with our Lord's teftimony concerning himself?" The "prince of this world cometh, but hath nothing in me." But our author fuppofes he "would not have been liable "to temptation," without "a bias drawing contrary to

duty." You may be ready to apprehend, that because he allows Chrift to have been "exempted from the" finful infirmities of our nature," he cannot certainly anean, that he poffeffed "a bias contrary to duty, which called "forth painful exertions of moral and religious principle." But it is neceffary that you should know, that while Socinians deny original fin, by a strange abfurdity, they affert, that every man, even the firft Adam, was created with fuch a bias, and that it is only a finlefs infirmity. For "they not only refufe to acknowledge original righteouf"nefs, as pertaining to the image of God; but abfolutely "deny that man was created with fuch a righteousness. They" indeed acknowledge, that man was created with

out the corruption of fin, which now prevails; but that he was wife, juft, and holy, without a difcord and rebel"bellion between reafon and appetite, they deny. So that

indeed, innocence and want of fin may be afcribed to him, "but not righteoufnefs." But may you fay, though they attribute fuch an imperfection of nature to mere man, they will furely make an exception with respect to the Son of God. Such " a bias of animal nature" Socinian writers afcribe, not oniy to the firft Adam, but to the Second. For, faith Slichting," Neither was the Son of God free from

commotions and affections offoul; for he was a man;-but "he always tempered and governed thefe by the Spirit +." And again, "The Son of God was not deftitute of the affec❝tions of man, nor was it proper that he fhould waut them in any respect; as God was unwilling that we should want them "in fuffering, that the victory of our faith might be fo "much the greater +." That is, as our author expreffes the fame idea, his behaviour" could not have been render"ed fo complete without any trial or effort." He feems indeed to think, that the afcription of fuch affections might seem to detract from the dignity of fo extraordinary a character; therefore he fubjoins §: "He always behaved, it is is true,

* Turretin. Theol. loc. 5. 9. 10. § 9. + In Johan. xi. 33. † In Joh. xiii. 21. "Non caruit humanis affectibus hominis Filius,

neque ullo modo carere debuit, cum nos iis carere noluerit Deus "in perpeffionibus, ut tanto major effe fidei noftræ victoria." § P. 25. foot.

"true, with the utmoft propriety, and performed the mot "difficult acts of virtue with admirable eafe and dignity,' &c. Adinirable indeed! confidering fuch a reluctant bias, fuch powerful oppofition of "fenfes and paffions !" But, gentle reader, this lets thee into a fecret, which, perhaps, thou didst not know before, and that is the reafon why Socinians pay fo great a refpect to the example of Chrift, while they reject his Deity and atonement. The reafon is felfevident. According to their views of the conftitution of his nature, it would have been as admirable, as any of all thefe myfteries, which they reject, if Jefus had "always be "haved with the utmoft propriety, and performed the most “difficult acts of virtue, without any blemish or defect.” But fhould we wonder, that those who rebel against the Moft High, by refufing to believe rea! myfteries, because above realon, thould, in righteous judgment, be suffered to devife falfe mysteries, and to maintain grofs abfurdities, in framing doctrines directly contrary to reason?

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The four obfervations included between pages 19th and "33d are given as "the probable caufes of the great hor 66 ror and perturbation of mind, which now appeared in "the Son of God-the fufferings themfelves-his apprehensions about the difficulty of obtaining a proper temper-the state of his animal spirits---and his concern both "for friends and enemies." He does not prefume to "unfold all that paffed in the mind of the bleffed Jefus on "this occafion, but to overlook no circumftance of his paf

fion that may be profitable to us*." Of confequence, that of his bearing at this time the wrath of his Father, for the fins of his people, is a circumftance which the author does not reckon profitable. It is, however, fo far good, that he only calls thefe probable caufes. This modefty is, in the prefent cafe, peculiarly becoming. For they muft not only appear to the reader as extremely trivial: but the very writer betrays fuch a fenfe of their untenableness or infignificancy, that he cannot offer them with any evidence of certainty.

In his fourth reafon, he apprehends that one great cause of Chrift's agony in the garden, was the profpect of the rejection of his gofpel because of the crofs, and the final perdition of many," after he should have endured the death of

*P.95

"the

the cross to fave them *." How is the first confiftent with the ftrong affurance of the fuccefs of his mediation which he had formerly expreffed? "I, if I be lifted up, will

draw all men unto me †." On the fecond, with refpect to the perdition of thofe for whom he should die, we need not enter; because the author is not an Arminian. Here he is at least fo far confiftent, for as he does not believe that Chrift died meritorioufly for any, it does not follow from his doctrine that he died in vain. But the profpect of the confequences of his death, inftead of being in fcripture reprefented as any caufe of fuffering to the Son of God, is on the contrary exhibited as the reafon of his voluntary fubmillion to it: "For the joy that was fet before him, he "endured the crofs." Inftead of feeling "a horror and "reluctance to ignominy ‡," he "defpifed the fhame." "He fet his face as a flint." "He is near," faith he, " that "juftificth me, who will contend with me ?--- Let us stand "together; who is mine adverfary? Let him come near "to me " In a word, how trivial are thefe four reasons, compared with thofe affigned in the holy fcriptures? "The "forrows of death compaffed me, and the pains of hell << gat hold upon me; I found trouble and forrow ||." "Now, (faid Chrift) is the hour and power of darkness,"

&c.

