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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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Untitled Article
tc We do , indeed , believe that Jesus Christ was the word of God , that is , conveyed to us his will and his truth ; but it is not just to charge us with maintaining that he was the first who ever discharged that office , for we do not believe that God spake to the world for the first time by and through him .
" It is not true that the divine interpositions and communications which have formerly taken place in the world , have proceeded from inferior beings , or other beings than the Supreme Jehovah . There has been no being or agent of any kind intervening to separate them from God . They have emanated from him alone . " After having , in this way , removed a large amount of error , and settled clearly the truth , the Evangelist goes on still further , and in the next proposition , y . a . 1 0 eq <; vjv 6 Aoyoq , ' the Word was God / or * God was the Word , ' positively and precisel y asserts the position for which , following the footsteps of Lowman , I argued in the former part of the Fifth Letter .
* ' So far , indeed , from the truth are those opinions to which I have already referred , which attribute all the communications of a divine nature heretofore made to the world , to other beings than Jehovah ; that , on the contrary , it is true , that in making these communications no other being , whether good or evil , high or low , has ever been employed at all . God himself , and alone , has acted and been concerned in them /' The author more briefly paraphrases the first verse thus :
" There were in the beginning divine communications to men . They have not proceeded from inferior or other beings , but directly and immediately from the Supreme God . The Supreme God has himself acted and been concerned in them . " " The meaning of the third verse , " the author considers to be "
something like this : " " It is not true that the creation is the work of angels or of inferior spirits , or that part of it is the production of a good , and part of it of an evil being . In all its parts , and laws , and relations , it was framed by the interposition , the command , the Word of God himself . The origin of all things is to be ascribed to him .
" Verse 4 . It will be impossible to develope the whole meaning of this verse without understanding all the ideas associated in the mind of the writer with 'Luyi and & > $ , which it would perhaps be unreasonable for us to expect to be able to do . All that we know is , that both these words were honoured with high stations in the philosophical schemes of that age . " " It seems clear that John , in this verse , overthrows the opinions which ascribed a distinct existence to Life and Light , and declares that the Word had discharged the same offices which they were erroneously supposed to have exercised . "P . 155 .
" ' In him was life . ' In these words John declares that Life was not a separate being from the Word , but that all the ideas which had been associated with that term should be considered as included within the meaning of Word .
" In the remaining clause of the verse , Life is used in the place of Word , and is said to be the same with Light also . * The Life was the Light of men ; ' and the Evangelist declares that those ideas which had been attached to Lig ht , viewed as the source from which men receive a knowledge of truth , should be connected with Life , or , since Life was declared to be comprehended in Word , should be connected with Word , and considered as embraced within its meaning . "—P . 155 .
We cannot assent to the position which the author soon after lays down : " Indeed , it seems to me to be quite evident that our Saviour himself was much addicted to the practice of adopting phrases current in the speculations
Untitled Article
Pamphlets on the Lo&os . 693
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1828, page 693, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2565/page/37/
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