who in times past spake to the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son." God here, of course, means the entire Deity, without any distinction of persons, the Jehovah of the Old Testament, as it is the same who revealed himself to Moses and the rest of the prophets, and spake by them, and he has spoken to us by his Son. The "Son," here spoken of, is not a Person of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but the Son of God, the whole Deity, and, of course, is excluded from the Deity by the very terms of the proposition. He sustains the same relations, both to God and to man, as an organ of communication, as the ancient prophets. God spake through them, and spake through him, nor is there any difference intimated, except that he is called Son. They originated nothing, and he originated nothing. They spoke only what God commanded, and so did he. The Son then cannot be a person of the Trinity.

In the second place, the Trinitarian exposition of this passage overthrows itself by the inconsistency and contradiction of its parts. In one verse, the Son is said to have made the heavens and the earth; in another, to have been the instrument through whom God made the worlds; and in another part of the same verse, to be appointed heir of all things; and then in another, as having no power of his own, to defend himself, or punish his enemies, but to be invited by the Almighty to sit at his right hand while he makes his enemies his footstool. He is eternal, and created the world, and yet he is introduced into the world as God's

first-begotten, and the angels worship him, not because they owe him any allegiance, but because they are commanded to do so by their superior and his.

After making the Son, God, the Creator of the world, still there is a God over him; he is not the supreme God, but the supreme God has anointed him with the oil of gladness above his fellows. The Creator of heaven and earth has fellows, above whom he is exalted by being anointed!

I do not hesitate to say, that with the Trinitarian exposition, this passage of the Bible presents a heterogeneous mass of ideas blended in utter confusion. No consistent whole can be made out of them, which shall explain all the parts, and make them agree with themselves and the rest of the sacred Scriptures. Of course, we are driven out of it, and, as we believe that this Epistle has a consistent and rational meaning, we are forced to seek it in some other exposition.

But in order to explain this passage satisfactorily, it will be necessary to inquire what was the design and scope of the writer? This, we find, was to guard the converts to Christianity from relapse into Judaism, by showing them that their expectations of the Messiah had received their fulfilment in Jesus of Nazareth. To fulfil those expectations, he must be shown to be greater than Moses, greater than Aaron and the Levitical priesthood, and greater than the angels. The Jews of the later ages imagined, from certain expressions in the Old Testament, that the Law was given to Moses by the ministry of angels. The writer of this Epistle commences then, by endeavouring to show the supe

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riority of Jesus, the Messiah, to angels. He begins, therefore, with the most dignified titles and offices which belong to him. He commences by calling him "the Son of God," an appellation given the Messiah long before he appeared, but without implying anything else than a human nature. As the Messiah, he is made heir of all things, not, of course, of the physical universe, but is to rule and sway the world. The world is to be his spiritual kingdom: God, the supreme King, gives it to him, and thus exalts him, as it were, to a participation in his own dominion. This is now literally fulfilling in respect to Christ. "By whom also he made the worlds." The word rendered worlds, generally means periods of time, or dispensations of religion. The Jews divided the existence of the world into three periods the age before the Messiah, the age of the Messiah, and the age after the Messiah. Of course, the time when he came determined them all. The age before prepared for him, his coming put an end to that age, and introduced a new order of things, and the age after was shaped and moulded by what he accomplished when he was upon the earth. So, through Christ, God constituted the ages.

I know that it has been maintained, that this passage asserts that Christ was the Creator of the material universe; and, as a corroboration of this sentiment, its advocates appeal to the first chapter of Colossians, fifteenth and sixteenth verses. "Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature; for by him were created all things which are in heaven, and upon the earth, the visible and the invisible,

The things he "whether they

whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were created by him, and for him." But it is only to the superficial observer, that this passage seems to ascribe the creation of the material universe to Christ. There are two circumstances which forbid such an interpretation. One is, that Christ has created all things in heaven, and upon earth. This, of course, is not saying that he created the heavens, and the earth, but rather that he did not create them. Then what did he create ? created are specifically enumerated; be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers." Now these are not the material universe. They are certain dignities, offices, and powers, which Christ created as the head of the new dispensation. What this all means, we have explained in the eighteenth verse. "And he is the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the first-begotten from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence." So far, then, from teaching that Christ is the Creator of the material universe, this passage merely asserts that Christ is the image of the invisible God; inasmuch as God is at the head of the material universe, having created it, so Christ is at the head of the church, having created it. "Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person." The word rendered "brightness," means reflection, and the word rendered "express image," is the same which is used to designate an impression upon a coin. The Trinitarian, of course, applies this to the divine nature of Christ, what he was before his incarnation, the second Person of

the Trinity, the Son. But if he does so, it must be in inconsistency with what goes before, and what comes after. His image, &c., must, of course, refer to God, as in the commencement of the Epistle, and God there means the whole Deity, without distinction of persons.

Now the Son, considered as a Person of the Trinity, cannot be a reflection and image of the whole Deity, without introducing the utmost confusion, both into language and into ideas, for it makes him an image and reflection of himself. Equally inconsistent is this meaning with another member of the sentence, "having by himself made a purification of our sins," referring of course to the suffering of death. The second Person of the Trinity could not suffer death. But what is still more conclusive on this point, is what follows: "Set down on the right of the Majesty on high." The second Person of the Trinity could not sit down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. We are driven then to interpret "reflection" and "image of God," to mean Jesus Christ as he appeared among men, clothed with divine power and supernatural knowledge, and the highest moral perfections.

Man himself is said to have been made in the image of God. In another place, he is called "the image and glory of God." Paul says, in the eleventh chapter of first Corinthians: "For a man ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God." Much more then might Christ, when here on earth, have been said to be a reflection of God's glory, and a likeness of his being, when he superadded