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
sively belongs , and whom , when thus absolutely used , it as unequivocally designates , as that of Abraham does the father of the faithful .
The original words that follow , warra , 8 * qlvtS eysvzTo , &c , referring to the operation or agency of the word , may be understood either with respect to the creation of the natural world ,
or to the dispensation of the gospel . And in either sense they may be said in truth , according to that view of the nature of the Divine Word or Acyoq for which I am contending : for the Word which dwelt in Christ , the
source of his divine powers and lifegiving energy , was the very same to which the world itself owed its being . ce By the word of the Lord were the heavens made . " We need not ,
therefore , contend with much eagerness about this point ; but the coherence of the whole passage , and its harmony with the corresponding passage in the Epistle , may seem to be better preserved if this third verse be referred
entirely to the Gospel . In that case the English must run thus : * ' By or through it ( i . e , the Word ) were all things done , and without it was nothing done that has been done . " But let me leave this question for others to decide .
That the nature and operation of this Word may be better understood , the Apostle proceeds to say that in it zcas Ufe , and the life was the light of men : it was a principle of life and spiritual illumination . This evidently refers to the Gospel , and needs no
comment . In the Epistle the Word is called the word of life . Indeed , we have , on the whole , three names given as of the same thing , the word , life , and the word of life . Let me ask , by the way , of those who prefer the
Socinian interpretation , whether these titles do not most naturally convey the idea of an impersonal principle I Had the Apostle ' s design been to name his Master , there were surely appellations at hand much more proper for his purpose than these abstract terms . Is it not more reasonable to
conclude , since the writer falls upon three abstract impersonal terms to designate the thing of which he speaks , that the thing itself was indeed of an abstract and impersonal nature ? The discourse concerning the Word or Aoyof , does not appear to be re-
Untitled Article
sumed tmtil the 14 th verse ; for that which is said in the 10 th verse , " He was m the world , and the world was made by him , and the world knew him not" appears to be spoken immediately of God . In the 14 th verse the
Word is again mentioned : ** . The Word became fieshy and dwelt among us , and we beheld its glory" The Word , before spoken of as a life-giving and enlightening energy inherent in , and emanating from , the Divine Being , is now to assume a new form ; it is embodied in a mysterious manner
in the person of a man ; according to the conceptions of the writer of this Gospel , which are in a manner peculiar to himself , a sort of unity and identity is effected between the Jivine Xoyoq and the human person : and this mystical and undefined idea runs through his works . It is from this source that the current doctrines of
the deity and pre-existence of Jesus Christ have been derived , because theologians have not known how to distinguish mystical expressions from plain and literal ones 5 a similar error to that by which the Papists will have it that we actually feed , like cannibals , on the flesh and blood of our own
Master . And thus the majority , confounding the person of Jesus with the divine Word , interpret literally his declaration that he was come down from heaven , not discerning the mystical allusions of the writer . But to
understand a mystical writer literally , is doing as much violence as to understand a plain writer mystically . It might , perhaps , be shewn that Unitarians also fall into some error in this Gospel , by trying to make , the writer speak too much in their own plain way . But this may be a vain attempt . The fundamental idea of this author ,
that the \ oyo <; had become flesli in the person of Jesus , leads naturally to an identification of Jesus with God in a certain sense , though not in a literal and proper one . It is our duty ,
indeed , to give to mystical passages a rational interpretation , but to make them convey plain and simple ideas is a thing impossible , because contrary to their nature .
I observe some remarks by your intelligent correspondent , Mr . Cogan , ( pp . 605 and 646 , ) on the signification of the word jeubo-Qoci . I have not room at present to say more in reply , than
Untitled Article
724 On the Proem of John ' s Gospel .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1825, page 724, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2543/page/20/
-