points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Heb. 4 14-16. 9: 13, 14.

§ 12. If Christ be the true and living God, O how happy and blessed are true believers. What can there be too great for God to do, or too good to give, after having given his own Son to die for them? "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Rom. 8: 32.—all things for time and eternity; "for godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come," Tim. 4: 8.-all things for body and soul; "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you," Matt. 6: 33.—all things that are for our real advantage; "for all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's." 1 Cor. 3: 21-23. O believer, raise your expectation ever so high, and it will not be a castle built in the air. Your faith rests upon a sure and solid foundation. What greater security could God himself have given than the gift of his own Son? This is a sure pledge of great love; and what will not love, great love, such love (" for God so loved the world") do for those whom he loves? With the apostle, ye may be confident of this very thing, "that he who has begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ;"Phil. 1:5; and with the same apostle you may say triumphantly, "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died; yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" &c. &c. Rom. 8: 33-39.

abideth on him." John, 3 : 36. Again,

If ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins." John, 8: 24. “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which he has testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God, hath the witness in himself; he that believeth not God, has made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son, hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God, hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." 1 John, 5: 9-13.

§ 10. I am aware, my dear Benjamin, that there are those who, whilst they deny that Jesus is equal with God, yet say "Christ ought to be honored and worshiped more or less, for some reason or other." But all this is unscriptural, irrational and fatal. " According to the doctrine of the Socinians," says Dr. Trapp, "our blessed Savior is naturally a mere man, but by the will of the Father advanced to the dignity of a God; and being so advanced, he is truly and properly God. Now I desire to be informed how this notion differs from that of the ancient heathen concerning their deifying their heroes and turning men into gods? It is just the same notion, and is clothed with the same absurdity and impiety. To suppose such a fictitious God is gross polytheism, and to worship such an one is gross idolatry." Again he says: "If the Son and the Holy Ghost be God, ought they not to be honored, adored, prayed to, and glori fied as such? And if they be not God, ought they to be honored, adored, and prayed to, and glorified as such? If they be not God, we who call ourselves orthodox are idolaters; if they be God, those whom we call heretics upon this ar ticle are blasphemers." p. 5, 6, and 166. "Socinus," says

the learned Dr. Stillingfleet, "was a strenuous advocate for the worship of Christ, for he says that to deny invocation to him is not a simple error or mere mistake, but a most pernicious error, an error that leads to Judaism, and is in effect the denying of Christ, and tends to epicurism and atheism." Smalcius says, "There are no Christians which refuse to give divine worship to Christ." Trinity, p. 150. "The foreign Socinians," says the pious Mr. Simpson, "deny any to be Christians who refuse divine adoration and invocation to Christ; hence they have excluded all our English Unitarians (as the Socinians here call themselves) from being Christians, who deny this to Christ." Plea for the De ity of Christ, 227. These are the men," says Mr. Trapp, "who ridicule orthodoxy on the one hand, and heresy on the other, as absurd and ridiculous notions, and are for having all persons think freely for themselves. God forbid that any body should be denied that liberty, but nobody that thinks truly for himself will think as they do. These are the men who are so accurate in their thoughts and writings, so careful to avoid contradiction, and so very forward to charge them upon others; as if all the regular arguing, all the clear and distinct ideas in the world belong to them. Whereas, in fact, there never was upon the face of the earth a more senseless and self-contradicting scheme than theirs-nothing more irrational and absurd, as well as impious and profane." Trinity, p. 186. "The Socinians," says Dr. Young, "have been very unfortunate in the execution of their main design, for they have not purged mystery out of the Scriptures, they have only changed its place they have taken mystery out of the doctrines of the sacred Scripture where it was venerable and worthy the majesty of God, and have placed it in the phrase of the Scripture, where it is opprobrious and repugnant to God's sincerity." Serm fol. 2, p. 78.

Now, my dear Benjamin, I will close this paragraph

by recommending to you most affectionately the advice of the Psalmist, "Be wise now therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth: serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling: kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little blessed are all they who put their trust in him." Psa. 2: 10-12.

§ 11. If Christ be the Son of God, how great the encouragement for poor sinners to put their trust in him for pardon, peace, acceptance, and eternal salvation! We may be sure that there is an infinite value, worth, and efficacy in Christ's obedience and suffering; that he was able to accomplish the work which the Father had given him to do, and is now able to save to the very uttermost all that come unto God by him. What can be too hard for the power of the Son of God to effect, or too high for his obedience and sufferings to merit? Had Christ been only the Son of man, then indeed faith could not have borne up with such confidence; but he being the Son of God also, and having the nature, essence, and attributes of God, faith may triumph as to the efficacy and meritoriousness of his work. It was the blood of God that was shed as the price of our redemption. Acts, 20: 28.

"

What a fullness of grace, merit, and efficacy must there be in the sacrifice of Him in whom "dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily?" Col. 2: 9. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more should the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, to serve the living God." "Seeing then we have a great High Priest that has passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession; for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all

Let us

points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Heb. 4 14-16. 9: 13, 14.

12. If Christ be the true and living God, O how happy and blessed are true believers. What can there be too great for God to do, or too good to give, after having given his own Son to die for them? " 'He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" Rom. 8: 32.—all things for time and eternity; "for godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come," Tim. 4: 8.-all things for body and soul; "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you," Matt. 6: 33.-all things that are for our real advantage; "for all things are yours, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's ; and Christ is God's." 1 Cor. 3: 21-23. O believer, raise your expectation ever so high, and it will not be a castle built in the air. Your faith rests upon a sure and solid foundation. What greater security could God himself have given than the gift of his own Son? This is a sure pledge of great love; and what will not love, great love, such love ("for God so loved the world") do for those whom he loves? With the apostle, ye may be confident of this very thing, "that he who has begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ;" Phil. 1: 5; and with the same apostle you may say triumphantly, "Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died; yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" &c. &c. Rom. 8:33-39.