enlightened by the descent of the Holy Ghoft, or at fome other time, when they were fully inftructed in all things relating to the religion they had to teach. And whenever the revelation of a thing fo highly interefting, and unexpected, as this must have been, had been made to them, their wonder and furprize must have been fuch, as we fhould have found fome traces or intimations of in their writings.

66

66 pear to me to advance a more probable opinion than 66 your's. For all of us expect that Chrift will be born a man from man (άνθρωπον εξ ανθρωπων) and that Elias will come to anoint him. If he, therefore, be Christ, he "muft, by all means, be a man born of men." Edit. Thyrlby, P. 235.

Nor can it be fuppofed that a thing of so wonderful a nature as this, could have been announced to the body of chriftians, who certainly had not, at firft, the most remote idea of fuch a thing, without exciting an aftonishment, that could not have been concealed, and fuch fpeculations and debates as we must have heard of. And yet the apoftles, and the whole chriftian world, are fupposed to have paffed from a ftate of abfolute ignorance concerning the nature of their Lord and Mafter regarding him in the familiar light of a friend and brother) to the full conviction of his being the most glorious of all created natures; him by whom God originally made, and conftantly supported all things, without leaving any intimation by which it is impoffible for us to learn, in what manner fo wonderful a communication was made to them, or of the effects it had on their own minds, or those of

others.

At whatever time it be fuppofed that the apostles were first apprized of the fuperangelic nature of their Mafter, it might be expected that so very material a change in their conceptions concerning him, would have been attended with a correfpondent change in their language, when they fpoke of him; and yet through the whole book of Acts, he has hardly any other appellation than fimply that of a man. Thu the apoftle Peter calls him, Acts ii. 22. A man approved of God; and the apoftle Paul, Acts xvii. 31. The man whom

God

God ordained. Nor when we may most certainly conclude that the apoftles meant to fpeak of him in his highest capacity, do they give him any other title; as when the apoftle Paul fays, Tim, ii. 5. There is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Chrift Jefus.

3. Had this Mediator between God and man been of a middle nature between God and man, I think one might have expected fome pofitive declaration of it, in this or fome fuch place; and that the apostle would not have expreffed himself in a manner fo unguarded, and which, without fome expla nation, muft neceffarily lead his readers into a very great miftake. It is in vain, however, that we look through the whole New Teftament for any thing like fuch an exprefs declaration, or explanation, on the fubject; and a doctrine of this extraordinary nature is only pretended to be deduced by way of inference from cafual exprefions.

4. It is alfo with me a very ftrong prefumption against the Arian hypothefis, that no ufe is made by the writers of the New Teftament, of fo extraordinary a fact, as that of the union of a fuperangelic spirit with the body of a man. No argument or exhortation is ever grounded upon it; whereas it might have been expected, that fo very wonderful a thing as this must have been alluded to, and argued from, in a great variety of refpects; and especially that the first converts to chriftianity should have been frequently, and very

diftinctly

diftintely informed of the high rank of their mafter; efpecially as the great popular objection to the chriftian fcheme was the mean birth and obfcurity of its author, and the disgraceful treatment he met with in the world. The very few texts in which it is thought by fome that arguments are drawn from the preexiftent ftate of Chrift, appear to me to refer to nothing more than the dignity with which he was invefted as Meffiah, after he was fent of God, and endued with power from on high, for the important purposes of his mission.

It weighs much with me, that if fo extraordinary a thing as the descent of a fuperangelic fpirit, to animate a human body, had been true, it must have appeared, in the courfe of the hiftory of Chrift, that fuch an extraordinary a measure was neceffary; as by his acting a part which a mere man was either naturally incapable of, or in which there was an obvious impropriety for a mere man to act. But fo far are we from perceiving any thing of this in the evangelical hiftory, that nothing is exhibited to us in it, but the appearance of a man approved of God and affified by him. For, though no man could have done what he is faid to have done, unless God had been with him, yet with that affistance, every thing must have been easy to him.

If our Lord had, in himself, though derived originally from God, any extraordinary degree of wisdom, or peculiar ability of any other kind, for carrying on the work of man's

re