You accuse the English tranflators of fome defign, in tranfpofing these words, Kass

"And God was the Word," which they have Englished, "And the Word was God," as if they intended to promote the Christian cause 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: tranfpose 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 same 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 invisible; "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 fubsist in him."*.

* Verse 16, 17.

The two fatal fprings of our evils, are-the error of the mind, and the infirmity of the will. In Him we find the remedy, the light of revelation to difpel our darknefs, and his enlivening grace to purify the heart. You are ready to acknowledge him as the divine and inexhaustible fountain of both, if once fome paffages, which, in your opinion, militate against his Divinity, could be reconciled. An attempt shall be made in my next letter.

I have the honour, &c.

LETTER

LETTER III.

SIR,

AN incarnate God, whose bleeding wounds have paid our ranfom, is one of thofe mysteries that stuns and difconcerts human reafon, liable to ftray through the winding paths of roving error, if the clew of faith do not direct our steps and minifter its affiftance. He appeared on earth to cancel our crimes; to nail to the cross the schedule of our condemnation; to lacerate and tear the woful hand-writing that gave us over to rebel-angels; to fnatch finful man from the hands of divine juftice; and to unlock the awful gates of the eternal fanctuary, whither no mortal has accefs, but through the blood of the fpotless pontiff. He appeared, in fine, to raise, through his merits, all those who fell by Adam's guilt; to form a faithful and holy people,→a faithful people, "by captivating their under'ftanding to the yoke of faith,"-and a holy people, whofe converfation, according to St. Paul, ought to be in Heaven; and who are to follow no longer the dictates of the flesh.

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Our

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 cafe 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 son of Mary. He declares, 66 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 Chrift, 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 apologists, 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

city of the fcriptures; and found your doubts, either on the obscurity of fome paffages, or the mifapplication of fome prophecies, or the numberlefs texts, relating to Chrift's humanity. In this walk, I take the liberty of attending you, step by step; and shall avoid, as much as pof fible, any long digreffion, left we may stray too far from the path.

OBSCURITY.

You affirm, that the firft chapter of St. John, in which the Divinity of Chrift is afferted, "In "the beginning was the Word; and the "Word was with God; and the Word was

God;" is intricate and obfcure. It is quite the reverse; and Chrift's Divinity cannot be read in more legible characters. You underftand by the Word, "the Man Jefus, whom "God raised up in time, and to whom God imparted extraordinary gifts." In understanding by the Word, the Man Jefus, you are in fimilar circumstances with king Agrippa, who said:

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Paul, Paul, you have made me almost a "Chriftian." You would be entirely a Chriftian, if you added to "the Man Jefus, whom "God raised up in time," the God Jefus, who was begotten from eternity: according to the faying of the pfalmift, "Before the morning"ftar I have begotten thee:"-words which Chrift

D