the reader has been presented with a view of the system of Arius and his immediate followers. The sentiments of the celebrated Dr. Richard Price are brought to view under the article Unitarians. And perhaps some may be gratified with a short sketch of the plan which was maintained by Dr. Samuel Clarke. This learned man held, that there is one supreme Cause and Original of all things; one simple, uncompounded, undivided, intelligent Agent, or Person;* and that from the beginning there existed with the first and supreme Cause, or Father, a second Person, called the Word, or Son. This Son is our Lord Jesus Christ. He derived his being, his attributes, and his powers, from the Father. He is therefore called the Son of God, and the Only-Begotten:+ for generation, when applied to God, is only a figurative word, signifying immediate derivation of being and life from him. This production, or derivation of the Son, is incomprehensible, and took place before the world began. To prove that Jesus Christ was generated, or produced into being, before the world was created, the doctor adduces the following considerations: The Father made the world by the operation of the Son. (Johni. 3-10. 1 Cor. viii. 6. Eph. iii. 9, &c.) The action of the Son, both in making the world and in all his other operations, is only the exercise. of the Father's power, communicated to him after a manner to us unknown. That all Christ's authority, power, knowledge, and glory, are the Father's, communicated to him, Dr. Clarke endeavours to prove by a variety of scripture passages. The Son, before his incarnation with God, was in the form of God, and had glory with the Father. (John i. 4. xvii. 5. Phil. ii. 5.) The Son, before his incarnation, made visible appearances, and spake and acted in the name and authority of the invisible Father. Dr. Clarke calls Christ a divine person solely on account of the power and knowledge which were communicated to him by the Father. He indeed owns that Christ is an object *This learned divine considers this doctrine as the foundation of piety, and the first principle of natural religion. He supposes that all the texts which speak of the one God, the only God, the Father, the Most High, are to be considered as establishing the personal unity of one only Supreme Being. † Dr. Clarke waves calling Christ a creature, as the ancient Arians did ; and principally on that foundation disclaims the charge of Arianism. of religious worship; but then he confines it to a limited sense. The worship paid to Christ terminates not in him, but in the supreme God and Lord of all.* The doctrine of the preexistence of Christ's human soul has been held by several divines; as, Mr. Fleming, Dr. Goodwin, &c. These gentle men all profess to maintain the divinity of Christ. As their sentiments are nearly similar, the brevity of this work will not admit of particularly noticing them. The following sketch of the plan of the late pious and ingenious Dr. Watts is selected from the rest. He maintained one supreme God, dwelling in the human nature of Christ, which he supposed to have existed the first of all creatures; and speaks of the divine logos as the wisdom of God, and the holy Spirit as the divine power, or the influence and effect of it, which, he says, is a scriptural person; i. e. spoken of figuratively in scripture, under personal characters.+ In order to prove that Christ's human soul existed previous to his incarnation, the following arguments are adduced : or 1. Christ is represented as his Father's messenger, angel, being distinct from his Father, sent by his Father, long before his incarnation, to perform actions which seem to be too low for the dignity of The apGodhead. pure pearances of Christ to the patriarchs are described like the appearances of an angel, or man, really distinct from God; yet such a one, in whom God, or Jehovah, had a peculiar indwelling, or with whom the divine nature had a personal union. 2. Christ, when he came into the world, is said, in several passages of scripture, to have divested himself of some glory which he had before his incarnation. Now if there had existed before this time nothing but his divine nature, this divine nature could not properly divest itself of any glory. I have glorified thee on earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, oh Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with theo· The compiler is short on this plan, because of its similarity to the Arian system, which is particularly described. Clarke's Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity. Doddridge's Lectures. + Dr. Watts says, in his preface to the Glory of Christ, that true and proper Deity is ascribed to the Father, Son, and holy Spirit. The expres sion, Son of God, he supposes, is a title appropriated exclusively to the humanity of Christ. before the world was— s-Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be made rich. (John xvii. 4,5. 2 Cor. viii.9.) It cannot be said of God that he became poor: he is infinitely self-sufficient; he is necessarily and eternally rich in perfections and glories. Nor can it be said of Christ as man, that he was rich, if he were never in a richer state before than while he was on earth. It seems needful that the soul of Christ should pre-exist, that it might have opportunity to give its previous actual consent to the great and painful undertaking of atonement for our sins. It was the human soul of Christ that endured the weakness and pain of his infant state, all the labours and fatigues of life, the reproaches of men, and the sufferings of death. The divine nature is incapable of suffering. The covenant of redemption between the Father and the Son, is therefore represented as being made before the foundation of the world. To suppose that simple Deity, or the divine essence, which is the same in all the three personalities, should make a covenant with itself, is inconsistent. Christ is the angel to whom God was in a peculiar manner united, and who in this union made all the divine appearances related in the old testament. God is often represented in scripture as appearing in a visible manner, and assuming a human form. See Gen. iii. 8. xvii. 1, xxviii. 