300 THE ARIAN INVITED TO ORTHODOX FAITH. 2. He is called the Son of God on the account of the extra- ordinary birth of his body, which proceeded from the virgin Mary without a human father, by the immediate influence of God. Luke i. 35. the angel saith to Mary, The power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, therefore that holy thing which is born of thee shall be called the Son of God. This is most ex- press language. But it is evident by the foregoing citations, that the Logos is not usually. called Son of God by these ancient Jews, upon either of these two accounts, but rather on that which follows, which is the third idea of the term " Logos." III. TheLogos is the first -born Son of God, as he is a glorious, angelic, or, supra - angelic spirit, who was often called an angel under the Old Testament, when he appeared to the patriarchs. May not this be the human soul of our blessed Sa- viour? May not this illustrious spirit, this great archangel, which is called eminently the Logos, be the prince of angels, who was born before them all, and is the first-born of the crea- tion ? May not this be the only begotten Son of God in the high heaven, as Adam was here on earth, as having, perhaps, some peculiar (node, or unknown manner of derivation from the Fa- ther,' different from the rest of the creatures : For even these ancient Jews, though they acknowledgehim to be, in the general sense, a derived being, and not God, yet they call him ra- ther the first-born of God, as though creation were too low a term to express his original, and would set him too much on a level with other creatures which, were so far inferior to him. And, why may we not suppose the human soul of Christ to be derived from God in some unknown, transcendent manner, distinct from other creatures, even as his human body was, and thus to become the peculiar Son of God, both as to his body and soul ? One great reason that hath induced me to believe that the scriptures suppose the soul of Christ to be this pre-existent being, this glorious archangel is, because there are so many expressions of scripture both in the Old Testa- ment and the New which represent Christ, before his incar- nation, under some characters which are inferior to godhead, some of which I have hinted briefly in the beginning of this discourse. Now, upon this supposition, that the soul of Christ is this most honourable "Logos," or chief angel, how properly is he called in the Old Testament the angel of God's face or presence; Is, lxiii. 9. The angel of the covenant; Mal. iii. 1. The angel, the Redeemer of Jacob : Gen. xlviii. 16. The angel in whom the name of God was: Ex. xxiii. 20. And, the " angel who could say; I am that I am, I am the God of Abraham ;" Ex. iii. 2, 14, 15, &c. upon the account of his intimate and personal union to the divine nature ? It might be here enquired also,
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