custom; the giving a new spring to our energies ; the discoveries of science; the improvement of reason; and the possession of an admirable engine for managing the lower orders of the community: and the magnificent promise of eternal life, might be coldly affirmed to have originated in the benevolent policy, or the sublime opinion, or the sanguine expectation, or the noble enthusiasm 28 of Jesus and his followers. This is not a fanciful representation. The Unitarians of this country have not indeed proceeded to these lengths; and I sincerely pray that they may

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28 For the following extract I am indebted to Dr. Augustus Hahn, Prof. Theol. at Leipzig, in his Offene Erklärung an die Evangelische Kirche, zunächst in Sachsen u. Preussen; Leipzig, 1827, i. e. Appeal to the Lutheran Churches, particularly those of Saxony and Prussia." The book from which it is taken is Briefe über den Rationalismus, &c. i. e. "Letters on Rationalism, for the setting right of wavering and doubting Judgments upon the modern important Controversies respecting Theological Doctrines :-by John Fred. Röhr, D.D." Zeitz in Saxony, 1813. This author was made, in 1820, Superintendent-General of the Lutheran Churches of Weimar, and First Chaplain to the Court!! and he, Von Ammon, and Bretschneider, were the three German divines who attended the tricentenary celebration of the Reformation, at Geneva, in August, 1835; as a sort of assumed, or self-chosen, representatives of Protestant Germany.

"Great minds,' says Eberhard,' who with the noblest enthusiasm pursue so holy an object as the intellectual and moral reformation of their age, cannot but be greatly inclined to ascribe the origin of those rapid coruscations, which out of the dark profound suddenly dart into their souls, to immediate operations of the Deity.' If therefore JESUS, the sublimest, the noblest enthusiast that ever was upon earth, conceived a personal conviction that he had been called by God to the holy work to which he had devoted his life, he by no means merited the base appellation of a deceived person; neither was he a deceiver, when he uttered this conviction to others. spoke according to his own most inward conviction, of his heavenly mission and the divinity of his doctrine." Röhr's Letters, p. 304.

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not: but that, notwithstanding individual instances of a propensity in this direction, they may return nearer to the truth, rather than recede farther from it. But these are the principles which have been for several years promulgated in the theses, dissertations, lectures, annotations, and still more elaborate works, of some of the men who hold forth themselves, and compliment each other, as the enlightened and liberal scripture critics of Germany.29

In the mean time, the caution administered by the early Christian writers may prove to be the wisest and best let those who regard the Lord Jesus Christ as a figurative Saviour, a figurative Lawgiver, King, and Judge, beware lest, in the day of their extremity, they find only a figurative salvation !

29 On this topic I may be permitted to request the reader's referring to some passages in the former volume of this work, to Four Discourses on the Sacrifice and Priesthood of Christ, pp. 165–172, 260-272; and to several articles on the Neologism of Germany, in the Eclectic Review for 1827 and 1828.

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SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE TO CAPITULE VI.

Note [A], page 248.

5. The sense in which a prophecy is fulfilled is often very different from that which the literal interpretation would lead us to expect. It is therefore highly probable that the mode in which Christ will eventually execute the office of judging the world will bear little or no resemblance to that which the expressions naturally suggest; and in their true sense they may mean nothing more than what a human being, exalted and endowed, as Jesus is, may be qualified to perform. God declares to the prophet Jeremiah, chap. i. 10, 'See, I have set thee this day over all nations, to

'root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to build, and to ' plant;' when nothing more was intended than to authorize the prophet to declare the divine purpose. And the promise to Peter, Matt. xvi. 19, that whatsoever he bound or loosed on earth, should be bound or loosed in heaven, is usually understood in a similar sense. The prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem is expressed in language as strong, and in figures as awful, as those which relate to the last judgment: and the personal appearance of Christ himself, with his angels, is as expressly asserted; see Matt. xxiv. 29. Luke xxi. 25, &c. ; yet, for any thing that appears, these calamitous events were brought to pass by natural means, and probably without any personal, certainly without any visible, interference of Christ. He was only so far concerned in it, as, in the symbolical language of prophecy, to declare authoritatively that the event would happen.

"6. May we not then be permitted to conjecture, that when Christ is represented as appointed by God to judge the world, nothing more may be intended by this language, but that the final states of all and every individual of mankind shall be awarded agreeably to the declarations of the Gospel? This supposition is perfectly analogous to those cases which are cited under the preceding head, especially to the strong expressions which are used concerning our Lord's advent for the destruction of Jerusalem; the accomplishment of which in a figurative, and not a literal sense, seems intended to direct our minds to the interpretation of those symbols which typify, and of that language which announces, the personal agency of Christ and his disciples in the awful solemnities of the final judgment. This explanation affords a very easy solution of the language of Paul concerning the saints judging the world. The apostles and Christians in general may fitly be represented as assessors with Christ on the tribunal of judgment, as by the very profession of Christianity they bear their solemn testimony, to the unbelieving world, of the divine declaration by Jesus Christ, that there is a life to come, in which men shall be rewarded according to their works.

"In perfect analogy to this interpretation, Christ is figuratively represented as a lawgiver, because the precepts of his gospel are laws to govern the conduct of his disciples. He is figuratively a priest, because he voluntarily delivered himself up as a victim; and sacrificed his life in the cause of truth, and in obedience to the will of God. He is figuratively a conqueror and a king, and universal dominion is ascribed to him, because his gospel and religion will gradually prevail through the world, and all nations will eventually

submit to its authority.-In like manner, Christ is figuratively a judge, because the final states of all mankind will be awarded in a future life, agreeably to the solemn, repeated, and explicit declarations of his gospel.

"Our Lord himself appears to give some countenance to this interpretation, by the language which he uses, John xii. 47, 48, • If any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him not, for I < came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that re'jecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him. 'THE WORD THAT I HAVE SPOKEN, THE SAME shall judge HIM AT 6 THE LAST DAY.'" Calm Inq. pp. 343–347.

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Almighty God, in his infinite mercy, grant that this citation may produce its best effect upon every reader of this page e! That day is coming. It is, as to personal effect, as near to each of us as the speedily arriving hour of death. How soon, then, will the great disclosure be made, whether we have received or have rejected THE WORD OF CHRIST!

CAPITULE VII.

ON THE HOMAGE WHICH CHRIST PERMITTED TO BE PAID TO

HIMSELF.

Cases enumerated and examined, of peculiar homage paid to our Lord during his ministry. The words of Thomas, John xx. 28,-shown not to have been an exclamation of surprise ;-nor an address to the Almighty Father :-but an address to Christ, and approved by him.-Evidence of this construction.—The term God not used in an inferior sense. Objections from the apostle's probable state of knowledge;—and from the implied reasoning :—answered.—The other instances not all of the same character.-Christ would not accept civil honour. -Nor, on the hypothesis of his mere humanity, would he have accepted religious homage.-Dr. Carpenter's arguments stated, and answered.—Investigation of the sense of John xvii. 3,—and of passages in which Jesus calls the Father his God, and prays to him.

It is recorded that our blessed Lord, on several occasions, accepted with approbation from his disciples and others, expressions of homage which carry some appearance of religious adoration.

But the word generally made use of on these occasions does not necessarily signify the external act of religious worship. It properly denotes that bending down, or sometimes prostration, which was the mode, among the oriental nations, of expressing civil respect to persons of superior rank. The cases, therefore, in which it is to be understood of religious adoration, and those in which it denotes nothing but civil homage, can be discriminated only by attending to the circumstances of each.

This word (Tрookvveiv) occurs sixty times in the New Testament. Of these there are two, which, without