arguments, as proposed by the Editor, exclusively from the direct authority of Jesus himself. I shall confine myself to the quotation of one or two texts from the Epistles of St. Paul. 1st Corinthians, ch. xv. vers. 24-28: "Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father. For he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued under him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all." Colossians, ch. i. ver. 15: "Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature."

From a due attention to the purport of the above quoted texts, and to the term Son, distinctly mentioned in them, the reader will, I trust, be convinced, that those powers were conferred on Jesus, and declared by himself to have been received by him from the Father, as the Messiah, Christ, or anointed Son of God, and not solely in his human capacity; and that such interpretation as declares these and other passages of a similar effect to be applicable to Jesus as a man, is an unscriptural invention. Jesus spoke of himself throughout all the Scriptures only as the promised Messiah, vested with high glory from the beginning of

the world. John, ch. xvii. ver. 5: "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." In this passage, with the same breath with which he prays for glory, he identifies the nature in which he does so with that under which he lived with God before the creation of the world, and of course before his assuming the office of the Messiah. Ver. 24: "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." Here again Jesus prays, that his Apostles may witness such honour as the Father had bestowed on him, even before the foundation of the world. Ch. ix. vers. 35-37: "Dost thou" (says Jesus to a man who had been blind) "believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he (the Son of God) that talketh with thee." Ch. xvii. vers. 1, 2: "Father, glorify thy Son; as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." John the Baptist, who bore witness of Christ, looked not upon him in any other view than as the Son of God. St. John, ch. i. ver. 34: "And I saw and bare record," (said John the Baptist, pointing out the person of Jesus,) "that this is the Son of God." John, ch. viii. ver. 42: "I proceeded forth and came from God;

neither came I of myself, but he sent me." And in numerous passages Jesus declares, that, before he assumed the office of the Messiah in this world, he was entirely subject to and obedient to the Father, from whom he received the commission to come to this world for the salvation of mankind. But apparently with the very view of anticipating any misapprehension of his nature on the part of his disciples, to whom he had declared the wonderful extent of the powers committed to him by the Father, he tells them, John, ch. xiv. ver. 28, "The Father is greater than I." It would have been idle to have informed them of a truth, of which, as Jews, they would never have entertained the smallest question, that in his mere corporeal nature Jesus was inferior to his Maker; and it must therefore have been his spiritual nature, of which he here avowed the inferiority to that of God.

"The Son" is a term which, when used without being referred to another proper name found in the context, implies invariably the Son of God throughout the whole New Testament, especially when associated with the epithet "The Father;" so the latter epithet, when it stands alone, signifies "the Father of the universe." Matthew, ch. xxviii. ver. 19: "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." .Ch. xi. ver. 27 : "No man knoweth the Son but the Father," &c. Vide rest of the Gospel.-It is true indeed, that the angels of God, and some of the ancients of the

human race, as well as the children of Israel, are honoured in the sacred writings with the name of "Sons of God.". Job, ch. i. ver. 6: "There was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord." Genesis, ch. vi. ver. 2: "The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair." Hosea, ch. i. ver. 10: "Then it shall be said unto them, ye are the sons of the living God." Yet the epithet "Son of God," with the definite article prefixed, is appropriated to Christ, the first-born of every creature, as a distinct mark of honour which he alone deserves.

The Saviour having declared that unity existed between the Father and himself, John, ch. x. ver. 30, "I and my Father are one," a doubt arose with regard to the sense in which the unity affirmed in those words should be accepted. This Jesus removes by defining the unity so expressed as a subsisting concord of will and design, such as existed amongst his Apostles, and not identity of being : vide ch. xvii. ver. 11, of John, "Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.' Ver. 22: "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one." Should any one understand by these texts real unity and identity, he must believe that there existed a similar identity between each and all of the Apostles ;-nay, even that the disciples also were included in the Godhead, which in that case would consist of a great many times the num

ber of persons ascribed to the Trinity. John, ch. xvii. vers. 20-23: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word-That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.-That they may be one, even as we are one. I in them, and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one." I know not how it is possible for those who profess obedience to the word of Christ to overlook the explanation he has here so clearly given of the nature of the unity existing between him and the Father, and to adopt a contrary system, apparently introduced by some Heathen writers to suit their polytheistical prejudices; but I doubt not the Editor of the Friend of India will admit the necessity of giving preference to divine authority over any human opinion, however prevailing it may be.

The Saviour meant unity in design and will by the assertion also, that he was in God, or dwelt in God, and God in him. John, ch. x. ver. 38: "That ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him," as evidently appears from the following passages :-John, ch. xiv. ver. 20: "Atthat day ye shall know," (addressing his Apostles,)" that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you." Ch. xvii. ver. 21 : “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us." John, ch. vi. ver. 56: "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him." 1 John,