OBSERVATIONS.

20, 21. The querulous and unreasonable objections of the Jews to the reception of the Gospel seem to have suggested several arguments in support of Christ's Deity. Jesus cured a paralytic, and declared that his sins were forgiven; and he gave the same assurance to a woman who had been " a sinner," but who performed several friendly offices towards him. These simple declarations were construed by our Lord's enemies, and have also been interpreted by some Trinitarians, into the assumption of a prerogative belonging to the Almighty. But it ought to be remembered, that, in common with other divine messengers, Jesus was acquainted with the human heart; and therefore would be able to pronounce whether the persons he addressed were so reformed in disposition and conduct as to qualify them for the approbation of his heavenly Father. Respecting the paralytic, however, it is probable that, by the expression, "Thy sins be forgiven thee," Christ meant only to state the fact of the removal of a disease occasioned by personal vice. Whatever may be the true interpretation of these passages, it is certain that he who was commissioned by God, and "exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give forgiveness of sins,"" could not have assumed the power of pardoning sin, in the highest sense of the words; for he himself earnestly prayed to his omnipotent Father, that He would forgive his unfeeling persecutors.' The authority to remit sins was delegated even to the apostles; and if the Trinitarian principle be just, that sins cannot be forgiven by any one but God in his own person, then will it infallibly prove, that the apostles themselves possessed the attribute of omnipotence!

22. This passage is highly figurative, and must consequently preclude a literal interpretation. The Jews literally understood our Saviour, and even his disciples did not apprehend his meaning till after his resurrection, when they remembered and believed his words." As Jesus, then, did not conceive it proper to explain his meaning, but left it to be solved by the accomplishment of the prophecy, -the best interpretation of his words that we can possibly procure is to be obtained from the writings of the apostles, some of whom were present at the conversation which led to the employment of his prophetic language. Now, on inquiry, it will be found, that St. Peter, who made the resurrection and ascension of his Master the constant theme of his discourses, expressly affirmed that God raised Christ from the dead;" and if, to his unequivocal and repeated declarations of this fact, we add the similar statements of the Apostle Paul, we shall have the most satisfactory reason for believing, that Jesus did not mean to claim the power of raising his body from the grave, but merely to assert the divine purpose concerning his resurrection. In the Old Testament the prophets are sometimes represented as performing things which they were commissioned by God to reveal.*

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VIII. RISING FROM THE DEAD.

23. John x. 18: No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself: I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of Father. my

of myself.-Com. Ver. ex voluntate mea.-Tremellius, Grotius.

ILLUSTRATIVE TEXTS.

a Isa. vi. 10: Make the heart of this

people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, &c. Jer. i. 9, 10: Jehovah said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. Ezek. xliii. 3: And [it was]

which I saw, when I came to destroy

power.-Com. Ver. potentiam.-Grotius. potes- according to the appearance of the vision tatem.-Calvin, Slichtingius. auctoritatem.→ Beza. authority.-Kenrick. a commission. -Wakefield. the privilege.-Carpenter.

take it again.Com. Ver. rursus sumam.-Tremellius. resume it.-Campbell,

receive it

the city. Hos. vi. 5: Therefore have I hewed [them] by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and

again.-Wakefield, Belsham, Kenrick. receive thy judgments [are as] the light [that] goeth forth.

it again, or resume it.-Carpenter. commandment.-Com. Ver. mandatum.-Calvin, Wolzogenius. præceptum. Beza, Brenius. ordre.-Le Clerc. charge.-Wakefield. commission.-Campbell. or, promise.-Carpenter. See Appendix, page 272, second column.

IX.-RAISING THE DEAD.

24. Phil. iii. 20, 21: We look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, [that it may be] like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself. (G.)

the working.-Com. Ver. un effet de la puissance. -Le Clerc. the efficiency of his power.-Eyre. to subdue.-Com, Ver. to subject.-Imp. Ver.

REMARK.

Christ is here said to subdue all things to himself by his own strong working, notwithstanding the same subjection of all things is ascribed to the Father, 1 Cor. xv. 25. Heb. ii. 8.—Macknight.

PARAPHRASES.

It is indeed a vastly surprising, and to sense an incredible change; but we ought to remember that nothing is too hard for Omnipotence: he will therefore effect it, according to the energy whereby he is able to subject even all things unto himself;" and which will render him completely victorious over all his enemies, even over death and the grave, the last of all.-Doddridge.

This great and unknown change shall be produced in us by the energy of that stupendous power which is communicated to him by the Father, by which all his enemies shall be subjected to his authority; and sin and pain and death shall be no more.-Belsham.

y 2 Cor. xiii. 4: Though he was erucified through weakness, yet HE LIVETH BY THE POWER of God.-See references v and w, page 200.

z See 2 Kings iv. 32-35. Acts ix. 36-41; xx. 9—12.

a John v. 19-21: THE SON CAN DO NOTHING OF HIMSELF, but what he seeth

the Father do; for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth; and He will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.

b John vi. 39, 40: This is the will of Him who hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. For this is the will of Him that sent me, that every one who seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day. (G.) c 2 Cor. iv. 14: He who raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise us up also by Jesus. d 1 Cor. xv. 21: For since by man [came] death, BY MAN [came] also the resurrection of the dead. (Comp. ver. 22.) e See pages 64-66.

f 1 Cor. xv. 28: When all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto HIM THAT PUT ALL THINGS UNDER HIM, that God may be all in all. See Eph. i. 22. Heb. ii. 8.

