22. Matt. xi. 25: Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, &c-Par. Pas. Luke x. 21.

23. Mark xiii. 19: [In] those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the creation, which God created, unto this time, neither shall be.-See Mark x. 6.

24. Acts iv. 24-30: And when they [the apostles] heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said: Lord, thou [art] God, who hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is; grant that signs and wonders may be

...

done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.

25. Acts xiv. 15-17: We [Barnabas and Paul] preach unto you, that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, who made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein; who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.

26. Acts xvii. 24-31: God, that made the world, and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needeth any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth, to dwell on the face of the earth. And the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men every where to repent; because he hath appointed a day, in which he will judge the world in righteousness by [that] man whom he hath ordained, &c.-See chap. vii. 48-50.

...

27. Rom. i. 20: The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, [even] his eternal power and godhead.

28. Heb. i. 10—12: Thou, LORD, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands. -Par. Pas. Ps. cii. 25.

29. 2 Pet. iii. 5: By the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water.

30. Rev. iv. 11: Thou art worthy, O LORD, to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

31. Rev. x. 5, 6: The angel sware by Him that liveth for ever and

ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the

earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, &c.

32. Rev. xiv. 7: Worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea,

and the fountains of waters.

OBSERVATIONS ON SECT. VI.

The above-cited host of Bible-witnesses concur in bearing their testimony to the proper Unitarian doctrine, that no subordinate agent whatever was employed in the creation of the universe; that One Divine Being alone, by his simple fiat, produced the heavens and the earth; and that this Mighty One was Jehovah, the God of the Jews, the God of Christ, and the God of all mankind.

These texts are numerous, plain, and unequivocal; and the sublime sentiments which they contain are expressed in various and in similar forms by many different persons, by Moses, by Christ, by the Prophets, and by the Apostles;-expressed too, as, in our opinion, almost irresistibly leading to the conviction of the strict oneness and independence of the Creator of all. "In the beginning," says the Jewish legislator, "God created the heavens and the earth.-God said, Let there be light, and there was light." Thus prayed the children of Israel: 'Thou art Jehovah alone: thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein; the seas, and all that is therein; and thou preservest them all."—“ The heavens," says the Psalmist, "declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handywork."-" He spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast."-" By wisdom," the Hebrew philosopher beautifully observes, and with him agrees the prophet Jeremiah,-" by wisdom hath Jehovah founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens."" Who," exclaimed the Christian prophet, concerning the Creator-" who hath directed the spirit of Jehovah? or, being his counsellor, hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed to him the way of understanding?— Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding."

The same great Being whom the Hebrews worshipped as the Designer and Former of all things, did our Lord address in the language of gratitude and submission, when he said, "I thank thee, O Father! Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight."-And it was of this Being he spake, when he pronounced his decided approval of the simple, yet sublime declaration of Moses: "Hear, O Israel! Jehovah, our God, Jehovah is one." Christ did not, indeed, directly teach, that the production of the universe was the handywork of his Father alone. This important doctrine was entertained by all the Jews; and it was the belief of this doctrine which distinguished them, as God's peculiar people, from the surround

ing nations. But Jesus certainly taught his countrymen, though by way of illustrating other momentous truths, that it was his heavenly Father who causeth the sun to shine, and the rain to descend; who adorneth the lily, who feedeth the sparrow, and who careth for the whole human race. Nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus make himself known as the Author and Preserver of animate or inanimate nature-nowhere does he state himself to have been the Creator of her who bore him, or of the beloved disciple who leaned on his bosom, or of the man who rebuked and denied him, or of him who betrayed, or of those who mocked, and persecuted, and put him to death-nowhere does he inform us, that the food which allayed his hunger, the water which assuaged his thirst, the air which he breathed, the ground which he trod, and the skies on which he must have delighted to gaze, were his own-were the workmanship of his own hands. Such an omission forms a strong presumption, that he had no new doctrine to reveal concerning God, viewed as the Creator and Governor of the world; but rather that he concurred with Moses and Job, with David and Solomon, with Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Amos, in ascribing the production of the heavens and the earth and the sea, and all things that are therein, to the simple and effective energy of Him whom he addressed in prayer as his Father and the only true God.

If, however, it be urged, that the minds of the Jews, and even of the apostles, were not prepared for the reception of Christ's independent or his subordinate agency in the framing and preservation of one or of innumerable worlds, it may be remarked, that, even after the ascension of their Master, when they must have entertained proper conceptions of his nature, the disciples addressed the Father of Jesus, and Him alone, as the Being who made "heaven, and earth, and the sea.' In the Acts of the Apostles, it is recorded that the Christian brethren joined Peter and John in prayer to the Creator, that he would enable them to perform miracles in the name, or by the authority, of his holy child (or servant) Jesus; and in the same book Paul is reported to have said to the Athenian idolaters, that that "God who made the world-the Lord of heaven and earth-He who giveth to all life, and breath, and all things-hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he hath ordained." Such language clearly indicates, that there is only one Creator; that the Son and Servant of God—the man appointed by God, the Creator-was a different being from God the Creator, and even subordinate to him.

But what, above all, decidedly proves the proper Unitarian doctrine of the undivided unity and absolute independence of the Maker and Governor of the world, is the declaration of God himself: "I AM JEHOVAH THAT MAKETH ALL THINGS; THAT STRETCHETH FORTH THE HEAVENS ALONE; THAT SPREADETH ABROAD THE EARTH BY MYSELF."

SECT. VII.-PASSAGES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT IN WHICH PECULIAR TITLES, EPITHETS, OR ATTRIBUTES, ARE ASCRIBED TO GOD-THE FATHER.

6. Acts iv. 24; xiv. 15. Rev. x. 6; xiv. 7 The God who made heaven and earth,

* These passages are adduced by Trinitarians to support the doctrine of the Supreme Divinity of Christ. But their total invalidity for this object will be shown in the Second Part of this work, to which the reader may refer by means of the "Index of Texts," placed at the end of the volume. The distinguishing titles of Christ-Lord, Saviour, Son of God, First and Last, &c. some of which occur so freqently in the New Testament-will be explained also in Part Second.

+ A list of all the passages containing the term Father, as applied to the Deity, will be given in pages 36-38.

This word is used by the Septuagint in the Old Testament, and always applied to God, about 120 times; and plainly appears to be an appropriate character of God: and is not once applied to Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Bishop Pearson observes, that the oldest and shortest creeds had always this attribute expressed, insomuch that it was ordinarily by the ancients taken for the Father.—Haynes.

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