Appendix E.

Vanity of Vanities, In Trying to Make Poor, Frail, Humanity, Almighty God.

Of all the greatest acts of Folly and Pride, none is so great, and no assumption so awful, as for man to attempt to make poor, weak, frail Humanity a God.

Cannot any person see, that by attempting to make God a Person of Flesh and Blood, we at once rob him of his attribute of Omnipresence, because it is impossible for any person, or body of Flesh and Blood, to be present everywhere.

And "let some quiet, sober, reflecting mind only pause for a moment, and (as a writer says) add together the two ideas of Pride and man. Behold him a creature of a span high, stalking through infinite space in all the grandeur of littleness. Perched upon a speck of the universe, every wind of heaven strikes into his blood the coldness of death; from his soul every varying temper and changing passion ever pour themselves forth, like discordant notes, from his soul; day and night are as dust on the wheel, he is rolled along under the heavens, through a labyrinth of worlds, and all beneath and above him is flaming the creation of God."

Is this the poor, weak, frail creature that we make a God of? or that makes himself a God? That makes himself the Crown of Glory of all creation? To deny his own flesh? Mock at his fellow, sprung from that dust to which both must soon return? "Does he not suffer? Does he not die? When he reasons, is he never stopped with difficulties? When he acts, is he never tempted, yea and overcome by pleasure? When he lives, is he free from pain? When he dies, can he escape the common Grave of Corruption?

Pride is the heritage of man, (of Humanity.) Humility then should dwell with frailty, and atone for Ignorance, Error, and Imperfection, and not dare to assume to be a God. Because it is Blasphemy in making a Rival of the Humanity against the Divinity , and contrary to God's own Word, which says, "For there is no man that sins not." 1 Kings 8:46; 2 Chron. 6:36. And again, "How can he be clean that is born of a woman?" and "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. " Job 25:4, and 14:4. How then can Jesus be that "Holy Thing" born of a Woman? See Luke i. 35.

Look at Humanity in its most perfect and redeemed state upon this earth. Look at it with all its most filthy evacuations, which are so indispensably necessary to preserve life while here on earth. Look at Poor Humanity, coming into this life as a crying Infant, and going out as a man, full of pain, suffering, and death. How then, do tell me, is it possible for such a Poor, Weak, Frail creature as man is, to be the only One Adorable God, who is ever complete and full of all the most Pure Unchangeable Perfections?*

* O! It is a most beautiful sight to see a man set up the Principle of the Adorable "Unity" and Supremacy of the One God, and carry it consistently out, withstanding all the allurements and endearments of Flesh and Blood.

This is the reason why the Jew thinks and knows that it is a far less sin to commit even murder and incest, than to believe and make out Humanity to be the only one true God of Israel, because this would rob God of all his Glory, and be Idolatry.

And the best and most perfect Humanity in the shape of man that ever existed upon this earth, could only be a Good and Holy Man, but never could be made a God.

N.B. The objections that the Mohammedans make when asked to embrace Christianity are, "How can the Unity of God be true and be Indivisible, and yet be divided into Three Parts, or Gods? How can God be Immaterial and Infinite and yet become a man? How can God have a "Son" as Old as himself, and how can He have a "mother" not born until 4000 years and more after he created this world? How can the God-man become Bread and Wine, to be eaten and digested? Do you think that we can ever believe all this?

Playing on either one of the two Strings, the Divinity or Humanity, in order to rob God of his Unchangeable Unity.

All and everything that can possibly constitute God is comprehended in the word Divinity.

All and everything that can possible constitute Man is comprehended in the word Humanity.

And two more opposite and contrary natures, or things, it is impossible to exist, or of which to conceive. It is, therefore, entirely beyond our power to Identify them, because all and everything that belongs to the Divinity is All-Mighty Power, or Strength, Wisdom, Righteousness, Justice, Goodness, Mercy, and Truth; but poor, weak Humanity, alas! alas! is the very opposite, and the very reverse of all these, because we all very well know, that the Humanity, or poor frail Man, is Weakness, Foolishness, Vileness, Injustice, Cruelty and Falsehood, in the extreme.

