the end, to him will I give power over the nations, even as I received of my Father." As also those in Rev. iii. 21, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne." All which, as you cannot fail to perceive, go directly and necessarily to establish at once the supremacy of the Father, and the subordination of the Son-upturning the very foundations of the Athanasian doctrine, which teaches their absolute equality in power and glory.

I have thus submitted to you a few of those scripture testimonies, chiefly from the mouth of our blessed Saviour himself, which declare to us, with all plainness, that this beloved Son of God is subordinate to, and therefore not to be in all things identified with, the Father Almighty. But before I quit this part of my subject, there are two or three additional considerations, to which I desire to call your attention.

In the first place, let me remind you of our Lord's reply to the mother of Zebedee's children-"To sit on my right, and on my left, is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared, of my Father." What sentiments were these words calculated to fix in the minds of those who heard them? What idea do they naturally present to your minds—unaccompanied, as they are, by that solution, which,

though it be nowhere found in scripture, is uniformly and gratuitously employed by Trinitarians to explain it? The solution I allude to, is that of his being understood here as speaking only in his human nature. If our Lord Jesus Christ were the supreme God, or equal to the supreme God, in what sense could it be true, that the honour here sought for, was not at his disposal? And who will dare to suspect him, who was truth itself, of having, here or elsewhere, a concealed or double meaning? But if you believe him speaking the plain truth, you must believe him subordinate to the Father.

For myself, I honestly confess, that my conscientious reverence for the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, will not permit me thus to employ a nice and subtle distinction, of which neither he himself, nor any of the sacred writers, saith a single word, to pervert and get rid of the plain meaning of his plain words;-and all this, for the avowed purpose of causing it to be believed, what he himself has uniformly and unequivocally denied,-that he is in all things God, equal with the Father Almighty. Will men never become ashamed, or afraid, of putting such a construction on the declarations of the Son of God, as would justly be deemed an insult by the lowest of the children of men?

In the next place, let me remind you of our Lord's reply to the disciples, touching his own

knowledge of the day of judgment:-" But of that day, and that hour, knoweth no man; no, not the angels of heaven; neither the Son, but the Father only." By this it will, I think, clearly appear, that as there are some things possible with the Father, which the Son cannot do, so there are some things known to the Father, with which the Son is not, or at least was not, acquainted. And each of these seems distinctly incompatible with the doctrine of perfect equality. With regard to the destruction of the temple, which the disciples enquired about at the same time, he told them, readily and circumstantially, that this should come to pass within that very generation. But as to the day of judgment, he assured them plainly, that none knew when that day would come, save the Father only. Men on earth, angels in heaven, he himself, though the beloved Son of God, were all unacquainted with it: the Father alone knew it. It is impossible to conceive a declaration delivered in plainer language than this. If he had but said that the day of judgment was known to none but the Father, it might have been thought quite enough. But when he takes care to exclude from that knowledge the other orders of intelligent beings, even to himself, he has left no room for cavilling; and seems as if he had intended to prevent the extravagant imaginations of men, who, notwithstanding, have ven

tured to affirm, that our Saviour, as God, actually possessed the knowledge which he disavows. Yet such men profess a more than ordinary reverence for the Lord Jesus Christ.

If they really feel it, let them discover it, by at least believing what he says. For my part, I cannot join in a gratuitous interpretation of his words, which seems to me a direct impeachment of his • sincerity. I shall not cast any such reproach on the blessed Jesus, as to suppose, for a moment, that he denied what he really knew. It is one thing to disavow the possession of knowledgeto withhold knowledge possessed, is another;— to deny the knowledge which one actually possesses, is a third. Our Lord distinctly disavowed the possession of knowledge in the case before us; herein unquestionably speaking the plain truth. In various cases, which you will all recollect, he withheld the knowledge of facts with which he was perfectly acquainted; and herein he, no doubt, acted from unerring wisdom;-but to suppose him thus positively denying that which he actually knew, in any capacity whatsoever, would indeed be to degrade the Son of God below the level of ordinary truth-telling He has here told us plainly, that he did not know, what the Father knew; and has therein as plainly declared his subordination to the Father.

men.

You will please farther to recollect the many

places where our blessed Saviour is represented as offering up prayers, not only on behalf of others, but of himself also, to his Father in heaven-as praying, not merely with calm and earnest devotion, but in the utmost agony, "with strong crying and tears;"-as praying, not merely for the sake of example-but in “solitary places," and "continuing all night in prayer to God."

Prayer appears, to my mind, as being, on the part of the person who offers it up, the most conclusive evidence of conscious dependence on the being to whom it is addressed. Now, how should we be able to account for the habitual exercise of prayer-of most humble and importunate prayer, on the part of our Lord Jesus Christ, if it were true, as Athanasians allege, that he is God, equal to the Father; and of course, equal to the accomplishment of every wish he could form? Look attentively at the tenor of the prayers which our Lord has so frequently offered up to the Father; and especially attend to that longest and most consolatory of his prayers, recorded in the 17th chapter of St. John's gospel; and ask yourselves, whether it could have entered into the design of our blessed Saviour, of whom these things are recorded, to fix in the minds of his followers, the belief that he is the supreme God, or equal to the supreme God? Upon this part of my subject, I shall only farther request you to attend to that portion of

my