philosophy and revelation. Now we affirm that the same attributes that belong solely to the Supreme Being, are found also in Jesus Christ. If these two points can be established, the Deity of Christ must necessarily follow.

I. GOD IS A SPIRIT WITHOUT BODY OR PARTS. This is denied by Arians generally. Most of them believe there are two bodies in Heaven, namely, the body of God, and the body of Christ-that God is literally seated on a throne, and that Christ sits at his right hand. Kinkade has a chapter of fifteen pages, to show that God has a body like man. Chadwick says he is "prepared to defend" this sentiment; and Elder G. Fancher says, "God has a body, eyes, ears, hands, feet, &c., just as we have." Millard evidently holds to the same creed, and Elder L. Perry says, in a letter in our possession, "I believe HE IS A BODY, SIR." Kinkade says, "ears, hands, and eyes, are part of an intelligent ruler, and if God have none of these he cannot hear, handle, nor see us."

The

To show that God has "nearly all the members of the human body," he quotes the following texts: "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto them that cry. face of the Lord is against them that do evil. I will turn my hand upon thee. He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bo

som.

His garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the fine wool; his throne was like the fiery flame and his wheels as burning fire." From these it is inferred that God has eyes, ears, face, hands, arms, bosom, garments or clothing, head, hair, &c. But if these texts are to be understood literally, we must not stop here. We must not only represent God as resembling an aged man

but as actually riding in a carriage, and gathering the lambs in his bosom! Instead of understanding figurative language as such, Arians make it all literal; and thus originate some of the most absurd notions, that were ever uttered in any Christian land.

In figurative language the eye sometimes denotes wisdom, or providential care, the ear attention, and the hand strength; but if we were to speak of" the strong arm of the law" in the hearing of an Arian, he might infer that the law had an arm, and perhaps "nearly all the members of the human body." This theory represents God as incapable of seeing or hearing without the medium of ears and eyes! But does sound go from earth to heaven? and does God hear a secret prayer with natural ears, and a thousand of them at the same time? If God sees with natural eyes, can he see all around him or on the opposite side of the earth? It may be wrong to dwell upon such palpable nonsense, and we drop the subject by briefly stating two objections to the Arian sentiment.

1. To give God a body is to contradict one of the plainest declarations of the word of God. Christ says, "God is a spirit," and "a spirit hath not flesh and bones." Now, if a spirit hath not flesh and bones, of course it can have no eyes, ears, hands, or feet, or any members or parts of a material body. By body we always understand matter in some form, as opposed to spirit. The term is applicable to nothing but matter; therefore if God is a spirit, he cannot be matter; and consequently has no body or parts. On the other hand, to assert that God "is a body," is to make out a material God, and to deny that God is a spirit. Hence this feature of modern Arianism, is no better than Atheism. But

Arians tell us that God's body is a "spiritual body," by which they mean a sort of body that is nothing but spirit after all. This is an unscriptural invention. A spiritual body is a human body immortalized. Hence it is said of the human body, " It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body" -1 Cor. xv. 44. The material body of Christ was, therefore, a spiritual body after the resurrection, and yet it had flesh and bones, and was matter as much as it was before. All bodies will be spiritual after the resurrection, and yet they will all be material. It is useless, therefore, to assert that God's body is a spiritual body, for if this be true he must be matter and not spirit, and Christ must stand corrected by Arians.

2. To give God a body is to deny his omnipresence. Hence Arians generally follow Kinkade, and deny that God is every where present. He is very frank in the avowal of this doctrine, as may be seen by consulting his book, p. 157. If God is a body, of course he cannot be every where present. It cannot, therefore, be true that he "fills heaven and earth," as he has declared ;—that " in him we live, move, and have our being" or that he "filleth all in all." We must, then, either disbelieve those Scriptures that ascribe universal presence to God, or reject the notion of a material Deity. We prefer the latter. God is revealed to us as an omnipresent God; and, as before said, any theory that robs him of his spiritual nature, and consequently of his attributes, is no better than Atheism itself. "God is pure spirit, unconnected with bodily form or organs, the invisible God whom no man hath seen or can see, an immaterial, incorruptible substance, an immense mind, or intelligence, self-acting, self-moving, wholly above the perceptions of bodily sense, free

from the imperfections of matter, and all the infirmities of corporeal beings, far more excellent than any finite and created spirits, and therefore styled "the Father of spirits," "the God of the spirits of all flesh."

If God is a spirit, he is not matter or body, and consequently has no parts. Nothing can have parts that is not susceptible of division; for a part is such only in reference to a whole of which it is a part; and always implies divisibility. Spirit is not divisible, and consequently has no parts. Hence we never speak of half a spirit, half a joy, or half a sorrow. If, then, "God is a spirit," he is necessarily incapable of division, and must be "without body or parts."

II. GOD IS THE REAL AND ONLY CREATOR. The Scriptures ascribe the work of creation to God and to Christ; and from this we argue that Christ is God, "manifest in the flesh." Arians are therefore obliged to deny the work of creation to one or the other of these, or to admit Christ's Divinity. Accordingly they usually assert that the Father never created any thing, except the Son; and that Christ created all things as God's representative or agent. It will be necessary, therefore, to show, in the first place, that God is the real and only Creator.

1. Moses says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." David says, "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handy work"-that the heavens "the work of his fingers." Paul says, "He that built all things is God-the living God that made heaven, and earth, and sea, and all things therein."

are

The whole account of creation clearly shews that God alone is the Creator. "And God said, Let there be light and there was light." "He spake,

:

and it was done." "And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so." "And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Who would suppose, from this account, that an inferior being, altogether distinct from God, was the true Creator?

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2. But at the same time that the Scriptures teach that God, and God alone, is the Creator of all things, they teach that Christ created all things. "All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made." For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him. And he is be fore all things, and by him all things consist."" Now, as the Scriptures teach that God created all things himself, and yet affirm that Christ created all things, it follows that Christ is the God spoken of by Moses, "manifest in the flesh."

3. In reply to this argument, it is asserted, as above stated, that Christ, a creature, created all things as "God's agent ;" and hence, that God and Christ may both be considered as Creators, God as the principal, and Christ as the agent. But this agency scheme is liable to the following objec

tions :

(1.) There is not the least vestige of any such doctrine in all the Bible.

(2.) It directly contradicts the account of creation