DISSERTATION III. 241 alone is omnipresent, he alone knows all future things from the beginning; he alone is the Maker and 'redeemer of Israel; he is the first and the last, &c. Now the one true God has the same reasons to maintain his divine prerogative and sole right to religious worship under the gospel; he alone is the omnipresent, theomniscient God, the Maker and Saviour of his people. If it be objected here, that Christ is also represented as the Creator of all things, the Maker and Saviour of his people, &c. and therefore he may become an object of worship too, we rea- dily allow it; because we suppose him to be one God with the Father, and therefore the ancient titles and characters of god- head belong to him, and render him justly capable of religious worship. II. If Christ or his apostles taught the Jews the worship of any other god, or gods, beside Jehovah the God of Iavael, I question whether all their miracles, and their professed commis- sion from heaven, could ever have justly gained them anycredit with the Jews ; whether they ought not to have been rejected by the law of God, according to that solemn declaration of God to Israel, and that universal rule which he gave them by which to examine and try all their succeeding prophets ; Deut xiii. 1 -5.. If there arise amongyou a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and givetlt thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder coneeth to pass, whereof he spoke unto thee, saying, let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known., and let us serve them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams ; for the Lord your God prodethyou, to knowwhether you love the Lord your bad with all yourheart, and with all your soul: And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death, because he bath spoken to turn you awayfrom the Lordyour God. If it should be said here, that the reason why the offender is stoned, was notbecause he led them to other gods, hut because he turned them away from the true God : I answer, thatthere is no= thing of this kind mentioned in the description of the crime, viz. a turning them away from the true God, but it is only brought in at the end of the line, to show the malignity of the crime itself, and to make it appear, that the teaching them to worship other gods, would he interpreted by the trite God as a rejection of him- self. And this is plain in several instances, when the Jews Ivor- shipped other gods. and retained the worship of the true God still, yet theyare charged with turning away from theLord their God. Upon this supposition therefore, that Christ or his apos- tles taught the Jews to worship another god or gods,.which they had not before known, I would speak it with holy fear and can- Lion, does there not seem to be a divine command to put them to death, whatsoever signs or wonders they produced to vindi- yOL. VI. Q
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