pendent upon him, in common with all other created beings, for his exiftence, his power, and all that honour and happinefs to which he is now exalted?

CHAPTER XIV.

Of the Evidence which points out Jefus Chrift to have been fimply One of the Human Race.

"

HE generality of the paffages, which the advocates for the doctrine of our Lord's preexistence bring from the New Teftament in its favour, I have had occafion to examine in the fourth chapter. I will now prefent the reader with a concife view of the evidence by which the contrary opinion is fupported, viz. that our Lord had no existence before he was born; but that he was intirely one of the human race, differing from other men in no other refpects, but in thofe divine communications, which it pleased God to impart to him.

1. The prophecies of the Old Testament, relating to the Meffiah, uniformly fpeak of him as a man, Gen. iii. 15, He is called the feed of the wo

man

man, a phrase evidently fynonymous to man. Gen. xxii. 18, he is promifed to Abraham, as one of his defcendants. In thy feed fhalt all the nations of the earth be blessed. Deut. xviii. 15. 18, Moses defcribes him to the Ifraelites, as a prophet, who was to be one of THEIR OWN BRETHREN, and a man like unto him. The LORD thy God will raife up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me. Pfalm cxxxii. 11, David had a promife that the Meffiah fhould be of his family: The LORD hath fworn in truth unto David, he will not turn from it. Of the fruit of thy body will I Jet upon thy throne; which prophecy, by the apoftle Peter, is directly applied to Chrift, A&ts ii. 30. Knowing that God had fworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, i. e. by natural defcent,, (t) he would raise up Chrift to fit upon his throne. Ifaiah ix. 5, He is predicted by the prophet, as a child that was to be born, as a fon that was to be given. Ifaiah liii, He is defcribed as A MAN throughout. Zech. xiii. 7, he is called THE MAN who is God's favourite. See also Zech. In general, it may be obferved, that the prophets, in fpeaking of him, make ufe of fuch language, as is evidently characteristic of a man,

vi. 12.

and

ft) P. 108.

and of nothing more. (u) It is natural therefore to suppose, that they never confidered him in any other than this light.

2. The Jews, in confequence of the uniform predictions of the Old Teftament, never expected their Meffiah to be any thing more than a man. John vii. 42, we find them faying, Hath not the fcripture faid, that Chrift cometh of the feed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? and John iv. 29, the woman of Samaria feems to exprefs that it was the general belief, that the Meffiah would be one of the human race; Come fee A MAN who told me all that ever I did: Is not this the Chrift? Had the expectations of the Jews been different, we should have been able to have collected as much from the writings of the New Teftament. Confidering how much they prided. themselves on their being the peculiar favourites of heaven, nothing, perhaps, would have gratified their vanity more, than the idea of a Meffiah of heavenly origin. But notwithstanding all the high ideas they had formed of him, as a prince and mighty conqueror, the idea that he was God, or the maker of the world under God, or a being who

(*) For the examination of thofe paffages in the propheeies of the Old Teftament, which may feem to represent him in a higher light. See the fixth chapter.

who pre-exifted, does not appear once to have entered any of their minds.

He was born into the He acquired ftrength

3. If we read the hiftory of Jefus, we find it to be the history of a man. world as other men are. and knowledge by degrees; for it is faid of him, Luke ii. 52, that he encreased in wifdom and stature; a circumftance which feems impoffible to account for, on the fuppofition that he was either God, or apre-exiftent angelic being, who made all things. He poffeffed alfo all the feelings and affections of a man; he was joyful and forrowful, he was hungry and thirsty, he fuffered pain and died. It may also be observed, that his temptation, his agony in the garden, his exclamation on the crofs, and indeed all the scenes of his life, are much better accounted for, on the fuppofition of his being a man only.

4. Our Lord speaks of himself uniformly as a man. John viii. 40. But now ye feek to kill me, A MAN that hath told you the truth. John xv. 24. If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had fin. John xv. 13. Greater love hath no man than this, that A MAN lay down his life for his friend. John xviii. 37. Το this end was I BORN, that I might bear witness to the

truth.

truth. John xx. 17, He calls his difciples HIS BRETHREN, and affures them that the fame Almighty being was their common God and Father. Go to MY BRETHREN, and fay unto them, I afcend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. It may also be obferved, that SON OF MAN is the title by which he almost always diftinguishes himfelf. Matt. xvi. 13. Whom do men Jay that I the SON OF MAN am? John iii. 13. No man hath afcended up to heaven, but the SON OF MAN who came down from heaven, &c.

5. Jefus Chrift was confidered by his acquaintance as a man, during the whole of his life time. John i. 30, the baptift fpeaks of him as a man. After me cometh A MAN, who is preferred before me, for he was greater (v) than I. Matt, viii. 27. What manner of A MAN is this, that even the winds and the fea obey him? Matt. xxvi. 74. I know not THE MAN. Agreeably to this idea, we find that his difciples treated him in every respect as a man like themfelves, confidering him only as their teacher and mafter. Various were the questions they proposed to him, fome of them from motives of curiofity, others for the purpofe of information; but never do we find them propofing a fingle queftion to him, refpecting a state of pre-existence which he enjoyed before he was born; a circumftance which, confidering the inquifitive turn of mind,

See p. 140.