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tle of the Gentiles after his conversion, "And immediately he preached Jesus in the synagogues, That he is the Son of God." Acts ix. 20. And from the second discourse of St. Peter, "But the author of life you killed, whom God hath raised from the dead." Acts iii. 15. Who can be understood by the author of life but God, Jesus Christ, "In whom was life; and the life was the light of men." John i. 4. And who says of himself, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."

Christ not only calls himself" the Son of the living God, or the blessed God," (which is equally characteristic,) on one of the most awful occasions, when standing before the supreme court of the Jewish nation; but he is moreover styled so and recommended to men by the heavenly Father in two very so lemn circumstances, once at his baptism, "when the heavens opened upon him." Matt. iii. 17. And another time when transfigured on Mount Tabor, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased; hear him." Matt. xvii. 5. The evil spirits themselves were forced to pay him this homage, “And the unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down and adored him, and they cried, saying: Thou art the Son of God." Mark iii. 2. And "Secing Jesus afar off, he (the man with the unclean spirit) ran and adored him: And crying with a loud voice, he said: What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most High God." Mark v. 7. This extraordinary name was to be his proper name, as we learn from the heavenly message to the blessed Mother of God, "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the most High: and of his king. dom there shall be no end;" And therefore the holy that shall be born of thee, Shall be called the Son of God." Luke i. 32, 33-35.

"No man hath seen God at any time: the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.” “And I saw; and Igave testimony that this is the Son of God." "Nathaniel answering him said: Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the king of Israel." John i. 18, 34, 49.

"God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have

life everlasting. For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by him. He that believeth in him, is not judged: but he that doth not believe in him, is already judged: because he believeth not in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." John iii. 16, 17, 18.

1. Upon this, I thus argue: Of a thousand readers that approach the sacred volume with a mind unbiassed by prejudice, there is not one, who on perceiving how repeatedly and how emphatically Jesus Christ is styled The Son of God, the Son of the living God, the Son of the blessed God, the Son of the Most High, the only-begotten Son of the Father, viz: twice by the Heavenly Father, habitually by Christ himself, by the angel Gabriel, by men, nay, by the devils themselves: who, I say, will not find himself to be irresistibly led to understand this manner of speaking in the same sense in which the Christian world has hitherto, and will henceforth continue to understand it, viz. as necessarily importing the idea of a true, natural, and consubstantial Son of God. And why this? because Jesus Christ being styled the Son of God so repeatedly, on such important occasions, proclaimed as such by heaven and earth, and hell itself, and that so absolutely, so unqualifiedly, and after such a manner, that not only the phrase "Son of God," is never associated with any thing that might be considered as intended to restrict its meaning, or as a key to a figurative sense, but on the contrary mostly with such connexions as seem to determine it to its obvious and natural signification; the mind of the reader cannot refrain from concluding, that Jesus Christ is either the natural Son of God, or, what is even horrid to think, and much more so to utter, that the Eternal Father and the Holy Ghost the inspirer of the sacred Penmen have most shockingly abused all the principles of human language, and have delivered themselves on one of the most important parts of revelation in such expressions and phraseologies, as must naturally tend to hurry well meaning mankind into downright error, into idolatry. This cannot be, therefore we are forced to conclude with the centurion: "Jesus Christ is truly the Son of God," that is, true God. And,

indeed, to contend that by this phrase, "The Son of God," nothing more is meant than that Christ is the adopted Son of God like other just men although in a more eminent degree, is to offer insult to the common sense of mankind. For, I ask him who would fain force upon us such an absurdity, whether, when a man is constantly and uniformly giving himself out for the son of such or such a one, and his father as constantly and uniformly is calling him his son-whether, I say, it would be possible in such a case to understand this in any other sense, than that he is his true and natural son; and whether, if he had a mind to be thought to be not a natural but an adopted son only, it would not be absolutely necessary for both the father and the son to change their language, and to add something by way of explanation, from which it may be gathered, that they mean to speak, the former not of a natural but of an adopting father, and the latter not of a natural but of an adopted son? The case is perfectly parallel, and the reader, I am sure, has already made its application.

