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" Kai ☺sòs • Aóy@,” "And God was the

Word," which they have Englished," And "the Word was God," as if they intended to promote the Christian cause by an artful tranfpofition

I fee no advantage you can derive from fo fevere and injurious an intimation. Whether we fay, "God was the Word," or "the Word (6 was God," the fenfe is the fame : for, in all languages, it is the nature of the copulative verb (is) to identify the predicate and the subject, if it be not followed by fome exclufive particle or negative word. Peter was or is that man tranfpofe the words, and fuch will be the refult of the tranfpofition: that man was or is Peter. The fenfe is the fame in both cases: and the fame may be said, and is true, whether we fay, "God was the Word," or "the Word 66 was God."

This chapter is as clear as the first chapter of St. Paul's epiftle to the Coloffians, wherein he sets forth and extols the qualities of our divine Redeemer, "by whom were made all

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things in Heaven and on earth, visible and "invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, "or principalities, or powers: all things were "created by him and in him and he is before "all and all things fubfift in him."*

Verse 16, 17,

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If all things, that are, were made by him, he himself was not made and his divine power is fignified, when it is faid, "all things subsist,” or are preferved by him.

Further Critics lay down a general rule, whereby to elucidate the fenfe and meaning of authors, viz. to know the time in which they lived; the circumstances in which they wrote; and the adverfaries with whom they were engaged. The application of the rule evinces the literality of the firft chapter of St. John, which puzzled and perplexed the Arians and Socinians, and exhaufted the metaphyfics of the fubtle Crellius. St. John wrote his gospel at the request of the Afiatic bishops, in oppofition to the falfe doctrine of Ebion and Cerinthus, who denied the Divinity of the Son of God. Motives, circumftances, the nature of the queftion, the doctrine of his adverfaries, all concur to prove that he is to be understood in a literal fense a fenfe fo free from any myfterious obfcurity, that the Platonic philofophers, according to St. Auftin, discovered, in this chapter, the Divinity of the Son of God. "But they were too proud," fays this father, "to acknowledge the lowness "of his humanity."

SECOND

OBSCURITY.

To invalidate our belief of Chrift's conception in a virgin's womb, you oppofe St. Mat

thew,

thew, who fays, "that Jacob was father to Jofeph, the husband of Mary," to St. Luke, who fays, "that Heli was Jofeph's father." But this feeming contradiction vanishes, if we pay attention to the manner in which the Jews sometimes traced their genealogy. In Deuteronomy *, the law declares, "that if one brother "dies without children, the furviving brother "shall marry his relict, in order to raise up "iffue for the deceased," which iffue was to bear his name. Hence, a twofold genealogy amongst the Jews; the one legal, the other natural. Jacob and Heli were brothers. Heli died without iffue. Jacob married his relict, and begot Jofeph, the husband of Mary. Thus, when St. Luke calls Heli" Jofeph's father," he means, his father, according to the law and when St. Mathew calls Jacob "Jofeph's fa"ther," he means, his father, according to nature and by this means, the evangelifts are eafily reconciled. Other folutions are given to this difficulty, and you are at your option to give the preference to which you choose. The Jewish records and their family-regifters have been burnt with the archives of their temple. We live at too great a distance to fettle the genealogies of their families. The evangelifts, befides the gift of infpiration, had every information: as they were nearer the times. In certain

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countries, there are fome traces of this ancient cuftom of giving the denomination of father or uncle to a person who is not either the one cr the other, but by a fiction of law. Hence, in the province of Britany, in France, by their municipal law, a relation, in a remoter degree, inherits as an uncle; and has the title of "On"cle a la mode de Bretagne," an uncle, according to the custom of Britany.

If, of two hiftorians, in writing the life of one of their nobles, one faid, that he was nephew to one, and the other, that he was nephew to ancther, could we impeach either with ignorance, when both could be reconciled by examining into the customs of the country in which they wrote ? And, if the rule ftands good with regard to authors of credit and repute, how much more fo, with regard to inspired writers ?

Let us now examine your difficulty relative to this famous prophecy of Ifaiah*, applied to Jefus Chrift by St. Mathew †, "A virgin fhall "conceive, and bring forth a Son: and they "fhall call his name Immanuel: that is to fay, God is with us."

You affert, that "St. Mathew did not well understand the prophet's meaning" and that this prophecy concerns one Maher

Chap. vii. verfe 14. † Chap. i.

"fhalal

fhalal-hafhbas, born of a prophetess, and "given as a sign to Ahaz, king of Judah." An eafy way to elude a text of fcripture ! Mistakes and ignorance attributed to inspired writers!

We are to ftate the fact that gave occafion to this prophecy, before we attempt to unfold its myfterious fenfe, and to fhew how the coincidence of circumstances makes it applicable to Jefus Chrift, and to him alone.

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The kings of Ifrael and Syria laid siege to Jerufalem, with a design to cut off the house of David, and place a ftranger on the throne. Ahaz, who could not be ignorant of Jacob's prophecy, who had foretold, “ that the fceptre "fhould not depart from the house of Judah, "until Shiloh, or the Meffiah, was come,' apprehended, not only the reduction of the city, but moreover the total excifion of the Jewish polity, which was to happen when the fceptre was to depart from the house of David: as it afterwards came to país, about the time of the birth of Chrift, when the Jews were obliged to receive fuch kings as the Romans chofe to appoint.

To difpel the fears of the defponding king, the prophet gives him two figns, confirming, first, that the fceptre thould not depart from

*Genefis, chap. xxix.
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