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ascribed to God; have we not his own express and often-repeated avowal, that all the powers he manifested were committed to him as the Son, by the Father of the Universe? And does not reason force us to infer, that a Being who owes to another all his power and authority, however extensive and high, should be in reality considered inferior to that other? Surely, therefore, those who believe God to be Supreme, possessing the perfection of all attributes, independently of all other beings, must necessarily deny the identity: of Christ with God: as the sun, although he is the most powerful and most splendid of all known created things, the greatest immediate source of life and enjoyment in this world, has yet no claim to be considered identical in nature with God, who has given to the sun all the light and animating warmth which he sheds on our globe. To effect a material change without the aid of physical means, is a power peculiar to God; yet we find this power exercised by several of the prophets on whom the gift of miracles was bestowed. Besides, it is evident, from the first chapter of Genesis, that in the beginning of the creation God bestowed on man his own likeness, and sovereignty over all living creatures. Was not his own likeness and that dominion peculiar to God, before mankind were made partakers of them? Did God then deify man by such mark of distinction?

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The following passages, I presume, suffice to illustrate the entire dependence of the Son on God, and

his inferiority and subjection to, and his living by, him. St. John, chap. x. vers. 17 and 18: "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father." Chap. xii. ver. 49: "For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father who sent me, he gave me commandment what I should say, and what I should speak." Chap. xiv. ver. 31: "But that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do." Chap. xvii. vers. 1 and 2, Jesus in his prayer-" Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee; as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life. to as many as thou hast given him." John, chap. iii. ver. 35: "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand." Chap. v. ver. 19: "The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do," &c.: 22, "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." 30: "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear I judge; and my judgment is just; because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father who hath sent me." Chap. vi. ver. 37: "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me," &c. 38: "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." Chap. viii. ver. 28: "That I do nothing of myself;

but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things." Ver. 50: "I seek not my own glory; there is one that seeketh and judgeth." Chap. xiv. hear is not mine, but

Ver. 31: "As the

Ver. 31 :

even so I do.”

And

ver. 24: "The word which ye the Father's which sent me." Father gave me commandment, after his resurrection Jesus saith, ch. xx. ver. 21, "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” Ver. 17: "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." Matthew, ch. xii. ver. 18, from Isaiah: "Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased; I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles." Ch. xxviii. ver. 18: "And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." Luke, ch. i. ver. 32: "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David." For testimony that he lived by the Father, see John vi. 57: "As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father," &c. Ch. v. ver. 26: "For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself."

As the Reverend Editor in two instances quoted, perhaps inadvertently, the authority of the Apostles, I think myself justified in introducing some of the sentiments entertained by them on this subject, though I should be contented to deduce my argu

ments, as proposed by the Editor, exclusively from the direct authority of Jesus himself. I shall confine myself to the quotation of one or two texts from the Epistles of St. Paul. 1st Corinthians, ch. xv. vers. 24-28: "Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all." be all in all." Colossians, ch. i. ver. 15: "Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature."

From a due attention to the purport of the abovequoted texts, and to the term Son, distinctly mentioned in them, the reader will, I trust, be convinced, that those powers were conferred on Jesus, and declared by himself to have been received by him from the Father, as the Messiah, Christ, or anointed Son of God, and not solely in his human capacity; and that such interpretation as declares these and other passages of a similar effect to be applicable to Jesus as a man, is an unscriptural invention. Jesus spoke of himself throughout all the Scriptures only as the promised Messiah, vested with high glory from the beginning of the world. John,

ch. xvii. ver. 5: "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had In this passage, with thee before the world was." with the same breath with which he prays for glory, he identifies the nature in which he does so with that under which he lived with God before the creation of the world, and of course before his assuming the office of the Messiah. Ver. 24: "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me : for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." Here again Jesus prays, that his Apostles may witness such honour as the Father had bestowed on him, even before the foundation of the world. Ch. ix. vers. 35-37: "Dost thou" (says Jesus to a man who had been blind) "believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he (the Son of God) that talketh with thee.” Ch. xvii. vers. 1, 2: "Father, glorify thy Son; as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." John the Baptist, who bore witness of Christ, looked not upon him in any other view than as the Son of God. St. John, ch. i. ver. 34: "And I saw and bare record," (said John the Baptist, pointing out the person of Jesus,) "that this is the Son of God." John, ch. viii. ver. 42: "I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but

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