exerted by Jesus; but only those which most distinctly illustrated his peculiar office and nature: Many other signs truly did Jesus, in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But THESE are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, yc might have life through his name. This expression seems to prove, that those persons are wrong, who suppose that St. John wrote his Gospel merely to supply the defects and omissions of the other Evangelists. The real difference between them is, that they wrote a history of our Saviour's life; but St. John, of this person and office.

Whoever, then, desires to form a just notion of the real office and dignity of the Saviour of the world, let him study the representations which Jesus has given of himself, in the discourses recorded by St. John. The Apostles speak of him in their Epistles, it is true, in noble and characteristic expressions: but here the Saviour speaks of himself, and in language which no ingenuity can pervert.

St. Matthew and St. Luke begin by relating the circumstances attending the birth of Jesus; and trace his genealogy from David, whose descendant the promised Messiah was to be. But

John introduces him at once in his divine cha racter, as having existed before the world began, himself the Creator of the world. And having thus, in the very opening of his Gospel, announced the transcendent dignity of his subject, he takes occasion to inculcate the same truth throughout the whole of his subsequent history. With this notion of the scope and purpose of the Evangelist, his Gospel is clear, consistent, and intelligible; upon any other supposition, it is obscure and inexplicable.

In the beginning, says the Evangelist, was the Word. Whatever may have been the origin of this expression of the Word, it is quite evident that it means Jesus Christ; for in the following verses he is described in terms which leave no room for doubt. In the beginning, i. e. in the beginning of time; from all eternity. Here, then, is asserted the eternal pre-existence of Jesus Christ. On what authority does St. John assert it? On the express testimony of our Lord himself; who in his prayer to the Father, said, And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world began.* These words abundantly refute the interpretation which the Unitarians would

*John xvii. 5.

put upon the first words of the Gospel, who say that in the beginning means simply, "from the commencement of Christ's ministry;" so that John is made to say this; Christ was, or existed, in the commencement of his ministry: a strangely unmeaning sentence! But no unprejudiced person can doubt, that the Evangelist follows the historian of the creation; that as Moses declares, IN THE BEGINNING God created the heaven and the earth; so John uses the phrase in the same, or in a still higher sense. Agreeably to this St. Paul tells us, that God hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world.* In the next place, as a question might probably be asked, Where was the Christ in this state of pre-existence? the Evangelist adds, And the Word was with God; agreeably to the declaration of our Lord above mentioned, glorify thou me with the glory which I had with thee before the world began. And again, I came down from heaven to do the will of Him that sent me, viz. God.

But according to St. John, not only was the Word with God, but the Word was God. So direct and irrefragable is this testimony to the divine nature of Jesus Christ, that the Unitarians * Ephes. i. 4.

are driven to the most unreasonable methods of interpretation; and some of them to a still bolder measure than misinterpretation, that of rejecting the whole Gospel, as not having been written by St. John.

We need not dwell at length upon this point; for the words which next follow are so precise, that they seem to have been employed by St. John for the express purpose of excluding all equivocation. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. This passage the Unitarians translate, "all things were done by him, and without him was not any thing done that was done." But we, I think, may be very well content to understand it as an Apostle has done; who, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, declares expressly, that God made the worlds by his Son.* The same writer says, through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.t From these two passages it is clear, that the Word of God is * Heb. i. 2.

+ Heb. xi. 3. Compare Col. i. 16. By HIM were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible. He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. The Unitarians would explain this to mean, "that all things were done by Christ which relate to the Christian dispensation!"

the Son of God; that by him all things were created; and that the Unitarian interpretation is unfounded.

But since an opinion might be entertained by some, that Christ was only the instrument. of creation, in the hands of his Almighty Father, himself having been created, the Apostle, shuts out that supposition by saying, that without him was not any thing made that was made. If so, Christ himself was uncreate; and therefore selfexistent. This assertion destroys what is called the Arian scheme, according to which the divine Word was the first and highest of created beings. St. John declares that the Word was no creature; no, not even of the highest conceivable rank and order; nor created at the remotest point of time; But how are we to reconcile this with St. Paul's expression in his Epistle to the Colossians, where he says of the Son; Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature?* We answer thus: The original word either implies that inconceivable generation, by which the Son came from the Father from all eternity, as in Heb. i. 6, When he bringeth the first-begotten [or first-born] into the world; or it may mean, for it will bear the sense, the first producer of

* Coloss. i. 15.

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