6

tions, and directing all things by the word of His power.' The Writer of the Wisdom of Solomon, personifying the principle of Wisdom, says, ch. vii. 26, For she is a ray anavyaoμа of everlasting light, and an unspotted mirror of the energy of God, and an image ax of His goodness: ' and this language well explains what the Writer to the Hebrews says. By Jesus, the glorious perfections of God were eminently displayed, and His wisdom, goodness, and mercy, manifested to mankind.

36.] 1 Cor. i. 24. Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God;' that is, as the connexion shows (especially vs. 18), the Christian scheme of salvation, manifests the power and wisdom of God,

6

37.] Col. ii. 9. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.'-In i. 19, (see No. 22,) the Apostle says, 'For it pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell in him;' and it is hence obvious, that, whatever that fulness mean, it once did not dwell in him, and, that it was by the will of God that it dwelt in him at all. From Eph. i. 23, we learn that Jesus filled his disciples with all things; and from ch. iii. 19, that they also might be filled even to the whole fulness of

* Griesbach has aucou his own; but every critic knows that the insertion of the aspirate depends almost solely upon the circumstances of the case.

1 The preposition is us, and the more common rendering of it is to or into. It may also be rendered as to, even to, and perhaps also with, as in the Public Version, but of this last I have not discovered any clear instance in the writings of Paul. With the usual force of ss, the rendering would be, that ye may be filled into all the fulness of God; and

God.' No one, I presume, will assert, that the fulness of God,' and, the fulness of the Godhead or Divinity, must or do mean different things: and if not, the whole force of the text in question rests in the word bodily. This word signifies truly or really, see vs. 17: and I apprehend the Apostle meant, that the spiritual and heavenly blessings of the Gospel fully and truly dwelt in Jesus, and that he had the power of communicating them to others. Of his fulness,' says the Apostle John, we have all received.'

38.] Phil. ii. 5-8. The common rendering of this noted passage has, without doubt, greatly contributed to support the popular doctrine of the deity of Christ; but if we interpret it agreeably to the phraseology of the Scriptures, it will be found to contain nothing inconsistent with the general tenor of the N. T. The only essential difficulty, which is merely critical, rests with the word generally translated robbery, but which many learned men, and among them Schleusner, understand to signify Schleusner, employing that meaning of angwa which is pointed out by Eph. i. 23, the church, which is his body, the fulness, angwa, of him who filleth all bis members with all things,' explains the present passage, ❝ that you may be received into the Christian church." To me this interpretation appears inadmissible, because the Epistle is addressed" the saints, and faithful in Christ Jesus, and because wav, all, is in this case useless. However, if any choose this meaning of wangwux, let them, with Schleusner, employ it in the other passages of the Ephesians and Colossians. These Schleusner thus interprets: Eph. iv, 13," to that perfect age, or, to the perfection, to which the Christian church ought to rise;" Col. i. 19, "it pleased God, that Christ should be king and lord of the whole body of his followers;" and Col. ii. 9, "that by Christ, the whole church of God is comprehended, so that it may be as it were his body."

6

'to

any object to be eagerly grasped at. A correct rendering of the passage on this latter principle will be found in the Improved Version: on the whole, (though not without great indecision,) I prefer the former". Agreeably to this, the following appears to me to be a true representation of the Apostle's moaning. Vs. 5. Let the same disposition be in you which was also in Christ Jesus ; who, being in the form of God, did not regard it as unjust assumption to be as God, yet divested himself of his dignity by taking the form of a servant, and appearing as common men ; & and being found in condition as a common man, he submitted to abject abasement, being obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him,' &c. (see p. 114.)

7

To be in the form of God, and to be instead of God, are obviously expressions of the same general import. Moses is said (Exod. iv. 16,) to be instead of God to Aaron; he, by divine appointment, informed him of the purposes of God. Our Lord was in the form of God, inasmuch as he spoke and acted with divine authority; and according to Jewish phraseology (see p. 62 and 147) he was a God, because he was thus in the form of God. He was the representative of God; God by him declared His gracious purposes to mankind, invested him with authority, and, by His supernatural agency, enabled him to prove that authority.Whenever Jesus spoke and acted in the form of God, with the divine authority with which he was invest

The grounds of this preference may be seen in Cappe's Critical Dissertations, Vol, J. p. 276.

ed, whenever he claimed honour and obedience because he so spake and acted, he was as God"; and thus much, for the purposes of his mission, we know he did assume; it was not only his right, but his duty to do so. The word in vs. 7, 8, which is rendered man, denotes one who is in the lower walks of

It is clearly proved, in Whitby's note on this passage, that the expression a Jew is righly rendered as Ged, and not equal to God. See Job x. 10. xxiv. 20. xl. 15.

"In the Jewish language, there are three terms which signify the same general idea Man. One denoting it with the connotation of mortality and misery; another with the connotation of meanness and inferiority of rank; and a third with the connotation of dignity and honour. Now that which is used by the Greek translators of the Jewish Scriptures to express the second of these terms, viz. a man of mean or inferior rank, when such a person is spoken of in the opposition which he holds to a man of extraordinary dignity and ho nour, is the very word here used by the Apostle in the clause before us, and in that which next follows it.-The truth of the observation concerning the import of this term, will be found by any one that shall compare the original and the Greek version of Is. ii. 9. the mean man bowed down,' v. 15. xxxi. 8. And we might refer also for some confirmation of this idea to Ps. iv. 2. 1 Kings xvi. 18. 2 Chron. xiv. 11.” Cappe's Critical Dissertations, Vol. I. p. 2;6.

6

That the N. T. writers do sometimes employ rags, abgwros, and ve with the above-mentioned associated ideas, see Schleusner; and it would save some unfounded inferences as to the nature of our Lord, if this peculiarity were more taken into account. The simple question is, whether Paul, imbued with Jewish opinions, and accustomed to Jewish phraseology, would have used the expressions in the likeness of men' and in condition as a man' if he believed Jesus to be truly and properly a man, and, as to nature, no more. The phraseology already referred to respecting Sampson, seems to me to decide the point; but it may be useful to refer to Ps. lxxxii. 6, 7. I have said, ye are Gods, and all of you are children of the Most High, but Ye shall die like men, as a euro, and fall like one of the princes.' Would any one be justified in supposing that the persons here addressed were not men? Geddes well renders it, as common men,' which doubtless gives the just force to the original.

life, of common rank, and with common powers. With this last force we find it used in the Greek translation of Judges xvi. 7. 11. 17; where our translators have properly adapted their rendering to the English idiom.

Having thus stated the force of the principal expressions, I shall subjoin a paraphrase of the whole.

Vs. 5. Let the same humble disposition be manifested by you, which appeared in Christ Jesus; 6 who, being the representative of the Most High, entrusted by him with the most dignified commission, appointed to declare the gracious designs of his mercy and goodness, and invested with powers to prove his divine authority, did not regard it as an unjust assumption of dignity and authority to act, on all suitable occasions, as the representative of God, nevertheless he did not unnecessarily assume the dignity of that character, he was as God, not to gratify pride or ambition, but only for the purposes of his mission, and instead of aiming at the external splendor and honours which as the Messiah he might have claimed, he voluntarily led a life of poverty and humiliation : though in the form of God, he divested himself of his rightful dignity, by acting as a servant to those who owned him as their Master, and by being, to all outward appearance, nothing different from other men, for he was indeed a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.' He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many;' and though he remained in the condition of lowly poverty, when he might have acquired

8