tranflators. By leaving it out the following perhaps will be the true interpretation of this obfcure paffage.

For this man (Jefus Chrift) was counted worthy of more glory than Mofes, in as much as he is more nearly related to the head or founder of the house or family, who must be fuppofed to have the greatest honour of the family. For every family has fome founder or head; but he who is the fupreme head of all families is God the Father. And Mofes verily was faithful in all his (God's) family, as a fervant, for a teftimony of the things that were afterwards to be revealed, but Chrift, as a fon over his (God's) family, whofe family alfo are we. (i)

I Col. 15-17. Who is the image of the invifible God, the first born of every creature: For by him were all things created, &c. Our reasons, for rejecting the interpretation which Mr. Hawker and other Trinitarians give of this paffage, and for referring it to the new creation, or renovation of the world by means of christianity, are the fol following.

1. Throughout the whole of the Old Testament but one being is mentioned as the Creator and Preserver

(i) The reader will find the whole of the above paraphrase very ably fupported by Mr. Peirce,

Preferver of the world: this being is uniformly fpoken of as one perfon; and is faid to have made the world immediately by himself. Gen. i. 1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Neh. ix. 6. Thou, even thou art LORD alone; thou haft made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their hoft, the earth and all things that are therein, the feas and all that is therein: and thou preferveft them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee. Pf. xxxiii. 6. By the word of the LORD were the heavens made: and all the host of his mouth. Pf. xxxiii, 9. For he fpake, and it was done: he commanded, and it flood faft. Ifaiah xliv. 24. Thus faith the LORD, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things, that ftretcheth forth the heavens alone, that Spreadeth abroad the earth by myself. Ifaiah xlv. 12. I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have ftretched out the heavens, and all their hoft have I commanded.

of them, by the breath

2. Agreeable to the declarations of the Old Teftament, are thofe of Chrift and his apoftles in the New. Matt. vi. 26. Behold the fowls of the air, they fow not neither do they reap, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. v. 30. If God fo cloath the grass of the field, &c. Matt. xi. 25. I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Mark x. 6. But from the beginning-God made them, &c.

John

John vi. 57. As the living Father hath fent me, and I live by the Father. These are the declarations of our faviour; an indubitable proof that he himfelf was not concerned in the creation and support of the universe, but that he confidered it as the work of God his Father only. In the fame manner speak all the apoftles. I will mention but one paffage, because it appears to me to be decifive, and contains their joint teftimony to this most important doctrine. · A&s iv. 24--30. A&s iv. 24-30. They (the difciples) lift up their voice to God with one accord, and faid LORD, THOU art God, which haft made heaven and earth, and the fea, and all that in them is: -grant-that figns and wonders may be done by thy holy child (fervant) (k) Jefus. From this prayer it must surely be evident, that so far were the apostles from confidering their mafter, who had lately been put to death, as their Creator, that in the moft folemn act of devotion, prayer to Almighty God, they ftile him only the CHILD OF SERVANT of their Creator.

3. The apostle Paul himself, inftead of confidering Jefus Chrift as the maker of heaven and earth.

(k) The word in the original is was, and fervant is one of its common acceptations. It is rendered fervant by our own translators when applied to David, in the 25th verse of the fame chapter.

4

earth, declared him at Athens to be a MAN, ap. pointed by the maker of heaven and earth hereafter to judge the world. Acts xvii. 24.-31. God that made the world, and all things that are therein, -he Lord of heaven and earth,—hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that MAN whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given affurance to all men, in that he hath raifed him from the dead. He could not therefore, in his epiftle to the Coloffians, attribute the creation and preservation of the world to Jefus Chrift, without contradicting the uniform tenor of the Old Testament, without contradicting the affertions of Chrift himself, and without contradicting his own declaration to the Athenians.

4. If we examine the different paffages of fcripture in which the word creation occurs, we shall find that it is frequently ufed in a moral fenfe, to denote changes that take place in the moral condition of mankind. I might produce feveral paffages from the Old Teftament; but I will content myself with producing a few from the writings of the apostle Paul. II Cor. v. 17. Therefore if any man be in Chrift, he is a new creature: old things are paffed away; behold, all things are become new. Ep. ii. 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Chrift Jefus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we fhould walk in them. Eph. iv. 24.

And

And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteoufnefs and true holiness. Col. iii. 10. And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, after the image of him that created him. That the word create is ufed in this fenfe, in the paffage under confideration, feems evident, because the apoftle is fpeaking of a change that had taken place in the moral condition of mankind, by means of the gospel, in the verses which go before, and the verfes which immediately follow it. See v. 13. 14; and 21. 22.

5. It is deferving of notice, that neither the earth, the fun, moon, nor ftars, nor any material fubftance is specified, as making a part of this creation, but all things, in general, which is an indefinite expreffion. (1) What the apoftle meant to include under it is evident from what follows. By him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; by the creation of which may be intended, fays Dr. Priestley, fome exercife of that power and authority which were given to Chrift after his refurrection. (m) This idea is confirmed by the epiftle to

the

(1) See Mark ix. 23. Rom. viii. 32. I Cor. iii. 21. II. Cor. 6. 10. It is obfervable, that the apostle Paul does not say the heavens and the earth were created by Jesus Christ, but fimply all things that are in heaven and earth.

(m) Dr. Priestley's Letters to Dr. Price. p. 119.