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of Christ." Grotius." Which the Israelites suffered as expectants of the Messiah." Beza and Hallet."The reproach which he incurred by the worship of the visible Jehovah, whom Paul considers in his future character of the Christ." H. Taylor in Ben Mordecai's Lett. p. 297.

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The best interpretation of this text is that of Dr. Whitby, Dr. Sykes, Le Clerc, and others. The word Christ signifies anointed,' i. e. separated, consecrated. Hence it is applied to the Israelite nation, Ps. cv. 15; "Touch not my anointed" (LXX. my christs,' Twv xpioTwv) i. e. των χριστων) my chosen and consecrated people. Habakkuk iii. 13, Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for thine anointed," Tov Xpitov σ8, chosen people.'

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thy christ,' thy

• Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ,' that is, of the chosen and holy people of God, greater riches than the treasures of Egypt,' q. d. He preferred the state of a despised Israelite to the opulence and grandeur of an Egyptian prince.

Dr. Clarke, with great judgement, takes no notice of

this text.

14. Heb. xii. 25, 26. "See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him who speaketh from heaven," &c. See Haggai ii. 6.8

The speaker here alluded to is God himself, who, at the giving out of the Law, spake from mount Sinai, but who now by his spirit speaks from heaven. 1 Pet. i. 12. "The stress of the argument," says Peirce, "lies in the different manner of his speaking, his speaking on earth

8

Archbishop Newcome strangely conceives of this passage as "favouring the supposition that our Lord was the angel of the covenant who presided at giving the Law." Dr. Clarke takes no notice of this text.

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and his speaking from heaven." See also Grotius and Whitby.

15. Heb. xiii. 8. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever."

"In the tenor of his declarations, as well as in the glories of his divine nature." Dr. Doddridge.

"The meaning of this place, as appears from the context, is, that the doctrine of Christ once taught by the apostles ought to be preserved unchanged." Dr. Clarke, No. 662: and with him agree Calvin9, Whitby, Le Clerc, Newcome, and the majority of expositors. This interpretation is confirmed by ver. 9: "Be not carried away with divers and strange doctrine." The word Christ often stands for the doctrine of Christ. Eph. iv. 20, "We have not so learned Christ," i. e. his doctrine. Phil. iv. 13. Acts v. 42. 2 Cor. iv. 5. 1 Cor. i. 24.

See also

16. 1 Pet. i. 11. "Searching what-the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow."

'The spirit of Christ' is that prophetic spirit which revealed the advent and the sufferings of Christ, as, John xiv. 17, the spirit of truth' is that inspiration from God which would reveal and attest the doctrine of the Gospel. See Grotius in loc.; Clarke, No. 1209; and Lindsey's Seq. p. 283.

17. 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20. "By which also he (Christ) went and preached unto the spirits in prison. Who some time were disobedient, when (once) the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing."

9.66 Apparet non de æterna Christi essentia apostolum disputare, sed de ejus notitiâ, quæ omnibus seculis viguit inter pios, ac perpetuum ecclesiæ fundamentum fuit." Calvin.

More correctly; "By which also, after he was gone, he preached to the spirits, i. e. persons 10 in prison: who formerly disbelieved.”

q. d. By which spirit, communicated to his apostles after his ascension, (πogulɛis, see ver. 22, where the very same word is used in the same sense,) he proclaimed the Gospel to persons who were imprisoned in ignorance, idolatry, and vice, of the same description with those to whom Noah preached while the ark was building. Who indeed then preached with little effect, &c.

Those to whom Christ preaches by his spirit since his ascension are not the self-same persons to whom Noah preached, but persons of the same cast and character, the same race of idolaters and unbelievers, bound in the same chains of ignorance, vice, and prejudice.

This is the interpretation of Grotius 11, and seems to be the best solution of this obscure and entangled text.

Of the advocates for the pre-existence and divinity of Christ, some suppose with Dr. Whitby, Dr. Doddridge, &c., that Christ by his prophetic spirit, in the days of Noah, warned the inhabitants of the antediluvian world,

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Spirit is not unfrequently used for person. See 1 Tim. vi. 21, compared with 2 Tim. iv. 22. Philem. v. 25. 1 John iv. 2, 3.

