DISSERTATION IV. 315 sensible of the sorrows which Christ endured for our sakes. Now we cannot suppose that they ever imagined that Logos which was the eternal word, or wisdom of God, to become pas- sible, or to suffer pain or sorrow, any otherwise than in a mere relative manner, that is, as it was united to that soul and body which did suffer; for every thing of godhead is for ever impas- sible. And for this reason, when they write against the Patripas- sians, they abominate the thought of God the Father becoming passible. But there is a Logos which they suppose to become passible, and actually to feel and suffer shame and sorrow: It seems to be the labour of their expression, and the very thing in view, to shew, that the Word itself was passible and suffered. Irenmus was engaged in his writings against thosewho suppose that Christ fled away and left Jesus only to suffer, because they imagined that the true Christ was always impassible, and there- fore his business was to shew, that the Word, the Son of God, became passible and suffered. See libro iii. capite 17, 18. and and several other places. And Justin Martyr, in his dialogue with Trypho, speaks of the Son of God being a),nOn4 tr raaAtotr, really in sufferings for us; and xoyov valsera, the word suffering.. Thence I infer they might have some notion of a Logos inferior to godhead. These are the four particulars whereby I proposed toen. quire, whether the primitive fathers of the christian church might be supposed to have any notion of an angelic Logos, who is the Son of God, and yet inferior to the divine Logos, or the eternal word, or wisdom, of the Father. I have now finished my account of the Logos, as exhibited in the ancient christian writers. I dare not pronounce them all of one mind in the things I have mentioned, nor that the saine authors are always steady in asserting the same things, either in a consistence with themselves, or with one another : But I think in the main, these opinions which 1 have recited in these two last sections concern- ing the Logos, seem to be the moregeneral sense of the primitive fathers, before the controversy of Arius arose, or the councilof Nice was called : And it is known also, that some of the an- cients, both at that time, and afterward, express themselves almost in the same manner. * It is granted, that some of the ancients might perhaps believe a certain animal soul in Christ considered as a man, which was the immediate subject of the sensations of wounding; scourging, nailing, &c. for their ¡philosophy did hardly suppose the rational soul in mite to be capable of these sensations. But it seems to be their general apprehension that the Logos or Word itself did really and truly sustain, if not sensible pain, yet, sorrows and afflictions, in opposi. t¡on to those who asserted him to suffer only putative, that is, relatively, or by construction.
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