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Rh except sin, exhibiting perfect goodness in combination with infallible wisdom, clothed with extensive power over physical nature, and a knowledge of futurity at once extensive and circumstantial; the declared end and object of a train of miraculous interpositions running back to the very foundation of the world, himself the beginning and cause of a new order of things, embracing the whole world and all succeeding times ; his doctrines destined to sway the minds of the millions of the human race, to form their opinions, to mould their characters, to shape their expectations, to reign in their minds, and judge their actions, to convict and purify their consciences, to cleanse them from sin, and prepare them for his own society and the presence of God in the spiritual world — worthily to speak of such a being is a task before which I confess that my speech falters and my vocabulary seems meagre and inadequate. This difficulty remains whatever view we adopt of his metaphysical rank in the universe. From the fierce controversy as to the nature of Christ, so early raised and which more than any other cause has disturbed its harmony, I am most happy to escape. That belongs to the history of opinions, and volumes on volumes would not contain their endless diversity. What men have thought of the person of Jesus of Nazareth, and what he actually was, and did, and taught, and brought to pass, are two things entirely distinct. The former is a matter of mere speculation, the latter embraces all that is necessary.

"We read of Jesus, that, immediately after his