is no trifling, no insignificant matter, for God is a jealous God.. If you have been guilty of worshipping a man, what will be your plea at the day of judgment? Ignorance? It will avail you nothing if you have resisted inquiry. Wilful ignorance is guilt. We urge the express command of Jesus not to worship him. Most solemnly do I believe, that the violation of this command, this derogation from the honor of God, is, as far as doctrine is concerned, the crying sin of Christendom ; is the predicted anti-Christ; is the perversion of his mission, the most shocking, the most distressing to the soul of the meek and humble Jesus. I observe, 9th, If Jesus Christ were possessed of two natures, one human and the other divine, as far as mankind were concerned in the person of their Messiah, it was exclusively with his human nature. In other words, it was the man Jesus, who performed all the functions of the Messiah, which are of any importance. In proof of this, I shall select for instance his example, his death, his resurrection and ascension. His example, as far as he acted as a God, can have no effect upon us. We cannot imitate him in descending from heaven to appease the wrath of God. We cannot imitate any of the divine powers, which you suppose to have been inherent in him, but which we suppose to have been lent him for a while, by God, to answer a specific purpose, namely, to prove his divine commission. We are not surprised at his heroic fortitude, his patience, his meekness, his heavenly-mindedness, his inattention to worldly concerns, his indifference to worldly praise or censure, and his annihilation of all selfish feelings, if we contemplate him as a Deity. No wonder he so successfully resisted the temptations of the adversary, and completely subdued him, when he came prepared for the battle by a thorough knowledge of his opponents, and of the means of securing an easy victory. But, though a God might easily accomplish these things, how can we expect a poor human being to do the same? Yet we are ordered to imitate his example and follow his steps. Common sense therefore fully assures us, that the example we are expected to imitate, must be the example of the man Jesus. But the death of our Saviour was the grand, the important, æra. noble atoning sacrifice, this completed the great work of salvation; this washed away all our sins and impurities, and ensured to us a heavenly habitation !-Now Christian; seriously attend to this question, Was it the divine or the human nature of Jesus which suffered death; the God or the man? The first principle of God is that of immortality; you cannot say that God died! You will not utter such a blasphemous expression as that the Almighty hung upon a tree and shed his blood!! Then it must have been the man that died. If so, it was the man and the man only, that (reasoning upon your own principles) wrought the atonement, redeemed man from death, saved his soul from hell, rescued him from everlasting tortures. Seriously think of this, and see if the argument does not carry conviction. The same reasoning applies to the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. If he was a God and raised himself, his own power being competent to the effect, this affords no evidence that we shall rise. Our sole dependence upon the extatic glories of a future life, the only proof we can possess, that we shall not for ever slumber in the tomb, arises from the conviction that a man, a simple man, has been raised from the dead. Looking at the fact of his ascension into heaven, if our Saviour were a God, he only went to claim his right; he experienced no exaltation, he merely resumed his former station. From this circumstance, man can entertain no hope of a similar ascension. He has no claim, no power to resume; and therefore, (as to any thing which this event can prove), his hopes, his expectations may all be unfounded and delusive!! It is time to pass on to a SECOND SERIES OF ARGUMENTS. 1st, It is a presumption in favour of the Unitarian opinion, that it is strictly conformable in its idea of God, with what may be demonstrated by the light of nature, and expressed in intelligible and consistent language, and level with the capacities of men in general. 2nd, The Unitarian opinion contains every thing necessary to influence the dispositions and the practice of men on the side of morality. 3d, Among those Christians who have adopted the Unitarian opinion, there have been, and could have been, none of those cruel persecutions and bloody disputes, which are so justly deemed the opprobrium of the Christian world. This opinion is too plain and simple to engender among its advocates such controversies. 4th, It is a presumption highly favourable to the Unitarian opinion, that it is of all others conceivable, the most opposite to the Pagan notions concerning the Supreme Being, prevalent at the time of our Saviour. 5th, Is it not a presumption also highly favourable to the Unitarian opinion, that it is such an one as the apostles may very easily be conceived perfectly to comprehend and easily to convey? Whereas from the very nature of the Trinitarian doctrine, it cannot be intelligibly taughỉ, not |