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    pressed more plainly according to the idiom of his country , and is hy ho means difficult to be discerned in ! our times . Precisely in the same manner as when the disciples were exhorted to be perfect as their Father in heaven

    is perfect , they and the Eternal are described in equivalent and convertible terms ; our Lord and the God who sent him are certainly here so spoken of ; but no conclusion can be drawn in the one case which would not be equally just in the other , and the attempt to infer the identity of the knowledge spoken of in kind and extent , is altogether unreasonable and

    extravagant . It is perfectly true that the knowledge here spoken of is represented as not attainable by the ordinary means of human investigation : it k the subject of Revelation : but when Dr . S . says ,, that " it is here affirmed to > be a special communication of Divine influence" he affirms that for which he has no warrant in the fair interpretation of the passage . Jesus spoke of

    the actual state of things . Certain knowledge respecting the Messiah ' s office and the Father's plans , was not then possessed at all justly and correctly by those who made great pretensions to it . The Father had reserved to himself the exact knowledge of the nature of the Son ' s mission : the Son alone was admitted to the full understanding of the Father's designs , and this he was to communicate to whom he pleased , to his chosen followers ;

    but being communicated , and the communication recorded for the benefit of mankind at large ; , no farther revelation to individuals is to be expected , or is at all hinted at in our Lord's words . Again , in reference to our author ' s fourth position , it was the actual knowledge respecting the true character of the gospel dispensation , which had hitherto been kept secret , which our Lord undertook to reveal to such as he should choose for that

    purpose . Dr . S ., who had just before been contending for a perfect reciprocity and co-extension of the knowledge of God and Christ , now finds room" for differences in degree and extent , according to the different capacities of the instructed and instructor . Of course , the truths communicated would not be equally well apprehended by all , but the plain sense of the passage is , that it was the very knowledge , and the whole of it , respecting the true nature of the Messiah's office , and the Divine purposes in his

    mission for the salvation of men , which had not before been possessed , which Christ undertook now to communicate to his disciples , and which they afterwards gave proofs of their having received and fully understood . Lastly , if the clause respecting the Son , as the object of knowledge , were removed , and , of course , the passage were taken entirely out of its connexion , Dr . S . thinks it would be understood , ** that the Infinite Majesty and perfection of tne adorable Supreme , as * distinguished from the imaginary deities of the Heathen world , were revealed and demonstrated by the Christian religion alone ; " and ,, therefore , he argues , when the clause respecting the knowledge of the Son is inserted , the passage must be taken " as equally attributing to him the same Infinite Majesty and Perfection . "

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    590 Dr . •/ . P . Smiths ' Scripture Testimony to the Messiah .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1831, page 590, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2601/page/14/