condemnation. This is the highest motive that can be offered us to influence our conduct. He who believes these great truths, and lives according to them, is saved, exercises a saving faith in Christ; whatever he may think of his original nature, "he is passed from death unto life."

LECTURE XIII.

ORIGIN OF THE TRINITY.

I. CORINTHIANS, XV. 24, 25, 26.

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 MUST REIGN TILL HE HATH PUT ALL ENEMIES UNDER HIS FEET. THE LAST,ENEMY THAT SHALL BE DESTROY. ED IS DEATH.

In the course of lectures which I have given you, in which I have quoted and explained most of the texts in the Bible which relate to the subject, I trust I have made it manifest that the doctrine of the Trinity is not taught in the Scriptures; that God is one in every sense; one person, one agent, one essence; that Christ is one, one person, one nature, derived and subordinate, and deriving all that he was, from God. This is the conviction, I trust, I have produced or strengthened in the minds of those who have heard me. Still, I am aware, that there is a feeling in many minds that all is not explained. There is a magnificence of language used in the New Testament, when speaking of Christ, which to them does not seem appropriate to Jesus of Nazareth, in any imaginable state of glorification. It may be thought, that, after giving the explanations I have

given, I am bound to account for this magnificence of language. Then there is the fact, that the doctrine of the Trinity is actually in the world, and has been, in various forms, since the fourth century after Christ. How could it have become an article of faith, if it were not the original doctrine of the Church, the primitive teaching of the Apostles? I shall endeavor, so far as the limits of a single lecture will permit me, to answer these two inquiries.

In the first place, Why is Christ represented as so important a personage in the history of the world? Why is he represented as sustaining so near a relation to God? Why is he called the Son of God? Why is he represented as being "exalted to the right hand of God," as having power and authority, as ruling the world, as raising the dead, as judging mankind, as rewarding the righteous, and punishing the wicked? Why do the Apostles represent him as an actual agent in the planting and propagation of his religion? Why do they associate him with God in their salutations to Christians : "Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ?" In answering these questions, I shall give you a key for the explanation of all the Messianic language of the New Testament.

In the first place, with respect to the great importance attached to the advent of Christ. All who believe in divine revelation at all, believe that the Christian dispensation was a subject of a divine purpose from the very beginning of time; that the patriarchal dispensation was preparatory to the Mosaic, and the Mosaic to the Christian. The Christian was to complete the series,

because it was perfect, and calculated to be a universal religion. The interest, then, of the ages both before and after Christ, centered in him. To him preceding ages looked forward, and to him succeeding ages have looked back. Christ is represented, therefore, as exciting as deep an interest in the divine mind, as he did in the regards of men. He is spoken of as being revealed, as if as it were that the Almighty had him already created to send into the world, when the time should come. Hence the language of Peter, concerning him : "Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you." So Christians are said to have been "chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world." Paul, in his second Epistle to Timothy, speaks of the same subject in the same way : "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Jesus Christ before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel." In the same sense Jesus is to be supposed to have spoken when he said: "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." In still stronger language, he said on another occasion: "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad." "Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am he." All these

expressions, I believe, are intended to express the same idea, the plan of Providence, adopted from the beginning of the world, and the important part that Jesus, as the Messiah, was to act in it. The Jews took the greatest pride in their descent from Abraham. Jesus means to let them know that he was a much more important person in the scheme of Providence, than their great progenitor; that he had a place in the divine counsels before Abraham, and Abraham looked forward to him as his superior.

But why should Jesus, as the Messiah, be called "the Son of God," and made so near the Deity in power and dignity, be said "to be exalted to his right hand,” &c. ? All this phraseology is derived from the peculiar form of Mosaic ceremony, and the constitution of the Jewish Commonwealth. It was a Theocracy, that is, a form of government which had God for its head. God was its Lawgiver and King, and in a manner, by his prophets, administered the government during the whole series, of their legitimate kings, and indeed during their national independence. When they at length insisted on having a king, he was not chosen by the people, but by God. He was not crowned by the people, but he was anointed by God, through the prophet Samuel, and therefore was called the Lord's anointed. Now the literal meaning of Messiah, is Anointed. So, in the original, both Saul and David are called Jehovah's Messiah. When Samuel went into the family of Jesse, to anoint a king among his sons, he caused Jesse's sons to pass before him; and when he saw Eliab, the first-born, he said, "Surely the Lord's Messiah is before him."