Christ calls himself KAAO ПOIMHN, the good shepherd, who lay down my life for my sheep; no one can pluck them out of my hand; my Father, who gave them to me, is greater than all; and no one is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand,' John x. 11, 12, 14, 16, 28, 29.

Under whatever character Jesus Christ is represented in the New Testament, as a person highly useful and beneficial to the world; they are all summed up by St. Paul in one eminent passage, where he mentions God's dealings in the conversion of the Gentiles. Which affair appeared mean and very unpromising to the wise and the great. Yet God, by his superior wisdom, had so ordered it, that means and instruments, which appeared to the world weak and contemptible, should be attended with great success; God having chosen such means and instruments to confound the wisdom of the wise,' that no flesh should boast of their conduct; but that they who gloried should glory in the Lord, that is, should magnify God's wisdom; for it was from God originally that the Corinthians became Christians; it was by God that Jesus Christ was made for them, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption: for God sanctified, and sent him into the world to teach mankind by his doctrine, and his example, the great and true rules of wis lom, sanctification, and redemption, 1 Cor. i. 30, 31, and iii. 21. Wherefore St. Paul tells the Corinthians, they were not to glory in the men who were their teachers, in Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, who were such teachers," as the different parties among them gloried in; but, Let him that glorieth glory in the Lord,' (Jehovah) by whom, or from whom, Christ was sent, and became to us (a teacher or preacher) of righteousness, sanctification and redemption. So that we are all disciples of Christ, and Christ himself was the disciple and servant nt and minister of God."

a

The characters of Jesus Christ given by the author of the epistle to the Hebrews.

ΑΠΑΥΓΑΣΜΑ ΤΗΣ ΔΟΞΗΣ, ΚΑΙ ΚΑΡΑΧΤΗΡ ΤΗΣ THOETAEENE, Heb. i. 3. Jesus Christ, in our translation, is styled, the brightness of his (God's) glory, and the express image of his person.'

The author of this epistle hath given us two characters of Jesus Christ, which are not to be found in any other text of the New Testament, and are only mentioned once in this place, viz. that Christ is ̓Απαύγασμα τῆς δόξης, και χαρακτήρ τῆς ὑποτάσεως, a ray from the glory, and a character of the person of God. It is surprising to observe, what stress is laid upon these figurative expressions; even though they are acknowledged figurative terms by the unanimous consent of all the learned. For, literally, Christ is not a ray or brightness; nor a character, figure, or representation, &c, but a person by whom God has,' ver. 2, "spoken to us; that is, delivered his mind, and will, clearly and fully. Hence Christ, the bringer and deliverer of God's plain, clear, and express will, is here styled a ray, or the brightness of or from God. Even as Christ calls himself the light of the world,' John viii. 22, or a dispeller of that ignorance with regard to God, truth, and right conduct, which so greatly prevailed amongst men. And an instructor, with respect to those highly important truths which are connected with the highest honour and felicity of the intelligent nature. Or, as he elsewhere styles himself, the way, the truth, and the life,' John xiv. 6; i. e. a guide, or conductor, in the way of happiness; the teacher of the truth; the declarer, and the assurer of eternal life, as well as the instructor in the means of obtaining it.

And the second character, viz. the character of God's person,' is by St. John i. 18, plainly expressed thus; He (Christ) hath declared him (God).' This the true and only literal sense of these two figura

tive characters: now it is evident, these cannot possibly be the attributes or characters of God, but of a person, or prophet, sent from God. And if we take the words in our, or in any translation, in a literal sense, it cannot be understood, that the brightness of, or from God, and the express image of God's person, is God himself, any more than we can conceive, that the image, or form, or representation of any being, or thing, is the very being or thing itself. The figures (brightness of, or from God's glory, and character of God's person') do finely and strongly represent Christ clearly discovering the character and perfections of God in his gospel. God had done this before on many occasions, when, in divers manners, he spake by the prophets-but in the last ages' he spake more fully and clearly to the Jews, by his Son,' whom God appointed his heir in his spiritual kingdom, or inheri tance, the church; and by whom God hath formed, potentially by his gospel, the present and succeeding ages of mankind.

