People (the greater part of whom are totally uneducated and unable to read), Here is a Code of Laws, which I desire you will strictly follow, under pain of damnation, when he must have been aware that they were generally unequal to the task? "Knowing this first, that no Prophecy of Scripture is of Private Interpretation."-(2 St. Peter i. 20, 21.) Permit me to ask, would conduct like this be just, would it be wise in the Saviour of the world to make the great Truths of Religion the sport of every frantic brain, to make them subject to the whims and fancies of every bewildered mind? oh! surely not-for Wisdom, Rev. Sir, is one of the attributes of God, and as such, he never could act such a part as this. He never could, I assert, place a code of laws, such as the Scriptures are, in the hands of his people, without appointing a judge to interpret them—and this judge is the Church. The illustrious St. Augustine declared, "That he would not believe the very Scriptures, if the Catholic Church did not move him so to do." Origen says, in the third age, "In our understanding the Scriptures, &c. we must not believe otherwise than as the "Church of God hath by succession delivered to us."(Præfat. in Lib. Periarch.) St. Augustine again says, "I know by Divine Revelations, that the Spirit of Truth "teacheth it (the Church) all Truth."—(L. 4 de Baptism. c. 4.)

LETTER XVI.

TO THE REV. CHARLES LE BLANC.

THE DOCTRINE OF THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST WAS TAUGHT

BY THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS IN AND BEFORE

THE YEAR 63, AND EVEN FROM THE VERY BEGINNING

OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

REV. SIR,

A very strong presumption against your insinuation, and the assertion of Dr. Priestley, that the primitive Church was Unitarian, is, that it cannot with any appearance of reason be supposed, that the whole body of the Jewish Christians would in the space of sixty-four years, viz., from our Saviour's Ascension to the writing of St. John's Gospel, nay, and in much less time than that, fall from the doctrine taught them by the Apostles, which was manifestly Trinitarian.

The whole body of the Jewish Christians in the beginning of the Church were: 1. The three thousand that were converted to the faith on the very day when the Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles. 2. The five thousand who were converted by St. Peter's Sermon, after having cured the lame man in Solomon's porch (Acts iv. 4). And 3. Those who were afterwards daily added to the Church, in consequence of the preaching of the Apostles and other ministers of Christ (Acts ii. 47, and viii. 5). And as it is said of the first three thousand, Acts ii. 42, that "They continued steadfastly in the Apostle's doctrine and fellowship;" so there is reason to suppose, that the great body of

those who were converted afterwards did the same, especially as some at least of the Apostles still remained with them, teaching and instructing them in the faith of Christ, and daily working innumerable miracles in confirmation of the faith they taught. It is true, heresies soon began to arise, first in the person of Simon Magus, and after him several others opposed the doctrine of the Apostles, and broached new inventions of their own, such as Hymeneus, Philetus (2 Tim. ii. 17), and the Nicolaites (Rev. ii. 15). And though these are the only heretics whose names are recorded in the Scripture, yet there were also some who raised dissensions about the obligation which they pretended was incumbent on the Gentiles converted to the faith, of being circumcised, and keeping the law of Moses, (of which some think Cerinthus to have been the author, whom they also imagine to be the same person as Ebion, he having two different names,) (Acts xv.); others who opposed the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. xv. 12); and others whom St. Paul calls false apostles, transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ (2 Cor. xi. 13).

But though these abandoned the faith and communion of the Apostles, yet the great body of the Jewish Christians did not; for if they had, surely St. Paul would not have called them the poor saints which are at Jerusalem (Rom. xv. 26), and so strenuously exhorted the Christians in every place to contribute liberally to their relief, as we find he did (1 Cor. xvi. 2, 3). St. Paul himself says, Tit. iii. 10: "A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition, reject." If then they had abandoned the faith and communion of the Apostles, it cannot be reasonably supposed, that he would call them saints, interest himself so much in making great collections for their relief, and profess himself ready to carry that relief to them.

Hence we have every reason to conclude, that though some few fell off, yet the great body of the Jewish converts persevered in the faith and communion of the Apostles, at least till after those collections were carried to them, which seems to have been in or about the year 58. What therefore I have to do, is to prove that before that time the Church was not Unitarian, but Trinitarian; and if I can do this, it will overthrow Dr. Priestley's assertion, that the primitive Church was Unitarian.

If I can prove that the Apostles taught, and that the common people believed, the doctrine of the Divinity of Jesus Christ, I think this will amount to a proof that the primitive Church was Trinitarian. For the very reason why you deny Jesus Christ to be God, is because you do not believe that in God there are three distinct persons; but you think that as there is but one Divine Nature, so there is also but one Divine Person. Wherefore as you acknowledge the Father to be God, and are persuaded in your own mind that the Primitive Church also believed him to be so, if I prove that the Apostles taught, and the Common People believed, that Jesus Christ was God, I think it will thence demonstratively follow, that the Primitive Church believed that there was a plurality of Persons in God, and consequently I may say, that they believed the Trinitarian doctrine. For although the proving the Divinity of Christ will not, strictly speaking, prove that there are three divine persons, yet as I presume you do not desire that I should now undertake to prove the divinity of the Holy Ghost, I imagine my proving the divinity of Christ alone will be sufficient to answer the purpose of the dispute subsisting between Unitarians and Trinitarians.

Let us now proceed to examine what doctrine the Apostles taught concerning Christ before and in the year 63. At this time, indeed, none of the writings of St. John were

published, and therefore I shall not quote any thing out of them at present. Nor is there any need that I should, since you yourself do not deny that when John published his Gospel, the Divinity of Christ was then clearly taught. The proofs, therefore, I must collect from the other parts of the New Testament. Though I feel confident, that neither yourself nor any of your party will deny, that St. John and the other Apostles all believed and taught one and the same body of doctrine concerning Christ. The Apostles then taught that he was

1. The Messiah or Christ promised to the patriarchs of old, to be sent in the world, Acts xiii. 32, 33: "We declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the Fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again, as it is also written, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee."

2. That he was the Son of God, Matt. xvi. 16: "Thou art Christ the Son of the living God."-xxvi. 63: "The high-priest said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us, whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said it: nevertheless I say unto you, hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven."

Mark i. 1: The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”—And xiv. 61; St. Luke xxii. 70.

3. That he was God's own, or true and proper Son, Rom. viii. 3: " God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh."-And v. 32: "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all."

4. That he was the begotten Son of God, Heb. v. 5: "Christ glorified not himself to be made an high-priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I

M