3 & THE ARIAN INVITED TO ORTIHODOX FAITH. true God, though the eternal deity of the Fattier and the Son be really the same. This supposition also makes it easy to conceive, how the Logos himself might become passible, and condescend to endure the sensation of sorrow, pain, and dying agonies : For if we suppose this angelic Logos to be the human soul of Jesus Christ, then as it was united to godhead in its pre- existent state, and often appeared in the form and majesty of God, so it was united to a human bodyat the incarnation, it emptied itself of its au- cient glory, fXEYWPEY m IoY, Phil. ii. 7. and became subject to the weaknesses, and the painful sensations of animal nature. Thus the Son of God himself really and truly suffered on the cross for 'sinners. A glorious and unparalelled example of humility, and amazing love, exerted in sucha manner as the vulgar explica- tions. of this doctrine could never shew ! Thus 'I have given my reasons briefly for supposing, that many of the expressions of the ancients may be construed into the notion of a complex Logos, or a double nature belonging to Christ before the incar- nation, viz. the divine Word, and a created, or inferior spirit. Objection. But it will be readily and immediately objected against all this discourse, that it is in vain for us to contrive sup- positions, and invent schemes, how the language andexpressions of the primitive fathersmay be understood, when it is sufficiently evident from a multitude of places in their own writings, that they had no such notion of a complex Logos, made up of two distinct beings, viz. the true God, and an inferior spirit : It is manifest that they had but one single idea under the term Logos, and they ascribed all the superior and inferior characters to the Same Single spirit. Answer I. If a man were to begin, and read over all the fathers with this very view and design, to search for á complex IQgos, çt is probable that he might find this opinion favoured in more of their expressions, since several of those ancients with whom I have the greatest acquaintance, use so many expressions that can hardly be construed into any just consistence any other way: Nor is this a mere fond and imaginary conjecture of my own : The learned author of Primitive Chrtstianit +' Vindicated, against Mr. Tfrhiston, in his 'second' Letter to the Author of the Historyof 1Montanism, seems to indulge this opinion. He tells us that Origen supposed the human soul of Christ, united tohis divine nature, to exist long before his incarnation. See page 43. as It is, says this author, a very ancient tradition among the Jews, that the soul of the Messiah existed from the beginning of the world. And some learned men are of opinion, that certain passages of scripture cannot be So easily and naturally inter- preted without this notion : Such as John ül. 13. No man bath ascended up to heaven, but he that carne down. from heaven, even
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