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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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" I came down Jrom heaven / 9 says Christ ; himself , not ^ to do any own will , but the will of him that sent me . ' *— " I seek not my own will , but the will of the
Father who hath sent me . " — "I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day . "— " My meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work . "
Some light will , perhaps , be thrown upor ^ the phrases , by considering them in connection with the avowed end and object of Christ ' s coming into the world , as stated by the apostle , namely , to save sinners ; for even if we were
to conceive of them as generally referring to the birth of Christ , yet still in this instance we must refer the meaning of the apostle ' s words to the commencement of his public ministry . For , it was not
by his entrance into life , it was not by any thing that parsed before his baptism , that the salvation of sinners was promoted by him . All this period is passed over by
the evangelists , if not in pea feet silence , yet with very little notice , as being , perhaps , unknown to themselves , or , however , as of no consequence to be known to others . Nor are the transactions
of it ever once mentioned , or so much as referred to by our Lord himself , in any thing that remains to us of his conversations or discourses : neither we , box the nten of that generation , had any interest in them . He was to be
the Saviour of mankind , but he appeared not in that character , until he entered on his prophetic office , after John tbe Baptist had finished his i » ini&try ., and was cast into prison . It was then , when his public ministry commenced , that Christ assumed the peculiar
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character of the Saviour of sinners , which was its ? great end and object ; an argument in this instance , surely , that when the apostle said , cC he came into the world to save sinners / ' he looked no further back than to this
period . To save sinners , was , indeed , the great business of his public life , that by which he was pre-eminently distinguished while he was on earth ; but the object of his birth was more
extensive-He was born indeed to do this , because it was a service to which he was appointed , but he was also born to enjoy the happiness which was annexed to these ser *
vices as their reward . He himself distinguishes upon this subject . Pilate , in the course of his examination , says to him , < 4 Then , thou art a king , " Jesus replies , " Thau sayest right , for a king I
am , to this I was born , I was born to be a king . "— ' It was the intention of my father , when he gave me birth , tbat I should obtain a kingdom/— " And for this cause came I into the world "—
for what ? to bear witness to the truth . " For this cause I quitted the obscurity in which till lately I have lived , that I might publish , tbose important truths nvhich . 1 have received from God , and this
among the rest that 1 am bora unto a kingdom / ' In this pas * sage , whatever sense be given to it , it must be acknowledged that our Lord himself distinguishes be * tween his birth and his coming into the world . He cannot be
supposed to say , for this cause I was born , and for ( his cause also I was born , that I jnight bear witness to the truth ; and if the interpretation here given be right , he distinguishes not only between
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Mr . Cappe , on sdtne Scriptural Phrases . 187
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1810, page 187, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2403/page/27/
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