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ILLUSTRATIONS

AND

EXPLANATORY DISSERTATIONS.

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ILLUSTRATIONS

AND

EXPLANATORY DISSERTATIONS.

No. I.-ON THE PRE-EXISTENCE OF CHRIST, AND THE SPECIES OF ARGUMENTS BY WHICH THIS ARTICLE OF THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE HAS BEEN OPPOSED.

PAGE 2. EXEVITEV EQUTOV-Strictly, emptied himself-viz. of that form of God-that Glory which he had with God before the world was→→ see Phil. ii. 6, 7, compared with John xvii. 5.see also Krebs. Observ. Flav. p. 329. Fortuita Sacra, p. 217-219. Elsner Obs. Sac. ii. p. 240

-245. See also Schleusner, on the word xvwrey. On the whole of the passage from Philippians, I would particularly recommend the obser vations of the Bishop of Lincoln, Elements, &c. vol. ii. p. 111–115. Middleton likewise (Doctrine of the Greek Article, p. 537-539.) deserves to be consulted.

It has indeed been pronounced, in a late extraordinary publication, distinguished at least as

much by strength of assertion as by force of argument, that "a person, who has not paid particular attention to the subject, would be surprised to find, how very few texts there are which even seem, directly to assert, the PRE-EXISTENCE OF CHRIST."-How this matter may appear to those who have "not paid particular attention to the subject," I leave to the author of this work to determine. With those, who have, it is unnecessary to say, what must be the reception of an observation so directly opposed, not more to the plain and uniform language of Scripture, than to every conclusion of a just and rational criticism applied to the sacred text. Bold however as this writer appears in assertion, he seems by no means deficient in prudence; for whilst he affirms, that even those few texts, (as he chuses to represent them,) furnish no real support, to the doctrine they are adduced to confirm; he has on this, as on almost every other position throughout his book affecting the interpretation of Scripture, declined exposing his proof to hazard. We are referred, indeed, to "the Commentary of Grotius, Dr. Lardner's Letter on the Logos, Mr. Lindsey's Apology for resigning the vicarage of Catterick, and the Sequel to that apology, Hopton Haynes on the attributes of God, and Dr. Priestley's history of early opinions." These, we are told, will completely overturn the unscriptural notion, of the pre-existence of Christ. And this they

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