arrangement will appear evident, if the words be read in the sequence for which the objectors contend: "Blessed for ever be God, who is over all. Amen."

The passage, then, restored to its just coherence, will run thus: "Whose are the Fathers, and of whom was the Christ according to the flesh: he who is over all, GOD, or God who is over all, be blessed for ever. Amen." This "troublesome passage for Unitarians was thus understood by Bucer and Erasmus, who were both Trinitarians.

As nothing is too trifling for the support of the Trinitarian scheme, it is proper to notice that according to the flesh are words thought decisive of the incarnation of a superior nature in Christ; yet the phrase is repeatedly used by the Jewish writers in relation to natural descent or consanguinity; or in a human sense opposed to a spiritual. Thus Paul: Rom. ix. 3, "My kinsman according to the flesh." Hebrews xii. 9, "We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? Ephes. vi. 5, "Servants, be obedient to your masters according to the flesh." Christ was the son of David by human descent; the son of God by adoption.

JOHN i. 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Gop: [TPOS TOY Eov] and the Word was GOD.

Eos, a God. This inferior sense is adopted by the learned Eusebius, de Eccl. Theol. lib. ii. c. 17, to whom Greek was his native language. That Oos is sometimes used absolutely for GOD is no objection to the limited sense of the second

Eos in this sentence, where a marked distinction is made by the use and the omission of the article. JOHN i. 3. All things were made by him.

10. The world was made by him.

If the words were made be judged correct, and referred to the work of material creation, the Word

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must plainly be understood of the original Divine Wisdom, and not of Christ, though the title of the Word be after applied to him by John in his First Epistle, as the medium of the wisdom; and the English idiom would require "all things were made by it;" for otherwise the scripture would be made to contradict itself. Isaiah xlv. 18, "Thus saith the Lord [Jehovah] that created the heavens: GOD himself that formed the earth and made it : I am the LORD; and there is none else." Acts iv. 24. 27, "LORD! thou art GOD, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is. Of a truth against thy holy child JESUS, whom THOU hast ANOINTED, both the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together." Thus Jesus the anointed is distinguished from God the CREATOR of heaven and earth.

But the original word is not so properly was made as was: it is the same as that used by the Seventy, in Gen. i. 3, "And God said, let there be light, and the light was." The expression seems to imply that all things were disposed by him;" that the world of mankind was formed anew.

"All things" is frequently used with reference to the dispensations of the Gospel. Ephes. i. 22, "And hath put all things under his feet, and given him to be the head over all things to the church."

Even if the Word be thought to apply to God himself, the essential wisdom, the expressions, that "all things were by him," "that the world was by him," would seem still foreign to the work of creation in the literal and physical sense, and to refer rather to the new or spiritual creation.

It was the design of John to give an account of the coming of Christ, and the setting up of the Gospel-kingdom; and it should seem foreign to this design, as well as unnecessary, to begin his Gospel with affirming that the wisdom of God had created the visible universe.

If Christ be understood of the Word, and if it be granted that John meant to reveal the amazing mystery, that it was the Creator of heaven and earth who had appeared among men under that form and character, then indeed there appears an object why the Evangelist should allude to the material creation. But if the words rendered "all things were made," and "the world was made," be more naturally interpreted, even in respect to God himself, of the formation of his kingdom upon earth, no reason can be given why they should not be so interpreted in respect to Christ.

The beginning is, in fact, frequently used by the same Evangelist with reference to the rise of the Gospel-dispensation, and the commencement of the Messiahship of Jesus; and this absolutely determines the import of the same phrase in the exordium of the Gospel of John. John xv. 27, "And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning." 1 John ii. 7, "The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning.' 1 John i. 1,

"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, and our hands have handled, of the WORD of Life." Plainly, in the sense of the two foregoing instances, it was from the beginning, from the time of his manifestation as the beloved Son, that they had heard him, and seen, and handled.

That the beginning is used in an Evangelical and not a Mosaic sense, appears also from the term being appropriated by the glorified JESUS to himself, in reference to his spiritual ministry and his resurrection. Rev. iii. 14, "These things saith the AMEN, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God." The first heir of glory, and first-born from the dead. The allusion is to the Gospel creation, the renewal of man in holiness, and his restoration to immortality.

If the words, "the world was made," were considered as the strict and proper interpretation, they would not necessarily imply creative agency in the physical sense, either as applied to Christ or to GOD; since the Gospel æra is typified, both by the Prophets and the Apostles, under the figure of a world newly created, and creatures newly made. Isaiah lxv. 17, "For behold! I CREATE new heavens and a new earth." 2 Cor. ver. 17, "If any man be in CHRIST, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold! all things are become new." Eph. ii. 10, “For we are his workmanship, CREATED in Christ Jesus unto good works." Eph. iv. 23, 24, " And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is CREATED in righteousness and true holiness." Created, formed, made, are applied in a spiritual sense to the Jewish nation. Isaiah xliii. 1, 7, 21, "The Lord that created thee, O Jacob! and he that formed thee, O Israel! I have created him for my glory; I have formed him; yea, I have made him. This people have I formed for myself."

Jesus is then affirmed by John to be truly THE CHRIST; he to whom "the word of God came,' and who, in so far as he was THE WORD, was God, or, as God, his image and representative; he was with God in the wilderness, when led of the Spirit, as Moses was with God in the mount; and by or through him, mankind were formed anew, or brought into a state of holiness and immortality; created unto good works " and the hope of eternal life."

JOHN i. 11. He came unto his own, and his own received

him not.

Not unto his own creatures, in reference to himself as the creator of mankind; but "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," who rejected their Messiah.

JOHN i. 14. And the word was made flesh (was flesh], and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.

18. No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, which is the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. 34. And I saw, and bare record, that this is the Son of God.

The word being flesh may allude, as in other places of John, to the phantastic heresy; or may simply refer to the manifestation of the wisdom in a man like ourselves; but is no necessary argument for the doctrine of incarnation. "Who is in the bosom of the Father," may refer either to the reception of Jesus into heaven after his resurrection, or to his intimate participation of the counsels of the Father; but proves nothing of a superior or preexistent nature: "the only begotten [best beloved] Son," and "the Son of God," show in what sense John meant the word God to be understood, as titular of the word.

1 TIM. iii. 15. Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: GoD was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels [Apostles], preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. All this is strictly applicable to Christ as the word, who in the passage of John is called "a God:" but all the old versions, with the exception of the Arabic (which, says Bishop Marsh, "is of very little authority"), read "he who was manifested in the flesh was justified by the spirit;" or that which;" and from the comments of the Fathers it should appear that such in their days was the received reading.

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COL. i. 26, 27. Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you [the Colossians] the hope of glory.

ROM. xvi. 25, 26. According to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.