Abraham, to a declaration of his own perfonal existence before Abraham. On the contrary, is it not much more natural to imagine, that in the sense in which Chrift exifted at the time of Abraham, in that fenfe, and in that only, he exifted before Abraham; that as Abraham faw his day in the divine predictions and promises, fo likewise he existed, in the days, and even before the days, of Abraham, in thefe predictions and promises?

3. There are other paffages in the New Teftament, as has been before obferved, which we are obliged to explain in the fame manner. İn addition to thofe already quoted, fee Rev. xiii. 8.

4. The phrafe yw e, I am, ought to have been rendered, I am he, that is, the Meffiah, it being evidently elliptical. Our tranflators have fo rendered it twice in this chapter. See v. 24 and 28. The fame elliptical expreffion is alfo put into the mouth of the blind man. John ix. 9. Some faid, This is he others faid, He is like him: but he faid yw, I am he. (f)

The reader, if he will look into the english Teftament, will perceive that the word he, in all these instances, is printed in italics, as making no part of the original.

But perhaps it will be faid, that in this inftance, the Jews understood our faviour as afferting his pre-existence. To this it may be answered, that, in general, the questions of the Jews were proposed to him out of captioufnefs, and that they always endeavoured to put a false conftruction on his words, hoping, by these means, to lay hold of fomething whereon they might ground an accufation against him, and make him obnoxious to the people. In confequence of this, his language was fometimes defignedly ambiguous; and he would feldom, if ever, condefcend to explain himself to them. An inftance of this kind may be seen in the 51ft and 52d verses of this very chapter; where he fays, If a man keep my faying he fhall never fee death. Then faid the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou haft a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou jayeft, If a man keep my faying, he fhall never taste of death. It is remarkable, that Jefus does not add a word by way of explanation. See alfo John vi. 47--59; where he perfifts in his figurative mode of expreffion, refpecting the neceffity of eating his flesh and drinking his blood, although he faw their grofs, and perhaps wilful mistake, of his words. The last inftance to which I fhall refer, is John ii. 18-22; where the Jews, offended at his seeming presumption, defire a fign in con

firmation

firmation of his authority. He answers, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raife it up. Then faid the Jews, Forty and fix years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? To this he made no reply, nor did even his disciples know his real meaning till after his refurrection. For it is added by the evangelift, That he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was rifen from the dead, his difciples remembered that he had faid this unto them and they believed the fcripture, and the word which Jefus had faid. I have thought proper to treat this objection at large, because it appears to me, from the confideration of the paffages I have quoted, and of many others, that it is impoffible to establish the truth of any doctrine, merely from the opinion which the Jews entertained, or pretended to entertain, of our Lord's affertions.

John iii. 13. And no man hath afcended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Jon of man who is in heaven. If these words be taken in their literal fenfe, the affertions they contain are not true. For

1. Allowing Jefus Chrift to have been in heaven, as a pre-exiftent being, we have no intimation that he ever afcended up into heaven, as the Son of man, till after his refurre&tion.

2. Other

2. Other men had actually afcended up to heaven. Enoch, we are informed, was tranflated, and the prophet Elijah was taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire.

Our Lord, therefore, in this inftance, must be understood figuratively. By afcending up heaven, he moft probably meant, that he was intimately acquainted with the divine will, (t) and by his coming down from heaven, that he was commiffioned by God to reveal it to the world. Mr. Wakefield thus explains the words. "No one hath a perfect knowledge of the will of God, but he who is immediately commiffioned to declare his will, even the fon of man, who has always an efpecial communication with God." This interpretation feems to be confirmed by the parallel paffage, John i. 18. No man hath feen God at any time: the only begotten Son, which is in the bofom of Father, he hath declared him. i. e. No man ever had fuch a perfect knowledge of the will of God as Jefus Chrift. That this is the proper fenfe of

the

(t) Of this opinion was Raphelius, the son, who was a believer in the divinity of Jefus Chrift. See his preface to his father's annotations on the scriptures. So also was Dr. search into-the

Doddridge. "Afcended up to heaven, to truths of God. The phrase of ascending into heaven, is plainly used in this sense, Deut. xxx. 12. Rom. x. 6, and Prov. xxx. 4." See Doddridge in loc.

the phrafe, feeing God, is evident from iii. John, He that doth evil hath not seen God.

ver. 11.

John vi. 62. What and if ye fhall fee the Son of man afcend up where he was before. Neither can we take these words in their literal fenfe, because it does not appear that Jefus Chrift was ever before in heaven, as the Jon of man. But, notwithstanding I am perfuaded they have no reference to the fuppofed state of our Lord's pre-existence, I frankly own, that I never met with an explanation of them, which perfectly fatisfied me. The most natural fuppofition is, that, standing in the midst of figurative expreffions, they are themfelves alfo figurative. Dr. Lardner is of opinion, that nothing more was meant by Jefus, than that he fhould not always be perfonally here. The following is an extract from a letter of his to the Rev. Mr. Wiche, of Maidstone, Kent. "As for John vi. 62. I would refer you to Grotius: I think we must not understand our Lord there too literally. For we are not thence to conclude, that our Lord's body came down from heaven; nor are we to fuppofe, that many or moft of thofe, to whom he was then speaking, would fee him afcend to heaven. I have been apt to think, that thereby our Lord intended only to say, that he should not always be perfonally here, but fhould leave this world, which was the most discouraging thought to all the car

nal