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while other beings disclaim worship, because they are not divine, to him, as alone divine, worship is pre-eminently ascribed. When the people of Lystra offered sacrifice to Paul and Barnabas, as to divine personages, they rent their clothes, and cried out in extreme anxiety, "Sirs, why do ye these things? we are men of like passions with you." Acts, xiv. 15. In the same manner, when St. John fell at the feet of the angel to worship him, he replied, "See thou do it not; I am thy fellow servant, having the testimony of Jesus: worship God." Revel. xix. 10; and again, Revel. xxii. 9. Once more: when Cornelius fell before Peter to worship him, "Stand ," said Peter; "I myself, also, am a man." Acts, x. 26. Thus careful were the Apostles and Angels, being inferior beings, to deprecate all worship offered to themselves. But does Christ rebuke Thomas, when, on conviction, he calls him, "my Lord, and my God;" John, xx. 28; or the leper, who being healed, fell on his face, giving him thanks, which he himself calls, giving glory to God, Luke, xvii. 16, 18; or the blind man, who having been restored to sight, believed, and falling down, worshipped him, John, ix. 38; or St. John, when he fell as dead at the feet of Him who declared himself to be the first and the last, Revel. i. 17?

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Scripture, indeed, abounds with examples of worship offered, or directed to be offered, to

Christ. Did not the wise men come to worship Christ, Matt. xxii. Compare Rev. i. 18," I am He that liveth and am alive for ever," with Rev. iv. 10, "The elders worship Him that liveth for ever and ever." Stephen was stoned, calling upon GOD, and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit:" the same expression addressed by Christ himself, in his human capacity, to his Father, at the like moment of departure. In Philippians, ii. 9, 10, we read, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and in earth, and under the earth. Compare also Rom. xiv. 11, "As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess to God;" with John, v. 23, "That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father." In fine, if whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord Jesus shall be saved, Rom. x. 13, and 1 Cor. i. 2; if Christ be the object in whom the Gentiles are to trust; if Paul besought the Lord, 2 Cor. xii. 8-(but the pen is weary of proofs); then only daring presumption (for the plea of ignorance must not here 'be admitted) can deny that Christ is to be worshipped*.

* Some have attempted, it is true, to distinguish between supreme and subordinate worship. This is an Arian rather than a Socinian argument: for the Socinians admit of no worship whatever. Yet we will just observe, that all the instances of worship offered to Christ, above quoted, are those of prayer, praise, exclusive confidence: the highest acts of worship, and

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The Socinians next dismiss from their creed ORIGINAL SIN; and this necessarily accompanies their rejection of atonement. For, if we had, indeed, only actual sins to be forgiven, infants, ere the committal of any such sins, might die in a state of innocence; and Christ would not be that universal Saviour he is represented to be, 1 John, ii. 2; Acts, iv. 12; 1 John, v. 11, 12; John, i. 29: nor would the Scripture have concluded ALL under sin, Galat. iii. 22. On Scriptural grounds, the death of infants would have been unjust; for, by one man's disobedience sin entered into the world, and death By sin. On as many as had not actualLY sinned, then, death ought to have had no power. The doctrine of original sin has been fully demonstrated to be founded in reason and Scripture, in the early part of this work, when the Pelagian heresy was under review. To our first volume, p. 17, &c. we accordingly now refer; repeating, that original sin con

thus the incommunicable prerogative of God. If Christ be an inferior being, they cannot be addressed to him, therefore, without blasphemy and polytheism. But they are directed to be addressed to him; therefore, Christ is no inferior being; and is to receive SUPREME worship. Farther, we find in Deut. vi. 4, that the "Lord our God is one Lord :" and in Matthew, iv. 10," Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." But we are called upon to worship Christ; and as there cannot be two objects of worship, Christ is to be worshipped as God, one with the Father. There is, therefore, no such thing as subordinate worship.

sists not in merely being punished for Adam's transgression, but in the inheritance of a taint of evil derived from Adam as a corrupted stock; which, being the principle and germ of actual sin, exposes the inheritor of it to punishment. It were to go over the same ground again, to prove that the existence of this native depravity is supported by experience, was known to the heathens and the Jews, and was acknowledged by the primitive Christians. But we cannot help recurring to a few Scriptural texts illustrative of the doctrine in question, which we will leave with all the others advanced in our first volume, to the quibbling comments and distortions of Unitarianism. "I know that in me dwelleth no good thing." (Rom. vii. 18.) "The imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth." (Gen. viii. 21.) "The heart is deceitful above all things." (Jer. xvii. 9.) That this innate corruption is hereditary, we prove from Job, iv. 4: "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" and from Psalm li. 5: "Behold I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me." And Scripture thus traces it up to its first origin, Rom. v. 12: "By one man's disobedience sin entered into the world: and judgment has passed on all men for the offence of one," Rom. v. 18. This is the cause of death to all, even to infants, who have not actually sinned, Rom. v. 12 and 14. That this taint is followed by a lia

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bility to punishment, is shown in Rom. v. 18:

By the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation ;" and in Ephes. ii. 3: "We are by nature the children of wrath." We have already, at great length, vindicated the divine attributes in regard to this doctrine. As to testimonies: from Clement, ch. xvii.; Irenæus, adv. Hæres. 1. iv. c. 39, and 1. v. c. 16; St. Cyprian, Test. ad Quirin. 1. iii. c. 54; and Epist. 64; we find the sense of the early fathers relative to so fundamental an article of faith.

As the miraculous conception, and other doctrines, are too strongly supported by the sacred writings to be explained away; the Socinians lay their axe to the root of the tree, and strike a blow at the inspiration of Scripture itself. And how, with any other help than their effrontery and a pair of scissars, they can get over the plain statement, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God," 2 Tim. iii. 16, they have never yet thought proper to acquaint us. Perhaps it will be urged, that they deny the inspiration even of this very assertion; and pretend that St. Paul was deceived. But at this rate there is not

* Vide Pearson on the Creed, Art. iii. p. 167; Nowell's Catech. p. 53, 54; Homilies of the Nativity and Passion, Wall's Hist. of Infant Baptism, p. i. c. 19; Prideaux Fasc. Controv. c. iii. q. 3; Jewell's Apol. part c. xi. div. 3; Field of the Church, b. iii. e. 26.

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