Chrift applies to himself. Or you understand by the foregoing words, "In the beginning was "the Word," &c. truth and righteousness, coeternal with the Divinity. Permit me to tell you, that you explain one obfcurity by another; and that, notwithstanding all your fhifts, either the evangelift did not know what he was saying, or you must absolutely allow an eternal and preexistent principle, united to human nature, "in "the fulness of time."

To prove what I advanced, I shall adopt your interpretation, and place Truth in the room of Word. "In the beginning was the "Truth: and the Truth was with God: and "God was the Truth." Remark, here, that God and the Truth are identified God was the

Truth. In the fame chapter, it is faid: "The "Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst "us." In adopting your interpretation, it will be-"The Truth was made flesh, and dwelt

amongst us," viz. the fame Truth of which he faid before, that it was God himself,--and then the entire fenfe will be-God, the Truth, was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us. Upon the whole, you are to acknowledge an eternal, pre-existent principle, affuming human nature; or to reject this chapter as fuppofititious, which no Arian or Socinian ever did.

You

You accuse the English translators of fome defign, in tranfpofing these words, Kai sòs. Aby, "And God was the Word," which they have Englished, " And the Word was "God," as if they intended to promote the Chriftian caufe by an artful tranfpofition.

I fee no advantage you can derive from fo fevere and injurious an intimation. Whether we fay, "God was the Word," or "the Word

was God," the fenfe is the fame: for, in alllanguages, it is the nature of the copulative verb (is) to identify the predicate and the subject, if it be not followed by fome exclusive particle or negative word. Peter was or is that man; tranfpofe the words, and fuch will be the result of the tranfpofition: that man was or is Peter. The fenfe is the fame in both cafes; and the fame may be faid, and is true, whether we say, “God was the "Word," or "the Word was God."

This chapter is as clear as the first chapter of St. Paul's epiftle to the Coloffians, wherein he fets forth and extols the qualities of our divine Redeemer, "by whom were made all things in "Heaven and on earth, vifible and invifible; "whether thrones, or dominations, or princi

palities, or powers: all things were created

by him and in him: and he is before all; and "all things fubfist in him."*.

* Verse 16, 17.

If all things, that are, were made by him, he himself was not made: and his divine power is fignified, when it is faid, " all things fubfift," or are preserved by him,

Further Critics lay down a general rule, whereby to elucidate the fenfe and meaning of authors, viz. to know the time in which they lived; the circumstances in which they wrote; and the adverfaries with whom they were engaged. The application of the rule evinces the literality of the first chapter of St. John, which puzzled and perplexed the Arians and Socinians, and exhausted the metaphyfics of the subtle Crellius. St. John wrote his gofpel at the requeft of the Afiatic bishops, in oppofition to the falfe doctrine of Ebion and Cerinthus, who denied the Divinity of the Son of God. Motives, circumstances, the nature of the question, the doctrine of his adverfaries, all concur to prove that he is to be understood in a literal fense: a fense so free from any myfterious obfcurity, that the Platonic philofophers, according to St. Auftin, discovered, in this chapter, the Divinity of the Son of God. "But they were too proud," fays this father, "to acknowledge the lowness of his humanity."

SECOND OBSCURITY.

To invalidate our belief of Chrift's conception in a virgin's womb, you oppofe St. Mat

thew,

thew, who fays," that Jacob was father to Jo"feph, the husband of Mary," to St. Luke, who fays, "that Heli was Jofeph's father." But this feeming contradiction vanishes, if we pay attention to the manner in which the Jews fometimes traced their genealogy. In Deuteronomy, the law declares," that if one brother "dies without children, the furviving brother "shall marry his relict, in order to raise up "iffue for the deceased," which iffue was to bear his name. Hence, a twofold genealogy amongst the Jews; the one legal, the other natural. Jacob and Heli were brothers. Heli died without iffue. Jacob married his relict, and begot Jofeph, the husband of Mary. Thus, when St. Luke calls Heli " Jofeph's father," he means, his father, according to the law and when St. Matthew calls Jacob "Joseph's fa

ther," he means, his father, according to nature and by this means, the evangelists are eafily reconciled. Other folutions are given to this difficulty, and you are at your option to give the preference to which you choose. The Jewish records and their family-registers have been burnt with the archives of their temple. We live at too great a distance to settle the genealogies of their families. The evangelifts, befides the gift of infpiration, had every information: as they were nearer the times. In certain coun

* Chap. xxv.

tries,

Our ignorance of his nature would expofe us to the fatal alternative-either of becoming idolaters in worshipping a man, which is the cafe of all Chriftians, if your opinion be well grounded, -or of refusing God the homage that is due to him, which is your cafe, if you mistake and err. If Chrift be not God, the Chriftians are in the fame case with the idolatrous Tartars, who worship a living man: and if he be God above all, and bleffed for ever, you may as well believe the Alcoran, as believe the fcriptures; and invoke Mahomet, as invoke the fon of Mary. He declares," that life eternal confifts in the

knowledge of Himfelf, and of the Father "who fent him." In fuch an important article, it is too hazardous to plead ignorance, in hopes of impunity for the fcripture fays, that "there "is a way which man thinks to be the right "one: and the end thereof are the ways of "death." The Divinity of Christ, evidenced by the accomplishment of fo many oracles, and fupported by the concurrent teftimonies of all nations and ages, fince his appearance on earth, has so many apologifts, that the doctor can easily. meet with fome of them in every library, and, I doubt not, in his own; and that it were pre- . fumption in me to attempt going over the fame ground; efpecially, after what Abadie and Houteville have faid on this important fubject.. Moreover, fir, you acknowledge the authenti