to call the attention of the Reader to two undeniable principles.

First, the creation of the natural world is very frequently ascribed in the Scriptures to the Supreme Being himself, and in the most express and explicit language. For instance, Gen. i. 1. In the beginning GOD created the heavens and the earth.' Ps. xcv. 5. The sea is HIS, and HE made it, and His hands formed the dry land.' Is. xlv. 18. For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens, GOD himself that formed the earth and made it-I am the LORD and there is NONE ELSE.' Jer. xxvii. 5. 6 Thus saith the LORD of hosts the GOD of Israel-I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by мY great power, and by My outstretched arm.' Rev. iv. 11. THOU art worthy, O LORD, to receive glory and honour our Lord himself in reference to that phraseology, (in the passage so often referred to, see p. 62. note (h). Among those readers of John's Gospel who had learnt Christianity of him, or of Paul, or who had been converted from Judaism by any others, no difficulty could exist as to the way in which the Evangelist uses the term: and I think that a beathen convert could have felt no perplexity respecting it. If for a moment he had supposed from it, that Jesus was truly God, his error would at once have been corrected, when he came to the words of Jesus in which he addresses the FATHER as the ONLY TRUE GOD: he could not possibly imagine that the Apostle meant to represent Jesus as a God, in the sense in which the word was applied to the heathen divinities; and he therefore would naturally presume, that he applied the appellation God in the way in which Jesus himself said it was applied in the Jewish Scriptures, viz. on account of the divine authority of his declarations, because to him the word of God came,' because he was a man who had received important truths from God, and under His sanction delivered them to mankind.— Why we cannot apply the appellation to Jesus, without at least countenancing unscriptural ideas, see the note above re

ferred to.

and power; for THOU hast created all things.' Neh. ix. 6. THOU, even THOU art LORD alone; THOU hast made heaven, the heaven of heaven with all their host, the earth and all things that are therein, the seas and all that is therein. Acts iv. 24. Sovereign Lord, THOU art GOD, who madest heaven and earth and the sea, and all that in them is d'I infer from this, that if (contrary to the language of the Apostles, in the last instance,) it was not God, but His holy servant Jesus, who created the heaven, earth, and sea, and all things in them, we may reasonably expect this singular fact to be declared unambiguously and by proper authority.

Secondly, the highly important and striking change, which was so suddenly produced, by the Christian dispensation, in the moral condition and prospects of the Gentile world, is spoken of by the Apostle Paul as a creation; and of this creation Jesus was the immediate agent. The Apostle, speaking of Christian believers, says, Eph. ii. 10. For we are his workmanship, having been CREATED through Christ Jesus, to good works;' and in vs. 15. speaking of the union of the Jews and Gentiles says, that Christ abolished by his death the cause of enmity, in order to CREATE, in himself, of the

viii. 1. 3.

xix. 1.

6

d See also among other places, Gen. i. Job. ix. S. 9. Ps. xxiv. 1. 2. xxxiii. 6. 9. lxxxix. II. cxlviii. 4-6. Is. xi. 26. xlv. 7. xlviii. 13. Jer. x. 12. Amos. iv. 13. Acts xiv. 15. xvii. 24. (comp. vs. 31) If any one will examine the phraseology in these passages, he will perceive. that if the Apostle in Col. 16. meant to ascribe the natural creation to Christ, he has not done it in the language usually employed, (and employed even by himself in the last two passages,) respecting the natural creation.

two, one new man.' In ch. iii. 9, he says that God hath CREATED all things,' meaning, if we judge from the connexion, created them anew to holiness; and in ch. iv. 24, he employs an expression which at once determines that he sometimes, at least, spoke of the moral change which had occurred, as a creation; To be renewed in the spirit. of your mind, and to put on the new man, which is CREATED, according to God, in righteousness and true holiness.' In like manner, in Col. iii. 10, he says, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge, according to the image of Him who CREATED him.'-Agreeably to this phraseology, the Apostle says, 2 Cor. v. 17. If any man be in Christ, he is a NEW CREATURE,' or 'there is a NEW CREATION;' and Gal. vi. 15. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a NEW CREATION.'

