It is cheerfully admitted that high honour and worship are due to Christ, as Mediator between God and men. But where does he himself ever claim to be worshipped as the Father? Or where have we in scripture the fact of his ever having been worshipped as the supreme God? 'No where. On the contrary, he tells us, that "the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth." When his disciples sought his instructions in the duty of prayer, he directed them to address their petitions to the same Father in heaven, to whom he addressed his own. And in speaking even of the period of his highest exaltation, he said to them, "In that day ye shall ask me nothing. Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you.”— These instructions of Christ seem to make it plain, that the worship which is due to him is mediatorial worship. And this worship, I apprehend, we render to our Lord Jesus Christ, when, conformably to his own instructions, we offer up our prayers to the Father Almighty, in the name, and through the mediation of his "beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased;" and expect an answer of peace to our humble petitions, for his sake.

The very idea of his mediation, and of his intercession, should prevent our regarding the glorious being who performs these high offices, as the ultimate object of our adoration. When he

requires it of all men to "honour the Son, as they honour the Father who sent him," it is not on the ground of any claim to be God, equal with the Father; but on ground that cannot sustain any such claim of equality-the ground that "all judgment had been committed to him by the Father."

When Stephen, at his death, was favoured by the vision of the glory of Christ, he addressed him not as the supreme God, but as the "Son of man, sitting on the right hand of God."Whilst it is right that "in the name of Jesus every knee should bow" before the throne, it is equally necessary that "every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

This distinction is clearly and uniformly preserved, even in the highest ascriptions of honour and glory to the Redeemer, of which the scriptures give us any account. Thus it is that the redeemed in heaven offer him their homage: "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever." And the whole of the heavenly homage is represented as offered to him, not in the character of the supreme God, but as distinguished from the supreme God, in the character of the "Lamb that was slain." "They sung a new song, say

ing, thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood. And I heard ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever."

I have now replied to all those arguments drawn from scripture, which appear of any weight in support of the Athanasian doctrine. A few others might be noticed; but they are of small comparative importance; and I shall here, in a very few words, sum up the entire argument, as it regards the person and dignity of the Son of God.

Whilst the testimony of holy scripture evidently will not permit us to identify him with the Father Almighty, it at the same time clearly teacheth us to regard him as a being next in power and glory to the supreme God-a being who had glory with the Father before the world was ;" and who has been employed as the highly honoured agent of God in the creation

and government of the world—who was sent by God, and yet voluntarily came into the world, in the fulness of time, to redeem our fallen race, by offering himself a propitiation for the sins of the whole world;-and who, because he thus humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross, is now highly exalted by the right of God; has obtained a name above every name; is ordained to be judge of the quick and the dead; is now honoured and worshipped as the great Mediator between God and men; and will be associated with the Father of all in the praises of eternity. "Salvation to our God, which sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever. Amen."

I have now, pursuant to my original proposal, gone through what appeared to me necessary in laying before you the scripture doctrine of the divinity of the Son of God, our ever blessed Saviour-guarding this important subject as carefully as I could from the deficiencies of Socinianism, on the one side, and from the redundancies of the Athanasian doctrine, on the other. Compared with the doctrine of the New Testament, they both appear to me erroneous extremes. The one is an error of defect; the other is an error of excess. The scripture doctrine seems to lie between. And though it may much glory, rather

appear safer to attribute too

than too little, to our exalted Redeemer, the safest and best course is, to keep as near to the plain and obvious teaching of scripture as we can I say the plain teaching of scripture-for, however high and difficult the subject we have been treating of may be, what the scriptures have taught us of it seems sufficiently plain. There are points connected therewith, which we may be curious to know, which yet are withheld from us. For example, the precise dignity of the nature of Christ has not been clearly revealed; whilst the general scripture declarations, which raise him far above the nature of man, and yet do not elevate him to a perfect equality with the supreme God, seem intelligible to the commonest capacity.

I know it is common to say, that the doctrine of Trinity-the doctrine of three persons in the Godhead is a mystery, and therefore unfit for examination. Doubtless there are some doctrines of Christianity altogether above our comprehension; and if the doctrine before us were taught in scripture, we should be ready to believe it, however mysterious. For a doctrine may be above our reason, and yet perfectly true; and if it be not against reason, there is nothing to hinder our credence, on the ascertained authority of revelation. But a doctrine that is not certainly founded on scripture, is not to be received on human testimony, merely because it