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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.
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the <^ j « cc ^ t . ii > f ^ ti ^ lllg ^ yJSi ^ t ^^ k ^ t ii ^ '' Apostles as the last seal vvhidlj t ^ e hand of God put not only to the divine mission of Jesus , but to the simple
humanity of Jesus , and that in direct opposition to certain impostors who sought to undermine his religion by teaching his divinity . This is the reason why every miracle which the apostles ever wrought , was wrought in the name of the man Jesus . Hence the
propriety of such language as the following : ' * By this ye know the Spirit of God : every spirit that confesseth Jesus to be the Christ , and to have come in the flesh , is of God : and every spirit which confesseth not Jesus to be the Christ , and to have come in the flesh , is not of God . And this is
that spirit of Antichrist , " &e . It was allowed on all hands that Jesus was a man ,, and simply a man . The Apostle , therefore , in maintaining the Christ to be Jesus , and to have come in the flesh , maintains that the Christ was a
feal man , and simply a man . To this the Spirit of God bears testimony , and he who believes it , is born of God . The Antichristian teachers , on the contrary , in maintaining the Christ to be God , maintained that he was not Jesus ; him , as being really and simply a mkn , they rejected with
execration . The divinity , of Christ , was one of those mysteries which the impostors pretended to have discovered by their superior wisdom , but which the Spirit of God withheld from the apostles as
men of no education . Accordingly they pretended to be more competent teachers than those simple , illiterate men . To this John alludes , when he tells the believers " they had no need that any ? should teach them , because
they had been taught by the Holy Spirit sftfcd upon them . " The language of John here is that of Jesus , John xvi . 13 , where he assured his disciples , that the Comforter , the
Holy Spirit , the spirit of truth , would lead them to the whole truth , Would leave nbtMrtg unrevealed , which might be necessary for them to know or to teach , and that consequently the men who affected to reveal certain
mysteries , hitherto unknown to the apostles , were liars and impostors . To conclude : the proposition that Jesus is the Christ , or that Jesus 13 the Sim of God , implies t ^ the
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Christ is a rsgl i ^ ?? % i | d [ spply a map endued wltU extraordinary power and wisdom fi | p ^ GdcL [ % ' Trtii ^ ojughpat the whol $ of his Epistle , and even his Gospel , the object of John is to establish t || e truth of this propoaitj $ h ^ against $ e % who deij ^ d it , VLn ^ Me specious plea of maintaining' his divinity . He grounds the eti 4 ^ ftfe 4 ^| it on three testimonies—tfee ^|^|^ ny of the Father , the testimd ^^ tj ^ Word , the testimony of the Holy
Spirit . These three are one testimony , or are testimonies to one and the same , object . They announce tile divine mission of Jesus , appear in his ministry , lie dispersed m the Gospel , and concentrated on the disputed % e $ t .
They are the sole pillars on tvlBch Christianity rests . Remove them as spurious , and the whole edifice falls to the ground . This sense of the verse shews that , though John wrote it , Christ is
vjrtually the author of it . The materials of it are scattered throughout his Gospel and the larger Epistle , and the Apostle has collected them , and placed them together here in one concise view . The last words of Jesus
to his apostles , of themselves prove this to be a fact : " Go ye an ^ p ak e disciples of all nations , l ) aptizi pgj || em m the name of the Father , of JpS ^ Son and the Holy Spirit j" which fs to this effect : " Go and convert the nations ,
initiating them in the knowledge of a new religion , and alleging for its truth the authority and testimony of the Father , the testimony of the Son , and the testimony of the Holy Spirit . " Now , it'inight be expected that , if the
three heavenly Witnesses , in the supposed spurious verse , be , as I have proved , a formula against the Gnostics , the original formula formed and used by our Lord mjust have been drawn up for the same | gtirpose . And this is a fact demonstrable from the
words of Irenaeus on this veiy subject . That father , p . 91 , says , " They ( the Gnostics ) lead the disciple to the water , and , on baptizing him , they thus say , —Unto the namje of the Unkii 0 wu
Father of all ; unto Truth , the mother of all ; unto him which came down on Jesus . " Here the formula of Christ and that of the Gnostics stand
indirect opposition to each other , the obj ^ jtffrtlf ^ 9 ^ e being to establish the tlf ^| Hf'the Gospel against its eae-
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' ¦ */ - > > " »• • - . -. •¦ ¦ tfl- « SEWF' ¦¦ r ut - > " *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1826, page 19, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2544/page/19/
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