CHAP. XXXVII.

One of Jesus Christ's characters is, o aoгoz; or, the Word.

John. i. 1, 14, IN the beginning was the Word: and the Word was with God: and the Word was God.' And the Word was made flesh."

1 John i. 1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have

⚫ handled of the word of life.'

-v. 7. There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one.'

Rev. xix. 13,

God.'

And his name is called the Word of

1

As to the first text above-mentioned it is observable

6

that this character of Jesus Christ, viz. the word, or the word of God,' is only to be met with in St. John's writings, and not in the other Gospels, (excepting Luke i 2, which is extremely dubious,) nor in any of the epistles. And this character is given Christ by St. John, as he was a great preacher of the word of God, i, e. the gospel. And this way of speaking is suitable to St. John's style, who says in this very gospel, that Christ is the light;' Christ is the way, Christ is the truth;' Christ is the life;' Christ is the true vine;' Christ is the bread; Christ is the resurrection,' &c. just so, Christ is the word,' i. e, a teacher of the word, aud of the truth, and of the doctrine of life, and the guide in the way of holiness here, and happiness hereafter. In our present copies this things said of him: First, That he was Secondly, That he

at' or

word of God' has two

with God.'

was God.'

Now it is most evident and certain. 1st, That he who was with God, could not be that very God with whom he was. So that if this reading be true, Christ the word' must be God in an inferior sense to that God with whom he was, and from whom he received his gospel, and all his spiritual characters. And 2dly, If St. John used this term, Beds, God, in the general sense of it amongst the pagan writers, to signify an excellent person (for so they were styled who excelled in any real or supposed worth or usefulness among men); then St. John's meaning would be easily understood by his readers in Greece, who would presently conclude, that the word' was inferior to that God with whom he was; especially when they read all his gospel, and met with so many passages wherein he speaks of himself as sent from God, as speaking what he was commanded by God, and as expressly praying to God, and his styling in that prayer the Father the only true God,' Joan xvii. The very next text cited above, The word was made flesh which rightly translated, should be, The word was flesh,' i. e. of a frail human nature: this

passage will sufficiently secure St. John's readers from so interpreting eòs, as to make two Gods in the Christian religion; which would have been a shocking notion to St. John's Christian readers.

If the words, 1 John i. 1, be understood of the person of Christ as by the terms, heard, seen, and handled,' seems most likely, then the character, Aéyos, belonged to Christ as a man, with whom St. John had conversed from the very beginning of his (Christ's) preaching the gospel.

As to the text, 1 John v. 7, There be three,' &c. 1st, It is to be noted, that this text is not in one ancient, copy yet found out in christendom. Nor, 2d, In any one ancient version or translation. Nor, 3d, In any one ancient commentary. Nor, 4th, In any one ancient citation, at, or after the Council of Nice, for some ages, till about the sixteenth century, when it first appeared in Greek. And it ought to be observed, and it appears plainly from the context, that the Three mentioned by St. John are such a three as agree in one testimony, ἂν εἰσι, not εἰς θεὸς εἰσι, or, as in the following verse, εἰς τὸ ἕν εἰσιν.

So this text was in no bible in all the Christian world for about fifteen centuries after Christ: and no Christians had that text in their bibles till after the year fifteen hundred, when it began to appear in some printed Greek copies: for Erasmus's first printed copy had

it not*.

Now the last text, Rev. xix. 13, comes to be considered, which plainly expresses what St. John meant

* This text was never seen in any copy, till Erasmus published his second edition of the New Testament -The doctrine of the Trinity was a popish doctrine universal y obtaining within the limits of the kingdom of a tichrist, ho is the man of sin and was (among ti e antichristian errors) received, as an article of faith, among our first reformers. When E asmus's first edition was published, some British divines took the liberty to enquire into the reason of his omitting the text; and when they found it was owing to his not being able to find it in any ancient copy they assure him, that it was in a ce tain British copy: on this authority he inserted it in the second edition; but the pretended copy has never yet been found.