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THE DEITY OF JESUS CHRIST ESSENTIAL TO THE
CHRISTIAN RELIGION:

A

TREATISE

ON THE

DIVINITY

OF OUR

LORD JESUS CHRIST;

Written originally in French,

BY JAMES ABBADIE, D. d.
and Dean of Killaloe, in Ireland.

A NEW EDITION of the ENGLISH TRANSLATION,

Revifed, Corrected, and, in a ferv places, Abridged,

BY ABRAHAM BOOTH, A. M.

Paftor of the Baptist Church, Goodman's Fields, London.

Great is the mystery of Godliness, GoD was manifeft in the
flesh. Timothy iii. 16.

We are in Him that is true, even in his Son Jefus Christ. This
is the true GOD and Eternal Life. 1 John v. 20.

BURLINGTON, N. J.

Printed by S C. USTICK for THOMAS USTICK,
No. 79, North Third Street, Philadelphia.

March, 1802.

Preface by the Editor.

THE do&trine of our LORD's Eternal Divinity

having been, on different grounds, the object of long and violent oppofition; many learned, ingenious, and able pens have been engaged in defence of that capital truth. Few, however, have repelled the adverfary with those powers of genius, and that force of argument, which were employed by Dr. ABBADIE in compofing this admirable Treatife.-Far from contenting himfelf with dogmatical affertions, and equally far from amufing his readers with curious metaphyfical fpeculations, on the grand Subject of his inquiries; he has recourfe to the teftimony of Gop-to that Revelation which JEHOVAH has made of himself in the Bible, and to thofe deductions from it, which are natural, clear, and conclufive. Thus he proves that Chrift is a DIVINE PERSON, and equal with the Father; without pretending to know, or attempting to investigate, the MODUS of his Divine Perfonality. In regard to the former, he firmly believes that the Scripture is full, explicit, peremptory; in reference to the latter, he confiders the facred Canon as entirely filent : and, to difpute what Eternal Veracity afferts, becaufe it is above the power of reafon to comprehend; or to endeavour to discover what God has not revealed of himself, he looks upon as irrational, prefumptuous, and highly criminal.

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The fentiments and views of our Author, in this refpect, are well expreffed by another celebrated writer, who fays; I freely grant, that, had I confulted my own reafon only, I could not have discovered fone myfteries of the gofpel. Nevertheless, when I thick on the grandeur of God; when I caft my eyes on that

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vaft Ocean; when I confider that immenfe ALL; nothing aftonishes me, nothing ftumbles me, nothing • feems to me inadmiffible, how incomprehenfible • foever it may be. When the fubject is Divine, I am ready to believe all, to admit all, to receive all; 'provided I be convinced that it is God his felf who Ifpeaks to me, or any one on his part. After this I amı no more aftonished that there are three diftin&t Perfons ⚫ in one Divine effence; one God, and yet a Father, a Son, and a Holy Ghoft.-Either religion must tell us nothing about God, or what it tells us must be beyond our capacities; and, in difcovering even the borders of this immenfe Ocean, it must needs exhibit a valt • extent in which our feeble eyes are loft. But what furprizes me, what ftumbles me, what frightens me, is to fee a diminutive creature, a contemptible man, a little ray of light glimmering through a few feeble organs, controvert a point with the fupreme Being; oppofe that Intelligence who fitteth at the helm of the world; queftion what he affirms, difpute what he determines, appeal from his decifions, and, even after • God hath given evidence, reject all doctrines that are beyond his capacity. Enter into thy nothingnefs, mortal 'creature! What madness animates thee! How durft thou pretend-thou who art but a point, thou whose effence is but an atom-to measure thyfelf with the Supreme Being; with him who fills heaven and earth; with Him, whom heaven, the heaven of heavens cannot contain! Canft thou by fearching find out God? Canft • ibou find out the Almighty to perfection? High as heaven, what canft thou do? deeper than hell, what canft thou • know!'

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The great principle which the Author aims to establish in the following work is; That the Deity of Jefus Christ is effential to the Chriftian Religion. In purfuance of this defign he fhews, if Jefus the Son of God be not of

* M. SAURIN's Surm. Vol. I. p. 78, 79. Mr. ROBINSON'S Tranflation.

the fame effence with his Father,--That the Mahometan religion is preferable to Chriflianity, and Chrift inferior to Mahomet *-That the Sanhedrim did an act of justice,

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*It may be proper here to obferve, That fome of the Socinians have not been afhamed to avow a confiderable degree of regard for the character and caufe of Mahomet. Witnefs their famous Addrefs to AMETH BEN AMETH, ambaffador from the emperor of Fez and Morocco, to CHARLES the Second, King of Great Britain. We, fay they to his Excellency, as your NEAREST < FELLOW-CHAMPIONS for thofe truths,-i. e. truths in which none but they agree with the Mahometans] We, who, with our Unitarian brethren, were in all ages exercised to defend with our pens the faith of one Supreme God, (without perfonalities, or pluralities) As He bath raifed your Mahomet to do the fame with the fword, as a fcourge on thofe idolizing Chriftians; -We do, for the vindication of your law-maker's glory, frive to ' prove, that fuch faults and irregularities, [as are found in the Koran] not cohering with the fashion of the reft of the Alcoran building, nor with the undoubted fayings of your prophet, nor with the gospel of Chrift (whereof Mahomet would have himself to be but a preacher)-were foifted into the scattered papers found after Mahomet's death, of which in truth the Alcoran was made up: it being otherwife impoffible that a man of that JUDGMENT, that bath proved itself in other things fo CONSPICUOUSLY, fhould be guilty of fo many and frequent repugnancies, as are to be feen in those writings and laws that are now-a-days given out under his name. We do, then,

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endeavour to clear by whom, and in what time, fuch alterations were made in the first fetting out of the Alcoran.' See the whole Addrefs in LESLIE's Socinian Controverfy Difc. Pref. p. 3-13. Thus careful were thefe gentlemen to purge the Koran of every thing fuppofititious; and thus tender of its Author's honour!

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Another Socinian writer reprefents Mahomet, as having no "other defign but to restore the belief of the unity of God; which, fays he, at that time was extirpated among the eastern Chriftians, by the doctrines of the Trinity and Incarnation.—And informs us, That Mahomet meant not his religion fhould be efteemed a new religion; but only the reftitution of the true intent of the Chriftian religion-That the Mahometan learned men call themselves, the true difciples of the Meffias, or Chrift; intimating thereby, that Christians are apoftates from the MOST ESSENTIAL PARTS of the doctrine of the MeffiasThat Mahometanifm has prevailed fo greatly, not by force and

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