rits? (rather," ministers 12," or "servants,") sent forth to minister to them who shall be the heirs of salvation," or rather, "to those who were about to be heirs of salvation 13,"

q. d. Though I call them fellows, or companions, yet they were not equals: they were servants, he is a son and a sovereign; they were sent to announce and to prepare the way for that dispensation which he was to introduce, and in which he was to preside. They were only his heralds and harbingers to the members of that holy and happy community over which he is appointed to rule as a prince. 12. Heb. ii. 2, 3. "For if the word spoken by angels ("messengers," i. e. former prophets, who were only servants,) was steadfast, and every transgression received a just recompense; how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at first began to be spoken by the Lord 14?”

13. 1 Pet.

19 Ministering spirits.] i. e. persons,' or 'inspired ministers.' See 1 John iv. 1-3," Beloved, believe not every spirit'; but try the spirits, whether they be of God." Why? Why? Because many false prophets are gone out into the world." A spirit, therefore, is a prophet, one who pretends to inspiration. "Every spirit, (i. e. every prophet,) that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God:" and Every spirit, (i. e. every one professing to be a prophet,) who confesseth not this truth, is not of God." So that the word spirit does not necessarily signify an incorporeal being, which is the idea conveyed to the English, or rather to the inadvertent, reader: but ministering spirits were inspired persons, prophets of a former age, who sustained the office of servants, not the relation of sons.

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15 Who shall be heirs of salvation.] τις μελλοντας κληρονομείν," those who should afterward belong to the Christian church.' Pierce.

μ prav, the world to come,' mentioned chap. ii. 5. Prophets were ministers : to whom? Not to their contemporaries, who did not comprehend their prophecies, but to future believers, to those who would afterwards possess the blessings which they foretold, to us who are confirmed in the faith of Christ, by seeing their prophecies accomplished in him.

14 In the remainder of this chapter the writer, seemingly apprehensive lest his meaning should be misunderstood, enters into a direct

proof

13. 1 Pet. iii. 22. "Jesus Christ, who is gone into heaven, and is at the right hand of God, angels, (or messengers,") and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.”

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i. e. The missionaries and teachers of the Gospel, even those of the highest rank and greatest influence in the church, together with all their spiritual gifts and miraculous powers, being placed under his direction, and at his disposal. See Impr. Version in loc.

gel," or,

14. Rev. xxii. 16. "I, Jesus, have sent my an"this messenger of mine," i. e. John, who saw the vision, "to testify unto you these things." See Wakefield in loc. Or possibly there may be an allusion to the angel-mystagogue, who, in the vision, explained to John the prophetic symbols. See chap. i. 1.

proof that Jesus, though he was so much superior in rank and character to all former prophets, was not an angel or superior spirit, but a proper human being, in all respects like his brethren. See Impr. Vers. in loc.

SECTION

SECTION VII.

TITLES AND CHARACTERS ATTRIBUTED TO CHRIST, OR THOUGHT TO BE SO ATTRIBUTED, WHICH ARE SUPPOSED TO IMPLY SUPERIORITY OF NATURE.

I. Jehovah.

THIS word, the appropriate name of God, is esteemed so sacred by the Jews, that wherever it occurs in the Old Testament they forbear to pronounce it, and substitute the word 'Lord' in its place. The versions, ancient and modern, have mostly followed this example. That Christ is called Lord' in the New Testament is sufficiently obvious but the present question is, whether this title is ever applied to him in the sense of Jehovah.' The supporters of the divinity of Christ maintain the affirmative, viz. I. John xii. 39-41. "Therefore they could not believe, because Isaiah said, He hath blinded their eyes, &c. These things said Isaiah when he saw his glory, and spake of him."

The quotation is from Isaiah vi. 10, where the prophet speaks of himself as having had a vision of Jehovah upon a throne. And the glory which Isaiah saw being the glory of Jehovah, it is concluded that Jesus is Jehovah.

This is the argument of bishop Pearce and bishop Lowth, and of Trinitarians in general. Archbishop Newcome explains the text of Christ as the representative of Jehovah, or, as Henry Taylor, of the visible or subordinate Jehovah; with whom many Arians agree. But Dr. Clarke, after Grotius, and with him all the Unitarians, understand the evangelist as affirming, That the prophet saw,

that

that is, foresaw, the glory of Christ, as Abraham saw, i. e. foresaw, his day. John viii. 561.

II. Heb. i. 10. "And thou, Lord, in the begin ning hast laid the foundation of the earth," &c.

A quotation from Psalm cii. 25; where it is an address to Jehovah, as it is likewise in this place. The author here confirms his doctrine of the permanent establishment of the throne of Christ, from the consideration of the immutability of God by whom it is supported, and whom he thus solemnly addresses in the language of the Psalmist o.

II. God.

It is generally believed that God' is a title not unfrequently applied to Christ in the New Testament. This is held by many to be a strong argument in favour of his true and proper deity. But as it is undeniable that the word is used in different senses in the sacred writings, the Arians explain it, when applied to Christ, as expressive of his delegated dominion over the world and church. This also is the sense in which the word was understood by the old Socinian writers. The Unitarians plead that Christ is called God, as being a prophet invested with miraculous powers; in the same sense in which, Exod. vii. 1, Moses is said to be a god to Pharaoh. But Mr. Lindsey, Seq. p. 198, and some modern advocates for the Unitarian doc. trine, deny that Jesus is ever styled God in the New Tes

tament.

It is very remarkable that some of those lofty titles and characters which are attributed to Christ, and which are

1 See Clarke's Scrip. Doct. No. 597. Ben Mordecai's Letters, vol. i. p. 291. Lowth and Dodson on Isaiah, v. 1. Lindsey's Seq. p. 354. * Some argue from Rom. x. 13, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved:" from Joel ii. 32. But the words may be rendered "Whosoever shall call himself by the name of the Lord." Others understand the words as a phrase expressing the professors of religion, the worshippers of the true God.

thought

thought by many to indicate his superior nature and dignity, are also used of christians in general, who are said "to be one with him and with the Father," ઃઃ assessors with him in heavenly places," and "to be filled with all the fulness of God." But there is one expression, viz. "partakers of a divine nature," applied by the apostle Peter, 2 Pet. i. 4, to all believers, which is stronger than any which are used of Christ, and which, if it had been applied to him, would have been held forth as an irrefragable proof of his proper dcity: to such an argument it would have been very difficult to have given a satisfactory reply. That explanation of the words which all are now constrained to admit, would then have been treated as a forced and languid interpretation, and an attempt, hardly consistent with honesty, to wrest plain words from their natural and obvious meaning, in order to bend them to a preconceived hypothesis. This instance shows how little stress is to be laid on such phraseology, and how cautious we ought to be of interpreting these strong expressions in a literal sense.

I. Matt. i. 23. "-that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, Behold, a virgin shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel; which, being interpreted, is, God with us.'

Answer. Not to insist upon the evidence produced, Sect. II., of the spuriousness of the first two chapters of the gospel of Matthew, the prophecy here cited, from Isaiah vii. 14, has no relation to the birth of the Messiah. The design of the prophet is, to announce that before a young woman, shortly to be married, should have a son grown up to years of discretion, the two kingdoms of Syria and Israel should be overthrown. The name Immanuel, given in prophetic vision to this child, was a symbol that God would be with and deliver his chosen people. And had that name been given to Christ in prophecy, or other