in his human character-"I can do nothing of myself," "I came not to do my own will, but the will of Him, that sent me." For, by the eternal, immutable agreement of the essential properties of the Godhead, they forever and invariably act in concert and harmony. The Power of God may not act independently of the Wisdom and Holiness of God; and hence, the Son of God, who is identified with the Power of God, invariably acted in union with, and in conformity to, the Wisdom or Will of the Father. The Power of God, acting according to the Will or Wisdom, acts not of itself, &c.

*

It is urged against the essential Divinity of the Son of God, that he invariably acknowledged God to be his Father, his superior; himself a dependent Being, &c. As we shall shortly enter more fully into our investigations and illustrations in support of this important subject, we shall waive them, for the purpose of introducing the remarks of the Rev. Dr. Worcester, who now classes among the moderate Unitarians. He says "The Son's being in the form of God, most probably refers to the glory which he had with the Father before the world was, the glory that he had, in God's creating all things by him; and the glory that he had as the Angel of God's presence. By the form of God, we may understand the same as the similitude, or image of God;† that he was constituted the Angel of God's Presence, or the medium by which God appeared, or manifested himself to the ancient Patriarchs." In a note, however, the author says, "he feels less confident that Christ was the Angel of God, than he did when he wrote these letters: but he had not seen satisfactory reasons for relinquishing his sentiment." Again: "In my view, the Saviour and Lord of all, is the Son of the Living God, and by nature 'the brightness of the Father's glory,' and the express image of his person-so united to the one Infinite God, that in him dwells, not merely one of three persons, but all the fulness of the Godhead bodily."§

*Bible News, p. 115. + Ib. id. 117. Ib. id. 86. § Ib. id. 163, *

*

When we take into view the purposes of God in Christ, as they have, many of them, been clearly manifested to the world, we are astonished to find men who are forward to question the essentially Divine character of the Son of God! The Sacred Records, which are the Rule of the Christian's Faith, and the standard by which his religion is to be tested, really, distinctly and positively declare, that "all things were created by and for Jesus Christ," who is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God; that "God is in Christ, reconciling the world to himself; "destroying the works of the devil; "bringing all things into willing subjection to himself;"§ "the accomplishment of his will concerning all flesh;" "and by the final salvation of all men;" with numerous other expressions and acknowledgments of Divine Wisdom, Power and Holiness, as applied to Christ: We are disposed to take a wider field than our opponents take, for the exercise of our Faith. We are content only in proportion to our knowledge of Christ, both before and after his incarnation; we reject that doctrine, with painful abhorrence, that aims at levelling the Son of God to the mere humanity of men; we accept Jesus Christ as the manifest or visible God-the Stone which the builders rejected, we acknowledge to be "the Head of the Corner." And as we do truly believe him to be the Power of God, according to our views, it must be, hence, very obvious, that the following Axiom, or proposition, will afford us a more intimate view of the properties and relations of Deity, and their operations in all the Works of Nature.

AXIOM V. Power is the primum mobile, the active soul of the Universe; the Creative Spirit or essence of Deity; in whose substance Wisdom is the supreme governing, and Holiness the perfecting principle of God.

Remarks. As the Holy Being now distinguished as Jesus Christ, but previously, as the Divine property or

*1 Corin. i. 24. +2 Corin. v. 19. 1 John, iii. 8. § 1 Corin. xv. 28. Isaiah, xl. 3,5; Luke, iii 4, 6. ¶1 Tim. ii. 3, 4; 2 Peter, iii. 9.

or principle of Deity, that by the Wisdom of God created all things, the motive for distinguishing these relations as Father and Son, are self-evident. That which cometh forth, or proceedeth from Deity-as, for instance, his Word, which is a synonyme of his Power, or Creative Spirit, went forth; when God said, "Let there be light," the Power of God, acting in obedience to the Supreme Wisdom, is, according to our finite understandings, with regard to the infinite operations of the essential properties of Deity, considered in the relation of Father and Son; nor could we ever have arrived at any correct conclusion on this subject, if the Revelations of God had not been made, which acknowledge Jesus Christ to be his only begotten Son, by whom, and for whom, all things The Son of God is therefore identified were created. with the Power of God, as an integrant essence of Deity, and the active Creator of all things.

