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    4 did aofc sufficiently discountenance r i ^ u ^ tery , ** We cannot assent to this opinion . It is altogether gratuitous and hypothetical . Di \ Pulley has indeed made it evident * that there is nothing in the account which affects the character 1 > f our Lord , as a mor ^ l

    instructor : but the paragraph is wanting in so many manuscripts of great authority that we are satisfied it is not genuine scripture . John viii . 58 . "Jesus said unto

    them , Verily , verily , I say unto you , Before Abraham was , I am /' rather * " I am he . "

    After showing , with his usual perspicuity , that these words are intended to describe the great importance of our Lord ' s character , as the light of the world or the Messiah , since it was fixed and predetermined in the divine mind -before the days of Abraham , Mr . Kenrick concludes his comment

    on the verse with this sensible remark : «« If it should be asked why Christ tpeaks of himseff as existing before Abrabam , and why the Lamb is said to be * lain f and Christians to be chosen , before the foundation of die world ? I

    answer , that it serves to illustrate tbe importance of the persons or things which are said thus to exist in the divine foreknowledge so long a time beforehand . Important schemes men keep long in * v * ew before they execute them ; and it

    14 in order to give consequence , in our apprehensions > to the purposes of the Supreme Being ; that they are represented as existing in his mind from the earliest periods of time , before Abraham , and before the world w as m ade ' John xx . V 3 . 4 i Whose sins $ 0 ever ye remit , they are remit *

    • « Moral Philosophy , " Vol . 1 . p . 347—351- * 5 * edit . Sec also Wakefidd ' a Evidence * of Christianity , p . 70 . and edit . ^ f Mr . Kenrick has perhaps mistaken the true construction of this postage *» JfceV ,: xiii . 8 . See Newcome ' s Translation . » kv . » } " Diwotu-fpt PJ » TariWf f » bje « ti relating to doctrine and practice . * ?«* . * ¦

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    ted unto them , and whose sin * soever ye retain , they art retain * ed /> . c < In the language of the Jfews , to bo admitted into their church , and to par * take of the privileges of divijie revela * tion , was to be made holy . On the contrary , those who "were without the pale

    of their church , as was the case with the heathen , were called unholy and sinners , by which term , however , was not meant » ny moral depravity , but merely being out of a state of privilege . While they remained in this state , their sins were unpardoned ; but when taken out of it 9 tto « ir sins are said to be forgiven , they are sanctified and reconciled to God .

    This language is met with every where in Paul's epistles , and is authorized by Jesus himself , Who told his disciples that he should be delivered into the hands of sinners , meaning thereby the Gentiles .-ft is to them also , that he refers in this

    verse , where , by authorizing his disciples to remit the sins of whomsoever they pleased , he means to give them authority to receive Gentiles as well as Jews into the Christian church . But power to retain sins was authority to exclude those who did not conform to

    the terms which they prescribed . Hence it appears how unfounded those claims are ya hich have been advanced , both by Protestants and Papists , on the authority of this text . ' This paragraph contains the sub * stance of our author ' s admirable

    sermon on C The meaning of the term Remission of sins . "J The principle of criticism here unfolded is so obviously just , and of so much importance ^ as Mr . Kcnrick was convinced , in elucidating the phraseology of the ~* New Testa * inent , that we wonder it has so seldom been recurred to in the

    work before us . We caa account for it only on the supposition ,

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    ff ^* 8 Jlevkrm± ^ KeiLrick ^ Expo & iiiofk

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    JM « K « T , . . . .. -.- .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1809, page 746, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1707/page/40/