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Untitled Article
lowed to signify becoming acquainted with the mind and Wi \[ of God , we humbly conceive that the correlate phrase to corne down from heaveny may without violence be understood as expressing a commission to communicate the will of God to mankind . Had the first clause of the sentence expressed a local assent , it would have been natural to have interpreted the second , of a local descent . But if the first clause is to be taken figuratively , as all allow , it is surelv most reasonable to understand
the second figuratively likewise . To descend from heaven therefore in the language of the apostle John is to be honoured with a divine commission to instruct mankind . In this sense it
agrees with ihe analogous phrases , of being sent from God , or coming from Gcd , which are also applied to Jesus and to John the baptist * and to other prophets , and which are universally understood as expressing , not a local mission , but a divine credential .
Let this then be considered as an established fact , and In reading the writings of John let it be constantly borne in mind that this evangelist by the phrase coming down from heaven means nothing more than a divine commission to communicate the counsels and the will of God . And if this fact , which I conceive to be established beyond all contradiction , be
properly attended to , it will soon appear that the fourth evangelist , whatever may be pretended to the contrary , has done as little to establish the pre-existence of Christ as the other three , and that all are unanimous in their testimony to Jesus , not as a super-angelic being , but as a teacher sent from God . This I regard as & palmary argument , and as affording a complete solution of every text which represents Jesus as having descended from heaven . Of these therefore any further notice is
unnecessary . iv . John vi . G 2 . " What , and if ye shall see the son of man ascend up where he was before } y > " To ascend up where he was before , " in the connexion in which it stands signifies to ascend up into heaven . But this phrase , as Bcza , Raphclius , Doddridge and many others have well observed , signifies to be instructed in the mind and will of God , to search into divine truth . To see the Son of man ascend to
heaven , must therefore mean to perceive and discern that he is informed of these difficult and remote truths . And this I conceive to be the meaning which is best suited to the occasion and to the connexion , in which the words are introduced . Our Lord ' s indention was to repel from his society the multitude that followed him Ji'ouii £ c !({; Vh : aid ambitious motives , and in answer !•
Untitled Article
54 c 6 Mr . Belsharn ' s Strictures on Carpenter ' s Lectures *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1807, page 546, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2385/page/38/
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