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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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f ^ i <\ 'J 8 <^ 'Wvmrs £ inl y * perusfeg 4 I 10 Goapbh vd * fc fitii tbat the dkeet objec t <> f the E ^ angfilisi i p writing it ^ s to pjrove the proposition which tbe Cermtbian $ 4 euied , namely , that Jesus was the Son af God- md that ? ke { testimonies which he cites in proof
of this proposition , are reducible to tbree-r-the testimony of the Father at his baptism ; the . testimony of the Logos performing wonderful works in the person of Jesus ; and the testi * mony of the Holy Spirit to the ascension of Jesus , after being put to death . In the Epistle we have the author's
own express declaration , that he wrote it against certain false teachers , whom he " calls antichrist ^ liars aad false teachers , who denied the Father and tbe Son . ( See chap . ii . 32 . ) These were the CerinLhians . Accordingly , the burden of the Epistle is to prove that Jesus is the Son of God or the Christ :
and the text of the three Heavenly Witnesses contains those proofs j and they are the very proofs which establish the same fact in the Gospel , here , indeed , drawn up in a connected summary view , while they are there dispersed and separately alleged as
occasion required . Take away the disputed verse as spurious , and you take away all the evidence , and the only evidence , in the Epistle which defeats the impostors against whom John wrote the Epistle . If the verse
be spurious theu the Apostle neglected the testimonies , and the only testimonies , which verify the divine mission of Jesus , which it was his object to enforce—he neglected the testimonies , and the only testimonies , which
prove those deceivers to be liars , whom he holds forth as liars . Is such a neglect morally possible ? No , Mt on the supposition that John had common sense . But he had common
sense : every where he evinces a sense toore tUaa
% John wrote his Gospel to refute tto Docetcv . These admitted that j teuia was the Christ ; but they denied "M he had real flesh aud blood . It 18 allowed on all hands , that the Evan ^ S ^ list had an eye to this doctrine , in Curding the incident of the soldier wciqg the pericardia ., a&d tima-caus *
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mg fylmdimd w ® te ® t # issue from it Jn theimx ^ k f £ « fcpter » of the Epistle , he notices the authors of ihe % mp < j&r ture , which this feet was calculated to set aside ; and in the eighth versei , allowed to be genuine , the Apostfte repeats the fact in this form : " Aad there are three which bear testimony oa
the earth , the spirit , the water and the blood , and these three agree in one . " Here we see that John notices the Docetse in his Epistle , and he brings , in the eighth verse , three testimonies to refute them . If , then , the eighth verse is a refutation of the Docetae , we are to conclude that the seventh
was intended by him as a refutation of the Cerinthians ; or did he refute the Docetae , who were less prevalent , because far less specious , but left the Cerinthians unrefuted , who threatened the very extinction of the Gospel , because far more plausible and generally received ?
3 . In the eighth verse John proves that our Lord , as having a real body , actually died : but this in itself proves nothing—for every man dies . But take this in connexion with the
seventh , where it is implied that Jesus was still alive , under the official name of Logos , and this implication , with the subsequent verse , proves every thing : for it proves that he who had died , was now alive : and this is the
way which the same writer speaks of his Divine Master elsewhere : " I who am alive , was dead , and shall live ages without end . ^ Rev . i . 18 . 4 . It is , then , a fact which invites examination , and defies contradiction , as founded on the eternal basis of
truth , that the text of the Heavenly Witnesses attests the simple humanity of Christ , in opposition to certain false teachers who maintained the divinity of Christ . 5 . The conclusion which , with
equal force and clearness , follows from this , is , that a text asserting the simple humanity of Christ , cannot have been a forgery of any among tiie Greek and Latin fathers , all of whom , in imitation of the Gnostics , insisted on his divinity as essential to Christianity .
6 . A train of mighty events , according with the authenticity of the verse , and the true sense of it , succeeded in Ecclesiastical History , which , being supported by independent evi-
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ffeavenlg W $ tw&m , m Mepty m theMtrigtmy&i fjf- $ ke ^ Rev * -j&JEvans . : $ ti&
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1826, page 753, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2555/page/53/
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