the believer in the unity of God and the created, finite nature of Christ is not so consistent in holding to the opinion that he existed in his distinct and proper personality antecedently to his birth in Nazareth. It is frankly conceded. that his mission, with all its results, was fore-ordained,that he pre-existed in the Divine counsels and purposes from all eternity. But this is not all that is generally understood by the pre-existence of Christ. Though we suppose it is all that the Scriptures, when fairly interpreted, will warrant. It is the same kind of pre-existence with that which belongs to the followers of Christ equally with himself; for of them Paul uses this language: "Whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren." (Rom. viii. 29.) Again he says, "He hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will." (Eph. i. 4, 5.) Here we have the pre-existence of the disciples and of their Master affirmed in the same or similar terms, with this peculiarity in respect to Christ that to him belongs precedence in authority, rank and honor. It is freely granted that the betrayal and crucifixion of Christ took place according to "the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God," (Acts ii. 23); that he was the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," (Rev. xiii. 8;) yet such passages no more prove the preexistence of Christ than others precisely similar prove the pre-existence of all his followers.

It may be thought, perhaps, that something more than this is signified by the words of Jesus, when he said to the Jews, (John viii. 56,) "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it and was glad:"-that is, their great progenitor had a vision, a foresight through faith, of the day of glory which was then dawning on the world. There seems to be no other conceivable sense in which Abraham could have seen the Gospel day two thousand years before Jesus was born. But the Jews, with their usual dulness of apprehension and obstinate prejudices, accused him of saying that he had seen Abraham. But that was a perversion of his words. He had not said that, nor

anything equivalent to it. Therefore he rebukes their skepticism and the scornful manner in which they had resisted his teachings and disowned his claims to be their promised Messiah, by declaring to them, "Before Abraham was, I am." (John viii. 58.) These words, as they stand in our common version, are indeed obscure. The present tense of the verb, "I am," being connected with past time, “Abraham was," produces confusion in the mind of the unlearned reader. As the passage stands it is altogether too vague and indefinite a speech on which to found an important doctrine. But it unfortunately happens that on the ground of the unintelligible character of some expressions in the Bible, they are relied upon all the more, as if the words. contained a grand mystery; and the less able men have been to understand the words or to explain them, the more sanguine were they that here must be contained some wonderful secret. When Christ says that Abraham saw his day, that is, the times of the Messiah, no one understands the declaration literally, and there is as little reason to understand literally the expression, "Before Abraham was, I am." The expression is elliptical in the original Greek. After the word siul, rendered in the common version, "I am," we must understand ó Xqısıòs, (i. e. the Messiah); as is evident from two preceding passages in the same discourse. In verse 24th there is the same ellipsis in the Greek," If ye believe not that I am, ye shall die in your sins;" but here, after I am, the translators have very properly inserted the pronoun "he," i. e., the Messiah, which is manifestly necessary to complete the sense. So in the 28th verse, Jesus says, "When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am," i. e. "he," referring to the Messiah, which our translators have supplied and put in italics. The same elliptical form occurs in Mark xiii. 6, and Luke xxi. 8, where we read, " Many shall come in my name, saying I am," i. e. "Christ," which is supplied here by our translators. In Acts xiii. 25, John the Baptist is reported as saying, "Who think ye that I am? I am not," i. e. I am not "the Christ," the same ellipsis occurring in the Greek. In John iv. 26, Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, "I that speak unto thee am," i. e. "he," or the Messiah, as is obvious enough from the context, for she had just before said to him, "I know that Messiah

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cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things." To cite one other instance of this kind, let the reader note John xiii. 19: "Now I tell you before it come, that when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am;" the Vulgate retaining the ellipsis in this place, credatis quia ego sum," as it usually does in other places, and our translators supplying the pronoun "he" as essential to express the sense of the original. In Matt. xxiv. 5, which reads, "Many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ," and in John iii. 28, where John the Baptist says, "Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ," the expression is not elliptical in the Greek, but after the verb eiul, am, & Xororós, the Christ, is expressly mentioned. It is remarkable that the translators of our common version have violated their usual practice in John viii. 58, by omitting to supply the ellipsis of the original, and for no other reason apparently than because their opinion of Christ being the same as Jehovah, prevailed over their judgment on this occasion; their critical knowledge being no match for their superstitious prejudices. The expression being elliptical, the words of the original, yo elui, should be translated, "I am he," viz., the Messiah, the Christ the peculiar force of the present tense in Scripture usage is to imply determination and certainty; as if he had said, "My mission was settled and certain before the birth of Abraham." 2 The full meaning of Jesus, then, was this Before Abraham existed I was the Messiah; that is, I was designated by God as the Messiah. The words can not be understood literally, because the peculiar office of Messiah, as it belongs to Jesus, did not exist until it was assumed by him on earth. There is a solecism in saying that there was any Messiah before Abraham, except in the purpose of the Almighty. The language used by Christ and his apostles when speaking on this point, is of the same figurative character with that addressed to the prophet Jeremiah, (i. 5): "Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth at thy birth, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet to the nations."

