Sivut kuvina
PDF
ePub

Tertullian, Jérome, Ambrose, Augustin, and others: and there can be little doubt that they are spurious, being probably a marginal gloss, introduced carelessly or intentionally into the text. They are rejected in Griesbach's second edition, and in Mr. Wakefield's and the Improved Version.

But if they were genuine, the connexion requires that they should be understood in reference to the moral creation. "The sense most suitable to the place," says Archbishop Newcome, "is this: Who hath created all things, that is, Jews and Gentiles, anew to holiness of life." See chap. ii. 10. 15; iv. 24.4

V. Col. i. 15-18, "Who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature: For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers; all things were created by him and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead."

This text is regarded by the supporters of the popular opinions concerning the person of Christ as a most decisive and unanswerable argument in their favour. And the Unitarians, who interpret the passage of the moral creation, and their arguments, are treated with very little respect even by the most moderate of their opponents.

Dr. Harwood says, (Soc. Scheme, p, 35,) "Words, think, have no meaning, and are not the true signs of men's ideas, if these plain and clear passages do not contain and manifest this position: that Jesus Christ was the

* The archbishop admits the words into the text, but marks their doubtfulness by placing them in crotchets: he used the first edition of Griesbach. See Mill, Bengelius, Wetstein, and Griesbach in loc.

[blocks in formation]

person who, by the direction of the Deity, originally form, ed all things."

Dr. Clarke (Scr. Doct, No. 550) says; "Nothing can be more forced and unnatural than the Socinians' interpretation of this passage; who understand it figuratively of the new creation by the Gospel."

Mr. Peirce (in loc.) remarks, that "the interpretation which refers what is here said of our Saviour to the new creation, or the renovation of all things, is so forced and violent, that it can hardly be thought that men would ever have espoused it, but for the sake of a hypothesis."

Dr. Doddridge (Not. in loc.) says, that "to interpret this, as the Socinians do, of a new creation in a spiritual sense, is so unnatural, that one could hardly believe, if the evidence were not so undeniably strong, that any set of learned commentators could fall into it."

Notwithstanding, however, all the severe reflections of these and other learned critics, the Unitarians persist in their interpretation of this celebrated text, as importing nothing more than the great change introduced by the Gospel in the state of the moral world, and the authority and agency of Christ in this new dispensation. In vindication of which interpretation, the following observations are submitted to the consideration of the judicious and im, partial reader:

1. Jesus Christ is no where in the New Testament expressly said to be the creator or maker of the heavens, the earth, the sea, or of any visible natural objects.

2. When the apostle descends to the detail of things which were created by Christ, instead of naming the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, and its inhabitants, &c. which is what we should reasonably expect if a natural creation was intended, he only specifies thrones and dominions, and principalities and powers; which are not

physical

physical beings, but mere states of things, and artificial distinctions of political society.

3. The word 6, to create, in the language of Scripture expresses not only to bring out of nothing into existence, but likewise to introduce what actually exists into a new state of being, and particularly to transfer from à state of nature into a state of privilege, and covenant with God.

1.) The advancement of the Hebrew nation to a state of privilege and favour is described as creation. Isa. xliii. 1, "Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel."-Ver. 7, "I have created him for my glory. I have formed him, yea, I have made him."Ver. 15, "I am the Lord your holy One, the creator of Israel, your king."-Hence this favoured people are said to be, or to exist. Isa. lxiii. 19, "We are of old." For this reason the Jews are called by the apostle "things that are," in contradistinction to the Gentiles, who are described as "things that are not." 1 Cor. i. 28, "God hath chosen the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are."

to

This is a consideration of great weight, which one would think must make a deep impression upon every reflecting mind. It is curious to observe how very different the detail of the apostle's commentators is from his own. "His nature," says Dr. Doddridge, in his paraphrase upon the text, "has a transcendent excellency, superior any thing that is made. From him were derived the visible splendours of the celestial luminaries, the sun, the moon, and the stars, even all the hosts of these lower heavens, and from him the yet brighter glories of invisible and angelic beings." All this is perfectly natural; and had the apostle's theory been the same with that of his learned expositor, his induction of particulars would, no doubt, have been the same. It is evident, therefore, that Dr. Doddridge meant one thing, and the apostle Paul another.