The sun is said to be the source of light and of heat : the light is not the sun, neither is the heat; but no one would surely dispute the terms, the light of the sun, or the heat of the sun: and yet light and heat are the essential properties of the sun: for, take away the light from the sun, where is its heat? or what, in short, would be the sun?-an opaque globe, all darkness, void of light.

AXIOM VI. As the sun sits enthroned in the heavens or firmament, as the source and centre of light, heat, and life to our physical or natural world,-so, God, the Supreme Principal, or First Cause, sits enthroned in the heaven of heavens, as the source and centre of Wisdom, Power and Holiness illimitable, and from thence imparts to all bodies in the Universe the influences and operations of his Divine principles or properties. And now, referring to our observations, page 75, we observe, Wisdom is not God, neither Power, nor Holiness: But no one would dispute the terms "The Wisdom, Power, or Holiness of God," or that God is Wise, Powerful and Holy. But to complete the sense of the argument, "deprive Wisdom of Power, or Power of Holiness, the result will be imperfection," and cannot be God. (See page 68.)

And as the Son of God is plainly, clearly and unequivocally declared to be "the Power of God and the Wisdom of God," we, as Trinitarian Universalists, dare not presume to question the truth of the fact; but believe that he is the same Creative Spirit, or essence of Deity, which we have elsewhere termed the manifesting property or principle, by which the works of creation were made and manifested, and is the same Spirit, or essential property of Deity, that in the fulness of time was manifested in the flesh. Wherefore,

AXIOM VII. As the natural sun is the receptacle and vehicle of light, heat and life, temporally or materially considered, so is Christ in his sanctified body, the Spiritual Sun, or receptacle and vehicle of light, heat, and life, spiritual and eternal-i. e. the entire fulness of the Godhead."

Remarks.-Light and heat are the essential properties of life: Jesus Christ declares that he is the light and life of the world. He did not intend exclusively by that expression the material, but the spiritual world also; for he elsewhere says, "I am not of this world;" "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world,"* &c. His meaning, therefore, was, that he was the light and life of the spiritual world, the heaven of heavens. And so said St. John in his Revelations, when writing of the new heavens and the new earth, and the heavenly Jerusalem : He describes the temple to be, the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb! that the Glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."+

We thus see the Son of God identified as an essential property of God, and as manifesting the Power, the Wisdom, and Holiness, or glory of God; and which is a further confirmation of the fact, that "in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," and as he is declared to be, "the same yesterday, to-day and for evermore," it is obvious, that all the fulness of Deity dwelt and dwelleth, or remaineth in him from everlasting to everlasting;

*John viii. 13. Rev. xxi, 22, 23.

EVANGELIST'S MANUAL.

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his spiritual essence being one of the spiritual essences of Deity.

The Wisdom and Holiness of God, "contextured and co-existing" with the Power of God, in this union establishes a Supreme Essence, or Spirit, which, comparing spiritual with temporal essences, is in our systems of Philosophy, termed "the Principal of all its Powers." (Def. 3.) And though we cannot consider any one of the essences of Deity as constituting exclusively the whole Deity,* we are yet authorised to consider it, as it truly is, one of the essential properties, internal relations, or integrant essences of Deity; and we have shown, (page 71,) that his Wisdom devises and directs, while his Power creates, or makes manifest that which is created or made. And as Jesus Christ has been ordained, or anointed, from everlasting, to make manifest all the Glory of the Godhead, considered in the relation of a Father; while the manifesting property or principle-that is, his Power-is considered in the relation of a Son, it is but reasonable to infer, that the son is, inclusively in his spiritual essence, one of the essential properties of the Godhead, and an inherent principle of the Deity, in his distinctive essence: while the principles of Wisdom and Holiness are delegated to the Son, by the concurrence of these principles; and the acceptance of this delegation by the Power of God, which is his Son.

And "as no possible event, no act of condescension on the part of Deity, in any of his essential properties, internal relations, or integrant essences, can in the least impair or lessen, much less destroy, the peculiar properties of either of those essences, or render them in their essential nature inferior, (as by Axiom III. p. 69,) we contend that the essential Divinity of the Son of God, consisting of his internal relation to Deity, as an essential property of the Godhead, and as identified with the Power of God, in the "form of God," in which he existed prior to his incarnation; his condescension in laying aside that

* See Remarks at page 67, after Axiom II.