fISCOU1tsE IIT. 60t years ? He answered, I am willing so to do. Again therefore, said God unto him, And art thou willing to suffer chastisements, forpurging away their iniquities ? And the soul pf the Mes- siah answered, 1 will suffer them, and that with all my heart." And there is, saith he, . a eabbalistical.representation of their expected Messiah's being in heaven, in another old hook of high esteem among the Jews, intitled dlidrash Conen, viz. " In the fifth house sits the Messiah, Son ofDavid ? and Elias of blessed memory said to this Messiah, Bear the stroke and judgment of the Lord, which he inflicts on thee for the sin of Israel, as it is written by Isaiah, he was wounded because of our transgressions, &c." Now though we allow no more credit to these traditions than to other Jewish tales, yet it discovers their ancient notion of the pre -existence of the soul of the Messiah : and the learned Mr. Fleming tells us, that it was an inducement to him to favour that opinion, "because the Jews seemed to have laid down this as an undoubted maxim in all 'ages, that the soul ofthe Messiah was made before all the creatures, as all must own that are in the least acquainted with their opinions and writings. "Christology," book II1. chapter v. page 467. That this was an ancient opinion of the Jews is confirmed by other writers also. And it is no wonder if many of the common people as well as the learned had also this notion of the soul of Christ, since it appears, John ix. 2. that they had a belief of the pre-existence of all human souls, for which opinion.I think there is neither in scripture nor in reason any just foundation ; nor loth the pre- existence of the soul of Christ at all infer the doctrine of thepre- existence of other souls, but rather the contrary, as will appear underthe next particular. V. " Since it pleased the Father to prepare a body for our Lord Jesus Christ by the overshadowingofthe Holy Ghost, and by a peculiar manner of conception, that his body might have some peculiar prerogative, and that lie might be the Sonof God.. in a superior sense with regard to his flesh, as Luke i. 35. so it is not unreasonable to suppose that the soul of Christ also, which was to be united to godhead) should have this peculiar preroga- tive, to be. derived immediately from Godbefore any creature was made, and to enjoy this union with the divine nature, and glories suitable thereto before its union with an earthly hotly." And thus in consideration of its formation before all creatures in a most immediate manner by the will of God, as well as its nearest resemblance to God himself' above all other spirits,,his human soul might be called also the Son of God and his only- begotten Son, in a transcendent manner above all other beings, whether men or angels, who are sometimes called sons of God. But this thought perhaps will be set in a clearer light; when we mine to explain a variety of scriptures according to this hypothesis
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