3.211 THE ARIAN INVITED TO ORTHODOX FAITH. which is thefirst-born of all creatures, a glorious super -angelic spirit ; there appear also plain traces, and evidentfootsteps of the same divine and inferior Logos among the primitive christian writers. Now these ancient intimations and notices of a two-sold Logos in human writings, under the sacred and superior con- duct of.the Old and New Testament, lead us to suppose, that our blessed Saviour, who is the true Logos, or Word of God, had adouble nature before his incarnation, and that his human soul had a real existence as the Son of God, and a personal union to deity before the foundation of the world. From this representation of things there are these two very considerable advantages derived.: I. Hereby both the divine and the human natures of Christ receive more honour, andmore exalted dignity, than thecommon representation of this matter will allow. If the Logos, in its divine sense, signify an essential power of the deity, then this divine Logos has proper supreme godhead, and, shall l say, shares with the Father even in self-existence and independency, for the Logos belongs to the very nature of God ; and yet it is some- times represented ina distinct personal manner, forwise purposes, in the holy scriptures ; for it has a sufficient distinction from the Father to fay a just foundation for such a figurative personality. Whereas, in the common and current exposition of these ancient writers, as well as of scripture, there are two many secondary and inferior charactersascribed to the Logos in its divin-est sense, or to the divine nature of Christ. In the language of the primi- tive ebristians, and in the avowed declarations of the athanasian writers, he is denied the dignity of self- existence and independ- ency,. and is declared to derive both his real existence and his godhead, his pon-or, and all hiss glory from the Father, and that, as the ancients assert,, that by the Father'swill too, though this will is sometimes construed into a mere acquiescence. Now these derivative characters or properties seem a little to diminish the lustre, and degrade the supreme dignity of the godhead of Christ. The human nature of Christ also in this my explication is most gloriously exalted far aboveall the ideas of such acommon human soul, which according to the usual hypothesis, began its existence when thechild: Jesus was conceived or born : Whereas in the scheme which I propose, the human soul of Christ is a sublime spirit *, superior to all angels and every created being, the first-born of every creature,and;possessed of such capacious powers as, by virtue of the indwelling godhead, perhaps might How this sublime and-singular character is every way consistent with the idea of a true human soul, I have shown in a Treatise on Me Glory of Chriti at Cd-man, which may possibly appear in thy world hereafter. Thu trotted was published in P4d.
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