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not amount to a prohibition of the pursuits necessary for life, or to an abstinence from love towards any other object; for such love also is enjoined by the subsequent commandment. The following passages, John, ch. xiv. ver. 21, "He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father; and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." Ch. xv. ver. 10: "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love." Ver. 14: "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you," &c., and many other passages of a similar import, exhibit clearly, that love of and adherence to Jesus, can be evinced solely by obedience to the Divine commandments. But if the observance of those commandments be treated as practically impossible, the love of Jesus and adherence to him must likewise be so considered, and Christianity altogether regarded as existing only in theory.

I appeal to the Reverend Editor himself, whether we are to set at defiance the express commandment of Jesus, under the supposition that manifestation of the love enjoined by him is practically impossible? Yet this we must do, if we are to adopt the position of the Editor, found in his Review, page 111, "That the most excellent precepts, the most perfect law, can never lead to happiness and peace, unless by causing men to take refuge in the doctrine of the cross ;" meaning, I presume, the doctrine of the vicarious sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, as an atonement of the sins of mankind.

As the Reverend Editor has most fairly and justly confined himself to arguments, founded on the authority of the divine Teacher himself, I should hope to be allowed to beg him to point out, in order to establish his position, even a single passage pronounced by Jesus, enjoining a refuge in such a doctrine of the cross, as all-sufficient or indispensable for salvation; so that his position, thus supported, may be placed in competition with that founded on those passages which I have quoted in the foregoing paragraph, shewing both the indispensableness and the all-sufficiency of the excellent Precepts in question to procure salvation; and may impel us to endeavour to reconcile contradictions, which would in that case be shewn to subsist between the passages, declaring the all-sufficiency of the moral precepts preached by Christ for eternal life, and those that might be found to announce the indispensableness of the doctrine of the cross for everlasting happiness.

It is however evident, that the human race are naturally so weak, and so prone to be led astray by temptations of temporary gratifications, that the best and wisest of them fall far short of manifesting a strict obedience to the divine commandments, and are constantly neglecting the duty they owe to the Creator and to their fellowcreatures; nevertheless, in reliance on numerous promises found in the sacred writings, we ought to entertain every hope of enjoying the blessings of pardon from the merciful Father through repentance, which is declared the only means of procuring forgiveness of our failures. I have already quoted some of these comforting passages in my Appeal, page 11; but as the Reverend Editor seems to have entirely overlooked them, and omitted to notice them in any of his publications, I deem it necessary to repeat them here with a few additions. Ezekiel, chap. xviii. ver. 30: "Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin." Luke, ch. xiii. ver. 3: Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish." Ch. xv. ver. 7: "I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance." Matthew, ch. ix. ver. 13: "I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Ch. iii. ver. 2: John the Baptist preached, saying, "Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand," and Jesus after his resurrection, lastly, directs his disciples, Luke, ch. xxiv. ver. 47: "That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem," wherein he declares the remission of sins as an immediate and necessary consequence of repentance.

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The foregoing authorities and remarks will, I trust, suffice with every candid reader, as my apology for persisting in the conviction that the Precepts compiled and published as a guide to peace and happiness, though deficient in respect to speculative doctrines and creeds, as well as narrative, yet contain all that is essential in practical Christianity; since they teach us the performance of our duty to God and to our fellow-creatures and the most acceptable atonement on our part to the All-merciful, when we have fallen short of that duty.

CHAPTER II.

Natural inferiority of the Son to the Father.

In endeavouring to prove what he represents as "the most abstruse, and yet the most important of doctrines, the Deity of Jesus Christ," the Reverend Editor advances seven positions--1st, That Jesus was possessed of ubiquity, an attribute peculiar to God alone. 2ndly, That he declared that a knowledge of his nature was equally incomprehensible with that of the nature of God. 3rdly, That he exercised the power of forgiving sins, the peculiar prerogative of God. 4thly, That he claimed almighty power, "in the most unequivocal manner." 5thly, That his heavenly Father had committed to him the final judgment of all who have lived since the creation. 6thly. That he received worship due to God alone. 7thly, That he associated his own name with that of God the Father in the sacred rite of baptism. The facts on which the Editor labours to establish these positions, however, seem to me, upon an impartial examination, not only unfavourable to his inference, but even confirmatory of the opposite opinion. - For, admitting for a moment, that the positions of the Editor are well founded, and that the Saviour was in possession of attributes and powers 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

gifts 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 ?

Ch. v. ver. 19:

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, ch. x. ver. 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." Ch. 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." Ch. 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." Ch. 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, ch. iii. ver. 35: "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand." "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 my Father who hath sent me." Ch. 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." Ch. 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." Ch. xiv. ver. 24: "The word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me." "Ver. 31: "As the Father gave me commandment, even so I do." And after his resurrection Jesus saith, Ch. xx. ver. 21: "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." Ver. 17: “І ascend unto my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." Matthew, ch. xii. ver. 18: from Esaiah, "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 spake 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, ch. vi. ver. 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 arguments, 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." 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 support of the above quoted 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 with thee before the world was." In this passage, with the same breath with which he prays for glory, he identifies the nature

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