the Divinity of the Scriptures; meaning that they came from God. According to this interpretation of the phrase, also, we firmly believe in the Divinity of Christ. We believe in the Divinity of his person and nature; because he is the Son of God. If every son is the image and likeness of his father, and if Jesus is " God's own Son," he must be divine or Godlike. If we believed him not to be divine, we should also believe him not to be the Son of God, but the Son of Joseph, or some other man.

We believe in the Divinity of his mission; because God sent him. He said, "I am come in my Father's name.... I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.”—John v. 43, and viii. 42. This is an explicit declaration of the Divinity of his mission. God confirmed the Divinity of Christ's mission by wonders and miracles which he wrought by him; and also by raising him from the dead, and exalting him at his own right hand. Nicodemus testified that no one but a messenger sent from God could do the works which Christ did. The miraculous powers he communicated to his Apostles, the fulfilment of his predictions in the destruction of the holy city, the dispersion of the Jews, and the early triumphs of the gospel, completed the evidence of the Divinity of Christ's mission.

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We believe in the Divinity of his office; because it was established not by human authority, but by the will of heaven. God qualified him for his office, appointed him to it, and sustained him in it. Jesus opened his commission in these words: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord."-Luke iv. 18, 19.

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We believe in the Divinity of his doctrine; because it did not originate from himself, but came from God. As he came not to do his own will, but the will of God, so he spake not his own words, but the words of God. He said, "My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak."—John vii. 16, and xii. 49. The message Jesus brought was divine. It was the message of God, who hath spoken unto us in these last days by his Son.Heb. i. 2. The revelation of Jesus Christ was a revela tion which God gave unto him. Rev. i. 1.

We believe in the Divinity of his works; because of himself he could do nothing; but it was the Father that performed the works by him. "The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."-John xiv. 10. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him."-Acts ii.

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We believe in the Divinity of the fulness that was in Christ, and the blessings he communicated. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell. In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Col. i. 19, and ii. 9. As the Son of God he was full of grace and truth. John i. 14. God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. John iii. 34.

We believe in the Divinity of his authority, wisdom, power, and glory; because God gave them to him. He said, all things are delivered unto me of my Father.-Matt. xi. 27. We believe in the Divinity of all he was, all he did, and all he suffered; because God made him both Lord and Christ, exalted him to be a Prince and Saviour, and ordained him Prophet, Priest, and King; and all he did, and all he suffered, was by the grace of God.

In both these senses we firmly believe and constantly preach the doctrine of the DIVINITY OF CHRIST. I know of no other sense in which the phrase can be understood. And yet the charge of not believing the Divinity of Christ, of denying the Divinity of Christ, and the Deity of Christ, is continually urged against us by Trinitarians. Sometimes members of our churches, but more frequently those who are disposed to join Christian churches, are thus asassailed : "I wonder you can hear that man preach — he dont believe in the Divinity of Christ!" "I am surprised to hear that you attend that meeting - those people deny the Divinity of Christ!!" "I am astonished that you should think of joining that church-they deny the Divinity of Christ ! ! !" In this way those who are unacquainted with the Trinitarian controversy are imposed upon, and made to believe that we reject some doctrine of the Bible, some explicit declaration of Scripture.

"Inconsiderate and rash men," says Dr. Dwight, "assert roundly, though they do not know that which they assert to be true; and have no sufficient reason to believe it to be true. This conduct is derived only from a want of a just sense of the importance of Truth, and the value of Veracity."

Whence is it that good men are tempted to so frequent and flagrant violations of the ninth commandment? I think I have never heard or read of a charge of this kind against a Christian minister, but what came from one who had adopted a human creed. Every honest man, every true christian, who voluntarily adopts and advocates a human creed, thinks it to be founded on the Scriptures; even though it should be contradicted by every other creed on earth. If his neighbor does not approve of his creed, and adopt its phraseology, he very naturally infers that his neighbor does not believe in all the word of God. He

reads the Bible, and speculates upon his neighbor's creed through the medium of his own. Through the same deceptive medium he contemplates his neighbor who has no creed, or whose creed is the Bible. But the truth is, he is deceived, whether his neighbor be right or wrong. Like refracted rays, his moral vision is perverted. He does not see things as they are, but as they are not. In this way he inadvertently bears false witness against his neighbor. There are probably not less than five hundred religious creeds in the world, all of which are contradictory.

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sequently there can be but one right one and they may possibly all be wrong. For there is no contradiction in truth none in the Bible. If there be so many such creeds, there is but one chance in five hundred of being led right by adopting a creed. While one is led right by his creed, four hundred and ninety-nine will, by theirs, be led astray. This is, I think, the true source of those unfounded charges so often preferred, by Trinitarians, against those who conscientiously adhere to the Scriptures, to the exclusion of all human creeds, disciplines, canons, and platforms. To a man enveloped in fog, one who enjoys perfect sunshine does not seem to be in the light.

The readiest way to lose the meaning of the Holy Spirit, is to set aside the words by which that meaning is communicated. We do not think it safe to attempt an improvement of the way to heaven by substituting a single sentence, phrase, or word. We never put our finishing hand to what God has left perfect. This is the reason why those who are familiar with the language of a human creed are dissatisfied with the doctrine we preach. Not hearing their favorite phraseology, they think it another gospel.

Should the holy apostles come from heaven, and preach precisely the same gospel they did preach when on earth, if they were not known as the apostles, suspicion of their

he whole truth

not being sound in the faith would immediately fasten upon them. No sect, whose creed they rejected, would be satisfied with them. It would be thought they did not preach that they did not believe in all the word of God. Should they adopt the creed of one church, they would bring upon themselves the unqualified censure of all of a contrary creed.

Nay, should the Lord Jesus Christ, himself, descend from heaven, appearing in the same form, and preaching the same doctrine as when on earth, there are probably but few churches, called orthodox, that would receive him. Unless he would so modify his gospel that they could hear the favorite language of their creed, they would not suffer him. But this he could not, and would not do, because the creeds are essentially contradictory.