214 THE ARIAN INVITED TO ORTHODOX FAITH. eternal God, as a creature differs from the Creator ; for he be- lieves his human soul, or that spirit which supplies the place of it, to be his highest or divinest nature, and that it was produced by the power and' arbitrary will of God the Father, some time before the world was made, and thus he believes it to be pro- perly a creature, utterly denying the true and proper godhead of Christ ; yet he owns him to be sometimes called God in scrip- ture, on the account of his great likeness to Clod, his acting in the name of God, andhis government of the world. And thus by changing and diminishing the idea of the word God, and re- ducing it to an inferior sense, he allows an inferior godhead to belong to Christ. He believes also this glorious spirit did take upon him a human body, was horn of the Virgin Mary, and thus became a complete man, in the fulness of time appointed by the Father. This is usually represented as the general sense of the ancient followers of Arius. . New it is evident that themodern disbelievers of the divinity of Christ, or most of them at least, have refined the ancient doe - trines of Arius, and thereby, perhaps, rendered their sentiments more defensible, at least in their own opinion : But if through divine assistanceI shall become so happy as to lead any that"be: lieve even these ancient Arian principles, into the doctrine of the divinity of Christ, by natural and easy steps, I would fain per- suademyself that some of the moderns will not shut their eyes against the evidence of light, nor resist the force of such attrac- tion, but yield to it with greater ease. But ifthis expectation be too presuming, and nò disbeliever be recovered to the common faith of the deity of Christ, yet I must indulge my hope thus far at least, that some wavering, doubtful, and unsettled christians may be established in their faith by some of these attempts. Before I proceed, it is necessary also that I should tell what Imean by the word " orthodoxy." For several centuries past, this wordhas been applied to that explication of the doctrine of the Trinity, which supposes the divine nature to be but one numerical or individual essence or. being ; and that this essence is thesame in the Father, the Word, and the Spirit. That these three are so far distinct as to lay a foundation for the scripture to speak of them in a personal manner, as I, Thou, and He; and upon this account they are palled three persons : But that they are not so distinct as to have three distinct conspiousnesses, for they are only supposed to be three incomprehensible differences in one and the saine numerical essence of God, or in oneand the same individual Spirit. That in theperson of Christ two distinct natures are united, God and man ; whence it comes to' pass that some proper divine characters, and seine Unman, are attributed pi the saine person.
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