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I.

The first passage which is alleged as decisively proving the pre-existence of Jesus Christ, is John i. 1-14.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." &c.

The expression Word, or Logos as it stands in the original, has been understood in a great variety of senses, according to the different hypotheses which have been entertained concerning the person of Christ.

1. The early platonizing christian writers conceived the Logos to be the intelligence of God personified, or converted into a real person, and united to a human soul 3.

2. The proper Trinitarians assert that the Logos is truly God, necessarily derived from the Father, but of the same nature with him, and in all respects equal to him. This is the doctrine held by bishops Bull and Horsley, Dr. Waterland, and others.

3. Others maintain that the Logos, or Word, is the first and greatest of created beings, in whom the fulness of the godhead dwells, and with whom the divine nature is so intimately united, that he is truly and properly one with God. This is the hypothesis of Dr. Thomas Burnet, Dr. Doddridge, and many other learned men.

4. Dr. Clarke, and those who have been called SemiArians, maintain that the Logos is a being uncreated, but from all eternity begotten, i. e. in some incomprehensible manner derived from the will and power of the Father, possessed of all divine attributes, self-existence alone excepted, and the delegate of the Almighty in the creation, support, and government of the universe; that he assumed human nature, and animated the body of Christ.

See Priestley's History of Early Opinions, vol. ii. book ii. chap. 5. Lindsey's Second Address to the Students at the two Universities, chap. ii,

5. The Arians affirm that the Logos is the first and greatest of created beings, delegated by the Father to be the Maker and Governor of this world, or system, or of all worlds and systems, and the medium of all the divine dispensations to mankind. He became incarnate to redeem the world, and animated the body of Christ. This is the hypothesis supported by Dr. Whitby in his Last Thoughts; also by Mr. Whiston, Mr. Emlyn, Dr. Price, and many others.

6. An opinion has been taken up by some learned moderns, that the Logos is merely a spirit of an order superior to mankind, who assumed human nature in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, but who had no concern in the formation of the world, nor in any of the preceding dispensations of God to mankind.

These hypotheses, with the arguments for and against them, will be stated more at large in the Second Part of this Inquiry.

7. Many have maintained that the word Logos means the wisdom and power of God, by which all things were originally made, which attributes were eminently displayed in the mission, doctrine, miracles, and character of the man Jesus. This is the explanation advanced and approved by Grotius, Lardner, Lindsey, Priestley, and most of the modern Unitarians.

According to this interpretation of the word, Mr. Lindsey, in his List of False Readings and Mistranslations, p. 40, has given the following new translation of the proëm to John's gospel:

"In the beginning was wisdom, and wisdom was with God; and God was wisdom. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by it, and without it was nothing made. In it was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.

"There

"There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which came into the world, and enlighteneth every man.

But as

"It, i. e. divine wisdom, was in the world, and the world was made by it, and the world knew it not. It came to its own land, and its own people received it not. many as received it, to them it gave power to become the sons of God, even to them who believe on its name. Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

"And wisdom became man and dwelt among us, and we beheld its glory, the glory as of the well beloved of the Father, full of grace and truth."

Mr. Lindsey argues at large in favour of this interpretation in the third chapter of the Sequel to his Apology, and Mr. Wakefield in his Translation of the New Testament gives the same sense.

This interpretation is supposed to be favoured by Solomon's description of wisdom, Prov. viii.;-by the use of the word Logos in the Old Testament for the wisdom and power of God; see Psalm xxxiii. 6;-by the custom of the Chaldee paraphrasts in using the Word of God for God himself; see Isa. xlv. 12; xlviii. 13. Gen. i. 27; iii. 8; and Lindsey's Sequel, p. 380.-And lastly, it appears that Philo and other platonizing philosophers in or near the apostolic age used the word Logos to express the personification of the divine attributes.

Against this interpretation the following objections have been urged:

1.] That the word 'beginning' (apx"), though often occurring in the writings of John, almost uniformly signifies the beginning of our Lord's ministry, or of the new dispensation;

dispensation; and very seldom, if ever, the beginning of the world; much less does it express duration from eternity 4. John vi. 64, "Jesus knew from the beginning who it was that would betray him." Chap. xv. 27, "Ye have been with me from the beginning 5."

2.] It does not appear that the word Logos is ever used for wisdom (oopia) in the Old Testament. When it is said that the heavens were made by the word of God, the allusion appears to be to the account of the creation in the book of Genesis, where every thing comes into existence at the command of God. "He spake, and it was done." Psalm xxxiii. 9.

3.] The expression "all things," (avta,) in the writings of John, never signifies the created universe.

4.] The word γινομαι, which is translated to be made, occurs nearly seven hundred times in the New Testament, and more than a hundred times in the writings of this evangelist; but it is no where used in the sense of creation 6.

8. Another interpretation of the Logos has been pro posed, which is less liable to objection. The Logos is the man Jesus Christ by whom God hath spoken to the world, the teacher of truth and righteousness.

The history of John beginning with the same words as the history of Moses, Genesis i. 1, has induced many to infer that they expres the same date, though no conclusion can be more precarious.

The word agx occurs six times in the gospel of John (besides twice in the proëm), and eleven times in his epistles: in all which places it clearly expresses the beginning of the gospel; excepting chap. ii. 11, where it is used for the first miracle; and chap. viii. 44, and 1 John iii. 8, in which places the devil is said to have been from the beginning a liar and murderer. The other texts where the word occurs are, John vi. 64; viii. 25; xv. 27; xvi. 4. 1 John i. 1; ii. 7, 13, 14, 24; iii. 11. 2 John, 5, 6. See Simpson's Essays on Language of Scripture, Ess. vii..

Heb. iv. 3; xi. 3. James iii. 9; have been alleged as exceptions: but they will all admit a fair interpretation without assigning to the word youal so unusual a sense. Simpson, ibid. p. 27. See Improved Version, in loc.

This was the interpretation of the Polish Socinians: it was adopted by Hopton Haynes, the friend of Sir Isaac Newton, and has lately been revived with some modifications, and defended, by Mr. J. Palmer, of Birmingham, in the Theological Repository, vol. vii.; by Mr. Cappe, in his Dissertations; by Mr. Simpson, in his Essays; by Dr. Carpenter, in his Reply to Mr. Veysie; and it is adopted in the Improved Version.

It is a considerable presumption in favour of this interpretation, that it harmonizes with the introduction to the first epistle of John, which is a kind of comment upon the proëm to the gospel, which contains many of the same or similar expressions, and which is universally understood of the person of Christ.

1 John i. 1, 2. "That which was from the BEGINNING, which we have heard, which we saw with our eyes, which we have LOOKED UPON, or BEHELD, which our hands have handled, of the WORD OF LIFE. And this LIFE was manifested, and we have seen it, and BEAR WITNESS, and show unto you that ETERNAL LIFE, which was WITH THE FATHER, and was MANIFESTED to us." Ver. 5, "God is LIGHT, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in DARKNESS, we lie, and do not the truth. But if we walk in the LIGHT, as he is in the LIGHT, we have fellowship one with another."

It is impossible not to remark the similarity of phrase between the epistle and the gospel; the words 'beginning,' 'word,' 'life,' 'light,'' darkness,' &c. occurring in both. But it is plain that the Word of life and light, which from the beginning was heard, and seen, and touched, and manifested, and borne witness to, in the epistle, is Jesus Christ: and therefore it is Jesus Christ to whom the same or a similar phraseology is applied in the gospel.

The

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