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    ment ? as " united with the Deity as no other person is united . " This may be said of every man ; for no two beings can bear precisely the same relation to God ; whatever is persoual is peculiar also . But where is the Unitarian who does uot know and rejoice in the fact , that the connexion between Christ and God , though the same in kind with that

    sustained by all God ' s creatures , was different in degree ; being both more intimate ; more endearing , more constant , and more important , than has been or can be enjoyed by any other mortal ? The passage , however , upon which the reviewer lays most stress is the following : " In his death exciting all nature to sympathize with her expiring Lord ; and when he could have summoned the host

    of heaven to his aid , yielding up his soul an offering for sin . " I shall not wait to inquire if " the yielding up of his soul " proves the supreme Deity of Christ , for though the sermon was probably preached by him , in all likelihood , ( we speak on the authority * of his biographer , ) it

    proceeded not from his pen . Yet more ; the sermon , as it was preached in his early days , when his taste and his judgment were both immature , so it is written in a style both of sentiment and expression , which Paley afterwards entirely discarded .

    After all , the reviewer , aware of the insufficiency of his arguments , supported as they are by largeness of inference and inaccuracy of statement , is compelled to admit the failure of his object . Thus he comes to the conclusion of the whole : " This we think has been proved , that he was nothing like a modern Socinian ; that he was at least something more than an ancient Arian . "

    But whatever were the opinions that Paley entertained of Christ , hia writings prove , beyond all question , that he did not regard him as God over all . A sermon on the text— " Truly this was the Son of God / ' thus begins— " Our Saviour ' s miraculous birth , and still more miraculous life , distinguished him from every person that ever appeared in the world . History affords nothing like him —and these miracles form , no doubt , our assurance that he was sent from

    God . " He was distinguished , let the reader observe , not by his essential godbead , but by his miracles ; and these miracles prove him—whom ? the man Christ Jesus , as contradistinguished from the divine word ?—no ; prove " the Saviour" to have been , what ? the Creator of all things ? no—to hare been " sent

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    from God . " Nor does ^ there follow tHe least qualification of this-langii ^ euitidthing is subjoined to a < teer £ the Uelfyof Christ and prevent miscbnee |) ill 6 uV ! ^ In a discourse on " Go&fcFiti&kf , " % e speaks not of the adoration and supreme love which are due to the god-man , bit " the veneration and devout affection

    which we entertain for the memory and person of Jesus Christ , " using language which is on the lips of every well-instructed Unitarian . How does he interpret the words so often adduced in proof of the eternity of Christ—Jesus Christ the same yesterday , and to-day , and for ever ? thus : ** The assertion of the text

    might be supported by the consideration , that the mission and preaching of Christ have lost nothing of their truth and importance by the lapse of ages which has taken place since his appearance in the world . " He then subjoins , " He is the same in his person , in his power , in his office . " In his person— " He is gone up on high . The clouds at his ascension received him out of human sight . " Se

    condly , in his power— " wheu his appoiuted commission and his sufferings were closed upon earth , he was advanced in heaven to a still higher state than what he possessed before he came into the world . " " Being in the form of God , he thought it not robbery to be equal with God , " i . e . says Paley , " he did not affect to be equal with God , or to appear with divine honours—wherefore God hath

    highly exalted him , " &c . " that at or more properly in ( Paley ' s own correction ) the name of Jesus every knee should bow , " &c . Thirdly , " he is the same in office , " that is , as a mediator . " Of the mediation of our Lord the scripture speaks on this wise : ' There is one God , and one mediator between God and men , the man Christ Jesus . '"

    If , however , the nature of the evidence already adduced were less explicit than it is , the following passage would remove all doubt , and prove , beyond a question , that though Paley may not have been a Humanitarian , he was certainly an Unitarian : u Our Lord ' s retirement to prayer appears commouly to have followed some signal act and

    display of his divine powers . He < lid every thing to the glory of God ; he referred his divine powers to his Father ' s gift ; be made them the subject of his thankfulness , inasmuch as they advanced his great work ; he followed them by his devotions . " Could a person who believed in the supreme Deity of Christ hate thus written ? Had ' ¦ Paley ao believed ; Would

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    Occasional Correspondence , $ &f

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1828, page 857, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2567/page/57/