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| Chapter VI. He illustrates the same doctrine by passages from the New Testament.
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Chapter VI.
He illustrates the same doctrine by passages from the
New Testament.
“That,” says
the Apostle John, “which was from the beginning, which we have
heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and
our hands have handled, of the word of the life: for the life was
manifested: and we have seen, and do bear witness, and declare unto you
the life eternal which was with the Father, and hath appeared unto
us.”2513
You see how the
old testimonies are confirmed by fresh ones, and the support of the new
preaching is given to the ancient prophecy. Isaiah said: “Cease
ye from the man whose breath is in his nostrils for he is reputed
high.” But John says: “That which was from the beginning,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our
hands have handled.” The former said that as man He would be
persecuted by the Jews: the latter declared that as man He was handled
by men’s hands. The one predicted that He whom he announced as
man, would be God Most High: the other asserts that He whom he showed
to have been handled by men, was ever God in the beginning. It is then
as clear as possible that they both showed the Lord Jesus Christ to be
both God and man; and that the same Person was afterwards man who had
always been God, and thus He was God and man, because God Himself
became man. That then, he says, “which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have
looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life; and the
life was manifested, and we have seen, and do bear witness, and declare
unto you the life eternal which was with the Father, and hath appeared
unto us.” You see the number of proofs and ways, very different
and numerous, in which that Apostle so well beloved and so devoted to
God, indicates the mystery of the Divine Incarnation. In the first
instance he testifies that He, who ever was in the beginning, was seen
in the flesh. Lest in case it might not seem sufficient for unbelievers
that he had spoken of Him as seen and heard, he supports it by saying
that He was handled, i.e., touched and felt by his own hands and by
those of others. Admirably indeed by showing how He took flesh, does he
shut out the view of the Marcionites and the error of the Manichees, so
that no one may think that a phantom appeared to men, since an apostle
has declared that a true body was handled by him. Then he adds
“the word of life: and the life was manifested;” and that
he saw it, announced it, and proclaimed it: thus at the same time
carrying out the duties of the faith and striking the unbelievers with
terror, that while he declares that he proclaims Him, he may bring home
the danger in which he stands, to the man who will not listen.
“We declare to you,” he says, “the life eternal which
was with the Father, and hath appeared to us.” He teaches that
that which was ever with the Father appeared to men: and that which was
ever in the beginning, was seen of men: and that which was the Word of
life without beginning, was handled by men’s hands. You see the
number and variety, the particularity and the clearness of the ways in
which he unfolds the mystery of the flesh joined to God, in such a way
that no one could speak at all of either without acknowledging both. As
the Apostle himself clearly says elsewhere: “For Jesus Christ is
the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.”2514
This is what he said in the passage given
above: “That which was from the beginning, our hands have
handled.” Not that a spirit can in its own nature be handled: but
that the Word made flesh was in a sense handled in the manhood with
which it was joined. And so Jesus is “the same yesterday and
to-day”: i.e., the same Person before the commencement of the
world, as in the flesh; the same in the past as in the present, the
same also for ever, for He is the same through all the ages, as before
all the ages. And all this is the Lord Jesus Christ.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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