DISSERTATION Hr. 320 he smite Way employed in the great and wondrous transactions of creations and providence in past ages. Now let it be considered to what a superior height this doc- trine advances the whole person of Christ, God and man. Not let those who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity be afraid to hear d his various glories. B. Another considerable advantage that arises from this ex- position of the Jews and the christian fathers into the sense of a complex Logos, is this, that it lays a foundation for reconciling those great and bitter contentions that haire troubled the church in almost all ages from the beginning of christianity. Surely we should think it a mighty happiness, if there were any possibility of uniting the contending parties into one scheme of trinitarian doctrine, agreeable to the representations of scripture And I know no hypothesis bids so fair for it as this, if the spirit ofcan= dour, and Unprejudiced sincerity ; the spirit of love and zeal and unity, be given down from on high, to influence us all in Out Sacred studies on this subject. In this scheme the athanaslans, and all the orthodox trinita- slams, find that sacred docrine, for which they so justly, and zea- lously contend, viz, the true and proper deity of Jesus Christ personally united to an inferior nature, even of the soul and body of the man Jesus. The sabellians, and all unitarians, may find here the unity of the divine nature not divided into three consci- ous minds, or three infinite spirits, but diversified, or distinguish- ed, into God the rather, with his two distinct, essential powers; the Word and the Spirit. Here the Arians and Semiarians may read all the exalted properties of their Logos, that is, the pre- existent soul of our Saviour, for width they shewso warm and constant a zeal in all their writings, and may be conducted on= ward to his indwelling godhead. I confess, the two more eminent contesting parties in this very question, about the senseof the ancients, are the Arians, or Semiarians, and the Athanasians : And while one of them ima- gines the fathers, in all their expressions, intendeda Logos infe-' rior to godhead, and the other supposes them to ascribe and re- present him as true and eternal God, it is my opinion, that all the expressions of the ancients can scarce ever be recon- ciled fairly and entirely to either of these extremes: But a supposition, that God and a- creature united before the founda- tions of the world, may coiupeise'this glorious person, this Logos, leads theway to allow both of these parties to be in a great mea- sure in the right with regard to the fathers, and happily to reconcile them in one sentiment and opinion,without the least de- rogation from the supreme deityof Christ, as revealed in the holy scriptures. If I might venture into a comparison on this occasion, I
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