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ερχόμενος,

the present tense, in the usage of scriptural expression, is to imply determination and certainty: as if he had said,My mission was settled and certain before the birth of Abraham.' See Matt. xvii. 11. And the reader may observe, that our Lord is elsewhere spoken of, even after his arrival, as well as before, under the term & εpxoμevos, the comer, or he who cometh. He must observe also, that the translators violate their usual practice on this place by omitting he after I am: and from no other reason, than because their notion of Christ being the same as Jehovah, prevailed over their judgment on this occasion: their critical knowledge was no match for their superstitious prejudices. In ver. 24, of this very chapter, our Lord says to the Jews, Unless ye believe that I AM, ye will die in your sins.' That I am what? The most high God? No man will have the assurance to assert it, or to suppose, that our Saviour could expect them to believe such a doctrine. No: but they would die in their sins, if they did not believe him to be the Christ, and receive him as such: to be the Son of God, not God himself. See ix. 35, and abundance of such places.

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"The same observation upon the phrase I am, εyw εm, is equally applicable to all the following: εγω ειμι, ver. 28 of this chapter; iv. 26.; Luke xxiv. 39. xxi. 8, which last assertion is expressed at full length in Matt. xxiv. 5.”

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Wakefield.

"The expression yw eu, is uniformly used in the sense of I am he,' or I am the Christ: it occurs twice in this discourse, ver. 24. 28. It must therefore, in all reason, be taken in the same sense here,

especially as this signification best suits the connexion."

Note to the Unitarian Version.

JOHN ix. 38.

(UNITARIANISM.)

"And the man said, I believe, teacher, and fell down before him."

Wakefield.

"And the man said, Sir, I believe; and he did Jesus obeisance.”

Unitarian Version.

JOHN X. 18.

(UNITARIANISM.)

*

"I have a commission to lay it down, and I have a commission receive it again; this charge I received from my Father." Wakefield's Translation.

to

"A commission εčovʊav; or, I am authorised; though this is not so applicable to the laying down of his life, as to the receiving of it again; and the passage is of that kind, adduced in my Silva Critica, on Matt. xxvi. 29.

"In all the variety of places where govora is used, it uniformly means authority or privilege, or a delegated commission conferred by some superior."

Wakefield.

"None taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to receive it again. This commission I have received from my father."—Unitarian Version.

"To lay down life was a voluntary act, to which Jesus submitted in full confidence that it would be

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speedily restored to him. The common version, which the primate here adopts, is, I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again :' which seems to imply, that our Lord's resurrection was the effect of his own power, a sense which the words in the original do not convey, and which is directly contrary to the most explicit declarations of the Scripture, Acts ii. 24. iii. 15. xvii. 31.; Rom. vi. 4.; 1 Cor. xv. 15.”

Note to the Unitarian Version.

JOHN X. 20.

"He hath a demon and is mad."-Unitarian Version.

(UNITARIANISM.)

"Observe, these words express cause and effect. The effect, the disease, is insanity: the supposed cause is possession by a demon, or a human ghost, than which no supposition can be more absurd. But it was the philosophy of the age."

Note to the Unitarian Version.

No. 1.

JOHN X. 30.

"I and my Father are one.”

The Abbot, Joachim, contended that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, were one entire Being, not by existing in a common substance, but by being so united in consent and will, that they were as effectually so, as if they had been but one being; in

the same manner, as many men are said to form one people.

Sherlock adopted this argument against the Socinians, in his justification of the doctrine of the Trinity, but it has been condemned as an hypothesis favorable to the doctrine of Tritheism.

No. 2.

Dictionnaire des Hérésies.

(See Notes on John xiv. 9.)

(UNITARIANISM.)

In support of the Unitarian interpretation of this passage, Mr. Wakefield observes:

"In John xvii. 20, 21, Christ prays that the believers may be one with him and the Father, as the Father is in him and he in the Father.

"Paul says, in the same language, 1 Cor. iii. 8. 'that the planter and waterer are one'.'

See Wakefield's Preface to his Translation of the New Testament. "To snatch my true disciples out of my hand, would be to snatch them out of the Almighty Father's hand, because I and my Father are oneone in design, action, agreement, affection. See chap. xvii. 11. 21, 22.; 1 Cor. iii. 8. and, in some copies, iv: Gal. iii. 28."

Note to the Unitarian Version.

JOHN xii. 46.

"I am come a light into the world."

In the reign of Edward VI. an injunction was issued, that no wax candles or tapers should be

burnt before images; but it was added, only two lights upon the high altar before the sacrament shall remain still, to signify that Christ is "the light of the world."

See Neal's History of the Puritans.

No. 1.

JOHN xiii. 14.

"Ye also ought to wash one another's feet."
(GREEK CHURCH.)

In the Greek, as well as in the Latin church, there is a ceremony called the divine and holy Lavipedium, observed on Holy Thursday, i. e. the Thursday of Passion Week, in imitation of our Saviour's humility and condescension in washing his Apostles' feet. At Constantinople, Jesus Christ is, on this occasion, personified by the patriarch, and everywhere else, by the Bishop of the diocese, or the Principal of the Monastery; and the twelve Apostles by twelve Priests or Monks, when a contest arises who shall represent Judas, for the name attaches for life.

No. 2.

Euchologion, sive Rituale Græcorum Jac. Goar.

(MORAVIANS.)

It is a custom with the Moravians, after receiving the sacrament on the first Saturday in the month, to wash each other's feet: the men and women apart.

Southey's Life of Wesley.

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