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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The case is the same with Am * bvose , who wrote about the year 3 $ !¦ *«——Gregory Nyssen , who Wrote about the same time twice cites the text , and is of like count
with Athana ^ iusand Nazianzcn . — Jerom very briefly discovers his construction of the text , about 397 ; where he says , the spirit breathes where he will ; the earth
is the Lord ' s ^ and the fullness thereof" Austin ., about 397 , quotes the text , understanding it likewise of spirit in the proper sense ; as he docs constantly in all his works f . Thus have we brought down the old construction nearly to the end of the 4 th century : and not a single instance , or authority is to be , found to countenance the new . But about this time , the matter took a . turn : and the occasion of it is rather curious though by no means unusual among contending polemics .
Chrysostom , who favoured the new , and Austin who rejected it both a » ree as to the ground of the change . There had been 41 scruple of long standing , arising from the 12 th verse of this 3 d ch . of St . John , where our Lord
says ; If I hate told you earthly things , Spc . The doubt was , what our Lord could mean by these
earthly things . Surely ( thought some ) not baptism , which must be a heavenly mystery , , taken in
the whole . Qrigen had very acutely solved the difficulty , by observing , that earthly meant im ?
more than things done on earth ; &nd that the Greek word sTtiyeict not yyj'iva , ( as the objection supposed ) in strict propriety , could
bear no other meaning ; and cer-
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tainly baptism ' was a thing don « on earth . This just and cleaF solution was either not remembered ? or did not satisfy some ,
whose high veneration for baptism n-ould not permit them to call , or to think it an earthly thing , under any , the most favourable softenings * Theiefore
they thought of the ambiguity of the word spirit , in verse the 8 th ^ and construed it wind ; in order to make out some earthly thing s and save baptism harmless . —The Arians and Macedonians on one
side , and the Catholics fcn the other , warmly , con tested the matter ; and as Polemics are too apt to do , sought in the old and N , T . for texts , which by any stretch , warping , or contraction , would best support their respective cause and system . —Yet , notwithstand-r ing a few interpreted the text of
windy the generality interpreted it of spirit . And certain it is , that this old construction prevails ed as generally almost before the 15 th cent , as the new one has
done since . —Thus far , respecting authorities ; which though many , respectable and of the highest estimation , yet we must in this , a& in other cases of like nature ^ resort to scripture , reason and fair criticism , to determine the true
meaning and import of any part , or of any particular text . The learned author of the lilS * has given a pretty diffuse coin- * mentary on the whole of this interesting dialogue between our
Lord and Nicodemus ; in ureter to show , by its subject , nature and connexion , how necessary it was to affix the same meaning to the leading word , in every part q (
* Artb . de Sp . Sanctp , K iii . ch . x . p . 677 . Tom . ii . E ( J | Benedict f Agvst . ad Simp . Tarn , Up Q ^ z * p * 104 * Tom , vi .
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90 Observations on the use of tne Word tlvsv ^ oc ^
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1809, page 90, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1733/page/34/
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