The change of state experienced by the Heathens in consequence of faith in Jesus, can hardly be calculated by those who scarcely remember the time when they did not know the leading truths of the Gospel. The Gentile believers had new hopes, new views, new desires; and the commencement of the change of mind, and indeed the change of state itself, was usually instantaneous, produced by what they saw before their eyes, of the immediate agency of divine power. It was a change from darkness to light; from debasing ignorance, to a knowledge of the sublimest truths: it was a change from impurity of heart, to the desire after holiness; from earthly pleasures and hopes, to the prospect of an inheritance unfading in the heavens. How happy

:

and full of rich and glorious privilege was their new condition the Greatest and Best of beings, their Father, their merciful and gracious Father; the living and exalted Jesus, their Lord and Saviour, their Friend and elder Brother; the way of duty cleared; the hopes of heaven, of pardon and everlasting life, distinctly sanctioned and firmly fixed upon a sure foundation.-It seems to me almost impossible to think of these things, and hesitate to admit that this moral renovation was most justly represented by the Apostle as a new creation.

From the preceding considerations I maintain, that the principles of interpretation stated at the beginning of this Part, (see Chap. IV.) require us to interpret passages which speak of the creation by Jesus Christ, as referring to this new creation. In this, Jesus was the honoured instrument of the Father's goodness; in the natural creation, all was effected by the fiat of the Almighty,—He and He only, by His great power, created the heavens and earth and sea, and all that is in them.

19.] John i. 3. "All things were made (eyevero) by him; and without him was not any thing made which was made." Vs. 10. "The world was made by him."-Were it consistent with the uniform use of youai by John, and the almost uniform use of it in the N. T., to translate it make in the sense of create, for the foregoing reasons, as well as from

e John xx. 17. Rom. viii. 17. Heb. ii. 11.

f The reader who wishes to examine this subject more minutely, will do well to consult a very valuable sermon lately published, entitled "The Nature, Origin, and Effect of the Creation by Jesus Christ; by Russel Scott;" as well as the authors referred to by him.

the connexion (which obviously refers to Jesus as the Logos, the Declarer of the purposes of God 5,) I should unhesitatingly refer these words to the new creation: the fact however is, that the common translation is not justifiable; for 1. John never", uses the word you in the sense of create; 2. there is no clear instance in which it is used, in this sense, by the other N. T. writers, though the word occurs in the N. T. about 700 times; and, 3. it is

8 See p. 61—65.

h See p. 63. note (i).

i Mr. Simpson in his valuable Explanation of John i. 1-13, says, p. 27, "Nor can I find that it occurs in this sense," viz. of proper original creation, "throughout the whole New Testament, excepting in the two following instances: James iii. 9. Heb. iv. 3.' "" It does not appear to me that either of these cases is fully in point. In Hebr. iv. 3. his works were finished, yevrov, from the foundation of the world,' if we interpret the expression by vs. 4, and by the sense, must mean, his creative operations were done or ended,' not, his works (the effects of such operations) were created.' As to James iii. 9, men, that are made, yayovoras, after the likeness of God,' it certainly may be referred to the original creation of the human race; but it may also properly mean, men who are (or, are become) according to the likeness of God' James always uses you to signify to be or to become, and the connexion refers the expression to men then existing. Perhaps, but I lay no stress upon it, by men who are become according to the likeness of God' the Apostle particularly means, Christian believers; for the Jews often cursed them

in their synagogues. (See Macknight.)-I was led some

years ago, to examine the scriptural sense of you, by a sus. picion that the common translation and interpretation of John i. 3. 10, are not justifiable, and I was gratified with finding my conclusions, above stated, so much supported by the independent examination of the accurate Critic mentioned in this note. Hebr. xi. 3, has also been adduced to show that дотореал is sometimes used in the sense of proper original creation; but without sufficient grounds. Sykes well paraphrases it thus, "It is through faith that we are sure that the past ages, awvas, of the world were all directed and ordered by the wise council