QUESTION L 415 counsel, whether human or divine ; or at most, the ideal world in the mind of God, though he uses such sort of personal cha- racters in his description of this wisdom, in the Hebrew idiom. It is granted thát many of the ancients explained it of Christ, but some of the fathers supposedit to mean the Holy Spirit ; and all men know they were but very. poor expositors, who dealt much in allegory, and in straining of plain texts to their pur- poses: and since they cannot tell whether the Sou or the Spirit he meant here, it is possible it may mean neither of them, by all the arguments which they have produced; for none of them are very conclusive. III. Supposing the divine wisdom in Prov. viii. primarily to signify the: idea "of the divine counsels and:decrees_about cre- :Mon .and redemption, it maybe properly-said; this wisdomwas begotten or brought forth before the creation,' nodal' this system of divine counsels being deposited with the pre-existent soul of Christ, in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, this human soul of Christ, thus vested with divine ideas, it may. be included in Solomon's idea of wisdom. And those who be- lieve the doctrine of the pre -existent soul of Christ, have made it appear that if it refer to Christ, it is very probable this pre existent soul considered as having the divine nature united to it, is bere represented as commencing its existence, its union with godhead, receiving its commission, and beginning its office. And the learned Dr. Thomas Goodwin, though he firmly be- lieved the eternal generation of Christ, as the Son of God yet he supposes this chapter to relate to Christ, as God-man, and not merely to hisgodhead. Text. IL Is that remarkable one ; Ps. ii. 7. Thouart my Son, this day have I begotten thee; which has been usually in terpreted by our divines, to signify the eternal sonship of Christ a,s God. Answer I. It is evident that inActs xiii. 33. St. Paul ap- plies this to the resurrection of Christ, and the beginning of his exaltation, and not toany eternal generation ; so that we have a divine,interpreter giving quite a different sense of it. II. Be- sides, Christ is.,here said to become a Son by a decree whichcan- not signify eternal generation, but must relate to his office. III. Agam, it is spoken literally concerning the exaltation of David as the type of Christ to his kingdom, and not concerning the natural production or generation of David ; and therefore in the antitype it must signify mystically the exaltation of Christ to his kingdom, and not his natural eternai generation.-IV. Let it be farther remembered that the Word, this day, never signifiés eternity in scripture inany other place, and why then must it do so here ? V. I add also, that this text is cited in Heb. i. 5. where it is joined with God's promise in future times to be a
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