John the Baptist, to communicate to him superior knowledge and authority; whereas, it is here affirmed, that he was sent from, or empowered by, God himself. According to Upham, in his valuable Letters on the Logos, the last verse contains a concise description of the state of revealed religion, during the existence of the Mosaic dispensation, while this and the following verses point out the precise relation, which John the Baptist sustained towards the Christian system.

7, 8. Instead of John the Baptist being the on Light, as was pretended, he came in the humble capacity of a witness to the great original light of God, to induce men to believe in that light, and in Him, who was its inexhaustible sun and fountain. And to give the idea more force, it is repeated, "He was not that Light, but was sent merely to bear witness of that Light." There was a sect, to which the evangelist might here allude, under the name of Sabians, which adhered to John the Baptist, in preference to his successor, who was the Light of the world. Chap. viii. 12.

9-11. That was the true Light, &c. The evangelist resumes the main subject. He says, that the true light is God, not a derived æon, a separate being or spirit, but the original, unborrowed, all-glorious light, which

lighteth every man's path, fills the world, is of that God who created all, yet is not recognized by the world, as of him; which shone even upon his own people the Jews, but was not received by them; yea, his own people resisted the Light. "Even the Jews, although they were accustomed to the reception of such heavenly communications, and had been distinguished by the residence, during a long period of their history, of the Word of God among them, even they would not, as a nation, receive the Word, which has, in these latter times, been uttered to mankind." The ninth verse may be thus rendered: That was the true Light, which, coming into the world, lighteth every man. -Received. Recognized.

12, 13. But as many as received him, &c. Or, it. But whoever received the Word, the Life, the Light from on high, to him was given a sonship to God, in whom the word, life, and light centred, and from whom they radiated. By faith the good became his sons, not being such by Jewish descent, or by belonging to any particular race, or having any special birth, but by being born of God, born into that spiritual life, which constituted them true children of the Father of spirits.

14. And the Word was made flesh. Or, "the Power of God became a man." Here is the first direct allu

sion to Jesus Christ in this passage. God endowed him with that wisdom, power, called, above, the Word, with Light and Life, made him the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and gave him the Spirit, not by measure. He thus manifested himself, all that could be manifested in that way, in the flesh. 1 Tim. iii. 16. But Jesus Christ was evidently as distinct from God, as any other creature is from the Creator, any other son from the Father, image from the thing imaged, or person from the glory of which he was the brightness or reflection. "It may assist our conceptions to know, that according to a common use of the term Logos (Word) it might be applied to any being, through whom the divine power was strikingly manifested. Thus, Philo calls Moses, the divine logos, and the high-priest, a logos." The declaration that the Word became flesh, was directly counter to the views of the Docetæ, a sect of that period, who held that Christ's body was only an imaginary one. Professor Stuart remarks that "there seem to be passages in the writings of John, which can hardly be accounted for, on any other ground than that of intended opposition to an opinion like that of the Docetæ ; e. g. 1 John i. 1, 2, iv. 2, seq.; 2 John v. 7; John i. 14. Compare xix. 34, xx. 20, 27."-Dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. Alluding to Christ's glorious life and power on earth. The apostle John had also been one of those, who was peculiarly permitted to behold his visible glorious manifestations, at his transfiguration, and at other times.. The only-begotten. John uses this term five

times. It is plainly figurative, and means dearly beloved, as an only child would be. It is not used to express any mysterious derivation of the Son from the Father. Full of grace and truth. Grace and Truth were both current terms, in the philosophical speculations of that day, to designate certain emanations, or æons, from the pleroma or fulness of the Most High God, but which the evangelist identifies with Christ, in whose character these elements were mirrored with refulgent beauty. - Noyes well remarks, that "the Trinitarian cannot understand this verse more literally than it is understood in an explanation like the above. For he will not pretend that the eternal Spirit was actually changed into flesh and blood. He will say, that the Supreme Being was united with Jesus, without undergoing any change. So I maintain that the Word was united with Jesus, and enabled him to act, and to teach, as he could not have done, had not the spirit of God been poured upon him without measure."

15. He that cometh after me, &c. The Baptist was deeply conscious of the high and godlike power and excellence of his successor. Jesus was subsequent to John in time, but superior to him in dignity. — For he was before me, i. e. not in priority, but in preeminence he was my chief, or principal. A similar phrase is used, Mat. xx. 27. This verse, as some critics contend, has been displaced from its true position, which is between verses 18 and 19.

