nature and actions be to him! He can take but a small part of me with his eye at once; and it would be the work of his life to make the tour of my arm; I can eat up his world, immense as it seems to him, at a few meals: he, poor reptile! cannot tell, but there may be a thousand distinct beings, or persons, such as mites can conceive, in so great a being. By this comparison I find myself vastly capacious and comprehensive; and begin to swell still bigger with pride and high thoughts; but the moment I lift up my mind to God, between whom and me there is an infinite distance; then I myself become a mite, or something infinitely less; I shrink almost into nothing. I can follow him but one or two steps in his lowest and plainest works, till all becomes mystery, and matter of amazement, to me. How, then, shall I comprehend himself? How shall I understand his nature; or account for his actions? In these, he plans for a boundless scheme of things; whereas I can see but an inch before me. In that he contains what is infinitely more inconceivable, than all the wonders of his creation, put together; and I am plunged in astonishment and blindness, when I attempt to stretch my wretched inch of line along the Immensity of his Nature. Were my body so large, that I could sweep all the fixed stars, visible from this world in a clear night, and grasp them in the hollow of my hand; and were my soul capacious in proportion to so vast a body; I should, notwithstanding, be infinitely too narrowminded to conceive his wisdom, when he forms a fly: and how then should I think of conceiving of Himself? No; this is the highest of all impossibilities. His very lowest work checks and represses my vain contemplations; and holds them down at an infinite distance from him. When we think of God in this light, we can easily conceive it possible, that there may be a Trinity of Persons in his nature."

II. It is asserted by Unitarians that the doctrine of the Trinity is Anti-scriptural.

It has undoubtedly been observed, that in this discourse I have considered objections against the Deity of Christ, and the Trinity, as being commensurate. The reason is, that, so far as my knowledge extends, those, who deny one of these doctrines, deny also the other. Although it is not strictly true, therefore, that every objection against the Trinity must of course be an objection against the Deity of Christ; yet, as this is the ultimate aim of almost al such objections, actually made; I have not thought any distinction concerning them necessary in this discourse.

As this objection is designed to be extensive, and is capable of being indefinitely diversified; it will not be possible for me to take notice of all the forms, in which it may appear. It will be my intention, however, to dwell upon those particular applications of it, on which the authors of the objection seem to have laid the great

est stress.

The general import of this objection, is, that Christ is exhibited

in the Scriptures, as inferior to the Father. All the alleged exhibitions of this nature, may be advantageously ranged under two heads.

Those made by himself; and,

Those made by the Prophets and Apostles.

An answer to the principal of these will, it is believed, be an answer to the rest.

1st. Christ, as the Unitarians assert, exhibits himself as inferior to the Father, and therefore declares in unequivocal language, that He is not truly God.

Particularly, 1st. He declares, that he is not Omnipotent.

John v. 19, Then Jesus answered, and said unto them, Verily, Verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself. And again, in the 30th verse, I can of mine own-self do nothing. And again, John viii. 28, Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know, that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

It will not I presume, be pretended, that these words, in either of the passages, are used in the strict and absolute sense. That Christ would literally do nothing of himself will not be asserted, in the sense, that he had no power at all, and could not act to any purpose whatever. Whoever Christ was, he doubtless possessed some degree of inherent power, or power which was his own; and by it could do, at least some such things, as are done by men generally. What, then, is intended? Undoubtedly, either, that Christ could do nothing compared with what the Father can do; or that Christ could do nothing, except what was directed by the Father, according to the Commission, given to him by the Father, to act in the Mediatorial character.

That the latter is the true interpretation is, in my view, unanswerably evident from the following considerations:

1. The subject of a comparison between the power of Christ and that of the Father, is not even alluded to in any preceding part of the Chapter, either by himself, or by the Jews.

The only debate between Christ and the Jews, was concerning the rectitude, or lawfulness, of his conduct. As the Jews were about to kill him for having acted unlawfully, both in healing a man on the Sabbath-day, and in saying, that God was his Father; it is incredible, (because it is imputing to him a gross absurdity) that Christ should here, instead of replying to the accusation of the Jews, and justifying his conduct as lawful, enter on a comparison between his ability, and that of the Father. This would have been a total desertion of the important subject in controversy; and could not have been of the least use, either for the purpose. of justifying himself, or of repressing the violence of the Jews. On the contrary, it would have been the assumption of a subject totally foreign; totally unconnected with the case in hand; withou

any thing to lead to it; incapable of being understood by those, to whom it was addressed, and a species of conduct which, so far as I can see, would have been irreconcileable with common sense. 2dly. This interpretation is refuted, so far as the objection is concerned, by the discourse, of which it is a part.

The whole drift of this discourse is to show the extent of that authority, which Christ possessed, as the Mediator. In displaying this authority, He also displays, necessarily, the power which he possesses. In Chapter v. 19, from which the first of the objected declarations is taken, is this remarkable assertion: What things soever He, that is, the Father, doeth; these, also, doeth the Son likewise. It is presumed, that not even a Unitarian will imagine, that in a verse, in which this declaration is contained, Christ could intend, by any phraseology whatever, to exhibit a limitation of his own power.

With this complete refutation of the meaning, now in question, in our hands, it can scarce be necessary to observe, that, in many subsequent parts of this discourse of Christ, it is also overthrown in the same complete manner.

This interpretation being thus shown to be false; the other, the only remaining one, might be fairly assumed as the true interpretation. At the same time, it may be easily evinced to be the true one, by other considerations.

