"That an Eternal Son, is a contradiction in terms, and downright nonfenfe !!!" Enquiry, p. 43.

In daring defiance of prophecy:

"whofe iffues [of life] are from old,

From days of eternity."

Micah v. 2.

And whofe primeval birth, under the character of WISDOM perfonified, is thus inimitably described :

"The LORD got ME, the beginning of his way,

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Before his works of old;

From eternity was I ordained, from firft,

Long before the earth:

When as yet there were no depths [of the fea]
I was born;

When as yet there were no fountains teeming

with water,

Before the mountains were established, before the

hills,

Was I born."

Prov. viii. 22.

Blindly and illufively deciding on the incomprehenfible" relation of the FATHER ALMIGHTY, to "THE SON OF HIS

"No one intimately knoweth (EIVONE) THE SON Except THE FATHER;

Nor

Nor intimately knoweth any THE FATHER
Except THE SON; and to whomfoever THE SON
Is pleased to have revealed."

Matt. xi. 27.

And whose pristine dignity and transcendant exaltation are thus described in the following luminous paffage; which PRICE, Serm. p. 137, &c. juftly confiders as "the moft decifive text of all: " Phil. ii. 5, &c.

"Let this [lowly] mind be in you,

---

Which was alfo in CHRIST JESUS:-
Who, though fubfifting in a divine form,
Reckoned to be Godlike, not a matter of
Ufurpation, [to be seized,] but [of reward rather,
To be earned; and therefore,] exhausted himself,
Affuming a fervile form, being made in human
likeness;

And having been found in figure as a man,
He bumbled himself, becoming obedient
Unto death, even death by crucifixion :

- Wherefore, THE DEITY alfo, [in reward of such exemplary humiliation, fuch meritorious obedience,] tranfcendantly exalted him, and granted him THE NAME ABOVE EVERY NAME: That in the name of JESUS every knee should bow, of celeftial, terrestrial and infernal [beings], and every

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every tongue profefs that JESUS CHRIST is LORD; to GOD THE FATHER's glory."

And how admirably is this feconded, by that other brilliant paffage-the magnificent introduction of the Epistle to the Hebrews:

"THE DEITY having, in divers degrees and fundry ways [of revelation], Spoken of old to the Patriarchs in THE PROPHETS; at last, in these days, spake unto us in a SON, whom He made heir of all; through whom alfo He made the ages [or dispensations of his providence]:

"Who, (being an effulgence of his glory, and a character of his fubfiftance, and upbolding the univerfe by the Oracle of his power,) having, through himself, made purification of our fins, fat down at the right hand of THE MAJESTY ON HIGH: being made fo much higher in rank than the Angels, as He hath inherited a more diftinguished NAME than they."

And how well this tranfcendant exaltation as well as original dignity of JESUS CHRIST was understood in the apoftolic

age,

age, we learn from the following admirable comment on these two moft luminous paffages, by Clemens Romanus, the intimate friend and " fellow-labourer" of Paul, of whom fuch honourable mention is made in the foregoing Epistle to the Philippians, iv. 3. as one of thofe whofe "names are regiftered in the book of life.”

Των ταπεινοφρονενων γαρ ετιν ὁ Χρις, εκ επαιρομένων επι το ποιμνιον αύ3. Το σκηπίρον της μεγαλωσύνης τε Θες, ὁ Κυρις ἡμων Χρις ο Ιησες εκ ηλθεν ἐν κόμπω αλαζονείας, εδε ύπερηφανιας, καιπερ δυναμεν, αλλα ταπεινόφρων, καθως το πνευμα το άξιον περί αυτ8 ελαλησεν.

"For of the lowly minded is CHRIST, not of those that exalt themfelves over his little flock. Our Lord CHRIST JEsus, the Sceptre of THE MAJESTY OF THE DEITY, came, not in the pomp of arrogance, nor of oftentation, how able foever, but lowly minded; according as THE HOLY GHOST fpake concerning him" (in the liiid chapter of Ifaiah).

For this most important atteftation of the primitive Roman Church, I was first indebted

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indebted to Priestley's Hift. Opin. vol. i. p. 94. where it is imperfectly translatedthe first and most important title of Christ -"the Sceptre of the Majefty of THE DEITY"-being omitted.

How it was poffible for this Herefiarch, with such dazzling evidence before his eyes, to pen the following paffage, in his Letter to a Young Man, II. p. 28, is to me utterly inconceivable :

"Now the greatest corruption of Chrif tianity, and one that, in Mr. Evanson's opinion as well as my own, is the foundation of moft of the reft, was the exaltation of the perfon of JESUS CHRIST to the rank of a fuper angelic Being, or of GOD!!!"

And if, now, you ask Priestley and his followers, Lindsey, Evanson, Williams, &c. &c. what is Unitarianifm? they will tell you, It denies the pre-exiftent dignity, the miraculous conception, and the religious worship of JESUS CHRIST, (which they dare to call idolatrous!) and maintains his "fimple humanity" as they term it

because