religion, humility, and charity: In fine, it is thofe rapacious, hypocritical, letcherous gluttons, that have changed a plain and reasonable inftitution into myfterious nonfenfe and juggling abfurdities; placing the effence of religion in quirks and tricks ; cheating the people, oppreffing the poor, trampling upon the laws, and treading upon the necks of princes. My Lord, I fhould beg pardon for this fevere reply, if the provocation had not extorted it, and truth had not justified it: However, I shall now go on with my proof. Our Saviour has often declared himself inferior to the Father; and the inftance, by which I am going to prove that he is fo, is so very remarkable, that I shall confider it in as diftinct and particular a manner as poffible. Speaking of the day of judgment, fays he, Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only. Who can caft his eye upon this affertion of our Saviour, without taking notice of the regular gradation, manifeftly formed with an intent to exclude all other beings whatfoever, and to confine the fore-knowledge of the day of judgment to the Father only? And fince the reverends and right reverends have thought fit to say, that Christ is a composition of a divine and human nature, and that this want of knowledge is afferted of his human nature only, I fhall prove the contrary of it beyond all exception; for the very firft

pro

propofition excludes Chrift as to his human nature, by faying, that no man knows that day; and the next propofition excludes the next superior degree of intelligent beings, by adding, in a moft emphatical manner, that even the angels that are in heaven, did not know it; after which he rifes ftill higher, and declares that even the Son (in that capacity which he is in, fuperior to the angels) did not know it, but the Father only: fo that nothing in nature can be more evident, than that all other perfons, even of the Trinity itfelf, as well as all other beings, are excluded, and that he has limited that knowledge to the perfon of the Father only; for whatever was not the Father, he pofitively affirms, was ignorant of that day. Now it is certain, that the Son was not the Father in any fenfe; therefore could not know that day: Jesus Chrift, therefore, being inferior in knowledge to the fupreme God, cannot poffibly be the fupreme God.

Judge. You are called here, Mr. Luke, upon the occafion of a learned divine's being accused of herefy, in having denied Jefus Chrift to be the fupreme God; and as you are one of the infpired writers, the court defires your opinion upon that point,

Luke. Your Lordfhip does me too much honour, in calling me infpired: I pretend to no more than that of being an honest and diligent collector; and claim no other merit, but that

of

what he feeth the Father do, that the Son doth alfo. They accufed him of hlafphemy; because thou, being a man, maket thyfelf God. Jefus answered them, Is it not written in your law, if he called them Gods, to whom the Word of God came; fay ye of him, whom the Father hath fanctified, thou blafphemest, because I faid, I am the Son of God? Jesus, a man approved by miracles, which God did by him: God hath made the fame Jesus botb Lord and Chrift. The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself; but the Father that dwells in me, he doth the works. The Father is greater than I. The paffages are fo plain, so full, and so conclusive, that, 1 protest, the strongest thing I can fay, in justification of that which I have already wrote, is, that I cannot poffibly express myself clearer, even upon the occafion of the present controversy. But what can words do, if men will be impudent and wicked enough to pervert them? Nay, men that have front enough to deny the common obvious fettled fenfe of words, would even deny that there were any fuch words at all, if it ferved for their purpose. There is an end of the ufe of words, if, in expreffing ourselves abfolutely of any being whatsoever, you may mean it partially or totally, or take this part or that; for, at this rate, you may fay your own creeds backwards, and affirm that Chrift (in his divine nature, by tacit referve) was neither born, fuffered, died, nor rofe again and you may be juft as orthodox

in affirming the contrary, if you are at liberty to mean which nature you pleafe. Such prevarications and quibblings may become priests and Jefuits; but it is monftrous to charge the meffenger of God with them. What will destroy the credit and authority of the gospel, if this will not? Or, I fhould more properly have said, what has brought it to the weak and despicable ftate it is in at prefent, but these infamous practices of the clergy? If any man can fhew me, that the whole tenor of what I have wrote, is not strictly conformable to those parts which I have juft now cited, I will not only confefs myfelf to be unworthy of the name of an evangelift, but fubmit to be called a traitor to my Mafter, and a deceiver of mankind: for whoever shall affirm, that I have defcribed Jefus Chrift as equal with the Father, does not only endeavour to prove my doctrine to be repugnant to itself, but makes the Scriptures of no authority. Are thefe the men that contend fo vehemently for their being infpired! Thefe, that have the affurance to pervert or contradict the whole tenor of them! If this honeft gentleman, Mr. Whifton, were to affert, that the Son is inferior to the Father, could he do it in ftronger terms, or in a more plain and pofitive manner, than I have done? Could he lay any thing ftronger, than that the Father is greater than the Son; that He fent him, commanded him, and performed every operation in him; let every

VOL. III.

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impartial man judge, whether he would look upon fuch a character as this, to be the character of the great God of heaven, or to be that of an inferior being.

Judge. Mr. James, what do you fay to the reverend doctor's Trinity? Do you understand it?

James. The greatest part of what I do underftand, is false; and what I do not, I humbly conceive to be nonfenfe. I am not for three Gods, I affure you; for I have faid, Thou believeft that God is one, thou doeft well. I have profest myself a fervant of God, and the Lord Jefus Chrift, which is diftinétion enough, to fhew that there are two distinct beings. But if the Father be God, and the Son is God, God is not one. I wrote as I thought, and I flatter myself that I have wrote fo as to be understood; for, certainly, nothing can be plainer than that I affirm, that the eternal Godhead no more confifts of three somethings, than it does of thirty fomethings; and consequently, that this new-fangled trinity must be a grofs impofition upon mankind.

Judge. What do you think, Mr. Jude, of the doctor's trinity?

Jude. It is impoffible that my thoughts can differ from my brethren's, and your Lordship fhall judge whether my writings do or no; for I have certainly diftinguished Jefus Chrift from the great God, if language can distinguish things.