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present letter : and I hope the reader will excuse me , if I occupy an unusual share of his attention . As I wish to develope those circumstances with the utmost brevity , I shall state what I ourpose saying in a series of remarks
1 . The larger Epistle of John furnishes the true clue for discovering" the main object which he had in publishing his Gospel . This Epistle is properly controversial , called forth by the prevalence of a certain heresy ^ hich threatened to undermine Christianity , and addressed to that church or churches
where that heresy prevailed . John , therefore , meets its base authors , opposes his own language with the utmost precision to the opinions they advanced , and directly notices them
as liars , false prophets and antichrist . This Epistle , therefore , was intended to be of a local nature , chiefly useful for the persons to whom it was addressed , though comprehending sentiments interesting to all Christians ,
especially where the same or similar errors had taken root . In the Gospel the Evangelist has the same end in view , but he comes to his end by less direct and obvious means . Here his Divine Master is the only speaker and a ^ ent : and as what he sai d and did ,
though bearing immediately on the errors of the times , were of high moment to mankind in all . ages and countries of the world , the sacred writer took care to keep his words as free as possible from all local and temporary disputes . With this intention lie selects such discourses or works in the
ministry of Jesus as were immediately calculated to set aside the doctrines of the impostors without specifically noticing them , contenting himself with stating facts , without apprizing the reader of his design , but leaving
¦ Jim to draw the proper inference * rom the bearings of those facts and the notoriety of the falsehoods to which they were opposed . Yet we see that the Evangelist states his design "J direct terms at the close of the gospel : « These things are written "ja t ye might believe that Jesus is the H > rist , the Son of God . ' Now , look * nto the Epistle , and you will there Perceive that the object of the writer was to enforce the proposition that Jesus is the Christ / ' or " that Je-J » s is the Son of God ; " and that in e erence to the men whom he notices ,
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and who endeavoured to set aside this proposition by saying that Jesus was not the Christ ; but that the Christ was a God , an empty phantom in the appearance of the man Jesus , or a God dwelling for a season in the man
Jesus . Here , then , we have foundation for saying , that the Gospel of John is throughout levelled against the Gnostics . We have , therefore , reason to infer that the proper way to interpret his exordium is to bringit in contact with the sentiments of those deceivers .
2 . The Greek and Latin Fathers have given a full account of the Gnostics and their heresies . The crimes imputed to them are revolting to human nature . They reduced
immorality to a system ; and , as Paul says of them , gloried in their shame . The opinions they held were too ridiculous and absurd to have been seriously believed , and must have been affected to
answer a sinister end . The object of the heresiarchs , without exception , was to burlesque Christianity , and to establish in disguise a system of Atheism . Unable to destroy the gospel by open violence , they endeavoured to undermine it . With this view they taught two principles which struck at the root of natural and revealed
religion . They maintained that the Christ was a supernatural being , not the man Jesus , but a God in his shape , or dwelling in him . Being a God , he did his miracles by means of his own underived power , and appeared after death by virtue of his own nature .
On this principle the resurrection of the dead , the very foundation of the Christian religion , is erased ; as the resurrection of a being who by nature is superior to death , cannot be a proof and a pledge of the resurrection of beings who by nature are subject to death .
The other fundamental principle on which they insisted was , that the Creator of the world was an evil , imperfect being ; - while they pretended
to have revealed an all-perfect Deity , hitherto unknown . This proves ut once that , whatever they might affect , they were at heart real Atheists . For it is not to he supposed , that if , against all evidence from reason and
revelation , they rejected an Almighty Author of nature , they could seriously believe in a God who , according to
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Dr . % / . Janes on the Proem of John ' s Gospel . 649
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v . xx . 4 o
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1825, page 649, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2542/page/9/
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