* them is to hurt it. And where a writer is on the fide of ▲ truth, and is mafter of the best reasoning to defend it, what pity is it, that he should raise a prejudice in the minds of pious readers, by the fharpnefs and violence of his expreffions! But fure no author can be more contemptible than he whofe arguments are as weak as his language is unpolite; and who feems to aim at no other method of gaining approbation, than that of arrogance in himself, and railing against ⚫ others.

Who is a wife man and endued with knowledge amongst you? • let him fhew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom, &c. James iii. 13.

We now proceed to felect fome fpecimens of the judgment and penetration of the author, in the execution of his defign. Chap. 1. verfe 1. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

St John here alludes to Gen, i. 1. where in the beginning cannot mean from eternity, because the fubject to which it refers, was creation in time. Nor can the expreffion be understood to fignify eternity paft, without departing from the ufual fenfe of words. Beginning relates to fome period; but eternity has no period, no beginning. St. John's meaning, I think, is plainly this; that the perfon whom he defigns by the term, the word, he whofe name is called THE WORD of God, Rev. xix. 13. was not begotten of his father, at the precife time, when the world began, but was then with God; and confequently exifted with his father before the world was, without intending to denote any limitation of time whatever to his existence, antecedent to the ' creation.'

The word was with God, and the word was God.

• Chrift was with God at the creation of the world, a real perfon diftinct from him with whom he was. And he with whom Chrift then was, is called eos, God in a peculiar and abfolute fenfe; God, self-exiftent, unoriginated, independent, and fupreme over all, Κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ Πανοκgalog, the Lord God Almighty. Our bleffed Saviour is indeed tyled beos, a God; that is, a divine perfon; but whatever dignity is included in this term, he is however here diftinguifhed from 880s, the fupreme God; and thus diftinguished must be fubordinate to him. For two co-ordinate, felfexiftent, abfolutely fupreme beings are a contradiction. This diftinétion is fufficiently evident from the nature of the • Greek language to all who are fkilled in it: but if it fhould be fuggefted that, becaufe this is now a dead language, fuch criE 2 ⚫tical

tical remark is not to be depended upon, I answer, that both Origen and Eufebius, who must be allowed to have understood the language in which they wrote, and were men of eminent learning in the early ages of Christianity, have taken notice of this difference, for the fame purpose as I have mentioned.'

Verfe 2. The fame was in the beginning with God.

Here St. John repeats that this divine perfon was present with God, in the beginning, when the world was made, to inforce his argument, against certain heretics of that time, who denied, that our bleffed Saviour had an existence before his incarnation."

Verfe 3.

All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made, that was made.

This verfe cannot, without an apparent force upon the context, as well as contradiction to the clear sense of other paflages in fcripture, chap. i. 10. Heb. i. 2. Coloff. i. 16. refer, as the Socinians pretend, to the new and figurative creation by the gofpel; but to the real creation of the world. All things therefore were made through Chrift, or by his miniftry, under the direction of God, the fupreme creator. And that this is the true fenfe of di aulou, through him, in this place, is confirmed beyond contradiction by other parts of fcripture, where it is faid God created all things by Jefus Christ, dia Indou Xp1500, THROUGH Jefus Chrift, Ephef. iii. 9. and by whom, di du, THROUGH whom alfo he, that is, GOD, made the worlds. Heb. i. 2. Eufebius obferves upon this text, that the apoftle does not fay-All things were made by Chrift, in' avlov, but THROUGH him, di aulou, that he might carry our thoughts to the fupreme creative power of the Father, as the independent maker of the univerfe. De Ecclefiaft. Theol. lib. i. cap. xx. And in this he expreffed the • unanimous fenfe of the church. God the fon was a miniftring caufe, acting in fubordination to God his father, who, C as the fcriptures univerfally affirm, and all creeds acknowledge, was the maker of heaven and earth. Thou art worthy O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power; for THOU haft created all things, and for THY pleasure they are preferved in being, and were at firft created. Rev. iv. 11. Agreeably to this notion, Chrift frequently declares, that he can of his OWN-SELF do nothing, John v. 19, 30. and that all power is GIVEN unto him, in heaven and in earth, Math. xxviii. 18. . The declarations of the celebrated Dr. Waterland upon this fub Et may not be unacceptable to fome of our readers: Indeed,

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Indeed, fays he, the general opinion of the antients cen-
ered in this; that the father, as fupreme, iffued out or-
ders for the creation of the universe, and the fon executed
them. Waterland's defence of fome queries, page 184. third
edition.

Verfe 14. The word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

• The fame divine perfon, who was in the beginning with
God; who had glory with God before the world was, chap.
'xvii. 5. came down from heaven, in the fulness of time, and
condefcended to take upon him our nature, to be made man,
and to dwel! among us.
And this he fubmitted to, in com-
'pliance to the will of God, who fent him, and prepared a
body for him, Heb. GOD fent forth his fon made of a
6 woman, Gal. iv. 4.

