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GAL. I. 1. Paul an apostle (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and GoD the FATHER who raised him from the dead).

This is instanced in proof of a superior nature in Jesus. But if Paul derived his commission from Christ, the messenger of the Father, he derived it from the FATHER himself; and therefore not from men, nor by men, in the way of simply human authority. Paul, also, received his mission from Jesus, after GOD had raised him from the dead and glorified him.

HEB. ii. 16. He took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

This passage is interpreted of a voluntary assumption of human nature, by a pre-existent superior being; but it is explained, "forasmuch then as children were partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same;" "it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren." "In that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted." And that," through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;" or sin. His taking on him the seed of Abraham, is simply the being born of the race of David, according to God's appointment; and the passage ver. 14, " Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same," might equally justify the assumption of human nature in the children.

There is probably an allusion to the heresy of the Docete, or phantomist Gnostics; who did suppose that Christ partook, or consisted, of "the nature of Angels;" and who are clearly alluded to in several passages of John. 1 John iv. 1, "Many false prophets [teachers or interpreters] are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ

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is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the' flesh, is not of God."

The term come, because applied with relation to Christ's descending from heaven at the last day, is thought to have a similar import with reference to the original coming of the Messiah; but the Jews attached no such meaning to this phrase. When they asked of John, "Art thou he that should come?" (Matt. ii. 3); "When Christ cometh, will he do more miracles than these which this man hath done?" "Shall Christ come out of Galilee ?" (John vii. 31, 41); they plainly meant no more than his coming forth among men as the anointed Son of God; his manifestation in the spirit and power of the Messiah. "In the flesh" is thought, both by the advocates of the divinity and of the super-angelic pre-existence, to point out the union of a superior being with humanity; but "coming in the flesh," "manifested in the flesh," "being made, or being, flesh," and similar phrases, convey no necessary proof of such an hypothesis, though they would consist with it, were it already proved. The phraseology is equally consistent with the manifestation of the "power of God and the wisdom of God" in the man Christ Jesus, and the subjection of this highly favoured messenger of God to the sufferings of a common mortal. The expression is common with the Jewish writers, on occasions where no contrast of heavenly and mortal natures can be supposed. Paul speaks of "kinsmen according to the flesh," Rom. ix. 3; "masters according to the flesh," Eph. vi. 5; "fathers of our flesh," Heb. xii. 9.

MATT. xvii. 1, 2. Jesus bringeth them up into an high moun tain apart, and was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light..

It is said, ver..5, that "a bright cloud over

shadowed them"-probably the Shekinah, or cloud of glory, which rested on the lid of the ark; and the symbolical visible splendour of Jehovah's local presence appeared on the person of Jesus, in manifestation of peculiar divine favour. It is not easy to understand why this glory should be thought to have been inherent in Jesus, instead of derivative from God, whose voice was heard speaking from the cloud. But if it be considered as a proof of supra-human nature and pre-existent glory, a similar inference may be drawn as to the nature of Moses: Exodus xxxiv. 29, "And it came to pass when Moses came down from mount Sinai (with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount) that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him. And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face."

It is attempted to discover traces of Christ's preexistence under the Old Testament dispensation.

1 COR. X. 4. They drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ.

As it is said of the Israelites, "whose are the Fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh [or by natural sonship] Christ came," and as Abraham "saw the day" of Christ, and "was glad," it cannot be difficult to understand that they who were "baptized unto Moses," drank of the spiritual promises in the Christ that was to come.

1 COR. X. 9. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents.

"As some also tempted" need not refer to Christ. "Neither let us tempt Christ now, as the Israelites tempted God of old." This must be the sense attached to the passage, till clear proofs shall be established of Christ's pre-existent agency under the Old Testament dispensation. Some MSS.

read the Lord, instead of Christ, and the Alexandrine reads, God.

1 PETER i. 10. Of which salvation the prophets have in quired, and searched diligently; searching what the Spirit of Christ [the spirit of prophecy concerning Christ] which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ.

HEBREWS XI. 26. [Moses] esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Ægypt.

The reproach of Christ, in the literal sense, has nothing in connexion with the cause of the enmity of the house of Pharaoh towards Moses; or if it had, can imply nothing of Christ then existing, otherwise than prophetically, or in promise. If there be a personal reference to Christ, the words must import that Moses, while obeying the will of God in delivering the Israelites out of Egypt, endured a like reproach to that which Christ endured, while delivering the whole Israel of God from the bondage of death and sin. But Moses is possibly himself spoken of as a Christ, a person anointed-a term applied to Israel, as the chosen race, by David, Ps. cv. 15; and by Habakkuk, iii. 13; he prized reproach as an anointed servant of Jehovah, beyond the pomp which he might have enjoyed as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

Use is made of the ambiguous title, Lord, in the Greek and English version.

GEN. xviii. 1, 2. And THE LORD appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre. And he lift up his eyes, and lo, three men stood by him.

We have here the common figure of the messenger bearing the name of him who sent him. So again, ver. 13, "THE LORD said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh?" The Lord said to him through the mouth of his angel. Ver. 26, "And THE LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes." Ver. 33, "And THE LORD

went his way as soon as he had left communing with Abraham.'

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Now that this was one of the THREE MEN, whether prophets armed with power, or angelic beings under a human semblance, who spoke from THE LORD, is plain from the beginning of the next chapter: xix. 1, " And there came two angels to Sodom at even. The third was he who had remained behind to commune with Abraham. But where is the evidence that this was Christ?

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Christ is also thought to have walked in the fiery furnace: Dan. iii. 25, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God." How should the idolater Nebuchadnezzar have known any thing of Christ, or of his title? The original is, a son of God: a God-like shape, or divine person.

It has been affirmed also to have been Christ that appeared to Moses in the flaming thicket. These notions originated with the Platonic Father Justin Martyr; who is followed by Irenæus, Tertullian, and Eusebius. This fantastical hypothesis is eagerly adopted by the worshipper of a Trinity, and is complacently assented to by the advocates of a super-angelic nature.

These hypotheses of Christ having been the Angel who appeared in place of JEHOVAH, and the medium of all his revelations in the Old Testament history, are explicitly refuted by a passage of Paul: Heb. i. 1, "GOD who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in times past to our fathers by the prophets, hath in these last times spoken unto us by his Son."

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