16. An adjunct to ver. 14. And of his fulness have all we received. The word pleroma, here translated fulness, was a Gnostic term, descrip

17. Law-grace and truth. The leading characteristics of the Jewish and Christian religion are here presented. Moses gave a law, a specific code of civil enactments, and a prescribed ritual of worship. But Jesus was a messenger, and manifestation of grace from the Father, to quicken the spiritual nature of man into action and progress, and lead it to the Father of spirits. The two great instruments he employed are here intimated; grace or mercy,- love for the heart, and truth for the mind.

18. Which is in the bosom of the Father. Not referring to identity of nature or essence, which, as two distinct beings are spoken of, would be a contradiction of terms, but to harmony in character and purposes. Chap. xvii. 11. The phrase is taken from the oriental mode of reclining at table, by which one lies in the bosom of an intimate friend. Chap. xiii. 25.

He hath declared him. Nature, Providence, and the human soul, reveal the invisible God; but in Jesus Christ we behold a brighter, holier, tenderer manifestation of the all-gracious One. He that saw Jesus Christ, saw all of God that was capable of being revealed to sinful and blinded mortals. Chap. xiv. 9.

(1.) "The proem, taken as a whole, is found, instead of being misplaced, obscure, or unmeaning, to be full of

It is

the most valuable information. in itself a body of divinity. In its few brief sentences there is contained a clear and concise history of the divine revelations to men. It represents the Christian dispensation as a continuation and completion of previous dispensations, and shows the connection and the prominent distinctions between it and all that had been made before. It describes the office of Christ, determines the character of his religion, and declares the universality of its design."— UPHAM.

(2.) It may be remarked here, that this difficult passage of Sacred Writ has now been interpreted in harmony with the object, for which John said that he wrote his Gospel; which was, not to prove that Jesus was God, as many now assert, but that he was Christ, the Son of God. Chap. xx. 31.

(3.) If it was John's object, in his introduction, to prove the Deity of Jesus Christ, it is unaccountable that he did not state his object more definitely, and keep it more distinctly in view, throughout his Gospel; but, on the contrary, recited many conversations and miracles of his Master, which authorize a wholly different conclusion. Chaps. iii. 34, iv. 23, v. 19, 30, viii. 17, 18, x. 33-36, xiv. 28, xvii. 21.

(4.) A wish to magnify the author of Christianity, and take away the scandal of the cross, which was "unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks foolishness," by deifying the Son of God, appears to have exerted some influence in originating, among the early writers, the Trinitarian interpretation of this and other passages of Scripture.

(5.) If the exposition above given be correct, it seems that this very passage, which is now deemed the

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strongest bulwark of the doctrine of the Trinity, was designed by its author to counteract those incipient speculations and dangerous innovations upon the simplicity of the gospel, which have finally resulted in that dark dogma.

(6.) It is remarkable, that the theory of the two natures in our Saviour, originated with the Gnostic Cerinthus, who represented him as composed of a human nature, called Jesus, and a divine nature, or æon, which descended on him after his baptism, called Christ. It was probably against the philosophical speculations of this same Cerinthus, in part, that John wrote the introduction of his Gospel, which many now construe in support of those speculations, that have since ripened into the Trinitarian creed.

(7.) If the first three Gospels contain scarcely a passage, which can be regarded as favoring the doctrine of the Trinity, ought we not to be suspicious of the soundness of that interpretation, which here introduces it into the fourth Gospel, though in terms very ambiguous, and which, at the most, prove only the Duality, not the Trinity, of the Godhead.

(8.) Lastly, to sum up the whole, we are drawn to the irresistible conclusion, by the considerations above stated, and others capable of being advanced, that neither the doctrine of the Deity of Jesus Christ, nor his

strict equality with the Father, still less the doctrine of the Trinity, is here taught, and is diametrically opposed to the expressed design of John's Gospel; but that those erroneous and injurious doctrines, which involve revelation in a cloud of darkness and contradiction, were first originated by minds deeply imbued with the Platonic and oriental philosophy, and were afterwards defended by a resort to passages, like the introduction of John's Gospel, that were written for a wholly different object.

20. The following passage is supposed by Michaelis, Hug, and others, to refer to a sect sprung from John the Baptist, who held him to be the promised Messiah. The distinct statement is made by John, when officially asked by the deputation from the Jewish Sanhedrim, whether he were the Messiah, that he laid claim to no such honors. Confessed, and denied not, but confessed. A Jewish idiom, to express the strongest possible answer in the negative. Take notice of the perfect humility and integrity of John.

21. Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Not literally, as the Jews expected, but figuratively. Mat. xi. 14, xvii. 10 – 13. That prophet. Rather, the prophet.

23, 24. I am the voice, &c. See note on Mat. iii. 3.- Were of the Pharisees. This sect was more par