TRANSLATION. 3. All things were formed by him; and without him was not any thing formed that was formed. 4. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. PARAPHRASE. All that regeneration of mankind which the Gospel produced was effected by his inftrumentality; and without this not any reformation was accomplished by it. Comp. 2 Cor. v. 17; Ephes. iii. 9. As the chief means of producing this new creation, he declared, and proved by his refurrection, that he himself would raise all mankind from the dead, and would bestow everlasting life upon the good. Comp. Acts xvii. 31. This well-attefted doctrine of eternal life was a reviving light to mankind. 5. And the light fhone A light which fhone upon the in darkness; yet the darkness did not apprehend it. 6, 7, 8. A man whofe name was John was fent from God; he came for a witnefs, that he might testify concerning the light, that all might by his means belieye. He was not that light, but "came" to bear witness of that light. 9. The true light was that which coming into the world, enlighteneth every man. clouds of ignorance, fuperftition, and vice, in which the human race were involved; yet mankind in general did not comprehend the true nature of it. John was divinely commiffioned to bear teftimony to the light, in order to prepare mankind for believing in it. He himself was not that light. The true light was that which diffuseth rays of divine wisdom and inftruction upon mankind in general. TRANSLATION.. 10. He was in the world, and the world was formed by him; yet the world knew him not. PARAPHRASE. He was publicly converfant with men; many were reformed by him; and he imparted the best means of renovating the human race; yet mankind in general did not believe in him. 11. He came into his The period of his public miniftry, own land," Countryman yet his own people" didnot receive him. 12. Nevertheless to as many as received him, and believed on his name, to them he granted the privilege of becoming children of God. 13. Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the fleth, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14. And the word was a man, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, a glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of the moft favourable truth. was spent in his native pay and city; yet his own townsmen and countrymen did not generally acknowledge him as the Meffiah. But to all those who did believe in and obey him, he gave the ineftimable advantage of becoming children of God, and of the refurrection; (Luke xx. 36.) Which he bestowed not on account of any thing peculiar to them as Jews, fuch as their defcent from Abraham by both parents, or by one parent, or their being profelytes; (for which they had hitherto been called fons of God; Deut. xxxii. 6; Hofea i. 10; xi. 1; John viii. 41;) but because they had been regenerated by faith in him. 1 John v. 1, 18. This teacher was a human being, as Ifaiah liii. 3; xi. 1, 2; and Zechariah vi. 12, foretold he would be; and he was born and lived in Judea; agreeably to their predictions alfo, we faw and heard glorious difplays of his heavenly Father's perfections, in PARAPHRASE. his wonderful miracles, and the most important and reviving truths which God revealed by him. John teftified that this was the perfon whofe advent he predicted, and whom he described as divinely appointed to an office of greater dignity and power than his own. And of the fullness of divine truth which Jefus poffeffed, we have all received; even favours additional, and fuperior, to thofe which were granted by the law. For the moral and religious doc trines which Jefus delivered, far excelled in benignity and importance even the instructions of Mofes. To no man has God ever made himself thoroughly known; but the well-beloved of the Father has given the clearest and fulleft manifeftation of his perfections, his will, and his paternal kindnefs, that was ever communicated to the human race. An Illuftration of John i. 1 to 18, by parallel Paf fages in Ifaiah, and in the Difcourfes and Memoirs of Chrift, particularly thofe which are recorded in the Gospel written by John. In order to understand any writer, either facred or prophane, it is neceffary to be particularly attentive to his language, and the peculiar fenfe in which he ufes words and phrafes. We muft alfo trace, as far as we can, the ideas that principally occupied his mind while he was writing, the intimate affociations which he had formed, and the principal purpose for which he wrote. These circumstances are efpecially to be regarded in the interpretation of an ancient author, in a diftant nation, whofe general fentiments, manners, customs, and phraseology, were very different from our own. A habit of attention to them is peculiarly requifite to explain the introduction to the Gospel of John. Among the characteristics of the ftile of John in this paffage, we have noticed the following, in the notes upon it. The original fenfe in which he uses the word λoyos in ver. 1 and 14; μovoyevns in ver. 14 and 18; the more limited meaning which he af fixes to agx in ver. 1 and 2; to xorμcs in ver. 9 and 10; to you in ver. 3; the recurrence of fynoγινομαι nymous words in ver. 3, 10, 11, 12; expreffing the fame idea both affirmatively and negatively in ver. 3 and 20; and fome other Hebraifms. The frequent repetition of the fame or fimilar ideas and expreffions, in the first chapter of John's Gospel, as in ver. 1 and 2, 7, 8, and 15, 27 and 30, 31 and 33, was com mon with the Hebrews, and occurs often in Isaiah: fee xl. 1, 9; xlix. 6; lv. `7, 11, 12; lxi. 10; lxv. 17; i. 4, 7, 10, 15, 16; iii. 4; iv. 3, &c. John, alfo, ufes an enallage of the tenfes of verbs. Thus the present tense is put for the past in ver. 5, fhineth for fhone; ver. 15, teftifieth for testified, crieth for cried. John has acquainted his readers with the precise purpose for which he wrote his memoirs, ch. xx. ver. 30, 31. "Now Jefus did many other figns in the "prefence of his difciples, which are not written in "thisbook; but these are written, that ye may believe "that Jefus is the Chrift, the Son of God; and that, "believing, ye may have life through his name.' Agreeably to this avowed defign, John begins with mentioning the high office in which Jefus appeared, as the first publisher of glad tidings, and the chief inftrument of executing the beneficent plans of the Almighty, and his extraordinary communications with and from the Supreme Being, ver. 1, 2; the important purpose for which he appeared, namely, to inftruct and reform mankind, ver. 3, 9; the great fact and doctrine by which he produced these effects, ver. 4; the recep D |