and important offices with which God has invested his BELOVED Son.

It has sometimes been the case in earthly governments, that a king's son, who was well beloved of the father, has been admitted, during the father's life, to a joint participation in the government, and invested by the father with kingly authority. Such was the ease with Solomon, the son of David. Solomon derived his authority from David, and by the pleasure of David he was crowned king; but Solomon was as truly the king of Israel as though he had possessed the same authority by self-existence.

If it be true, that God has an own and only Son, in whom he is well pleased, it would be natural to expect that he would delight to honor him in the highest possible manner.

Moreover, any wise and benevolent king, being about to invest his son with kingly authority, would, were it in his power, endue his son with every qualification or attribute which would be requisite to the most perfect and honorable execution of the office which he was to sustain. And such we may suppose would be the pleasure of God respecting his Son. Nor may we suppose any insufficiency in God, in respect to communicating of his own infinite fulness to the Son, in whom he is ever well pleased.

Let us now examine the sacred oracles, to see whether these reasonable expectations are justified by revealed facts.

In respect to communicated fulness or sufficiency, we have the following declarations: "He whom God hath sent, speaketh the words God; for God giveth not the SPIRIT by measure unto him." John iii. 34.

"For it pleased the Father, that in him all fulness should dwell." Col. i. 19.

"In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Col. ii. 9.

Such then has been the pleasure of God in respect to enduing his Son with Divine sufficiency. If by a portion or measure of the Divine Spirit, the apostles · were instantaneously endued to speak a number of languages which they had never learned, what may not the Son of God be able to do, who has the Spirit without measure? And if it hath pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell in his Son, we can with no more propriety set bounds to the sufficiency of Christ, than to the fullness of the Godhead.

Thus we find one of the reasonable expectations justified by plain and positive declarations of Scrip

ture.

We have next to show, that God has manifested a disposition to honor his Son in the highest possible

manner.

As the first token of this disposition in God, we may notice that God constituted his Son the Creator of the world. In this great and astonishing work, a surprizing display was made of the power, the wisdom, and the goodness of God. But in this work, it appears that the Son was honored as the constituted Creator; for we are expressly told, that God "created all things BY JESUS CHRIST." Eph. iii. 9.

The work of creation is sometimes expressly attributed to God, and sometimes as expressly attributed to the Word or Son of God: and from these representations many have argued that the Son and God are the same Being. But it is thought that this conclusion has been too hastily adopted. For if GoD

created all things BY JESUS CHRIST, the work of ereation may, with great propriety, be attributed to either the Father or the Son; and yet they may be two distinct intelligent Beings. God spake by the prophets; and what the prophets said, may, with propriety, be attributed to either God or the prophets; but it will not hence follow that God and the prophets are but one and the same intelligent Being. As the prophets were constituted mediums and agents in foretelling events, so Christ was the constituted Creator of all things in heaven and earth.

In the next place, we may observe, that the Son was constituted the angel of God's presence, or the medium by which God appeared or manifested himself to the ancient patriarchs.

We have many accounts of God's appearing to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, and to Moses; and seeing these visible manifestations, is several times represented as seeing God. Yet the matter is so explained in the New Testament, as to give us reason to suppose that these visible manifestations of God's presence were made in the Person of the Son of God. For it is said, "No man hath seen God at any time; the ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him," or manifested him. The Son, in those appearances, was usually denominated the angel of the Lord.* And when this angel was employed by God, as the conductor and guardian of the people of Israel in their journey from Egypt to Canaan, God gave this solemn caution to the people, "Beware of him, and obey his voice; provoke him not: for he will

* I feel less confident that Christ was the angel of God than I did when I wrote these Letters. But I have not scen satisfactory reasons for relinquishing the sentiment. March, 1812.

not pardon your transgression; for MY NAME is in him." By name here may be understood, dignity, fulness, and authority. And as God thus dwelt in the Son, and manifested his dignity, fulness, and authority, through the Son, Isaiah denominates the Son the Angel of God's presence-"And the angel of his presence saved them." Accordingly, those visible manifestations are sometimes represented as the appearance of God, and sometimes as the appearance of the angel of the Lord, or the angel of God: And what was spoken on those occasions is sometimes represented as spoken by God, and sometimes as spoken by the angel; just as the work of creation is sometimes attributed to God, and sometimes to the Son of God. And as God manifested himself thus in the person of his Son, so the patriarchs considered God as present in those visible manifestations.

I am not, sir, alone, nor an original, in considering the Son of God as the Medium of Divine manifestations. Athanasian writers have done the same. But is it not a manifest impropriety to consider a Being as the Medium of his own manifestations? If Christ be truly the Son of God, he may be truly the MEDIUM through which God manifests himself; and may thus be in the "form of God." But if he be personally the self-existent God, he can, with no propriety, be considered as the MEDIUM of Divine manifestations.

Although God had, in various ways, manifested his love to his Son prior to the incarnation, yet such was his love to mankind, and so important was our salvation in the view of God, that he was disposed to give his ONLY BEGOTTEN SON as a sacrifice for our redemption. And although the Son of God had been highly honored and exalted by his Father, and had often appeared in

the "form of God" to transact affairs of high importance, yet such was the benevolence and condescension of this Son, that he freely concurred in the Father's proposal for the redemption of man, and said, “Lo, I come to do thy will, O God." But to accomplish this great purpose, the Son must lay aside the form of God, and take on himself the form of a servant-he must become incarnate, be united to a human body, and be the "Son of David according to the flesh." Thus he who was rich, for our sakes became poor, that we, through his poverty, might be made rich. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death.

But such voluntary and deep abasement in the Son, was not to pass unnoticed nor unrewarded by the Father. And we have the most plain and unequivocal testimony, that God did honor his Son by constituting him a PRINCE and a SAVIOR, the LORD OF ALL, and the SUPREME JUDGE of the quick and the dead.

That it is as the fruit of the Father's love to the Son, and on the ground of a constituted character, that Christ bears those and other Divine names and titles, I shall endeavor clearly to prove.

John the Baptist, in his testimony concerning the Son, not only said, "God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him;" but added, "the Father loveth the Son, and hath GIVEN all things into his hand.”John iii. 35.

When the Son was about to leave his disciples and ascend into heaven, he proclaimed in their ears, "All power is GIVEN unto me in heaven and earth.”—Matt. xxviii. 18.

Peter, in his impressive sermon on the day of Pentecost, having stated many things from the scriptures,