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    to reveal in the words , " I give unto them eternal life . " But Cyrus and the Jewish princes and rulers , as well as Moses and David , are compared to shepherds in the Old Testament , and the case of the bad as well as of the good shepherd is minutely applied , nor could any image be more natural . Any thing distinguishing and exalted in the manner in which the appellation is given to Christ , either belongs of necessity to the character of his mission

    or exists only in our author ' s fancy . His own note , where he suggests as a possible objection , " that our Lord follows up this style of sovereignty with expressions of subordination and dependency , " is a sufficient answer to him ; for the remark respecting official subordination united with the possession of ** Divine dignity and power , " if it were not a mere quibble , would at least be in its application to the present purpose a gross petitio principii . What might we not prove if the use of the same image in two instances were to be taken as a sign of the identity of the subjects !

    Section xxv . Isa . xlv . 21—25 . The pretence for supposing this passage to relate to Christ , and hence that he is called Jehovah , God , the Righteous , the Saviour , is thus stated by Dr . S . : " To urge the consideration that * we shall all stand before the judgmentseat of Christ / the Apostle Paul undeniably cites and argues from this passage ; ' It is written , As I live saith the Lord , unto me every knee shall bow ;

    and every tongue shall render acknowledgment to God ; so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God . ( Rom . xiv . 4 . ) That here is an intended application of the passage to Christ is at least corroborated by another reference of the Apostle , * That in the name of Jesus every knee may bow , of beings in heaven and on the earth and under the earth , and that every tongue may acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord , to the glory of God the Father . '" ( Phil . ii . 10 , 11 . )

    From Dr . S . 's own pages we take the sufficient answer to this argument , and we should have no fear , without saying a word more , of leaving the matter " to the reflecting and candid reader " " The interpretation proposed by Faustus Socinus , and generally adopted by his followers , is perspicuously stated by Dr . Priestley . ' The

    judgmentseat of Christ , and that of God , are the same , not because Christ is God , but because he acts in the name and by the authority of God , which is fully expressed when it is said , that God will judge all the world by Jesus Christ ; bo that being judged by Christ and by God is in effect the same thing . '

    ( Priestley ' s Notes on Scripture , Vol . TV . p . 330 . ) By this gratuitous assertion the difficulty is evaded ; but whether it is not advanced to serve the purpose , whether it is not far-fetched , while the other sense is near and obvious , and whether it duly comports with the terms and scope of the passage , and with the argument of the citation—the reflecting and candid reader will judge . " The Scriptures speak in some places of God judging the world , in others , of our all appearing before the judgment-seat of Christ , and again of God judging the world by that man whom he hath ordained . Passages of the latter kind , preventing the possibility of the two former being taken as proving the identity of God and Christ , leave us no alternative but to say that " the judgment of Christ and of God are the same , because Christ acts in

    the name and by the authority of God . " Yet this is called a gratuitous assertion . The explanation , it seems , is advanced to serve a purpose : the same may be said of every explanation as easily , and of none with more appearance of justice than of those contained in Dr . S . ' s volume : it is an accusation of prejudice ( for we will not suppose that artifice is insinuated )—

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    244 Dr . J . P . Smith ' 8 Scripture Testimony to the Messiah .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1831, page 244, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/28/