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of the writer in using this pointed and energetic language . And this remark shews the futility of the ingenious Mr . Robinson ' s sarcastic animadversions on the Unitarian interpretation of the passage in his Plea for the
Ditinity of Jesiis Christ * a book , nevertheless , which contains the best and most eloquent defence of that doctrine which has , perhaps , ever yet appeared , and reflects equal credit on the talents and on the integrity of its author . The common English translation . of this text , suggests a sense decidedly at variance with the uniform tenour
of Scripture . But the propriety of retaining the literal sense of the term iyKOLrf ^ ov is , I think , obvious from what has already been remarked ; and I may add , it is still farther confirmed by our Lord ' s own language ; for in John x . 8 , speaking of those false shepherds who obtruded themselves into the fold of God , and claimed
divine honours , he explicitly denominates such persons thieves and robbers . Compare Acts viii . 9 , 10 , and 2 Thess . ii . 4 . But divested himself of it , i . e . of that divine or supernatural I y splendid form which he assumed on the mount ,
and which , had he been so disposed , he might have retained . So far , however , was he from seeking his own aggrandisement and exaltation , that , as soon as it had answered the end proposed , he laid it aside and assumed a character and situation exactly the
reverse , taking upon him the form of a servant . How striking a contrast is here ! and how necessary it is that it should be preserved in the translation Wakefield , though he may have given the general sense of the passage , has
not expressed it with that point and energy which the original manifestly disp lays—the form of a servant . We nave seen , that in the former verse the apostle had been alluding to one specific and remarkable occurrence , and we shall find that he here refers to
another ; thus preserving the strength and beauty of the contrast . And ^ hen did Jesus assume the form , in other words , sustain the character of J servant * Surely , when after girding himself
with a towel , he washed the Jeet of his diseiples . Such a singular ^ stance of condescension in one whom they regarded as their Teacher and **> ra , was not less likely to live in the
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recollection of the apostles , than the luminous and transporting scene which had presented itself on the mount ; aud it is no wonder that we find Paul making honourable mention of it , and deducing , from so memorable an act of humility and affection , an argument to enforce on his brethren the
indispensable obligations they were under to be mutually affectionate and condescending one to another . The impostors , while they maintained the Divinity of Christ , asserted that he was a man only in appearance , denviner at the same time the realitn denying- at the same time the reality
of his death . They denied his death , with a view to set aside the scriptural doctrine of the resurrection ; arid it is probable they rejected his real humanity , that they might have a more plausible pretext for disputing the
reality of his death ; and thus we see why the great doctrines of the humanity and death of Jesus were necessarily connected and associated together in the ? nind of our apostle ; and likewise , why the apostles in general , both in their discourses and in their
epistles , so frequently recur to these topics , and appear to lay so much stress upon them . It is to these that the writer next adverts . Who being in the likeness of men , and proved to be in frame as a man , abased himself so as to become obedient unto death , even the death of the cross , i . e . as Jesus in form resembled men , so he was
found or proved , on the fullest investigation , to be really a man . The term Ev ^ eQeig found or prove $ , seems to be used in a judicial sense , and implies full and satisfactory evidence of the
fact ( compare John xx . 27 , Acts i . 3 , JLuke xxiv . 39 » and 1 John i . 1 , & , c . ) ; and as a farther confirmation of his ' possessing a real human nature , and at the same time a mind infinitely exalted above all selfish or ambitious
views , he submitted to a death at once the most public , painful and ignominious that can be conceived . " Wherefore , or on which account God also hath highly exalted him , agreeably to the tenour of his own declaration , he that humbUth himself shall be exalted . That the exaltation of Jesus
to a state of unrivalled dominion and supreme felicity , was the reward of his previous self-abasement and voluntary sufferings , is the uniform doctrine both of the Old and of the New Tea-
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Biblical Criticism . — Dr . Alexander on Philip , ii . fl—11 . 015
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1817, page 615, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2469/page/43/
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