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    points : ; PUt the object of them all was uniformly the same , namely , to render the doctrine of Jesus of no effect , by blending it with falsehoods This is what John calls Antichrist ; and so active and numerous were the

    teachers and supporters of this system , that they followed the apostles in their labours , and with considerable success introduced it into the several churches in spite of all their efforts . in

    Now , chap * Hi . ver . 17 , of this very Epistle , commences an illustratratiori of this statement : " Brethren , be ye imitators of Him , whom I also imitate , and observe those who walk conformably to him , as ye have a pattern in us . For many walk , of

    whom I have told you often , and now tell you even weeping * that they are enemies of the cross of Christ ; whose end is the destruction of others , whose God is . their belly , and whose glory is in their shame , whose mind is on earthly things . "

    So congenial was the system of the impostors to the corrupt propensities of men , that many in the church at Philippi seem to have embraced it , and followed the example of its

    unworthy teachers . In refereuce to their success in this respect , Paul calls on the converts to join him in imitating Christ , and to take . the apostles for a pattern in so doing . ; The same wicked men were enemies of the cross of

    Christ , because they denied his crucifixion , pretending to honour him by holding forth the sacrament , not as a memorial of his death , but of his divinity . To their pretence to extol him as a God , in this festival , the

    apostle refers , when he says , that the God whom they really worshiped was their belly . The sum and substance of the Gnostic system was this : " Christ is a God ; he neither died nor rose again in reality : there is therefore no resurrection of the dead , no life to

    come , in which the virtuous shall be rewarded and the guilty punished , and his true disciples , instead of being restrained from sinning , have a privilege to sin with impunity : " hence

    they are said to fix their mind on earthly things , and to glory in their shame , or , as Jude truly says of them , " they turned tbe / ree gospel of God into lascivpousnesH . " They appear to have argued against faq second

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    coming of our Diviae Master to raise the dead ^ i from the nature oft the human body ; and this argument was the circumstance which called forth the following animating declaration of the apostle : " For " our citizenship is in

    heaven , whence we « xpect Our Sa * vipur , the Lord Jesus -Christ , who will change our humble body , so as to become in form like his glorious body , according to that energy by which he is able to subject all things unto himself . " ^

    The apostle having thus set aside the pernicious tenets of the impostors , concludes , « Wherefore * my brethren ,, beloved and greatly desired , my joy and crown , thus stand firmly in the Lord , my beloved ... ; . .- * and henceforth brethren , whatsoever things are

    true , whatsoever things are venerable , whatsoever things are just * whatsoever things are pure , whatsoever things are benevolent , whatsoever things are of good report , if there be aiiy virtue , and if there be any praise , think oa these things . ' * These sentiments are

    exceedingly beautiful in themselves , but their beauty and propriety must appear greatly increased when it is considered , that they are levelled against men who laboured to entail on the qhureh at Philippi , principles and practices that were in direct opposition to them . And to enforce them

    more pointedly on the attention of the converts , he adds , " The things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me , do ;*? that is , in me , and not those which ye see in those fstfse teachers who have introduced themselves among you .

    I will now advert to the disputed passage— . " Who being in a form of God , —divested himself of it , " &c . This form cannot mean his miraculous power , because he never divested himself of that power . It cannot mean the glory which , in the eyes of the

    world , he might have acquired by a selfish use of it , because he never was possessed of such glory . The term ® £ o <; f God , it is well known implieft immortality , as opposed to what is mortal . It also implies liyht ,, it being derived from a word in Hebrew and

    Arabic ; which signifies to shine . To this import of the term ; John , seemingly aJludes , when tje says , that God is light ; and James , when he desig-

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    Biblical Cnticim ^^ n . MiUp , " 5 ^ 41 ^ $ 91

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1818, page 391, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2477/page/47/