before the world was— -Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for our sakes he be came 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 1 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 (messenger 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 *God, 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 JEHOVA. 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 invisi ble 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 peoßurepos, 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, orœcumenical; 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, p. 331. Fleming's Christology. superior assemblies, according to Acts xv. 4, 6. The lowest of their assemblies, or presbyteries, consists of the ministers and elders of a congregation, who have power to cite before them any member, and to admonish, instruct, rebuke, and suspend him from the Lord's table. They have also a deacon, whose office it is to take care of the poor. Their, ordination is by prayer, fasting, and imposition of hands by the presbytery. The Presbyterians differ from the Independents in this respect the government of the former is aristocratical, that of the latter democratical. This is now the discipline of the church of Scotland.* See Part the Second. PRIMINISTS, a party of Donatists; so called from Primianus, who became the head of their denomination. See Donatists. PRISCILLIANISTS, a denomination which arose in the fourth century; so called from their leader, Priscillian, a Spaniard by birth, and bishop of Avila. He is said to have practised magic, and to have maintained the principal tenets of the Manicheans. His followers denied the reality of Christ's birth and incarnation. They held that the visible. universe was not the production of the supreme Deity, but of some demon, or malignant principle; adopted the doctrine of aions, or emanations from the divine nature; considered human bodies as prisons, formed by the author of evil, to enslave celestial minds; condemned marriage, and disbelieved the resurrection of the body.-This denomination received all the books of scripture.† PROCLIANITES, so called from Proculus, a philosopher of Phrygia, who appeared in 194, and put himself at the head of a band of Montanists, in order to spread the sentiments of that denomination; to which he added, that St. Paul was not the author of the epistle to the Hebrews. The doctrine which his followers maintained with the greatest warmth was, that Jesus Christ assumed our nature only in appearance.‡ See Montanists and Valentinians. PROTESTANTS, a name first given in Germany to those who adhered to the doctrine of Luther; because, in 1529, they protested against a decree of the emperor Charles the fifth and the Diet of * Collier's Historical Dictionary vol. ii, Barclay's Dictionary. Mosheim, vol. i. p. 349, Priestley's Eccles. Hist. vol, ii. P. 411. + Broughton, vol, ii. p. 285. * Spires, declaring that they appealed to a general council. The same name has also been given to the Calvinists, and is now become a common denomination for a variety of sects which differ from the church of Rome. See Lutherans, Calvinists, Arminians, &c. PSATYRIANS, a denomination of the Arians, in the council of Arians, held in the year 360, who maintained that the Son was not like the Father in will; that he was made of nothing; and that in God generation was not to be distinguished from creation. See Arians. PTOLEMATTES, a branch of the Valentinians in the second century; so called from Ptolemy, their leader, who held that the law of Moses came part from God, part from Moses, and part from the traditions of the doctors.§ PURITANS, [a name given to a religious party who, desirous of a purer form of worship and discipline, were dissatisfied with the reformation established in England under the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It seems to have been a common name given to all who from conscientious motives, though on different grounds, disapproved of the established religion, from the reformation to the restoration of Charles the second, or rather to the passing of the act of uniformity in 1662. From that time to the revolution in 1688, as many as refused to comply with the established worship (among whom were about twothousand clergymen, and perhaps four or five hundred thousand people) were denominated Nonconformists. From the passing of the act of toleration on the accession of William & Mary, the name of Nonconformists was changed to that of Protestant Dissenters; and who were distinguished into three denominations; namely Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists. The greater part of the Puritans were favourers of the church-government and worship established at Geneva; that is to say, of Presbyterianism. Their objections to the English establishment lie principally in forms and ceremonies. Some, however, were Independents, and some Baptists. The objections of these were much more fundamental; disapproving of all national churches, and disowning the authority of human legislation * This diet was held at Spires, March 15, 1529. . They decreed to prohibit any farther innovations in religion, + Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, vol iii. pp. 2578, 2579. Robertson's History of Charles the fifth, vol. ii. p. 249, 250. History of Religion, vol. iv. Bailey's Dictionary, vol. ii. |