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fore could not pi > y for it . We may apply the reasoning of Paul respecting hope to this subject , and say , ' * ' what a man seeth , that is , what he is in possession ofwhdoth he for ?
, y yet pray " To prove that this glory- was unquestionably the glory of publishing the gospel , Mr . Belsham refers to verse 8 , 14 and adds * , < f they were his messengers to mankind , as he had been his
Father s messenger , v . 18 . In the former of these verses , our Lord says , " I have given unto them the words ( not the glory ) which thou gavest me . " In the 14 th
verse the same thing is repeated , but there is not any thing said 3 . bout giving them a glory . In the 18 th verse , our Loid savs to his Father , " as thou hast sent me into the world ; so have I sent
them into the world . " Or as Mi \ Belsham has it-, cQ They were his messengers to mankind , as he had been his Father ' s mcsseiigeiV Very true ; but what has this to do with Ihfc subject ? He had been his Fa ^
ther ' s messenger , the words which he spake , were the words which } iis father had given him , he had published the gospel to the world , and now when he had just finish *
# d the work which his father had given him to do , did he pray that he might be scut to do it over again ? For this , Mr . Belsham says , was unquestionably the glory ( or which he prayed .
The comparison in the 18 th verse , between tlie mission of Jt-sus Christ and that of his disciples , i ^ frequently adduced as an argument against his pre-exist * eucv ; but that argument is without any real foundation in the
* M . Rq > os , vol , ii , p . 550 , f Ibid .
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passage , because the comparison is only a partial one , or in other words their mission is compared
with the mission of Jesus with respect to one part of it only , that is , his being sent into the world : whereas the mission of Jesus , a * we have seen in a former letter on chap . xvi . 28 . consisted of two parts , his coining forth from the
Father , as well as his coming into the world . Now in the latter sense only , is the mission of Jesus and that of his apostles compared . He does not say that as he came
jorth from the Father , and \ va $ his messenger to mankind , so they also came forth from the Father , and were sent by him into the world . He mifrht
therefore say , that as the father had sent him into the world , so h « had sent them into the world consistently with his having come down from heaven .
Secondly , Mr . Belsham says . that Jesus had this glory befor 4 the world wa $ , not really , but only in the purpose of God ; an assertion utterly destitute of support from the Scriptures .
Hispraytr , says Mr . Belshamf , was that he might be " honoured as the instrument of instructing
mankind in truth and goodness , and in making them virtuous and happy ; and he was desirous that his apostles might share with him in his honour and felicity / ' A prayer which might have had
some propriety in it , if addiessed to his Father before he entered
on his ministry , but is utterly unaccountable if addressed to him at the close of it .
" Thib glory , " he adds , " he had given thenv , that is , "it was
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654 Mr , Marsvm ' s Defence of the Pre-existence of Christ . Let . IV .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1808, page 654, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2399/page/18/
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