But, what is decisive and without reply on this subject, is the beautiful parable recorded Matth. xxi. 33-46, of a master of a family, who planted a vineyard, and let it out to husbandmen; and when the time of the fruit drew near, sent successively his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it; but who, in various ways, were all put to death. "And last of all he sent to them his Son, saying: They will reverence my Son. But when the husbandmen saw the Son, they said among themselves: this is the heir; come let us kill him, and we shall have his inheritance. taking him they cast him forth out of the vineyard, and killed him." By the vineyard is evidently meant the Mosaic law given by Almighty God the lord of the vineyard to the husbandmen, the Jews: by the servants sent at divers times to the husbandmen and put to death by them, are understood the Prophets: by the Son of the Lord of the vineyard, whom they cast out of the vineyard and killed, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, therefore, is the natural Son of the Lord of the vineyard: for he is the heir, the inheritance be

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longs to him: the Almighty calls him his Son, in contradistinction to the Prophets. Were not the Prophets too, the sons of God? so they were, and that in an eminent degree, but they were only the adopted sons of God, the inheritance did not belong to them by a natural inherent right, this belongs by nature to the natural son only: hence, although they were the most perfect among the adopted children of God, they were nothing more than servants. Jesus, on the contrary, is the Son, the Heir, therefore consubstantial with the Father; for he who says a natural son, says one that is of the same nature with the father: and, of course, as the nature of the Father cannot be divided, Jesus Christ, his Son, possesses it indivisibly and inseparably with the Father. Jesus Christ, therefore, is one and the same God with the Father, but not the same person, for the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father. But who can understand this? He who believes, and adores when God speaks, as he does in this parable.

3. If Christ, who is speaking in the following passages, be but a mere man, they are utterly unintelligible:

"The same (Jesus) is he that shall come after me, who is preferred before me; the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose." John i. 27.

"Behold the Lamb of God: behold he that taketh away the sin of the world." "This is he, of whom I said: after me cometh a man, who is preferred before me, because he was before me." John i. 29, 30.

"Nathaniel said to him, whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered, and said to him: Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee. Nathaniel answered him, and said: Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered and said to him: because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree, thou believeth; greater things than these shalt thou see. And he saith to him: Amen, Amen, I say to you, you shall see the heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." John i. 48-51,

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"Make not the house of my Father, a house of traffick"-. "Jesus answered, and said to them: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. But he spoke of the temple of his body." John ii. 19-21.

"And no man hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven." John iii. 13.

"And Jesus did not trust himself to them, because he knew all men. And because he needed not that any should give testimony of man: for he knew what was in man." John iii. 24, "I and the Father are one." John x. 30.

25.

"I know him, for I am from him." John vii. 29. "The Father is in me, and I in him. I came forth from the Father." John x. 38.

"So God hath loved the world, as to give his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. He that doth not believe in him is al ready judged: because he believeth not in the name of the only begotten Son of God." John iii. 16-18.

"He that cometh from above, is above all. He that cometh from heaven, is above all." Verse 31.

"The Father loveth the Son; and he has given all things in to his hands. He that believeth in the Son, hath life everlasting, but he that believeth noi the Son, shall not see life." Ver. 35,36. "For the bread of God is that which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the world." John vi. 33.

"I am the bread of life: He that cometh to me, shall not hunger: and he that believeth in me, shall never thirst."

Verse 35.

"And this is the will of my Father who sent me: that every one who seeth the Son, and believeth in him, may have life everlasting, and I will raise him up at the last day." Verse 40. "Because I came down from heaven." Verse 38.

"Not that any one hath seen the Father, but he who is of God, he hath seen the Father." Verse 46.

"Amen, Amen, I say to you: He that believeth in me, hath everlasting life." Verse 47.

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