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out the Father. John xvi. 28. My Father is greater

Ye are Chrift's and Christ
The head of Chrift is God.

than I. 1 Cor. iii. 23. is God's. I Cor. xi. 3. John v. 19. Verily, verily, I fay unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself. John xiv. 10. The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, and the Father that dwelleth in me he doth the works. Matt. xxviii. 18. All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. 2 Pet. i. 17. He received from God the Father honour and glory.

Rev. i. 1. The revelation of Jefus Chrift, which God gave unto him.

It is now alledged that Chrift did not mean that he was inferior to the Father with respect to his divine nature, but only with refpect to his human nature. But if fuch liberties be taken in explaining a perfon's meaning, language has no ufe whatever. On the fame principles, it might be afferted that Chrift never died, or that he never rofe from the dead, fecretly meaning his divine nature only. There is no kind of impofition but what might be authorized by fuch an abuse of language as this.

5. Some things were with-held from Chrift by his Father. Mark xiii. 32. But of that day, and that hour, knoweth no man; no not the angels that are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Matt. xx. 23. To fit on my right-hand and on my left, is not mine to give; bu it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.

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6. As all the dominion that Chrift has was derived from the Father, fo it is fubordinate to that of the Father. I Cor. xv. 24, &c. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule, and all authority, and power. For he muft 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 faith that all things are put under him, it is manifeft that he is excepted who did put all things under him. And when all things fhall be fubdued to him, then shall the Son alfo himself be fubject unto him who put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

7. Chrift always prayed to the Father, and with as much humility and refignation, as any man, or the moft dependent being in the universe, could poffibly do. Our Lord's whole history is a proof of this; but especially the scene of his agony in the garden, Matt. xxvi. 37, &c. And he began to be forry and very heavy. Then faith he unto them, My foul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death, tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed, Jaying, O my Father, if it be poffible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.

8. Chrift is not only stiled a man even after his resurrection, but the reasoning of the apostles, in fome of the paffages where he is fpoken of, requires

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that he should be confidered as a man with refpect to his nature, and not in name only, as their reasoning has no force but upon that supposition. Acts i. 22. Jefus of Nazareth, a man approved of by God, by miracles and wonders and figns, which God did by him in the midst of you. Heb. ii. 17. Wherefore it behoved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren. Heb. ii. 10. It became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many fons unto glory, to make the captain of their fal vation perfect through fufferings. 1 Cor. xv. 21. For fince by man came death, by man came also the refurrection from the dead: for as in Adam all die, even fo in Chrift fhall all be made alive.

9. Whatever exaltation Chrift now enjoys it is the gift of his Father, and the reward of his obedience unto death. Phil. ii. 8, 9. And being in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God alfo bath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name. Heb. ii. 9, But we fee Jefus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the fuffering of death, crowned with glory and honour. Heb. xii. 2. Looking unto Jefus, the author and finifher of our faith; who for the joy which was fet before him endured the cross, defpifing the shame and is fitten down at the right-hand of the throne of God. Let it also be confidered, that no use whatever is made of the doctrine of the incarnation of the maker

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maker of the world, in all the New Teftament. We are neither informed why fo extraordinary a measure was neceffary for the falvation of men, nor that it was neceffary. All that can be pretended is, that it is alluded to in certain expreffions. But certainly it might have been expected that a measure of this magnitude fhould have been expressly declared, if not clearly explained; that mankind might have no doubt what great things had been done for them; and that they might respect their great deliverer, as his nature, and his proper rank in the creation required.

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The author of the epiftle to the Hebrews evidently confidered Christ as a being of a different rank from that of angels; and the reafon why he fays that he ught to be fo, is, that he might have a feeling of our infirmities. But, certainly, we shall be more eafily fatisfied that any perfon really felt as a man, if he was truly a man, and nothing more than a man; than if he was a fuperior being (and especially a being fo far fuperior to us as the maker of the world must have been) degraded to the condition of a man; because, if he had any recollection of his former ftate, the idea of that must have borne him up under his difficulties and fufferings, in fuch a manner as no mere man could have been fupported and it is fuppofed by the arians that Chrift had a knowledge of his prior ftate, for they suppose him to have referred to it in his prayer to the Father

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for the glory which he had with him before the world was; and yet this is hardly confiftent with the account that Luke gives of his increasing in wisdom.

No perfon, I think, can, with an unprejudiced mind, attend to thefe confiderations, and the texts of fcripture above recited (which are perfectly agreeable to the tenor of the whole) and imagine that it was the intention of the facred writers to represent Christ either as the fupreme God, or as the maker of the world under God.

There is another hypothefis, of fome modern arians, which reprefents Chrift as having preexifted, but not as having been the creator or governor of the world, or the medium of all the difpenfations of God to mankind. But those texts of fcripture which feem to be moft exprefs in favour of Chrift's pre-existence do likewife, by the fame mode of interpretation, reprefent him as the maker of the world; fo that if the favourers of this hypothefis can fuppofe the language of thefe texts to be figurative, they may more easily suppose the other to be figurative alfo; and that whatever obfcurity there may be in them, they were not intended to refer to any pre-existence at all.

The paffages of fcripture which are supposed to speak of Christ as the maker of the world are the following, viz. John i. 3. Eph. iii. 9. Col. i. 15, Heb. i. 1. &c. Thefe, I will venture to fay, are the texts that most strongly favour the notion of Chrift's pre-existence,

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