DISCOURSE III. 597 John viii. 14. I know whence I came, and whither I go. John xvi. 28. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: Again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. In which words his being with the Father, and his being in the world, seem to be two opposite states, and are represented as inconsistent with each other in that sense in which Christ speaks of his Father's company and absence ; but the pure divinenature can hardly be represented as absent from the Father, even while it resides in this world, nor as returning to him afterwards. Let it be noted also, that as soon as Christ had spoke these words, his disciples answered, Lo, now thou speakest plainly, and speakest no parables; that is, there is no difficulty or obscu- rity in these words. No enigmatical or allegorical speech, saith Beza. But surely there is difficulty andobscurity in them, if we must construe them by figures, and not in the obvious sense ; especially if his coming from the Father, that is, as God, must be taken in a figurative sense, and his going to the Father, that is, as man in a literal. There are other expressions of scripture to the same purpose, John iii. 13. No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son ofman, who is, or was in heaven, as the Greek participle an may be pro- perly interpreted in the time past or present ; and thus it may be conktrued to signify either the divinity of Christ, or rather his pre-existent souls. John iii. 31. He that is of the earth is earthly, and speak- eth of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is above all. John xiii. 3. Jesus knowing that he was come from God, midwas go- ing to God. Eph. iv. 9, l0. Now that he ascended, what is it, but that he also descended first into the lowerparts of the earth? the son of man, that is, thedivine nature, was before ?" And yet this must be the exposition of the place, if Christ had nopre-existent soul, and I am sure this is much harder, and more catachrestical than the sense I have given. * This text is seized by the Socinianr, and pressed bythem to support their invention of Christ's ascending locally to heaven after bis baptism, there to receive more complete instructions from God. But the learned Mr. Fleming replies thus, " There can be no just inference from his denying the Jews tohave ascended intoheaven, that he had ascended thither himself, any more than if a native of Japan shouldcome now to England, and speak to no after this manner; " Ye have reason to believe what I say of my own country, for I speak wheel. have seen there, and do exactly know it. And none of you did ever go to Japan, excepting me only, who have my original residence there, and am a native of the place, and am come from thence hither." Would these words necessarily infer, that he must have gone from England to Japan before he came from thence, because perhaps the connexion of the word, does not run in our usual mode of speaking ?" Thus that author. I might subjoin also, that the exaltationof Christ's human soul to the hey, venly world immediately upon its first existence may be well enough called an ascent into heaven, when it is evident that the scripture uses many expressions as distant as this is from their grammatical meaning, in order to form a " paro- homasiat' or chime of words, with an antithesis of reuse, which were Esatara beauties of speech. F p 3
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