:

We may, perhaps, find a reason for the use of such language respecting the Saviour by considering that one of the

2 Wakefield's Note on John viii. 58.

main objections of the generality of the Jews to Christianity was its being a novelty, an innovation, subverting their former faith. The Pharisees said, "We are the disciples of Moses; we know that God spoke to Moses; as for this man, we know not from whence he is." (John ix. 28, 29.) They had looked upon their ancient law, which for fifteen centuries had been their distinguishing glory, as an immutable covenant made by God with his chosen people. Were the doctrines of Christ, they might ask, to be opposed to what they believed, and what their fathers had believed, upon the faith of God? Was a teacher of yesterday to be placed in competition with Moses and the prophets? Was it to be supposed that God would change his purposes, alter the terms of their allegiance, and substitute a new religion for that which he had so solemnly sanctioned? One mode of meeting these feelings and prejudices was by using language adapted to their modes of conception, asserting or implying that the sending of Christ, and the establishment of his religion, had always been purposed by God. Those modes of speech were conformed to the oriental style, and similar to many which occur in the Old Testament. Facts connected with the introduction of Christianity were spoken of by Jesus and his apostles-according to the literal import of their words-as having taken place before the world was; the purpose being to express in the most forcible manner that their existence was to be referred immediately to God, and had from eternity been predestinated by him. What they meant to represent God as having foreordained, they described as actually existing.

When Christianity came to be preached to the Gentiles it had to encounter the same objection of being a novel doctrine, and this objection was met in a similar manner. Thus Clement of Alexandria, two hundred years after Christ, having mentioned some nations that made extravagant pretensions to antiquity, adds; "But Christians were before the foundation of the world; through the certainty of our future existence, previously existing in God himself." The Talmud has a saying that "Seven things were created before the world, viz.: the garden of Eden;

3

3 See Norton's "Statement of Reasons for not believing the Doctrines of Trinitarians concerning the Nature of God, and the person of Christ," (pp. 170–179,) for an exhaustive treatment of this subject.

the law; the righteous; the Israelites; the throne of glory; Jerusalem; and the Messiah, the Son of David; which is explained to mean that they were prior in the intention of God; they constituted the end for which the world was created; the end being in intention, precedent to the means.

We have an example of this mode of speaking in Heb. iv. 3; "We which have believed do enter into rest; as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest; although the works were finished from the foundation of the world."

If it be said in favor of Christ's pre-existence that according to St. Paul, (Heb. i. 2,) " By him the worlds were made," it is sufficient to reply that by worlds here [alovas, saecula, ages,] we are to understand, not the material world-for there is no known instance in which the Greek alov or the Latin seculum properly bears such a sense, -but, ages or dispensations. All preceding ages and revelations were introductory to the Gospel, which is the object, the end, the consummation, to which all previous dispensations had reference. Wakefield renders the clause thus: "Through whom he also settled the ages."

It is not forgotten that in another place St. Paul says that "All things were created by Jesus Christ," that "he is before all things," that "by him all things consist." (Col. i., 16-18.) Can it be necessary to remind the reader that the phrase "all things," has not an absolute and fixed, but only a relative and variable signification? It is in fact, a most indefinite expression, its meaning depending on the connection in which it is used and the purpose of the writer or speaker. "All things are for your sakes," says Paul," that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God."-"We know that all things work together for good to them that love God?" (2 Cor. iv. 15. Rom. viii. 28.) By which of course we understand that all their trials and sufferings should be overruled for the good of the church and the promotion of Christ's kingdom. When it is said that "there is one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him," it plainly signifies that Jesus is the appointed mediator between God and men, the true medium by which we have access to the Father, in opposition to all idols and all false gods whatsoever. It is, indeed, admitted that all things were