There are persons who vainly attempt to rob God of all his above-mentioned Divine Perfections, or Divinity, by endeavoring to form a Unity of the Divinity with the opposite nature of the Humanity, so as to make out but only One God by including the man Jesus, and so Identify them; but it is utterly impossible for them ever to do so, because "God is not a man that he should lie." Num. 23:19.

Hence persons wishing to prove two natures in the Godhead, or make out a Trinity, have all that is Power, Wisdom, Righteousness, Justice, Goodness, Mercy, and Truth in the Divinity on the one hand; and all that is perfect Weakness, Foolishness, Vileness, Cruelty and Falsehood in the Humanity on the other hand. They have both strings, that of God and Man, or that of the Divinity and Humanity, which they can play upon at their pleasure, in order to try and make them out to be but ONE, although they very well know that they are as opposite in their natures as anything can possibly be.

For what is Stronger, more Holy, Immaculate, Just and Good than God, or the Divinity?

And what is weaker, more Sinful, Impure and Evil than man, or the Humanity?

But these persons, whenever Jesus of Nazareth speaks, laying claim to the Divinity, or of being God himself, appear determined to rob God of his Unity , by trying to blend the extreme opposites of the Divinity and Humanity together, and when Jesus says, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34,) O, then, they say that "it is the Humanity that is crying to the Divinity;" but God cannot cry to God not to forsake HIMSELF. So when Jesus says, "I and my Father (mark, putting himself first ) are One," (John 10:30,) "Oh! then it is only the divinity that speaks."

Now let me assure all my readers, and let me repeat it, that no matter how redeemed and purified the Humanity, or Man, can possibly become, it can never become the only one true God, it only becomes a Good man, a redeemed man, but never, no, never, a God; and it is the grossest Blasphemy to assert that the best of men can ever become a God. It is Robbery. God has declared fourteen times, in the 43, 44, 45 chapters of Isaiah, that there is no God besides me, that is, but One. Now he most certainly does not mean that there is no Humanity but him, but he means that there is no Divinity but him, for God says there is no Savior but Him, that is, his Divinity. God does not mean that there is no humanity but him, for there are millions, and this would be false. It is the Divinity that is the only God and Savior, and it is the Humanity that is the only thing Saved; hence it is impossible for any man, or Humanity, to be the Savior , because God declares in Isaiah 43:11, "I, even I, am the Lord: and beside me there is no Savior." Again, Hosea 13:4, "Thou shalt know no God but me; for there is no Savior but me." No Divinity, which is the only saving principle; and you cannot Identify and make this only one saving Principle one and the same with the Humanity, or else God has a Prerogative as God; nay more, God has a Rival, a Co-Equal with him, which we know the Humanity is not.

Would you not attempt to dethrone God? Then never make any Humanity, or Good man, a God, or you are guilty of the grossest Idolatry, no matter whether it is Jesus, Mohammed, or the Grand Lama.

If you would attempt to Dethrone God, blend the Divinity with the Humanity, God with man, and you can at once create in your imagination, and nowhere else, a Duality; and if you wish to proceed on further, only add "Person" to God's "Holy Spirit," and call it the "Holy Ghost," and you have at once the far-fetched and "Mysterious" "Trinity" of "God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost;" and if you will only blend and Identify the Divinity of God with the Humanity of the "Virgin Mary"* (so called,) you can have the "Sacred Quarternity" including the "Mother of God." And you need not stop here, for there is no necessity when you once blend the Divinity of God with the Humanity of poor, weak, frail mortal man, for you can have the 30,000 false Gods, or Deities, of the Greeks; for upon this ground they erred, and from this fruitful ground of error they received their mythological Gods, and Christians their Three Gods, or "Trinity."

* The Divinity of Mary is just of a piece with her "Perpetual Virginity," which must have been not only miraculous, but also very "Mysterious," as Mark, 6:3, assures us that she was the mother not only of the "Carpenter" God, but also of "James, Joses, Judah and Simon," and "his sisters here with us."

N.B. The Jews do not reject Jesus of Nazareth out of any malignity or stubbornness to him, but because their Holy Law positively forbids them to worship any God but One; and because he is not the Messiah of the Law and the Prophets. And as to an Atonement, they never can receive any other than the only one Atonement mentioned in Lev. 16:30; and if that is true, no other atonement can possibly be true.