DISSERTATION W. 317 of expressions concerning the visibility and locality of the Son, and the invisibility and unconfinableuess of the Father, which run through almost all the monuments of the primitive writers, and which seem to contradict the deity of the Son, and this is, says he, nodus vindice dignissimus, fateor me tad istum lapident nlint ofendiese,. 4c. The sense, in. English, is this : " These are hard sayings, uncautious expressions, and inconvenient speeches. Who is there would not stand amazed at such strange expressions of the fathers ? What wise and happy method will reconcile them? What medicine will make them sound ? This is a difficulty worthy of a solution ; I confess I was once ready to stumble at this stone :" &c. So hard is it for a honest and good man not toacknowledge the perplexity, darkness, and seeming inconsistency of those venerable writers, on this subject ! And the reverend Dr. Waterland, with the same ingenuity, now and then confesses the difficulty of reconciling some of 'their expres- sions, and gives up a few of them, as improprieties or mistakes. I might take notice here also, that there are some writers of name and worth among the Athanasians, that speak with more freedom, and plainly declare, that several of the ancients, by their frequent ascriptions of creatural ideas to the Logos, laid a foundation for Arianism in the following ages, and therefore they will not abide by their sentiments, nor pretend to vindicate or excuse their expressions, because they cannot be all applied to the divine nature of Christ. But let us consider more particu- larly, how the learned authors among the Athanasians, who are most favourable to the ancients, attempt to remove this stumb- ling-block. So far as 1 can gather light from their several works, they seem to depend upon these following principles of solution : I. That the temporal and voluntary generation of the Logos, which is the only generation many of the ante - nicene fathers speak of is not properly a generation, but a mere manifestation of him, when God created the world by this Logos, or Word ; and that he was, indeed, eternally, and properly, a distinct person from God the Father, and that he was the Son of God from all eternity, though he was not discovered as such until the creation. All these words, of generation, prolation, production, &c. there- fore must mean nothing but manifestation. They make his eter- nal existence to arise from eternal generation, which those ancients do not mention, and they make his procession to create the world to be no real generation, which is the only,genera- tien those ancients speak of. And they add further, that where the Logos is said to be " begotten, or produced by the will, counsel, and power of God," when these words refer to this " temporary, ante- mundane generation, or manifestation," they may signify the free or arbitrary will of God the Father : But if
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