tacy with the benefits resulting from the mediation of Christ." For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." The, dispensation which preceded the gospel was founded by a man; and the desponding language of the apostles of Jesus, at his crucifixion, make it apparent that, during his life, they supposed him to have been a mere man; and after his resurrection they no where express the sur. prise, which they must have felt, on the discovery of the existence and rank which their Lord held in heaven before his advent into our world. Peter, in the first sermon he preached, and which was delivered at the moment of the descent of the Holy Ghost, speaks in the following manner of his divine Master-"Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus, a man approved of God among you by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you." St. Paul, when addressing the philosophers of Athens respecting God, the doctrine of repentance, the resurrection, and the final judgment, adopts the following language-"God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead." Our view thus far favours the Humanitarian scheme. I candidly acknowledge that many texts found in the New Testament are difficult to be reconciled with any other doctrine; and I as freely express an opinion, that, by this doctrine, no revealed truth is lessened in its author

ity, no law is weakened in its force, nor is any promise diminished in its influence. Our Christian faith and hope rest not on the metaphysical character of our Saviour, but on the evidence he produced of a divine commission to state the conditions of acceptance with God, and to give an assurance of eternal life to all who obey him. But the sacred writers are ever consistent with themselves, and consistent with each other. We may not from a given number of texts form an hypothesis, and force all other parts of scripture to support it. This would be to impose a meaning on the inspired writers, and not to take a meaning from them. There are many passages of the New Testament which it would be very difficult for me, in consistency with the established rules of language, to accommodate to the Humanitarian scheme; and can we, without doing violence to the general representation of the evangelists and apostles, respecting the character and office, the agency and death, the exaltation and government of Christ, make these comport with the supposition that Christ was a mere man?

Arians hold that Jesus Christ, a created being, existed in heaven before his appearance on earth; that in an appropriate sense he is the Son of God, the brightness of his Father's glory and the express image of his person; that God appointed him to be the Mediator of a covenant of grace and mercy; that in conformity to this appointment, Christ commenced his ministry with men; established the conditions of pardon and salvation; taught the truths pertaining to life eternal;

set an example of obedience to all his disciples; yielded himself to the death of the cross; arose from the dead, and, ascending to heaven, was invested with power to superintend the moral concerns of our world; and, finally, to raise the human race from the grave, and confer and inflict on them the retributions of a righteous judgment.

The difference between a being of underived existence, and one whose existence is derived, is infinite. This distinction should ever be made between God and his Son, Christ our Saviour.Though Arians admit that Jesus Christ is exalted in rank, and possessed of power to carry into effect the high purposes above mentioned; yet they hold that this exalted existence was derived from God; that the power to execute the commission of Mediator is derived power; and that the merciful and benevolent design accomplished by the ministry of the Saviour had its origin in the goodness of the one living and true God. On God, therefore, our minds should rest as the original author of all blessings, and as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The character and station of Christ I shall now endeavour to discuss under the following propositions.

1. The proof from scripture, that our Saviour existed in heaven before his appearance on earth.

2. The proof from scripture, that the appearance of our Saviour on earth was an act of humiliation and debasement.

3. The power and majesty which the scriptures attribute to Christ, in carrying into execution the

purposes of divine mercy, in the salvation of man, are inconsistent with the supposition of his mere humanity.

1. The proof from Scripture, that our Saviour existed in heaven before his appearance on earth.

The apostle Paul, in the first chapter of his epistle to the Colossians, speaks of our Saviour in the following language-"Who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature." The Greek word here translated, first born of every creature, in its original sense is, I believe, applied to the first born child of a family. If the apostle uses it in this sense, it must mean, that of all created beings Jesus Christ was the first. St. John's description of the character of Christ comports with this meaning-"The beginning of the creation of God." An apostle also declares, that "He is before all things." Hear the language of our Saviour himself on the subject before us, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. No man ascendeth up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man who was in heaven. What if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before?" Would not a discerning, unbiassed mind understand these passages, and others like them, as expressing the existence of our Saviour in heaven, before he appeared on earth, in fashion as a man? Is not this their obvious meaning? Take one more passage from our Saviour himself, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me, with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was."

This is a solemn act of devotion in prayer, in which we least expect to find figurative language. Jesus had glorified the name of God on earth, and had finished the work given him to do; and in a devout address to Deity, he prays that God would re-admit him to that glory which he possessed in the divine presence before the creation of the world. Will the several passages I have recited, and the many texts which speak of Christ as coming from God, and returning to God; descending from heaven, and again ascending to the place from whence he came, bear without violence the Humanitarian construction? But for the present, I am disposed to admit them in their full force. Let it then be granted, that, the first born of every creature, the first creation of God, he was before all things, and all similar descriptions of the character ter of Christ mean only that Jesus Christ is preeminent among all the agents whom God has commissioned to be his instruments in the execution of the divine purposes of grace and mercy. Admit that the declaration, "Before Abraham was, I am," was the answer of Jesus to a captious question of the Jews, who refused to be instructed by him, and perverted all his observations. Allow that Jesus did not say that he had seen Abraham, but that the mind of Abraham was opened to a view of the blessings of the reign of Messiah. Admit that ascending to heaven, as no man hath ascended to heaven but the Son of Man, means that no one but the Son had been, as he was, made acquainted with the counsels of God; and that in the language of scripture, what God determines to bring to