6

εν αυτώ εκτίσθη τα παντα.-“ κτίζω, creo, ex nihilo produco, item ex materia præexistente formo. Metaphorice, Mirabili virtute aliquid efficio, corrigo ac emendo." Schleusner-x71515, creatio, is sometimes used in a very lax sense for ordinatio, institutum: 1 Pet. ii. 13, "Obey every ordinance (xrira) of man," &c.

2.) The

2.) The advancement of believers, both Jews and Gentiles, to the privileges and hopes of christianity, is also called creation and in contradistinction to the state of the Jews under the Mosaic economy, it is called a new creation. Eph. ii. 10, "We are his workmanship, created anew in Christ Jesus to good works." Col. iii. 10, "And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him who created him.". Hence converted Gentiles, who before were not, are said to be, or to exist. 1 Cor. i. 28, "Of him are ye in Christ Jesus" and conversion to christianity is a new creation. 2 Cor. v. 17, “If any man be in Christ Jesus, (q. d. become a christian,) there is a new creation?."

4. In the Scriptures, and particularly in the writings of Paul, men are often mentioned in terms which more properly express inanimate beings; they are called not persons, but things: viz, 1 Cor. i. 28, "God hath chosen the foolish things (ra wex) of the world to confound the wise, (785 σop85, the wise men,) and the weak things (ra aσbevn) to confound the mighty things (Tα Lovga)," i. e. persons, &c. Compare Matt. xi. 27. John iii. 35; vi. 37-39.8

Hence it clearly and distinctly follows, that according to the customary language of the sacred writers, and par

See Dr. Taylor's Key to the Apostolic Writings, chap. ii. § 17. 19; chap. vi. § 99. 102.

15.

See Mr. Tyrwhitt's excellent Essay on the Creation of all Things by Jesus Christ. Comm. and Essays, vol. ii. Ess. xiv. p. 9. "The general language of Scripture," says this learned and accurate writer, "concerning this new creation is briefly this: Believing Jews and Gentiles, considered jointly, are called the whole creation: Mark xvi. Col. i. 15. 23. The Jews are represented as the first-fruits of it; James i. 18; and Jesus Christ as the first-born, or heir: Col. i. 15. Heb. i. 2. Each individual believer is styled a new creature: Gal. vi. 15. 2 Cor. v. 17. And by it all believers, both Jews and Gentiles, are so perfectly made one, that all former distinctions between them are entirely lost in their common relation to Christ." Col. iii. 11,

ticularly

ticularly of the apostle Paul, to create all things,' may signify nothing more than to bring men into a new and a better state; to transfer them out of a state of nature into

a state of great moral privilege and advantage.

5. The words heaven and earth, in the language of Scripture, figuratively express the civil or moral distinctions of mankind in a social state.--1.) Civil distinctions. Matt. xxiv. 29, "The stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken :" i. e. the Jewish polity shall be dissolved. Joel ii. 10, "The earth shall quake, the heavens shall tremble:" i. e. men of all ranks, whether of low or of high degree, shall be in consternation. Compare Hag. ii. 6, 7. Acts ii. 19. Rev, vi. 12. 15.-2.) Moral distinctions. Matt. xi. 23, "Thou, Capernaum, that art exalted to heaven;" &c. Eph. iii. 15, "Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named;" i. e. the great body of christians living promiscuously among Jews and Gentiles: or, perhaps, consisting of both. Compare Eph. i. 10: and Mr. Locke's Note.

Hence it appears that 'creating all things in heaven and earth,' may signify the introducing some great change into the moral or political state of mankind, and particularly under the relation of Jews and Gentiles.

6. Things visible and invisible' are phrases of the same import as things in heaven and things in earth.

7. As heaven expresses the privileged state of those who participate in the benefits of the Jewish or Christian dispensations, so the distinction of orders, which, according to the crude mythology of the East, was supposed to exist among the inhabitants of heaven, appears to be used by the apostle, in the way of analogy, to express the different ranks and offices which subsist in the Jewish or the Christian church, all of which are regulated and new-modelled by Christ; who, in this sense, creates

all

« EdellinenJatka »