044 THE GLOAT OF CHRIST AS GOD-MAN. had a pre-existence, which some learned men suppose, then doubt less they believed the soulofChrist to have the same prerogative. Besides the several expressions which our Saviour used con- cerning " his coming down from heaven, his returning thither again, his being sent by the Father not to do his own will, his praying for the restoration of a glory which he had before the worldwas, and his speaking of the love of God which he enjoy- ed before the foundations of the world," all these expressions might justly and naturally lead them into the idea of the pre- existent soul of Christ, since it is pretty evident that they had but very little thought or belief of his divine naturebefore his resurrection. Some of their own expressions seem to intimate their assent to this doctrine of his pre-existent soul, when they tell him, Now we are sure that thou comest forth from God, John xvi. 29, 29, 30. And they seem to understand him in the literal sense, and without a parable or figure, when he told them, He cameforthfrom theFather, andcame into this world; but he was now leaving this world, and returning to the Father. As forthe writingsof the apostles St. Peter andPaul, these seem to manifest this doctrine, if the exposition which I have given of various parts of their epistles be just and true. The apostle John speaking so often of Christ's coming in the flesh, seems to manifest that this was his conception of the matter, as as though he supposed his soul to have an existence before. As for the primitive writers of christianity of the first two er three hundred years, they express themselves in so inac- curate and confused a manner concerning the pre- existent na- ture of our Lord Jesus Christ, that it is hard to say what was their sense, or whetherthey had any uniform, regular and settled ideas on this subject. Sometimes their language plainly denotes some pre-existent nature of Christ to be trulydivine, and part of the very essence pf God the Father, even his mind, his wis- dom, &c. others of their speeches seem to sink it far below the than willing to sufferchastisements for the purging away their iniquities And the soul of the Messiah answered, I will suffer them, and that with all my heart." The late Dr. Thomas Burnet of the Charter.house in his book "De statu saortuorum & resurgentium," page 249 speaks thus, "Judxi & inter patres, &c..that is, the Jewsand some among the cbristian fathers have determined,that the soul of theMessiah had an existence before his incarnation, and before the very origin of the Jewish nation, before the law, and through the whole economy of the law and the prophets." Now if they supposed this soul joined with the Logos, by which he means his divine nature, they might well agree that thiswas the shekioah of the patriarchs and the prophets, and that these motions and re- turns from heaven from heaven to earth, and bis appearances whether inhuman shape or not, may be attributed to the Messiah, which ran never belongto mere divinity. And indeed I can scarce understand Justin Martyr 'and other of the fathers, who from the invisibility, infinity and omnipresence ofGod the Father would prove that he never appeared, neither could he descend orascend, or abnage his place : for :unless the soul of the Messiah did pre -exist in union with the Logos, that is, his divinity, I cannot see how these aogumeots, drawn from invisibility andomnipresence, can be of any force with regard to God the Father any more titan to God the Soo
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