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    Supposing then the true rendering of the words to be ( as I contend it is ) f Ascend up where he was before , " I cannot imagine that our Lord or any man would make use of such a phrase to describe a mere restoration to life .

    Could our Lord mean by this mode of expression to convej 7 the idea that when he returned to life he should " ascend up" upon his feet , and stand upon the ground ** where he had stood" before he

    was put to death ? Or could he mean to say , that 6 C returning to lite he should ascend up" out of the tomb ( which probably was not below the surface of the earth )

    upon the earth iC where he was before ? " Such an interpretation of the words , appears to me , altogether arbitrary , unsupported by any evidence , and almost an insult on common sense .

    Dr . Priestley has given a meaning to the passage equally remote both from Mr . Bclsh-am ' s and Mr . Simpson ' s . His words are * ,

    u you offended , that I should speak of myself under the character of bread to be eaten by you , when I mean my doctrine , which is to be received and

    digested for your spiritual nourishment ? That I have spoken of myself as sent down from heaven , as was the manna on which the Israelites subsisted in the wilderness ?

    You may perhaps see more truth in this representation than you now imagine , when you shall see nie actually and really go up into heaven , from whence I have now spoken of myself as having descended , in a figurative sense

    only . " It is curious to observe how 'Hcse learned expositors ^ ( each of

    * Harmony of the Gospels , p . xoi .

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    them with the manifest view of weakening and setting aside the evidence contained in this passage for die doctrine of thte pre-existence of Jesus Christ ) contradict themselves and each other ; one

    of them affirming that , " To ascend up where he was before /* means first , ** to he instructed in the mind and will of GodJ * € t to search into divine truth" theft

    that it means , " To disclose truths still more remote from their apprehension ; " another that it means " to rise from the dead ; " and a third , that it means , " actually and really to go up into heaven ,

    where he was before , from whence he had spoken of himself as having descended in a figurative sense only . " But if , as the doctor says , avGc € xivcv means actually and real "

    ly to go up into heaven , is there any ambiguity in the following words , " Where he was before V Do they not plainly and clearly mean , without a iigure , that he had descended from heaven ?

    Such is the consequence , when men , departing from the obvious meaning of scripture , bewilder themselves and others with meta - phorical and fanciful explanations ,

    unnatural in themselves , incapable of proof , and utterly unintelligible . Only affirm a plain ex * pression to be figurative , and it may be made to mean any thing but what it really means .

    Mr . Belsham and Dr . Priestley tell us that by " the bread of life " Jesus means his doctrine ; but by what authority ? He says that he means himself They tell us that eating that bread , and eating hi ? iiy mean believing his doctrine * He himself explains what he means , v . 35 . " Jcbus said unto them ,

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    } fr . Marsam ' s Defence of the Pre'existence of Christ . Let . III . 555

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1808, page 555, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2397/page/31/