11", per quem Dei spiritum missum in apostolos. Topudeis, postquam in cœlum ascendit: vid. ver. 22 Joh. xiv. 2, 3. εy Quλann, i. e. in carne. aTTEIDYσATI TOTE. H. 7. λ. loquitur quasi iidem fuissent, et fuerant iidem non apibuw, sed genere. Homines a Deo planè abalienati. Noæ non crediderunt: Christo crediderunt." Grotius.

Christ was raised to life by the spirit, that is, the power of God: by which spirit, after he was gone to heaven, he preached by the ministry of his apostles to the spirits in prison, not to the dead, but to the Gentile world who were without any sense or knowledge of God. Chap. iv. 6, "The Gospel was preached to them that were dead." Isa. xlii. 6, 7, "I give thee for a light to the Gentiles, to bring out the prisoners from the prison. Who were some time disobedient in the days of Noah."--" He preached not to the same individual persons; but to men like them, in the same circumstances." Lindsey's Seq. p. 283-288. Dr. Clarke makes no use of this text. See Imp. Ver. not. in loc.

who

who then rejected his admonitions, and are now suffering in prison, i. e. in hell.

Others, with Gregory Nazianzen, understand this text as teaching that Christ descended into hell to preach the Gospel to the imprisoned souls of those who perished in Noah's flood.

18. 1 John i. 1, 2. "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; for the Life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal Life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us."

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This text is parallel to John i. 1-14; and they are mutually explanatory of each other. Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of the Christian faith, who is there called the Word,' is here entitled the Word of Life,” -he is there said to have been "in the beginning ;' here, he is "that which was from the beginning," i. e. from the commencement of the new dispensation.-In the Gospel it is said, "in him was Life;" in the Epistle he is styled "the Life," "the Eternal Life;" for this was the main object of his mission, the great doctrine which he was authorized to reveal.-In the Gospel," the Word was with God;" in the Epistle, "this Eternal Life was with the Father," i. e. he was instructed by God, and received his commission from him.-In the Gospel, "the Life was the Light of men, and John was sent to bear witness to it ;" in the Epistle," the Life was manifested, and his disciples saw it and bare witness."-Finally, in the Gospel," the Word was flesh;" the teacher of life was a real man: in the Epistle, this Word of life was also a real person, the object of sense; he was heard, and seen, and felt. He was not, as the Docetæ then taught, a spi

ritual being in the shape of a man, but without the essential properties of humanity, intangible, and impassible 12. 19. 1 John iv. 2. "Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God." See ver. 3, and 2 John, ver. 7.

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Calvin and bishop Horsley argue from this phrase the pre-existence and divinity of Christ. Grotius and the old Socinians interpret the words coming in the flesh,' of the humble and suffering state in which Christ appeared. Dr. Priestley and Mr. Lindsey explain the phrase as expressive of the real and proper humanity of Christ, in opposition to the doctrine of the Docetæ, which was then growing into fashion, that Christ was a man in appearance only. Of this doctrine the apostle expresses the strongest disapprobation, ver. 3, "Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist"-" which the world heareth." Ver. 5.

Thus it appears that the doctrine against which the apostle expresses a marked indignation, and which he denounces as the very essence and spirit of antichrist, is that which denies Christ to be a real man, and which maintains that he was a being different from what he appeared to be. This was the doctrine which the world received with applause; and the reason is plain: because it diminished the odium which was attached to the Christian religion, from the low extraction, the mean condition, and the ignominious execution of its original founder 18.

20. Rev. xxii. 16. "I am the root and the off. spring of David." Comp. chap. v. 5.

q. d.

12 See Sect. III, No. 1 Also Impr. Version in loc. is Lindsey's Sequel, p. 288-291.-" Every spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ is truly man is of God, in opposition to the Docetæ, who maintained that he was man only in appearance." Dr.

Priestley's

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