GENERAL REVIEW AND CONCLUSION.

It now remains for us to collect and combine the sum of the ENTIRE TESTIMONY borne by Jesus Christ himself, and by his authorized servants, on the great subject of our inquiry.

These inspired writings have given us the history. of a wondrous individual, the descendant of Adam and Abraham and David, the son of Mary; who came into the world as the subject of divine predictions, and was born in a manner contrary to the ordinary course of nature; also whose character, conduct, and fortunes, with their influence upon individuals and nations, through all succeeding time, have been the most remarkable that have ever engaged the attention of mankind.

Even by those who have been unwilling to yield obedience to his claims, he has been acknowledged to be the greatest moral phænomenon in the universe. Often have his enemies admired and praised him.

His mind exhibited, beyond all parallel among mortals, the union of wisdom and holiness, meekness and majesty. All his dispositions were the most lovely, yet unspeakably dignified. His whole moral character was the perfection of unalloyed and absolute goodness.

Yet his lot was poverty, contempt and sorrow. Besides all outward distress, he was evidently the victim of some mysterious and inward cause of grief, the most agonizing and overwhelming. For these his sufferings, there were reasons and motives founded in consummate wisdom and the most generous philanthropy; and there were designs, which reached forth to all the nations of mankind, to all times, and to the vast comprehension of the eternal world. The effects of his life and actions, and of his sufferings and death, can be measured only by the extent and the duration of the supreme good. Of that good, he is the Teacher, Possessor, and Giver. Having triumphed over all the malignity of sin, and all the power of pain, he holds the empire of life and happiness, and is the Author of eternal salvation to all that obey him.

With the declaration of these high powers and prerogatives, we find sometimes incidental intimations, and sometimes direct assertions, of his possessing another condition of being, superior to that in which he appeared among mortals; preexistent, heavenly, and divine.

In a sense peculiar to himself he is the Son of God. His nature is perfectly known only to God his Father. He existed, and acted, before his human birth, before his earthly ancestors, before the world was brought into existence.

Intrinsic worth and personal dignity are attributed to him, of such kind and in such a degree as are not compatible with the idea of dependent being. He possesses the peculiar excellencies of nature and attributes, which constitute the specific glory of the

Deity. He is One with the Father, in will, design, operation, and even existence.

To him are attributed those powers and properties which are most distinctive of the Divine Essence, and of which a created nature is necessarily incapable.. A knowledge of the counsels and will of the Deity, not derived by communication, but original, natural, and intuitive: the possession of necessary and essential life: the possession of the whole assemblage of holy beings as his own peculiar property: absolute and infinite power: supremacy over the created universe: providential dominion and agency: unsearchableness: omnipresence: omniscience: parity in power with the Almighty Father: unchangeableness: eternity: absolute perfection: existence as one Being with the Deity.

To him Divine Works are ascribed. The creation of all dependent nature generally; and particularly the being and well-being of the intelligent and holy universe: the bestowment of life and the resuscitation from the state of death: the pardoning of sin the recovery of men from the extreme of moral ruin the conferring of all spiritual and eternal blessings, the greatest possible enjoyment, the supreme good: the veiling of his own proper glory, and the resuming of its manifestation: the relinquishment and resumption of his human life: the bestowment of divine influences, both ordinary and miraculous: the working of miracles by a power declared to be coordinate with the power of the Father: the inspiration of the ancient prophets: the qualifications, mission, miracles, and success of the apostles: the diffusion, and efficacy of the gospel: the conduct of providential

dispensations, in all the events of the present state, with regard both to individuals and to the whole body of his church: the irresistible destruction of the antichristian power, that tremendous enemy to the welfare of the world: the protection and deliverance of his servants, in all their duties and difficulties, and from every possible danger and evil: a perfect intuition, control, and dominion over the minds and passions, the secret springs of action, and the whole conduct of men: the conservation of the universe: the resurrection of the whole human race: the adjudication of the eternal awards of happiness to the righteous, and just perdition to the ungodly: and the immediate communication of the pure and never-fading happiness of the heavenly state.

To him are attributed the honours which are compatible with the Divine Being necessarily and exclusively. Legislative authority through the whole domain of religion, virtue, and morality: to be the Object of the unmeasured exercise of the devotional affections, of the most reverential homage, of religious obedience, and of proper religious worship: and the same dignity is ascribed to his name, as in the usual style of Scripture to that of the Infinite Jehovah.

He is not only designated by appellations which are peculiar to himself, and which convey the most exalted ideas of dignity; such as, Son of God in an exclusive sense, Image of God, Brightness of the divine glory, Express Image of the divine essence, and Sovereign of the whole creation: but he is also denominated by those names and titles which are the most distinctive of the Divine Nature itself. He is called, the MOST HIGH: the LORD, in the absolute and preeminent

style: God: the LORD GOD: the LORD and GoD: the True God: the only SOVEREIGN and LORD: our GOD and SAVIOUR: the Great GoD and our SAVIOUR: the God who is over all, blessed for ever.

Interspersed with these declarations, descriptions perpetually occur of a peculiar divine constitution, in which, by the gracious will and commission of the Father, Christ is invested with a spiritual, universal, and sovereign dominion; which, while given to him in his delegated and assumed capacity of Mediator, implies divine qualities for the exercise of its functions.

Thus we find an assemblage of characters of dependence and subordination, and other characters which, by no fair use of language, can be understood as implying less than the independency, supremacy, and infinity of the One All-Perfect Nature.

This astonishing attribution of opposite qualities to the Founder and Head of the Christian faith, is not made in a few expressions, rarely occurring and of dubious meaning: but it meets us with the most impressive constancy, and in every variety of form and phrase, whether the plain and positive affirmation, or the indirect, incidental, circumstantial, and accumulative mention. It is but disadvantageously apprehended by the detaching and separately discussing of particular passages, of which a treatise like the present must necessarily consist. It requires to be studied by the most attentive and devout perusal of large and complete portions of the New Testament, taken in continuity. It is the inseparable spirit which breathes in every part. Like the azure of the sky, it cannot be presented alone; but it is diffused through