On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
explanation of the nature of the pre-existence of Jesus Christ , . or of what he was in his pr ** -existent state , before I had adduced evidence in support of the fact , I
confined myself in my observations on Mr . Belsham entirely to the proof of that point , in which , if I have succeeded , the truth of that fact cannot be overthrown or
weakened by any such queries as those of your correspondent . ' Presuming , then , the truth of the fact of the pre-exist ^ nce of Jesus Ghrist ( which must necessarily be presumed in order to the following observations , ) I shall proceed to give my thoughts on the subject ^ in reply to your correspondent . First , your correspondent asks , iC What rank amidst the creatures
of God do those who believe the pre-existence imagine that Jesus Christ held before he appeared on earth ? " The New Testament uniformly represents Jesus Christ
as a mali ; Peter expressly calls him , * A man approved of God by miracles and signs which God did by him . " Nor have the
Scriptures , I believe , ever intimated that he is or ever was any other than a man . That he pre-existed as a super-angtiic being , or as a pure human soul or spirit no where appears ; sucU terms , as applied to him , are certainly not to be found in the Scripture * , which is a sufficient reason for
rejecting them . To his being a man in that state , it was not necessary that he should be produced by , or that 'he should descend from some other man ; for this was not the case of the firsft man . As the first man then was our pro-
Untitled Article
totype , to whose image we were to be conformed in the present state , is it not natural to suppose , admitting * the pre-cxistence of Jesus Christ , that he was designed to be . the prototype to whom we should be conformed in the future
state , and that it was necessary in order to raise us to that state , that he should be made like unto us . in all things ?* The apostle comparing Adam and Christ , says of the origin of the first man , that 4 C he wab of the earth , earthy ; but
of the second man , that he was from heaven ,-heavenly ; for he adds , " As is the earthy , such are they also that are earthy ; and as i » the heavenly ,, such are they also that are heavenly ; and as we have borne the imase of the
earthy , we shall also bear the image of the heavenly / ' That man is capable of existence in different states , and under very different circumstances , we must believe , if we believe in the
resurrection and a state of future existence ; why , then , may we not suppose , that the person of Christ in his pre-existcnt state was precisely what it is now , and that the change which took place in him in his humiliation was in all
respexts the reverse of that which took place in him at his resurrection , and of that which will take place in us at our resurrection ? And do not the words of the apostle ( Rom . i . 4 . ) strongly corroborate this idea ? >
Secondly , your correspondent asks , u Do the ' pre * existarians believe that he came on earth in I he same nature as he possessed before , or that he underwent a change , and became at his con *
* Sec % Cor . viii , 9 .
Untitled Article
Mr . Marsom on the Pre-Existence of Christ . 301
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1810, page 301, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2405/page/29/
-