"Let us DISC.

addreffed his power and wisdom.
"make man ;" All things are now ready;
let the work of creation be compleated and
crowned by the production of it's poffeffor
and lord, who is to use, to enjoy, and to
rule over it; "Let us make man.

The phrafeology in which this refolution is couched is remarkable ; "Let us make "man;" but the Old Teftament furnishes more inftances of a fimilar kind; "Behold, "man is become like one of us; Let us go

down, and confound their language; "Whom shall we fend, and who will go "for us?" These plural forms, thus used by the Deity, demand our attention.

Three folutions of the question have been offered.

The first is that given by the Jews, who tell us that in these forms, God fpeaks of himself and his angels. But may we not ask, upon this occafion "Who hath

"known the mind of the Lord, or who

hath

I.

DISC. hath been his counsellor?" With which

I.

of the angels did he at any time vouchfafe to fhare his works and his attributes ? Could they have been his coadjutors in the work of creation, which he fo often claims to himself, declaring he will not give the glory of it to another? Do we believedo the Jews believe-did any body ever believe that man was made by angels, or made in the image and likeness of angels? Upon this opinion, therefore, we need not fpend any more time. We know from whence it came, and for what end it was devifed and propagated.

A fecond account of the matter is, that the king of heaven adopts the style employed by the kings of the earth, who frequently fpeak of themselves in the plural number, to exprefs dignity and majesty. But doth it feem at all reasonable to imagine that God fhould borrow his way of fpeaking from a king, before man was created upon the earth? The contrary fuppofition would furely carry the air of more

probability

I.

probability with it, namely, that because the DISC. Deity originally used this mode of expreffion, therefore kings, confidering themselves as his delegates and representatives, afterwards did the fame. But however this might be, the interpretation, if admitted, will not fuffice to clear the point. For, as it has been judiciously obferved, though a king and governor may fay us and we, there is certainly no figure of fpeech, that will allow any single perfon to fay, "One of "us," when he speaks only of himself. It is a phrafe that can have no meaning, unlefs there be more perfons than one concerned.

What then fhould hinder us from accepting the third folution, given by the beft expofitors ancient and modern, and drawn from this confideration, that in the unity of the divine effence there is a plurality of perfons coequal and coeternal, who might fay, with truth and propriety," Let "us make man ;" and, "Man is become "like one of us?" Of fuch a perfonality

revelation

I.

DISC. revelation informs us; it is that upon which the œconomy of man's redemption is founded; his creation, as well as that of the world, is, in different paffages, attributed to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; what more natural therefore, than that, at his production, this form of fpeech fhould be used by the divine perfons? What more rational than to fuppose, that a doctrine, fo important to the human race, was communicated from the beginning, that men might know whom they worshipped, and how they ought to worship? What other good and fufficient reason can be given, why the name of God, in use among believers from the first, should likewise be in the plural number, connected with verbs and pronouns in the fingular? It is true, we Chriftians, with the New Teftament in our hands, may not want these arguments to prove the doctrine: but why should we overlook, or flight fuch very valuable evidence of it's having been revealed and received in the church of God,

.Gen, i, I ברא אלהים 4

from

It is a DISC.

from the foundation of the world? fatisfaction, it is a comfort to reflect, that, in this momentous article of our faith, we have patriarchs and prophets for our fathers; that they lived, and that they died in the belief of it; that the God of Adam, of Noah, and of Abraham, is likewise our God ; and that when we adore him in three perfons, and give glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, we do as it was done in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.

Proceed we to confider the materials, of which man was compofed.

"The word of the Lord once came to "the prophet Jeremiah, faying, Arife, " and go down to the potter's houfe, and "there I will caufe thee to hear my words. "Then he went down to the potter's

house, and behold he wrought a work "on the wheel. And the word of the "Lord came unto him, faying, Behold as

I.