After enumerating thefe, as to him the only probable caufes of the agony in the garden, he exclaims; " O Fa"ther, Lord of heaven and earth! muft thy Son fuffer "fuch things and with fo little benefit to the unhappy 66 race of men !" And if the benefit be as fmall as our author apprehends, we would certainly join with him in the exclamation. But it never could have been the will of the Father that his Son fhould fuffer fuch things, had no greater benefit accrued to us. Nay, he had not fuffered at all, had he not fuffered more than our author admits. It never would have "pleafed the Lord to bruise him," had he not really "made his foul an offering for fin." Yet with what fubmiffion does he add; "But thy will be done! thou, O eternal Father of thy eternal and coequal Son, haft not called us to an acquiefcence in thy will on this great fubject, for fúch triffling reafons. Thy will hath indeed been done, in "finifhing tranfgreffion, in making an end of "fin,

But

*P. 32, head. John xii. 32. P. 21. 1. 23. Ifa. 1, 7, 8. || Pfa. cxvk 3.

"fin, and in making reconciliation for iniquity," in the true fenfe of language, although, in every age, "the gates "of hell" have been opened against it. But, "thou, O "Father, Lord of heaven and earth! haft hid these things "from the wife and prudent, and haft revealed them unto "babes. Even fo, Father, for fo it feemed good in thy "fight."

P. 33. 1. 21. "God's withdrawing his countenance from "him, or inflicting fecret torments on his foul-seems "injurious to the character of God, and not agreeable to "the truth of the gospel hiftory." P. 34. 1. 6. "He did "not, in the depth of his agony, confider himself as fuffer66 ing under divine indignation, nor was there any reason 66 why he should." Here is a barefaced denial of any wrath. in the fufferings of our Lord, fince, from what we have already feen, he must neceffarily extend this to them all; for, "here he tafted all the horrors of his crofs." But the author muft lifp out the Sibboleth of his party: "Since pu"nishment is a debt to God, and cannot justly be exacted "of an innocent perfon, who will fay that Chrift, who was "moft innocent, could be properly punished by God? who "will not rather acknowledge his death as a work of great "obedience *?"

P. 37. 1. 10. Our author advances a ftep farther. "What P.37 "fee we here, other than a great and noble foul, ftruggling "with the innocent infirmities of human nature, and at

The

length gaining a complete victory over them"? Other muft certainly in this place bear the fenfe of more. carnal eye of the vain" disputer of this world," his blind depraved reafon may perceive no "other than a great and "noble foul;" but the eye of faith can difcern a perfon truly divine, "ftruggling," not "with the infirmities of "human nature," but with divine indignation ;mighty to fave, travelling in the greatness of his ftrength, whofe "own arm brought falvation †."

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Upon the whole, it plainly appears, from the illuftration of these four probable reafons, how greatly the author is ftraitened, in any plaufible manner, upon his principles, to account for the extraordinary perturbation of our Saviour's foul. Give him all the aid that he can derive from the profpect of his fufferings, after he left the garden, and from a pe

D

* Slichting. in 2 Cor. v. 21.

+ Ifa. Ixiii. 1,---5.

a peculiar delicacy of nerves, (as we have feen that he cant have none from apprehensiveness, or from the confequences of his fufferings, becaute the firft is inadmiffible, and the last was only matter of confolation,) he must ftill labour underthe force of that objection, which he fo ineffectually strives to answer, that our Lord must appear more weak than many of his own followers, if there was no higher caufe of fuffering. For with regard to afflictions of an outward kind, to which the writer confines thofe of Jefus, perhaps we may fafely affert, that many of them have undergone what were equally violent. They have "glorified God" by the fame kind of death; their bodies have been prepared for crucifixion by the mangling fcourge; they have been hauled from one court of judgment to another; they have "had "trials of cruel mockings." Mafters have not only been betrayed by difciples, but children by parents, and parents by children: Nay, every method of torture has been prac tifed, that hellifh ingenuity could invent, which might both prolong life, and if poffible, make it exquifitely miferable. After all, they have not only difcovered no difcouragement under thefe varied fufferings, but no horror at their approach, although painted with all the eloquence of enemies, who wifhed to thake their refolution, that they might prevail with them to relinquish its cause.

P. 39. 1. 25. The great leffon, which we ought to "learn from the prefent, as well as from every other paffage of our Saviour's life, is a deliberate and unreferved "compliance with the will of God." The will of God, here meant, is evidently his providential will. Now, the general tenor of fcripture is, that the great leffon to be learned from the whole of our Saviour's conduct, is faith in him as our furety, or fubmiffion to God's will of grace, Refiguation to his will of providence is only a leffon of a fecondary order. "This is the work of God that we should believe "in the name of his Son, and that believing wc fhould have "life through his name. But here we have, indeed, a compend of the whole Socinian scheme;---that the great end both of the life and death of Chrift was to fet us an example.

P. 42. 1. 1. "The benefit which would redound to man"kind from his death,---was truly great and important, "though lefs than divine benevolence wifhed." How is

this