me; and I knew that thou hearest me always; but because of the people which stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me." These expressions of thanks have reference to the success of his ministry. Attend to his petitions when oppressed by personal suffering.—“ Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. He went away the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me except I drink it, thy will be done. When they came to the place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit; and gave up the ghost." These are the expressions not of Supreme Divinity, but of a being dependent and actually suffering.

Christ not only prayed to God himself, but he also directed his disciples to offer their prayers, not to him, but to God through him as Mediator."Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. In that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will

give it you. At that day ye shall ask in my name; and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loveth you; because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came out from God." The prayer which our Lord taught his disciples is addressed to God the Father, in beaven.

5. Jesus Christ having accomplished the business of his mission on earth, ascended to God in heaven, and there received the reward of his obedience to the divine will, even unto death, the death of the cross.

Our Saviour himself declared to his followers that he should ascend to glory; and his inspired apostles inform us of his actual ascent to the glory and honour which were provided for him in heaven. Christ thus addresses God in our subsequent context-“I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." After his resurrection, he sent the following message to his immediate disciples-"Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God."

The apostle Paul gives us a description of the honours to which Christ is raised.-"Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and be. came obedient unto death, even the death of the cross: wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name, which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should

bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." The same apostle, speaking of the empire of Christ in heaven, says, "He must reign till he has put all things under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. 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."

What is the import of the passages from scripture now recited? It will be recollected, that with the exception of one or two texts from the writings of St. Paul, they are the very words of our Saviour himself. Do they not fully prove the truth of our respective propositions? Do they not warrant the reception of the following positions as Christian verities? There is one only God, and Jesus Christ was his messenger to men. Christ does not possess the essential attributes of Deity-Christ was sent into our world by God-wrought miracles in confirmation of his divine mission by power derived from God-delivered messages committed to him by the Father of Being-prayed God to succeed the moral purposes of his reign-attested his sincerity by the sacrifice of his life-arose from the grave and ascended to heaven, and was there crowned with honour and glory, and empowered to consummate the design of his office as Mediator. This great and merciful purpose being accomplished, he will resign his commission into the

hand of God who gave it, and God will be all in all. The declarations of Christ were made not in figures of speech, nor under allusions to the rites and ceremonies instituted by Moses, but in language the most simple and plain.

Was it the sole intention of any writer to show that a particular being was not God, could he use phraseology more fully expressive of his design than that which Jesus Christ here adopts respecting himself? Admit the supposition that Christ is very God, and what contradictions and absurdities follow! At the same time he was in heaven encir cled with all the attributes of Deity, and on earth in fashion as a man. the being sent; he was the being praying, and the being to whom the prayer was addressed; from himself he received a commission for a high purpose; to himself returned this commission, that he himself might be all in all; and, further, the mere idea of which must shock the moral sensibility of every mind, God, a spiritual being, who is not confined to place, nor excluded from it, ascended from earth to heaven clothed with a body.

He was the being sending, and

Trinitarians attempt to give a meaning to the above passages, in consistency with their peculiar doctrine. They represent Christ as a being of a complex character, existing with two minds or souls, a divine and an human, and that he is very God and very man. They refer all the declarations of our Saviour, which we have recited, to his human nature; and affirm that, by this method of interpretation, they preserve the harmony of scripture, and give a consistent sense to passages which speak of

Jesus as a being of derived existence, and acting under a divine commission, suffering and dying, and those which ascribe to him the perfections of Deity. But can two distinct minds, the one infinite and the other finite, constitute one being? This distinction between the human and divine nature of Christ is not found in the bible. No passages can be brought which expressly contain this doctrine, and the general phraseology of scripture is directly opposed to it. This distinction, we believe, was invented in the school of theologians, to avoid a conclusion otherwise unavoidable; and invented in an age when hypothesis, and not investigation and experiment, was made the basis of all science. But even this distinction, unfounded as I conceive it to be, will not, I apprehend, answer the purpose for which it is adduced. Let us test it by two of the texts above recited.-"My Father is greater than I." Christ was addressing his disciples on the highest design of his mediatorial office when he made this declaration, and therefore speaking of himself in his most exalted character; and, as a ground of confidence, he mentions the assistance which God would grant him in the prosecution of his sacred trust. Allow that the assertion has reference only to the human nature of Christ, and we make him solemnly declare that, as it respects power to re-animate the dead, and to raise his disciples to eternal life, God is greater than man. In men we should say this is trifling with sacred things. Take next the prediction of divine judgments-" Of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Fa