1st. It is perfectly applicable to the case specified.

If

That the proposition, containing it, expresses what is true, viz. that Christ, as the Mediator, could do nothing of himself; that is, that while acting under a commission from his Father, he could do nothing of his own authority, but must do all things by the authority, and agreeably to the commission, which he had received; will, I suppose, be admitted by every man. But this proposition is not more clearly true, than it is applicable to the case in hand. Christ in those things, of which he was accused by the Jews, acted by the authority, and agreeably to the commission, which he had received from the Father; then, plainly, that which he did was right. Of course the objections, and the animosities of the Jews, were without cause, and wholly reprehensible. In this sense, the answer of Christ was perfectly pertinent, and the only valid answer, which could be given.

2dly. That this is the true meaning is evident from John viii. 28, (the last of the passages quoted above.) Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself; but, as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. In this passage Christ informs the Jews, that, after they had lifted him up, on the cross, they should' know, that he was the MESSIAH; and that he did nothing of himself: not that he did nothing by his own power: but nothing by his own authority. The former having nothing to do with the subject: the latter being perfectly applicable to it

Therefore he adds, As my Father hath taught me, or, as we say in modern English, According to the Instructions which I have received from my Father, I speak these things. It will hardly be questioned, that Christ here speaks of his authority only, and not at all of his power.

3dly. We find the same language, used in the same manner, in various other passages of Scripture. In Gen. xix. 22, Christ himself, acting in the same Mediatorial character, says to Lot, beseeching him to permit himself and his family to escape to Zoar; Haste thee; escape thither; for I cannot do any thing, till thou be come thither. It will not be pretended, that so far as his power only was concerned, Christ could not as easily have begun the work of destroying the cities of the plain, before Lot had escaped, as afterward. But as it was a part of the divine determination to preserve Lot and his family; so the authority of Christ did not in this case extend to any thing, nor permit him to do any thing, which involved the destruction of Lot.

Numbers xxii. 18, Balaam says, If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more. This declaration of Balaam, I consider as expressing fully and completely the very thing, which, in the objected passages, Christ expressed elliptically. And again chapter xxiv. 12, 13, And Balaam said unto Balak, Spake I not also to thy messengers, which thou sentest unto me, saying, If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord, to do either good or bad, of mine own mind; but what the Lord saith, that will I speak?

I shall only add to these observations the obvious one; that persons, acting under a commission, now use similar language, in similar circumstances.

Should any one question, whether Christ acted under a commission; He himself has answered the question in his intercessory prayers, John xvii. 4: I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work, which thou gavest me to do.

From these observations, it is, if I am not deceived, clear, that the declarations of Christ, here objected to, do not in any sense refer to his power; 'but only to his authority as Mediator; and are therefore utterly irrelevant to the purpose, for which they are alleged.

2dly. The Unitarians object, that Christ exhibits himself, as inferior to the Father in knowledge.

The passage quoted to prove this assertion is, especially, Mark xiii. 32: But of that day, and that hour, knoweth no man, no, not the Angels which are in Heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Here, it is said, Christ confesses himself to be ignorant of the day and hour specified.

On this objection I observe,

1st. That the subject, of which Christ is here declared to be

igno

rant, is a subject, which demanded no greater extent of knowledge, or rather, which demanded knowledge in a less extent, than many subjects, disclosed by him, in the same prophecy. The subject is the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. In this very prophecy, as well as in various others, he had uttered many things, which appear to demand as great a measure of prescience, as this can be supposed to have done. Such were the arising of false Prophets; the preaching of the Gospel through the world; the earthquakes, famines, and pestilences; the fearful sights, and great signs, which should precede the destruction of Jerusalem; the hatred and treachery of parents and others to his Disciples, and the protraction of the ruinous state of Jerusalem until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled. The foreknowledge of the particular period of its destruction was, certainly, no very material addition to the foreknowledge of these things; and would imply no very material enlargement of the mind, by which they were foreknown. Several of the Prophets, it is to be remembered, were furnished with a foreknowledge of dates, not differing from this in their importance: thus Isaiah foreknew the date of the destruction of Ephraim; Jeremiah, that of the Babylonish captivity; and Daniel, that of the Death of Christ; and no reason can be imagined why the foreknowledge of this particular date should be withholden from Christ, even, if we admit, that He was a mere man; when so many other things, relating to the same event, of so much more importance, were revealed to him.

There is, therefore, no small reason to believe, that the Greek word, ods, has here the signification of yvwgw, according to the comment of Dr. Macknight; and denotes, not to know; but, to cause to know; a signification, which it sometimes has, as he has sufficiently shown: particularly in 1 Cor. ii. 2, For I determined to know nothing among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified: that is, I determined TO MAKE KNOWN nothing among you, &c. If this sense of the word be admitted, the meaning of the passage will be, of that day no one causeth men to know, but the Father: that is, when, in his providence, He shall bring the event to pass. In other words; the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, shall not be disclosed by prophecy; but shall be made known only by the providence of God, bringing it to pass. I need not say that was literally the fact.

2dly. Christ himself informs us, that no one knows the Son but the Father, and that no one knows the Father, but the Son, and he, to whomsoever the Son shall reveal him.*

In this declaration Christ asserts, that he possesses an exclusive knowledge of the Father, in which no being whatever shares with him a knowledge, totally distinct from that, which is acquired by revelation; and therefore immediate, and underived.

* Matthew xi. 27.