Thus this verse has a clear and easy meaning, free from
'confufion of natures or persons. The fon of God, the Lord
of glory, was individually the same person, the fame agent,
while he converfed upon earth, as he was, when in the form
of God, before he submitted to his incarnation, and as he now
' is in heaven. By his being made flesh, his nature or condi-
⚫tion was indeed very different from that which he enjoyed
previous to his humiliation; but this change in his nature,
or condition, did not change his perfon. He continued to
be the fame fon of God, the fame divine perfonage, through
whom God made, and governs the world, in his state of
manhood, as he was, in his antecedent ftate of glory, and
as he now is, exalted to the right hand of the majesty on high.
Thus fhould an angel, by any means of God's appointment
be cloathed with fleih, he would ftill be the fame numerical
'person, the fame intelligent being, as he was before he af-
'fumed this new form. And thus, even we, after death and
'before our refurrection, shall be, each of us the fame per-
fon after our feparation from the body, as we now are,
' in it.'

Chapter iv. verfe 23. The true worshippers shall worship the
Father.-

Religious fervice is fupremely due to God, the almighty
father, governor, and judge of rational beings; and all
who worship him, with a full perfuafion, that he only has
the abfolute right of dominion over them, and is the ab-
folute difpenfer of rewards and punishments, are true wor-
'fhippers, and approved by him. This is no lefs the clear

• See Irenæus, p. 85. Tertullian. contra Fraxeam, cap. xii. Hippolyt. contra Noetum, cap, xiv.

X.5.

voice of reafon, than it is the exprefs doctrine of Fejus • Chrift,'

Chapter v. verfe 19. Jefus answered, verily, verily, I fay unto you, the fon can do nothing of himself, but what he feeth the father do; for what things foever he [the father] doth, these alfo dith the fon likewife.

The authority which Christ claimed over the fabbath day, ⚫ on occafion of which the Jews accused him of affuming to be equal with God, was communicated to him by his father, in whom originally, and independently all authority refides. The father loveth the fon, and hath GIVEN all things into his hand, chap. 35. The authority therefore of Chrift was ⚫ equal to that of God, with refpect to whomfoever he re6 quired to obferve it. That is, all to whom he fufficiently made it known, were equally obliged to fubmit to it, as they would have been, had it been fignified to them, immediately from God himself. But Chrift did not pretend to equal himself with God in regard to the ground or original of that authority which he claimed; neither does it at all appear, that his enraged accufers laid that to his charge. On the contrary, he exprefly declared, that the fon can do nothing of himself, a saulou, nothing of his own independent power and authority; but that he was governed in all things by his father. The father only hath authority of himself, and the fon derives it from the father. The authority both of the father and of the fon, is indeed but one; originally, abfolutely, and independently inherent in the father, and exercifed by the fon, according to the will and command of his father.?

Chapter xvii. Verfe 3. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jefus Chrift, whom thou baft fent.

The way of obtaining eternal life, is to know the only true God, to difcern, and confefs, that to us chriftians there is but one God, the father, of whom are all things, and we for him, 1 Cor. viii. 6. That he, and he alone, is felf-exiftent, unoriginated, the fupreme maker, governor, and judge of the world; that all worship and obedience are fupremely due to him; that other gods are either mere names, idols which have no existence; or if they do exift, are themselves dependent Beings, without having any dominion or power over us. But God, the father of all, is the only living and true God, the bleed and only potentate, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, who only bath immortality; to whom be honour and power everlafting, Amen. 1 Tim.vi.15.16. To know and

• acknowledge this blessed and only potentate to be the only true God, and to obey his will and commands, as they are dif<coverable either by the light of reafon or revelation, is the 6 means and condition of procuring his favour, and the re< ward of eternal happiness. And the knowledge of the only true God, maker of heaven and earth, fufficient to make men wife unto falvation, has been communicated to the world, by Jefus Chrift, who was a teacher sent from God, to give light to them who fit in darkness, and in the fhadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. Luke • i. 79.

To know Jefus Chrift is alfo the way to eternal life, because by knowing him, we know the will of God who fent him. For he has given unto us, the words which GOD gave unto him, verfe 8. The reafon why we ought to know God, in order to our happiness, is because God alone has fovereign domi'nion and power over us; and the reafon why we ought to know Jefus Chrift, is, what he plainly fignifies, because he was fent by God, to make known unto us all things which be HEARD of his father, chap. xv 15. We come to God, as our father, lord, and judge; and we come to Chrift, as to the fon of God, who was fent by HIS father; and our father; by HIS God, and OUR God, chap. xx. 17. to teach us the ⚫ words of eternal life, chap. vi. 68. This was the work which • God GAVE him to do, and this work he finished, verfe 4.'

We could, with additional fatisfaction to qurfelves, make some further extracts from a performance which, we apprehend, is well fitted to yield every impartial chriftian reader much inftruction and pleafure; but we must take leave to ftop here, and conclude with the following general obfervation on our author; who appears to have an excellent genius for fcripture criticism; folicitoufly to decline all ambiguity and difguife; and to reprefent what he judges to be truth, with openness and freedom. In his commentary, the peculiar doctrines of revelation are set forth in their native and amiable fimplicity; doctrines which have been involved in confufion and perplexity, and rendered obfcure and unintelligible by the attempts of fome writers to explain and defend them. But, in the piece now before us, we find a fcheme of religious principles exhibited, clear, uniform, and confiftent; fupported by the testimonies of fcripture, as well as correfponding with the genuine dictates of unbiaffed reason,

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