12, `xxxii. 24, Exod. ii. 2, and a variety of other passages. The Lord Jehovah, when he came down to visit men, carried some ensign of divine majesty; he was surrounded with some splendid appearance. Such a light often appeared at the door of the tabernacle, and fixed its abode on the ark, between the cherubims. It was by the jews called the shekinah; i. e. the habitation of God. Hence he is described as dwelling in light, and clothed with light as with a garment. In the midst of this brightness there seems to have been sometimes a human shape and figure. It was probably of this heavenly light that Christ divested himself when he was made flesh. With this he was covered at his transfiguration in the Mount, when his garments were white as the light; and at his ascension into heaven, when a bright cloud received, or invested him; and when he appeared to John: (Rev.i. 13.) and it was with this he prayed his Father would glorify him. Sometimes the great and blessed God appeared in the form of a man, or angel. It is evident that the true God resided in this man, or angel;* because, on account of this union to proper Deity, the angel calls himself God, the Lord God. He assumes the most exalted names and characters of Godhead. And the spectators, and sacred historians, it is evident, considered him as true and proper God: they payed him the highest worship and obedience. He is properly styled the angel of God's presence-The (messen ger or) angel of the covenant. Isai. Ixiii. Mal. iii. 1. This same angel of the Lord was the particular God and King of the Israelites. It was he who made a covenant with the patriarchs, who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, who redeemed the Israelites from Egypt, who conducted them through the wilderness, who gave the law at Sinai, and transacted the affairs of the ancient church. The angels who have appeared since our blessed Saviour became incarnate, have never assumed the names, titles, characters, or worship, Hence belonging to God. we may infer that the angel who, under the old testament, assumed divine titles, and accepted religious worship, was that peculiar angel of God's presence, in whom God resided, or who was united to the Godhead in a peculiar manner; even the pre-existent soul of Christ, who afterwards took flesh and blood upon him, and was called Jesus Christ on earth. Christ represents himself as one with the Father: I and the Father are one. (John. x. 30. xiv. 10, 11.) There is, we may hence infer, such a peculiar union between God and the man Christ Jesus, both in his pre-existent and incarnate state, that he may properly be called God-Man in one complex person. Among those expressions of scripture which discover the pre-existence of Christ, there are several from which we may derive a certain proof of his divinity. Such are those places in the old testament, where the angel who appeared to the ancients is called God, the almighty God, Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts, I am that I am, &c. Dr. Watts supposes that the * Gad, considered in the person of the Father, is always represented as invisible, whom no man hath seen, nor can see. But Jesus Christ is described as the image of the invisible God, the brightness of the Father's glory, and he in whom the Father dwells. Christ was therefore the person by whom God appeared to man under the old testament, by the name JEHOVAH, doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul of Christ, explains dark and difficult scriptures, and discovers many beauties and proprieties of expression in the word of God, which on any other plan lie unobserved. For instance: in Col. i. 15, &c. Christ is described as the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. His being the image of the invisible God, cannot refer merely to his divine nature; for that is as invisible in the Son as in the Father: therefore it seems to refer to his pre-existent soul in union with the Godhead. Again when man is said to be created in the image of God, (Gen. i. 2.) it may refer to the God-Man; to Christ in his pre-existent state. God says, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. The word is redoubled, perhaps to intimate that Adam was made in the likeness of the human soul of Christ, as well as that he bore something of the image and resemblance of the divine nature. From this view of Doctor Watts's plan, and what is exhibited of the Arian scheme, the difference will be obvious. They are thus distinguished by Dr. Price: "This system (says he, speaking of Dr. Watts's sentiments) differs from Arianism, in asserting the doctrine of Christ's consisting of two beings; one the self-existent Creator, and the other a creature, made into one person by an ineffable union and indwelling,* which renders the same attributes and `honours equally applicable to both."† PRESBYTERIANS, from the greek of poßutepos, a denomination of protestants; so called from their maintaining that the government of the church, appointed by the new testament, was by presbyteries ; that is, by presbyters and ruling elders, associated for its government and discipline. The Presbyterians affirm, that there is no order in the church, as established by Christ and his apostles, superior to that of presbyters-that all ministers, being embassadors, are equal by their commission; and the elder, or presbyter, and bishop, are the same in name and office: for which they allege Acts xx. 28, Tit. i. 5-7, &c. Their highest asembly is a synod, which may be provincial, national, or oecumenical; and they allow of appeals from inferior to * Hence Dr. Watts's plan has been called "The Indwelling Scheme." Col. ii. 9, is brought to support the doctrine. + Watts's Glory of Christ. pp. 6-203. Johnson's Life of Christ, with Notes by Palmer. Doddridge's Lectures, pp. 385-403. Price's Sermons, 2. 331. Fleming's Christology. |