OBSERVATIONS.

23. If this and the preceding passage were to imply that Christ had a power of raising himself from the dead, it would be unreasonable to infer that this power must have been inherent in him, and independent of the Father. The text itself undoubtedly favours the opinion, that his authority, in this respect, as well as in all others, was derived from God: "No man taketh it [my life] from me, but I lay it down of myself: I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father." Surely, to an unprejudiced mind, nothing can be more opposed than this declaration is, to the claim of independent and almighty power. It is deserving of particular remark, that though the apostles attributed the resurrection of Christ to the power of God," they never once referred it to himself, to the agency of whose divine nature, if they believed he possessed one, they would have so readily ascribed it; and this fact affords a strong presumption, that the apostles did not believe that their Master was able by his own power to raise himself from the grave.

24. The raising of the dead at the last day is by many persons considered an act of power which cannot be exercised by any Being inferior to the Supreme God; and therefore, when it is said of Jesus Christ that he shall raise the dead, the predication is thought to imply his omnipotence. To this argument it may be replied, that, as some of the prophets and apostles restored dead persons to life, it is quite conceivable that our Saviour may, at the general resurrection, be employed merely as an instrument in the hands of the Deity. We are not, however, left to conjecture, whether Christ shall raise the dead by a power inherently belonging to him, or by authority received from God, the Father. In a discourse which he delivered to the Jews on the subject, he says, in connection with sentiments of a similar kind, that "the Son cannot do any thing of himself". a declaration which ought at once to settle the point." In another conversation which he held with his enemies, he spoke of himself as a messenger from God, whose will it was that he should raise the dead at the last day. St. Paul, too, inculcates the doctrine, that He who raised Jesus from the dead shall raise the dead by Jesus; and that the person by whom "the resurrection came" was, like Adam, a proper human being.d

With regard to the expression in Phil. iii. 21, "the energy by which he is able even to subdue all things to himself"bold and even sublime as it is—it would be manifestly unfair to consider it as implying unlimited power in Christ, when we are assured, in so many passages of Holy Writ, that all his power was derived from the Father, and particularly when we are informed by St. Paul himself, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, that it is God, the Father, who subjects all things to Christ.

SECT. VIII.-EXAMINATION OF THE SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE ALLEGED FOR THE OPINION, THAT CHRIST IS EVERYWHERE PRESENT.

SECT. VIII.-EXAMINATION OF THE SCRIPTURE EVIDENCE ALLEGED FOR THE OPINION, THAT CHRIST IS EVERYWHERE PRESENT.

OBSERVATIONS.

1-5. We are persuaded, that the texts quoted in the corresponding pages afford not the slightest countenance to the popular doctrine of Christ's omnipresence. They are entirely dissimilar to other portions of Scripture which treat of the ubiquity of the Divine Being—a truth which is frequently announced in a style of the utmost magnificence, but with such simplicity as to preclude the possibility of misapprehension." There is, indeed, recorded in the book of Exodus, a promise which Jehovah made to the Israelites, somewhat resembling, in its mode of expression, the phraseology employed by Jesus in Matt. xviii. 20. John xiv. 23; and is considered by Dr. WARDLAW and others as indicating the omnipresence of the Deity. But it is deserving of remark, that the phrase, "I will come unto thee," does not convey the notion of God's continued and universal presence; but rather evinces the contrary, if strictly and literally understood.

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1. This text does not prove, that Christ exists in every part of space. At the very utmost, it can imply only that he is personally present at the religious assemblies of his followers; and he possibly may have been endowed by God with the requisite qualifications—although, indeed, there does not appear to be sufficient evidence for making this opinion an article of our belief. The Trinitarian interpretation of the passage is, however, very unsuitable to the context; for, after our Saviour declared to his disciples that he should be with them when they met together in his name, Peter, with the greatest coolness, proceeded to make some inquiries concerning the topic which they had been previously discussing. Now, had Christ been everywhere present, the fact would either have been known to his disciples, or, if communicated on this occasion, would, from its novelty and importance, have produced in their minds sensations of wonder and awe. But, from the narrative of the conversation between Jesus and his disciples, there does not appear to be any reason for supposing that they felt the slightest astonishment; and their familiarity, particularly that of Peter, with Christ, goes to prove, that neither at this time, nor at any former period, were they acquainted with this doctrine. Hence we conclude, that to those who heard our Saviour's language, there was really no indication of his being present, at any or at all times, in every part of space. Besides, it is highly improbable, that Jesus should have represented himself as the great Omnipresent Spirit, and, in the same breath, speak of his heavenly Father as the Being who granted the requests of the worshippers. "

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