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down from Heaven, without being both spiritual and pre-existent, I cannot conceive. In other places he says, "That he 66 came down from Heaven, not to do his

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own will, but the will of him who sent "him." Again, "I am the living bread "which came down from Heaven." In the same 3d chapter of St. John, John the Baptist (who is elsewhere assured "that "he shall be called the Prophet of the "Highest, and that he shall go before the

face of the Lord Jehovah, to prepare his

"ways") declares, that he was sent before him, that was with him beyond Jordan, to whom he bore witness, and of whom he infers, "That he came from above (from "Heaven,) and that he is above all." "He "that cometh after me is preferred before 66 me, for he was before me ;" an unanswerable proof of the pre-existence of Christ. Those assertions of our Saviour, "That the " Son

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"Son can do nothing of himself but what "he seeth the Father do;" "That what"soever things the Father doeth, these also "doeth the Son likewise;" "That he speaks "that he hath seen with the Father;" "That in his Father's house are many "mansions;" "That as the Father raiseth

66

up the dead, and quickeneth whom he "will, even so doth the Son, and quick"eneth whom he will;" "That all men "should honour the Son even as they honour "the Father;" "That he will come in 66 company with his Father, and make his "abode with the righteous man ;" "That "where two or three are gathered together, "he is in the midst of them;" "That "all things that the Father hath are his, " and therefore that the Holy Spirit shall "receive of his, and shall shew it to his "Disciples;" are expressions too strong for a mere man to utter. God says to Moses,

"That

"That no man can see God, and live;" yet God is said to have appeared to Abraham and to Hagar. In like manner our Saviour says, "No man hath seen God at "any time, the only begotten Son who is " in the bosom of the Father, he hath "declared him ;" and yet this same person says of the Jews, "If I had not done "among them the works which none other "man did, they had not had sin; but "now they have both seen and hated, both "me

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me and my Father; for he that hateth 66 me, hateth my Father also; and he that "hath seen me, hath seen the Father also." As the Almighty had declared to Moses, when he sent him to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt, "I am that I am,' so our Saviour solemnly affirms of himself, that he not only existed before Abraham, but that he is the ever present and eternal existence "I am;" for such it must be rendered

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rendered here, or it will not agree with the context, "Thou art not yet fifty years "old, and hast thou seen Abraham? And "Jesus said, Verily, verily I say unto 66 you, before Abraham was, I am."

The next passage to be mentioned, is that in which our Saviour says, "That he "gives unto his faithful followers eternal "life: my Father which gave them me " is greater than all, and none is able to "pluck them out of my Father's hand." "I and the Father are one," therefore no one is able to pluck them out of my hand. This I conceive is the natural inference to be drawn from the sentence, and were I to attempt to put upon this passage any figurative construction, I could not do it. I understand it literally; did the hearers? yes; they took up stones to cast at him, "because, being a man, he made himself

God." Did the meek Teacher undeceive

them

them, and explain his words in a different manner? Did he say, you have mistaken my meaning, I have not the presumption to say, I and the Father are one and the same God? but so far from doing this, he justifies his expression, he declares that he is the Son of God; and he wishes them to know and believe that he is in the Father, and the Father in him. If this was not a confirmation of his former assertion, why should the Jews seek again to apprehend him, or he to escape out of their hands? The Evangelist St. John informs us, that Christ breathed on his Disciples, and conferred on them the Holy Spirit: this was elsewhere said to proceed from the Father, and to be called the Comforter; but St. Peter tells us, in his epistles, that the prophets of old were inspired by the Spirit of Christ: How could these prophets be inspired by the spirit of a person not in D 4 existence,

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